packing away

as i'm waiting for an electrician to come out to give us a quote from our inspection, i'm packing away the christmas decorations. while doing this, i'm also thinking what else to pack that we don't use daily. meaning we got the house! they counter offered back and we couldn't believe our luck to see it wasn't much more than what we had countered at plus they've added a few other things to the list of items they want to leave behind. a yard roller and small trailer, front patio furniture etc... what a great sense of relief. i guess its true what they say.... if its meant to be it will all work out.

christmas 08 part 1

after arriving at my in-laws christmas eve my bah humbugitis went away. mikes folks gave all of us some cash for christmas while kaylee got a pair of jammies + lots of crafty stuff. i'm sure we will be stuck inside for a few days straight from the cold so i'm saving them for those days. uncle nick liked his christmas present from us. he cracked up seeing a poster size of him hugging elmo. his girlfriend (julie) got him a new hat so he gave mike his old one. he was going to give ham the black one but decided that it might make his gf mad so he had to take it back. and mikes parents liked their digital camera. after a few hours with them we took of for mike's uncle steve's house (mikes mom side) to continue the christmas eve festivities. kaylee got money and a few other things and ham got more money.


it was really nice not having to drive back home in a snow storm this year. a few years back mike had to drive with his head out the window, that's how hard it was snowing.

kaylee didn't end up waking up till about 8ish christmas morning. she was really excited to see presents from santa and couldn't believe that it was finally christmas. she kept asking if "this day was christmas" while waiting for ham to join us. he made it around 9ish. both kids loved their presents. ham was surprised with the tv. that's an actual sincere smile on his face.

melts my heart to see it. nothing makes me happier than seeing my kids happy. it was a great christmas! mike liked his slippers from target and the poker chips that i got him besides his few stocking stuffers. i made breakfast for everyone and we just hung out checking out the toys and such till it was time to head over to my parents house. we've decided to wait to hook up ham's tv for the big move but it is in his room so he can admire it.

in the meantime

i'm waiting to hear back from our realtor. we made an offer on the phaeton place yesterday. they do have till tomorrow noon to respond but i'm hoping to hear back today. fingers crossed but most unlikely that they take our first offer. i just want the house to be ours so i can stop worrying that someone else is going to buy it before us. be back later with the christmas post.

ten (bah humbug) on christmas eve

via: sweet paul

1. not into the christmas spirit right now. most likely due to not sleeping well the other night + last night. due to husbands lack of being responsible.

2. suppose to be baking a dessert to take to the in-laws but dont feel like. instead will buy a dessert thats way over priced.

3. its raining at the moment.

4. got our inspections back. not too bad. mike's able to fix most of it + next week we will get someone to give us a quote on the bigger items.

5. cant believe ham's going to be 16.

6. time flew by way too fast this year. please slow down 2009, just a little so i can actually see + soak in whats going on.

7. missed a 4.75% mortgage rate by one week. stupid me.

8. loving kaylee's excitement for christmas, wishing it was contagious at the moment

9. wishing i was in hawaii drinking a mai tai

10. hoping everyone has a happy christmas eve- good god its almost noon. going to fix me a drink :o)

i'm a sucker

for baby converse shoes. love this packaging too. 5 of these boxes fit into the converse star. how cool is that?

via: simplesong +the dieline

another weekend recap

busy weekend. started thursday with the water inspection lady coming over. friday we had the pest and septic inspection which both gave us the thumbs up and the radon guy came and put a test in our basement. he will be back later tonight to pick that up. saturday was the mac daddy house inspection. we didn't stay for that one. heard it could take up 3 hours or so. hopefully a full crawlspace + snow/ice on the roof kept the inspection shorter (attics pretty clean). fingers crossed there wont be too much for the buyer to complain about on the report so we can continue on. we're waiting for this part to be over before making our offer on phaeton place. dont want to jump the gun too soon.

