I'm officially a mom....

I don't have much time to get into anything awesome and serious and long winded. I'm currently typing one handed while holding a fussy babe. I'm also taking bites of this yummy veggies casserole I created for dinner. Fear not, I ate dinner at an appropriate time. This is just a snack because I worked up an appetite walking around the park in this insane heat.

Today I'll tell you that we got a new car. Well, a van really. I've made it into motherhood, officially. We've been saving for awhile and researching. We got a great deal and paid cash for this vehicle. We were so excited about that and were able to really see what a blessing saving and waiting can be! Plus, we really felt like we were being good stewards of the money the Lord has provided for us. I'm not saying this to boast, but to be a testimony of waiting and saving and praying over your finances!

We got a swagger wagon. A 2011 Toyota Sienna that we'll probably drive until it dies. I want to make an awesome video. I don't think it will really happen, but it could. And that would be awesome.

I really love this van. I was hesitant {because I wanted a Tahoe}, but not anymore. B loves it and I'm pretty sure he thinks it's a party bus. AR is neutral about it :) It's so nice to have with a toddler and a newborn! And it has automatic doors.

Best. invention. ever.

{not true, but as far as vans go it's an awesome feature}

here are pictures....

Trunk with fold down seats...

Seats 8. Road trip approved. Get ready for us, Reid's!

Tons of room.

Still fancy looking...

Tada! Now, come visit...we have room to drive people around! :)

New (to us) table...

As I previously mentioned, a friend was giving away her dining set and we gladly offered to take it. We're doing good so far on dining room tables. We bought our first one at Ikea, which is now in our rental house. Our second table was a hand-me-down from Kent (previously from Jason & Cindy) and lasted us a while and saw us through a lot of family meals, holiday dinners and parties galore :) It now resides with some friends. They live up the street, so we can visit it if we miss it.

Our third table, also a hand-me-down, is more of a "grown up" table if you ask me. Our friend gave us the matching buffet too, which is wonderful and we're very thankful. There are a few bumps and knicks on the table and chairs, but it's in good condition. The only thing we had to do was reupholster the chairs.

Patrick is a whiz at handy things like this and took this little project and ran with it. I must say he did a fabulous job reupholstering! We picked out similar fabric (we had no clue! ha!), so the before and after are pretty telling. I'm so pleased with our new dining room set!

Oval table, six chairs and a buffet...
Close up of the buffet...

The before and after of the chairs...
Cute picture of my baby, for good measure... (Patrick put this hat on him)
My men. So precious! Also for good measure...

Wiiiiiiiiiii

So, last week we got a Wii. It was a splurge for us. We had been talking about it since September. We played it with our good friends and have been wanting one ever since.

Not only has it been a lot of fun for Patrick and I, but people are loving our house! We had some friends over to watch The Office last week and they stayed for another hour to get in some Wii time. Also, Kent was up this weekend which gave Patrick a very enthusiastic MarioKart partner.

Boxing is my favorite and I have beat Patrick at it every time (okay, he won once...). However, I can only brag about boxing because Patrick beats me in everything else. Seriously. I stink at video game playing. And that's okay with me. :)

Sooooooo - here are some Wii- time pictures:

This is me golfing...
This is how Piper sleeps when Patrick is playing Wii. Of course, he wears himself out trying to attack the controller thing in our hands.
Patrick and Allyson boxing...
Andre bowling...

A DIY weekend...

Patrick and I spent a lot of Friday and all day yesterday working on the kitchen. I must say it was so nice to have him around helping me. He is so handy and so great at projects, not to mention it was nice to have someone to talk to while I was sanding or painting.

I spent two hours at Lowe's on Friday, alone. It was a fine trip, but there were too many big decisions that had to be made in that amount of time, with my week of kitchen stress built up and I alomost started crying. I'm such a baby. I seriously, naively, thought this project would be a few days, max...

Here we are at day seven, or eight, and I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We got a lot done yesterday and my kitchen is starting to get back into order. The appliances are in their places and the dishes are back in the cupboards, BUT I have no counter top, no sink, no dishwasher and no water in the kitchen. That's been a little tough. However, with the bathroom sink right there and the utility sink in the basement for dishes, I think I'll survive the estimated two weeks until countertop arrival.

