September in a nutshell....

Sorry... I suck at blogging.... 

Here is a brief recap of my life since.... September... danggg it has been awhile...

Well lets see -- CLOSING WAS PUSHED BACK -- TWO weeks!! I was NOT happy about this. I pretty much tore up all my house TO-DO list. Pretty much any 'game plans' I came up with for painting/carpeting/moving all went out the window. My new mind set is -- FAST!!

We are scheduled to close on Wednesday.....

        We have 5 rooms that really need to be completed before we move it. Completed as in               Paint & Flooring. I am all good with living out of boxes for a week... or month.... JUST                   KIDDING!

        I have to empty the rental..... and relocated it to the new house... 

        I'm in search of a GAS dryer.... seems like when I need one they all disapper... grrr 

        Deliver others miscellaneous items... 

         &&&& this all has to be done in F-I-V-E days. Going to need to stock up on Redbull.

So in the other aspects of my life....

         BRYSON TURNED TWO!!  Andd it of course rained the entire day of his birthday party...            that was being held at a park.... && he was sick and crabby. But dispite all the set backs 

         the party went  well.. I will write a post about his birthday soon. 

          I started grad school.....I get nervous every time I walk into Concordia. But I think this 

          program is really fit for me. They coddle their students &&  give away tons of free-bees! 

   

          Wedding Planning is at a dead stop

           &&&&& my diet is a JOKE! 

Hoping once we are moved in and settled things will calm down... & I can refocus on being healthy and planning the wedding of my dreams --- or what the budget allows!

Cheers!

-Mandy :))))

      

       

BIG MONTH AHEAD...

Whoa.... Goodbye August... 

Hello September. I welcome September with much anticipation.

September is a HUGE month for our family. Nick & I will have a two year old, which is just crazy. & even crazier we will be HOMEOWNERS! Yippy! 

Needless to say my life has been a bit hectic. The count down has begun to and we have exactly EIGHT days till Bryson turns the big T-W-O and until our CLOSING, eeks!

Pictures are coming down. Rooms are being emptied. Boxes are being filled. 

Definitely having a mini freak-out. We have exactly 8 more days to focus all our attention on completing the repurposing projects, thinking of paint colors, packing up 2.5 years of crap, finishing up paperwork, & keeping everything as organized as possible. 

Add Mr. B's birthday party on top of everything -- causes me to be one strung out mess.

I cant stress too much because everything seems to be coming together nicely! Nick has taken over redoing the furniture, while I focused on B's b-day and packing. I just feel like we are in such a time crunch. The new house needs to be semi-complete and live-able by October 1st with all of our stuff in. Thank goodness the Summer festivities have slowed down and we can really focus on getting in!

Patiently waiting....& getting excited... 

-Mandy :))

Fighting Bordem: Scavenger Hunt Walk

During the day, I make the kiddies I nanny go outside both in the morning and after nap time. Usually for at least an 1-2 hours each time. & oh how they complain! 

The big boys get BORED super fast. Nothing hold their attention for long... I swear kids have no imagination anymore.

So, they expect me to keep them busy, along with pay attention/keep the little ones safe. Which wouldn't be a problem if I could clone myself! 

It was so nice yesterday that I decided that we should all take a walk. The boys weren't so happy with that idea.. "BORING!" So to spice the walk up I made up a scavenger hunt for them.

I handed over a ziplock bag, pen, and scavenger hunt checklist. I made sure to write the rule of the game on checklist.
              -Stay on the side of the roads.
              -Stay where I can see you.
              -Don't go in any ones yards
              -If you spot an item on the list that wont fit in the bag, Mandy has to initial it. 
              -First one to spot it - gets it.

 

 
Each item was worth points depending on how common it was.
The scavenger included some of the following:
                 - A wild flower
                 - A penny
                 - A garage sale sign
                 - A balloon
                 - A large leaf
                 - A yellow vehicle
                 - A acorn
                 - A bug
                 - A pebble
                 - A flat rock
                 - A house for sale
                 - A pinecone
                 - A stroller
                 - Some one on a bike ride
                 - A weed
                 - Tall blade of grass
                  ***Bonus: Litter (1 point each)
                  ***Bonus: Something odd (5 points)
 

Reading their lists to see what else they needed

 

The little ones were "helping"

 

The big guys LOVED it!  It kept them preoccupied for the entire walk.

Counting up points.

Nine days till school starts, not that I am counting or anything!


-Mandy :))

Bryson's Brithday

We have SO much happening within the next month that Bryson's birthday has kinda been put on the back burner -- poor guy.

I went ALL out for B first birthday. Guest list was over 100 and I went crazy with decorations, food, and take-home goodies. His 1st birthday was SUPER memorable but it was time consuming and SUPER expensive

Well little one we cant afford that this year - I don't think he will be to heart broken..

