Master Bedroom: Before and After

Well this past week I decided that if there was any chance at all I was going to have to be on bedrest at some point then I needed to get the bedroom done so I wasn't stuck in an ugly room. ;) Looking for before shots I realized that we seemed to have largely overlooked taking pictures of this room (probably because it looked just like the other two) and could only find two pictures showing parts of the room. The first is a pic of the tv stand they had mounted to the wall (just like a motel). Some people that have seen this thought it was cool. I thought it was butt-ugly and had Patrick take it down. The second pic is of the door leading out to the screened in back porch from this room.

I debated over what color to paint this room...I was toying with the idea of doing a cool two-color faux finish in here but after bringing home a couple of colors to look at that ended up being no where close to what I wanted I decided to just paint it the same color as the bedroom in our last house. The idea being that I was never able to fully actualize what I was visualizing so maybe I could do so here. The color looks a little washed out in these pictures. it's actually much darker.

Bye bye tv stand.....hello bookcase.

I think I'll buy a plant of some kind to put in the corner by the treadmill...maybe a small tree? I think that wall needs more stuff on it too...

In the future I would like to get some new dressers, matching the dark wood of the mirror over the taller of the two as well as a cool-looking four poster/canopy bed...kind of like this. The ceilings in this house are high enough I think we could actually get away with that. In the mean time I've tried various methods to mimic a canopy...two houses ago we had a sloped ceiling that I looped the fabric on, last house the ceiling was low enough that I hung it from there and then caught it back at the wall with hooks and draped it down either side. Neither of those options would work here, so I finally decided on a curtain rod. I think it turned out nicely.

I also plan to get a new bedspread...I'm kind of leaning towards one similar to this (look at the bed, not the rest):

but haven't been able to find one. I'd like to get some more red in the room so I may buy a red sheer curtain or loop some red in with the bed drapery. But here it is for now. :)

Coming Soon(ish): Before and After Guest/Baby room

Coming much later: Before and After Dining Room

Stay tuned. ;)

Na na na na na...Batman!

James got some new jammies at the store last week. I debated over getting these, but finally did since they were so cute. My little brothers used to have some very similar to these.

Please ignore the messy house. ;)

It's a....

Baby! YAY!!! We were worried it was four hamsters there for awhile. ;) I was going to post a picture here, but I guess my scanner isn't working. Imagine generic baby profile ultrasound pic.

So we were convinced that this baby was a girl, not only because of symptoms I had similar to Isabelle's pregnancy but also because Isabelle was convinced that not only was it a girl but that her name was Angelina...she said it often enough that she had us convinced too. Alas it was not to be. (That means it's a boy) So now we have to think of some boy names...maybe I'll do a post about that at some point, but right now it's a little depressing since girl names are so much easier to come up with...and I was excited about getting all of Isabelle's cute girl clothes out again. She had so many that most of them are still in very good condition...James' clothes on the other hand were mostly 2nd or 3rd time hand me downs which he managed to almost completely destroy (i.e. stain horribly in several places)...so I guess that will be fun....boy clothes are so boring! Pants and shirts. That's ALL they wear. Bah!

