Family car trip

Whoo, we made it.  Yesterday morning I packed up our lives in WI, buckled Monkey and Goose in, loaded up the dog and took off for IA.  Almost exactly 11 hours later, we pulled in at "Nina and Papa's" house.

The trip was pretty un-eventful. The big news was that it was our first trip without a diaper.  Goose made it all the way across 2 states without one accident!! I am soooo happy!!

We are here for graduation.  My youngest brother-in-law is officially a high school graduate.  This fall he will be living less than an hour away!!

In other news, our closing date for the house has been pushed back a day :( Instead of Monday at 10am, we are closing Tuesday at noon.  Still exciting and kind of hard to believe.  After all this time of being seperated, we are finally a family again (minus the cat, soon though). 

On Wednesday, I have my second interview.  This one is for a different job at the same company.  Hopefully, this one works out because they picked it out special for me.

It's a busy week, and then I will be cut off from the world (we don't have internet or TV set up yet).  I was sure to bring my sewing machine, so I won't go completly crazy.

Slooooow process....

I thought something was holding us up with the approval for the house.  We had been waiting on the inspection and the underwriter's final approval.  We finally got a green light from the inspection (yay!!), but we were waiting (and waiting, and waiting) to hear back from the underwriter.  Meanwhile, I am keeping calm and collected freaking out!!!  Every possible bad thought, I had.  I'm not gonna deny it, I'm paranoid.

The latest hurdle we have to jump, is that there are too many credit inquiries and unaccounted for deposits of money.  I am responsible for the "strange" deposits.  There's really nothing strange about them, they're just cash deposits, but they don't have any paper trails. I'm waitressing a few nights a week, and I deposit my tips once a week or so.  The credit checks are mostly from the banks that we had talked to about getting approved, except one.  We have to figure out where that one came from, write a formal letter of explanation addressing all of the activity, and then we will (fingers crossed) be all set.

My poor hubby gets so annoyed with me cause he has to explain everything that is happening.  Whenever he talks to anyone on the phone or in an email, he has to relay the message to me AND answer all of my questions (cause I always have a lot).  It's even worse when he has paperwork to go through.  He has to read it and then explain it to me, and of course there's more questions.  He's really been amazing though.  I wish I could be there too, it's like I'm not even getting the full experience of being a first time home buyer :(

The Word: Relax, He's got it covered...

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. "

– Matthew 6:34

Tutorial: Spring Fever: "Long & Short of It"

Maybe it's that the calendar says spring (although the temperature doesn't), or that the days are getting longer, or that the birds are singing more, something seems to be causing this spring fever itch.

My dad asked me if I could shorten the sleeves on one of his button shirts.  It's definately not because it's getting too warm (current temp: 34`F, tomorrow's forcast: SNOW).  Maybe he has run out of short sleeves, or maybe he's just bored with that shirt.  I don't know, I didn't ask.  I was happy to take on the challenge and have a project to do.

Shortening Sleeves


1. Pick out a short sleeve shirt to use as a pattern (if possible).  Iron both shirts well.  Wrinkles will not help in getting an accruate cut.

2. Lay short sleeved (SS) shirt on top of the long sleeved (LS) shirt.  Make sure to match the seam of the sleeve and the shirt on both shirts. (the plaid shirt is the shirt I am altering)

3. Cut 2" from end of SS.  This will give you enough room to make a double fold and end up with a nice finished edge.

4. Fold and press a 1/2" and then again 1".  This is your new shirt sleeve edge.

5. Sew a double stitch seam.  This makes it look professional, and like you would find in a store bought shirt.

Oops, I forgot to take a BEFORE picture, you all know what a long sleeve shirt looks like...right? (I hope)

Of course I kept the leftover pieces of the sleeves.  You know I can't throw a good piece of fabric away, no matter how small.  I think it's the perfect pattern for those little "tie onesies." 

"What have I gotten myself into?!"

Wow, I'm so honored (and overwhelmed). 

I don't know if you noticed but I was featured at {Dot}{Dot}{Dot}.  Super cute, I love her site.  Thank you soooo much Tasha.  I feel like I have made my first mark in the blogging world.

So with that great honor, I had to figure out how to get that darn button over there-------------->

It was really hard for someone that is NOT good with computer stuff.   That's why I got married.  I knew there had to be someone out there who could help me.  I just searched for "how to put button on sidebar".  It seriously took me forever to get it.  I looked at tons of sites, all talking about the "Edit html" tab in Blogger.  Oh, my head was spinning.  I was thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?!"  I should have done more research on all of this before I started this blog (can you tell, I'm a bit of a planner).

After what seemed like an eternity, I was saved!!!! seventhirtythree has an amazingly helpful (and user friendly) blog help section.  I don't know what she's talking about in some parts, but she really does a good job explaining all the technical stuff.

