Wow long time!!

 Woah I've not posted in FOREVER. and it's all because Mercedes invited me to join Pintrest so that's all I ever do on the computer now. That and I'm trying to learn how to balance my time with trying to parent my two girls and potty our new little puddle machine, Pippin. I told Tim I wanted a puppy because I felt like it would be good for Penny to have a little buddy, and I was right because Pippin makes Penny EXHAUSTED. So we're really excited about that. In other news, I've been trying my hand at sewing and I've sewn a pair of leggings for Riley. I'm still learning so that's as far as I've gotten. And I've been so ambitious my goal is to have Riley potty trained within the next two months. So far, it's not going well. She just has no interest in going to the bathroom in the toilet. She knows and lets me know when she's gone in her pants and wants me to change her immediately so she's uncomfortable in it, but I need to find a way for her to enjoy having a routine that involves sitting on the toilet every half hour. I've tried candy, I've tried stickers, I've tried ice cream and soda, but nothing is enticing enough to her make want to go to the bathroom to get the reward. As many people are aware; she's a very headstrong little midget and if she doesn't want to do something it takes a lot to change her mind. But I would still like to get her potty trained within the next two months because I'm just sick of buying diapers for her. She's two almost three she should really be potty trained by now and it bothers me that she isn't. I think she would really enjoy wearing her big girl underwear without a diaper, but it's just not her idea yet I guess. I've tried just leaving her without pants, but with a two dogs one who getting potty trained herself and and a 1 year old that doesn't know how to stay out of ANYTHING, I really think it's safer for everyone to leave the pants on. Tim is really excelling at work, sometimes making home life suffer. But, we'll deal I guess. We appreciate his job and how it allows us to have the things we need for our family, so I guess a price has to be paid for that. Lately we've been at each others throats and every little thing is setting us off. Its not a good thing. But we've been through worse and I'm sure we'll get through this as well. Bridget is getting big. She like to sing the Dora "Backpack" song and dance swinging her her from side to side. She's also learned how to say "purple", "blue" and "cupcake" It's really fun for me to listen to the girls learn and grow. Riley has four books we read every night and she has them memorized so she can read them to herself. I was so impressed and happy when she started to read by herself. Now if I can only get her to sit on the toilet.:)

Tomorrow is third Sunday and we're having it at MY HOUSE!!! I'm really excited, if you couldn't tell. We bought a new table and chairs so we can all fit at the table and a new couch that is big enough we'll all have somewhere to sit and relax when we do the after dinner hangout, which I hope will sstill happen even though we're not at mom's house. My dad is weird about that sometimes. But I want my family to feel comfortable and welcome in my home. We really like to have people to come over. It gives us a reason to clean:)

Catching Up...Again

You know it would be so much easier to stay on top of things if  I just blogged about them as they happen instead of waiting forever and blogging about a whole bunch all at once. But let's be honest, that's now going to happen. So what's new... ? Anything and everything. We've moved into our new home and we love it. It's really nice to have a back yard that's all mine, that I can just let the dog out without having to get shoes on. It's nice to be able to vacuum at whatever time I want and not have to worry about waking up the neighbors. It's nice that I can bust down shelves peel off paint and seal windows myself instead of having to wait for proper channels, and if I smack my maintenance mans butt while he's working around the house, it's not totally taboo (because he's my husband, if you were wondering). It's nice that I have space for a lot of people even though a lot of people aren't always filling the space. It's nice to know that for the next 30 years we'll be able to live in one spot where the kids can grow, play and make friends. It's nice to be close to family for the occasional drop by, hey we showed just in time for dinner, or a free babysitter. It's SO nice to have a garage. To be able to get both small girls in the car without the fear of them running off and getting hit by a car. It's nice to be able to shut the world out of you home before you even get out of the car and you can get your groceries at your pace because it's not wide out in the open waiting for elements or people to get into them. Its actually nice to have my own garbage cans that I'm responsible for instead of having to pack everything to a dumpster. (that was probably my least favorite part about being in an apartment. Especially when I was pregnant. I always felt super vulnerable and it freaked me out.). Its nice to have an exhausted husband who doesn't want to be constantly driving to go sit at someone elses' house. All things considered, it's just really nice to be finally HOME. Everyone has made the comment "Home ownership is a lot of work." And really to that I say, "Bring it on." And thus far it has had it's surprises (the front bay window was leaking in the freakish rain storms we were having and it was soaking our carpet), but really we've already done a lot work on it, but it still isn't getting old. Tim is really good to do whatever project I ask him to and he soon going to be finishing off the basement a little bit at a time. We both love projects; painting, recarpeting, and building a patio to lead out to our soon to be stellar yard and garden. Tim loves problem solving and planning and he has all the energy in the world to carry out projects. To summarize we love our home.