In other news, we also discovered that I apparently have Placenta Previa. This means that my placenta implanted over my cervix (i.e. baby's escape route). The doctor said that this can resolve itself as the uterus grows, it can "move" the placenta out of the way allowing for a regular delivery. I have another ultrasound scheduled at 30 wks (which I might add are an additional $300 per ultrasound...if it has partially moved at 30 wks, they'll check again at 36wks...so a possible extra $600 we'll need to pay them)to see if this has happened. If it doesn't move then that means that I have to have a c-section. That freaking sucks for several reasons:
1- We've already paid off the hospital for a regular birth, a c-section is at least another $1200 we have to come up with.
2- How am I supposed to take care of three kids by myself when I'm going to be broken for weeks afterwards?
3- Apparently our hospital does not allow VBAC's. EVER. It doesn't matter that the only reason I would have to have one this time is the placenta thing or that I've had two completely normal vaginal births previous to this, they will not allow me to ever deliver "naturally" again. I think this is the biggest load of crap I have ever heard in my entire life. My doctor said it's because they're required to have a surgical team on hand in case I do need another c-section. Since their anesthesiologist is not there 24 hours a day and my ob is 20 minutes or more from the hospital, they've decided to just make it a blanket policy to not allow these for any reason. Caren, my doctor, said that if someone did come in and they were already at like 8-9 centimeters and didn't have any problems then she would deliver them but that I shouldn't count on that happening. She said if I wanted a VBAC for the next one I'd have to deliver at one of the much larger hospitals closer to the metroplex where they do have a surgical team on hand at all times. This has made me very, very mad. So right now we're hoping that the stupid placenta will just move and we won't have to worry about this.
4-I also found out that there is a higher chance of bleeding ALOT during and after delivery if you have placenta previa for various reasons I don't want to go into. But if they can't get it to stop their solution is apparently a hysterectomy. Yeah. What the crap. So that freaking sucks too.
5- I have now been placed on "pelvic rest". This means no fooling around with my husband...FOR THE REST OF THE PREGNANCY! Plus, the six weeks after delivery...which is SIX and a HALF MONTHS (assuming it doesn't move at 30 wks when they check again...which is still 10wks away but a lot better than the 26 wks we'd be looking at otherwise). Yeah so that REALLY sucks....really. I think that is a very important part of a healthy marriage relationship and I worry that it is going to effect us in more ways then the one in the coming weeks. They do this because if it were to hit the cervix or 'disrupt' it or something it could cause the placenta to start bleeding profusely and kill the baby. She said I will probably have some spotting in the weeks/months to come since any contractions and such can also disrupt the blood cells in this area and cause bleeding. She said spotting is okay but if it's anything heavier than that I am to rush to labor/delivery at the hospital. You know the one that's a minimum 45 min drive from here. So...yeah. Lots of fun stuff to look forward to. Plus now we also have to come up with money for a circumsion. Bah.

Anyway, baby is apparently healthy and doing well, kicking away. He was curled up into a ball during the ultrasound which made me worry they wouldn't be able to tell the gender, but she found it just fine. Fun, fun.

"Master" bath & Kid's room: Before and After

Well my husband went away on business this past week and I suddenly decided that I needed to be productive with my time. So Tuesday I painted the bathroom, Wednesday I decorated the bathroom and painted the kids room, Thursday I drove into Gaivesville to buy some wall art and Friday I drove in to Sherman to buy even more art after I noticed big empty spaces on the walls. Now my baby didn't seem to like this much (you know the one in my belly?) so I've been taking it easy the past couple of days, but it was nice to get so much done. The bathroom is long, narrow and dark and subsequently hard to get a picture of, so hopefully you can kind of tell what it looks like. Also I can't find any good pics of the kids room before so you'll have to just imagine more of the same from the one shot I have.

Bathroom Before:

Bathroom After:

Bedroom Before:

Bedroom Intermediate (Isabelle wanted to help):

Bedroom After:

There are actually a few more pics hanging on the wall now, but I guess I took the after pictures before I hung those up...just use your imagination. ;) I wasn't planning on painting Isabelle's room, but she kept asking when we were going to do hers and insisting that she wanted it green. So I told her that if there was enough green left over from the bathroom we could paint one of her walls...I was thinking like an accent wall....anyway there was a LOT left over so we painted two walls. I think it turned out pretty cute. What do you think.

Coming soon: The Bedroom Before and After. ;) This room looks really, really bad now that the ones surrouding it are done.

The Den: Before and After

So I suddenly got completely sick of looking at the den, or "computer room" as we call it this past Saturday, shoved everything into the center of the room, and started painting while listening to conference. I optimistically estimated that I could probably get it mostly finished by the end of the Sunday afternoon session. Well after staying up until 2am + three nights in a row, the last two with Patrick helping, we finally finished it. Here are some shots from before we moved in and a few after we moved in so you can get an idea of the sty we were living in before I snapped. I should say that this is the room where the movers put most of our stuff so it has been the most junk filled/disorganized of the house....and unfortunately where we seem to spend most of our days as the tv in the kitchen picks up pbs and the living room doesn't and since we're on the computer a lot.

