Go take a look!!

Just a shout out to my girl Val who now has the nicest website ever created (and of course the best photographs). Just thought you might want to go take a look at her lovely work and send her some love!

So I'm moving...

Yes I know you know I'm moving from my house, but I actually meant I'm moving in the blogging world. To a new home. Right now I'm tweaking it and figuring out how it all works. I got my own domain name (moving up in the world). I figured since I had actually stuck to blogging for a whole year and hadn't given up on it or run out of steam like I do with everything else I would reward myself and get a new blog. Give myself even more incentive to keep blogging. Maybe get even better. I've been really uninspired the last few weeks because I've been so busy and my brain has been on autopilot. I'm hoping with the down time now I'll be crazy inspired and awesome in my blogging. But don't count on it : ) So once I've done a few more tweaks and stuff I'll let you all know, or maybe I'll just surprise you and one day you'll come here, but you won't be here, you'll be there and that'll just be fun! Wait for it....

Sold!

Yup, that's right, folks. We are the proud owners of a...sold house : ) We signed the Offer to Purchase agreement 1/2 an hour ago and we are good to go. Our basement of our new house is scheduled to be started October 9 and we have to be out of here November 17. So that means a few months back at mom and dad's. I'm very excited and very relieved that it's over. No more stressing about a clean house...although I wasn't actually terribly stressed about that, it was kind of nice to have a perfectly clean house all the time. I think we'll try and keep the "up-for-sale-must-keep-it-spotless" mentality a little longer! Maybe I won't tell the girls and keep harassing them about keeping it clean for showings (they already know what that is, hee, hee).

So now I'm happy about the upcoming journey, but really, really sad about knowing the date I have to move from my cute house and lovely, wonderful, amazing, awesome, fabulous neighbors (did I get enough compliments in there to appease you, girls?) At least we'll only be one street over when we move into our new house. Just a short walk away to borrow garlic presses and propane (clarification, that would be US doing the borrowing from them...they are probably secretly happy that we'll be gone and they can get some normal neighbors. Unless of course they are crazier than us, and I mean crazy in the best possible way).

What's in a name?

What Erin Means

E is for Elitist R is for Revolutionary I is for Irresistible N is for Nutty

What Does Your Name Mean?

Happy Blogoversary to me!

So today it is one year since I started blogging. When I started I was going to blog to post pictures, mainly. But somewhere along the way I found a voice. If you know me, you know I don't like speaking in public and this forum ventured WAY to close to that. Although when I started I didn't think anyone would read it regularly anyway : ) Thank you to all those who come back to see if I have anything to say (lately, nothing of any depth...sorry). I was going back over the last year of posts and these are some of my faves...

- My trip to Las Vegas (5 separate posts)

- The fight over the corner in our basement!

- Late night Walmart Rendevouz

- My pretty girls!

- My Big news April fools joke! Which was even funnier 3 weeks later when we went to some peoples house and she still thought I was pregnant because she didn't scroll down. So funny!

- Il Divo and William Joseph concert with Elin...mmm....good times.

- Fun with our neighbors! Always good times

- The lovely sky after the terrible thunderstorms

- Finding peace in the midst of turmoil

- Josh Groban, yeah...makes me smile : )

So those are just a few of the posts that make me happy and there are so many other things that I've enjoyed...the support and encouragement of the blogging community, meeting new friends, learning things about old friends, fun and laughter...and the list could go on. I think this experience has enriched my life in so many ways and I'm so blessed by the people I've gotten to know and know better. You guys rock!

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What is your favorite type of art?

That's a tough one.  I love classic art.  I've been to a few museums in Europe and I love looking at the 
old paintings and sculptures.  I think other things like music is art, too, (like the master Josh Groban, sigh).  


Soup
When was the last time you got a free lunch (or breakfast or dinner)? Who paid for it?

I can't remember...but it was probably my Dad who paid for it.  He does that quite often.  

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how emotional are you?

Probably an 8.  I can get VERY, VERY excited!!!  (right Val?) and I can cry pretty easily, but I don't cry about everything.  I'm generally on the happier side of the emotions.  

Main Course
Approximately how long do you spend each day responding to emails?

Emails, maybe 10 minutes.  Blogs...that's another story : )

Dessert
To what temperature do you usually set your home’s thermostat?

In Summer I have it at 21 degrees celcius (69.8 degrees fahrenheit), in winter about 19-20  degrees celcius (66-68 degrees fahrenheit).

