On Sunday, Ryan and Cole were invited to a bowling birthday party.  It was the first time they had ever been bowling, and the were oh-so excited to go.

Ryan thought it was great, he got to put on the ever-popular bowling shoes.  Cole wanted a pair too, but they didn’t have a pair small enough, so the lady said he could wear his Crocs.

Cole gave it his best shot, but I think he is still a little too young to get the whole concept.  One of the workers brought out a ramp, where Cole could just roll the ball down.  He liked that-but he liked moving the levers back and forth on it more than bowling.  He did slow down long enough for me to capture him with his goofy smile:

The first time Ryan was up, he placed the ball down, and then kicked it with the sole of his foot- good thing it wasn’t with his toe!  He quickly caught on, and he had a little warm up move, and one he did afterwards.  I was happy for him, that he usually knocked down several pins- he was really into it!

 The warm up

 Watching

 Doing the post-move

For some reason when it was my turn to bowl, the automated bumpers stayed up.  I haven’t bowled in such a long time, I was happy the bumper was up.  But as a testament to my awful bowling, Ryan beat me!  He’s a 4.5 year old, who had never bowled, getting a higher score than his ol’ mom- even with the bumpers up!  Guess I need to work on my bowling game-in my spare time. 

The birthday boy’s mom, mentioned to us the alley we were at, had night bowling where they turn off the lights, and light up the lanes, and all of that.  Ryan heard that, and has been asking everynight when we get to go night bowling.  We are hoping we can take him soon.

I wonder if I can have them leave the bumpers up for me.  At least it will be dark, and no one will actually see my bowling ball hit the bumper.  On the other hand, maybe I’ll have them take the bumpers down for Ryan, and leave them up for me. Then we will have an even match up.   :-) 

It is so fun to see your child enjoy something, and just have 100% fun.   Even if I am an awful bowler, it was still the best time I ever had bowling.

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

I wish I had a brilliant or at least somewhat exciting update for you, but I don’t. 

We’ve been working on the house, and trying to get everything else done in daily life that must get done, like work, errands, parent, spend time with the boys, etc.  I still haven’t started packing yet, but that is soon to change.  Joe started bringing home boxes the other day, so now that fun chore is on my plate.

I really don’t mind, but there is always way more stuff you realize you have.  I am hoping we can donate or just get rid of the stuff we haven’t used in years, and be done with it.  Like the extra microwave that has been sitting the pantry now, for eight years.  If our microwave ever broke, we had a spare.  Except it hasn’t and we have had a microwave sitting in the pantry for eight years.

I usually blog at night- but I have been so tired physically and mentally, I think I have blogger’s block.  If you don’t see very many posts here in the upcoming weeks, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth.  But with moving, fixing up the house, and the upcoming holiday season, I’m not sure how much time or motivation I will have to blog.  Please continue to check in- I know I’ll get my blogging mojo back eventually.  :-)  You can find me on Twitter, and I seem to be able to post 140 character items, much easier and regularly than actual blog posts these days.

I pinkie swear I will post pictures of the new house and the progress we have made.  Joe finished painting the boys’ rooms today, and he’s going to start on our bedroom tomorrow.  I placed the carpet order last week, and that should be installed right after Thanksgiving.  We are ordering our engineered hardwood flooring tomorrow.  We have decided on a honey hickory color which is a golden brown- not too dark or light.  We should have it around Thanksgiving.  It has to cure at room temperature for a week, so Joe should be able to install the floor, the beginning of December.

The brand we are getting has a locking system, so there is no need to glue or nail the pieces together.  Joe is optimistic he can install it in a few days, rather than a few weeks.  So it appears we are on schedule to move into the house by the end of December.  Not sure where we will end up having Christmas- in the old house, or the new one, but Ryan is already wondering about the tree this year, and how Santa will find us.  :-)  Cole has just been talking up a storm and telling us he wants Santa to bring him a dump truck.

I’m also trying to plan Ryan’s fifth birthday party, which always sneaks up on me, since it is just two weeks after Christmas.  I booked the venue this year in JULY- so that is set.  Now I just have to get save the dates out to people, and hope I’m not over the number of guests we are allowed to have.  Guess I had better double check on that.  Ryan of course, is just thrilled to be turning five.  I’m wondering where the time went, and how did my ‘baby’ become a little boy, who is just weeks away from being five years-old?

My mom is coming out for a visit the week of Christmas and will be able to spend an entire evening, and the next day with us.  I’m excited for that, and to be able to show her our new house.  Ryan and Cole are excited to bake cookies for Santa with Nana. 

