My email address

I know that most don't care about this, but I had a request for it. So here it is pittakgr@hotmail.com

My House Part 4 - The hallway bathroom

Here is my hallway bathroom. It was hard to get a good picture, but this is the best that I could do. The laundry room is in here too. We have talked about moving it down stairs many times, but after having a very sick family it was really handy to have the washer and dryer in the bathroom.

This room didn't need too much. Mostly cleaning. It had linoleum that was really dirty. I think that it was supposed to be white, but it was more a dark grey almost black. Just like the rest of the house. NASTY!

So here is what we did:

- Put in tile on the floor.

- New toilet seat.

- Fixed the drain in the bath tub

- Paint

There are some things that we would still like to do to it. One is put in a new faucet in the sink. It is white now, and I really like the silver ones. Also we want a new light fixture, cabinets and a counter top. There are cigarette burns on the counter top that irritate me every time I see them. For now I think that it looks so much better than it did, and the rest will come in time.

Pregnancy news

I haven't really talked tons lately about me being pregnant. I thought that I would write a few things about it for those that care. Also for me to look back on someday and remember this time.

First of all I did end up going back to my old doctor. This was a hard decision for me to make for some reason. I didn't want to cause myself any more stress in my life it was going to be a pain. Every time I would drive pass the hospital (which is less than 5 minutes away) where my old doctor was I would have the feeling that I needed to switch back to him. So I did it and I am very glad that I followed my heart.

Things are going ok though. I have had some really bad problems with my sciatic nerve, and some back pain, but it seems this week I might be ok, there hasn't been much pain. Sleeping sucks though. I have entered the stage where I can't get comfy, and it is a big process to change positions. I work through it though.

At every doctor's appointment that I have had in the last few months my blood pressure has been a little bit high, and I have had a trace of protein in my urine. These are signs of toxemia, but they are not too concerned about it yet. It is however the same way that it all started when I was pregnant with my little dude. I ended up being put on bed rest for 6 weeks until he was born. It was not fun at all. But for right now they are just going to watch it and I am just going to keep myself healthy and pray every day that I don't get it with this little guy too.

I feel huge! I have gained 20 lbs. (OUCH!) and I feel bigger and bigger every day. Oh well, it is all part of the game right? This little guy is one active kid too. He loves to kick and kick and kick right as I lay down to go to sleep. There have been some nights that he has kept me up for hours just by moving and kicking. Typical little boy!

We did decide on a name for him. Just like my other kids I won't call him by name here on my blog. I will have to come up with a cute nick name. I will tell you this though, as much as I liked all the names that were suggested here, we have decided on something else. I am excited and it seems to fit so perfect!

I can't believe that I have 10 weeks left. Actually a little less. The time has gone by really fast! I have been wanting to get things ready for him, but there is just so much stuff that I need to do. You would think that with him being my 3rd kid I would have everything, but nope. Oh well, it is fun to buy him his own stuff.

Well that is it for now. Hopefully things go really smooth for the next ten weeks. And maybe I will give another update in a few more weeks.

Birthday Gifts

I think that Christmas did something to Little Dude. He got to ask for anything that he wanted (that didn't mean that he was going to get it) he got to write a letter to Santa, then on Christmas morning he was surprised with most that he asked for.

Well, his birthday is next month and he can't stop talking about what he wants. The funny thing about it is that he thinks he needs to write a letter to me- Mommy to ask for what he wants. I thought that I should share his list with you so I can prove just how silly he is.

#1 He really wants a Mater to go with his Lightning McQueen car. (this one is actually pretty normal)

#2 He keeps asking for soda. Yes I mean a drink. He wants Sprite.

#3 He wants snow. When I told him that I had no control over that he assured me that all I needed to do was go outside with a shovel. All he wants to do is paint it.

At least he isn't getting to greedy yet. For right now there is only three things, but the things that he is asking for are worth writing down. If any more come up I will be sure to post it.

Holy Poop!

I hear that there is a nation wide epidemic where people are getting really sick. Severe throwing up, diarrhea, high fever the works. One hospital here in Utah has had over 1000 reported cases in their ER of people with these problems just since the beginning of December. I guess it is also VERY contagious and will last up to two weeks! Well I am here today to tell you that we have done our part with this, and I wish for it to never return again!

