Settling in

The problem -a beautiful white enamel sink with a HUGE lip on the edge, while gorgeous is not effective for traditional dish drainers that can be purchased at your local walmart/target.  See the problem.  the edge won't go over the sink, so it leads to stagnant water in the drainer from tilting backwards or water on the counter. 

Problem drainer

The solution:  **angels singing**  Simple Human Steel Frame Dish Rack.  I was hesitant on the price, but for something I use EVERY day, AWESOME.  It drains to the center of the rack, not the side and the spout swivels and pivots.  There are flip out cup holders on the side, flip up tines, expanding dish tray, knife block...its so pretty I could cry.  Its already full of dishes!

In other purchase news--our built in no longer looks like a messy cabinet.  Plate holders and some decorative vases.  All for under $20. 

Yah.  That's all awesome.  Not as awesome as this guy!

Look at that face perfectly accented by sweet potato!

Johnny's room

Johnny's room looks beautiful.  From a little "old man office" to young baby nursery.  Cosmetically, it was the worst room in the house with cracked plaster and funny wall color and boarder.  It was a yellowish off white color, so it looked old and dirty.  Especially with the cracks.
We still need to add his artwork to the walls, but we have until the end of March to move everything, so our pictures are still hanging on the walls at our other home. 

Before - above close up on wallpaper boarder

After - Including Grandpa playing on floor with Johnny

Johnny LOVES his new room and rolls all over the carpet and plays.  In case you were curious about the work involved, they had to strip the wallpaper using  a steamer, sand the glue off, fill the cracks in the plaster, sand those smooth, paint the ceiling, paint the walls, paint the trimming.  Someday we'll replace the carpet, but it is clean and not really worn.

Matt has been a working fool.  He has changed all the locks, made countless trips back and forth between houses, devised a concept for clothing storage, rebuilt our closet, cleaned, electronic setups, and the list goes on.

As far as other house pictures.  It's a disaster.  We have some immediate problems which need to be rectified other than the obvious unpacking boxes, placing furniture in the designated spots, decorating, etc.  One of those is we desperately need bedroom furniture for us.  Right now we have shoe shelves and baskets lining our bedroom with our clothes since we do not have a dresser.  We never needed one other than my awkward wardrobe.

The remainder of the list is...well...daunting.  Our list includes long term and short term goals.  A preview is:
* Place a kitty door into the boiler room
* Refinish Matt's desk
* Find a corner entertainment center
* Find a buffet or some other storage for dining room
* Figure out a trash system that works in the kitchen
* Motion sensor light in back yard on timer
* Put window film in a few windows 
* Have a party

Immediately on the list.  Go to bed.  Goodnight.

Family time with the Steelers

I am blogging from my extremely comfortable chair watching the game with my hubby and my son.  I guess if I am blogging I am only half watching.  Here is how my husband and son were posed right after the Steelers won their challenge in the first minute.

iPad with football app open

Exersaucer surrounded by toys

Then a short playtime when Daddy couldn't resist the cuteness

Then the forgotten iPad with the Nom-Nom of rice cereal snack

They are back to just sitting together watching.

Johnny had a photo session about an hour ago for his 4 month pictures with his dumbo.  With about a half an hour of video taken.  3 1/2 minutes of which i posted on YouTube.  The story of the two dumbos is I really liked one dumbo when I was in Disney with my mom and sister at 13 weeks pregnant.  BUUUUUT Bethany really liked another dumbo.  After arguing over which was the better dumbo I bought the dumbo I liked, with the blanket around it.  Bethany was not satisfied, and bought the more authentic dumbo with the hat, collar and feather.  I think in her crazed dumbo moment she muttered something about how her nephew was going to have a REAL dumbo if she had to do it herself.  Okay, maybe it wasn't a crazed mumble but more of a hysterical laughing statement she made to the cashier at Disney, but it had me laughing. I hate to admit it, but I love the dumbo Bethany picked.  My dumbo is fun because he is a baby.