So that is all we have been up to.  Stay tuned for another exciting update in the near future. 

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

I have been up to the same old, same old.  Working on the house, or watching the boys so Joe can get some tasks completed.

Trying to work at the house with the boys should be a new reality show-how much you can get done while trying to keep the boys from undoing everything you just did, or keeping them from making more work.

Over the weekend, Joe was painting the boys’ bedrooms.  Ryan just had to help, so Joe gave him a paint brush and let him paint the closet floor (which will soon have carpet).  Later, Joe had to run to the store, and I was working in our bedroom cleaning the walls, and bathroom.  I knew Ryan was upstairs, but didn’t really think to check on what he was doing.  Big mistake. 

When Joe got back from the store, he had discovered that Ryan had taken it upon himself to empty about half the container of primer on the floor in the closet.  The primer was a few inches thick!  Joe had to scrape it all out.  After we talked to Ryan about not painting unless we were in the room with him, we figured we had solved that problem.

Shortly afterwards, Cole woke up from his nap, and Joe had moved on to another bedroom.  I thought Joe knew Cole had gone upstairs, and Joe had thought I was looking after Cole.  Uh, no.  Big mistake. 

When I found Cole, he was in the closet with a big paint brush, covered from head to toe with primer.  It was all on his new fleece jacket and jeans.  His lime green Crocs were now snow white.  There was another few inches of primer down on the closet floor-again.

Imagine my joy in having to go tell Joe that he had to scrape up all the primer again from the closet floor.  Let’s just say at this point, we were not happy.  It was time for me to give up on trying to get the master bed/bath done, and take the boys home.

On Sunday, Joe’s wonderful parents watched the boys for us all day.  We really made some progress.  I got the master bath/bed cleaned and the doors polished.  I tested out some paint samples for the room, which I am having an awful time trying to match.  Joe got the first two coats of paint applied in both Ryan and Cole’s rooms. 

The professional painter came yesterday and painted the living/entry/hallways, and dining room.  They turned out wonderful.  They finished it all in one day.  It would have taken Joe probably a week at the minimum to get it done, assuming he didn’t have any kiddie interruptions.

I decided I did not like the green and beige color scheme for our bedroom.  I found a light blue/gray color I like, but can’t seem to find an accent color.  Still working on that.  We will have to figure it out by this weekend, because Joe should be able to finish up the bedrooms and start on ours. He won’t let me paint.  He says I am as good of a painter as the boys’ are.  I don’t agree, but if he wants to do all the painting by himself, that is fine with me. 

I have to clean the entire kitchen next, and clean the stair railing and banister. They are oak, and don’t look like they have been cleaned for several years.  The doors looked the same way, and after cleaning them and using Orange Glo, they brightened up beautifully.  I am excited to do the banister and kitchen cabinets with it, and really see them perk up.  Orange Glow is a wonderful product.

I have been taking lots of pictures, and promise to post some soon.  The rooms just don’t look right without flooring yet, so as soon as we get the hardwood floor and carpeting in, I’ll have some pictures of what we have accomplished so far.

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

Joe was out of town this week- he came home a day early, so that was nice, but it has been an exhausting week. 

Since we would like to move into our new house, before next spring, I had grand plans this week to remove all of the ugly wallpaper border, and clean the walls, in the three bedrooms in our new house, so they would be ready for Joe to paint this weekend.  

We have decided to hire a professional painter to paint our living room, entry way, and dining room.  The living room has what I think is a 16-foot ceiling, but no, we haven’t measured.  There are some interesting angles in the room as well. 

Furthermore, the previous owners were hunters (no they were not related to Sarah Palin- a little shot of humor- I need it these days, ) and on these tall walls, they had a lot of their catches stuffed, (I believe taxidermy is the correct phrase for this), and mounted on the walls.  Evidently, it takes a lot of nails to hold up stuffed wild game.   I can’t count how many thick nails are in the walls, at various heights, and how many nail holes are in the walls. Did I mention, there is animal hair stuck the one of the walls, oh, about ten-feet up?

Joe is a great painter.  He is meticulous, but you have to have time to be that precise.  Even if he had the time, the nails, holes, and heights of the walls would take sometime to paint.   We found our painter, savior, who will remove all the nails, patch the holes, clean the walls (animal hair included for no extra charge), and then apply two coats of paint.  He has a crew, so it should just be a three or four day project. 

