Dogs in the snow

My dogs were so happy that it snowed! Take a look!


















Of course, Morgan was NOT happy in the deep snow. If you look close, you can actually see Maris laughing at him.

Once he got out where the snow was trampled down a bit, he resumed his "top dog" postion.

The little dog...

It has started to snow tonight (did I already mention that?). My dogs are LOVING it! I was completely afraid that the little dog would be covered by the snow. Of course I wanted to document it if he was covered because how else would I prove it? I started taking pictures when it started to snow and wouldn't you know...I can't get the dog to stand still.

SNOW! SNOW!

(6:45pm)

(9:00pm)

Did I mention that it snowed?

A good doctor's appointment

Today, I went back to the doctor for a follow up appointment. The fracture in my arm is healing nicely but is still there. The doctor was not too happy that I have not been wearing the sling but overall was pleased with things. I need to do more exercising to improve my range of motion but I am now able to do every day things like brush my hair and teeth. I still can not pick up anything heavier than 1-2 pounds but I can run around with the X-man. So, not a bad appointment.




I, however, did not mention to the doctor that I have now started decorating my house for Christmas. The X-man and I have been very busy. First, I brought the tree and decorations up from the basement. It was not easy since I had to make multiple trips. Then, I put the tree together, wrapped the lights around it and put the star on the top. Shew! The tree does lean a bit to the right but if you tilt your head to the left, it is straight.




X-man decorated the tree all by himself. I was pretty tired after getting everything together so he handled it all by himself.He was so proud and I have to agree! He did a fantastic job!

Did you happen to notice the dogs? They are thrilled by all the commotion. I am not exactly sure how they sleep through everything, but they do.

Whoa MJ!

An updated room!

X-man's room started out looking like this, this morning. It was cute, with a toddler bed, little dresser and a messy assortment of books.












And then Ashley Furniture arrived!!

















And the transformation began!!












X-man was SO excited to see his new bed. When he walked into his room, he said very quietly "ohhh, my bed. My big bed. I like it" It was adorable.













X-man's new bedding had not arrived for his first night in his new bed. It worked out ok, though, because he is going through a phase where he LOVES that blanket that is on the bed.














Now that his bedding is in, I can finish his room. This will be a fun process that will take awhile.

One last look

My little man is getting bigger by the day. He had been sleeping in a toddler bed up until a few nights ago and I was starting to feel like he was squished up in his bed.










His room was cute but not finished. Notice the paint on the walls. I have still not found the perfect color.











X-man on his last night in his "little bed"

Just a bit of a set back

I have had a bit of a set back in making a house my home. I managed to get into a car accident last week. Luckily the worst of it was that I broke my right elbow. While I wait for the bone to heal, I can't straighten my arm, rotate my wrist or pick up anything heavy. This is really putting me behind in what I need to get done to get ready for Christmas but I am lucky. I do not need surgery, just rest. In another 2 weeks, I can stop wearing the sling and in another 10 weeks, I should be back to 100%. I am very lucky.

Don't despair, though, not all projects have been put on hold. I have a few posts coming up that will hopefully keep you interested!

So much to do!

There is so much I want to do to my house right now. I want to paint the toilet area of the master bathroom, paint the cabinets in the master bathroom, paint X-man's room, put hardware on ALL the cabinets in the house, and the list just goes on. I am not sure where to start but I am thinking that I am going to paint X-man's room first. We shall see how this goes.

do I get mad?

Last night, as I was reading X-man his bedtime story, he asked me a question. This is not usual. During the course of one Dr. Seuss book, I usually answer many, many questions about what is going on in the pictures and so on. This time was different.

X-man was staring at me very intently and then asked "what's that" as he pointed to my forehead. This had me worried. Did I have a giant pimple that was about to burst (as this has been happening lately), or a bug on me, what?? Nope. Instead, he was pointing at the wrinkle I now have between my eyes! He asked me to make that face again so he could see it, touch it, laugh at it. Nice. Then, he made the face and asked where his was. I told him that he did not have one...yet. He seemed ok with that answer.

I think that I am getting old. Or at least I must look it.


After I put him to bed, I went down to do mom stuff. Every night when I put X to bed, he tells me to not make a mess. So, I do mom stuff that involves not making a mess. Thanks 3 year old! On the monitor, I heard him get up and get a book. He then read the book to himself while occasionally flipping pages. I decided that there were worse things he could be doing, so I let him read while I finished not making a mess.

30 minutes later, I went up to check on him. When I opened the door, he was not in his bed. Momentarily, I panicked. Then I saw him...sitting in his bean bag chair, happy as could be, reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red fish"(he does not like the full name of the book and so the title ends there). I did what every mother should do. I sat down next to him, let him put his little feet on my legs and we finished reading the book together.

