Quiet time.

We have been so busy here. Who knew summers at home could be so crazy. I like it this way though, the kids get in far less trouble when we're off doing stuff. Monday I was sick so we had to skip our playdate. I did drag myself out of bed to take Amelia to ballet tough. Tuesday we went to the park and to story time at the library. Wednesday we got the kids hair cut, then had a trip to costco and the grocery store. Thursday we stayed home and got stuff done around the house, although we did make it to the park in our tract for an hour in the morning. . Friday was a trip to OC for swimming at Tiffeny's. I got sooo sun burnt. It's two days later and I'm still bright pink and cringing when anyone touches my back or shoulders. The kids had a blast though. Anthony's still not sure about the pool, but he's getting better about not freaking out too much.

Yesterday we went to the Farmer's market. The kid each picked out a cactus and we got some fruit and veggies too. Next we went to Fairmount park and drove around the lake. Then we let the kids run around in the rose gardens. It reminded me of some the old parks and rose gardens in Portland. Then last night we packed up a dinner and went to another park. We ate and then the kids ran around and played. Then once the sun started setting we set up our chairs and blankets on the grass and got ready to enjoy a movie courtesy of the city's Parks and Rec Department. It seems like there are a lot of free or cheap activities to do around here especially in the summer. I think next week (once my sun burn goes away) we're going to try out the local pool.

When you add in the baking Amelia insists we do regularly, cleaning the house, doing laundry, making meals and our ongoing projects in the yard, it's been crazy busy around here. But I like it that way. Jeff and Amelia are at the grocery store getting a couple things I need to make some banana bread. ( I bought too many bananas at Costco this week. Ooops.) Anthony is napping and I'm doing laundry, and enjoying the peace and quiet.

I actually took a few more house pictures I'll try and get up in the next few days too. I've already rearranged Amelia's room again since the last pictures, and I'm fianlly starting to hang pictures and things on the walls.

Kids rooms

Yes, I'm aware we've lived here for over two months, and I still haven't posted pictures. Oops. In my defense, I did move and I'm still not totally unpacked. I did however find the camera cord today(now if I could just find the rest of the silverware) so here are a few pics of the kids rooms. Poor Ant got the smallest room in the house, but I wanted his room next to Amelia's, so thats what he's got. Besides, the office/spare room/ sewing scrapbooking room needs to be large to hold all of our junk. There are no curtains in Ant's room because I haven't figure out what I want in there yet. Amelia picked the fabric for her valance herself, which is why it's pink. (Cause the pepto bismal color on the walls isn't enough pink. LOL) So yeah, I'll stop rambling now, here are the pictures. :-) Click to enlarge.

What did you do today?

Today I

Got up at 530.
Took a shower.
Had a cup of tea.
Made 3 beds.
Prepared breakfast.
Filled up the water and sand table.
Played in the back yard.
Made mud pies with the kids.
Washed dishes.
Unloaded the dishwasher.
Vacuumed the dried mud off the floors.
Spot steam cleaned the carpet.
Bathed the kids.
Baked brownies with Amelia.
Made lunch for myself and the kids.
Washed dishes.
Unpacked two more boxes.
Dug up some more of the ditch we're digging in the back yard.
Signed Amelia up for a ballet class that started today.
Drove all over trying to find the right outfit/shoes for ballet.
Drove across town to the ballet class.
Spent an hour chasing Anthony around the ballet studio.
Explained to the teacher that Amelia does not have three brothers (named Anthony, Jack, and Chance. HA)
Supervised (and kept the kids away from) the guy from the window company while he made some repairs.
Washed, hung up, folded and put away a lot of laundry.
Weeded my flower beds.
Took out the compost. (That stuff stinks! Ewww)
Swept and mopped the kitchen floor.
Glued Anthony's dresser drawer back together(someone remind me why I put an antique dresser in a kid's room?)
Went through all the kids toys, and put them back where they go.
Sorted through half of Amelia's closet.(have to do Anthony's tomorrow)
Did puzzles with the kids.
Tried to convince Anthony not to wear the laundry basket on his head.
Changed 3 poopy diapers and a lot more peepee ones.

