Overcoming My Colorphobia

As I've mentioned before I'm painfully simplistic when it comes to decorating. But, I'm happy to say that I've started branching out a little in this house. It started with some framed prints we found at a local hardware store.

I LOVE Fall colors, but it is hard to decorate with them. The stuff I find seems to have a more muted, earth-tone quality to it- particularly the oranges. I'd rather leave the 70's in the 70's. But these prints we found have bright Fall colors against a black canvas. There are four separate images. This one is my favorite. We hung them in the dining room against deep khaki green walls.

I've been looking for pillows for our couches for quite a while. But accessories are so expensive! $40 for a pillow? Am I completely out of touch to think that this is ridiculous? I found these pillows at WalMart for $5 a piece. The family tree wall is something that has been percolating in my head for quite sometime. Nearly a year ago I found the tree on clearance for $8. And then I started collecting black frames. We have nearly all of our immediate family up there: siblings, parents,  grandparents, and living great grandparents. I'm still finding and printing portraits. Several of the frames are filled with pictures of just me and Cori, or just the kids. We'll replace those with others as we get them. We are on the hunt for an area rug that incorporates that buttery yellow color of the pillows. 

I bought another group of $5 pillows in this lime green color for the family room couches. I've been looking for catch-all baskets for the shelves in our entertainment center for a long time too. Again, the options were expensive and not exactly the right dimensions. When I bought the pillows I bought some matching pillowcases. Then I used some of the cardboard from the gigantic pile of moving boxes in our garage to fashion my own catch-all baskets. I used the fabric from the pillowcases to cover the cardboard and voila! I have to admit that I am pretty proud of this little project. I wasn't kidding yesterday when I mentioned that I am the most uncrafty person I know.

It is a start anyway. We have lots of things we would like to do- furniture we want to buy, lighting fixtures we want to replace, window treatments we want to update. But all those things require money. So we'll have to wait a little while.

Here is a little video of the main floor layout along with a breakfast interview with Gracie who likes to lick food off the table. 

The video is currently muted. Its a YouTube thing. I had dubbed on a song from our iTunes library. I got an email from YouTube saying something about copy rights etc. etc. I don't know if I'm going to fix it. Sorry- it will be pretty boring now. This was the gist of my interview with Gracie-

Me: What are you licking off the table there, Grace?

Grace: Applesauce.

Me: Oh, did you spill a little bit?

Grace: No. Just a lot.

Me: Just a lot? Well, do you need some help cleaning it up?

Grace: No.

Me: Because there are napkins right over there.

Grace: Oh, napkins. Yeah. I could use some napkins to clean it up!

                            

Gracidotes

Modeling the bracelet and necklace she made. The kit was a Christmas present from her cousins, Ashton and Hunter.

Grace's DNA dipped heavily into both of her Grandmothers' gene pools. Somehow, I ended up being the most uncrafty person I know. Fortunately, Grace has much more artistic inclinations. She loves a project and is so happy when she is busy creating something. While Grant is napping, I get a project or some art supplies out for Gracie to play with. Lately she is most fond of her water color set and her scissors. She will sit in one place and cut out her pictures until her hands hurt from the work.

Trifecta of joy: coloring, singing, Minnie hat

One of the many perks of having Fall babies is that they always have a doctor's appointment around flu season. I never have to make separate arrangements or trips for them to get flu shots. I started prepping Grace for her flu shot a little while before Grant's 1 year appointment. We talked about how shots hurt at first, but that the hurt doesn't last very long. She was very attentive during Grant's round of immunizations. A couple of weeks later, I took her in for her birthday appointment. I reminded her that she would be getting a shot. "That's OK, Mom. It will hurt for a minute but then I'll feel better. I might cry a little bit." I assured her that it was fine to cry a bit and gave her a high five. Her appointment went quickly, and then it was time for the shot. The doctor told me that they could also offer the immunization that is a puff up the nose. Gracie interrupted our discussion about it to inform the doctor that she was going to be brave and that she wanted the shot. He looked at me, eyebrows raised. I told Grace that she could get her medicine in her nose, where it wouldn't hurt very much, or that she could get it in her leg where it might hurt more. She insisted on getting the shot. I looked at the doctor. He shrugged his shoulders. Grace cheerfully got up on the table and laid down when the nurse came in. She cried a little after the shot, but quickly recovered. She even gave the nurse a hug and a "Thank you!" on the way out. 

It is good to be Brewster

Brewster is not only the current bedfellow of choice, but he is the golden boy of all her toy things. She dotes on him. After they get out of bed in the morning, she carefully wraps him in her babas, tucks him into a basket, and then places the basket into a box with a handle for safe transport. He is toted around all day long, mentioned in every prayer, fed imaginary bites of nearly every meal, given rides in the stroller, and rocked whenever there is music playing.

