Worms

Yes, that's right. Worms. Alexander and I were playing outside today with the dogs, and he comes up to me and says, "Mandy... I have a surprise for you... a slimy, dirty, gooshey, wormy-worm!" And yes, he had a worm. Just for me. Not just any worm - a BIG worm!! And he proceeded to "play" (read: torture) this poor worm for an hour straight. Nothing I said could convince him to set the poor thing free. Alex even wanted to bring the worm inside while he ate dinner - no, thank you!! I finally prevailed, and Alex found a nice spot for the poor tramatized worm to live. I love little boys!

Homelessness = bad

Well, good news! Looks like we won't be homeless next year! Hallelujah! We think we have found a place to live in Medford for the next year while Chris finishes his externship at Providence. Our good friend Carla has a friend (who has a brother's sister's uncle's niece's cousin's friend's dog... no, just kidding) who owns a dance studio in Medford. This lady is a riot - she's like eighty years old at least and was a prima ballerina for a professional company in her younger years. Anyway, she has a little house next to the studio that is going to be perfect for us - and, best of all, she'll let us have our dogs!! Hallelujah again!

And, even more good news - I can continue my world record of never setting foot in a laundromat (I have a huge aversion to disgusting, nasty, gross, slimy, icky laundromats) because the house has a washer and dryer!! And...a dishwasher!!! YES!! Could it GET any better, you ask? Why, yes it can, I reply. While I am regretting not bringing my camera to have taken pictures (well, duh, taken pictures, what else would you do with a camera...silly Mandy), I didn't want to freak anyone out by my camera toting-ness. So you will have to make do with an in-depth descriptive review.

The floors are all hardwood, newly refinished - way super duper cute! There are 2.5 bedrooms (not a typo, really 2.5, will explain later) and one bathroom. There's a huge living room/dining room space, a good-sized kitchen (WITH A DISHWASHER!!!!), and the one bedroom and bathroom downstairs. The kitchen and the bathroom are in the process of being remodeled, so it was a little hard to tell how they looked, but all the appliances in the kitchen were newer and looked pretty good... and TONS of counter space in the kitchen!

Then, upstairs (YES, you heard me right...upstairs!! I have never lived in a two-story house in my life!! That word just makes me sound rich and famous, doesn't it? UPSTAIRS [picture me saying it with a French accent]) there's a master bedroom and a little...well, I'm not sure what to call it, but it's like a half of a bedroom. It's going to be perfect for a little office or maybe a nursery?? Chris rolls his eyes when I say that. So I fell asleep last night planning where to put our furniture in our new house (but I simply HAVE to make it up to IKEA because the end tables we have right now will just not work in the new house... the house told me so) and hoping that I saw an electrical outlet in the new house's bathroom. Oh, the cruel irony, that as soon as we remodel our bathroom (after being without an outlet in the bathroom for FOUR LOOONNNGGGG YEARS) that we would move to a place where the extension cord would become my hair dryer's best friend again. Hopefully, that won't happen.

So, the packing saga continues...

FABULOUS news!

No, I am not pregnant... but I am graduated!!!!!!!! Yes, that is right, you are looking at an honest to goodness, 100%, really truly live degree holder!!!! After a seemingly endless process (no, really, I know everyone says that, but mine really WAS a seemingly endless process), I will soon have that $20,000.00 piece of paper to prove it! And maybe a pen... cause you know, the piece of paper just isn't worth $20,000.00 (wow that's a lot of zeros!), they have to throw in a pen to make sure you feel like you're getting your money's worth. So now, I have the wonderful world of unemployment and paying back student loans to look forward to!!

And the following conversation just about sums up my Western Governors University experience:

Joyce (my wonderful co-worker who cracks me up): I was talking to a young lady the other day who mentioned that she was thinking about going to this online school called Western Governors University.

Me: Ohh... what did you tell her?

Joyce: Well, based on your experiences with this school, I told her it might not be the best idea and maybe she should keep looking (Joyce is very diplomatic... I would have said, "DON'T DO IT!!! THEY WILL SCREW YOU OVER!!").

Me: Oh, good. Saved another soul from the evils of Western Governors University!!

Side note: maybe I should wait to post this till I actually have my diploma (and pen) in hand, don't want them to refuse my diploma just cause I'm bad mouthing them!! Oh well.