Just some nonsense and stuff

Another not so busy day for me. Ella started her first day of preschool today (it's her second year) and it looks like she's going to enjoy it once again. She woke up really excited and then a few minutes before getting into the car to go, she panicked. She was still exclaiming that she wasn't ever going to school again until she saw her teachers and then she was all smiles and showing them her new shoes and outfit and snack box. So it was fine. Aidan figured she wanted to go to school too. Next year. So here's Ella in her new outfit looking pleased as punch:


I spent some time lining up coffee dates with friends I haven't connected with in a while. The beauty of being a stay at home mom...coffee with other stay at home moms!

Okay this is really, really funny. I got this email today about a public bathroom in Houston. If you've seen it, sorry, if not, enjoy!

Bathroom on the outside:
View from the inside:
Could you use it? I couldn't. Talk about stage fright! It's made of one-way glass. No one can see you from the outside, but you can see EVERYTHING from the inside. Crazy. Who comes up with these things?

Here's a meme that I thought looked fun and I was bored, so I did it. I think I found it over at Dedee's.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Cat Saturn (Wasn't sure if they wanted the pet type or pet name...if it's the latter then my name would be "Tiger Saturn")

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Vanilla Chocolate Chip (not very gangsta-y if you ask me)

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
Ewie (what the?)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Red Puppy

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Joanna Winnipeg (yeah, that's just weird!)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Wie-Er (add an "n" in the middle and what do you have? Hee, hee)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Brown Water (why is it brown? Don't answer that)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Cornelius Isaak

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Vanilla Turtles

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Isaak (my mom doesn't have a middle name, so I guess I'd just be a one-name person like "Madonna" or "Cher"...except that Isaak's a very masculine name)

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Peters Paris

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Summer Magnolia

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Raspberry Jeany

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Yogurt Apple Blossom

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Scrapbooking Sunshine Tour

Supper swapping

So I was over at Because I Said So (if you haven't been reading her regularly, you should. It's great!) and her latest post was about supper swapping. Apparently there's a book out there called "The Great American Supper Swap" by Trish Berg and it sounds like such a fabulous idea and I've ordered the book off Amazon so I'll let you know how it is (or you can order it yourself and see for yourself). Anyone want to do it? Basically what's involved is a group of 2-4 women create their own swapping group. You cook ONCE a week for the whole group (large quantities of whatever it is you're making...think of it like a great big dinner party but you don't have to entertain everyone, lol) and the other few nights you get supper delivered to your door. Doesn't that sound great? Home cooked meals and only one night of cooking. The author wants to promote family time and eating together and this is a chance for people to do that. Less grilled cheese sandwiches, too : ) I think this would be lots of fun. It could work. I mean, who wouldn't want to cook less? Here's a blurb from her site and here's a link to what a sample swap calendar would look like:

Become A Supper Swap Mom!
		Moms have so many demands placed on them daily that preparing a nutritious and delicious family dinner becomes nearly impossible. Swapping suppers with a few "girlfriends" can be a simple, practical solution to your dinner time dilemma.
		Supper swapping (also known as co-op cooking) is simple, and it simply works. It’s moms helping moms, friendship at its best! On your cooking day, you simply fix enough dinner for you and your girlfriends’ (like 4 baked spaghettis) keep one meal for yourself, and deliver the other 3 meals to the families in your group.
		Then, the other four days of the week, sit back and relax as dinner is delivered to your door, hot, fresh and ready to eat. For about two hours worth of meal preparation, and thirty minutes of delivery time, you get a week's worth of stress free family dinners. That’s an 80% reduction in your cooking time - Talk about return on investment!
		Supper swapping saves you time, stress and money. You also build deeper friendships as your journey through the adventures of motherhood together. Supper swapping will solve your dinner time dilemma. Through joining together, we will learn that we can go farther than any one of us can go alone!

