House Update

We are finally getting stuff up on the walls in the house.

The girls helped make some wreaths for their wall, and I paired them some cute prints off of Etsy (which I got for free because of a loooooong shipment delay) and some owl wall decals.

Thought I'd throw in a photo of the girlies in their natural habitat.

I also ordered some amazingly cute prints for the dining room from Etsy.  I added some fabric to embroidery hoops, and now we've got a pretty nice little wall.  The prints say: "I like to mix it up," "Rollin' with my homies," and "Let the beet drop."  I hope by the end of the weekend I'll have the remainder of the upstairs wall art hung, and next week I'll be on the hunt for some more frames for our master bedroom wall art.

Pretty Packages

My fellow blogger and friend, Sassafras Mama, always posts the sweetly wrapped gifts she so lovingly prepares for her loved ones.  Hoping to one day be as cool as her, I decided I should start by trying to wrap my own pretty package.

Okay, truth be told: my friend was bringing her new baby boy over for a visit, and I had a baby yoga book to give her.  I haven't gotten around to buying wrapping paper, so I had to use what was on hand, namely a Trader Joe's sack and some fabric scraps.

I was pretty proud of the results, and Sara was very happy with the book.  Her baby, by the way, is the cutest thing I've ever seen.  He smelled just like a little newborn baby should, made those cute little baby grunts and gurgles, and slept like a champ through all of Auntie Nichole's shenanigans.  He made my ovaries ache!  Lucky for me his mama had lots of stories about hours-long crying binges, acid reflux, and pulling all-nighters.  Ovary ache all gone.

Kittens!!

All I wanted for my birthday (which isn't until April) was two kittens to fill the void left by the loss of Penny and Sheldon.  My sneaky husband actually kept a secret for once and surprised me with these guys:

We named them Watson and Bogart.  We fell in love with them right away.  And then only a few days after they joined us they got gravely ill.  They had distemper, a nasty virus that almost killed them.  They were hospitalized for four days on the verge of death.  I really needed them to pull through after losing two cats in a fire and two other cats due to health problems.  Cats number five and six seemed not long for this world, but despite all the odds against them, they survived.

Oh my, are they sweet.  They are little purring machines.

Deathly ill kitten (which we didn't know at the time) trying to find a warm place to sleep.  Bogart continues to be our little climber and face snuggler.  He also loves coffee.

This photo was taken after the kittens got home from their hospitalization.  Watson (in the front) is much more curious than his brother.

The dogs quickly got used to having new cats around after checking out our new house mates.

Here's to enjoying the last of your nine lives, boys!  We are so happy you decided to fight to come home to us!

We're Home!

Four months in a hotel.  Four months eating mostly food someone else cooked, food that probably came from a box.  Four months of housekeeping coming every day to empty the trash and run the dishwasher.  Four months without the dogs.  Four months since we lost our beloved cats.  Four months since I slept in my own bed.  Four months of driving back to our neighborhood to take the kids to school and do chicken chores.

Four months.

And now, home.  Home.

Even though the entire interior of the house is remodeled, it feels like we never left.  Our family's memories and moments and spirit are still here.  The fire didn't take any of that.  In fact, having a completely remodeled house isn't like putting on a new, ill-fitting, need-to-be-broken-in pair of shoes.  It seems to me that I've slipped right back into my years old Ugg boots that never leave my feet in the winter.  The girls have gone right back to keeping their room as messy as possible.  The bathroom towel still doesn't get hung up after the kids wipe their hands.  The same sunshine greets us in the front window each morning.  I would give up new cupboards and new floors and new furniture to have our cats back, and I hope that someday guilt won't shoot through me when I think of them.  For now, all the bright, shiny newness will be a little tarnished by their loss.

We still don't have anything hung on the walls, and our hurry to unpack has been somewhat derailed by a constant battle with a nasty virus cycling through the family.  I've been down for days and am only now feeling like a human again.  The house is definitely livable, welcoming, and functioning despite its lack of home decor.  So, here's the tour:

First, the kitchen and dining room...I realized after I uploaded these photos that I didn't really take a good picture of the whole kitchen, just parts of it.  I gained quite a bit of counter and cupboard space with our upgrades (which I am LOVING).  The double oven has also been a well worth the money upgrade for me.  We still don't have any curtains for the deck door, but I've just been too sick to go do any shopping.

The living room...The walls are what I'd call Tiffany Blue with just a little extra green.  It is hard to really appreciate the wall color in photos, but it is quite bright and uplifting.  We went for a vintage look in the living room.  We chose vintage-inspired furniture and fabric for the curtains.  A note about all the curtains in the house: Colby made them with (lots of) help from my step mom.

Two of my favorite blonds on our area rug.  Love them!

No more smoke-damaged door!  The door was the last thing they replaced.

We splurged a little on the railing here.  It was worth it.

Jefferson feels right at home, too.