 A mouse in the house

I'm 99% sure that Grace is responsible for this. My husband is crazy for gourmet cheeses. This is a large block of Swiss Havarti Dill he chose during our last trip to Sam's Club. There is a slight chance that Cori took these bites. It wouldn't be the first time. But Grace can reach the meat and cheese drawer now. And those bites are a dainty Gracie size. I'm pretty sure it was her.

And then for your viewing pleasure:

Current Bedfellows

The kids are on a pretty good schedule these days. Our bed time routine goes through seasons of adjustments, but at the moment, we've got something that works. An integral part of this routine is the presence of certain bedfellows. 

Gracie's set up is still a bit involved. She sleeps with two babas (burp rags), Brewster the Sharpe puppy and a little happy meal poodle toy she has named Pauly. The babas must be spread perfectly across her pillow. There cannot be any wrinkles. And Brewster and Pauly get tucked in very carefully. If it isn't too late we read from a book. Lately we have been reading "chapters" from her Beatrix Potter book. Then its bedroom lights off and hall light on and she is off to La La Land. If she gets up in the middle of the night, something that happens at least every other night, the whole entourage is packed into our room. We then pack it all back to her bed and get her settled in again. We've been working hard on eliminating her 2 AM visits. She has done really well this week. Last night I woke up to her crying. She was standing in her bathroom, half asleep, doing her potty dance and struggling to get her pjs down. As I was helping her back into her bed she said, "I tried to do it all by myself." Sweet buggy.
Usually Cori and I are able to tag team bedtime. We do pjs, toothbrushes, and prayers all together. Then the kids fight over who gets to have Daddy put them in bed. Cori takes the winner, I appease the loser and by 7:30-8:00 Cori and I are enjoying some time to ourselves. Grant is pretty easy to please. His favorite bedtime book right now is a big "My First Words" book. He has two favorite picture spreads that he fast-forwards to. One shows all kinds of trucks, cars, trains, tractors, trains and airplanes. The other shows all kinds of animals. He points at different pictures and makes different noises. After reading, we turn out his light and try to have some cuddle time. We grab his blanket, and his favorite bedtime buddie- a yellow Chevron car. If we somehow forget to grab the car, he reminds us by saying "guck, guck, guck, guck" (truck) relentlessly until it is in his hands. Then we sit in the rocking chair and try to sing to him. I must emphasize the word try because our efforts are usually interrupted by Grant poking his finger into our eyes and laughing hysterically about it. He loves poking eyes. It is very annoying. Once my eyes have had enough I plop him into bed and he is set for the night. Grant rarely wakes up during the night.  

Conspicuous by his absence from this post so far is our beloved Mr. B. He was Gracie's best friend of all time up until about 8 months ago. He currently resides in Grant's room, patiently waiting for the tides of interest to change again. 

Groovy

Like all little kids, these two love music and dancing. I record little ditties on our piano for the kids to play back and dance to. Grant really likes to get into it. He taps his foot, runs in circles, and has this great Stevie Wonder thing he does with his head. 

Blessings

A Warm Day The temperatures climbed to 32* on Thursday. I took the kids out for a while to get some sunshine. We took a walk around the block, me with Grant in a stroller and Grace with her bunny rabbit in a dolly stroller. Unfortunately I managed to lock us out of the house-- it was actually kind of Grant's fault-- but that gave us a great excuse to hang out at our next door neighbor's house for a while. 

Medical Science without which I would have been child bearing toast a long time ago. Most recently we learned that my previous miscarried pregnancy was dangerously abnormal, as was my recovery from the D&C. I'm so grateful I found a new great new doctor here so quickly. After a couple weeks of tests and another procedure (which was performed in clinic-- very uncomfortable, but better and cheaper than spending a whole day doing an out-patient procedure at the hospital), my body is responding normally. We're not completely out of the woods yet, but we'll know in the next week or so. We are optimistic that things are going back to normal. In the meantime, I've officially and statistically become one in a million. I can't deny Heavenly Father's hand in this statistic either. My blood tests strongly suggested that we were facing one of two complicated situations- the words "anti-cancer treatments" and "chemo- therapy" came up in that conversation. The problem that was actually found ended up being something that made no sense but was more easily treated. My doctor asked me more than once if we were from Mars. I guess it was a quite strange but in a way, quite miraculous. 