		Simple Steps to Supper Swapping Success:
		1. START WITH WHO YOU KNOW – Ask a neighbor, a girlfriend, or a co-worker to give it a try.
		2. HAVE COMMON GROUND – Either live nearby, attend church together, or work at the same company so delivery can be easily coordinated at that common location daily or weekly.
		3. PLAN 3 MONTHS OUT - Choose and plan your meals for at least three months at a time, and write or print them on a meal calendar so each family knows what is being delivered for dinner each night.
		4. START WITH FAMILY FAVORITES - Choose recipes to start with that are your family favorites. New recipes should be tried out on your individual family before they are introduced into the co-op.
		5. AVOID PAN-DEMONIUM - Use 9x9 or 9x13 glass Pyrex pans with snap on blue lids, semi-disposable Zip-Loc containers, and Whale of a Pal Tubs for soups and stews. Rotate them through the group (See Pan Formula in the book)
		6. HONESTY TASTES BETTER - When you establish your meal calendars, be honest and up front about food likes, dislikes, and allergies to avoid problems down the road.
		7. BUDGET MEALS - Buy ingredients in bulk for your meals when items are on sale. Try to budget recipes so you don't make two expensive ones back to back. (i.e. pot roast is more expensive than pizza burgers)
		8. ADAPT DELIVERY TIMES - Delivery times can vary depending on what works for each family. If you deliver at dinnertime, have the meal cooked and ready to eat. If you deliver in the morning, have your meal prepared but not cooked with baking instruction included.
		9. BE FLEXIBLE - Be flexible with one another when life throws you a curve ball, like a sick child, a broken down car, or unexpected circumstance. Have a meal back up plan for those nights agreed upon at the outset, like switching days or having pizza delivered if you are in a pinch.
		10. RELAX AND ENJOY THE RIDE - Relax and enjoy the ride. Don’t expect your supper swapping group to remain stagnant or to last forever; some families may swap longer than others. If a mom leaves, let them do so guilt free. We typically ask for one month’s notice so we can adapt our meal calendars

And there you have it. Doesn't that sound neat? I encourage others of you to think about this in your community of friends. Let me know if you try it! And if you're around here, let me know if you'd be interested in starting something like this. "Let's get together, na, na, na..."

All is well

Just been taking a little break from the world in general this weekend. I think I just tuckered right out. It was really, really busy for a while and I needed to sit back and take a deep breath. I had a great weekend. Lots of good times.

Friday I finished off the last minute things in the show home that I needed to do and spent the day at my mom's making more salsa. In the evening I went to a wedding shower for Lindsay. The shower was at one of our great restaurants, Buccacino's where we ate supper, visited and just had a relaxing evening there. After the shower I went grocery shopping. I'm telling you, shopping at 10:00 p.m. is so much better...there's nobody there! Imagine that : )

Saturday we had a lazy day and then we found out there was going to be a showing at 3:00 so I quickly tidied up and got us ready to go out the door for the bonfire/birthday party we were going to that evening. The party was great fun. We had a wiener roast and lots of good food. There were like 60 people there and it was such a nice evening. We've had so many weeks of crappy weather that it was a nice change to have 3 great days in a row. Today it was 28 degrees! Awesome.

Yesterday after church my mom and I took Ella shopping for a few new things for school. We went for ice cream and checked out my uncle's new scrapbooking kiosk in the mall. A truly successful shopping trip! In the evening we went over to Chris and Tara's for birthday cake for their daughter's birthday and visited with them.

Today was another relaxing day. I spent a good part of the day outside enjoying the lovely weather and visiting with the neighbor ladies. I picked up my passport today and I truly look grumpy in the picture : ( Then we had another showing in the evening so I packed up some stuff for supper and took it over to Chris and Tara's and she was kind enough to let us stay there. She made an amazing supper which I'm still stuffed from. Then she and I went to look at the 4 show homes in town. All very different and very nice. Great job to everyone!

So that's it. Nothing really exciting. My week is going to be filled with a few coffee dates and as much relaxing as possible. I think my body is in sore need of it. Hopefully one day soon I'll have some exciting posts. Nothing right now. I'm sucked right dry from all the busyness of the past month. It's a lot of work getting your house ready to sell and keeping it in that shape! I think I've got it down to a pretty good routine and so now my thoughts are...if it can stay this nice for this many days in a row, why can't it stay this nice all the time? Maybe it will become a habit and it will stick! We can only hope.

Come take a walk with me...

Okay, I've made some flickr sets of pictures of our house for anyone who cares to see what it looks like (although it doesn't usually look like these pictures...I do have two little girls, use your imagination and you can figure out that it's not NEARLY this clean and organized). So here's the set with our main floor, here's the set for our second floor, and here's the set for our basement. Hope the links all work and you can get a feel for my house. If you click on the pictures there are comments about each picture.