We have to get this area done because we are having hardwood floors installed by none other than Joe.  (We really are lucky he knows how to do all of these projects!)  But we don’t want to install the floor until the walls are painted.  In the master bedroom, and the boys’ rooms, we are having carpet installed, and again, we don’t want to paint with brand new carpet down.

So I thought I’d spend all day Tuesday removing wallpaper border. The border was glued, super-glued, three quarters of the way up on all the walls.  I had forgotten how much I HATE wallpaper.  After five hours, I only had three walls done in the master bedroom.  I didn’t have the right tools either, and I had the duct cleaner there as well..

Ryan had an injury from earlier in the morning, (trust me- you don’t want to know-let’s just say it was in the worst place ever for a little boy, and the teeth of his two year old brother were involved), so he was cranky (but who could blame him?)  and trying to work on a ladder removing wallpaper that is ten years old, with a cranky four-year old, and a curious two-year old who keeps trying to climb up the ladder-is not the formula to get much accomplished.  

After five and a half hours, we headed home.  I had to go to work for half-day on Wednesday, and after I picked up Ryan from school, we went back to the house, and I was able to finish the last wall in our bedroom.  I inspected the wallpaper in the other two rooms, and it was stuck on more firmly than the stuff I had just gotten off. 

After work today, and the nice surprise that Joe was home early, we went to Home Depot, to get a wallpaper scorer and some paint.  Fortunately, Joe has tomorrow off so he can get started in the master bedroom, and after the boys’ music class, I’ll start me vs. the wallpaper-Round 2.

It is a lot of work, and a bit stressful, but it will be worth it.  I can picture the rooms in the colors we picked out- the soft yellows against the wood floors and I get really excited.  The work makes me tired, but I still enjoy it.  

As the boys and I were sitting on a blanket on the floor in the living room, which is just sub-flooring right now, having a picnic on Tuesday, I knew someday when the room had been done for years, and has seen more of its fair share of living, I would always remember sitting there eating PB&J sandwiches with Ryan and Cole. We ate with badly-in need of paint-holes-in-the-walls, with animal hair stuck on them.  Not the most glamorous lunch, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I do plan to post pictures, but I want to post before and after pictures at the same time.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you the paint colors of the rooms a paint consultant helped us pick out, since we are so awful at picking colors:

Colors for the entry way, living room, and dining room:

Yellow Freeze  &    Man on the Moon

Colors for the master bedroom:

 Baja Dunes &       Jade Tint

Boys’ Room: (they both wanted blue)

      Marguerite Blue

(color swatches from myperfectcolor.com)

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

As I wrote yesterday, I had some exciting news, which was I had tickets to my first ever political rally today!  The speaker- Gov. Sarah Palin in Loveland, Colorado.

Sarah Palin has been to Colorado a few times before, but she was always speaking really far away from where I live.  Loveland is a bit closer, so when I heard she was going to be in Loveland, I decided I wanted to go and hear what she had to say.

My town and county is predominately Democrat- so much that sometimes a Republican won’t even run on the ticket for certain offices- it is a given a Democrat will be voted in.  Nevertheless,  I got up nice and early on Friday morning to get tickets, and was surprised to see so many people in the Republican office in my town, trying to get tickets.  I honestly thought I’d be the only one in there, but that was not the case at all.

My mother-in-law offered to watch the boys, and to take Ryan to school.  My father-in-law kindly accompanied me, so I wouldn’t have to go by myself.   

We arrived at the venue half an hour after they said the doors would be open.  The event center has 7,200 seats, so I thought we would arrive, walk through the doors, go through some security, and be there in plenty of time.

We were surprised to see the line of cars, backed up all the way to the highway, even though the event center was a few miles in.  It took us about 10 minutes to park, once we got off the highway.  It was cold, cloudy, and windy. The temperature was in the 40’s. 

We got out of the car, and walked up a hill to the gate, and we were beyond surprised.  There were people everywhere.  At first glance, it looked like there were thousands.   There were policeman at the gate, who told us the end of the line snaked around.  So we just started walking, and walking, and walking-  trying to find the end of the line.  We did, and when we were in line, the front of the building was probably a good mile or two away.  As long as our line was, I could not count the rows of people in front of us-there were too many.

I took a picture when we first got in line:

This picture doesn’t really doesn’t portray the true sense of the lines- the event arena isn’t in this shot.  I would have needed a ladder and a panoramic lens to capture it.  But everywhere we looked, lines like this, is what we saw. I am no expert crowd estimator, but when we arrived at the back of the line, it is a conservative guess to say there were at least 5,000 people outside with us in line. 

