Saturday, March 31, 2012

Daddy and Daughter

I love watching moments like this.



Daddy and daughter.


Mowing the lawn on a warm hot March afternoon.


Anna was working hard to keep up with dad.



I love how they have the same expression on their face in this picture. :)


This is the second time Dan has mowed this spring. This was our warmest March on record. Today it was in the mid 80s. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to 88. I'm just praying that this isn't an indicator of how the summer is going to be. :P
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The "New" computer desk

When we were getting ready to welcome Molly into our family, we needed to do a little rearranging in our house. The "office" became Anna's room, so everything in there needed a place to go. Unfortunately, we don't have many places to put our things, except our basement. That was fine for some of the stuff we didn't use regularly, but we knew that our computer needed to be upstairs. The only place to go with it was our bedroom. Not the most ideal spot, but it works. I got this computer armoire right after I graduated from college. It worked well for me, but because of the way it had to be in our room, we couldn't close the doors, so everything was always out in the open.

This is a picture of the airmoire in the "office" shortly after we moved in.


Seeing the computer and clutter around it in our room was driving me nuts. I knew I would much prefer a desk with drawers that I could hide some of that stuff.

Here's a couple more shots that I took when we sold it on Craigslist. (I HEART Craigslist)


I knew we couldn't afford to buy a new computer desk. But we had this desk sitting in our basement, collecting dust, literally. It was a desk that I inherited (like most of my furniture) from my dad when he and Peggy got married and consolidated homes. It was in a little bit rough shape, but I knew a little paint and love could fix that.

I'm really bad about taking before pictures, so this is the only one I have. This is in the room that is now the nursery, shortly after we moved in.


I gave it a light sanding, spray primed it with


and then gave it a couple coats of Rustoleum's Heirloom White.

I also gave it a light coat of spray clear acrylic, just to add some protection. 
 I also soaked the part of the handles in Brasso and gave them a good scrub and spray painted the inner plastic piece black. There were a few bumps in the road, (bubbles... grr) but overall, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. 

It so nice and refreshing and clean.


We also sold the black and chrome computer chair along with the armoire. It wasn't that nice of a chair and annoyed me as well. We have a couple of these chairs sitting in the garage, once again collecting dust and bugs, literally. I plan to recover the seat and paint the chair, but that will have to wait a bit. 


I love this little detail on the bottom of the desk. Too bad the carpet makes it hard to see. 


I have a few more plans for our room. I want to paint, and put some things on the wall. There are few things up right now,  but I never moved them when we rearranged the furniture, and now they look like they are just hung randomly on the wall. I would love to get rid of these polished brass vanity lights and the 7 foot generic mirror. Seriously, who needs a mirror that large? But this is a parsonage, so anything we do that major needs to be approved and paid for by the church. Who knows if that will happen while we are still living here. :)

One thing that I hope to remedy while my dad is here over Easter is this border.



I can't believe I've lived with it for almost 4 years.


Anyway, I'm loving my "new" computer desk. Especially, when I can open the window on a beautiful day and sip my coffee while listening to Pandora and reading my favorite blogs. :)
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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Hand-picked with Love

I got my first bunch of hand-picked dandelions from Anna today. :)

 
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Friday, March 23, 2012

The bad news and the good news.

The bad news. 
Seems the mouse I caught the other night had a friend, or sibling or cousin. Dan and I were relaxing, watching TV in our living room last night when I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. A few minutes later, sure enough, I saw a little mouse run out from behind the couch into the kitchen. In a not so nice voice, I told Dan, "There's a mouse in the kitchen". At this point, we're both pretty used to the whole thing, so neither of us did anything. I woke up this morning to find mouse poop all over my kitchen counters.

The good news.
 Seems our little mouse friend ventured into the wrong whole last night and found itself in the one trap I still had set. :)

Please, let that be the last one.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Dear Anna...

Dear Anna,
You are looking very old to mommy these days.



I don't want you to stop growing,


but if you could just slow down a bit, I would really appreciate it.



That goes for you too, Molly.


Love, Mom.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Caught!

YES! I caught a mouse. I'm praying it's the one that's been dodging my traps for the last few weeks. No picture... I got that thing out of the house as fast as I could. However, with the early warm weather, the ants have already started to find their way in...

Sigh.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Mighty Menacing Mouse

Unfortunately, I have had my fair share of run-ins with mice. My childhood home was located in the country, surrounded by farm fields. Mice were bound to be there. I can remember listening to them run across the drop ceiling in the family room of our basement. Shudder. I've seen numerous dead mice on the sticky traps that my dad used to lay around the house. Skin crawling. One day, as I was running downstairs to grab something, I didn't turn on the lights and step on one of those traps. With a dead mouse on it. Gagging. I guess the silver lining to that story was that I was wearing shoes.  Peeling that thing off my shoe was not the most fun I've ever had. When Dan and I were living with my Dad a few months before moving to our Vicar mansion in the sky, (that's a whole other story- it was an old funeral home) I was sorting through some boxes of my mom's old clothes. While digging through a box of old t-shirts, I noticed a slight smell. The deeper I dug, the stronger the smell. To my absolute horror and disgust, I found a handful of dead, decaying baby mice about 3/4 of the way down. Dry heaving. Apparently, some momma mouse thought that a pile of t-shirts was the perfect place to nest and have her babies. I'm guessing that she later got caught in one of those sticky traps and never returned while her babies starved to death. Needless to say, everything in that box was thrown away. 