The greater religious community of Northern Nevada who, we recently learned, were praying for our family last week. When I called my mom to explain the medical situation we were finding ourselves in, she immediately began packing a suitcase and clearing her schedule. She was talking with her trainer- also a good family friend- about why she was planning on coming our way, and this sweet woman put us on the prayer list at the Catholic church. Soon after, the other ladies my mom works out with learned and before the end of day our family was also on prayer lists at the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in town. The world is full of so many wonderful people. We were really touched and felt the strength of every one's prayers.

walls and floors

In stark contrast to how things worked out in our Petoskey house, we decided to have some small renovation projects completed prior to our move in. The plan came off without a hitch-almost. 

Most of the work was on the main floor. The dining room was painted a deep coral color and had white pile carpeting. The kitchen, laundry room, half bath and breakfast nook were floored in the linoleum pictured above. The family room and living room were carpeted in this pinkish taupe colored stuff. Most of the spaces had a very rosie feeling to them. And some of the carpet had grease stains from the lazy boys and reclining couches that had existed for years in the same places. 

We decided to repaint the dining room a deep khaki green. And we had almost all the flooring replaced on the main floor. We put laminate flooring in the living room, and in the large space that flows from the dining room, back through a hallway that includes the half bath and laundry/garage entry area, the kitchen and the breakfast nook. Then we replaced the rosie taupe carpeting in the family room with a more neutral shade.

One of the qualifying conditions for the flooring company we chose was their availability to complete the project before our move in date- Monday Dec. 29. We got into town very late on the 28th. Around 11:30 PM or so, Cori and I left Aunt Sara with the kids at the hotel and went over to our new house to check on the progress. The flooring was definitely not finished. The picture above of the kitchen was taken that Monday morning. Had we known earlier we could have arranged some different plans with the driver of the moving truck, but it was too late. The house was VERY full that Monday. There were two or three guys working on the floors, three moving guys filling the available floor space with furniture and boxes, and then after we had to check out of the hotel, three more adults and two little kiddos who needed to help with everything. 

Things got really interesting when the city came and turned our water on. The flooring guys had not shut off the water at the toilet, and once the house water was turned on we had a veritable geyser gushing a flood of water all over the new floor and down into our basement bathroom. This resulted in another week of minor work before the floors were completed. Everything worked out in the end. And I didn't have to move any heavy furniture. 

A little peek. Left-Cori standing in the doorway that separates the living and family rooms. There are french doors that hang there. Right- the dining room.

We also had the guest room and the master room repainted. The painter got things a little mixed up with our colors in the master suite, but other than that she did a great job. To give you a taste of the bold colors the family before us preferred, take a gander at the walls in the kids' rooms.

We didn't paint over these creations. Not because we are especially fond of them, nor because we would do anything remotely similar if given the chance. But Gracie is enthralled with her flower and butterfly room. She just loves it. She really loves the fishy room too. They are fun for now.

I am almost done hanging and organizing things on the main floor and will give a more formal tour soon. 

making an honest woman of me

We finally have our own legitimate internet connection. Don't ask me how I've managed some time on line in the last few weeks we've lived here- and I won't have to lie to you or incriminate myself somehow. I was desperate, Okay? 

Right now I'm busy playing with our new computer. But tomorrow... let the regular posting begin!

Baby its cold outside

The temperature outside at 7:30 AM

-18*

The predicted high for the day

-3*

Why I'm not packing up and moving West this very instant

Blue skies and Sunshine

Not that I plan on spending any time outside. The sunshine just makes the lows of winter more tolerable.

I love

Blessings

These kiddos This week was the first stretch of time that I had alone with the kids since the 19th of December. I was a little nervous about it, which seems completely absurd. But I had become pleasantly used to the extra help and entertainment. We had a great week though. I'm so grateful to be at home with my babies.

Our new ward We are still just getting to know people. But I'm always amazed at how quickly the Church can make a place feel like home. The building is different, but what happens inside the building is always the same. The faces are different, but the people's hearts are always the same. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the same whether in Michigan, Illinois, Paris or London.

A new arrival due this Wednesday. We finally ordered a new computer and printer. The printer arrived last week. A shiny new Apple is en route. I have literally danced for joy several times since ordering it. So many projects have been waiting for machines capable of their completion. Our home videos will finally make it onto DVDs. I will never hand write the 200 addresses for our holiday mailer again--after our new year/we've moved card which is on its way to you all this week, that is. (our printer wouldn't load the label paper correctly. So I had to print the labels on regular paper then take them to kinkos to have it copied onto the label paper...) Anyway, I have the most fantastic feeling that so much of my life is going to become instantly easier and more interesting the moment I take the beloved contraption out of its box. It is a very materialistic thing to be grateful for, but I just can't help it!

