We have finally done it!!!

After three months of driving other people's cars we have finally broken down and bought our own car.

We have had in our minds for a long time to get a  Toyota Prius.  Yesterday we left our house at 11:00 with a list of things to do, first to buy a car.  We went to the dealership and after I tried to convince Brian to get a Carolla, or Camry, he was still decided on the Prius.  So we did it and finally after 5:00 I drove out of there in a brand new brownish Prius.  

We got it for a good price using the Costco Auto Program, or at least that is what the salesman said.  We should be able to sell it in a year or two old for about the same price, if we decided to.

All of this spending money has been kind of interesting.  I am realizing how easy it would be to get over your head in debt when you are buying things that you don't have to pay for till later, so the full cost of it doesn't really sink in and it is easier to say add that little more for the warranty.

Update on the wall coloring!!!

Well I thought that I should give an update on the coloring situation.  If you have not seen my last post you may want to read it first.  

It turns out that Lizzie has become quite obsessed with getting the crayon off.  This morning she began again to take toilet paper to the wall, table and chair.  

I decided to help her by giving her half of a magic eraser while I used the other half.  She really loved cleaning with it, though it didn't do much good.  

She did throw a fit when I took it away an hour or so later so that we could go for a walk.  And went back to getting toilet paper when we got back.

I, on the other hand, got to realize just how hard it needed to be scrubbed in order to get any crayon off at all.  This was my poor half after I was able to get one little part off.

It looks just like the picture, wouldn't you say?  And that was just the second time that I used it, the first was to get crayon off of my kitchen cabinets, which was very easy to do.  It just doesn't do as well on the textured wall and table.  It will definitely take a couple magic erasers and a very sore arm to get it all off.  I will see if I really want to put that much into it.  I will probably just leave it there to remind Lizzie that she shouldn't draw on the walls!!!

I have heard the advice that if your kids make a mess make them clean it up.  Well Lizzie is one girl who hates messes.  I'm not sure having her help clean it up will help her to not do it again.  When she was littler after the second or so time she spilled her milk and then asked for something to clean it up with, I cleaned up the mess to help discourage her from spilling her milk so that she could clean it up.  Kids really do come in all kinds.

Is all laughter good?

I have decided to post some of the things that make my kids laugh!!!

Below is a picture of my kids playing with their favorite toy.

Yes, that would be a tissue which they tear up and play with in all sorts of ways.  Todays way of choice was to blow it across the table.  I would get mad at them for doing this if they were not just so cute when they did and they will even clean it up sometimes when they are done playing.  One tissue can keep them occupied for nearly an hour as they laugh away.  Oh the joys of simple things!!!  I have even included a little video that I took of them, because they are just so cute.  It is kind of long, but you don't have to watch it all the way through it is just the same thing over and over again.

 

Well today after dinner the kids were laughing and playing once again and I didn't think much of it as I played away on the internet.  Lizzie would come and get some crayons and take them into their play room.  They have some coloring books in there so I wasn't to concerned.  Then I heard the unmistakable sound of crayons on table and went to investigate.  And this is what I found . . . 

I guess all of my telling them to just color on appropriate paper has yet to work when I am not looking.  I learned that not all laughter is good.  It did motivate me to get them ready for bed which I had been playing to much to do before.  As I was trying to get Lizzie to go upstairs for bed she came to me with some of the tissue that hadn't got cleaned up from earlier and wanted me to get it wet so that she could clean the walls, it was cute, but I wasn't convinced that it would work, so I ushered her off to bed all the same.  Maybe tomorrow we will spend some time cleaning it up!!!

Thankfully the coloring is just in their playroom so I will not be up all night trying to get every bit of crayon off of the walls, life will go on and it will probably get more coloring on it, before our time here is through.  Well maybe all laughter is good, even though we may not like what they are doing!!!

Our House!!!

Well we have finally done it!!! Yesterday we closed on our very first home!!! And what a great house it is!!!

This was the first house that we saw when we started our house search and we didn't think much of it. We loved the kitchen but the basement and the set up of these upstairs rooms, as well as the size of the tub, kind of put us off. Plus I think that we were expecting to get more for our money. After looking at most all of the houses in the area and even putting an offer on another house, without the result that we wanted, our realitor suggested that we come back to this one which we hadn't really thought to do. When we came back we realized that this would really fit our needs well and would be a fun house for us to be in. So we went for it and we think that we got a great bargin and a great house.

So this is it. Small but just the right size for us.

Moving van in the driveway and all!!! Here is a picture of Brian and Lizzie in front of the house!!!

They are welcoming you in for the grand tour of the mess that the house was in after the first day of moving in. We had a great sunny nice day to move in though!!! When you walk in the door it puts you right into the dinning room and the kitchen!!! I think that we only looked at two houses with nice kitchens that were open to the eating area, all the other houses I would have had to redue the kitchen and knock down the wall in the process. I am so excited to finally have a place where the kids can sit up to the counter to watch me cook, instead of on it!!!

Across the doorway and stairs is the living room. The furniture kind of big but hopefully we can arrange it so that it will work well.