I just wanted to share this view as well. Isn't it gorgeous? We had this fabulous rain shower this evening while the sun was poking through the clouds and our street looked so beautiful. I'll miss the sunsets from my front porch, that's for sure. (if you click on the picture it gets really big and you can see all the rain drops)

Just one more thing...

See the sign?  It's for sale...Woohoo!!!

Umm, yeah

I'm sitting here at my computer, reading blogs when I should be doing something. I'm sure I should be doing something. My house is officially for sale and if you know anyone that wants it, let them know showings start tomorrow, okay? Okay. So I'm down to the bottom of the barrel of things to do on my to do list.

- clean windows in my bedroom and Ella's bedroom
- wash kitchen floor (I'll probably do that as we're leaving tomorrow morning)
- weed garden
- fold one last load of laundry (that's it, we're going to be wearing the same clothing for the next week or so)
- wash dishes one more time (off to mom and dad's for supper so that we don't make more dishes before tomorrow)

Is that it? I think that's it! That sounds totally doable. Very funny how that would have been lots to do in a normal day for me and today that sounds like a very reasonable amount of work.

Very exciting for me, I got new lamps for our living room yesterday. $60 at Walmart for a pack of 4 lamps.

They're so pretty. Makes me wish I had them like 18 months ago when we moved in (kind of like I wish our basement was finished, walls were fixed, pantry was cleaned, mirror in our closet was up and knobs on entertainment unit had all been done before this last week...funny how no amount of nagging will get your dh's butt in gear like a for sale sign and the promise of a profit on your house). But the sense of accomplishment following the last week and a half of work is immense!

Progress...

I know you are all probably getting bored of my posts lately, but I thought since you've all been so encouraging, I'd let you know what I've accomplished. I've got one of three walls painted, the whole main floor cleaned and Janice came to take pictures so that she could list our house tonight. I washed the pillars down in the front of our house, washed the walls in the main bathroom, cleaned all the main floor windows, vacuumed the whole house (except the basement...hoping to do that yet before bed), went to a preschool meeting and had our meeting with the bank.

On that note. It's all good. We've been approved for everything, got a good long mortgage term (since it's a flip house we figured we'd stretch it as long as possible so that we'd have a nice smallish mortgage...is there such a thing?), and as soon as our house is sold we'll be ready to go. Yeah!!! That is a huge relief! Now I'm just sitting and waiting for mud to dry so that I can paint the other two walls. Looks like it's going to be another late night : )

Oh, I forgot to mention all the wonderful salsa and apple pie filling my mom and I made yesterday. Oh yes, I found time to can with mom. We made 21 jars of salsa for us and 5 batches of apple pie filling from the absolutely gorgeous apples I picked off their tree. I even climbed a tree (which I haven't done in years and years!). I got 3 four gallon pails of apples. One pail makes 2 1/2 batches. We didn't have time to make all 3 pails so I gave one pail full to Tara. We will be eating lots of apple pie and apple crisp this winter and probably into next winter : )

Hello, my name is Jellyfish!

SPINELESS jellyfish!!! I can't say no. A very simple word. One of the very first words we learn as children. The one that can save your sanity when you are crazy busy. And I can't seem to say it.

I'm going to do something I rarely do on this blog...vent. Sorry. I just really need an outlet. I'm going to do this as diplomatically as possible because I know some of you go to my church. You all read my last post, right? About how crazy my life has gotten? Yeah, well, I'm officially over my head. That takes a lot for me to admit that I've finally done it and taken on more than I can handle. You see, aside from all the other craziness I've been roped into Sunday School teaching. I said specifically, "I don't want to teach, but I can be a parent volunteer once in a while." And suddenly I'm on a team, teaching every 3 Sundays. I tried. I tried really, really hard to say no. But apparently I'm a big, old push over and people don't listen to me when I'm trying very hard in my quiet, roundabout way to say no. Yes, I said quiet...see, I'm a people pleaser. Don't let anyone down. Make everyone happy! Don't make waves or make anyone mad at you. Such a bad way to live. I like to be helpful, but there comes a point when you can't give to everyone.

Yes, I know my child is in Sunday School and everyone needs to do their part. I've spent the last 4 years in the nursery volunteering and doing my part. Yes I know that there are people who are busier than me and still do more, but I can only handle so much before it's too much for me. There are enough people in our church that there is no reason why some of the people who don't do anything can't volunteer to be in Sunday School. The child care and teaching of the little ones seems to be the hardest area to get volunteers. I understand. I don't want to be involved in that area, either. I am with my kids 7 days a week all day long. Sunday School is what gives me the chance to sit and listen to a sermon without my children while they still get their share of Spiritual guidance at their own learning level. I am finally able to sit through a service 80% of the time because my kids are old enough to stay in their classes. And now I can't even enjoy that????? Seriously.