This last week has been nothing but helping the kids throw up/poop then cleaning up the mess, then doing a load of messy laundry. Then repeat every minute through out the day. They have been really sick. I can't believe that their little bodies could produce so much "stuff" even when they refuse to eat or drink anything. I thought we would be one of those families having a trip to the ER too. Luckily I think that we are on the tail end of it though. It really has been a mess!

So that is why I don't have a new picture of my house for you yet. No one wants to see the mess that has become of my house this last week. So next we I will continue with the pictures. I hope everyone else has had a better than us! Happy weekend!

My House Part 3 - Living Room

Looks like my hubby was able to get my computer fixed. I hope that it lasts and that we don't have any more problems.

So here is my living room. Don't laugh, I haven't done much decorating yet. I can promise you that it looks way better than the turquoise that was in there before. The neighbors used to complain that the blue room would light up the entire street at night. It was just that bad. There was a major change to the room that I am SO glad that we did. On the was separating the room from the rest of the house had a big opening. It would have been right above the couch. It made it so you could stand at the front door and see into the family room, dining room and into the kitchen. We framed it and filled it all in. It looks amazing! You would never know that there was an opening there. (Thanks Dad for your awesome sheet rock work!)

Here is the small list of what we did in this room

- Filled in the wall

- Painted

- Added new light switches, plugs, and heater vents.

- Took off the tinting on the windows

- Took down the chair rail

- Took out nasty old tile at the front door and replaced it with new.


I think sometime soon, there will be someone here to refinish the hardwood. When the idiots were installing our carpet, they cut the padding on the hardwood floor and scratched it up pretty bad. We were really mad. So they are coming to fix it soon. :(

Well, that is about it! It looks pretty boring. We really need to get couch covers and some things hung up on the wall, but hey that is easy to do someday!

Issues

My computer is having issues. Well actually it is a little more than an issue, the hard drive has called it quits. I hope that it will be fixed soon, but until then please don't forget about me. I am still around and trying to check on my friends when I can. I will be back to posting more pictures of my house when everything gets working again.

I am hoping that my luck lately isn't a sign of how the new year is going to be. Our Jeep is in the shop and will cost us an arm to fix. We might not even get it back until the middle of next week. Also our water softner doesn't work. I am a little peeved at this because this is something that was not disclosed at the sale of the house. That will cost us another arm and maybe a leg to fix. Then there is the computer. Who knows how many limbs might be lost on that one. Maybe none, but it is still a bugger.

On a brighter note though, the kids have been angels lately. I think that being in the new house has helped them in being a little more stable. It has been really nice. I am waiting though for the unleashing of the mosters any moment.

One last thing. I am thinking that I might actually change doctors. The doctor that I have been seeing this entire pregnancy has been a new one. My old doctor didn't accept my insurance, but as of the beginning of October, he does again. There really isn't anything wrong with my new doctor, I just know more about the old one. The question is though, how much of a pain is it going to be to change doctors when I only have 2 1/2 months left. Oh well I guess I just need to follow my gut.

Well, I will return soon. Hope everyone is well!

My house part 2 - Family Room

To view the full set of our house pictures go here.

I had a request to do the family room next, so here it is. This room was a big job! The crazy lady that lived here wad strange taste in decorating. So before I list what we did to this room I have to explain what it looked like before.

This room had really dark brown faux-paint on the walls, with a crown molding that only went across half the wall. It was really ugly. Around the fire place was a really strange grayish/blue tile. Then on the back door it had a stain glass like covering on it. I actually pulled that off one of the first times I was here after we moved in. The room was really dark with the colors that she had and also because the only light in the room was one above the fireplace. It was a designer's nightmare.

So here is what we did:

- Took the crown molding off. Crazy people glued it on so we had to repair the wall after we took it off.

- Took off the tile around the fire place and replaced it with the tile that we laid in the kitchen and at the front door. (you will see that later)

- Added can lighting in the ceiling to add more light.

- Replaced the window in the back door with the window that has the blinds inside it.

- Replaced the blinds on the window.

- Cleaned and painted the plant shelf. My hubby found pills all lined up behind the molding up there. What an interesting place to hide your drugs.

- Did lots of repairs to the walls, and then painted them the Arabian Sand color that goes throughout the house.

- Added all new light switches, plugs and heater vents.

Now for what's to come:
- Some time soon my hubby and father in law are going to build us a mantle for the fireplace.

- There isn't a glass covering on the fireplace. We will sometime get one. It looks like there once was one, but with their anger problems it might have been broken in a fight. Who knows.