We stood in line for half-an hour, not moving at all.  Some were saying there was a problem with the security, and then some were saying Gov. Palin hadn’t arrived yet, and they weren’t going to let anyone in, until she had arrived.

An hour later, we were starting to move, but there was probably about 3,000 people still outside.  A lady behind us told us she was from Lamar, Colorado, and they had drove for five hours to come to the event.  She said her sister was already in the arena, and she had been talking to her on her cell phone.  She said she had arrived very early in the morning, and had been one of the first to be allowed in.  She had said the arena was full. 

This lady said she did not think we were going to make it in, but they were setting up an adjacent building with a big screen for the overflow.  The lady said like most rallies, they gave out more tickets than what the arena could hold.  I couldn’t believe that there were thousands of people still outside, even though the arena was full. 

My father-in-law, and I realized that we were not going to be making it in. There was no way, unless the event center had miraculously added about 5,000 extra seats overnight.  Besides, it was really cold, and I had not been expecting to stand outside in the weather.  I had a light jacket on, and that was it. 

So we reluctantly stepped out of line, and headed back to the car.  As we walked back to the hill, and I looked over my shoulder at the crowd, it just struck me how many other people like me, wanted to hear Gov. Sarah Palin speak.

There were young and old, male and female, and people from every ethnic group.  While we had been waiting in line, some people shared stories about why they were there, and why they were leaning or voting for Sen. McCain.  One lady in front of us said she had lived in 25 different countries (for her husband’s work), and no matter where she went in the world, everyone always asked her one question, and that was “How can I become an American?”  

One young mother in front of us said she had grown up in Saudi Arabia, and having lived in that kind of government, she felt McCain best represented and could preserve the values of America. 

Another said she had a roommate in college who was from Sweden.  While this person loved their country, he had hated how the government controlled every aspect.  She said his father had died of heart disease, while on a waiting list to receive medical with the government-run health care program in Sweden.  She said she did not want America to takes steps closer to socialism.

I had brought a little notebook expecting to take notes on Gov. Palin’s speech, but I used it for notes I took on the people’s comments waiting with me.  As we drove through the thousands of cars leaving the grounds, not being able to hear what we came for, I realized I gained something else. 

A sense of appreciation.  I was grateful, so many people expressed their views and thoughts openly.  I did not hear one “racist” or rude comment regarding Sen. Obama, or his supporters.  Everyone was very respectful, but felt free to express their feelings.  That is something.  So many people all over the world, are not free to do, what we just did- assemble, offer their opinions, and show support for their political candidates.

I think the woman standing in front of me who had lived in so many different countries, said it best, when she said  “No government is perfect, and we have our problems. But this is America, and it is the greatest country in the world. Everyone wants to come here, and it is our home-we love living in other countries but when we come home we always say, ’Thank God we are Americans.’”

I couldn’t agree with her more.

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

Just a quick home buying update:  Last week we were approved for our loan, and the sellers agreed to fix one item that came up in the inspection. 

So, if all else goes according to plan, we are set to close THIS Thursday morning.  I still am in a little bit of disbelief, but it looks like it is really going to happen.  Our lender needs the title work, which is being sent to them, and that is it.  We are really getting excited now, but we both feel until we sign on the dotted line, and have the keys in our hands, you never know.  So we are very positive, but reserving our full blown excitement until after we close-which is just in four days. 

I have another little something to blog about (hopefully tomorrow), that is exciting for me.  I’m going to keep it a surprise for now, so you will be sure to check back tomorrow or Tuesday on what it is.  (I’m mean- I know- to keep you in suspense, but hopefully it will be exciting for some of my readers to read about as well.) 

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

I know we all LOVE being mothers 99% of the time, and would not trade it for anything.  We all LOVE our kids like crazy, and could not imagine our lives without them. 

But…what don’t you love about being a mother at times?  I have been thinking about this a lot, and don’t think it is really acceptable for mothers to go around saying what they don’t like about mothering.  We are for the most part expected to be happy, and put on a happy face no matter what. 

So, I decided to devote a blog posting every now and then to “Mommy Confessions.”  You can “confess” something small or something large, and there is NO judgement.   So if you want to get that certain something about motherhood off your chest- this is the place.  After all confession is good for the soul, right? 