Okay here are the after shots. The mirror is currently planned to go back on the bathroom door and the bookcase isn't filled yet, so I didn't take a picture of that...and ignore the box of office stuff we have yet to find a place for. Also the blue is slightly more purpley than I was going for, but I think it still turned out pretty good. :)

Doesn't it look much better without all of that brown, beige, and light pink (the color scheme for the entire house btw)? I think the wainscoting looks WAY better painted white...what do you think? Also, if you didn't notice that is a pic of the St. George Temple over the computer and there was one of Jesus in the living room, though I don't think we got a picture of that corner...aren't we such good mormons now? ;)

Birthdays

Well we've had quite a few birthdays around here the last three months...four in fact, so now the whole family has to wait for the baby in September for another birthday party...although I guess hours of labor isn't really what I'd call a party...and they don't usually bring the new mom cake, though I think they should. Maybe I'll suggest it and revolutionalize the hospital cafeteria. ;) Patricks birthday was first. He turned 33 years old. His birthday is only two weeks after Christmas and thus I usually buy his Christmas and birthday presents and the same time and arbitrarily decide which will go to which holiday.

We had a big cookie cake that his sister Heidi made us, which was very nice btw, and that I decorated with black frosting I bought for Halloween cookies and never opened. We also had strawberry cheesecake which I made later, very delicious.

Isabelle's birthday is ten days after Patricks. This year she turned three years old and we invited a couple of friends over (and their siblings and moms, so seven kids including my two and three moms including myself). I think I went a little over board with decorations and such, but I guess it's okay for her first party. There were a few crying instances where people weren't sharing but they all quieted down when we had cake and pizza.

Later that night we had the family party with the rest of the cake and presents from us and anyone who mailed stuff. Isabelle got a cowboy hat and a magnifying glass like Sid the Science Kid (pbs show). Two of her favorite gifts were her own toolbox with tools and a big princess dress from her friend Tyson who couldn't make the party.
James's first birthday was next, exactly one month after Isabelle's. We didn't have as much of a party for his as this was also the day we closed on our new house. We were out signing papers and checking out the new place until around 9pm. When we got home we had some carrotcake and James opened his presents. One of his favorites was a helicopter toy that makes lots and lots of noises from Grandma Segler. Mommy likes that it has an off switch. ;)

Two weeks after James' birthday was mine. I turned 28. Patrick surprised me by inviting all of our Denton friends up to our new house to celebrate. We had chips and cookies and Patrick bought me a HUGE strawberry cheesecake from a bakery/pizza/sandwich place in town. It was good though a little too rich. We had fun visiting with our friends and eating ourselves sick.

One of my favorite gifts was a cool U2 coffee table book from my friend Josh and Dave. Patrick got me some nice movies and the new U2 cd, and my mom sent me a cool table runner and some nice maternity clothes. You can also see my ugly living room pre-paint/decorating in these.

So there you have it. Our three month birthday extravaganza! Wasn't that exciting?! ;)

Before and After

Okay so we FINALLY finished one room to do before and after shots...well actually I still need to hang the curtains, but this is close enough I guess. So here is the living room before we moved in:

The first thing I did was take those curtains down. Here is an intermediate/almost done shot:

It's kind of hard to see in that shot, but I wrote Isabelle's name above the entryway....I also put a heart with Patrick and my initials in it. I thought it would be okay since I did it in trim paint which was a lighter color....unfortunately the trim paint was also semi-gloss and the regular paint was satin/eggshell finish. This meant you could see the writing even through the paint. So those areas got lots of extra layers. So here is the end result...I couldn't get a very good pic of the opposite wall, but rest assured that it looks good...also picture red curtains framing the windows.