so we headed over to the big mall area to look for furniture. mike's man cave will need a new sofa and chair(s) and a new tv. plus we will need a few bar stools and a dining room set. we need to sell our extra large sectional + end tables since the home buyer doesn't want those. we found that sofa mart and oak express has the best prices and selections if anyone's in the market. ate lunch at granite city before taking on the crowded holiday filled mall. glad that we didn't have the pressure to christmas shop, instead, we did a little retail therapy. mike got a pair of jeans and two sweaters from american eagle. since they were having a buy 1 get one 50% off, i volunteered myself {would of been silly to pass up a deal} and got this sweater.and i also got this sexy coat as my christmas gift. it looks much sexier in person than on-line. i personally think ann taylor needs to re-do their whole website. their clothes look very boring to me. but then again, who am i??

today is kaylee's big birthday party so we will be venturing out in the cold shortly to pick up her princess cake and a few groceries. wish us warmth!!

i want i need

this hat. {by kate spade}

a short 10:30pm post

kaylee's always bugging me for mail. whenever i go outside to retrieve it, she tells me to make sure there's something in there for her. so i've asked a few friends with kids the same age if they would mind being "pen pals" with kaylee. maybe exchange letters, cards or pictures once or twice a month. for a few bucks, it would make kaylee one happy girl and as her mama, that's my job.

i'm thinking of ordering a few of these from tiny prints. they're 3.5 x 2.5 folded and cost about 70 cents each.

the dogs are from their valentines day card collection but i think they could be used for everyday. and they can be personalized too. tiny prints also has a huge assortment of tags, labels, invitations, thank-you's and holiday cards. if you think its too late for sending out the holiday cards, they have a variety for celebrating the new year. *{because i was so tired while typing this post, i forgot to add that they are on heavy cardstock and the ones with your photos on them, not on the cheap glossy paper. very nice quality!!}

and i really want one of these from kate spade.

i realize its just an organizer but its a cool organizer. its orange and sleek and simple. whats not to love? besides the hefty price tag??? if you order one {order me one too!} they're taking 30% off right now.

*would your kid like to receive mail from sweet, cute little kaylee? email me!

phaeton place

this morning i woke up by chance-i slept through my alarm. i still had enough time to shower before having to wake up ham. i made him cheesy eggs only to over-cook them, while making a new batch his toast popped up only for me to find mold on it so i had to make him cinnamon toast since that's the only bread we have that isn't frozen. i ended up burning the cinnamon toast too. which made me decide today would be a great day to stay inside (nevermind the fact that i have loads of laundry waiting for me, dishes too and floors that need sweeping)

good news: mike is on his way home. he got the project finished and running. {he works with gas +propane}

bad news: the realtor that sells the land in auburn estates said that our 1600+ sq. foot stratton house isn't good enough to be built on their land. it has to be 1800+. not his words but i know that's what he meant.

this is the area we want to live so finding that out sucked. as you drive in, on the right hand side is a pond with a sidewalk going all the way around it. nice for running or taking kids over to see the ducks. on the other side of the pond is the river, they even have a pier to over look it. they better have something for the high hoa fee's ($400 bucks a year)


good news: the phaeton place that i had mentioned before is in the same neighborhood. plus it has 2 acres of land.
this is mike's future man cave. its got a bar already set up too with a mini fridge. there's also 2 rooms and a storage area that we can put the weights in. the only con is the hoa fee's, we would have to pay double because we have 2 lots. the sellers said they would take care of it for the first year and we could ask for a price reduction with the hoa people. other than that the other cons we could live with. tomorrow we met with 2 builders, if they dont impress us then we will make an offer on this place.

decorating the new house

here are a few ideas that i love so far for the new house. i loved the movie monster-in-law with jane fonda and jennifer lopez. and once jennifer lopez's character moved in with her fiance- the hottie- michael vartan, they had this awesome sign leaning against the wall. i found a website that sells them (vintage new york subway sign art) but after seeing the hefty price tag {$500-999) i've decided to continue with my plans and just copy it.
i also found these decals on an etsy shop- tasty suite.
of course the husband is a fan of the "get naked" and the one that says "office" will go on his bathroom.
if we build, i would love this mudroom door w/sign found on this young house. and i'm totally digging the magnet/chalk board craze. i cant remember if i saw it on a blog or magazine but i would love to do a wall in either kaylee's bedroom or playroom or maybe in the kitchen somewhere. and i love this front door via dandee

weekend over already?

with mike being out of town for most of december i feel like my own schedules been out of whack-meaning no planning like i usually do. most of saturday afternoon was spent looking at houses since mike was actually home. the house that i had high hopes for ended up falling short and the house that i felt "oh we'll just go and look at it " ended up being the one we love. i'll post more on the phaeton place later.


