Our house

A couple of people have asked to see pictures of the house, so I thought I'd post some.

Here is the family room. When we moved in, it was some really funky colors, like lemon yellow and bright, dark pink. Pete and I painted the family room, dining room, and hallways.

I had to show a close-up of the end table because it was my latest bargain. I got it for 5 bucks on craigslist, replaced the glass and added some screws for a grand total of 12 bucks!

Here is the dining room.

These are the main floor rooms.

Upstairs: Here is Emily and Abby's room.

This is a nook in their room where we keep their toys. Messy right now. :)

Our room.

The basement. Pete and I redid this. Here are the "befores":

After:

Well, that's the run through, except for the backyard. I'll have to take some pics and post them. It's pretty wild back there; lots of grass, bushes, trees. But it is really green, so I'll take it!

Mandy's blog

So my cute cousin Mandy was asking on her blog what people wanted to accomplish in the future; what are their hopes, goals, etc. I have been thinking a lot about this since I read her post. It just keeps popping up in my brain. I decided that most of the things I want are a state of mind... not so much things that I want to do, but rather a certain way I want to think or certain realizations that I want to come to. I want to remember that money doesn't equal happiness, and that we were probably as happy as we'll ever be when we were living in the Meacham Park ghetto in St. Louis. Or even now in Cincinnati, driving our old cars, watching what we spend, clipping coupons, and living in our cute, old house, just trying to stay afloat. I want to always remember that I don't need to keep up with the Joneses, and doing so is stupid. I want to grow old gracefully and embrace the wrinkles instead of being swayed by the Botox generation. I want to remember that we are all beautiful, regardless of our jeans size or bra size. I want to enjoy my kids, but not beat myself up when I don't. I want to be forgiving of others mistakes and give the benefit of the doubt. I want to be able to laugh and not take myself too seriously (luckily I have a good husband who will continue to help me with this. ;) The list could go on, but I think this is good enough to start with.

Pete was on call today so it was just me and the girls at church. I was trying to get Emily to be reverent and think of Jesus during the Sacrament. She said really loudly, “I already know everything about Jesus and I don’t want to think about him right now!”

Dogs and my mom's visit

Well I doubt we will be getting a dog any time in the near future (not that I wanted one). Pete is on the Plastic Surgery service right now, and you wouldn't believe the number of dog bites he's had to sew up in the last week and a half! It's not wild, neighborhood-roaming pit bulls either. Lots of family dogs. He just got paged in to sew up another pretty serious one on a kids' face. Hearing all of the things that can go bad for a child (like crashing on a bike, "falling" out a window, getting bit by a dog) makes me want to keep my girls locked up!

My mom was in town for 2 weeks, which was so fun! She is so easy-going and fun to be with. I appreciated all of her help with the kids and just having her there to talk to. Here are some pictures of some things we did together and of Emily and Abby.