Landscaping Plans are done

So, the one thing we hate about our house and knew that we'd have to completely redo is the landscaping.  The current landscaping it has is an eyesore, and definitely stands out, and not in a good way, in our cul-de-sac.  Luckily, we have an amazing landscaping design company that we worked with when we built our last house.  It's a husband/wife team.  He's the muscle and she's the design.  She pulls in amazing varieties and hybrids of plants.  I learned a lot last time around about the power of texture, and different colors popping at different times, etc.

When we saw the yard on this house, we knew we would call them and consult right away.  We actually walked the yard before we even closed on the house.  Well, we finally met with her and got to see the plan.  It's beautiful.  We're pulling out everything, pretty much (especially in the front yard) and starting with a blank slate.  We'll do it in stages, but it's going to be gorgeous.  We have a couple tweaks to the plan, but here is her drawing.  Isn't it pretty?!

Also, just to give you an idea of some of the crazy plants... I can't remember all of the varieties, but I did remember these:  Believe it or not, these are both hydrangeas!

The pink and purple one is called "Twist and Shout" and the pinkish/red one is called "Pinky Winky."  Have you ever seen hydrangeas like those?!?!  Crazy cool.

This is one of the plants that she is putting a bunch of in assorted colors under our wooded area (it's called Astilbe).  Crazy.

Plus, there will be lots of other things, daisies, but not standard daisies.  Some cool ornamental grasses, and more.  I can't wait to show you!

Question of eternal significance: where should I hang my pictures?

In general, Matt and I are very fast unpackers.  We still have some organizing and settling to do, but we were pretty much out of boxes that first weekend.

We haven't hung anything on the walls yet.  Something about, what feels like, the permanence of nails in the walls, and deciding exactly where you want things, has slowed us down.

However, I'm ready to get some things up.  I had to take most of these pictures down when we staged out house to sell back in August/September, so I miss having them up, but I can't decide where to hang them.

Here is about what will be included in my grouping (one or two might go in a different room).  (Excuse the messy quilt rack.  I probably should have cleaned it up a little before taking pictures.)

And here is the gigantic wall that I want to use.  I'm just not sure how.  Center them, put them to one side.  I really don't want them to take up the whole wall- that would be weird.  Should I pick a different place?  What do you think?  (there is a fireplace on the left wall and it opens up to the front door to the right)

How do you display your family pictures?

We finished the end of our first competitive gymnastics season!

Yesterday was the last competitive event for this season for Abby's gymnastics team.  It has been a big year for her.  She has only been doing gymnastics for less than two years total.  Remember, she did dance for 3 years!  What this has done has told us that she loves gymnastics and we made the right decision to switch.  She hasn't wavered all all, and I keep asking to make sure.  :)

Here is the venue for Championships:

This is Abby waiting for her turn to warm up on Beam:

She tied for sixth on Floor.  It was her best event.

Their team took third.

Next up, summer training.  She has practice this summer twice a week for two hours at a time.  It will be a lot of conditioning to get her strong for bars (her trouble area), and in general.  The nice part is it will be in the morning.  Not sure I'll be sitting through all of those.

My life as a gymnastics mom right now.  Leotards, leotards, leotards.  Constantly washing....  :)

Today's new home project: Bathroom windows!

So one of my big projects this week was to do something about the windows in our master bathroom.  We have two semi-circle windows above our tub with horrible, dirty blinds in them.  One of them keeps falling, plus they don't let in any natural light.

Today, I finally figured out how to get the blinds out.   They were screwed in and they had dead bugs behind them and were nasty dirty.  It was really gross.

So, once I got everything clean, I put up a pretty window film after doing a little research.  It looks really pretty, and clean!

It was hard to get a picture where you could see the design AND both windows, so this doesn't really do it justice, BUT... it looks soooo much better!

oh my gosh. we actually moved.

Oh my gosh, you guys!  We finally actually moved!!!

We slept in our new house last night.  Soooo weird.

The move went seamlessly, really.  

Matt and I have both have sore feet today and both woke up really early this morning because we went to bed so early last night-we were so tired.

The girls come home today.  I still have a little more work I want to do in their rooms before they get here to make it a little more "done" before they get here.  

The kitchen is pretty much completely unpacked, except we desperately need to go to the grocery store.  Our bedroom and closet are in good shape.  Today, we'll just plug along.

Our movers were great.  They did it faster than the estimate predicted (local move was charged hourly), and the guys were great.  I recommend them if you move (It was the best $ we've spent).  Their third-party guys were also fabulous and got our washer/dryer and playset all set up.