My confession is I HATE the park.  I like watching my kids play, but find it so boring.  When my boys were younger, they needed me more to help them play, and that was fun, but now as they are growing and can do more and more by themselves, and don’t need want me to help them play, I still have to keep an eye on them, so it is too hard to read something, or talk to another mother.  So I stand around bored out of my mind.  My favorite part of going to the park, is when it is time to go home.

So there you have my confession, and I feel a lot better- what is yours?

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

On Saturday, we went to a farm where we could pick as many vegetables as we wanted, and where there were a lot of fun things for the boys.

There was a real fire engine, and the boys had fun playing on it,  Next up were barrel rides pulled by a tractor:

Next we headed for the hayride to take us to the fields, and we spent the next three hours in the fields picking produce.  We picked corn:

and the boys dug for potatoes:

 We also got a ton of onions- red, white, and yellow onions, Indian corn, chili peppers, butternut squash, and pumpkins.  Cole was so tired from all the picking, he crashed out in my arms:

After we were back from the fields, and Cole had woken up, the boys played on the fire engine again, and Ryan went to play in the huge bouncy castle, while I took Cole and let him play on the various farm equipment:

We finally left late afternoon, as it started to get cloudy and cool.  When I asked the boys what they liked best, they said picking the vegetables.  I think it is important for kids to realize where their food comes from.

We are lucky this great farm is so close where the boys can learn about farming, see the food, participate in harvesting it, and have fun-all at the same time.

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

If you remember a few months back in our house hunting,  we had found the one, but the sellers weren’t interested in selling it, so we were not able to get it under contract.

Since then, we have looked, looked, and looked some more at houses in the town we are currently living in, and also in nearby surrounding towns. We were coming up empty.  Either the houses were too small, needed major remodeling, or we just couldn’t find what we were looking for. 

I had an idea that house shopping would be like wedding dress shopping- you just know the minute you spot that perfect wedding dress.  I would see pictures of houses for sale on the Internet, and from the pictures they looked promising.  I knew the minute we drove up to a house, it would be the one. 

Uh, not really.  After two months, we were not finding what we wanted: a house that had- at least three bedrooms, a back yard on the bigger side, and room in the house to grow: translation- a basement, oh yeah, in our price range, in a neighborhood that we liked.

Evidently this is harder than I thought.  We found a house in August, that was almost the one.  It was in a nearby smaller town.  It was a few years old, but had only been lived in for a year.  It looked almost brand new.  We were really close to making an offer on it, but we hesitated.  It would have been fine for us now, but as the boys grew, it really didn’t have any more room to grow.  We both felt like we would outgrow it in five years, and it felt like we were settling for something we knew wasn’t right, but hoping it was.  

So we passed on it.  The evening we decided to pass on the house, I was checking the listings again, and a brand new listing caught my eye.  It was in the same neighborhood (that was our first choice) where we had tried to buy the first house.  We set up a showing right away.

While looking through the house, we both just knew it was the one.  It had everything we were looking for, with a few extras.  However, nothing is perfect.  The house was getting ready to be foreclosed, so it needed some work.  It needed to be cleaned, painted, new floors and carpet.  It needed a little more work than what we were hoping for, but that was the only negative.   

We made an offer a day later, which turned the deal into a short sale. This was in the middle of August, and we had to wait for the banks holding the mortgages on the house to approve our offer.  As of last week, we were still waiting.  We technically didn’t have a contract, because we didn’t want to start spending money on the inspection, mortgage application fees, etc., until we were sure the banks would approve the offer.

Last week, we were still waiting on the final bank holding the first mortgage, which is the no-brainer, because they would be paid in full.  We didn’t understand what was holding up their approval.  Turns out, they needed a signed contract to assure them, that the sellers really would be selling the house.  So as of last Thursday, we were officially under contract!

Hopefully the bank will get the approval processed- they already said they would, once we had a contract, and once they do that, we will close within 30 days.  But in the meantime, no one else can come along and make another offer on the house, while we wait for the bank. 

We are trying not to get too excited until we close (because you never know what can happen between now and then), but we definitely just got one step closer to moving.

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!

Today it was in the mid-80’s, and after Ryan and Cole had been playing outside for most of the morning, they were hot.  They asked if they could play with their sprinkler ring.  Since days like this are fading fast, I thought it would be one last time this year they could play in the sprinkler.  I’ll let you decide if they had fun:

(You can click on the first two pictures to see them larger).  Now go to Wordless Wednesday, to see all the other pictures.

Subscribe to A Mama’s Blog's RSS feed so you never miss a post!