So, in the end: SUCCESS



Cranberry-Orange Scones

We have been on a little bit of a scone kick lately.  We always buy them at the grocery store cause they look sooooo good.  That's fine and all, but I wanted to find a good recipe and try to make my own.  I found the perfect looking one: Simple Scones.  It's all in the name right?

I read through the comments to see if this was the recipe I wanted to use.  I always start at the negative ones and read the problems that people had with the recipe.  Then I go to the positive ones.  There were a couple negative comments that the scones were too dry, but there were positive ones saying they were very moist.  I figure those cancel each other out.  It was probably the way the people followed the recipe anyway.  So it was in the comments that I found some extras that people had tried.  There was this very yummy sounding glaze:

Orange Glaze
1 cup Confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon almond extract

Mix confectioner's sugar with orange juice until desired glaze consistancy.

****
These were very good.  I got very good feedback from everyone that tried them.  The dough was a little crumbly and a little hard to work with, but it was well worth the "trouble".  Next time, I will soak the cranberries, to make them softer, and I will probably skip the glaze (VERY good, but it didn't really need it).

What parrot?!?!

The restaurant that I work at has these shirts:

I hate wearing them, because everyone always asks me about the saying.  They think there is a really good story behind it.  There really should be, but there isn't.  I can't even think of a really clever one to lie to them entertain them with.  I just end up telling them the truth, "There's no story behind it, it's just a shirt." :( The restaurant has a pirate/nautical theme to it, but that is the closest to anything about a parrot.  If anyone can think of anything to help me out, I could probably find some prize for the winning story.

Now the hard part...of waiting.

Every step is a little closer to officially being HOME OWNERS.  There was A LOT of paperwork that seemed to be neverending.  We just got the confirmation that the buyers got our signed copy of the contract.  I really don't know what's going on.  I'm so lost about the whole thing, it really doesn't help at all that I'm 400+ miles away.  I'm sure that the hubby (and more importantly, Nate-the realtor) knows what they are doing. 

The hubby tells me that he talked to "his people" and the inspection should be done in the next 7-10 days.  This is the big one.  The big, BAD, SCARY inspection.  It's not just a home inspection, this is the one that determines if the house qualifies for the loan that we are using.  I've heard really nasty things about this loan, that it's really hard to pass everything.  It sounds like the criteria is really strict. 

I'm nervous, but I seem to be the only one that is.  I wouldn't expect my "better half" to be nervous (he never is), but the realtor and the credit agent aren't either.  I should probably be comforted by that fact, but I'm not.  I am just going to hold my breathe until everything is a go, and then I will relax.

Crossing my fingers, and praying really hard for good news.

Tutorial: Altoids pincushin

I've been wanting to do this for a while.  I found an old stash of Altoid tins (I used to collect them...long story).  Every since I found them, I've wanted to do something useful with them.  Kind of a way of saying, "I told you I would need these someday," to my husband.  So, today, it all fell into place: Monkey went down for a nap, Goose is napping in her room being quiet, I finally had a moment to myself to get my craft on.  I just don't trust Monkey around the hot glue gun.  That would be just my luck, and then I would be banned from hot gluing anything by my husband.  Anyway, onto the good stuff...

(be gentle, this is my first time doing this...)

1.  Cut fabric to a 4 1/2 " x  5" rectangle.  This will give you enough height to stick pins in it, and enough to fold under the edges for a nice finished look.




This was before I cut my rectangle, so it's not to scale.

 2.  Fold and press a 1/4", first on the two long sides, and then on the two shorter sides.

3. Cut batting in a 9" x 10" rectangle.  This will make the thickness x4 when you stuff it later.

4. Start on a long side, hot glue the tin, not the fabric (that way if you want to redo it, it's easier to get the glue off the tin.  Plus it's just easier to handle.)  Attach the fabric to one long side and then the other.   Try to get the fabric as close to the lip of the tin as possible.  This is prevent any of the label color to show.

5.  Make sure you have glued the entire long side (all the way to the end of the fabric).  Then simply fold down one of the short edges and glue to the tin,leaving one end open.  Make sure you glue the corners too, otherwise they will flap around.  This makes a nice "giftwrap"  fold.


6.  Fold the batting to the size of the tin top.  Carefully stuff the batting into the "pocket", making sure you stuff into all corners.  Then follow the same technique as the other short side, and glue that end closed.

Ta-da!!!

And the best thing about it is that you can keep your pins in the tin!!!  Two-in-one, LOVE it!!  Pretty and functional.

Whoo, that was fun. Hope you like.

National Book Week

One of my Facebook acquintances informed me (via her status) that it was National Book week this week.  Hmm, ok.  Sounds alright to me.

**It's national book week. The rules are, grab the closest book to you, turn to page 56, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. Copy the rules as part of your status.**

"Burn each of the "stitches" with a light touch of the tip of the tool."