In college, my Senior year, I lived with six of my best friends in an upper apartment of an old house. The house itself was in pretty bad shape, but we didn't care... we were poor college student, just happy to be living off campus. We had seen a few mice here or there and could sometimes hear them squeaking in the walls. Dan and another friend once tried to catch one with an empty beer box and oven mitt. They were unsuccessful, but provided some good entertainment. One of my room mates made a gross discovery one day. A mouse had eaten itself to death in her bag of Sunchips. Ounce again, if you want to see the silver lining to that story, at least she had taken a peek inside the bag before she stuck her hand in. Gagging again. We also had them in the apartment I lived my 5th year in college. 

Mice seem to follow me. I don't remember seeing them in the funeral home, but I'm sure they were there. I even had one in my "luxury" apartment when I was teaching in Ohio. We've had them here in Missouri, every winter since we've moved down. Usually, it's one or two and I can set a trap (always the ones where you can't see them) and that's that. During a visit, my Dad found a dead one in our guest room closet in the basement. It had smelled suspicious, so I had him check it out, so I wouldn't have to see or touch it. 

However.

I cannot catch the recent mouse/mice that have been coming into our house. I've caught two already this winter, but this third one (I pray it's just one) will not take the bait! And it's a nasty little critter, chewing on things that aren't food and leaving poop everywhere! Gross, I know.

Mice like bananas. Did you know that? Where am I supposed to keep my fruit?


The also like rubber. This is the handle of our cheese slicer.


The most recent victim was one of Molly's clean bibs. 

It was in this drawer of towels. I don't get it. 

I have two of these traps out, in different spots, baited with peanut butter and jelly, and chocolate and cheese. 
 

This mouse doesn't care. Just walks right by it, leaving a trail of turds. 

Anyone have any tips on getting rid of this critter? I'm hesitant to try the poison pellets because I don't want it going off somewhere in my house to die and decay. Been there, done that. Plus, I'm not to keen on having poison laying around with two young children. 

HELP!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Sleeping Swinging Beauties

The gorgeous weather has continued all week! We met some friends at a park today.

These two are just 4 days apart in age.

They must have been having too much fun, because they both swung themselves to sleep. :)



It was cute, precious, and hilarious all at the same time.
 
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Repeat

Sometimes I wish that life was like a cd player. I would love to have the option to Stop. Pause. Fast Forward. Rewind. Repeat. I would press Stop when things in life were getting crazy. Fast Forward during sickness or things like trips to the DMV. Rewind for those precious moments that I missed or didn't recognize; Molly's first word, Anna's first sentence. Repeat for moments I would love to relive again and again. Yesterday was a day that I wish I could have pressed the Repeat button.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL; mid 70s. Molly woke up all smiles and was happy all morning. Both girls ate great lunches and took long naps. I got a lot accomplished, even if was things that weren't fun like laundry and cleaning. After naps, the girls and I walked the two and half blocks to a near by park. We came home to Dan, back from his circuit meeting. I made one of my favorite meals... Chancery's Three Cheese Chicken Mac. I went to the gym and had a great workout shaking my booty during Zumba. I came home to Dan and the girls, playing in the front yard. (I'm loving these longer days already.) After the girls were in bed, I cleaned up the kitchen and then got a coat of primer on a desk that I'm painting for our room. I ended the day with an episode of Up All Night (if you are a parent, you have to check out this show... hilarious!) and 30 Rock.

It wasn't a perfect day. I still had to deal with a meltdown and some crying and whining. I have a two year old and a one year old... they are going to happen. I would have loved to sat down for an hour to read or snuck in a nap. But those things happen few and far between. But the day, overall, was great. One that I wouldn't mind repeating.

Today is not doing a bad job of living up to yesterday. The weather is once again gorgeous. The windows are open and a gentle breeze his making it's way through the house. It's supposed to be this way all week! The girls are currently napping. I already got a coat of paint on the desk. We'll see what the rest of the day brings.

My goal is to make every day a Repeat worthy day.

*Not the best picture, it was from my phone. I forgot to take the camera along. Gasp!!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Just like Mom

I think every little girl at one time in their life has attempted to walk in mommy's high heels.



She doesn't have any clothes on because she was pretending to go to the gym. Apparently, since she sees me go to the gym wearing shorts, she thinks it requires you to take off your clothes. Every once in a while she'll say, "I'm going to the gym!" and then takes off her pants. I love how little minds work. :)
 
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Friday, March 9, 2012

Molly's celebration!

Look at me posting again, already! :)

Here's a little glimpse into Molly's first birthday.

This is while I was looking at Molly that morning, trying to figure out how she could be one year old already. 


Our mantel was decorated with her name banner and pictures of Molly each month of the past year. Her gifts from family are waiting to be opened.



Because we had church that night, we decided to celebrate at lunchtime. After lunch, we ate cake and opened gifts. It was a small "party", but kind-of nice that it was just us four. 

Her birthday cake. Didn't turn out quite liked I hoped, but I REALLY misjudged the amount of frosting I needed, had to run to the store again, and I think I finished it 10 minutes before we ate it. But the most important part was that it tasted good. And it did. 



Molly couldn't wait to get her hands on it. 



She didn't know what to think when we were singing her Happy birthday.



She LOVED the cake. Ate it like a pro. :)



Her face says it all.



Ready for presents!! Being far away from family, most of her gifts come in the mail . We wish they had been here to give them to her in person, but loved them regardless!



Even Anna got a little gift from Grandma and Papa Frey.



It was a  little difficult for Anna to sit by and watch Molly open gift after gift. 



 They are checking out a new book from Grandma and Papa together. I think Anna liked Molly's gifts just as much. 



We got Molly a Leapfrog Violet. Anna has one and we call it her pal. Now Molly has her own that says her name and things that she likes. 







Molly's little "shrine" with all her cards on top of the mantel.