sunday was sweet kaylee's birthday. and this is what i mean by having nothing planned. no cake, no special birthday meal etc... since mike was to leave after we looked at two more houses. she got to open up a present in the morning. since she loves to do crafty things, like her mama, i got her her own craft tool box similar to the shims+sons. inside i put a jewelry box painting kit, scissors of her own, pencil sharpener, eraser + markers that click to open and shut- love those! at last minute we headed over to olive garden for lunch. we pretty much had 45 minutes to eat and drive to the first house. we ordered as soon as we sat down. here's kaylee opening her last present from us. she did take her sweet time.

besides the bike we got her late summer, we also got her a digital camera. this camera also plays a few games and its a video recorder too. it downloads to a computer or tv so she can "edit" her images. she totally loves it!!

and we cant forget about my handsome ham. he had 15 minutes to shower and get ready for lunch which he so appreciated- ha.

mike got ready to leave around 5pmish. kaylee kept telling him "don't go' (reminded me of the little girl in the patriot with mel gibson) and she would block the door from him. i could tell that she didn't want to cry but she ended up crying anyway. it was really sad and i even got teary eyed. after 10 minutes that mike had left she was still crying. i called him to tell him thanks for leaving me with a clogged up toilet. he heard her crying in the background and said he would come home and just leave around 4am. i told him he didn't have to but he said he didn't feel right leaving kaylee crying on her birthday. he did end up sneaking out around 8pm. we heard the roads were going to be pretty slick in the morning. i distracted her by having her watch "hanana patana" {kayleeism}.

her day

today she turned 4. i have no words that can express my love for her. she's just the sweetest thing around. always looking for fun. she's full of kisses and hugs and cuddles and giggles and tickles and smarts. i love you my sweet baby, big girl. happy 4th birthday.

on to the next chapter

i would like to take this time and thank everyone for their support and comments of congrats on my last post. thanks for almost a year of whining, complaining, begging, pleading and feel sorry for me posts. its funny how everything works itself out. while talking to mike about the numbers {why are men always about the numbers?} for the stratton house (house to be built), he figured that if we used all of our equity as a down payment, our mortgage payments will be exactly the highest amount we wanted to go and i mean to the T. makes me wonder who's in charge here. the other good news is that we had the builder quote us high so it could actually be cheaper. right now i'm waiting for approval from the home owners association that our house is good enough to be built on their lots. they, like most places, require 1800 sq. feet if its a ranch. ours will be a little over 1600 not including the finished basement. finished basement will add another 800+. and if your as nosey as i am here's what the stratton house will look like. and this is the layout. of course i have modifications that need to be made. but i will share those along the way. this weekend there are 4 houses to be seen. this one is high on the list. if this one doesn't work out, i'm pretty much ready to build. it doesn't have a pool but the yard looks big enough to hold one. and if you cant tell, i'm as giddy as a high school girl going to see the jonas brothers. or are they too young for high school girls...back in my day i got giddy over depeche mode...still do....man, i'm old.

we're as good as.....

SOLD!!!

got a message yesterday that the buyer would not, could not, go anywhere near what we were counteroffering. but her agent said she would do anything to convince her buyer to meet us half way which was our lowest price we wanted to sell the house for. stupid, crappy market. her agent also gave up the $1000.00 bonus we were personally offering to anyone who brought us a buyer and our own realtor is taking $500 bucks off her commission. how could we say no to that? everyone went out of their way to get it done. it feels really good and its finally sinking in as i type this. a sense of relief that its finally over yet a little bit of sadness too. october marked 10 years that this has been home to ham and i. look how far we've come.

the buyer is currently in an apartment and her lease must not be up till march so we're not closing till february 12th. that gives us some time to find a new place. i also got the numbers back today from our potential builder and it looks do-able. our realtor went through 63 houses and sent me 29 of what she thought we would like. i went through the list today and found 4 with 6 others on standby. i'm thinking though if one of these 4 do not work out then we will start building which means we will have to find a place for a few months to habitat. and i'm freak'n ok with it. we finally sold our house!! we FINALLY SOLD OUR HOUSE!!