Bridget is One already!

My baby Bridget turned one on Tuesday and it's pretty much boggling my mind. I can't believe that one year ago, I was holding a new little miracle in my arms and marveling at the wonder that is childbirth and children. It is truly a blessing in my life and my children are my way to true happiness. That's just me though.:) I was going to do a whole montage of the past year with Bridget so we can look and see how she has grown but my pictures are on a external hard drive that is not at my house. so when I get it back I'll be sure to add them to this post.:)

Exhausted

May I just say that buying a home is one of the most exhausting things I've ever been a part of and I'm not even the one doing anything! For those of you who didn't know DH and I have been looking for a home to buy since he got his new job. Seeing as our lease on our apartment is up at he end of February, we're pretty glad we decided to look sooner than we planned. We looked at a few houses and put a few offers in which obviously didn't pan out.  Our realtor brought up a home that we had seen on the market but Tim looked at the pictures and saw the stairs were on an angle and turned his nose up at it. We were just turned down for one of the best houses we had ever seen for a screamin' deal so naturally Tim was feeling a little beaten. I had seen Breaking Dawn p1 the night before and was really tired but immediately when we walked into the house with our realtor we felt at home. Tim found that he liked the angled stairs and he loved the back yard. (which by the way, is HUGE). There wasn't a fridge in the home but that would be easy to fix. Needless to say, Tim felt that this was a good home to try for. So we put in an offer which was countered which we in turn countered and we ended up getting it after two nail biting gut wrenching days and two surprise offers. Wednesday Craig, our realtor called Tim and let him know that we one the toss up. That's a pretty good feeling :) Let's look at some pictures shall we? We should close in January and I didn't take these pictures so I haven't been able to clean anything so don't judge me. these are just so we all know what it looks like.

 This is the front yard. The grass is sad but one spring and it'll be fine.

 This is the front room. Tim didn't like the "native american" wallpaper border along the vaulted wall. :) Easy to fix.

 These are those angled stairs and this picture makes them look filthy. They are pretty dirty, good thing I have a good vacuum.

 Our little kitchen I'm excited for the two windows over the corner sink. Very comfy.

 I have french doors out to my back yard! And a fireplace! YAY!

Our HUGE backyard. We have no neighbors to the east because it's a patch of horse property. I always knew I would have horses in my backyard!!:)


Isn't it cute? We love it and we're really excited to be able to have our own home. Come over when we're all moved m'kay?! :)

Thanksgiving is only 4 short days away....errrrrgh. That's my life slipping away from me as I sit at home watching Bridget pull down the movies that I just put away. If you know me, then you know that I actually like to make things. As long of course, that it doesn't involve sewing cooking, cutting, coloring, molding or painting. See the thing is, I LIKE, even LOVE doing these things. I think they are great wastes of time and a good reason for me to sit behind a desk and require Tim to interact with the kids. But I just seem to have a hard time following and understanding directions. So no wonder I spend most of my day keeping bridget out of the dog water, not getting locked in the fridge, picking up needles so she doesn't sew her lips shut and placing heavy objects out of reach. And with Riley I have to curb her love of counter climbing, hinder her desire to become an electrician with a butter knife, and ease her obsessive compulsiveness when it come to rearranging the magnets. I think the not being able to follow directions must be hereditary... Here's some other good things to waste your time doing:

-Watch all the Fox's "New Girl" episodes from first to latest. Zooey Deschanel is totally adorkable.
-Watch any episode of "The Big Bang Theory". Is anyone else crushing on Sheldon Cooper??? or is that just me?? Nerds jokes are the ones I like best!!!!
- Make a cute hair bow( or two) for your daughters your OWN way after spending hours watching YouTube videos of Midwest Housewives with back country accents using "gro-grain" ribbon. P.S. I didn't use "gro-grain" ribbon and I could have sat there heat sealing it all day if it wasn't such pretty ribbon.
-Read a funny blog. Here's a couple: www.tellingdad.com, www.findingthehumor.com and as always cakewrecks.com never disappoints me.
- I guess you could go get you crying child from her baby cage.:)
-watch Robin Moses nail art video tutorials and you'll be asking yourself all day, "How does she do that?"
-Sing your favorite song. If you're like me and you don't have a favorite song. Just hum aimlessly. Husbands LOVE that.
- Play teacups with the kids where they sit in a laundry basket and you spin them around until you get sick.
-Try and buy a house. Buying a house is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever tried. There are so many hoops to jump through and so many things you can and can't do, it's aggravating! But, that's another story that I'll probably never get around to blogging about.
-Lastly Think of all the stuff you should be doing, ignore it and go take a nap.

This year Halloween was a little difficult. Riley didn't get to nap during the day so spent the entire night whining and wanting to be held. Not really conducive to having a good time for me and Tim. But I guess it's not about us having a good time. I don't know if Riley felt very good because all she wanted to do was lie around. Oh well. We had a nice time with family and I still got to dress up. I guess that's having a good time.
Tim emailed our realtor and hopefully we're going to be looking at some houses soon. Tim is really itching to move now which I am perfectly okay with.

Hello Everybody!!! You may be wondering why I'm so chipper today as opposed to my usual surly self. Well, I hate to say it ,but I'm happy because Tim and I may actually have some money now. I'm not saying money makes you happy or you can buy your happy, but it sure makes it easier to live in such a way that you can appreciate the little things you have, especially when you don't have to worry about how bills are going to get paid. Tim got a call on Thursday from an agent he works with on one of his customers. Said phone call was about a job offer at the agency and an interview with the three principal owners of the company. So Monday rolls around and he goes to the interview and then comes home feeling pretty optimistic about it. Not 3 hours later he gets a call and is offered the job. They had other applicants but after interviewing Tim they decided not to hold those and just hire him! Isn't that great? I think Tim kind of underestimates his ability because he doesn't really see himself as the responsible adult that he actually is.:) So Tim is going to be making A LOT more money which is really nice seeing as we would like to buy a house soon. Actually, we'd like to buy this house.
Isn't it cute? I love it. If you know people who live up around the 6200 south WalMart near this home tell them to drive other buyers away from it because we want it!!!! Really really bad!!!! Anyways that's my news for lately. we're just really excited to get our heads above water. It's not like we're POOR, but it'll be nice to be able to buy groceries if we need them. which sometimes we can't do as of right now because all of our money goes to paying bills.  We're planning on paying off all our debt and then getting the home buying process rolling. seeing as we don't have that much debt we should be in pretty good shape. I'm really excited. Let's take a peek at that house again with some other pictures of the rest of the house shall we?

Living Room
Kitchen
1 of the 3 finished bedrooms
1 of the 2 bathrooms.
Like I said I'm really excited about this house. We would really love to buy it, if we can get this moving quickly. Oh, if anyone would like to help with our house buying cause you can come get your nails done and have cute nails like this
 oh yeah those are Halloween nails. Cute huh?! Thanks for visiting!!!!