Anyway, I guess all mothers don't really realize exactly how much their son has grown until they have something to compare it to.  WOW he is growing. At his doctor appointment Thursday he was 15 lbs 10 oz and 24 3/4 inches long.  He sailed through his boosters and only cried for a second before Daddy scooped him up.  He hugged onto Daddy for one last protest, then shot the nurses dirty looks.  It was adorable. 

He rolls A LOT.  Every room in our house has a blanket on the floor for putting Johnny in a safe place to roll around.  He is really enjoying toys and has his favorites - some monkeys on a rattle/teether, some keys, his under the sea mat with "friends" hanging down to him.  He LOVES that exersaucer.  Lets him be a big independent boy and standing (which he loves).  He loves mirrors and will "kiss" the mirror by running his tongue all over it.  He stomps on the counter and squeals with delight.  Bathtime is an especially wonderful treat.  There is one change in he now has baby fat and little dimples and rolls.  Its adorable, but in the past 3 days with the drool and spit-up he has developed a rash under his chin from it not being dry.  Constant bib changes and powder will fix it according to the doctor. He LOVES splashing and kicking his duckies.  Although he delivered a swift kick to his singing ducky and he no longer sings or flashes lights.  As far as singing toys go, he LOVED that duck.  He still plays with it, but it doesn't hold his attention the way it did before. RIP Ducky.

Ducky  12-25-10 to 1-9-11.  RIP.  You were loved.

 Speaking of Christmas, did I ever post a picture of Johnny with his stocking?  It turned out adorable. 

 AAAAAAnnnddddd...Here is Erin and Aubrielle.  Erin is the office manager at Benchmark Investments and Insurance for my Mom, Dad, and Matt.  So that makes her family.  Aubrielle is only 9 days younger than Johnny. 

Hey Goodlookin!

Well, it is now the 4th quarter and 1 min 33 left in the game, Steelers just scored, so I had to put my computer down...again!  I know who SHOULD win, but I'm not saying anything.  But since the game started, we managed to cook and eat meatloaf and mashed potatoes, feed Johnny again, have bathtime for Johnny, feed him one more snack, put him to bed complete with book, lullaby, and prayers.  And now here I am finishing my post.

I REALLY need to pack for this move.  We are closing in one month exactly.  We have a bunch of boxes packed, but it seems so insurmountable at this point.  We'll get there.

Blog Post Anemia

Our blogs have been far between as we have been all over the place and just trying to get settled in as new parents...2 months later.
We are finalizing things with the house.  We aren't moving until February 15th!  Even then, we want to paint before moving stuff into the house.  The inspections went well, just waiting on the appraisal (I'm not worried).
Matt has been busy with work.  He has been buying new computers for the office as well as a side project of helping with buying new computers for my Mom and Dad's house.  Good thing his background is information technologies so he can help out in this finance world he's in.
I have been to work a few times.  I have really been enjoying it, as odd as it sounds.  I have to go back eventually full time, so I wanted to ease into it.  Johnny has been doing well at home with Matt, eating well from the bottle, but by the time 5 PM rolls around, hes ready for the REAL nursing experience.

We also went to Pittsburgh for the first time.  Johnny was a real trooper all the way out and back.  He only woke up once each way, and went right back to sleep within 15 minutes of putting him back in his car seat.  We were stopped for almost an hour though with the eating and allowing him to kick and stretch on the car seats.  We stayed with Johnny's godparents Tess & Jesse Carter.  We had a blast!  Between the humans and weiner dogs, Pickle and Pepper, we were feeling very welcomed.
We went to our favorite restaurant, Istanbul Grill, and were stuffed by Coskun, our favorite cook EVER.
We saw Rachel's new condo, very nice.  It's amazing how we all are growing up after pharmacy school.  We also introduced the Carters to the Ryans when we went over to hang out with them and eat at Cici's Pizza.  It was so much fun and the kids were wonderful at the restaurant. 
We also made our first trip to First Trinity where Johnny got to hang with all of our good friends from the past 7 years in Pittsburgh.  Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our friend Tamara since her going away party was the same day as we were there.
I promise, I took pictures of everything, but I have NO idea where the camera cord is.  I hardly used my iPhone for pictures, which is instant gratification for uploading pictures, I used the REAL camera.  We will fix that soon....after I talk to Matt about it.

