Theme for the girls' new rooms when we move to the house

The girls couldn't decide if they wanted to have a garden with butterflies themed room, or princess theme for their rooms. So, I said, "Why don't you have a 'Princess Butterfly Garden' theme? Oh, they were all over that! Combine all the favorite stuff. :) Rachel will be in her own room, and Michaela and Alyssa will share a room. Michaela and Alyssa's room is currently blue with Nascar trim around the top of the wall, so we'll be repainting their room first with a light peach color after taking down the Nascar trim. Rachel's room is currently decorated for a girl with yellow paint and a purple butterfly border at the top of the wall, with some kind of butterfly and princess wall stickers. So, since she kind of likes the way it is already, we won't be in a rush to change her room. But, we do want to eventually change it and make it our own. Rachel wants a light lavender color for the walls, and the wallpaper trim and stickers will come off. Plus the current yellow paint that is there is all marked up in places or scratched. Need something fresh and new eventually! Then, decorate with garden/butterfly/princess motif and decor.

I also want to paint over the red walls in the dining room with the gobi desert color I used in our home in Raleigh. LOVE that color, and we always get compliments on it. I love red in moderation, but red is just a little too busy and loud for me to be on a wall. Plus, it's a smaller dining room than I'm used to. Needs to be a lighter color. I'm all about light or neutral wall colors.

Buying a new house!

We have decided to go ahead and buy a house for us to live in instead of continuing to live in the apartment while we wait for something to happen with our house in Raleigh. We got a smaller, inexpensive house that will work and that we LOVE. Our mortgage on this house with taxes and insurance included will cost us less than rent on the apartment. :) It's at the end of a cul-de-sac, with only one neighbor because there is a creek that goes to the side making it impossible to make the land beside us into a usable lot for another home. The master bedroom is on the second floor, which was a requirement this time around. The dining room and breakfast nook are smaller than we're used to, and we'll have to figure out how to make them work with our tables, but it'll work ok. We just won't be able to use all the leaves in the dining room table. And, the breakfast nook table will probably work if we put one end against the wall, and just won't be able to sit someone at that end. Has four bedrooms. Rachel will get her own room, and Michaela and Alyssa will share. The fourth room will be Brandon's office so he can work from home sometimes and have all the equipment he needs at home all set up. The family room is nice and is a good size. It also is laid out well for placing furniture, unlike our last home in Raleigh. Also downstairs is another small room that will be an area for our pantry overflow since the pantry is kind of small, and also a room to do our school work for homeschooling.

New kitchen table!

We just ordered a new kitchen table. :) I'm soooooo excited! We've had our current table for almost 12 years. Only four chairs with it, and we have five people currently in our family, with hopes to increase our numbers someday. As it is, we can never sit and eat as a family anymore. Brandon is usually not eating with us and eats later, or he kneels on the floor at the table on rare occasions, which isn't ideal. We're getting a larger table, with eight chairs. Very cute too! I love the white with the dark cherry tops. Very charming and country looking. Both Brandon and I fell in love with this set right away, and we both knew that after a long year-long search, we finally found our table!

Once we get this table, our current table will be going to my sister.

Link to view our table!

Had a wonderful weekend!

Friday started it off with eating lunch with Rachel at school. I signed up to give her teacher a lunch break, so I went in and watched her class so her teacher didn't have to. Got to meet some of the kids Rachel always talks about. Later that night was "Spike's Spooktacular." A little carnival at their school complete with games and rides. Got each kid 24 tickets each in advance, and Brandon ended up having to buy 12 extra while there. I ran the karaoke booth for an hour. Rachel won a goldfish, and she was really excited about that, but it ended up dying. :( We'll have to go get another fish.

Saturday, we went to the Skytop Orchard (apple orchard) with my dad, Sarah, and her kids. The kids played, we went on the hayless hay ride, Brandon and Rachel went off and picked a few apples, then we bought some apples, cider, and a little pumpkin for Michaela to take to school at their store.