So that completes this room. It is my favorite room in the house! It is comfy and really open. They really did a good job in here. When this room was done it made the entire house look like a very different house.

My house part 1 - Kids Rooms

Here we are, my 100th post! I thought that it would be cool to start a series of posts on my house. I have been wanting to share what we have done on the house and doing one post per room seemed like the best idea. I want to be able to share pictures and also detail what was done in each room.

So here we will start with the kids rooms. You may see the pictures bigger here if you want.

Now for the info. There are 3 kids rooms. I decided to not photograph the third because it is still full of stuff that we need to put away. It had the same work done on it so I thought just showing the two would be ok. Here is a list of things that were done on it.

- We had to start by cleaning out everything that she left. Why do people leave their crap when they move???

- Then we had to remove the carpet. It was nasty, and full of who knows what kinds of germs. It also smelled like cigarette smoke. This had to be removed with gloves and respirators. They did drugs in the house so we were not going to take our chances with the "unknown".

- We also threw away the blinds on the windows.

- Then we removed all the light switches and plugs. I don't think they washed their hands the entire 9 years they lived here so they were black and sticky.

- Once everything was out we had to paint the floors, walls, and ceiling with Kills. This a paint primer that seals the sheet rock and wood. It helps with bacteria, stains and also the smell of smoke. In some rooms this was done with more than one coat.

- When it all smelled better we painted the walls with a two tone paint. White for the trim and Arabian Sand for the walls. They looked a little pink for the first week so we were scared. It is actually a light brown for those that can't tell, and we love it!

- We had new carpet and pad installed.

- Some rooms needed new doors.

- Added new heater vents, light switches and plugs and we were done here.

It's the dumb little things.

It is the dumb little things like this that make me really happy!

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A Tribute to the year 2006

I saw this over at alisonwonderland and thought that I would fill out this survey about the year 2006.

1. Where did you ring in 2006? At home playing poker with some friends.

2. What was your status on Valentine's Day? Married with children.

3. Were you in school anytime this year? No.

4. How did you earn your keep? Wedding photography, but that isn't a full time job. So I guess in order for my hubby to want to keep me around I had to take care of the kids and the house. ;)
5. Did you ever have to go to the hospital? Nope.

6. Did you ever encounter the police? Unfortunatly when my jeep was broken into and my purse was stollen.

7. Where did you go on vacation? The big one was to Mazatlan, Mexico. We also went to Idaho a few times.

8. What did you purchase that was over $500? Oh man do I have to list it all? Well there was my hubby's motorcycle, our new house, remodeling the new house, my trip to Mexico, my new camera, and beds for the kids. That is about all that I can think of right now, but I do think that is enough.

9. Did you know anybody who got married? I am willing to bet that I attended more weddings this last year than most have in 10 years combined. Almost all of them I didn't know though. But I did have a few cousins get married and also a few friends.

10. Did you know anybody who passed away? One of my mom's dear friends just died before Christmas, then there were lots of people in my old neighborhood that lost babies before they were born.

11. Did you run into anybody you graduated high school with? Since I live pretty close to where I graduated I run into people all the time that I graduated high school with.

12. Did you move anywhere? Yup!

13. What sporting events did you go to? Little dude's soccer games in the spring.

14. What concerts did you go to? None that I can think of.

15. Are you registered to vote? Yes.

16. If so, did you do your patriotic duty on November 7? No, I am really lazy when it comes to voting.

17. Where do you live now? Salt Lake County, Utah

18. Describe your birthday. Packed all day, then got take out for dinner.

19. What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2006? I have two, the first is let my husband buy a motorcycle. The other is got pregnant. After the last one I swore I was never going to do it again, but I knew that our family wasn't done yet.

20. What is one thing you regretted this year? I look back and feel that I could have been less lazy. I could have kept up the house better and taken the kids out more often to do fun things.

21. What's something you learned about yourself? That being in control isn't always the best place to be. If things don't happen the way that I planned them to be, the world isn't over. Also trying to guess what the future holds is setting myself up for failure.

22. Any new additions to your family? I had two nephews that were born in 2006, and will be adding one more to our own family in April.

23. What was your best month? This is a hard one, because there were so many good months. We have been very blessed this year so it is hard to reflect on one event and say it is better than the rest.

24. What from pop culture will you remember 2006 by? The year that Chris Daughtry should have won American Idol. Even though Taylor Hicks deserved it too, Chris shouldn't have been booted off.