It's Just the Little Things ~

Happy Birthday to our sweet little girl!

2008-11-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe that our "baby" is 3 years old today. I wanted to post a few pictures of her in her birthday glory over the past 3 years!! We are so blessed and lucky to have such a sweet, caring little girl. We love you Lily!!

1st official BIRTH day - 1st night in hospital - November 3, 2005

1st Birthday - November 3, 2006

2nd birthday - November 3, 2007

3rd Birthday - November 3, 2008

It's done!

2008-10-28T13:04:00.000-04:00

I know it has been a little while and I totally got off of my usual Monday updates. I wanted to share a couple of pictures of what has been happening with the house. It is DONE and our settlement will be on Monday! I thought I would do one final update before we are in there for real.

We had our pre-flooring walk-thru a couple of weeks ago. At that point everything was pretty much done except for the floors/carpets. I took a couple of pictures of some things in the inside.

Here is a picture of the kitchen.

The chandelier in the entry way/foyer.

And the matching light in the dining room.

The staircase in the foyer.

And we have grass just starting to bud!!!

And one last picture of the whole house.

We are pretty excited. I was able to meet with an interior designer to help decide color choices for the house. She was wonderful and really gave me some great ideas. We think the colors we chose are going to look great. Now we have exactly 2 weeks from today to get this house packed up and ready to move!

Wish us luck!

I've been sleeping.

2008-10-08T15:28:00.003-04:00

Literally! I was thinking a lot of people might wonder where I have been but then I remembered the only people who really read this are family and message board friends who already know my news. I have been sleeping the last month away because I found out that I am pregnant!! Yes!! Can you believe it?? Exciting times, huh? Yes, sure. I have to say I really, really dislike this beginning part of being pregnant....I am not a good pregnant person. Of course I love the after part with the little, sweet baby and all of that but I just feel sooooo lousy. I know I have to be thankful for this wonderful gift I have been given and just go with it. I am trying, I really am.

Anyway, my life has been a little hectic needless to say. We are doing a lot of last minute things to get ready to move in a little over a month. Things are great with the new house. It is looking fantastic and we are so excited. I hope to do an update sometime this week. Lily continues to go to school two days a week and she is really enjoying it. With all of the craziness in the news we have not had much progress with the selling of our house. We had a few Open Houses and will have another this weekend. We are just doing what we can and praying that we sell it soon. I was gearing up for the Philadelphia Race for Hope on November 2nd. I was training and running so well...then one day I was really, really tired and then I found out why I was having such a hard time running!! I will still be doing the race although this year I think I will opt for walking - I am hoping I am even able to do that!!

So that is a little update about where I have been. I am hoping to get back to posting a little more often but I know it will be few and far between with the move coming up. I certainly will have A LOT to blog about in the spring.....hopefully if I can find some time!!

One of these days....

2008-09-30T14:39:00.001-04:00

I really haven't forgotten about my blog. I just have a couple of things going on right now and haven't had the chance to sit down and do it!! I haven't forgotten about all of my millions of readers out there....I will be back to posting sometime in the near future. Sorry!! Please keep checking back and I will try to get some pictures uploaded and posted sooner than later!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Progress 13

2008-09-21T19:53:00.006-04:00

It has been an exciting week! We got shutters! We were very excited to see them and think they look really nice.

A couple of closer pictures of the shutters.

Then on Sunday we took a drive over and saw that they had done the landscaping. I think it looks pretty nice.

And one final picture from this week. It is on its way to being done! WOW! We can't believe it. The countdown - 43 days! They will probably be seeding our lawn soon. I am also hoping they paint the molding around the windows soon...I have been waiting for that for a while. If you see it on the picture it looks white - it will eventually be a khaki color. Then the outside will be complete.

We have one last walk-thru (Pre-flooring) this Friday. We will get to see the counter tops and pretty much everything else except the floors. That should be exciting. I will get some good pictures of that!

Thanks for checking back!

Fun, quick weekend!

2008-09-21T19:03:00.002-04:00

We had a fun weekend but it seemed to go very quickly. I always look so forward to the time we all have together and it seems in a flash Matt is back to work.

We had an exciting day on Saturday. We went to Sesame Place for the day and got to see a special concert performed by Dan Zanes. It was really great. For those of you who have kids you have probably heard of Dan Zanes. If not, you should check him out. He is a Grammy Award winning singer. He sings music for "families and people of all ages" as they say on his web-site. He was there with his band and they were all really good. I think Matt and I enjoyed them more than Lily and the other kids! Here are a few pictures from the concert.

Dancing with all of the kids!

Getting an up-close look!
It was a good day. We also got to see a couple of other shows and rode the carousel. We plan on going back a few more times before the Sesame Place season ends at the end of October.

Today we had an Open House. It seemed to go pretty well. Not too many people came through but out of the people who did there is some interest. We will see if anything comes of it this week.

So tomorrow it is back to work for Daddy and back to school for Lily. I am hoping we have a good day with no tears! We'll see about that too!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

I was featured!!

2008-09-19T07:31:00.003-04:00

I am excited to say a craft I posted on my blog was featured on Tip Junkie! My first "feature". I am so proud and I know so many of my readers will be too! :)

You can check it out at this Teach Me Thursday link. Scroll down a bit and you will see a link to my altered clock post.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Mushroom Fun for Cousins!

2008-09-16T15:12:00.006-04:00

Huh?? You are probably wondering what that silly title is all about!!

Well, a couple of weekends ago we went to the Mushroom Festival in a little town known as "The Mushroom Capital of the World!" Can you believe it?! My sister happens to live only about 10 minutes from the town so we got to go to the exciting Mushroom Festival. It really was a fun day and the kids especially had a great time. My sister, City Momma/Country Momma, already did a very fun post all about the festival so you can take a look here to see more details about the actual festival. I didn't seem to get many mushroom pictures....just pictures of the cute kids having a BLAST!!

The day started off with a parade that Lily and her cousin loved! It was not the most exciting parade ever but they sure thought it was fun! They loved waving their flags and watching the cool cars go by. And to top it off "Mr. Delaware" was in the parade!! WOO HOO! Not sure what he is all about!! :)

Waving the flags in anticipation of the parade!

Here is a silly picture of a person dressed as a mushroom!

After the parade we went to a little kids stage area where they had some music and dancing. Lily and her cousin had so much fun dancing, twisting, playing instruments, and marching in a little parade. What fun!!

All dressed up for the "parade"!

This lady was having a grand old time dancing right along with the kids! Pretty funny!

And the big finale...the parade!
It really was a fun day. I know some of the pictures are very similar to my sister but I couldn't resist posting them on my blog also.

So, if you are ever in PA and you are looking for something fun to do check out the Mushroom Capital of the World. Also be sure not to miss the Mushroom Festival held annually in September!! I know we will be going back!

Progress 12

2008-09-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

It has been a pretty busy week on the new house. Not too much to show you on the outside but they are making progress. Here is a picture of the driveway that they poured late last week. Notice the lights above the garage! They installed all of the lighting inside and outside the house and it looks fantastic. Matt got a chance to go inside but he didn't have the camera that day! I guess you will just have to wait for those inside pictures for another post.

A closer picture of the garage lights.

If you look closely you can see the lights on either side of the front door. They look really good from the road and sidewalk but when you get up close they are super big lights. We are a little unsure of them but they are staying obviously. I think they will look more in place when the outside is completely done.

And a whole house picture this week. I think it is about the same but they did level out the lot. I am hoping this week they do the shutters and paint the door and moldings. I have been waiting for that for a long time!

Just about a month and a half until settlement day. It is getting exciting! Thanks for looking today and for following me in our house building journey!

Oh what a week....

2008-09-14T17:47:00.002-04:00

It has been a busy week and I think I have been "blog bored". (I don't know if that is a real phrase, I just made it up!) I have been really slacking and I apologize. I hope to get some posts in this week.

We did have a good week with Lily's first week of pre-school. Matt had the weekend off so we have been busy doing some fun things. Yesterday we hung out at Pop-pop's for a while. Lily always has fun at Pop-pop's house. After that we went to Sears and bought our new refrigerator for our new house. That was fun! Today we sort of just hung out, checked up on the progress of our new house and I just got back from grocery shopping alone!! That is always a pleasure to do by myself. I can actually get some shopping done in peace! :)

There has been no action at all on the selling of our house. I am getting discouraged and hoping that things work out. We will be having Open Houses the next two Sunday's. Here's hoping that brings along a potential buyer. This selling market just royally stinks!

I guess that is it for now. I hope everyone out there in Blogland had a nice week and a fun weekend. I will be back tomorrow with a house update.

First Day!

2008-09-08T15:31:00.008-04:00

Lily had her first days of Pre-school yesterday and today! Yesterday was an "ease in" day with the parents and today was the first official drop-off day!! She did great! She cried at the drop-off which didn't make it easy for Mommy but I knew she would do OK. Her teacher called me at about 9:30 a.m. and told me she had calmed down and was playing dolls and tea party with a new little friend. She was doing fine! I was so happy to hear it.

When I went to pick her up she was very happy to see me and very excited to tell me what they did during the day. Her teachers were very pleased with how well all of the children did for their first day. They played on the playground, played trucks and tea party, colored pictures, read 2 stories, had snack time and had music class. It was a busy morning. One of her teachers said she did exceptionally well in music class!! I was so proud! She knew how to play all of the instruments and the teacher even said "Lily could have taught the class!". It made me laugh and feel very good too. Definitely some musical abilities there! Those Music Together classes have really paid off!