Okay, I'm done.

So our house is being listed today! Isn't that nuts? The plan is to give it some exposure on the mls (multiple listing service) and then do showings on the weekend and start taking offers on Wednesday. If there is no response, we do it again next weekend and so on and so forth until it's sold. So I have a gazillion things to do to get my house in "showable" order and here I sit blogging because I'm just too overwhelmed to start. My game plan today is to wash windows, vacuum stairs and landings, paint 3 walls that look terrible (due to the paint having changed color over the last 18 months and when I did touchups on Monday it left big ugly patches on the wall that are very noticeably different colors), clean bathrooms and finish cleaning and vacuuming the basement. If my kids let me. I have to do as much today because tomorrow and Friday will be stuff with the show home. What have I done? Wish me luck and maybe send up a prayer for me.

Crazy Week!

(Okay, as I was sitting down to type this post I realized something. Something quite important. In my life, that is. It's almost my one year bloggiversary! September 21! It's gone so fast...)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. This is the week. Hopefully. It's a big week! Lots of things happening in our lives over here:

- Meeting with the bank on Wednesday to see if they will finance our big build
- Hopefully putting the for sale sign up by the weekend...if all goes well. You all know how things go and it might not be till the following week, but we can try!
- The Parade of Homes opens and my show home HAS to be done by Saturday at noon...AAAHHH!!!

See, that's 3 really big things. All in all, it may chalk up to be nuts around here because all the things that go hand in hand with those 3 items include:

* Getting all the rest of the quotes together for the bank
* Doing paint touchups around the house
* Cleaning my carpets
* Cleaning my windows
* Cleaning up the house of little stuff that shouldn't be out for selling
* Did I mention cleaning anywhere?
* Shopping for the show home
* Putting stuff together in the show home
* Miscellaneous meetings that have nothing to do with said 3 items above
* Yard work to tidy up for selling
* Making salsa and apple pie filling (Why this week? Because, of course, that's when the tomatoes and apples had to be ready!! What grand timing!)

I'm happy to say that with all that has to be done, lots has already been done. This weekend I washed my drapes, packed a lot of stuff, Jer finished the basement (Totally 100% done!!!), cleaned my oven and stove top, cleaned out the garage (ready to move boxes and bins into for storage), and even managed to find time to take the girls to the zoo for the day. Now I'm afraid to do anything in my house because it's getting cleaner and cleaner and I want it to stay that way. So let it be known that I would definitely not turn down any offers for supper in order to keep my kitchen and dining room clean, hee, hee : ) I'm kidding of course. I did, however, make mention of this to Jer, saying "I should tell everyone on my blog that I'd be open to dinner invitations. But of course, probably the only invitations will be from people who live in other parts of the world." And my dear husband snorts and says "And you'd be likely to take them up on those offers!" He knows me too well. All Val did was jokingly invite me to a housewarming party and look, I'm going : ) Okay, off to bed so that I can do all those things I need to do tomorrow. Well, some of them. I have to make the most of my day without the girls and get LOTS done.

Why I love shopping!

I haven't had time to post about it, but last weekend (Sunday to Monday) my friend Janice and I went down to the States for the night. Shopping was the name of the game. I was going to try and stay away from black and brown, but you'll notice, it was very unsuccessful...in fact, everything I bought is either black or brown. I suck! Janice on the other hand, who has complained to me in the past that she doesn't have enough color bought pink and green and blue. Oh well, at least it's all nice : ) I also got the girls some little treats. Aidan needed new jeans. Ella got a new computer game and I got them both new plates and mittens. (click on the collage to see it larger...and don't you just love those shoes?)
And quite possibly one of the main reasons I go is for this...

Unfortunately Bath and Body Works was in the fifth week of their "5 for $15" sale on antibacterial soaps and the selection was very limited in Fargo. On our way through Grand Forks we stopped in at the Bath and Body Works there and found a few more.

And a big, bright, shiny moment for Janice and I...

...don't worry...we didn't eat it all right then. There are just so many fascinating treats that we don't have here. I brought most of mine home and shared with my family.