More Normal

Today was a ‘normal’ day for us on a Saturday. It was definitely nice to get to sleep in a little bit with Jay (since he has to get up early and leave for work most days before I am out of bed) and have Ayden come in and wake us both up. It was also nice to lay on the couch in the living room with my family and watch some cartoons and just relax. Not worry about moving or boxes or anything!

Today we did a huge grocery shopping trip. We did not get a lot of groceries in the weeks up to our move because we did not want to have to move a lot of food. It worked because our food supply was pretty sparse when we moved, however we needed groceries and BAD! So we went around 11am today (when we finally decided to get up and moving) and got home probably around 1pm. We also had to make a stop at Menards for something. We totally stocked up on groceries and should be good for a while now. Yeah!

And the rest of the day was spent just chillin’ really. Okay, so not so much… I spent the majority of the afternoon going through more stuff. I have the ‘office’ pretty much organized and the play room is looking more like a play room. I have just a few more things that need to get gone through and then we need to hang some pictures and it should all be official. Like everything in its place! That will be left for tomorrow, but that is okay. I also did two loads of laundry as well, and still have some from Tuesday that I didn’t fold yet. Oh well… I am really bad at that.

And with the crappy weather that we are having this weekend it is good to stay inside and get things done. Oh wait, I just remembered that we aren’t going to be able to get anything done tomorrow if we have to leave for a graduation party in the morning. Kind of ugh, but oh well.

I think we have figured out when we are going to clean our apartment… our old one that is. We have planned to do the carpets, windows, and walls next Sunday… and then the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen while my mom and sister are visiting. I know that they will be surprised when I tell them that we are going to go do some cleaning, but hey they will survive and it will go faster with more people as well! Then we have to get the carpets professionally cleaned (as we are only vacuuming them) and we will be ALL done!

Okay, so I am just babbling on. Nothing too exciting going on here right now so I will let you go for now!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

In love with…

PHOTOSHOP!!! I’ve been messing around with photoshop over the past few days learning more and more about it. Actually, it’s not the real photoshop, just photoshop elements because I’m too cheap to afford the real thing, but this definitely works for me and has been the best picture editing software that I have worked with thus far. I’d love to work with the real photoshop some day, but will make due with what I have and it’s definitely okay with me. I wanted to show some of my edits of the last few days… enjoy! The first one of each series is the straight out of the camera shot and then subsequent photo(s) are edited thanks to photoshop! :)

Jay and I enjoying some down time on my swing before we moved and me messing around with trying to get a good shot of both of us! I really like how the edited one turned out!

Ayden and I went on a nature walk the other day and I brought my camera along (because what mom doesn’t love taking pictures of their children?!) and got some great shots!

I really liked how this turned out… but I liked the following one even better when I messed with the different black and white effects!

 

This first one turned out a lot darker than I thought, but I liked the picture and with a little bit of lighting changes…

I love how this one brightened up so much just by working with the lighting effects and the colors! My little guy running away down the hill from me!

For this one I blurred the background a little more on the edit since the picture wasn’t all the way in focus when I took it (Ayden never stays still!) and then turned it black and white!

I really liked how the brighter more vibrant colors really make the picture stand out!

 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Randomness

Wednesday

I think tonight we just might be able to get everything from the garage into the house. Most of what is left out there is stuff that Jay needs to help me carry in. Also, the carpet is dry in the basement (and free of spots!) so I can start rearranging stuff downstairs. Today I carried a lot of the boxes that were upstairs down there because the carpet is dry. Although I am ready to start setting up, I don't know how much I should do because I do not know what the cable guy is going to have to do on Friday. I would think that he wouldn't have to do all that much, but I don't know. I know that I can start going through the boxes though and distinguishing stuff that can be kept out and stuff that can be stored away. I also found another great storage spot today... under Ayden's bed! I hadn't thought of it until today, but we kept one side of the drawers out and leaves the other side open for all storage!

I am missing the days where I could come home and not have to worry about anything other than making some supper and doing a load of laundry... the days where I can sit and read all afternoon. I wish I could fast forward to when everything would be put away! I know I said that before, but now I really mean it, lol!I know that in a week when everything is settled in, I will look back at this week and just be like oh whatever. I know I am complaining a lot about this, but I am such an organized person and can't stand chaos!!! I almost NEED everything in it's place in order to function without anxiety. I'm not a psychologist by any means close... but I'd say I have a very small case of OCD or maybe just high anxiety with things out of place yet.

Thursday

I am happy to say that I got the play room into some sort of order last night! It looks a lot more like a room than just some sort of huge storage closet! We also got everything else out of the garage that needed to come into the house... yeah! I wanted to start setting everything else up, but because the cable and internet people are coming tomorrow, I am waiting incase they need to move some furniture around, namely the book shelves and I don't want them loaded down with books when they are moving them. I also started to go through a bit of Ayden's toys. I am sorting out stuff that he doesn't play with anymore, stuff that is broken or missing major pieces and then going to organize everything. It's my dream, lol! Actually at this point it is not.