We are just so proud of her and can't believe how fast she is growing up. I am sure it will be a fun-filled first year in pre-school with a lot of neat activities! We are looking forward to it!

Here are a few pictures of her on her first day. She was super excited!

And this picture is a picture they colored the first day. The teachers put them in frames and used them to decorate the classroom. Pretty cute!

Thanks for checking in!

Progress 11

2008-09-08T15:07:00.005-04:00

Things are coming along nicely and I am still counting the days on my calendar. 57 to be exact!!

This week was pretty exciting. They finished the walkway and laid the driveway.

Here is the completed walkway to our front door.

I didn't get a picture of the completed driveway but here is a picture of them getting ready to pour it. (Not too exciting!!)

The excitement came when Matt realized Friday afternoon that the back door was unlocked! We all got to go in and see the work they have been doing on the inside. It was pretty neat to see. All of the cabinets are in in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Here are the kitchen cabinets.

The family room and fireplace.

Back staircase in the family room with the railing now!

Front staircase when you walk in the door.

The cabinets in our master bath.

Lily by the fireplace!

Mommy and Lily in the kitchen where the refrigerator will soon be.

Daddy and Lily by the sliding doors in the kitchen.

Front view at the end of the week. I think it pretty much looks the same as last week.

Thanks for looking. As you can see it is getting near the end! We have the painters hired and I am working on choosing colors. I am thinking about packing but don't want to start that until this house can sell. I guess if it gets to be too close in October I am just going to have to start and potential buyers will have to deal with a packed up house!

I had a funny feeling today thinking about how sad I am going to be when we leave our current house. I cannot wait to move but Matt and I both know we are going to be a bit sad. We have so many great memories in our little townhouse!! But it is definitely time to move on and make more memories.

Have a great week everyone!

BEACH!

2008-09-06T08:07:00.000-04:00

I know that summer is officially over and a lot of you are back to work and back to school. A lot of you are probably longing for the beach or the pool! I don't mean to make you sad but I want to take a look back at one of our favorite summer memories of our day at the beach.

We really had the perfect day. The weather was flawless, not a cloud in the sky. Lily was happy and so good the whole day, even without a nap. We are so happy we decided to take the day to go because we all had a great time and the memories will last forever.

Lily LOVED the beach. We weren't sure how she would react to getting a bit dirty but she got used to it right away. She was right in there digging and playing. She had sand from head to toe!

Building our sand castle.

Here she is a little unsure of how messy she is getting!

A walk to the water.

Daddy buried her feet and legs in the sand!!

Running around chasing after Daddy.

After our day at the beach we got cleaned up and headed to the Boardwalk. We rode the carousel and Lily checked out some other little rides.

We had a YUMMY dinner at the famous Mack & Manco pizza on the boardwalk. It was to die for! We felt so bad Lily couldn't enjoy it too (because of her milk allergy) but we weren't going to miss out on it! She didn't mind!

Some pictures of our night on the boardwalk.

Lily got a special treat of some Polish water ice - another yummy boardwalk favorite! She loved it!

My favorite picture of the day.

And fast asleep on the way home.

Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse at our summer day at the beach. Now I sit here typing this on the gloomiest, rainy day and wish I was back there again!! Oh well...there's always next summer.

Happy Weekend everyone!

Progress 10

2008-09-03T14:07:00.000-04:00

I know you waited until WEDNESDAY to see my normal Monday progress post but there really isn't much to report anyway!! Not much has happened on the outside over the last week. They did a lot on the inside but no pictures to show of that unfortunately. They painted the whole house inside. (all painters white - BORING!) They started putting some doors on. The kitchen cabinets have arrived. They are still packed in their boxes in the garage. We are thinking the next step may be to install them and the moldings. We will probably be having a pre-flooring walk-through at some point this month so hopefully I can get some great pictures then.

They also put in the stairs outside leading from the back sliding doors in the kitchen.
We will be putting in a nice big deck at some point but that will probably have to wait at least a year. So for now this is what we have.

They also have started to put in the forms to lay the walk-way to our front door. That was pretty neat to see!

And here is a picture of the entire house. Pretty much looks the same as last week.

The countdown for today is - 61 days!! Getting closer. I really cannot wait!

Thanks for looking today!

Today was a busy day

2008-09-02T20:18:00.002-04:00

Therefore I have no Progress Update for you! Sorry! I promise to try hard tomorrow.

Lily and I headed out early and then I got a call for a showing of our house. I had to come home and straighten up, get the cats out, get out of the house....you know the drill. Anyway, when we got home from that Matt said he would have Daddy duty while I went to the gym to work on my running. I have to keep on top of it. I am getting faster! My first 5K is coming up in just 2 months. Take a look at my older post, I can run, to find out about my running and the upcoming race.) Today I ran the 3.1 miles in the fastest time I have yet - 31:59. I was proud of myself. For any serious runners out there I know it is not that fast but it is a HUGE accomplishment for me. I am looking forward to the run.

Tomorrow we have a "play date" at our good friends house. I am looking forward to that also. I know Lily will have a blast playing with all of her little friends.

Hope everyone had a good day. I hope to be back tomorrow to post a house update!

Progress???

2008-09-01T13:54:00.003-04:00

Nope! Not today!

For all of my regular Monday readers I tricked you didn't I??? For any new readers, I usually post my progress of my house we are building on Mondays. I decided that since today is a holiday I would postpone it until tomorrow. So check back tomorrow to see that!

Just a quick post with a couple of pictures from our day at Pop-pop's house yesterday. We had a nice time. Lily had a lot of fun. She played in the little pool and the water table in the back yard. They were both a big hit.

She has been into posing for pictures lately. She requested to take this on our way out the door. So of course I didn't argue. I think it would have been a better picture if the sun wasn't facing the way it was. There are too many shadows on her face. I still need to do some work on my photography skills! Oh well! That is her best doll Abby she is holding.

Here she is playing in the pool. FUN!

And another time where she was very eager to pose for a picture - I am loving this! She really wanted a picture with Pop-pop. I think it turned out cute!

So it has been a pretty uneventful but nice weekend. Unfortunately Matt had to work a lot and his weekend on-call ended up being VERY busy. Poor guy!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Good luck as all of the kids start Back to School!!!

Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone!

2008-08-30T19:54:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post because Matt is making me feel guilty that I have been "blog slacking".

I hope everyone is enjoying a fun holiday weekend! Ours has not been too eventful. Matt is on-call the whole weekend and his day today was quite hectic. Lily and I got to meet some friends at Peddler's Village (LOVE that place!). We did some rides and had lunch. Of course I made the regular stop at the bakery for some "Electric Bread"!! I got some for you Daddy! :)

We had another showing on our house tonight. There is some interest from one of the couples who came through last week. They are planning on coming back with their parents next week. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

Tomorrow we will be going to Pop-pop's house for some fun in the pool and hamburgers for dinner. I am trying to get in as many summer activities as possible for Lily since it is coming to an end this weekend.

I am finding this last part of August to be a little difficult since it was last year at this time when my Mom starting showing signs that something was not right. September was a bad month last year....I know it is going to be a hard month coming up. I am so thankful that our family has each other. I just miss her so much.

I hope everyone enjoys their final summer days with family and friends!! Get in one last barbecue, one last swim, one last picnic in the park, one last beach day!! Enjoy!

I have been a Blog slacker!

2008-08-28T15:57:00.003-04:00

Sorry all! I just have not had much time to sit down and write anything creative lately. It has been a busy week. We had a little bit of action here on the selling of our house so that is good news. We had two showings on Tuesday so I spent much of my day cleaning and getting all of us out of the house.

I had a wonderful girls night out on Tuesday evening. We just went to dinner and talked and talked. It is always so good getting together with my friends. As I said before, it is like therapy for Moms.

Yesterday Lily and I took a trip to her school to give the Nurse some of the medications she needs in case of any allergic reactions. Lily certainly LOVES going to her school. Just two weeks and she will be officially starting. I don't know how she will be feeling when I drop her off and leave but she has been Miss Social Butterfly with all of the teachers and staff. It will be neat to see how she does. We had "Meet the Teacher" night last week and she loved it. She went running into her classroom in amazement that they had a play kitchen. We got to play a little bit, meet her teacher and other classmates, go to the playground and get her book bag! Exciting. It was all a big hit for her!

Here is a picture of her checking out the kitchen.

And when we got home holding her new schoolbag!
Today we spent the morning at Sesame Place and had such a great time. We saw all the shows, did some rides, had lunch and watched the Parade. Such a fun day!!

So as you can see our week has been busy. Matt is on-call the whole holiday weekend so I am not sure what we will have planned. I hope to have some time to post those Beach Day pictures soon!

Lily is now sound asleep and I got an extra bonus today...Matt is home early so I am off to the gym!! YAY!

Again - I hope you are all enjoying the final days of summer. Just one official summer weekend left!! Have fun everyone!

Progress 9

2008-08-25T15:11:00.004-04:00

House Update!! It is getting close to being done on the outside! They finished up the stone. I think it looks really beautiful. I am so happy with it. The molding above the windows is all up but still needs to be painted - it will be a khaki color. The next step for the outside will be the shutters, paint the molding and then the lights. Also the pillars will be put up for the front porch. There really isn't too much more for the outside. They also worked on leveling out the lot.