So there you go. I'm going to put a plant to the side of the big couch there, the smaller sofa has a red throw that goes on it, but you can see what it's supposed to look like. What do you think? If you don't like it, don't tell me. ;)

I know, I know...

I need to update more. We've been in the house for about three weeks now and I'm still not unpacked. I thought I would have painted most of the rooms by now and have nice pictures to post, but I've only done the trim in the back bathroom. Since I don't want to take stuff down to paint, I haven't put up any pictures or anything on the walls/shelves so the house is still really ugly and depressing. I'd like to blame being pregnant on my lack of motivation, but I think I'm just lazy. But not lazy enough to complain that the house is ugly and needs repainting apparently. ;) Here are some random pics to keep you entertained.


James has discovered he loves pb&j sandwiches....
Ready to go to church...Patrick was appalled that I dressed James as a preppy...I didn't notice until he said that.

Isabelle found the witch hats and decided they should both wear them...and yes that is the start of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on the tv.

Okay now I'm mad. As I was looking for pics to post I realized I couldn't find any from Isabelle's birthday in January. She turned three and it was her first "friend" party. We had streamers and balloons and a tablecloth, hats, party favors and five friends over and somehow all the pics I took have either been lost or deleted. Stupid digital photos!

So there was a cute video of James here in our extremely yellow and not in a good way kitchen, but after waiting four hours for it to upload I decided it wasn't happening.

Okay I found the photos of her birthday...I put them in the wrong folder. I should do a post about birthdays or something since all four of us have had them in the last few months and I didn't do any pictures...maybe next time. :)

Update II

So our taxes were finally processed last week and we were supposed to close this past Wednesday...then Thursday...then Friday....now maybe Tuesday, but I wouldn't count on it.

Update

Okay so we're currently set to close on the new house on Feb. 20th. Hopefully the IRS will have straightened out our taxes by then (I called them and that is the date they gave me to call back as they should have been processed by then). We've also accepted an offer on our current house and are set to close on it Feb. 24th. So if the Collinsville one is delayed again we may have no place to live! Well actually the people buying our house said they are willing to rent it to us for a month or two if we need to. They are buying it for their daughter who is attending college here...how would that be if your parents bought you a house for college...man, some people with money. Not that I'm complaining. ;) Anyway, so the 20th is a Friday and the 24th is a Tuesday, so that leaves us Saturday and Monday to move (as I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that sort of thing on Sunday). No time to go clean or paint or anything...well hopefully if we close in the morning I can go over and clean that afternoon. Luckily the house is big enough that there should be plenty of room to keep stuff away from the walls while I paint. Unfortunately this means we won't be able to hang pictures for awhile. I hate that. That is one of the first things I do when I move to a new place is hang the pictures so it feels like home. Oh well. Send lots of speedy tax processing wishes to the IRS for us! :)

Le Sigh....

So today I was supposed to be at the new house cleaning. I was going to bring the vacuum, my cleaning supplies, some food for me and the kids, the pack 'n play, Isabelle's blankets/pillow (you know so they can nap), the laptop, some movies for the kids, and some toys. I was going to vacuum the floors first, then sweep out the cobwebs, gather all of the random items left in the house for goodwill, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, take down and wash the curtains, wash the blinds, evaluate whether I need to wash the baseboards, try and get a little closer to deciding on an exact shade of paint for the living room, dining, den, and back bedroom now that the curtains are down and I can see the light better, etc...
Instead I am at home with my kids doing not much of anything. I should probably clean the bathroom today, but that's about it. You see we were supposed to close yesterday. We were supposed to meet at the title office at noon, sign the papers and be done with it. Instead they were still lacking some paperwork by 5 and we found out that the mortgage company was unable to verify our 2007 taxes with the IRS since Patrick just mailed them two weeks ago *rolls eyes* so now the whole loan process is on hold until they can verify that and who knows how long that will take. So now that we're technically in breach of contract if we don't get everything worked out Tuesday (Monday's a holiday) then the sellers could just say forget the whole thing and we'll be back to looking for a house. I can tell you right now that there are no houses as nice as this one in our price range. So now I'm annoyed, even more so since Patrick says he's not sure if he should be annoyed or not since maybe it just wasn't meant to be. I'm annoyed because it got this far into the process and still stupid stuff like this is popping up. If this had happened a month ago I wouldn't have been as annoyed since I hadn't made actual plans at that point. But now that it's so close to getting the house and moving, I had made day by day plans of what needed to be done in order to get the house cleaned, painted and moved into by the first of the month. So now it's all up in the air. Stupidheads. Okay that's all. :)