With all of this to say, here are some updated pictures. This is not a finished product, but a close enough place to stall.

When all chaos broke loose and all the appliances moved to the middle of our small kitchen...

Patrick's skills in action...
Me hard at work scraping stupid liquid nail goo off of the walls where the counter use to be...My color choices: Lemon, for the walls; Cut Ruby, for the trim; Claycrete, for the counter tops.
Ah, it's getting so close to being done! All that we have left to do hang the pot rack (which was here already, but had to be taken down for painting), hang the three floating shelves above the cart on the left of the picture, attach the last few cabinet doors, get counter tops and put a last coat of while paint on the doors (to the basement and bathroom). Almost done!!!


A special "thank you" list is necessary in this DIY project:
Patrick - you're wonderfully talented and handy. Thank you for all your hard work, even though this was all my idea. This was certainly a great marriage builder. Dinkin' Flicka.

Allyson - thank you for your listening ear and your rational thoughts. Also, thank you for verifying that the yellow was not a terrible color choice. AND lastly, thank you so much for making us dinner when nothing in our kitchen worked. You're great!

Andre- for the delicious bread and cookies!

My mom- for listening to me rant and talking to me when I had been alone all day.

God- for giving me sanity breaks, some sort of patience and the ability to work under a large amount of pressure. Also, for His grace.

The men and women of the Indiana, PA Lowe's - thank you for your patience and your knowledge of things that don't make sense to me. I enjoy your store, but hope not to see it for several days.

Kitchen Makeover, take 1

So, we thought it would be a great idea to spruce up the kitchen with some fresh paint on the walls and cabinets. The one "big" thing that I wanted to do was replace the counter tops. Hum. That could be possible if we figure out how to be stronger than liquid nails.

A few things I've learned in the last week:
*Wallpaper and border of any sort is a bad idea. You know what I mean if you've had to take it off. I'm CERTAIN that the people that lived here before us super glued the border on.

*If you live in a house you plan to sell someday, don't do a lot of things cheaply. The family before us added a lot of "nice" things to this house, however they didn't do a very good job. Instead of making a few very great, well done changes, they did a lot of decent jobs on a lot of things.

*Lowe's has everything you ever need to fix your house, except gutter things.

*We need a larger shop vac.

*Communication is KEY when doing a "DIY" remodel. Otherwise, you get in silly arguments that are about the Lowe's man and not your husband.

I took down the chair rail the other day to find a piece of board, wall papered and liquid nailed to the wall. This made for a lot of work. Our simple painting job has now entered day five.
As you can see here, the wall was rotting so we had to take all of the dry wall (i think) and reapply the wall. This was so annoying!

My kitchen is in my dining room and things are so out of place. For someone who loves being in the kitchen and cooking, this is very difficult. Therefore, we had Subway for dinner last night :)

I took the cabinets off the other day, so I could clean, prime and paint them, but the wall thing took over and now my kitchen looks so sad and all disorganized. I'm hoping for some sort of kitchen peace before too long. Last night, Patrick and I fixed up the walls by adding a cement board to the walls that were rotting and then spackled all of those areas and places with holes.

So today, I'm trying to patch up, sand, re-spackle, and maintain a somewhat clean counter top and sanity. Also, I'm stalling by writing this post :)

I got a new camera.

Our camera died. It doesn't work anymore, not even a little bit. It's been quite discouraging since I enjoy taking pictures and I like to put those pictures on my blog for you all to enjoy.

So, Patrick bought a little camera. A Canon point and shoot that will fit nicely into his pocket. I bought a big camera. One that will never fit into any kind of pocket I have, well as of right now. It will fit in my big purse though!

I wanted a camera that took great quality pictures. I wanted a camera that didn't have to think so much before and after it took a picture. I wanted a camera that I could really use for a long time. After many weeks of thinking, wanting, talking myself out of and then back into, I got the Nikon D40 SLR.