In the inside they are working on putting the doors in. We tried to go in this weekend but it is all locked up now. Bummer! :( Matt did some peaking in.....

And he tried to get in through the basement door but that door was locked also!!
Here is a final picture from Sunday! Just 69 more days!! WOO HOO!

Look what we did today!

2008-08-24T17:40:00.004-04:00

HA HA!! (Please excuse the crazy flip-flop tan on my feet! We spend a lot of time at the park)

Another girl-girl activity. This was our first time painting Lily's toes and she LOVED it!! She was very excited and proud. It was fun! Here she is pointing them out!

I hope everyone had a fun summer weekend. We had a BLAST at the beach yesterday. I am planning on doing a post with pictures later in the week. Check back tomorrow for my House Update!!

Just a little more time left....

2008-08-22T16:27:00.008-04:00

Just a short amount of days left and we will be saying goodbye to summer. It really has gone quickly hasn't it?? I am looking forward to the fall but it is always sad to see the summer come to an end.

We have been busy trying to get as many summer activities in as possible. Today we spent the morning at a pool with a couple of friends that I used to teach with. The one little boy was born on the same day as Lily and they will be going to school together in just a couple of weeks. Lily had a lot of fun. Here they are kicking on the side of the pool!! Ha! It was funny when they all lined up to do this. I had to get a picture.

All lined up!

And of course the highlight of any summer day at the pool....THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!! Lily chose a blue Icee pop!! Cool!

Last weekend we had a fun summer day at The Grange Fair. We met our friends and their two little boys. A lot of neat animals and some YUMMY Kettle Corn.

Looking at the goats!

Matt took this picture and we think she looks so pretty in it! OK - maybe we are biased but oh well, here it is!

Petting the bunny.

TRACTORS! Notice Lily sneaking under the rope! She wanted to go on them so badly.

Thankfully they had some tractors the kids could go on. Here they are with the Daddies.

And a final cute picture of the two good friends!! (They will soon be our neighbors also! We are so excited!)

All of these summer activities have been so much fun. It is really neat to see Lily enjoying these types of things more and more as she gets older. Tomorrow we have another exciting day planned - BEACH DAY!! Lily has been talking about going to the beach all summer long and we are finally going to get to go. She is looking forward to it. Her favorite book right now is Beach Day so we have been reading it everyday in anticipation of actually going! I am sure I will have some good pictures to share of our trip!

Go check out some more summer fun at this post on City Momma/Country Momma's blog - Down By the Bay. Really cute pictures of my nephew enjoying the beach and other summer stuff!

Hope everyone has a fun summer weekend!! ENJOY!

She's ALL Girl!!

2008-08-20T15:03:00.004-04:00

Lily is a total girly-girl! I love it. As she gets a little older I can see more and more "girly" qualities emerging! One of her new favorite things to do is "Do make-up". She will sit in the bathroom with me while I do my make-up and take each piece of make-up out of the basket and pretend to put it on. It is our new morning ritual!!

She always is wanting to fill up and carry some sort of bag or purse. She loves to iron with her new ironing board and iron. She picked it out, she wanted it more than anything! She is always concerned with things matching. Today she says "I would like to use the purple cup Mommy, it matches my shirt."

She loves to play with her Baby doll. She is so good at taking care of her. She feeds her. Puts her down for her nap and covers her up. Lately she loves to take her Baby on a picnic. She pushes her in the stroller and pretends to go shopping at the mall.

She loves shopping! Yesterday at the mall she rode the carousel and then came running over to my good friend and me and said "Let's go shopping now!" Too cute.

I love it. I just envision when she is a teenager - shopping at the mall, having lunch, picking out a new outfit or dress for that special dance. These are some of the best memories I have of being with my Mom. I know it sounds silly but really it is. I can't wait to make those memories with her!

It seems she is growing up so quickly! That fun shopping time will be here before we even blink. I don't want it to come too soon though! Tonight we are going to "Meet the Teacher" at her school. SCHOOL!!?? Yes, I said school. I can't believe our baby is starting Pre-school. It should be an interesting adjustment for Lily and Mommy. I am thinking she will be really happy tonight when she gets her very first school bag to fill up and carry!!!

Progress 8

2008-08-18T14:24:00.008-04:00

Exciting changes this past week!! It is looking good. They did the stucco and started the stone. We also have walls inside. Matt was able to go in one day and get some good pictures of the inside. When I went by today they are just finishing up the stone. We met with a painter (for the interior) on Saturday and that went well. We have been busy looking at colors. It really is hard to choose! So much to do!!

Here are the pictures from the progress this week.
A good shot of the side/back of the house so you can see the stucco.

And the other side/front. The molding above the windows will be a darker tan color when painted.

Inside - some walls!! The family room.

In the living room looking into the dining room.

The beginning of the stone.

Earlier in the week.

Friday - the stone is getting there!!

And this was today when they were working. Almost to the top!

So there are the changes for this week. Thanks for checking back to see our progress. We are very excited. Just about 2 1/2 months left!!

If you haven't already had a chance check out my post from Friday about my ALTERED CLOCK project. My sister, CityMomma/Country Momma, says I should submit it to Tip Junkie. I am not really sure what that is or how to do it but I will look into it!!

Have a good week everyone! I hope to be back with some fun posts this week.

Altered Clock

2008-08-15T15:34:00.009-04:00

Here is my simple tutorial of an Altered Clock!!!

Now a lot of you out there in blog land have probably seen something like this before so it may not be something new to you. I had seen them about a year ago somewhere on-line and always thought it would be fun to make. It really is very simple, especially if you are into scrapbooking already. You kind of do the same thing but put it on the face of a clock.

For those of you who have never seen this neat craft idea here is a mini-tutorial on how I did it. I bought an inexpensive clock from Wal-mart that was able to be unscrewed from the back. I took out the hands of the clock and took off the face.

I picked out a scrapbook paper I liked and cut it to fit the face of the clock. I got an extra big clock so it took two pieces of 12 X 12 paper arranged just so. Be sure to cut the hole in the center where the hands will go back through. I picked the bright colors because I am going to use it in Lily's play room in our new house. I am going to go with primary color decorating in that room rather than pastel and pink like her room is going to be.

Then I arranged the pictures and numbers how I wanted them and put them down using my tape runner. You could do anything you wanted - pictures, no pictures just a pretty paper, numbers all around, no numbers, just a 12!! Whatever!! I used chipboard for the numbers and circles that I put them on. I bordered the pictures in ribbon - you can see that in the final picture.

Then you put the hands of the clock back on and put the whole clock back together. I painted the rim of mine red. It was black. (It was my first adventure in spray paint and it went well!! I can see how some of you become addicted!!!)

So there you have it! Pretty simple and I think it turned out pretty cute. The pictures don't do it any justice! It looks much cuter in real life!

I zoomed in on this one a bit so you could see some details a little better.

I hope you enjoyed my little project! Now get out there and go purchase a cheap clock. Now you can take it all apart and make something extra special for yourself!! :)

HAVE FUN!

Fun with Friends!

2008-08-13T16:52:00.005-04:00

Just a quick post today because I have been busy working on my project!! It is coming out pretty cute and I should be able to post about it tomorrow or Friday! Oh! And sorry Daddy - it isn't a patriotic shadow box but I really like your guess!! :)

Lily and I had a fun day today with our friends Kate and Bobby. We are very fortunate to have a lot of friends that have little ones around the same age. We try to get together as much as possible but it is sometimes difficult with all of our different schedules. Today we met up with Kate and her son Bobby. There is a nice playground we like to meet at because it is a half-way point between our two houses. After the playground we headed to the mall for lunch and then to ride the EXCITING rides! It is so cute to see how excited they get from the 50 cent rides! So adorable. Lily and Bobby have been playing together since birth and they have just really started to actually play together. Before this they really just played in the same room but now they are interacting, chasing each other and of course imitating what each other does. It is really neat to see.

Today after swinging and going up and down the stairs and slides Lily insisted on holding Bobby's hand on the way to the cars!

Here they are riding the rides at the mall!

Just so much fun!! We did have a very nice day. Thanks Kate and Bobby! Let's do it again sometime soon!

I am in desperate need of a project!

2008-08-12T15:28:00.003-04:00

I think of myself as a pretty crafty and creative person. I usually have some kind of project going on. Usually it is scrap booking or a stamping project. Right now I have NOTHING! I had to pack up my whole scrap area for the selling of our house. There was just way too much stuff everywhere and I had to remove the clutter. I am so excited to get into my new house and set up a craft area.

For the time being I have been reading blogs of some really crafty and talented people! I am getting some good ideas for future use but nowhere to store anything for now. I am getting bored without a project so today I had an idea. There is a project I have been wanting to do for a while now and I finally have something in mind I can use it for.

This is just going to be a "teaser" post. I am going to keep you guessing so you will have to come back to see what I do. I got just a few of the supplies I will need while we were out today. Here is a picture.

Aren't you proud? My very first can of spray paint!! I am so excited. I know a lot of the readers out there are so proud of me! I can't wait to see how my little crafty idea turns out. I am not making any promises but come on back and see what I come up with!

Progress 7

2008-08-11T15:20:00.000-04:00

Not much happening on the outside of the house this past week again. They finished the first layers before the stucco goes on but still haven't started the stucco.