Doctor Who and the Daleks

Patrick and I have recently been watching the first season of Doctor Who on Netflix. My sister made me watch an episode while they were visiting over Christmas and it was really good so we've been trying to catch up. We're one episode away from season two and it's been great so far. Anyway, Isabelle watched one episode with us called "Dalek" where one of the Doctor's old enemies returns. These are really cheesy looking aliens with body armour that looks like a robot. Isabelle thinks they're awesome. I found this video on you tube and she thinks it's great. :) Enjoy...sorry if you dont' watch the show then it's probably boring .




Here's another one....I like the music on this one...it's kind of celtic-y. ;)

Twilight Spoof

This is pretty funny...if you've seen the movie/know the plot. ;)

It's the Kiera Show!!!

Today (last week now) was our ward Christmas Party. Every year they have some sort of musical program following a big dinner in the gym at our church. For the past two years I've played at either this or the Relief Society Christmas Party. Well this year I was excited to be able to play again...you know since I'm self centered and like it when people applaud me. ;) Well I was originally going to play/sing one song...then the activity committee asked if I would be willing to sing Oh Holy Night again as well as the other song I was planning on singing. No problem. Could I also play the guitar accompaniment for Silent Night? and maybe some instrumental background music while they read some scriptures? Sure, sure....then the other boy who was supposed to play some secular songs for the first half of the program dropped out and they were wondering if it would be possible for me to also play Jingle Bells, Let it Snow, and background for a reading of "A Texas Night Before Christmas". Of course I will! I was very excited to be able to play so much...until I started thinking about how this must look to other people. I mean, is there NO ONE else in the ward that can play an instrument? Or "Okay she sings pretty good, but I didn't come here to watch the Kiera Show." Patrick said I was being ridiculous, but I wonder.

So for the program they had me and the guy doing the readings up on stage in armchairs with festive Christmas throws draped around the back. The were going for a country western theme so the guy wore a cowboy hat and I wore my boots and pretended to be country. For the first half they seemed to think it was a good idea (or the guy did and didn't consult the lady in charge) to have some of his grandkids up on stage with us. This was a little nerve wracking from my perspective having a bunch of kids running around next to me and reaching out repeatedly to touch my guitar. One of the little boys got to close and I accidentally hit him up side the head with my guitar. That was fun (read: stressful). ;)

Anyway, here are the two songs I sang for your viewing pleasure. The second song had some technical difficulties with the camera so it's in two parts, missing about ten seconds in between.

Plus my guitar was out of tune...I tuned it in a cold room and then played in a stifling hot room wich totally messes with the strings...half of which are steel and half nylon (as my nylon ones break I'm replacing them with the extra steel strings I have), but the steel and nylon react differently to heat and this messes with the sound... Also you'll notice I tend to smile when I mess up. That's my tell. ;)

Afterwards one of the men in our ward asked me where I was from originally. When I said Utah he was surprised. He said something like; "How could you sing with that twang if you're from Utah?! I thought for sure you were from somewhere down south like Tennessee or something." I smiled and said something brilliant like; "Nope." I didn't think I sung the songs that twangy...though I apparently played it with alot more twang then I intended. Oh well.

Twilight: Revisited

My friends and I recently saw the movie version of Twilight this past weekend. In preparation for this event, I decided to re-read the first book before seeing the movie. The following are my thoughts on the book the second time around as well as my impressions of the movie. For those of you who haven’t read the book and have no interest in it or the movie, sorry....but feel free to leave a comment regardless.