Aunt Bethany & delayed house closing

My sister came to visit this past weekend.  After promptly chopping off 6 inches of her hair before she chickened out, we have spend the weekend doing sister things and spending lots of time with my bouncing baby son.  The first night, Johnny was up until 1 am, so that gave us lots of time to visit and catch up since I had not seen her since July.  We also spent time visiting while Bethany removed every item from every cabinet in my parent's kitchen and cleaned every shelf, every door, and washed many items that do not get much use that just get dusty and greasy.  I put Johnny in the baby Bjorn to keep him happy so I could help a little bit.  Saturday we visited with other local family, but Johnny just fussed and fussed, and then slept from 9 until 5 am - 8 hours.  Without a feeding.  Today at church he smiled and charmed Bethany the whole way through totally distracting us and the people behind us from the message about Stewardship.  We are sad she is going back tomorrow, but glad she will be reunited with her dog Jazz and her wonderful group of friends.

We also went to visit our house to get some measurements and to do a walk through.  I probably should have mentioned that we delayed closing until February 15th.  Our lease is not up until the end of March, but a month of overlap with a newborn will be great.  Bethany loved it and is excited to come back and see it.  We are really excited to move in and wish we would be moving in December, but 3 months of overlap in payments...no thank you.  We did find some minor and old termite damage in the basement and a crack in one room's ceiling that did not look any more than superficial, but the inspection will tell us everything we need to know.

HOME OWNERS

Well...almost.  Still have to get inspections, apprasal, bank stuff.  But...They accepted our offer!  We are going tomorrow and I will take our own pictures and post them. 
It is on a beautiful street of old houses in Hanover.  Only 2 blocks from our current house, but completely different. 
We have a yard!  There is a detached 2 car garage.  The house is a beautiful 3 story brick home (also has a basement).  It's massive.  4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms.  It was built in 1936!  The central air, new electric wiring, new kitchen appliances are all completed in the past few years.  There is crown molding, detail on the stair well, a gorgeous 3 season room, a beautiful master suite. 
Stand by for pictures.

Smile! We're House Hunting

Teaser Picture

We found it...we just have to put the offer in this week, then go from there.  There will be more details later...I promise. But as I said, no offer has been placed yet, so it might not happen. 
If anyone is wondering, we still are planning on buying my childhood homestead in the future.  It's the only place with enough room for all the boy toys (the '35 Ford Sedan, the '68 Porche 912, and '40 something Ford Truck which may or may not be there) the 7.5 acres of land are exquisite and fun, the area is great, and the house is good (just not great).  It's also WAAAAY above our price range so we need some equity.  No, Grandparents don't make deals on selling a house, not even for a face like this:

Home Owners?

Matt and I moved to Hanover with the intention of renting for a while to make sure this was our correct fit.  Well, it has been one and a half years and our lease is up at the end of March.
We have initiated the process of looking to buy a home.
Why?  First, rent just sucks...its expensive and its gone.  Second, we really need to build some equity.  Third, dream house/property is eventually owning my parent's home and renovating which is above our monthly budget range without building some equity from another home.
Problem is...we live in Hanover.  Could it get any more complicated?!  There are 2 school districts.  Within these 2 districts are Hanover Bourough, Penn Township, Manhiem Township, and West Manheim Township.  Each has different taxes, school taxes, zoning issues, rules for parking, fees for water, etc.  Then there is the surrounding area.  New Oxford, Spring Grove area--great, good schools--but getting a little far away from the Grandparents.  There are different houses in each area and we are just trying to balance house with area. 
We are searching high and low for the perfect house for our little family of 3 with some growing room.  So keep us in your prayers and thoughts as we venture on this fun (and expensive) journey.