I'm super excited and Patrick and I have been taking random pictures with it all day. I've been playing with the settings and reading the magazine thick manual that came with it. It came just in time to play with before we go to Europe. This means, however, that there is no way I'll look European. With a camera this size hanging around my neck, I'll be screaming tourist!

Until I get my pictures on the computer, here is me with the camera :)

Four eyed me

Yes, my friends, I have to wear glasses now. Turns out there are several things wrong with my eyes that can be happily fixed with a pair of frames and good lenses. Humph.

I have to wear these things for three weeks, all day, everyday. Then, I go back and see if I've improved at all. Mainly, my doctor wants to see if the glasses help the headaches I get around my eyes. The saddest part of the story is this: I'll be in Europe for the last week of my jaunt with glasses! Terrible! I've decided to just remove the glasses before any picture is taken, if I can remember to do so as I'm in awe of the Eiffle Tower, the castles in Scotland or Hyde Park.

So, to humor you, here are some picture of me with glasses. There's a glare in most of them (unless I look up a bit, but that makes my face look more fat...so, work around the glare, please).

The before picture. Also, my hair is straight so I look even more unfamiliar in all of these pictures.

And after...with a glare.

A few random shots of my feelings about glasses.....

The frames are "J-Lo" brand. Did you know that J-Lo makes frames for glasses? I asked the lady helping me pick them out if they had these same frames in another brand. She looked at me like I was insane and said no. Whatever...don't be fooled by the frames that I got, I'm still Ashley from the block.

Bins and shams...

One of my favorite things about Patrick is that he is handy! This man could build anything, I'm sure of it. Give him an idea, some wood and some tools and he is ready to go.

On Sunday, he was flipping through a past edition of The Family Handyman magazine when he stumbled upon a recycling bin thing. (I'm sure there's a correct name for it!) He knows my desire to become organized, so to help me out he built the recycling organizer. Patrick is also in the process of building shevles in our basement for added storage. What a man!

Here's a poor picture, but not poor craftsmanship! Five bins: The top two are for plastics (up high so Piper can't get them out and eat them). Next two are for cans and glass. Finally, the bottom bin is for newspaper and magazines! I love it! Patrick built that!!!
Also, there is a store here called Ollie's and I love going there. It's an overstock, cheap-o store that has tons of good stuff for a fraction of the orignial cost. I was there to other day looking for shams for our bed. I was hoping to find them in a khaki color to add some crisp-ness to our bedroom, but didn't find any.

I did find a set of king size pillowcases in this mentioned khaki color for a mere $3.99. Ah, I couldn't resist. So, to make them look a little nicer I took about five inches off the width and added three buttons - for added cuteness.


So, I was able to change things up in the bedroom with four bucks and a little handy work. Not bad, I'd say.

Kitchen fun!

Are you so tired of reading about my kitchen? It's really my favorite place in our house. I love being in there and I love what I can do in there. I think it's true that the kitchen is the heart of the home.

My kitchen cart came yesterday. I had no patience in waiting for Patrick to get home from work to assemble it, so I did it myself. I took a short break to go to a spinning class, then came home and finished up. I'm so pleased with how nice it looks in our kitchen. It's also very nice to have organized, handy cupboards. Everything is where I want it (for now) and I'm very excited about that!

Here are some pictures of the cart residing in it's new location!

I love how it's the perfect size for this location. Plus, I had just the right things to go on top! Yeah!

An open cupboard view. It's nice to have my small appliances within grasp. Before I would have to go to the hutch or fight my way through tupperware to get to them.

I think I'm done for a while. I've pretty much finished what I wanted to accomplish this year...haha...just kidding. However, throughout this week I have organized the kitchen, office, attic, guest bedroom and all the closets in the house. I'm so thrilled to get this year off to a very clean and organized start. Here's to a whole year of cleanness and organization!

Back to the kitchen...

I put the cabinet doors back on. I agree with all your comments and appreciate your willingness to be honest. It was a fun moment in time, but it really didn't achieve what I wanted in the kitchen: clean, clutterless, functional organization. (that's not too demanding, right?) So I rearranged a few cupboards and I am looking forward to a new kitchen arrival tomorrow: a kitchen island "cart".