The Book
Since reading Twilight I have discussed it with many different people. One of the views that surprised me at first was that Bella was a weak-willed push over and Edward was the instigator of an unhealthy and controlling relationship. I did not get this impression when I first read the book. However since I was looking for it this time around, I can totally see how some people would have that point of view. The biggest problem I had with Edward this time was his refusal to acknowledge Bella’s ‘no.’ Let me explain. I recently re-read/skimmed the book “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin De Becker. This book is supposed to be a guide to acknowledging why we fear certain things and how often when we are uncomfortable it is because our subconscious has picked up on something that our conscious mind will not acknowledge. The resulting fear is nature’s way of protecting us. One of the things De Becker talked about in his book were cues that dangerous people often give off. If we are aware and looking for these qualities in a person it may save us from a bad and possibly deadly situation. One of these was if the man refuses to acknowledge your no. The example he gave was a man offering to help a woman whose groceries had spilled down the stairwell. She said no, she had it. He ignored her, with “oh come on let me help you.” He then tried to “help” her by carrying one of her bags. She resisted and he insisted, saying “you know there is such a thing as being too proud.” When she finally gave in it was at that point that she relinquished control of the situation and let him know that she would do whatever he said from that point on. He later raped and nearly killed her. So when Edward repeatedly refuses to acknowledge Bella’s no it puts me on edge.

I was annoyed at the length of their relationship. I know for many Mormons their courtship happened just this fast. From the first or second date/third time they’ve talked they knew that they were “completely and irrevocably” in love with whomever. But I have a problem with people falling in love so fast with so little actual experience with the person involved. So consequently I can’t help but laugh when Bella is suddenly in love with Edward whom she knows little to nothing about. Okay so he’s a vampire who listens to Debussy….well obviously I’m going to fall in love with him! I was again annoyed that she figures out what he is, they hang out for two days and then she’s on the run and he’s somewhere else for the rest of the book. Where is the relationship? They exchange a few pleasantries in class, go out on a date, and suddenly she’s willing to die for him and vice verse?

During this reading I was also attempting to understand the mass appeal of this book. Don’t get me wrong I liked it and went out and bought a copy. But I don’t see why this book is so different from any other vampire book I’ve read. One thing I think is funny is the scores of people saying, “okay there are vampires in it, but it’s not like a vampire story!” I wonder how many vampire stories these people have read to compare them too. Moving on. I had a couple of different theories this time around. One: It is very melodramatic. Now I was never this way, but I have the impression that most (?) teens are. Everything is a life or death situation, everything matters. Now in this case there really were a few of these, but maybe that’s why the teens could relate. I read something mentioning how didn’t we all remember when we had a crush on someone and our whole day would hinge on seeing them. Our hearts would race and our palms would sweat at the mere mention of their name. This book captures that feeling. Two: Edward is "perfect," or so the totally biased, fighting against the raging hormones of adolescence teenager says. Meyer doesn't seem to go into that much detail of what Edward looks like, but every girl that reads this just knows he's gorgeous (with her own unique picture in her head of just what that entails). Three: He listens to Bella and talks about his feelings. Most guys are not comfortable talking about their feelings like a girl and Edward does this ad naseum. He also spends all of his time asking Bella questions (as if he's more intrigues by the fact that he can't read her mind then by the answers themselves). I suppose most girls would love this. *shrug*

The Movie
Now I must admit that my knee-jerk reaction was; “Wow, that was stupid.” However, I have since thought more about it and discussed it with a few other people and have decided that while it did have its moments, overall I enjoyed it and want to see it again. I had a problem with some of the actors and their acting abilities (Jasper looking 12 years old with that perpetual deer in the headlights expression he has…he is supposed to be this super tough, bad–assed vamp and he looks ridiculous…enough to elicit helpless giggles whenever he comes on screen). Robert Pattinson is incredibly hot, I’ll give you that. However I thought his interpretations of Edwards various expressions were also hilarious. In the book Edward snarls, sneers, laughs, smolders, is cold, hard, unmoving, etc… In the movie it seemed Pattinson had two expressions. First he looks at you straight on, and then from under his impressive (read: big) eyebrows. I think the under the eyebrows look was supposed to be his feral “I’m a deadly animal seconds away from ripping your throat out” look, but it was still pretty funny. Going along with that, the scene where they all jumped in front of Bella in a defensive stance was also pretty funny. I didn’t think they looked at all scary or intimidating like they were supposed to.