Behind the living room is a bedroom, which the last owner used as a formal dining room, hence the chandler. I figure that we will use it best as a play room/guest bedroom.


Between the playroom and the kitchen is a nicely done bathroom with about the shortest tub that I have ever seen, which I didn't end up getting a picture of. There is also a downstairs with a big open room for half of it and the garage as the other half. No pictures of that either. then we head up the stairs. First stop the master bedroom. More great furniture, which is beautiful and I love it, but also need rearranging to fit better in the space. We even have a nice walk-in closet and another smaller closet in this room.


Next door is the bathroom with some really nice fixtures, also newly remodeled. And even a clothes hamper hidden in the cabnets on the side.



However it also has the most interesting tub that I have seen, thankfully both of the tubs have showers over them. This one will be much better for bathing kids then a normal shower base though.

Then finally across the hall is two kids rooms. The one below is Jamie's room, this one also has a large walk in closet.

I didn't take a picture of Lizzie's it would look much like the picture of the master bedroom as I only got half of that room in the picture but it is empty as here bed didn't make it into her room. The strange part about the rooms is the enterance to them.


It basically feels like someone just put a wall down the middle of a room to make it into two. They even have folding doors to close them off, but for our needs it works well. I think that the kids will like that their rooms will be easy to go between.



Tomorrow we will start living there, even though we won't get our boxes from England until Tuesday, we have all of our furniture (thanks to either craigs list or people storing our stuff and then giving us some of their extras) and enough other stuff to survive until then. It will be great to be in a house that we can decorate as we please and that will really be ours!!!

New Tricks and a New Recipe

Both of my kids learned a new trick yesterday. Lizzie learned to open doors. She still has a problem with them sometimes, but she can do it. No where is safe any more. As for Jamie he has finally figured out how to get on to the bed himself. Jamie gets so upset when he can't do what he want to do or can't go where he wants to go, The same thing happened before he started walking. So I am very happy that there is one less thing for him to get upset about.

Yesterday I also learned something new. Brown sugar and Dijon mustard actually taste good together. Last night i knew i wanted to cook up some fish as we had a very rich dinner the night before I wanted to do something very light. So I got on to allrecipes.com and on of the first recipes that I saw was this one. I needed something quick and easy because of having to go pick Brian up at the train, so this worked great. I was kind of sceptical of the combinations, but it had many good reviews, so I figured I would try it. It was good. (Some people who have known me in my younger years might be very surprised that I am not only cooking fish but also calling it good. What can I say I have been corrupted by my husband.) So I would highly recommend this recipe for anyone who needs to put a meal on the table fast. I would bet that you could even use the glaze with a different kind of fish if salmon isn't your thing, I will probably try it with a different kind of fish next time.


Salmon with Brown Sugar Glaze
SUBMITTED BY: Tamara

"This is my favorite recipe! I make this way too often. It's quick and easy! I serve this with rice and broccoli."


PREP TIME 5 Min
COOK TIME 10 Min
READY IN 15 Min

SERVINGS 4

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 (6 ounce) boneless salmon fillets
salt and ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven's broiler and set the oven rack at about 6 inches from the heat source; prepare the rack of a broiler pan with cooking spray.
Season the salmon with salt and pepper and arrange onto the prepared broiler pan. Whisk together the brown sugar and Dijon mustard in a small bowl; spoon mixture evenly onto top of salmon fillets.
Cook under the preheated broiler until the fish flakes easily with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes.

Fun and Giggles

It seems like all I have of my children lately are movies. Thay are just at a stage where they are so cute and I wish that I could video them all of the time so that I can remember all of the fun and cute things that they do each day. I have made up another little montage of some of their playing that I have caught on video since returning from Christmas. I hope that you all enjoy it.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jamie Really is Walking!!!

I know that I have been terrible at blogging lately. I have been spending to much of my time at the computer looking for things to buy and trying to figure out how we are going to close on a house in just over a week when the lawyers are still discussing the contract. What I really should have been doing is spending time getting this movie together of Jamie walking. Most of the parts of it were taken on the 19th of January. So I have been planning to do this for a while. It is amazing how quickly he is growing up. Today during Sunday School I took him into the hall to see if I could get him to sleep and instead he spent the time chasing around a little girl about his same age.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One thing that has been quite nice living here with Brian's parents is the hallway that they kids can walk around on cold days. I try to get out there for a bit of a walk everyday. Here is a cute little video of Jamie walking down the hall. They like to visit a stuffed ginger bread man and a metal snowman. However in this video you only get to see the back of the snowman.

Last week Jamie even got his first real chance to walk outside. It was a nice day and we went out to lunch at a restaurant about two blocks away, and he walked back most of a block (except when he tried to run into the road or across parking lot entrances which there were a lot). It was very fun to watch him walk along and he was even refusing to hold my hand much of the time.

Well I guess that is all I have to talk about on this post. I do have other great posts in mind which I hope to get up soon, but probably not tonight as I am very tired of being on the computer. I hope you will hear from me again soon!!!!!