Here is a picture of how it looked yesterday. Basically the same as it did at the end of last week!

Here is the stone all ready for them to start. We are thinking they may start adding the stone this week.

They did do a lot of work inside. The whole house is now insulated and ready for dry-wall.

Insulation in the garage! Exciting, huh??

A pretty neat picture of our bath tub in the master bath.

Since I have been all about photo comparisons lately I thought it would be cool to see the transformation since May.

Here is the lot in May with just the foundation done.

Here is the beginning of the framing at the end of June.

And then August!! Amazing how fast it all goes.

On a sadder note....it looks like our perspective neighbors are no longer. Apparently it fell through. We are not really sure what that means but we were disappointed to hear it. We were excited because they had young children and we were looking forward to nice neighbors. Right now we are the only house on that side of the development. We are just the beginning of Phase 2 so I am sure in time there will be many more people coming. However we will be living in a construction area for a while!!

Here is a picture of the house that will be up for a "Quick Sale" as the builder calls it. Anyone in the market for a brand new home in Bucks County?? We would love to have some nice, new neighbors!!!

Let's compare......

2008-08-10T15:03:00.003-04:00

It has been a pretty slow weekend here. Matt had to work all weekend since he is on-call. Lily and I did a couple of errands and trips to the park both on Saturday and Sunday before the rain started. No action on the selling of this house at all. I continue to get discouraged when there are no showings but I am trying to remain positive and remember we still have time!

Matt and I have been so proud of our little girl over the past two weeks. She is really growing up. Thinking about it today I started to get sentimental. What happened to that little baby?? It seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and now she is almost 3! WOW!! She is getting so big and behaving so nicely lately. We are proud of her. I was thinking about summers past and thought it would be fun to do a photo comparison.

Summer of 2006

Summer of 2007

Summer 2008
How neat is it to see that?

I know it sounds so cliche and everyone says it but they really do grow up way too fast. Anyway, she is a lot of fun at the age she is now and I am excited to see her grow and learn more everyday. I still miss those baby days though!

I have been struggling for some exciting posts this week and weekend. I hope you liked my photo comparison. I have been venturing out into the "blogosphere" and have found a lot of GREAT decorating blogs. I really can't wait to get into my new house so I can start posting some fun decorating things that I will be doing. I am getting some great ideas! There are a lot of creative people out there in Blogland!

So for now enjoy the rest of your weekend and check back tomorrow for my new house Progress Update!

Have you seen this?

2008-08-08T16:38:00.005-04:00

I think I may have found a new addiction today. I know a lot of my family and friends who read the blog are interested in scrapbooking so I had to show you what I found. Some of you may have heard of it but IT IS COOL! After a frustrating 30 minutes of trying to get it to work I found out how easy it is...and how addicting I think it could be. Check out SCRAPBLOG! And check out this too.

This is what I made today. It is VERY basic because I am running out of free time here during Lily's nap. But isn't it too cute? I think I made it in a total of 3 minutes.

Scrapblog is a very cool site where you can do digital scrapbooking and it is all totally free. They have a huge assortment of background papers and embellishments. You can upload your pictures from your own computer or a site like Photobucket. You can also export your image if you would want to print it to make an album. Also - there is a way you can send links to family and friends in an e-mail for them to view them online. So you could essentially do a whole scrapbook and have family across the country view it on the computer. Pretty neat stuff! You can also view other peoples pages, make comments and they can view yours if you wish!

I am happy with my find today and I think I will be going back again. I still will always be partial to the traditional real paper and tape runner scrapbooking but this is fun when you don't want to get all of your stuff out!! If you check it out I had trouble at first with the display on my computer screen but it was an easy fix.

Check it out and let me know if you make a page! Fun, fun stuff!

We love Hannah!

2008-08-07T06:22:00.000-04:00

My daughter has a new best friend and her name is Hannah! No, she is not an imaginary friend but actually a little girl on the very exciting DVD - The Potty Movie, with Hannah.

Lily has been very resistant to going on the potty so I started to back-off quite a bit over the past months. When August rolled around I started getting a little more concerned that it would never happen before September when she will be starting Pre-school. I still continued to not talk about it too much and just let her initiate the conversation about the potty. One day a couple of weeks ago we were on our weekly trip to the library and we picked out The Potty Movie to watch when we got home. She already had the book but I decided the movie could be cute and maybe even more of an incentive. We brought the movie home and after lunch watched it. It is a very cute little animated movie about how Hannah is a big girl now and thinks she is ready to use the potty. She has her friend Teddy with her to help her along the way. There is also a little rock n' roll type song that they play during the movie. Lily was dancing around and singing! She loved it. We continued to watch the movie throughout the week. Lily knows all of the words and will sing right along. We also have the whole book memorized!

Throughout the week she started wanting to sit on the potty more often. She would read the book and watch the movie while sitting on the potty. One night she finally decided to actually GO on the potty! YAY!! Matt and I jumped around and cheered and she was so excited. Since that day she has been non-stop. She wears her big girl pants all day and goes in the potty! We are so proud! We are certainly not completely potty trained yet but definitely heading in the right direction!

The funniest thing about it all is through all of this she will quote the book/movie. It really cracks me up. She walks around saying these things!

~I am a big girl now. I don't want a wet diaper to get in MY way!
~I am so proud of ME!
~I sit right down and wait a bit. I look inside and then I laugh and clap!
~ I'm off to the potty, I think this time I'm ready

The best was the other night when we went shopping to pick out those special new big girl pants, she says right from the book "It's time to go buy new underwear. Can you guess who gets to choose that very special pair?" It was really, very cute.

So, that has been our excitement for the week. We are very proud of our big girl. She seems to be getting bigger and bigger everyday. In some ways it is great to see her growing and becoming more independent but of course we always think about those baby days and how she is growing WAY TOO FAST!!

Here she is proud with her sticker potty chart - ALL filled out from the week!

Here is a picture of The Potty Movie and The Bye-Bye Diapers Potty Pack! Of course I had to order this with the Hannah doll for Lily since she loves Hannah! I can't wait to get it in the mail. I know she will be excited!

Anyone out there about to embark on the wonderful world of potty training I highly recommend The Potty Movie - with Hannah OR Henry for boys! Hannah or Henry may just become your new best friend too!!

Back In the Game!

2008-08-06T09:15:00.003-04:00

The "Real Estate/House For Sale" game that is. We had over a week of no action on our house for sale and it was getting discouraging. This week we are back in the game. We had a showing Monday, Tuesday and one tonight. There is also the possibility that the woman interested in changing the stairs will work out. The contractor came and we should hear something about that by the end of this week. Fingers, toes and everything still crossed that something works out soon. I keep saying "We still have time!" which I think we do.

So, the blog has been lacking a little bit because I have been spending any free time I have cleaning and getting out of the house for the showings. I hope to have some time later today or tonight to do a few posts. I have a good one ready to write about some really great progress our BIG GIRL has been making!!
Check back to see what it is all about!

Progress 6

2008-08-04T17:01:00.000-04:00

Monday again and here is the update for this past week.

They started the stucco. You can sort of see in this photo although it was darker outside when this was taken. This is the first coat of the stucco so it is sort of gray.

We had our walk thru on Friday and saw all of the electrical done on the inside. Not too much to see in those pictures but here is one taken of the kitchen. If you look around you can see the recessed lights ready in the ceiling and some outlets around in blue.

Something REALLY exciting added. Our front staircase. Still covered up with no railing but you get the idea.

SIDEWALK!!! Woo Hoo!

And here is a picture of it this weekend. The first coat of stucco is done. Where you see the white wrapping is where the stone will be. Maybe we will see the stone by next week?! We hope so!
Check back to see what happens this week!

Furniture Fun weekend!

2008-08-03T16:15:00.008-04:00

What a great weekend we had together. Matt didn't have to work at the hospital so that was absolutely wonderful. He did play a gig last night but that was later so we were home for the night anyway. We were very busy the whole weekend and we got a lot done. Unfortunately we weren't busy cleaning this house for any showings. Still none. It has been a week. I am not getting worried yet because I know August is a busy vacation month. I am hoping all of the people interested in our house are at the shore and there will be a bite soon!!

So, back to the fun stuff. We decided to get some furniture shopping done this weekend since we had our days free. We first went to a model home that is the same model that we will be getting to get some exact measurements. It is really a treat when we go here because Lily thinks it is the coolest thing to be able to walk around this house. She was a good girl and helped us measure things with the tape measure. (I have to include pictures because Matt says the posts are so much better with pictures....too bad he isn't commenting on any of them!)

Notice Lily measuring in the bottom right corner!

Helping Daddy in the kitchen

OK - now of course we tell her not to climb on the furniture and not to touch anything in the very decorated house. She listened pretty well yesterday. However, she is still a 2 year old and doesn't listen to everything we say!! HA HA! I had to snap her picture when I saw her doing this....she got down right away, don't worry.

After the measurements and a stop for lunch we headed to Raymour and Flanigan. We had a very helpful salesman and found all of the furniture that we want for our family room. Because of the layout of the room we are going to go with a sofa, love seat and an accent chair. We also liked a coffee table and sofa table from this store. Here is a picture of the sofa and the love seat. The pictures are kind of blah but they are really nice. The color is called "olive" but it really isn't that green. It is very neutral when you see it in person. I think it looks very green in the photos.