Sunday we went on a drive up into the mountains and drove some of the Blueridge Parkway. We stopped a couple times and hiked some trails. Both the orchard and driving in the mountains to admire the fall leaves is a tradition our family does almost every year.

Brandon got a new calling this weekend as well. He is now 2nd counselor in the Stake Sunday School presidency. It's his first stake calling.

Sometime soon I'll have to come back and write about our other fun happenings from earlier this month. :)

We live in SC now

Guess I've neglected my blog for a while now. Then, found it again recently. We moved from Raleigh last February and came to SC, and live near my parents. We've been trying to sell our house in Raleigh with no luck, and are living in an apartment while we wait.

With all the recent stress and frustrations in life, Brandon felt the girls and I needed a break from each other, so they are temporarily in public school this year. Rachel is in 4th grade, and Michaela is in 1st. They are at Brushy Creek, and I like this school soooo much better than Timber Drive in Garner, NC that Rachel went to in Kindergarten. They are educating at level and being challenged. So, if they must go, at least I'm happy with their school and teachers. :) Alyssa is home with me during the days, and we work on preschool level work together.

That's the quick update for now. I'm hoping I'll be posting more regularly in the future. :D

Been so tired!

Once again it's been a while since I've posted anything. Been super busy, too busy actually, and just can't seem to keep up with it all. So, it's definitely wearing on me and I find myself tired a lot. I should get to bed sooner at night, but I just have so much to do!

Plus, not much new with us anyway; other than the Holy Ghost keeping the girls and I from being in a car accident that would have killed Alyssa and I for sure, and maybe the other two. That was March 6th, so about a month ago now. And no! The accident would not have happened because I was tired, more from not just one, but TWO other drivers running a red light when it was supposed to be my turn in the intersection. I was prompted to not go even though my light was green, then watched as a car speed right in front me going faster than the speed limit of the road it was on. I would have made it to that part of the intersection by the time the other car went through, which would have slammed right into me and Alyssa's doors. For a second, I was in shock that someone would do that and that I wasn't in the way, then looked at the light and saw it was still green, but still felt I should stay put. Four seconds or so later, another car came through the same way as the first. I became even more in shock, but after the second car, I felt it was now ok to proceed making my left turn, but did so very timidly looking to my left to make sure all cars were stopping! And no, the second car was not a cop chasing the first. (I've been asked that before.) I find myself thinking about that day quite a bit and thankful to still be here, and that my girls are still here. I can't imagine what it would have been like for Brandon (he was at work and not with us) if he had lost all four of his girls at once that day; or lost some of us and some of us be still alive but injured.

Yesterday I noticed at gymnastics that Rachel is learning new stuff and tricks. :) Not the same old routines anymore. The girls are excited about Easter coming. (Although today Michaela said that she wants snow and Christmas. Hmmm?) Oh, Rachel got to her goal of selling 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies so that she could earn the plush pony. Earlier this week, I let Alyssa scribble on paper with a crayon for the first time. I think we may have another leftie! I guess time will tell for sure. Michaela is left handed. We're also looking forward to conference this weekend. :)

99 Things

Saw this on Kory's blog, and thought I'd do it too. :)

Here are the rules:
Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars (As well as the rain! All while sleeping OVER an ant hill while on a pioneer trek as a teen. Interesting story there!)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (Don't remember it much, I was 4. All I remember is getting on the train, and my brother being upset that he didn't get to go.)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (Have too much self respect to do that one!)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (Does a gondola at the Venician in Vegas count?)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (Bay cruise in San Fran, but not one of those long multi-day cruises.)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Not sure, but could have)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (Does being on the news count?)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (Does helping my daughter count?)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (I tried but they told me not to come back b/c my veins were too small)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Redwoods (We've even done a drive through tree!)
82. Bought a brand new car (Actually, Brandon bought it for me)
83. Walked in Jerusalem (I was 6 or 7 when my parents went, and they left me at home in Germany. Boo!)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (I WATCHED a turkey being killed on the pioneer trek, but didn't kill it myself)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Richard G. Scott at Hill Cumorah Pageant)
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Who wants to play?