An Alphabet Meme

KatKat from No Diet Coke for Mommy wants me to do the letter "G". I'm supposed to name ten things I "love" that start with the letter G. It was pretty hard but here is my go at it. If you want to play, let me know and I will send you a letter.

1. Green. Almost every room in my house is decorated with the color green.

2. Gifts. Not really in the form of being tied up with bow and stuff (however those are fun too.) But I love to give gifts. Also I love the gifts of photography, playing music, being a mother, a wife, and all the other wonderful gifts that I have been given.

3. Growing. I feel that I grow every day! Physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I am very grateful for all that I learn every day. Even for my growing belly because that means that I am carring a healthy baby boy.

4. Ghost stories. Even though I get really scared, I still love to hear them.

5. Giggles. I can get the giggles pretty easily. Some of the greatest times in my life started because of the giggles. Not only that, but hearing my kids giggle is the true sound of happiness.

6. Going fast. This is something that some don't know about me. I love drag racing! I love cars!

7. Going out. I love to go out with my hubby. We don't get to do it very often, but I love the time that we can spend together alone.

8. Guitars. I have been playing the guitar for a long time. I love the soft peaceful sound of an acoustic guitar.

9. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. I eat one several times a week! Put a little mayo and some pickles on it and you have the best sandwich on the planet! No this is not a pregnant thing. I have been eating them like that since I was a kid.

10. Grandparents! My kids love their grandparents, but also I have some of the best grandparents. One of which calls me every week just to tell me that she loves me and that she is thinking of me. Another that has taught me how to do so many things like sewing, cooking, canning, and gardening. You can really learn a lot from your grandparents!

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.

Christmas 2006

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did around here! I will be back to post more soon!

P.S. Blogger was being a turd again, so to view this picture in a bigger format, click on the picture or click here.

30!

Eight years ago I started a new job that was in a way representing a new life for me. Unfortunately I hated it the first day. My mom convinced me that I should give it a few more days before I decided that I was going to leave. So I went back expecting the same thing as the first day. Little did I know that the man that I was going to marry was starting his new job that day in the office around the corner. For months we flirted, but every time he asked me out I would tell him no. For some reason I was a little scared. I really thought that he was out of my league. On December 9, 1998 we had our first date. It only took a few weeks and we knew that we were going to be together forever. We were later married on February 25, 2000.

With that short history said I want to express my love and my gratitude for my hubby and for all that he has done for me! He truly is an amazing person and has given me so much. I love him very much and I am very blessed to have him as my best friend, my hubby, and the father of my children. Happy Birthday sweetie! I love you!

P.S. 30 just sounds old, but you really aren't that old! Teasing you is just too fun!

A few funny quotes from my kids

"Mommy, did it tickle when Heavenly Father put the baby in your tummy?"

While the nice kid from the grocery store was helping me load my groceries little dude said " we almost bought the whole store but the cart was already too full."

When we drove past McDonald's little dude asked " Mom where is the farm at that Old McDonalds?"

No Santa this year!

I am pretty sure that there are many kids out there that have done this, and I am quite sure that their parents were just as mad as we were. I really hoped that it would never happen to us. It is very dissapointing!

So by the raise of hands, how many of you have had your kids find, open AND play with all their Christmas presents before Christmas?

I guess when I was little my mom and dad had planned a Christmas party that the entire family was invited to. They had all sent their presents early and they were all under our Christmas tree. My mom was cleaning and I got a little nosy. I guess that I opened ALL the gifts all by myself. From what I hear it was a really big mess! My mom was stuck on the phone with everyone trying to find out what they had been giving everyone so she could rewrap them. If you ask her, her resonse to me is that turn around is fair play.

I had all of my shopping done for the kids and I was very excited with what I had bought. I had a few problems with what I was going to buy for little dude, but when I decided on what to get him I was very excited! While staying at my parents house I thought that I had limited places to hide all their gifts. Well while we were having a family birthday party my little dude, princess and my neice found where I had hid them. When I saw the kids they had opened boxes, packages, everything! They were having a blast playing with them. I was SO MAD!

So now what do you say to a 3 year old and a 2 year old after they had just found the gifts that Santa was going to bring them? Well, I am not sure what we said was the smartest thing, but we told them that they were for someone else. We explained that Santa might not come now because they had been so bad. If they want him to come they need to write him a letter telling him that they were sorry and they will try really hard to be good. If they liked the toys that they saw they need to ask Santa for them.

I was sad because it took all the fun out of it for me. I wanted to be there when they saw all their cool new toys. I guess I should have known that this was going to happen some day. Turn around really is fair play.

A quick note

So we are done with the house and a lot of our stuff is moved in and in place. We are not staying there yet because I want to be a little more settled when we do start to stay there. I have one confession to make though. I didn't really ever take any before pictures of the house. We got started on it and I never really took a chance to do it. Then I wanted to take pictures before we put any of our stuff in it, but I didn't get a chance today to do that either, it was too crazy. So I will be taking some pictures of it tomorrow, but some of our stuff will be in the pictures. Oh well, it just makes it a little harder to see what was done to it. It looks amazing and I can't wait to show it off.

I also have to say thanks to my wonderful hubby and all his hard work on it. It will be nice to see him a little more now. And also to my parents and all that they have done for us. They have let us stay at their house, and my father has been there working very hard on it every single day. Also thanks to all the many family members and friends that have helped us. Without everyone we wouldn't have been able to do it!