Very comfy too. We also picked out an accent chair in a floral pattern. It is red and neutral tones as well. It is more of a country feel because that is the kind of decorating I like. I was surprised Matt agreed to it but he actually liked it a lot. Here is the pattern but not this chair.
I want RED as an accent color in my downstairs decorating. I may even paint a wall red in our dining room. Not sure of that yet. I am planning on using some of the photographs Matt has taken (red barn, red, white and blue flag) for the family room also. I want it to have a cozy, country feel but not over the top country! More to come on that.

On to the DINING ROOM. Today we went to a local furniture store near us called Gamburg's. We found our dining room set that we really love and an entertainment center for the family room.
First the Entertainment Center. This was taken in the store.

And back to the dining room....here is the Hutch/Buffet whatever you want to call it!
Also - those friends/readers that I had asked about the Credenza in the brown wood - We found out it DOES come in black so I am super excited. I think it would have looked good in either wood but I am happy with the black. Here are a couple of other pictures of the dining room furniture.

The table.
The bottom of the Hutch.

And the Wine Credenza which will also be in black.
This whole dining room set is really pretty and BIG so I think it will look very nice in that room. I am super excited. Now we have to plan a dinner party!!

OK - so if you got this far I am sure I bored a bunch of you with all of my furniture talk. I am just excited about it and wanted to share. I know there are some of you out there that will be excited to see it!! :)

Much more to come on the decorating of the new house! So much fun! Thanks for looking!

August already?

2008-08-01T17:41:00.006-04:00

Hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the summer. August! Wow! Can you believe it? It always seems that once the 4th of July passes the summer just flies on by. In some ways we are all excited to see the summer end so that fall can come and we can move into our new house. Other days it is sad to see the long, warm days end. The end of summer also means we are one step closer to Lily's 3rd birthday. We can't believe that she will 3 already. As Matt said the other night, "It's just not right!". :) Time just goes so quickly.

This week has been an eventful one in some ways and uneventful in others. Unfortunately we have not had any showings this week so no progress with that. The contractor did come in to look at the spiral staircase for one possible buyer but no word on that yet. We will probably hear more about that next week.

We had our pre dry wall walk thru today and that went well. It was really neat to see all of the electrical wiring done already. They will start doing the dry wall later next week. It has gone so quickly. Stay tuned for Monday's post with pics of the progress from the past week.

On an exciting note, our very stubborn and determined little girl decided this week she was ready to start to go on the potty. Now, we are by NO MEANS potty trained but it is progress. Until this week she was in tears with the words "potty" or "big girl pants" so things are definitely moving in the right direction. She has gone a number of times and continues to show a lot of interest. YAY!! Our big girl is growing up!

So, as August begins I hope everyone savors the last precious moments of summer and gets ready for the cooler fall days ahead. I know we are excited to see the changing of the leaves in our new backyard and to buy a pumpkin for our front step. But...we won't rush things yet. Still more time for the pool and the beach! ENJOY!

Girls Night Out Therapy Session

2008-07-30T22:00:00.001-04:00

So, all of you girls out there and Moms and stay-at-home-Moms know what I am talking about when I say how wonderful a night out with the girls can be. It is like a little therapy session and a rejuvenating for your soul!!

I was fortunate to have a night out with my best girl friends last night. I have a great group of girl friends. There are 5 of us total. We are all Mommies to children ranging from ages 5 years -6 weeks. We really have a lot in common. We have been friends for a while now and we cherish the times we get to see each other with kids and also without!!

So what is so special about a Girls Night Out you might ask?! Or like Matt, you might say "What did you talk about all night!?" OK - here are a few things I think the 5 of us would agree are reasons why a night out with the girls is much needed and enjoyable!

~ We get to get dressed and ready to go somewhere special. Even if it is just to a casual restaurant or to someones house it is so much different than the park, a play date, or errands. We get to make ourselves feel pretty for once!! :)

~ Traveling without a diaper bag or tons of stuff in tow. No extra sippy cups, toys, crayons for coloring at the restaurant...you get the idea.

~ We get to enjoy a meal in PEACE!! No having to cut up food before eating our own. No whining toddler chanting "get down? get down?". No mess to clean up afterwards! Just ourselves to worry about!

~ We have wonderful conversation and catch up on what we have all been up to. What do we talk about - well, just about everything. Family, kids, friends, vacations, decorating, babies, having more babies, kids activities, kids going to school, potty training...I could go on and on!

~ Just some time away from everyday life! (No offense Husbands - we love you dearly - you know what we mean!!)

~On occasion we get to act silly and maybe just harmlessly flirt a little with the cute foreign waiter at The Cheesecake Factory. :) HA HA!

Last night was a fun night out although our one dear friend was unable to make it. Guess we will be having to plan another night out soon?? We even got to venture to TWO different restaurants last night because the power went off in the first and we REALLY needed dessert!!

Here is the 4 of us at restaurant #1

And our second stop at The Cheesecake Factory. We had a really nice waiter here that was very eloquently describing the flavor of a particular raspberry cheesecake....we all liked him a lot! :)

S0, there is nothing quite like a Girls Night Out and most importantly - nothing like friends like you girls!! I had a great night last night. You girls are the best!! Can't wait until next time.

Sesame Place Fun!

2008-07-29T16:37:00.010-04:00

We are very fortunate to live only about 30 minutes away from a really great place called Sesame Place. It is a theme park geared towards children, based on the beloved television show Sesame Street. The park opened in 1980 and since then our family has had many great memories of the park. Growing up I can remember the summer it opened running around chanting with our cousins "Let's go to Sesame Place, Let's go to Sesame Place!!". Of course our fun parents took us there and we thought it was the coolest thing. Then, when my sister turned 16 she started working there, in the Operations department. What could be cooler than that!!?? Finally, when I turned 16 I got a job there as well. I started out working in the "Ops" department which was where you worked the rides in the dry area and at the top of the water slides. The following summer I auditioned to be a dancer and got the job! I was so excited. I danced as many of the characters in the shows and also became a Dance Captain and then Supervisor. I worked there a total of 8 years! It was really the greatest place to have a summer job. You made so many wonderful friends and there were always fun events planned for the employees after hours. I have so many great memories of summers working there!

So, of course times change and now the wonderful memories I make at Sesame Place are with my daughter. Lily and I have season passes and we try to get there about once every other week or so. She absolutely loves it and it is a special treat for her to go. We took a trip today since we finally had a free day. I thought I would share some pictures of our trips there from over the past couple of months.

Here we are today! One of her favorite things at the park is Big Bird's Nest. It is just a soft area with lots of soft blocks for the little kids to run around in. She loves it!

Another favorite thing for Lily is the characters. She really loves them. I was very surprised last summer when she went right up to them and hugged them! Here she is today with my absolute favorite, The Count! (I spent most of my hot summer days dancing as him!!)

A hug for Zoe. This pictures was taken in May when we were there for the big opening day for season pass holders.

Riding the Sunny Day Carousel. This picture was taken on a weekend in June when Matt got to come with us!

Lily loves the shows and the parade ~
Dancing at the show!

Waving at the parade!

Pop-pop came with us for the opening day in May!

And finally, they often have special events scheduled throughout the summer and fall. Here we got to meet Bob McGrath from Sesame Street. He did a mini concert and signed CDs. It was really neat and now Lily has an infatuation for Bob. We listen to his CD ALL - THE - TIME!!

So you can see we have many fond memories from this park!! It is so neat to remember the old times working there but now to see it through a child's eyes...it really is a special thing!

Progress 5

2008-07-28T07:58:00.004-04:00

It has been an exciting week for the new house progress. As you may have read in an earlier post we have a finalized settlement date of November 3rd! We also scheduled our "Pre Dry-wall walk-thru" which will take place this Friday! They have been working very hard on the inside of the house in addition to the outside. During the walk-thru we look at all of the electrical wiring and stuff like that. Not really what I am interested in but of course I will be there! Matt is in charge of that stuff! We are excited for it and hopefully will get some neat pictures.

This week they wrapped the house to prepare for the stucco and stone to be done. If you notice on the pictures, pretty much everywhere you see the wrap is where there will be stucco and where you still see the wood will be stone. Exciting! All of the pictures were taken during the day while they were working.

The scaffolding is set-up all around the house for them to start the stucco.

It seems like the outside will really have a lot of work done on it this week. That will be really neat to see.
Matt and I just can't believe that in about 3 months we will be living here! WOW! It is so exciting and we just can't wait!!!!

Quick weekend update

2008-07-27T19:45:00.002-04:00

I know, I know, I have been very bad about updating this weekend. It has just been so hectic.
Matt finally had a weekend off. It was sooo nice to have him home. We had a nice weekend.

Friday night we had both of our Dads over for dinner. Grandpa and Pop-pop! Lily had a ball as she always does when she sees either of them! We grilled burgers and dogs and had corn! It was quite yummy!

Saturday we spent cleaning up a bit for a showing and then we headed to the pool. Lily had fun at the pool as usual. We also celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! YES! 11 years! Can you believe it? We had a fun day all together and after Lily went to bed we ordered some Olive Garden in and enjoyed a quiet dinner.

Sunday we took a look at some more furniture stores and then got ready for a showing again. The furniture shopping was fun but deciding how to furnish our new house is an overwhelming task. I just don't know what to pick. We do have some good ideas though. I plan to have many more decorating posts in the near future!