The point of all this is, in short, I am done and boy, am I happy about it!!! Now whatever shall I do with my free time???.....

Honor Choir!

I am so proud of our honor choir!! On Tuesday, we sang for a huge crowd of people at Peterson Elementary, and (our guest of honor), the State Superintendent of Schools! She was so impressed by our performance, she invited us to come to Portland to sing at the Convention Center! While I may not be entirely thrilled at taking a bunch of fifth and sixth graders on the six hour drive up to Portland, (I don't think they make earplugs strong enough to drown out the screaming these kids can do!) I am thrilled for our kids and sooo excited! So if you are in or around Portland on May 1st, come to the convention center and watch us kick booty!!

Easter!

For anyone who doesn't know me really well, I am a holiday FREAK!! I LOVE holidays and especially love decorating for holidays!!! But, most of my decorating has been concentrated on Christmas, so this past year I've been working on branching out. This was my project I finished last night:

I wish I'd taken some before and after photos - I bought this wreath with all the eggs on it for a quarter at a yard sale last summer. It wasn't in good shape, it was all faded and all the eggs were a moldy yellow color. So, I got some paint and painted each egg, then added a bit of superfine glitter and a bow - perfect for Easter! I love holidays! :)

If these walls could talk...

Well, since it has been a couple of days since we've finished our kitchen, Chris decided to jump right into remodeling our bathroom. He's torn off the nasty paneling on the walls (what is with the people who last remodeled this house and paneling?) and completely ripped off the tub surround and wood paneling below. Thank goodness that there is no dry rot underneath the tub or the paneling - I'm not sure my sanity could handle that big of a project (meaning not having a shower for a much longer period of time)! So, Chris calls me in after he rips off the wood underneath the tub surround and we find this:

It says: "This shower was put in 1958." How cool is that? First of all, it's awesome because this shower and tub surround is freakin 51 years old - yes, our bathroom really was that old and disgusting. Second, it's cool just because someone took the time to record that information! So, of course, Chris thinks to do this:

It says, "Was redone in 2009 - C + M". :) Feels kinda cool to make our mark on the house and take credit for all our incredibly hard work! I told Chris we should leave a million dollars in there for someone to find fifty years from now and be on the show "If These Walls Could Talk" - ha, wishful thinking! It's already cool that we live in the house Chris' dad grew up in - I hope Grandma Syd would be proud of how we've taken care of her house. I will be sure to post some before and after of the bathroom remodel soon - meanwhile, be prepared for us to be knocking on your door, begging to take a shower sometime in the next few weeks! :)

Remodeling finally complete!

For any of you who have ever been on this long and twisty journey of remodeling, you know that those words - remodeling complete - may never be uttered from the lips of a homeowner. However - dare I say it? - I think our kitchen remodel may actually be finished! Here's a couple "before" pictures:

I really think those awesome black and yellow walls will come back into style one day! Right! So, I guess I really didn't get complete Before pictures, because there used to be this awesome fake cardboard paneling glued onto the walls (which would be the black swirls - black tar glue!). So, we took those down about a year ago, so this was the result.

The second picture down is midway through the destruction - we had to completely gut the entire kitchen, take out the cupboards and everything, because there was no insulation on the wall where all our plumming is! No wonder our pipes keep freezing! Plus, we had 2 outlets in our entire kitchen (the refridgerator was plugged into an extension cord, and the coffee maker, toaster oven, George Foreman, dishwasher, microwave, and any other random electrical appliances shared a second outlet - not fun!), so Chris, being the awesome guy he is, rewired the entire kitchen so we now have 18 outlets!!!!!!!!!!!! (Excuse me while I go give my rockin' husband a kiss). Yes, we have enough plugs for a built-in dishwasher and a garbage disposal.

So, after all the rewiring, it was time to get the new cupboards and counters in (Chris did the counters himself), along with new flooring (Chris did it), new lighting (Chris put it in), and new texture and paint on the walls (yup - Chris did it, but I did help). The very last project to do was the door and window frames, which were completed this weekend!! And here's the after shots:

I LOVE our new kitchen - it's so bright and clean and perfect. So... we got this project finished just in time to move and let some renters enjoy the fruits of our labor, while we start out all over again!! But, at least we get a break for a year while we're living in Medford, so that will be a relief. In the meantime, feel free to come over for a dinner party in our newly remodeled kitchen (just don't use our bathroom, it's not remodeled yet!).