Random Thoughts

Looks like our house is almost done enough to move into it. I can't wait to show all of you pictures of how it looks. It looks amazing! We just have to get a few more things done then start moving in. We were trying for Saturday, but I think that it will be more like the beginning of next weeks instead. I can't wait to get in and not be living out of boxes anymore. It will be nice to get on with our lives that doesn't include remodeling, or cleaning crazy lady funk, or packing. I think that my parents will be thrilled to get us out of thier hair too!

Christmas is getting closer and I still don't know what I am going to get little dude. We got him a new bike, and a new little dinosaur, and an Aguadoodle but other than that I really don't kow what else to get him. If anyone has any good ideas on what to get an almost 4 year old boy let me know.

My hubby starts at his new job on the 18 of this month. He went and met people at his branch the other day, and he seemed really excited. He says he is a little nervous though. I think that I would feel the same way too, it is a big responsibitity. I think that it will be pretty cool. His new branch is in a grocery store. No more grocery shopping for me. He can do it all before he leaves for work. His birthday is this month too. He will be turning 30. (hahaha)

When we get into our house my little princess says that she wants to learn how to use the potty. She says that she has to learn before Santa get here. Little dude was a quick learner, but I am still dredding teaching her. Oh well it will be nice to have it all done before the baby gets here. So stay tuned for the posts about how all I do is clean my floors, and stuff. This will be fun!

I had a dream last night that I was playing poker. I woke up all amped to play again. I miss our poker nights that we used to have with our firends (FYI our poker nights do not consist of any exchange of money. It is just for the fun of it, not for getting any gain.) Last year on New Years Eve we played all night long. It was so much fun, and it has been awhile since we played. Dreaming about it last night makes me want to get out the cards and chips. (If that isn't random enough for a random post of thoughts, I don't know what is.)

I think that we are getting closer to a name. I am still not sure yet though. We have had too much going on to really think more about it. It might be Jaxon, Tyson, Dylan, or Zander. I don't know though, we will have to see. I am still up to hearing more names, so pass them on if you have any.

Well happy Friday to all, and Happy Birthday to my sister. Have a great weekend!

News, and Shoes

Ok for the news first. My hubby had another job interview this morning for a Branch Manager position with the bank that he works for. They called him this afternoon and offered him the job! This is the promotion that he has been waiting for. I am excited for him and I am very proud of him. He will have to triple his commute to work every morning, but it isn't still too bad. It just goes from less than five minutes to a little over 15 minutes. This is great though! It is well deserved!

Now for the shoes part. My kids have managed to get every toy out and spread it all over thier room and my parent's basement. I have been trying to help them clean up, but it resulted in me doing all the work. Little dude started to help, but little princess was still pouting about it. So I started the threaten that I was going to call Santa and tell him that he doesn't need to bring any toys for her this year. To my suprise this didn't even faze her. Then I noticed that she had colored on one of her dolls face with a crayon. So then I had a little talk with her about respect for her toys. I told her that I was just going to throw all her toys away because she wouldn't take care of them. This too didn't faze her. She was still not picking anything up so I just said "ok I am calling Santa right now." I picked up the phone diled a number then pretented to tell Santa the she has been naughty to her toys and the she isn't picking them up so he shouldn't bring her anything this year. When I got off the phone she still didn't care. So I started to gather up her things and put them in a box to "throw them away" and still nothing. What finaly got to her is when I picked up her Dora shoes and put them in the box. You would not believe the cry she let out. "DON'T THROW AWAY MY SHOES!!" She was so upset. What makes me laugh is that she thinks that her dolls, her princess dress, her baby stroller, and other random things are going to the garbage. She also thinks that Santa isn't bringing anything to her this year. She could care less about that. What she really cares about are her shoes. Her dang shoes! I should be mad that it has been almost an hour now and the basement still isn't clean, but I just can't stop laughing about how upset she was that I was going to throw away her shoes. She is still crying about it and I haven't even throw them away yet. Oh the drama! I think this is why my mom said that I will be very happy that I am having another boy and not a girl.

Joseph

My mother has the really beautiful Christmas statue up on her mantle. It is of the Christ Child sitting in Mary's lap, while Joseph is holding a lantern and hovering over the two of them. I had briefly explained it to my little dude the other day when my mother first put it out. Last night while trying to calm him down before bed he wispered to me "Mommy, that is Baby Jesus and that is Joseph holding the light." I asked him who it holding Baby Jesus. "Mary" he said proudly. Then he sat staring at it for a few minutes then looked at me again and said "Maybe we should name our new baby Joseph."

What a moment it was for me to realize that at least something that I have said to him actually has sunk in. Even more than that though to realize the importance of it and give and actual suggestion to what we should name the baby. I was so proud of him, that it almost makes all of his tantrums seem not so bad.

While thinking about this today it has made me reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. While Santa is fun, and exciting, the events that took place so long ago in Bethleham changed the world. Our Savior was born on the earth to teach and guide us, to suffer of our sins, and then to die for us. How can Santa be more great than that? I hope that while the month goes on that I will be able to reflect more on the Birth of my Savior than on Santa. I pray that my children will feel the spirit of Christmas while teaching them of Jesus' birth.

I hope that we can all reflect on what is most important. While we are taught to give, lets remember what Christ would have us give. Most importantly let us remember what Christ has given to us. Feel of your Savior's love, then spread that love for everyone to feel.

I wish you all a very wonderful Christmas Season!