So a total of 5 showings over the past 3 days. No news on anything yet but we are hoping this week may bring some good news. We will see.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a NEW house update!!

House selling update/New house update!

2008-07-24T15:17:00.003-04:00

This week has definitely proven to be more successful in the house showing department than last week. Last week was a total bust with Thursday, Friday and Saturday all being no-shows. Boy was I mad! No phone calls to cancel or anything. Anyway, this week we have had 5 showings and 2 more tomorrow. Out of those 5 so far this week there are at least 2 people very interested. Our realtor said we should be very happy that we have had so much interest. There are many homes out there that no-one is even interested in seeing. We are thrilled. It seems that something is going to work out sooner than later. All of the feedback has been completely positive so we must just keep doing what we are doing.

And some VERY exciting news - we found out our "Official Settlement Date" for our new home. It will be November 3rd!! That just happens to be Lily's 3rd birthday. I wasn't too sure at first but I decided we can make it really special. I think we will go to the house that night and have a "picnic" (we won't have furniture in there yet) and cupcakes to sing Happy Birthday. I also want to plan to have a special new toy in her very own playroom!! She is soooo excited about her own playroom so I think this will be extra special for her. What a great birthday present, huh?? A brand new house with a PLAYROOM!!!

This one's for you Daddy!

2008-07-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

I really should say this is for Daddy and Caren!

CORN! My family has always had an obsession with it. Really, growing up my Dad is the one who always had the obsession. However, my sister has recently taken a liking to a certain Amish man near her town. Check out her blog. This is a funny letter to the Amish man from her blog. You can also read other letters and a whole post with some info about the Amish culture!

Anyway - I can vividly remember every summer our Dad counting down the days until the "good corn" was ready. Now, not just corn but corn-on-the-cob of course. Corn with lots of butter, salt and pepper! We would eat it literally every night with whatever dinner was that evening. My Dad would eat a record number of ears at every meal. I am talking like 5, 6, 7 and sometimes 8! It was always just a thing in our house. Until this day we all still have a passion for corn on the cob in the summer - but really who doesn't!!??

Today while Lily and I were on an adventure driving with the cats we stopped at a local stand near our new house. We purchased some corn for our dinner tonight. I decided to make it something fun for Lily. We brought the corn home and took it outside to husk it and then in to wash it. She was very excited about the project.

Here she is attempting to husk the corn. Look at the way she will barely touch it and check out the disgusted face in the 2nd picture! My little girly-girl didn't want to get her hands dirty I guess! She said "Mommy you do it!".

OK! So Mommy husked it while Lily watched and now it is OK to touch it!

Washing it up. This was the most exciting part. She loves to do anything in the kitchen that involves cooking and standing on the chair to reach the sink or counter!
Our corn is all washed and ready to be cooked for dinner tonight. NO - it isn't "Amish man" corn Caren. I am very sorry. Please don't tell him. This is just corn from NJ so we will see how it is. I will let you know!
So our little project of husking and getting the corn ready proved to be fun and eventful for Lily! Long live the corn on the cob tradition in our silly family!

I got up at 5:40 AM today.....

2008-07-22T14:33:00.003-04:00

....to get ready for another showing! They called yesterday and asked for 9:30-10:30. I know it may sound early to some but it is actually a perfect time for me. It all worked out great and the people showed up!! (We have been having issues with agents calling for appointments and then not showing up) I was able to wake up at the crack of dawn and get all of the last minute cleaning done while Lily was still sleeping. I scrubbed both bathrooms, straightened, removed litter boxes, got rid of any excess cat hair, cleaned the floors, wiped the kitchen counters, etc. etc. you get the idea! Then when Lily woke up at 8 I was ready to give her breakfast, vacuum, get the cats in the car and finally head out!! FUN!! Take a look at this.....
This has been my life for the last month!
Don't you just love it??!! (I can't believe I actually posted that here!) Please, if anyone you know is in the market for a home and looks at our house, don't tell them I have them! No, seriously our house is looking in tip-top shape and you would NEVER know 4 cats live there. I am proud of all of my hard work. I don't love it but I don't mind doing it if the darn people show up for the showing. Let's hope it continues and maybe St. Joesph and my "sign" of the butterfly could start working soon?? Please!!

I keep saying it will all be worth it in the end! If you haven't already, check out the post from yesterday with our new house update. All this hard work will be worth it!

We have another showing scheduled tonight. At least all of the cleaning is done and all I have to do is get all 5 "kids" in the car and head out!! Busy day!

Progress 4

2008-07-21T15:48:00.000-04:00

WOW!! They really did a lot in the last week! I have 9 pictures to share because there are some really great changes!

First of all on Monday we had WINDOWS!!! Awesome! I was there during the afternoon so the men were still working.

Here is a view of the back of the house windows. They put them all in except for the one above the fireplace in the family room. Not sure why.

So that was Monday. No action on Tuesday or Wednesday. I got there Thursday afternoon and they had done all of this in one day. They set-up the roof to be started and completed the whole back of the house roof. Here is the front view.

And the back is done!

On Saturday we went together and the whole roof was done! We were so excited. We went inside and took some pictures with Lily.

Another view of the family room now with the windows. They put in the fireplace.

Lily and Daddy in Lily's room!

Lily and Mommy in our master bath.

And finally Lily in front of the fireplace. Remember the one of Lily IN the fireplace from the first Progress update??

Some pretty exciting changes! Next step is to start all of the electrical inside. They will also soon start the outside facade - stone and stucco. That will be so neat to see!

Thanks for looking! More to come!

Do you believe in signs?

2008-07-20T16:11:00.003-04:00

"SIGNS" - like signs from heaven? I do and I have a pretty cool story to share. I think Daddy and Caren will appreciate this one. I think they believe in this kind of stuff too!

As you read in the previous post about my running, my Mom passed away in December. I know she is here watching over us, protecting us and especially seeing all that her grandchildren are doing. At least I WANT to really believe this. I feel like I am always searching for something that will help me feel this even stronger. Well the other day I had a sign and I just felt it was from her. The feeling that came over me was actually pretty freaky.

It was Friday. Lily and I were about to get in the car to drive around with the kitty cats. We had a showing of our house scheduled and I had cleaned and scrubbed all morning. I got the last cat in the car and rushed in to get Lily. She stood up and said "Look Mommy a butterfly!" I looked out on my deck and there was a beautiful yellow and black monarch butterfly flying all around my flower box. I have NEVER seen one there before in the 10 years that we have been living here. I just got this feeling inside and I KNEW it was my Mom...I just felt it. I said to Lily "It's a sign, it's a sign from Grammy". It just kept flying around and around. It did not go away. Lily and I watched it for a while and I managed to get a picture with my tiny camera. (I was bummed I didn't have my good Nikon - it was in the car.) Anyway I was so glad I got the photo.

It was the most beautiful butterfly I have ever seen. Like I said before, a feeling just came over me. Of course I started crying. I thought -- this is the sign that this showing is going to be the one. I got very sad when I got home and realized that the people didn't even show up for the darn showing! I was so mad. BUT - I still believe that it was a sign. A sign that things are OK and that it is all going to work out for us. And especially that Mommy is safe and watching over us - everything is going to be OK for all of us.

I did some reading on the internet about signs from heaven. Of course one of the big ones is butterflies.

So that is my story. I don't usually pay too much attention to stuff like this but there was something special about this butterfly....something REALLY special.

I CAN run!

2008-07-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

In February I decided I wanted to start running. I was encouraged by my sister Caren to start, and also by this - The Brain Tumor Society/Race for Hope.
As many of you know my Mother passed away on December 3, 2007 from a brain tumor. When Caren told me about this fund raiser I was motivated and inspired to do this for my Mom. She was the most amazing women you could ever meet. She was kind, generous, caring, selfless, funny, an amazing Mommy, Wife and Grammy. I could go on and on. She was just so special to all of us and she was taken away from us too soon. I want to do this for her....I know she is looking down on us and guiding us everyday.

Now, I definitely consider myself to be in good shape. I workout regularly doing aerobics and weight training. I never thought I could run. I always thought it was too hard and I didn't have the stamina to do it. So one day in February I was at the gym and just got on the treadmill and started running. I ran 3 miles! I paced myself and realized I CAN run. I just needed to have the right frame of mind and be determined that I can do it.

I try to get to the gym about 4 times a week. Some days I do an aerobics/weights class, some days I run and some days, if I have time, I do both. I really love working out. It makes me feel good and it is something I really look forward to doing - it is just my time alone to do something for myself.

When I am working on my running I think about my Mom and how I know she is proud of me. I am doing this for her and for all that she did for ME.

The Race for Hope is in Philadelphia on November 2, 2oo8 and I will be running the 5K race in honor and memory of my Mother, Joyce.

More interest!

2008-07-17T07:43:00.002-04:00

I am very excited this morning! We got an e-mail from our realtor saying that the person who saw the house yesterday is also VERY interested. It is sooo great to know there are people out there that are interested. It makes all of my hard work worth it! Haven't heard anything yet this week about the other woman interested. I will keep everyone posted.
Another showing today at 1:30-2:30! Lily and I are off to our weekly music class and then quickly home to clean up. At least things are still looking pretty squeaky clean from yesterday!

Have a great day everyone and keep crossing those fingers for us!!

