Can You spell WHIRLWIND?

The past three weeks have been crazy. Good. But crazy. The closing on our house went with nary a hitch. We spent from the 12th to the 19th getting everything ready - storage shelves in the garage, extra shelves in the downstairs closet for the stereo equipment, painting, moving everything we had in storage BEFORE we moved the apartment goods...

On top of that I had my last 2 weeks of physical therapy for my knee, and life is getting back into full swing.

We still have a fair amount of boxes to go through, but we are making serious progress. The kitchen, bathrooms, linen closet, pantry, laundry room and Maggie's room are done (there is one wall in Maggie's room that needs a 2nd coat of paint). The guest bedroom is mostly done. Our bedroom is about 50%. The office needs the most work - boxes of books everywhere! The landing/bonus room is 50%. The garage is 80%. This weekend we hope to pound through the remaining major boxes and minutiae that don't have a home seem to collect on every surface as boxes are emptied.

On to pictures:
Here's our house with SOLD in the window and our name on the sign out front.
See all those colored dots on the carpet? Those are Maggie's beads. The week we were painting, etc. she kept herself quite entertained by growing wheat and gathering grain. We has read in her kids bible about how Ruth went into Boaz's fields and collected the leftover grain...

I painted our office a calming shade of green this time - not Kermit the Frog green like our last house!
Maggie asked for yellow walls, but pink goes better with the bedding she has - so I did both. The yellow is pretty bright during the day, but it looks great with the white furniture. I'll have to post another picture - I didn't take pictures of the house until Maggie was in bed tonight.
The magnum opus of our house, the garage shelves. My dad designed and built these great shelves in just 3 days {can't say it enough: THANKS, DAD!!!}. It really replaces the attic in our old house: Christmas decorations, baby stuff, flowers stuff, camping stuff. We would have had to get rid of so much more stuff if we didn't have these shelves. Or not park in the garage. Which is not an option, according to Tyler. This weekend we'll be putting up yard-tool racks, and a peg board for Tyler's tools. Then hopefully we'll be able to park both cars inside. Right now just I get to park inside (because I am home more often to get the good spot!).
More pictures to come!

Last Weekend Check Before We Move

We went out to the house for the second-to-last time before we own it officially (have to do the walk-through inspection). It was so neat to walk through it with carpet and 90% of the finishing touches up/in/on. I am really loving the front porch. it will be a great place to sit on warm mornings with my coffee and bible. I'm going to have to find some nice chairs!

From the edge of the kitchen/dining into the living room. That's the front of the house.
Maggie in the cupboard under the stairs (get that Harry Potter reference?).
Dining room and stairwell. Maggie got loads of fun out of the tape measure attached to the key for the house.
View of the dining room into the kitchen from the stairwell.
The powder room downstairs. I plan on painting this room some shade of peacock blue/green. Just for something a little unexpected. We'll see how it turns out.
Maggie had to check out the bathtub in the master bath.
Tyler imagining what his new shower will be like.
Stealing Daddy's hat...
Checking out her own tub.
We are supposed to close this coming Friday, 2/12. We will be moving in the 20th.

French Braids

I have a love/hate relationship with French braids. When I was little, my mom used to do my hair that way nearly every day (at least that's how I remember it). I would cry everyday, too, because they hurt, and I hated them. Then my mom cut my hair short because I was such a pill about brushing it and generally taking care of my long hair, but that's another story.

But I love seeing little girls with their hair in French braids, and have waited waited waited for Maggie's hair to be thick enough to hold them. This morning after her bath, I tried them for the first time in several months, and they worked on my first try! I plopped her down in front of PBS, and with nary a peep out of her, I got them done. It took me about 30 minutes to do both sides, but they look good and have stayed in so far! Maggie was really excited, as you can see, about her braids!