Patrick and I have been talking about adding another "section" of cabinets and counter top to the kitchen. Currently, there is one little "section" of cupboards that about a foot wide and has one cupboard and one drawer. It's not too helpful, but I need all I can get so I use it. Beside this section is an apple table. The previous owners left this thing when they moved out. I've kept it there because I didn't have anything else and it provided space to put things. The table has two little stools that have been great for climbing on and getting into the higher cupboards :) Needless to say, I don't love this area of the kitchen and it's not helpful at all.

On Saturday, I spent hours at Lowe's looking for drawer and cupboard organizers. I wanted to get a few wire backet "drawers" for the cupboards. I bought some and came home to install, when I realized that nothing fit (I even measured before I left) the right way. Discouraged I returned everything and realized that I had spent almost $200 to organize two cupboards and a drawer. I knew there had to be a better way. So I searched online for some ideas.

To install a larger "section" of cabinets in the kitchen it would cost $150, plus the countertop. Total with all the fixures and such would be $300-450. I didn't feel like this way the most efficent or wise choice that this point. Sure, we save up for house maintence every month, but to toss it all into this small section didn't seem like the best option.

Then I found the kitchen carts. I felt like this would be a great option if it had a few major things: Drawers, cupboards, storage area, flat surface on top for extra counter space and the correct dementions. I looked at a few stores in Indiana and found one larger one with only drawers and then several very small carts. I looked a few sites and found this one:

Not only was this little beauty on sale, but is being shipped for free! I love the little open area in the center. A perfect place for my essential baking items that are out on a daily basis. Also, having this cart grace the presence of my kitchen offers me more room to keep all my kitchen things in my, well, kitchen and not in the dining room hutch. I'm excited to see how this thing looks in my kitchen (it's coming tomorrow!).

So, I got the cart for $237. I felt like this was a decent splurge. I didn't get the biggest and best, but I did get a very quality item that meets all my criteria perfectly! I can take this thing with us when we move, or leave it for the next family. Best of all, the little section of cupboard will go in the basement for much needed storage space and the apple table will make it's way to the attic guest bedroom! What a perfect way to save money - using things we already have!

Rain boots...again...

Well, after much research and mulling over this decision, I ordered a pair of rain boots. I think I settled a little and had to remind myself that what I really need is a pair of boots to protect my feet from the wetness of Indiana, PA.

I like them, don't get me wrong.

So, introducing my new rain boots (until I can save up for the Hunters, that is :)):

Pink and black, with a fresh style. These boots were made for walking in the rain! Stepping out in whatever outfit, these boots are sure to made heads turn and add flavor to your day. I imagine myself wearing my favorite jeans, or my jean skirt, with these cute boots!

So, what do you think?

The man day has come...

Well, he did it. We did. I was involved. After much talking, debating, researching and roaming around Sears, Patrick bought a big ol' flat screen TV. He got a great deal on it and he is so giddy about it!

Also, I got a new oven. This was almost a need. My current oven, which works okay, makes a HORRIBLE noise every time you light the stove or turn the oven on. The oven can't stand too much pressure and since I love to cook and bake, our relationship just wasn't working out. The poor thing has issues that we just can't fix.

We don't splurge much. We stick to our budget and are pretty conscience about what we're buying. We save up for things we love to do like traveling and taking random trips and going out to dinner for special occasions. We're firm believers in buying great products that will last a long time. It's worth it in the long run to buy a better quality something and keep it for years! Honestly, we just don't buy big things very often. So today was fun!

I was surprised when Patrick suggested that we walk around Sears today after lunch. I mean, I'm use to roaming and we do it whenever we happen to be at the mall. But there's never a special trip. I certainly didn't expect to come home with new things. Luckily, the Lord has blessed us with people in our lives that have taught us how to respect money and use it wisely (The TV was wise, some would argue). Either way, we're excited about these new, random purchases. We both got something we've wanted and are equally excited about using (although no words could express to my sweet husband how one could/would be excited about getting a new stove).

I'll post some pictures when we get them. One bad thing about getting appliances, you don't usually get to bring them home with you. We're anxiously awaiting Thursday!