My Favorite Things - Part 2

2008-07-16T15:22:00.005-04:00

Things on the blog may be a little slow this week due to A LOT of house showings. We had one on Monday, one today and there will be one tomorrow. I have been doing a lot of cleaning AND a lot of driving with kitty cats in the back of the SUV. I finally have a chance to sit down and blog for all of my readers! (SO many that I have!)

Another segment in the Favorite Things posts. Today I will tell you about a favorite hobby of mine - scrapbooking!! I started scrapbooking right after our honeymoon 11 years ago and since then I have completed dozens of albums. I really love it. It is such a nice way to take your memories and make them extra special. Unfortunately I have not had much time to scrap lately since I had to pack up all of my stuff to declutter the house! That is one thing that is fun about scrapbooking - all of the STUFF that goes along with it and shopping for all of that stuff! There are so many cool products out there for scrapping - fancy papers, stickers, ribbon, letters, scissors...etc etc!

Last February I had the chance to go on my first "Crop Weekend". It was a blast. A crop is where a bunch of people get together with all of their stuff and just scrap and talk. I went on a weekend away with my fun sister, Caren. We had a blast! We stayed at a retreat center where they had one huge room for us to crop. They provided us with lodging (kind of like a hotel) and 3 meals a day. We got a lot of scrapping done but also laughed a lot and were very silly. I am so excited to do it again this coming winter. Caren and I have decided to make it an annual get-away/Sister weekend. No - it isn't some fancy resort or a Caribbean cruise but we love to scrap and we had a ball!

Here are some pictures from that weekend back in February

A picture of the room where we spent our time scrapping

Caren and Jen - she is a friend of Caren who told us about this fun weekend!

Me working on my pages

OK - this is the cart with all of our STUFF on it! I told you it was a lot!

And finally - one of the scrapping Sisters!

So there you have it! A little about my favorite hobby - Scrapbooking! If you haven't already tried it, take a look at your local Michael's or AC Moore for all of the great products they have there to preserve your memories! Once you start you will become addicted! I promise!!

Progress 3

2008-07-14T09:15:00.004-04:00

Since it is Monday I will do a quick post with this past weeks progress of the house! It is going well and looking so great!!

FRONT VIEW. All framed and ready for the next step - windows and roof shingles!

Cool view of our soon-to-be front porch

Stairs going down to the basement

Back staircase in the family room. The main stairs in the foyer are not up yet but we were so excited to see these stairs. WOW!! It was incredible to see the upstairs!

View from the top of the back stairs - looking into the family room.

And a view of our bathtub in our master bath!! YAY!!
Stay tuned for more and more updates!! Thanks for looking!

Today is a special day!

2008-07-14T07:46:00.019-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY/MATT!!

Today is Matt's 35th birthday! We wanted to make a special post in tribute to the wonderful husband and Daddy that he is! He is the most amazing and thoughtful man in the world. He works so hard for us. He is always there for us when we need him. He is the BEST Daddy to Lily and always comes home to play with her and do special things with her.

So, Matt-Daddy ~ Thank you for everything that you do for us!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Our day is rather busy with Matt working of course and a house showing this evening so I am busy cleaning once again. Needless to say there won't be too much celebrating today. We did celebrate last night though. Lily and I made a special "Lily safe" cake for him while he was at his basketball game. We had a little party and sang Happy Birthday after dinner. Lily LOVED it! She was running around hugging Daddy saying "It's your birthday Daddy!!" So cute. She was really excited over it!
Here are some pictures of last night.

Mixing up the cake

Taste test of the icing

Singing "Happy Birthday"!

Eating cake!! YUM!! This is Lily safe - for those who don't know, Lily has a milk allergy so it is hard to find yummy kinds of treats that are safe for her!!

And finally a kiss from the birthday boy!!

It was a fun night. Daddy - we hope you are having a happy birthday!! See you tonight!

Do YOU like spiral staircases?

2008-07-12T16:06:00.006-04:00

Well, the second showing of our townhouse proved to be pretty successful. The woman interested has 16 homes she is looking at and ours is her #1! WOO HOO! The only drawback is that she is a 72 year old woman and she is unsure of the spiral staircase. It is definitely understandable but Matt and I just had to laugh. The spiral staircase was the one big thing we thought we had going for us!! It is really different and gives the place character.

Don't you think??

Anyway, she is contemplating having regular stairs put in. We are actually surprised that she loves our place so much. I mean it IS a really nice place but it doesn't seem like the type of home an older person would be looking for. We would be happy to have her buy it though even though it would be sad to think of the spiral stairs going bye, bye!! Oh well! She is also from out of town so fine with the fact that she wouldn't be able to move in until November.

It seems like things may just be falling into place for us. STILL - I am not getting my hopes up just yet! More updates to follow.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Second showing everyone!!

2008-07-11T07:58:00.002-04:00

OK everyone out there ----

Cross your fingers and toes and say some prayers!! Today there will be a second showing on our townhouse. A woman that came through the other day is VERY interested and wants to see it again! I am really excited. I am trying very hard not to get my hopes up for them to be shattered if it doesn't work out. But it is hard.

More updates to come on this BIG thing in our lives! I am off to clean and purchase a St. Joseph! (if you are confused by that check this out!! Bury a St. Joseph)

ONE of the reasons we need a bigger house....

2008-07-10T16:22:00.005-04:00

In November we will be moving to our much bigger, brand new house. We have been in our current townhouse since April of 1999. It has been a great place to live. We started here as a newly married couple with one little gray kitty cat. Our first house together as a family. Then our family grew and we adopted 3 more cute kitty cats. Then in 2005 we had the introduction of our newest family member, Lily. Even before Lily was born we knew we soon needed to move to something bigger. We knew that we wouldn't be able to move to our dream house until Matt was completely finished his Fellowship and secure in a new job. So, that time has come and we are ready! Until this time we had to do what we could with the space that we had. I think we did a great job and we are all very happy in this small little townhouse but ready for some more space.

Here is an example
Yes!! That is our daughter getting a bath in a blow up tub in our shower stall. HA HA!!
You see we DO have two bathrooms but the other is used to house litter boxes for the 4 crazy cats we have in this house!! The bath tub in that bathroom is the only place for the litter boxes so they will be out of the way and not make too much of a mess.

Lily got a bath in the baby tub in the kitchen sink until she was about 18 months old. Then I came up with this genius idea and it has worked!! She really does fit and I think she will just be about ready to grow out of it by November!! We are super excited because Lily will have her very own bathroom attached to her bedroom at our new house! I have already started thinking about how I will decorate it!! I want it to be special for her. (You will see that in a future post! I hope to have many more decorating posts when I finally have a house to decorate!)

Here are a few more pictures of her in her bathtub! I couldn't resist because she posed and smiled so nicely.

And a final one of her playing in her bath! See...she really can play and have fun in this bath!

Today I will leave you with two pictures of our cute little townhouse. It really has been home for us over these past several years. We have so many great memories here. The best memory being the second picture ~ the day we brought Lily home. We are ready though...to close this chapter and move on to bigger and better things!! :)

These are a few of My Favorite Things

2008-07-09T16:38:00.011-04:00

So I am sitting here at my computer and trying to think of something clever, fun and creative to blog about. What DO you blog about when you can't think of anything?? I decided I would do a My Favorite Things segment when I am at a loss! I will tell you some things that I love and then you can comment back with your favorite things!! (hint, hint...can you see I am fishing for some comments from all of you who are reading and not commenting!???!)

Today will be some favorite foods.

I am definitely not a food connoisseur. Those who know me well know that I am a plain and simple kind of eater. I really do not care for fancy elegant dining or gourmet types of food. If I eat out it will most likely be something plain or many things on the side. No sauces (except barbecue) or cheese for me. I know - you are all probably saying "how boring!". But that is just how I am. I do however really love to eat and I have some fun, simple favorites that you can just never go wrong with!!

1st - chicken fingers or just plain old chicken

When I go out to a casual restaurant most likely I will order some type of chicken - either chicken fingers or a grilled chicken sandwich - plain!! (Can you please remove the lettuce and tomato on the one pictured above??)

But you have to have them with my next favorite....

FRENCH FRIES! Yum! They are the best any way you get them!

Another favorite is pizza!

Those are probably my top meal time foods - pretty exciting, huh? But, you can't have them without some dessert. I will take either CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - (hot and fresh out of the oven are the best) or BROWNIES!! Who could go wrong with either of these??
(No nuts in either of these please, just plain!!)

So there you have it, my favorite foods. I know a lot of you are probably thinking I am the oddest, most boring person - really I'm not! These are just the things I love to eat. I really do TRY new things I just don't like them. I'm not really sure why. I just have simple taste buds I guess!!??

Thanks for reading my first installment of My Favorite Things.
So, what are some other favorite foods out there??!

How my day started off.....

2008-07-08T15:54:00.006-04:00

Today I saw once again how very true the title to my blog is.

I woke up early to get showered and have a quiet breakfast. Lily woke up at about 8:15 and immediately started singing "Your face, your face, no one has your face" in her crib. (This is from her favorite "Bob" CD.) I went in to get her and told her we needed to take a little walk to mail a letter at the mailbox. (hey Caren - it was the check for our scrapbooking weekend! YAY!)