Here was a little picture I posted on Facebook of some dishes I haven't seen since we listed our house back at Labor Day.  Oh, how I have missed you ramekins and pretty dishes!

Thanks for all your prayers.  Now, we just have to get used to this place. :)

Pass the salt?

So. It's a new day.  As a family, Matt and I tried to hit the "reset" button last night.  We hooked up our new TV (which I'll explain), and watched some movies at home.   Ate dinner in front of the TV.  No iPads, no iPhones, just hanging out.

One of the silly things that has made the last week tough for the girls and I has been that our regular living room television broke.  Nice timing, right?  It's bad, but for us, we unwind and have "movie night" all the time.  So the most stressful event ever (moving) and we haven't had our normal routine OR what we do to unwind and relax.  We haven't been able to watch the morning news while we eat breakfast, and we miss our GMA!  I know it's bad for you, but we've missed our couch time in front of the TV.  I would imagine if it had happened any other time it probably wouldn't have mattered as much, but right now?  When like is crazy.  We needed that normal.

Last night,we finally got the new one kind of hooked up (we're missing one cable for DirecTV -of course it had to be different from the old TV), but we could watch DVDs.  We hit the video store and rented Return to Nim's Island.  By the way, it was horrible.  We loved Nim's Island (Matt and I like it too-for a kid's movie).  The sequel?  It was bad.  Even Abby agreed.

After the girls went to bed, we finally got to see Silver Linings Playbook.  Sooooo good!!!  Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were excellent.  I get why it was so acclaimed at the Oscars now.  Sooo good. Highly recommend.  We loved it.

So, where am I now?  Hopefully not on the verge of a nervous breakdown anymore!  :)

I'm trying to let go of the bad stuff today and roll with the punches.  I'm finding the positive.  If we have to have a new furnace, at least it will be efficient, and clean, and better than the one we have now.   That all said, I'm not sure I can talk about yesterday's bad news anymore.  It sucks even when you are trying to be positive.

I have friends who check in on me and ask me if I need help and I usually say no.  This week, I am in no place to refuse help.  We move on Friday.  It's D-Day.  

Today however, is G-day as in Girl Day.  We have haircuts scheduled and gymnastics and a birthday party.  So, D-Day starts tomorrow.  

Thanks to everyone who checks in on me.  I feel very loved. 

Worms, Tadpoles, and Furnaces

Today was a very, very long day.

It started great.  I joined Lily's preschool class on a field trip.  We went to a local cooperative farm market that is redeveloping a former concrete facility.  It is in the beginning stages of a multi-year plan, and now they are focused on growing worms.  Yes, worms.  Why?  Because worms make the soil fertile for the future.  It is a really neat project.  There is a ton to say about it and I know about 1% of the information, but the kids learned about worms and how to plant a seed.

Here, Lily held a worm.  I couldn't believe it!  She didn't have to, but she did.  She said it tickled.

Their leader, Miss Rosie, also had tadpoles to show them.  They were crazy!  Look how big there were!!

The field trip was very fun.  The bad news is that after that, my day went downhill...

First, the house we are selling as hail damage that was discovered by the inspection.  So, I'm dealing with roofing contractors and insurance adjusters.   The roof guy comes highly recommended by someone I trust (and was very nice), but it's still more to balance.

And, second...

We had an appointment scheduled for furnace/AC cleaning at our new house and they found a TON of problems.  Like a lot.  Like it's a trainwreck.  Our new house has 2 furnaces and 2 AC units.  I don't think the original owners ever did routine maintenance and they weren't very good units to start with.  It's not good.  

I'm in one of the moods where I'm thinking being an adult right now isn't very much fun anymore.  When did I get old enough to have to be this responsible?

Painting at the new house

Last night we painted at the new house.  We aren't done yet, but we got a lot done.  Our list includes:  the girls' rooms, an accent wall in the living room, and the inside of the front door.  The girls each picked their own color and then Matt and I picked the shade.  Abby's room is going to be green and Lily's is going to be purple.

They very much wanted to help paint.  As you can imagine, they could only help so much....but I did get a couple pictures.

We owe our friends Lacie and Lauren big, because I had to leave and get the girls to bed, and they stayed and worked with Matt for 2 more hours.  They finished the first coat in the girls' rooms, and put a first coat on the door!  We decided to go a little crazy and go red.  It's a little homage to when we painted our living room red when we first moved into our first house (the one we're selling right now).

We had the inspection of our current home yesterday, but haven't heard anything yet.  We're hoping it went well.  I think we may get that email today.  Now, just pray we get all packed in time for moving day!