A little wierd, I know.  But that was the closest book I had.  Who am I to not follow rules...don't answer that.

What a difference 24 hours makes.  The view outside my window has changed completely.  Unfortunately for me, it was not the change I was hoping for.  Fortunately for Goose, she loves it.  At least another week of snow-people in her our future.  Yesterday, about this time (naptime) I was comfortably watching the afternoon news thinking how silly all this talk about 4-6 inches of snow sounded.

It worried me a little when I saw the huge flakes falling.  But they didn't last very long.  I went to the Y to teach swim lessons around 5pm.  When I got out, there was a lot of wind and probably about an inch of snow.  Still I thought, silly to think we are going to get 4 inches, just ridiculous.

I apparently jynxed it.

This is pretty much the same shot as before.  Quite the before and after.  Of course I told Goose that we could play outside in the snow in an effort to get her dressed this morning.  An true to form, she did not let me forget my promise.  Memory like an elephant, that one.  After an hour of nagging asking, I gave in.  I had to shovel (yes, shovel) the car off to get my bibs out of the trunk.  After that it was all play.  Goose asked if she could brush the snow off of the snow.  Nothing like an impossible task to keep a 3 year-old busy. 

PINK as in...

PINK...

...as in amoxicillin.  Monkey has been sick for about a week now.  He just hasn't been his happy, smiling face lately.  Today was his 9 month check-up, perfect timing.  We got both doctor visits done at once (the check-up and the being sick).  Turns out, little Monkey has ear infections in both ears.  Poor little guy.  That definitely explains all the crying.  I feel bad saying it, but I love how cuddly he is when he's not feeling well.  But, I will be very happy when my smiling Monkey is back.

...as in "oops I forgot to post this at Valentine's Day."  We made chocolate covered everything for Valentine's Day.  I can't believe how much they charge for chocolate strawberries the week of Valentine's.  It's crazy.  We saved a ton of money for about 5 minutes worth of work (3 of those minutes were spent waiting for the chocolate chips to melt).  We bought strawberries, which were a little expensive, but we had the chocolate chips in the pantry.  One bag of chips is way to much for a carton of strawberries.  We searched everywhere for anything we could dip in chocolate.  We ended up dipping strawberries, pretzels, and marshmallows.  Since it was Valentine's we used pink and red sprinkles.  Goose was our official sprinkler.  I think she did a really good job, especially since it was right before naptime.  I wasn't sure the colored sugar was going to work because the chocolate was so dark, but it turned out really nice.  Next time, I'm going to try white chocolate, too. 

That's a pretty cool thing.  It means we are one step closer to being home-owners.

Winning...duh

Yay!!!

They picked us!!!

We won the bidding war!!!

The seller accepted our offer.  We are officially in the proccess of buying a house.  That was the next step in the long proccess, but it's a step in the right direction.  Since the hubby's birthday is Friday, he is going to contact the bank on Monday to get the inspections going.  Hopefully, the house passes all of that.

There's still a long way to go.  I'm saving my celebration for when everything is final, but I can't help but be excited.  It feels really good to hopefully be together May 16th.

The Word: Good Eats

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

– Matthew 4:3-4

Good news, Bad news...

... and news that make the bad news not so bad.

I called the hubby to tell him a a funny story and he told me,"I have good news, bad news, and some news that makes the bad news not-so-bad."  What is that supposed to mean?

We made an offer on a house that we had found.  Here's the new-es:

Good news: The offer was recieved.

Bad news: There is another party interested.

Other news: This other party has been locked in negociations with the seller and can't find a price they can agree on.

Ok, so now what?  The deal is now that we both (us and the other party interested) make our best offer and the seller will pick one party to negotiate with.  We didn't change our offer, we left it as it was, and fingers crossed, prays being said, they pick us.

There's a lot of waiting in this game of buying a house.  I'm so nervous about having our offer accepted.  I shouldn't be though, it's still very possible that the house doesn't pass inspection, that's my biggest fear worry.  How disheartening that would be, to win the bidding war, only to lose because of the inspection. 

Time will tell how everythng works out.  I wish someone had told me how hard it is to be a FTHB (first time home buyer)  It's no fun.  I have to keep reminding myself that if it doesn't work out, it wasn't meant to be.  Sometimes, I wish God would be more direct in telling me what His plan is.

Catch (me) 22

I have a lot of respect for the people that have military spouses.  It is no fun being seperated for long periods of time.  I have to be honest, my situation is not as bad.  My hubby is only a couple hundred miles away in the middle of Iowa.  There is little to no danger (knock on wood) where he works, and I get to talk to him every night.  It is still very difficult to be away for so long.

We are in the process of trying to buy a house.  It's kind of disheartening when time keeps going by without any progress.  My deadline is to be living together as a family by J's 1st birthday.  It's really sneaking up fast.  I think it might be hard to make that goal.