Most of the boxes are out of the living room... yeah again! I also got Jay and my's closest organize last night. Lots of stuff folded versus on hangers now and we even 'spilt' over into Ayden's closet. But in all fairness, his closet is bigger than ours, lol! And actually he was excited to share his closet with mom and dad. We didn't have to put much in there, but even having to use it kind of depressed me, lol!

It is supposed to rain all weekend. Kind of a bummer since Jay wanted to have our first bonfire this weekend, but also good because it will water our grass for free and it will keep Jay inside all weekend helping me put stuff away. I was kind of annoyed that I was the one who had to organize the closet all by myself, but I probably would have just yelled at him if he was doing it because he probably wouldn't have been doing it right. But he did hang the TV on our wall last night and that works. However, we were woken up at about 2:30am to this huge crash like sound. I mean it was loud because both Jay and I sat straight up in bed. My first thought was that our TV fell off the wall, but then quickly realized it probably would have sounded closer. This sort of sounded farther away. Jay got up to investigate and found the cat still sleeping so it didn't wake Diesel (or Ayden for that matter). He couldn't find anything amiss either upstairs or downstairs and neither could I this morning so we don't know what it was. I am thinking it might have been something in our neighbors place because something that loud in our place would definitely have been noticable when we looked for it (or at least I'd hope so) not that the roof is all of a sudden collapsing secretly on us, haha!

Diesel found a new place to explore. Apparently he can get up into the rafters of the basement via where the laundry shoot is and went around exploring up there this morning. Scared the crap out of me when I realized something was up there. I immediately got him down, but five seconds later he was back up there (that was when I realized how he was doing it) and I just let him be. I figured he would find a way down and he did a little while later. It was crazy though! I think I might see if Jay can put a piece of wood blocking Diesel's entrance up there because I don't really think he needs to be walking around up there, but whatever works I guess.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Proof

My new house does exist… and I’m normal like everyone else and its not perfectly clean either… actually I’m okay with airing my dirty house to everyone because… well I just am… hopefully I will get some pictures up in a few weeks of what it looks like all put together, but for now just enjoy the mess of unpacking and moving in!

Here is Jay about to walk into our front door. This is a really weird angle, I know… We are renting the back half of the duplex and from what we know a young lady lives in the front half.

 

Here is a view looking in our kitchen. It is much like the kitchen we had in our first place, however with more counter space and cupboard space.

Here is view looking out of our kitchen into the small dining area. With only the three of us we are going to push the table up against the wall to eat at it (when we do eat at it, lol) and still leaves plenty of room to walk through.

 

Looking into our living room and can see the front door. Of course everything is messy and not set up, but you can’t miss the legos all over the floor already, haha!

Another view of the living room, only from the opposite direction… and the boxes that still need to be unpacked and put away. I’m hoping at least by the end of the next week that we have most of everything put away… keeping my fingers AND toes crossed, lol!

 

Upstairs bathroom… I must admit that it is a LOT smaller than our previous bathroom, but I suffice that two bathrooms is better than one, right?

Ayden’s bedroom! He is the lucky duck with two windows in his room! I cannot wait to get all of our pictures hung and make it look more homey in here!

 

 

Mine and Jay’s bedroom… with our new headboard! After we get everything in it’s right place, it will feel bigger in there!

 

The view of our inky dinky closet! Master bedrooms are supposed to have big closets, right? Guess the builders of this place missed the memo on that one! Oh how I will miss our other closet!

Laundry center in the basement! Wish it was upstairs somewhere, but will do! We have a clothes line as well… YEAH! And for a free washer and dryer… it will definitely do!

 

 

Shelving opposite the washer and dryer. Supposed to be a tool shelf, but I’m claiming it for laundry use because Jay has his tool bench out in the garage!

Bathroom numero dos! Finally a place to hide the litter box so that I do not have to smell it whenever Diesel decides to he needs to use the bathroom.

 

 

First half of downstairs play/family room completely piled full of stuff because we were shampooing the other half.

 

 

View of first half from the second half…

 

 

Second half of basement play/family room! I cannot wait to get everything set up and organized! Just need to shampoo the first half tonight!

 

 

Office area in the basement. I am making a folding frame to sort of block it off when people walk past and for a total of only… $15!

 

Hallway from the office area to the play/family room area!

 

 

We also have a backyard, but I took these pictures while it was dark out so those will have to wait. Plus Jay has some super ideas in store so I will get those once he is all done with his stuff!

I am such a routine person… I thrive on routine… and it seems like Ayden does too. We are straining to get our routine back with the move and all, but we haven’t really had a routine at all during the past two weeks so it is hard to go back to a routine that you never really had in the first place. I am craving the end of 4K and the start of his morning class. Having the afternoons to ourselves will be a great delight and we will finally be able to start a decent routine. I feel like the summer will be 1/3 of the way over before we get settled into anything and really it will be. Ha, what am I talking about, it is first only June 2.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Move almost FINISHED!