Our first outing to the windy city

When the sad day finally came for Sara to leave us, I had to figure out a way to cope. This kind of thing runs in my genes. Reportedly, the only way my mom dealt with leaving me at college was by taking in a healthy dose of retail therapy immediately after leaving my dorm. Anyway, since Sara was flying out of Chicago O'Hare, we decided to make a day of it and visit the Shedd Aquarium downtown before dropping her off.

The day went better than could have been expected for a few reasons:



I can still drive in the city. After nearly two years of small town driving, I was a little nervous about commuting through the center of the nation's 3rd largest city on the last Saturday before the end of the Christmas break. With Sara driving shotgun with a set of map quest directions we made it through with only two wrong turns. We made good time and my blood pressure remained at a healthy level. I was expecting it to be more like driving through Manhattan- which I wouldn't recommend (Katie? Colby? You got me on that one right?). But it wasn't bad at all. I'm sure it is a much different story during midweek rush hour...

We got in for free. We arrived about an hour after they opened and didn't expect the line to be very long. The Aquarium is located on a museum campus that facilitates a planetarium and another large artifact museum. The museum campus shares parking (for $15 a car!) with Soldier Field, home of the famous Chicago Bears. After figuring out where to park - about 1/2 mile away - we excitedly approached the aquarium. As we rounded the front of the building, a guy with a Shedd Aq. fleece and a black Labrador called out to us, inquiring if we already had tickets. Not wanting to be rude, even to a scalper which I thought he was, Sara and I walked over to him. He asked how many were in our group, and when I told him he proceeded to explain that the aquarium has a certain amount of passes they hand out for free at random every day. He handed over the tickets, (worth $16 a piece) the coinciding wristbands, and tickets to their pet show as well. We didn't realize how truly fortunate this was until we got inside. Not only did the gesture save us a bundle of cash, but it saved us about an hour of time waiting in a line which was quite long. We didn't have much time to spend there, so the saved hour was precious indeed.

The Aquarium is amazing. It was so interesting. Grace was in hog heaven. She was forever against the glass... on the floor... any place she could be as close as possible to the aquatic life. The pet show was a little dull for the big kids, but Gracie was completely entertained for its 25 minutes. Grant was fairly interested in the goings on as well. We are excited to make a return trip in the summer after their oceanarium is reopened.

From the Aquarium it was a quick trip to some lunch and the airport. After big hugs and kisses we left Sara and made our way back home. We did hit some traffic on the Chicago loop coming out but had smooth sailing after that. It was a fantastic trip to the airport!

A New Year Tradition

In the South, it is a well practiced tradition to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens on the first day of the year. The consumption of said foods is meant to bring, respectively, health and wealth. I was not raised in the south. But I have enough of the South in my pedigree to cling religiously to this tradition. My mom was born and raised in Texas. Her mother was born and raised in the South as was her grandmother.

As a kid, I was not a fan of this meal. We ate the black-eyed peas straight and the collard greens with jalapeño vinegar (I actually like eating collard greens this way now. As a kid-not so much). I liked the tradition. I just hated actually eating it. Several years ago, my mom started making a dish she calls 'New Year's Rice.' It is quite delicious and includes both of these important ingredients. I make it every year and have grown to love it so much that I could eat the whole lot of it by myself.



This is how I like to make my mom's recipe.

New Year's Rice
2 cups black-eyed peas or one can, rinsed and drained
2-3 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup butter
4 cups torn spinach or collard greens ( I use a whole 9 oz. bag of spinach)
1/2 link of kielbasa sausage, diced
2 T Parmesan cheese
1 t salt
a few dashes of hot sauce- Tabasco, or if you live in my house, Frank's Hot Sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese shredded

Have peas and rice ready
In a large skillet, brown diced sausage. Remove to another dish.
In same skillet, melt butter. Stir in spinach and cook until tender- about 4 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients except the cheeses. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally until heated through.
Just before serving, stir in the cheeses.

Makes 5-6 3/4 cup servings.

Ringing in the New Year

Our new year's eve definitely had the makings of a very dull soiree. We had only been unpacking for a couple of days. We didn't have TV stations yet. But between Sara, Cori and myself, we ended up with a great night. There's nothing that a trip to WalMart and a video store can't fix, right?

Cori made a deal with Grace that if she would take a nap at 5:30, she could stay up until midnight with us. Precisely at 5:30, Gracie informed us that she was ready for a snack and her nap.

In the meantime, Sara and I worked up a little feast for our evening of movie viewing: Cheese fondue (we had to go to two different stores to find some Gruyere, and you should have seen the deli lady's face when we asked her if they had any--maybe it was just my perfect French pronunciation...), crispy potato wedges, and crescent rolled little smokies. While the kids were napping, we ate and watched our big kid's movie. Then once they woke up, we ate some more and watched Wall.E- which was very cute.