Once the book was done and he had explained to me that he had first read the book in his bed, then in his glider and ended up on the beanbag chair, I tucked him back into bed.


"Mommy, are you happy?"


"Yes baby. Mommy is very happy"

rough life

suzie homemaker

On Sunday, a friend and I decided to drive up to the mountains of Virginia. The trees were beautiful, in vibrant colors of orange, yellows and reds. We had a really good time on the drive up.

We finally ended up at our destination!

We then went out to the orchards and picked some apples!

It was a perfect day outside The sun was shining and it was about 58 degrees out. Pefect for picking apples.

Tonight, I decided to do something with some of the apples. I put 2-3 of them in the food processor and made a sauce. Then I put that into the dehydrator on a tray. Hello fruit roll-up!

I then cut up some more of the apples, treated them and put the slices into the food processor
YUM!

Come back tomorrow to see the results!

List for the week

I live for lists. Sometimes, I makes lists of lists that I need to make. Some might call me OCD. Here is my list for this week.

- go to gym 3 times

- clean all the bathrooms

- organize the basement bedroom

- make something with the 7 lbs of apples we picked yesterday

- clean out my car

- go to bed earlier

As you can see, the bedroom is a wreck and so it will be my main goal of the week. The second main goal is to get my butt to the gym.

Since it is already 10:30pm, I need to work more on that last point.

simple life

Kids are suppose to bring joy to your life. Sometimes, it does not always work out so easily. Today, I was having a rough day. I am not really sure why but it was. I decided to come home for lunch and it really helped. The house was quiet. The dogs were still locked in their kennel. As I sat there, I started to look around and I noticed things. Little things. Like, the way the toilet was ready for the next potty break.


And how his little cleats were left by the front door, ready for the weekend and his next soccer game.

I also saw the letters that were left on the refrigerator. They were just waiting for X-Man to get home and spell out different things.

After looking around, I felt better. Sometimes it is just the simple things in life that make you smile.

a simple shelf

Clutter makes me feel unorganized and a bit frazzled. Everyday, when I would look at our television, I would feel this way. Looking at this picture, you can see that the DVD player and the cable box are on the sides of the TV. The speakers for the surround sound are on the mantle. When watching TV, you had to turn your head sideways to see the time on the cable box or to read what level the sound was at. The DVD player could not play DVD's and the front of the mantle was not really accessible. It was way too cluttered.


I decided that today was the day to change that. I broke out the measuring tape, drew a little picture and went out to my local hardware store. There, I got all the materials that were needed.

Then, I primed the wood and got to work. Notice all the dust on my camera lens? That is from sanding the wood.

I painted two coats on each side of each piece of wood. I let it dry for about an hour or so on each side with a fan blowing on it. Today was a very wet, yucky day so I was afraid the paint would never dry.

After all the wood was dry, I assembled my shelf. I am going to be totally honest and tell you that it was no easy feat. Every time I got everything all set up and tried to nail a nail in, the boards on the bottom would fall over and I would get wood glue all over everything. Another confession is that I am pretty sure I scared the dogs and X-man pretty good at one point.

I am not a great carpenter and it shows. I did put another nail in to make sure that the shelf was sturdy.

Here is the end result. I am extremely happy with it. Everything looks so organized. The DVD player and cable box now sit flat like they should. The speakers are next to the TV and off the mantle. The only minor problem is that I can not find another home for the center speaker.

I should also mention that this entire project cost $31. The only thing I did not have to buy was a paintbrush.

Color

I love color. One of my favorite colors to wear is tropical orange. My house, though, had no color in it at all when we first moved in. All the walls were white, with a few walls a darker shade of white. It was kind of annoying and really boring. We were finally able to get started on painting last week. First, I started with a barely there purple in the bathroom. I love it! Do you see the butterflies? I really like those too.


Then, it was time to really add color. Orange is a GREAT color! This room is not nearly done yet but here is a picture of the color in it. I ABSOLUTELY love it. I am having a really hard time deciding what to put on the walls. The wall to the left, which is not visible, has a black and white family picture of us and our three dogs walking across a field. I have no idea what to do with the others.

I decided to stay pretty neutral in the living room and kitchen. This picture does not really show it, but the walls are a green color. It is better visible in the next picture. I really like the color because of the balance it has with the accent color in the kitchen. My appliances, area rugs and hand towels are fire engine red and they look great up against this color. I do not have a picture to show this but it will be coming soon.

Again, color is fantastic. I try to incorporate it into every room, even if it is just by using trinkets.

Just relaxing in the sun.