The sad thing is I wasn't going to have anything for him besides maybe a cake at my parents. But I received a wake up call when I noticed one of my old coworkers having a birthday bash for her 2 year old. So, needless to say I felt like a horrible momma.

Well with that little push - Bryson's first birthday party is starting come together.
Park has been rented. Theme has been picked. Guest list is constructed. & menu is planned.

Lets see if I can pull this off without my right hand women, Kristen...

Man September is going to be SUPER busy.  I'm already tired just thinking about it.

-Mandy :))

Fighting Boredom -- Marshmallow Structures

This morning the big guys were getting pretty antsy.... 

I decided they needed a structured activity to keep their minds/hands busy and away from the video games. 

Marshmallow Structures:

    -Mini marshmallows

    -toothpicks 

    -fruit loops 

I couldn't find any toothpicks, but I did come a cross some skewers -eh, those will work! So I gave each guy 5 skewers. I put the marshmallows in the middle of the table. I also cut some skewers in half, just in case they needed them.

The wee ones sat around the table watching the guys create different things, while enjoying a handful of marshmallows :)  

The activity kept their attention of the older ones for a half hour or so... Hey I was happy that they were doing something other than complaining/video games/fighting. They were using their imagination - HUGE BONUS POINTS!

                                       

                                                   

                                                   

-Mandy :)) 

Sunday Funday?!?!

Today we got to go into our house and prepare it for the appraisal. 

Which you don't usually have to do but our  real-estate agent advised us to put doors on the three rooms in the basement (last owners took them) and wash down the walls in the bathroom (mold formed behind a cabinet due to no fan, stupid) -- so their will be no repairs needed to be negotiated into the price. Much rather do it ourselves. 

Well, I am still in love with the house - thank goodness!! The decorating ideas flooded my head while I was walking around my soon to be house. I really wish I has an endless amount of money, so I can completely decorate every room before we move in. KEEP DREAMING MANDY! 

As Nick and I walked around the house and closely inspected our BIG PURCHASE, we saw the half-ass the previous owners did. One thing Nick can't stand is someone being sloppy and pure lazy, when taking on a project. 

Here are some examples or the pure laziness:

          - When they FINALLY installed a fan/vent in the bathroom and added the new                              switch to the wall -- they cut a new light switch cover out of a bigger on and screwed              it in.  -- THESE THINGS COST LIKE $1 AT  MENARDS!! 

          - They did a nice back splash in the kitchen. But in ONE section they didn't line the tiles                up. And they picked a stupid stop to end the back  splash. 

           -Every corner cover was screwed on with drywall screws NOT nails. 

           -Wanes molding in the living room was pieced together and not straight. 

Just so much stupid shit that if done correctly would have looked GREAT! I just don't get how people can just not care -- it's YOUR house. Put some effort into it! 

----RANT OVER!------

Anyways, the guys worked on putting the doors in (I picked up 5 solid doors off of craigslist. 2 fit perfect. One will have to be adjusted.) I really under estimated the time needed for hanging doors. I worked on the mold... forgot masks, got bleach in my eyes, and almost past out -- but it was worth it. I also started cleaning windows and ripping off the HIDEOUS duck boarder in the main bath. We actually got pretty far considering we had no tools! Yay us!

The appraisal is tomorrow and we have our figures and toes crossed all goes well!

-Well test came back - well is up to code and water is SAFE!

-Shopped around for Home owners insurance (feeling old!) 

-Began to gather all the paper work needed for the loan... 

This house buying stuff is keeping me BUSY :)

-Mandy :))

Kitchen Remodel Ideas....

The kitchen in our new house is seriously driving me C-R-A-Z-Y and we haven't even closed yet - grrrr. 

This WAS the kitchen before the previous owners gutted it before their departure.

**Sorry so blurry -- they are from google images.. 

And this is it now......

A WHOLE lot of EMPTY

I am seriously contemplating 5 different design ideas for this one area. Of course Pinterest isn't help one bit....

1. Take out current pantry (next to stove) and relocate fridge there and make an island.. or something.

2. Fill the fridge wall with a cute county hutch:

                                       

3. Fill the fridge wall in with a computer cabinet made into a pantry:

4. Make a center island out of a dresser:

5. Build a pantry around the fridge:

Decision Decision! Sunday we are going to the house for a little bit. Nick and I are really going to put our heads together and figure out how to liven up our kitchen. That way the plans our constructed and I can stop driving myself mad with new ideas and searching craigslist to find a cheap hutch/dresser/TV cabinet to redo. 

What would I have done if Pinterest wasn't invented. Probably came up with only one plan --- but wouldn't be so creative!