The real problem is that money is really tight.  I need to have a job in order for us to make it work, but in order for me to get a job we need a place to live.  I feel like I am caught in a huge catch-22. 


**On a side-note, J is apparently a big Subway fan.  No matter where he is in the room, or what he is doing, he always stops and turns when he hears the "5 Dollar Footlong" song.  I wish he would have liked a less annoying song.  It's always stuck in my head after hearing it.

Don't worry, be happy

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

– Matthew 6:34

Best advice I've ever recieved

Some days...

I know I'm not the only one who feels like this, but some days I feel like the worst mom person in the world.  I think that every parent has moments when they think of how much different (and easier) life would be without kids.  No one would ever admit to it, but there are some times I wish for the time before kids.  No matter how many times I yell, E continues to run screaming through the kitchen.  And with the reliability of an alarm clock, J is up at 6 a.m. after waking up at midnight and 2 a.m.  Somehow, he doesn't understand that I am not ready to start my day yet.  And more days than not, everything happens at once: E is throwing a fit because she doesn't want applesauce for breakfast, she wants yogurt, J is crying because he wants to be held to alleviate the pain of teething, after sending the dog to her kennel for being underfoot, I find (yet another) toy that has been chewed. It gives a whole new meaning to the saying, "When it rains, it pours."

Two things that I have learned that have helped me on the days that nothing goes right.  The first is something my dad said. One day when E was not listening, he joked, "Why is she acting like that?  She's acting like a 3 year-old."  Dealing with a baby (and everything else) I forget that she is still only 3.  I (and a lot of other parents) expect way too much from her when it comes to having patience, understanding why mommy is mad, and listening the first time.  When I'm am at the end of my patience because J is crying on the floor and E is jumping on the sofa after I have asked her nicely to stop more times than I can count, I remind myself that she is acting like a 3 year-old because she IS a 3 year-old.  What more could I ask for.  She is a very bright girl, has a ton of energy, and is curious about EVERYTHING.  I guess I'm jealous, think of everything I could get done in a day if I had all that energy.

The second thing that has changed how I think about things is something that I heard on a morning tv show.  There are so many times I can feel myself getting ready to explode.  It starts deep down and it just gets bigger and bigger, until I can't hold it in anymore.  When that point comes, there's no stopping it.  It just happens, it's like a completely differet person.  I hate it.  I feel so guilty afterward for letting myself get to that point and taking it out on my children.  I didn't know what to do about it, and then, like an answer to my prayer, there was a segment on TV.  It was almost as if they had aired it just for me.  They suggested keeping a diary of when you lose your temper, then reviewing it to find a pattern of triggers.  I didn't write anything down, but I did mentally take notes about times that I lost it.  I realized that I was rarely mad at E, it was more often than not because I had forgotten to eat lunch or that I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before.  That made a lot of sense for me.  I an much more irratible when I am tired and I get very cranky when I'm hungry.  Being able to stop before I explode gives me time to think of why I am actually upset.  If it's because I haven't eaten in a while, I can remove myself from the situation and have a quick snack.  I have avoided a lot of tears (from everyone) by stopping to think first.

It's so easy to be on the outside looking in.  But when you are in the middle of a huge mess, it seems like there's no way out and no one to help you out.  Every parent has been in the grocery store too close to naptime.  No one wants to be the one with the toddler screaming in the frozen juice aisle.  If only there was some way of telling that parent, "We've all been there, I understand" without embarrassing him/her more.  Sometimes you just have to push your way through the hard times to get to the happier ones.  Such is the life of a mom (and dad).

"Someday..." Saturday

Someday... they will understand that naptime isn't really for them, it's for me.

It makes sense to me that if they want to get up an hour early then we are going to have naptime an hour (or so) early.  There's only so much noise I can take before I need a little quiet time to enjoy my Diet Coke and maybe a few episodes of Burn Notice.  It worked out almost as planned.  The only thing that matters is both kiddies got naps.

Love is the Answer

"Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 – Matthew 22:37-40

Peace....for now

It's so wonderful when I can get both kids down for a nap AT THE SAME time!!  Even better than that is when they play together.  Poor little J cant move yet (but he's working on that).  He's at the mercy of his older sister, forced to play whatever she wants.  They just got done playing a very exciting game of "Choo-choo Train."  I'm not sure of the exact rules, but they both seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit.  If they are both happy, I'm happy.

Today is also a special day.   Today, we graduate to size 3 diapers.  I can't believe it.  J is only 7 months, is that right, for him to be in size 3 already.  They look huge!!  We definately need the extra "storage" space though.  There are two new spots on the carpet that are evidence to that fact.  I know how this goes, first J will start wearing size 3 diapers, and before you I know it, he will be potty trained.  Already, my little baby isn't a baby anymore.