It's 730. Ant is in bed, but not sleeping. Jeff and Amelia just ran to get ice cream. I think I'm ready for bed.

What did you do today?

Did ya miss me? Wait. Don't answer that. So anyway, I'm back. Still probably not going to be blogging too much, but I'll try and post here and there. And I promise there will be pictures of the new house soon. :-)

Things are progressing around here. We've got the new windows in. It's a lot quieter and much cooler in here already. The downside to the new windows is our already funky kitchen counters (tile that someone put in themselves) have bigger problems caused by the pass through windows. When the new windows were put in, they had to chip out some of the tile and it ended up cracking the tile all around my sink. So it looks like the kitchen redo is going to front of the list. We're trying to decide now if we're going to do new cabinets or just new counters. I love the size and layout of our kitchen. I can live with the current cabinets, Jeff hates them. I think it's just the stain that he hates though so I'm wondering if we could just refinish or paint them. We'll see. Right now I'm trying to pick out the counter tops. I'm really liking that the solid surface counter tops (think Corian). There are even some green options, one style we like is made with a portion of recycled materials. The ones I like are made by LG, pictures can be seen here. I really like the idea of having the sink integrated so it's all one piece. No seems to keep clean!

If you're reading this and have experienced solid surface counters, please leave me a comment. I'd like to hear about it! It's one thing to research and look at pictures it's another to hear from someone who has it in their house. Anyway. I should probably get to bed, I'm having a nanny party here tomorrow. Woohoo. :-)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Melt in your Mouth Meat Loaf, Salad, Frozen veggies

Tuesday: Avocado Chicken, Banana Bread, Brown Rice, salad

Wednesday: Pasta, veggies, salad

Thursday, Crockpot stew, Rolls,

Friday: Pizza/leftovers

Saturday: Turkey burgers, red potatoes, fruit

Sunday: Teriyaki Chicken, Salad, Veggies

I'm alive!

Moving is a pain but it's worth it. A large portion of our stuff is unpacked, although the garage still appears to be filled with junk. The kids are settled in their rooms, and sleeping pretty well. No more waking each other up all night. We've had lots of little projects completed already, a new water heater has been installed, the cable and phone lines have been rerun, and a few electrical things have been fixed. We've bought new furniture, repainted almost the whole interior of the house, and ordered all new windows. The windows should be installed in a few weeks, and I think that will make a huge difference with the noise and the heat this summer. Next we'll be working on the yard and then deciding how much to redo in the kitchen. We already have new appliances, but I'm not crazy about the cabinets and counters, so we'll see what happens. We also need to have the electrician back in so we can get ceiling fans put in.

The guest room had it's first visitors this weekend.(Although they had to sleep on air mattresses because we don't have a bed in there yet! Ha.) My brother in law and nephew drove out from Arizona. It was nice to see them, and Amelia had so much fun with Uncle Jim. She was so sad after they left, she told me she wanted them to come back "right now!" :-) We took them to the beach, and they had to go to Sprinkles Cupcakes in Newport Beach to get cupcakes to take back to my niece Sara. I tried one, and while it was good, I'm not sure they were worth the price. Nine cupcakes cost me $27!

Anyway, posts will probably still be few and far between for a while until I get a little more organized around here.

Today's to do list

• Submit Change of address form to USPS
• Change address with all of our accounts (figure them all out later)
• Turn on electric, water, gas
  
• Get garbage service started(This literally took 5 phone calls by me and 3 more by Jeff. Who knew there were so many Garbage companies in Riverside...
• Reserve moving truck
• Hire movers
• Pack the kitchen
• Set up carpet cleaning for next week
• Set up cleaners
• Finish pulling nails and patching holes
• Clean my bathroom
• Clean kids bathroom
• Finish packing kids room (except clothes)
• Finish painting
• Clean kitchen