Colby picked out an orange recliner.  It looks so nice.

The upstairs bathroom is pink and gray.  The old bathroom was in desperate need of upgrading, more so than the other rooms in the house.

The kids enjoy having their own room again.

Brody has a football-themed room complete with Chicago Bears curtains made by dad.

The girls' room is in a perpetual state of messy.  Just the way they like it.

The girls now have a sturdy table that can be made bigger to compensate for all their art projects and sewing.  Soren needs lots of room to play school.  

Dade's room seems typical of a teenage boy, pretty low key.

Probably the heaviest piece of furniture we purchased was Dade's dresser.  The thing is a monster.

The master bedroom is nice and cozy.  We bought a faux fire place to hold the television and keep us warm.   The blue color is much more navy blue than the photos show and isn't quite so bright.  We were able to save our bedroom furniture and have it restored after the fire because it was located downstairs (smoke and heat rise).

Colby picked out Star Wars fabric for our curtains.  I got the fancy mattress; he got the Star Wars curtains,

The large walk-in closets Colby built when we originally remodeled our master bedroom a few years ago look really nice with some new shelves and fresh paint.

While we were in Texas, Colby's dad built us some awesome washer/dryer stands in the laundry room.  Now I can shove baskets of dirty laundry underneath and out of the way.  We replaced the bathroom sink/vanity with a large utility sink.  Now I can fill a mop bucket easily, and Colby can stick his whole dirt-covered arm under the faucet instead of just half his hand.

And that's what we've got so far.  I'm excited to get decorations and photos up on the walls.  I'll post photos as we finish.

We're home!

Texas

Before I update everyone on the move back into the house, I want to share some photos from our trip to San Antonio.  We had never been to Texas together, so this was a nice opportunity to enjoy some beautiful weather and time together.

First of all, let's get the bad stuff out of the way...Soren puked at school while we were gone, and Grandpa had to handle it.  Colby got a horrible cold while we were there, and I'm pretty sure it's easier to buy a gun in Texas than buy some medicine with pseudoephedrine.  So, he suffered.

Okay, bad stuff out of the way.  On to the fun!  First, the view from our room:

We had a nice little deck where Colby could smoke his cigars, but there was some sort of vent directly below us which meant that if we wanted to talk to each other while outside we had to yell.  We could see the River Walk, though, so that made up for it.

Our first evening in SA was spent eating supper with the other folks from Colby's office.  After supper, Colby and I headed to the rooftop hot tub.  Not a bad way to relax after a day spent flying.

The next day, Colby had to work.  I got the chance to explore the River Walk on my own.  First, I found a Starbucks right down the street (of course) before heading down to the River Walk with my book and a pastry.  As I sat sipping a latte and reading, a man on the other side of the walk yells, "Good morning, pretty lady!"  Clearly he had me confused with someone else...

After Colby was done working, we hit the River Walk for some lunch.

We followed the Walk all the way to The Alamo.  I was excited to see if Pee Wee Herman's bike really *was* in the basement of the Alamo.  Alas, it was not.  In fact, the Alamo (or what is left of it) is quite small and was a short stop on our sight-seeing adventure for the day.

Alamo yoga :-)  I'm a tree!

And I'm a Dancer!

This monument was right outside the Alamo.

Right across the street from the Alamo is the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum.  Count me IN!!

a chunk of the Berlin Wall

the world's largest tire...used for some type of mining truck

The world's sexiest man next to a replica of the world's tallest man ;-)

 That evening, we went to the Tower of the Americas for supper.  How freaking cool is this place?  The Tower was built in the 1960's for the World's Fair.  It is 750 feet tall, and you can enjoy an amazing view of the Alamo City from a restaurant at the top.

On Friday, Colby had to work again all day.  I was left alone again.  I wandered back to Starbucks.  Then I met up with some other wives to do a little shopping.  Boy, can those ladies shop!  In the evening we pretty much just ate supper and walked the River Walk.  All alone.  No kids.  No responsibility.  Awesome.  We went to bed early.  Awesome.  We slept in a little.  Awesome.

On Saturday, we had the whole day to ourselves.  We hit some local markets, art studios, and a hat maker.  Then, we toured the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum.  They displayed tons of taxidermy of all sorts as well as tons of relics from the Texas Rangers.  It was actually really cool!  The best part?  You could enjoy alcoholic beverages while you walked through the museum.  Boom!

Cutest little jail bird ever

Our last evening in San Antonio was spent enjoying the beautiful weather, good food and drink, and mariachi bands along the River Walk.  We listened to a bit of Battle of the Bands.  We explored.  We sat and chatted.  I was really ready to go home by the time Saturday evening rolled around, but spending time strolling along the river with Colby was absolutely priceless.

I don't think we'll visit San Antonio again anytime soon.  We have bigger plans to head back east.  Colby has been jonesing for a little time in NYC.  We'll see where the wind blows us...