she's crafty

just showing off my craftyness. these are the final results of the poker chips i'm having made for my b-i-l and mike. ron went to IU {indiana university} and is still a fan of the school for some unknown reason so i had his done with the school colors. and we all know that mike likes liquor and poker. i love crude funny stuff. and if i get a comment about how un- lady or christian like that is from my mom, that will be an added bonus. i know mike will love this and if ron doesn't well, he's more lame than we all thought.

last week kaylee and i made a gingerbread house. it wasn't as exciting as i thought it was going to be. they pretty much had the house built, i just had to spread the "crosting" {kayleeism} and make the doors and windows. the crosting ended up being a little thick but kaylee had fun decorating so that's all that matters.

two weeks ago, my mom had all the grandkids- minus ham- make these christmas trees. i thought they were pretty neat and wanted to make one but mom wouldn't share her supplies with me so that night i had to run to hobby lobby and buy some. so here's the trees and gingerbread house together. it makes a nice christmas display if i say so myself. and to finish off my craftyness, i made kaylee's birthday invitations. we're only having my family over since its going to be on monday night and its going to be a week after since her dad is working crazy busy hours. we will do the big shah-bang next year when she turns *gasp* 5. hopefully in a new house. once again, i'm such a copy cat. i copied this idea from princess pigbear and her buddy-ro. {donkey is kaylee's saying, she came up with it a year or two ago} * do you know who sings the title?

tuesdays mumblings

ever have one of those days that feels like its been extremely busy but once you start thinking about what you've done, you realize you haven't really done anything? that's how i feel. kaylee and i had play group today and we brought along cousin kiran. they were both really good and they're still playing at the moment. this could be something that my sister in law and i could continue. one day a week, we switch. and its a win win situation. kaylee's got someone to keep her busy so i can get things done around the house and the following week, i get to run errands. all. by. my. self.

sunday, as you all know, we put up our christmas tree. here are a few ornaments that i copied off of ali edwards. i'm such a copy cat. they do look nice though.

saturday we had my mom's side of the family christmas party, reunion, whatever. it wasn't as bad as i make it out to be. kids got to see santa, yes my parents have that kind of power, and everyone got a gift. it ended well before nine so i got a chance to watch my movie flirting with forty. it turned out to be a decent movie but it doesn't compare to the book. books much better though the movie did have some nice scenery ie. robert buckley with no shirt on and hawaii. this makes me sick. she's freak'n forty six years old and is hotter than ever! god is punishing me for something.

and if i had a christmas list i would put these two items on it:
i love this kick ass holgaroid camera. it can be found at pola premium. almost anything polaroid related can be found on this website. and if you love all things polaroid check out paper cameras while your at it, great polaroid eye candy.
and i've decided that i also want one of these:

just in case i have an aching desire to put my body into some sort of agony and go for a run, i will not only have music, but a phone for when my knee or hip decides to go out.

decorating

the christmas tree went up last night even though i wasn't in a festive, lets decorate the tree mood. i was in the middle of watching ps. i love you- (cute movie) and husbands are sooo over rated and very annoying. that's all i'm going to say about that. kaylee, the cute little nugget that she is, started to place all the ornaments in one area- notice the 3rd photo. and she decorated the tree with the stars but placed them all on the floor which made for a great christmas image i think. we even got ham on some of the action (for about 5 minutes) and no he didn't volunteer to put his arm around me, i had to place it there but at least he didn't move it away. it makes me SO sad to see him taller than me. not that he's taller but what it represents~that he's grown up. totally hating it! and while these are straight out of the camera, i wish i had photoshop that would make me look skinnier. i don't feel like i'm that 'thick" as seen in the photos but i guess +unfortunately photos do not lie.

i know i said that i wasn't going to talk any more about the house situation but i lied. we did get an offer. whoo hoo. but it was really low. boo-hoo. i mean really low. so we counter offered twice and its back on her at the moment. i think she has till tomorrow to decide. its a hard numbers game to play really especially since this has been our only offer. she doesn't want to close till february either. which kinda sucks for us. if we decide to build, we might have to find a place for 2-3 months. not looking forward to moving "twice".
and here's more on our current house: stairs to the upper level, the hallway seen from the landing, kaylee's room off to the left. two views of kaylee's room.