I wish I could say the hard part is over, but it is not quite yet. We still have the garage from our old place to move to our new place, however we cannot do that until we empty the garage at our new place of the boxes and stuff we moved on Saturday that we couldn't put in the house yet. So instead of doing it the hard way... bring each box in seperately... I told Jay to bring the dolley (sp?) from work and we could stack the boxes and move lots at once. Because after two LONG days of moving, the last thing I want to do is spend another night getting more boxes into my house. By the way... since when did we EVER have this much stuff?! You wouldn't notice it if the house was put together, but moving it all, it was like WOAH! And then in a week or so, we need to get back and clean the old place. Actually, we could theoretically wait until the end of June, but I just want done with that place.

Jay's parents and brother came to help us move the rest of our stuff yesterday which was such a blessing. It made things a lot better and we definitely did not have to take as many trips, I was estatic about that!

Today was our first day without the normal channels that we usually get and unfortunately we are not able to get the local channels either... big BUMMER! At least then Ayden would have been able to watch PBS. So far we are surviving and I managed to find a 'free' internet to log into for the time being. Can't wait until Friday though, lol!

So far I have the kitchen pretty much organized and half of the closet. Our closet at the new place is MUCH smaller than at our old place so I have had to become creative with our clothing situation, lol. I used to hang almost all of my clothes and Jay's, however now I've been forced to put a lot more into the dressers and get hangy storage device things to maximize closet space. I've also got the bathroom functioning pretty well, but that is about it. At least we have the beds set up and food accessible. Oh and Jay hooked up the washer and dryer last night, although I haven't tried them out yet. Maybe I will do a load tonight. Oh oh oh and one of the best things... we have a clothes line in the back yard! I can hang my clothes out! I know that means more work, but it saves energy and I love the smell of them when they are dried like that!

Jay has mega plans for the back yard landscaping and honestly I think it will look really nice when he is done. I think he wants to get started on it a lot faster than I would like him too because I would rather get the house in order first, but oh well. At least it will be free with the materials from work. We will just need to buy some plants and/or get some from his green thumb of a mother and all will be set. His parents are the best.

I'm sure at some point this week or next week we will get the stuff from the garage over to the new place, but there really isn't any hurry since we already have the bikes and that was the big thing that I wanted over by us. Ayden and I found a park about a block away from our new place and it is pretty nifty. It is definitely not as big as the 'big blue park' but the short bike ride makes up for it. Ayden's major goal this week is to help mommy and daddy put the house in order and his reward at the end of it will be a new Transformer, since we went to Walmart last night and saw that they have a ton of new ones out because of the movie. So far he has been really good. I definitely kind of feel for him this week though because I will want to try and organize things so we have room to play and he wants to play and there is no TV to watch and so he ends up playing by himself a lot. He was so good this morning, but it made me stop what I was doing and suggest we go to the park. I think I need more moments like that because the big picture isn't a clean and organized house, it's fun with your children!

Our cat, Diesel, seemed to take the move pretty well. He was pretty scared at first yesterday and both Jay and I showed him where his litter box had taken up its new home multiple times. I'm still a little worried that he might not be using it, but I did see him go up and down the stairs a few times and didn't spot/smell anything this morning (although I know there are a lot of places that he could have gone that I would not find until WAY later). We let him sleep with us last night (something I do not like doing because I inevitably get woken up a dozen or more times during the night), but I didn't sleep very well to begin with so it was really no bother. And... he was in a new place and we didn't want him to feel left out of anything. He seemed his normal self this morning, eating, wandering around, etc...

We also had to leave Ayden's bedroom door open because it is literally a pain in the butt to get open and closed. Reason... it rubs against the carpet. We are having it fixed of course (I wonder why the previous tenants did not because the same carpet was there when they lived there) because it poses more than just a fire risk if Ayden were in there alone. He can barely get the door opened and closed by himself. Not something I am going to put up with. The landlords were nice about it. Our toliet also squeals kind of when it is refilling itself, Jay said he could do something about that. The place is older, not new new like the place we moved out of, but that is okay with me. Jay said he was excited because it felt more like a house than an apartment. Well, duh! That is why I wanted to rent it, lol!

I am excited to get the playroom and office set up in the basement, but we are going to clean the carpets first. Apparently the landlords weren't going to have them done, but no problem. We are just borrrowing Jay's parent's carpet cleaner and will do it ourselves. So, no setting up anything until that is done because we would have to move it all again anyways. So far the cupboard space is holding up well. I thought we might not have enough, but we are not putting out all of our cups and getting rid of a lot of tupperware (we had SO much)... so all is good. My one major complaint would be that the shelves are so damn short that I can't fit anything in standing straight up. Oh well, lol! I'll survive!

I hope to post some pictures soon!

CIAO! LOVE ME!