Grant didn't make it to the big count down. But Gracie stayed up like a champ. We lit sparklers on the back porch. You can devise from Sara's expression what the temperature was like that night. And if you are wondering about the dark faces huddled together in the corner picture, that is me and Sara. Our sparklers went out the very nano second before Cori snapped the picture.

Then we went in for a little toast. Grace has really gotten into the whole toasting idea. We get to do about 5 toasts every night at dinner now. At least three of them are "cheers for animals." Anyway, here are a few pictures of us doing some "cheers."

Did I mention that she really loves toasts? Happy new year, a week later!

Blessings

Sara who spent her entire break from law school helping us move. There were so many other things that she could have been doing. Even things that she needed to get done before her semester starts tomorrow. But she stayed with us until yesterday. With her help we are almost completely unpacked. I'll post more pictures of her stay, our new year's celebration, and our day in Chicago soon.

Cori who managed most of the details of our move while working a job and a half. I had been so ill and was very overwhelmed by the time we got to the week of Christmas. With out any prompting from me, Cori just took over the tasks that are usually mine to manage when we move. He met the driver and the packers. He took care of all the scheduling and all the tipping. He went up to the house everyday to sign off for things. Then while we were with my family, he really did a lot with the kids. I was given such a great opportunity to rest and recouperate. He has never complained, though I know he has needed a break too.

Grace and Grant. They love our new home. They play so well together. They have been so fantastic during this whole transition.

The new year. It is so great to get a fresh start!

Our Christmas 2008

This is Walloon Lake. We rented a vacation home that is just feet from the Lake. It snowed every day my family was with us. That is until the day they went home. That day it rained and melted half the snow away. But we enjoyed a very enchanted and a very white Christmas holiday.

Because our house got packed up the Monday before Christmas, Mom had the excellent idea to make all our tree decorations. She and Grace made long paper chains. We decorated paper snowflakes with glitter glue and strung cranberries. Mom also brought some photos to put on the tree of gifts that didn't make the trip with them. I think it was my favorite Christmas tree ever.

The house was gorgeous. The kitchen. I couldn't get over the kitchen. It was seriously something out of my dreams. Incidentally, I couldn't get into the kitchen. I was still pretty sick, and the rest of my family banned me from any major work. Everyone divided KP duties and we had lots of great food to eat. Sara spent a lot of time baking yummies for us and always let Grace have a hand in the work. In this picture they are working on the home made cinnamon rolls we ate Christmas morning. We played games everyday. Lots of Skip Bo with Super Grandma Bettie, and Cori and I even got the family to play Ticket to Ride -our new favorite- with us. I also included the picture of Grace looking extra sad. She is going to be a great gal to see a chic flick with down the road. She was watching a Mickey Mouse Christmas special. In the cartoon, Pluto had made Mickey really upset, and so he ran away. Both Pluto and Mickey were really sad, and the next thing we know, poor Gracie had little tears running down her cheeks. We watched all our favorite Christmas movies and then some: White Christmas, The Muppet Christmas Carol (The best!), Christmas Story...

Christmas Eve, we had the Missionaries over for a big dinner and a some festivities. The kids helped us set up our nativity. Grace got pretty good at telling the story. We read together out of Luke II. We sang hymns.

Then, feeling we had been religious enough, we opened some presents, baked cookies for Santa, and made a big plate of vegetables for the reindeer (Grace was very concerned about the reindeer).

Our family Christmas Eve. The only one missing is Jared. And we really missed him! I would also like to draw some attention to Sara's Mr. Miyagi-clad feet. That girl cracks me up. She swears that it is actually quite comfortable to wear socks with flip-flops.

Christmas morning was so much fun. I think I was more excited than the kids were. Christmas gets pretty fun for parents as kids get older.

The rest of the week we did what my family does best. We hung out and took it easy. We ventured out into the snow a couple of times to play. My dad has some cute pictures on his blog of him, Sara and Grace making snow angels, a.k.a. angel jacks, on the frozen lake. We went out to the movies. We also went downtown to my favorite little place, Julienne Tomatoes, to get some tomato gorgonzola soup. Sadly, they weren't serving it that day. But it was still a great lunch. The kids got lots of story time with all of their attentive grandparents and aunts around. Gracie even got to watch cartoons in bed with Grammie Marla.

Many thanks again to Grammie Marla, Papa Jeff, Super Grandma Bettie, Aunt Thea, and Aunt Sara for making the trip to spend the holiday with us. We had a wonderful holiday!