I liked Bella for the most part, but Kristen Stewart seemed to come off with an attitude that I didn’t think Bella had in the book. I have seen her in interviews and gotten the same attitude impression from her, so I think maybe that’s just how she is. I didn’t like the diminished roles Jasper and Alice had, but I wasn’t too upset about that.

I thought they did a good job of portraying the teenagers in this the way I remember teens from my high school being; immature (chasing each other with worms) and young looking. I read an article about how that was very different from the sexed-up teen dramas now popular. I don’t know if teens in other places are like the ones in these other dramas, talking about and having sex, maliciously hurting one another and cussing up a storm, but in my home town in Southern Utah where nearly everyone is Mormon, few were having or even talking about sex (that I know of) those that were, were gossiped about (like in the movie the scandal of the vamp couples living together) and there wasn’t much swearing…but much chasing with worms…or the eye from the toad we were dissecting in biology, etc…

I also thought the special effects were kind of hokey (yes I know they had a low budget). In the book the vampires move so fast it’s as if they just suddenly appear across the room or wherever. I thought they would have done good to emulate this by simply cutting from them in one part of the room to them somewhere else…you know in a kind of stop motion thing. Instead they had them move super fast by making them blur. I thought that was pretty funny. Edward’s sparkles were um…interesting, not at all like I pictured it. These movie sparkles looked more like he was sweating and had a light “glisten” in the sun. It was also funny the way all the vamps looked as if they were wearing poorly applied Halloween makeup to make their faces white, and the scene where they all walk into the lunchroom was hilarious. However, all this aside, I still thought the movie was entertaining and will probably find some way to go and see it again. What did you think?

One more thing; was anyone else totally freaked out about how high up in those trees they were? I wouldn’t have let go of Edward. Also; wasn’t Carlisle hot? I know they said he was in the book, but I don’t think I pictured him that way since he was such a father figure. Okay I’m not done…the kissing scene…wasn’t that the funniest thing in the whole movie? Literally 30 seconds of puckered, moving closer… “Don’t move”…..closer… “Don’t move”…closer still…until they finally kiss. *lol* Totally awesome: Edward catching that apple with his foot and his mad driving skills. They said he drove fast in the book, but that was freaking awesome.

Decisions

So we’re thinking of buying a house and moving to another town. Patrick has had his new job for over a year now and commuting 45 minutes one way (1 ½ hours) each day. This is annoying as we don’t see him as much as we could and the money we’re spending on gas is getting to be a little ridiculous….though with the recent dramatic drop it has gotten much better. Anyway, we’ve been looking at houses a little closer to his work. Unfortunately the business he works for is based out of a little tiny town in the middle of nowhere….with the closest towns also being similarly tiny and surrounded by nothing in the way of shopping and amenities.
So long story short, we’ve accustomed ourselves to the idea of living in the country. I’m hoping it won’t be too big of an adjustment since the children and I so rarely leave the house anyway. Right now we’re considering putting in an offer on this house.


It is located in a booming town of about 1500 (for comparison there are around 120,000 in our current town). There are schools in town (Elementary, Intermediate, and High School) so the kids wouldn’t have to bus into somewhere else, which is nice. But there are maybe ten places of business including two pizza places, a café with random hours, two gas stations, a realty office, two hair salons, and a “custom trading co” store. I’m not really sure what they have in there. Church is about a thirty minute drive, which is a bummer, but there is a Super Walmart and various other shopping facilities about 16 miles away. I also located the closest McDonalds, which is in the next biggest town over (of 3600) and a ten minute drive from our prospective new home.