So, Lily was VERY excited to get dressed and take our walk. The mailboxes are just around the corner from our townhouse, it is about a 2 minute walk. We got her dressed and set out to go. Lily carried the letter. She held my hand the whole way. The whole time she was saying "this is fun walking to the mailbox Mommy". We got to the mailbox, she put the letter in the slot and we walked back. Walking back holding my hand she looked up at me and said "Mommy.....I love you". Could you just melt? I could, especially with that sweet face looking up at me. We got back to the house and she kept repeating how much fun she had walking to the mailbox...just the simplest, silliest thing was so important and FUN to her! I love it!

Later after breakfast we decided to go outside and water the flowers. Another simple everyday task that is so exciting for our little 2 1/2 year old. I watched her as she watered and marveled in the excitement of holding the watering can!!! :)

After our watering we headed back inside to eat lunch and head to the pool. I thought about what a great day it was so far and reminded myself that I have to remember these little things when I am having a not so great day. They are really what life is all about and I am taking in every precious moment with this little girl because she is oh so quickly becoming a BIG girl!!

Tonight we will be heading to Rita's to meet some very good friends for some water ice. Ahhhh water ice, another "little thing" that makes Lily so happy! We also worked on a little project to send to a very special Cousin/Nephew. Tomorrow we will have to make another trip to the mailbox to mail our letter!!

Progress 2

2008-07-07T15:26:00.000-04:00

I figured I will try to do a weekly post on the house progress on Monday's. They work all week and on weekends also. They didn't work this weekend though because of the holiday. The pictures below are the progress as of Thursday, July 3rd. Matt will be taking a drive there on his way home from work today to see what they have done today. It is getting so exciting now that it is actually a real house on the lot and not just a dug out hole in the ground!!

FRONT
BACK
It looks like the framing should be complete by early this week and then the roof shingles will go on and the windows will go in! It is taking shape!!

We went out this weekend and starting looking at furniture to furnish this large house!! It was fun but overwhelming at the same time. We had great luck at Mealey's and Gamburg's in Hatboro. The new Mealey's in Warminster is VERY nice if anyone is in the need for new furniture. They had a very nice selection. While you are browsing/shopping they even have "cars" that the kids can ride in (like a car shaped stroller) and a play area! It was a hit with us. It looks like we will be going back there to order some things in the future!

Thanks for looking at the house progress!

Bubbles of fun with Pop-pop

2008-07-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

On the 4th of July we spent some time at Pop-pop's house. It was a little bit of a dreary and humid day but as Pop-pop said, it was the perfect weather for blowing bubbles. Lily loves bubbles and had a good time blowing them with Pop-pop. Here are a couple of pictures of the fun!

Photography

2008-07-05T21:51:00.000-04:00

Recently Matt and I decided to buy ourselves a new camera. We both have been wanting to get more into photography. We are always taking pictures of Lily and found that it was so hard to get a good shot of her because she is always on the move. We looked into Digital SLR cameras and decided that was a great way to go. We bought the Nikon D40. It is a great camera and has been exactly what we were looking for. I have been trying to read a little more and do some serious photography research but I haven't gotten too far. On the other hand, Matt has been doing awesome. He of course didn't have to read much of anything - he is just a natural!! He was inspired to get out and take a bunch of scenic photos when he volunteered to do the new website for his practice. He went out many early mornings and later afternoons when the lighting was just perfect and got some really wonderful shots. I have to say I am highly impressed with his work! We are hoping to blow some up and frame them for our new house. All of the pictures were taken in Bucks County, most of them near our new neighborhood. It is just beautiful in this whole area.

Here are some of my favorites.

You can also see some of these pictures and others on the Bucks County GI website that he was in charge of getting together. It looks great. There are some "stock" photos also that he did not take (all of the ones with the generic people in them) but he took all of the other ones.

So I am sure there will be many future endeavors for both of us in the world of photography. I am hoping to get better and better also. Until then I will keep my SLR camera set on Auto and just keep shooting! :)

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T11:28:00.000-04:00

Had to do a quick post to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. Hope everyone is enjoying some summer fun. Swimming, beach, parks, hot dogs, hamburgers and of course fireworks!! (Not for us though since Lily is deathly afraid!) We are spending a nice day at Pop-pop's and plan to have some hot dogs and hamburgers later for dinner. Matt is having his first official weekend on call at the new job and so far - fingers crossed -- it is going well!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Progress

2008-07-02T15:37:00.000-04:00

Not too much progress on the selling of our current house but A LOT of progress on the building of our new one! We are super excited and have been going everyday to get pictures. They started framing on June 21st and since then they have been working just about everyday. We have gotten some really good pictures. I think we have been a little naughty with the fact that we have been walking through it (especially with our 2 year old) but it has been so much fun! Lily has been an angel when we have been there, holding our hand and listening well. We haven't gotten caught yet! The house is looking amazing and as we are walking through it we are just saying to each other "I can't believe this is going to be ours!". We are super excited and so happy!!
Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Front of the house

Back

Lily in her construction boots. I bought these at K Mart for $5 at the end of the winter just for this reason!

Lily in the fireplace - I know bad, but the memories are so precious and the scrapbook will be sooo good!! hee hee

In the pantry

In the living room with Daddy

In the family room

Since these were taken they have finished the second floor and started putting the roof on. I will probably update the blog about once a week with photos of the progress.
We can't wait for it to be done! We especially can't wait to have all of our family and friends over and actually be able to be the hosts for once!!

Thanks for looking!

Summer Water fun!

2008-07-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

As I said in a previous post Lily loves the water this summer. We have been to Sesame Place, the pool, the park with the fountain, and the water table at Pop-pop's house. I wanted to post some pictures of Lily at play in the water. WE LOVE SUMMER!

At Sesame Place watching the Big Bird show where they spray you with water!

At the pool on vacation - With Cousin Andrew and Uncle Rob!

Jumping in!

At the fountain. This fountain is at the park near our new house. These are not the best pictures but at least you get an idea. She loves filling the bucket and then coming to pour it on my feet and then fills it again. This is really the life I tell ya!

Tomorrow we are going to visit Aunt Caren and Cousin Alden to go swimming at their pool at the YMCA! We can't wait. I am sure it will be a good time.

I hope everyone is enjoying the sun and summer fun!

House showing!!

2008-07-01T16:07:00.000-04:00

OK, so most of you know that we recently put our house on the market. Well today at 5:30 will be the first official showing other than the Open House we had while on vacation. I can't believe how much work it is to get a house ready to show. Of course I want it to look immaculate and I am cleaning every nook and cranny. What makes it the hardest is the "4 cat issue" we have in this house. I can't even go into all of the detail about how I am cleaning and getting 4 cats out of the house to show it. I will take a picture of the crates I have in my car in another post. I have to clean up the litter boxes, put them in storage, put the cats one at a time into the car and drive around for an hour with 4 crying cats in my trunk and a toddler!! HA HA! Sounds like fun, huh?
Well, hopefully it will all be worth it at some point sooner than later. Our realtor doesn't think it is necessary to get the cats out but I really don't want someone walking through with them here.

I will keep the blog updated as the showings continue! We want this place SOLD so we can move on to bigger and better things!

Our little girl, Lily

2008-06-30T15:44:00.000-04:00

Since the cats got their lengthy introduction I felt Lily needed a little more said about her....

Lily is 2 1/2 and a bundle of fun and energy! She came into our lives on November 3rd, 2005 and since then she has made our lives complete. Her personality is fun, sweet and rambunctious at times. She also tends to be a bit of a Drama Queen and on occasion, shy. Lately she seems to be blossoming out of her shy shell and talks to EVERYONE when we are out and about. (But don't try to hug her or pick her up, right Uncle J??!!) I always tell people she talks from the minute she wakes up until the minute she goes to sleep. Seriously she talks all day long!

Some of her likes are playing at the park, music, Fisher Price Little People and most especially her doll Abby. So far this summer she has LOVED anything to do with water - the pool, fountain at the park, slides and water areas at Sesame Place.
Life with Lily can be exhausting but it is the best job in the world!!!

Some more introductions

2008-06-30T15:30:00.000-04:00

I really don't know how I could forget to introduce some other members of our family.....some furry members!! I know most people reading will know all about them but I figured you never know who will stumble across this blog. In addition to a 2 1/2 year old little girl we also have 4, yes 4, furry kitty cats. Their names are Annie, Colby, Jack, and Megan. I feel a little sad today. I was looking through my pictures to find some to post of our cats and sure enough EVERY picture is of Lily. I can't seem to scrounge up many of the cats on my computer anymore. I managed to find one of Colby and one of Annie AND Lily so I will attempt posting them at first. I will work on getting some of Jack and Megan later this week!

Here is Colby, the Troublemaker

and Annie, the extra large 18 pounder!

So there are 2 of the family cats. More to come on them in the future, I am sure!

Welcome to my blog!!

2008-06-29T21:26:00.000-04:00

I am very excited to be posting my very first post on my new blog!! I must give all the credit to my very clever and great sister. I had thought about starting a blog about a year ago but it never really happened. Since then my sister started hers and it has been taking off!! I really have enjoyed reading it several times a day, looking at pictures and hearing the latest news about the family and especially "The Nephew". I thought it was time I started a blog of my own. I think it will be a great way for family and friends to see what we have been up to in our daily life.
So please come back and read often. Be sure to post some comments too. I will be working a lot on the set-up since I am very new at this right now but I know my sister will help me with it. I also have to say my posts will most likely not be as witty and clever as my sister's but HEY! I will give it a try!