So the new house is a “Victorian” built in 1920 with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room, dining room, big kitchen (with lots of cupboard space) and a den. There is also an enormous attic that could easily be converted to more living space (we were thinking a couple of bedrooms) bumping the square footage up to about 2500. The two bathrooms are small and dark, which I don’t like, and the kitchen was redecorated in the 80s, which is not so nice, but there are nearly 12 foot ceilings in every room, which is awesome, central air and heat, really well insulated, storm windows, and a detached two car garage and workshop. The house has been on the market for nearly two years now and marked down repeatedly, so we’re hoping the sellers are really eager to get rid of it. There are two magnolia trees in front, a huge pecan in back and a few other smaller ones around the yard. The front of the house has a wrap-around porch and the back has a huge screened porch with ceiling fans. The house does need a little work (though still in far better condition than the last three places we've lived) but can be moved into as is. So we’re thinking of putting in an offer this week and seeing what happens. If everything goes through we’ll be moving sometime after the New Year.

And now for something completely different. Here are a few pics of us this Halloween. We had fun at our wards trunk-or-treat and Isabelle won a prize for most original costume (she was a robot)…oh and in case you were confused; James was dressed as a girl. He didn’t win any prizes. ;)

Remember When

20 Years Ago....
1. I was seven.
2. I was in 3rd grade – Mrs. Bulloch’s class.
3. I was being a naughty girl and shoplifting candy with my friend Brandy.

10 Years Ago....
1. I was seventeen in my senior year of high school.
2. I was busy filling out college, scholarships and Sterling Scholar applications.
3. Worked for my math teacher correcting papers after school for $4.50/hr.

5 Years Ago....
1. I was 22 years old and in Utah with my fiancée for our Friday (the 17th) wedding.
2. Working as a secretary for Texas Women’s University.
3. Had already graduated from WSU with my BA in Anthropology.

3 Years Ago....
1. I was finishing up my last semester at UNT for my MA in Applied Anthropology.
2. I was seven months pregnant with our first child.
3. Renting a huge (to me) house just behind my husbands shop in downtown Denton.

1 Year Ago....
1. We were living in our first mortgaged home.
2. I was six months pregnant with our second child.
3. I was planning a Christmas trip home to see my parents.

So far this year....
1. We’ve welcomed our new son into the family.
2. I’ve looked into Masters/PhD programs with online or distance learning options in Museum Science, though haven’t filled out any applications.
3. Attended our tenth Macfarlane Family Reunion at Bear Lake.

Yesterday I.....
1. Didn’t get enough sleep.
2. Watched “The Nightmare Before Christmas” with my daughter for the umpteenth time.
3. Attended my Book Club…we read “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton…very good.

Today I.....
1. Took Isabelle and James to Storytime at the library and to a friend’s house.
2. Took a nap.
3. Read the first chapter in our new bookclub book (Key Lime Pie Murder) and have since been inspired to make oatmeal cookies…there are recipes in the book.

In the next year…
1. I’ll probably get pregnant again with our third child.
2. We may finally get around to putting an addition onto the house.
3. Slim possibility that we could sell the house and move closer to Patrick’s job.

In Memorium

Joseph "Big Joe" Quinton

Dec 18, 1977 - Oct 5, 2008

Our friend Joe was diagnosed with stage 4 large cell Lymphoma last January after complaining of a back ache over Christmas break. This past weekend he lost his fight with cancer and was called home at 3:30 am Sunday morning. He is survived by his loving family and friends who will miss him very much. Joe was only 30 years old. Please go here for funeral information and how you can help.

Even though I was better friends with Joe's siblings then with him, his loss is still felt in our household and our prayers are with his family during this time. I am greatful to know that months ago Joe had turned to our Heavenly Father and was on his way back to church and the fullness of the gospel. I am sure he will continue his journey for truth on the other side with family to help him along the way. We'll miss you Joe!