Monday

I wish I had a creative hobby. Actually I wish I was motivated enough to just get everyday things done let alone creative fun things for myself! I love creating things. It feels so fulfilling to make something that looks nice. My house is my project now I guess. And I can't even keep it clean!

I want to purchase an area rug for under my dining room table since it's in the living room. It collects so much dust under there and I am constantly sweeping. While it's probably cleaner to have no rug, it looks cleaner to have one! It will need to compliment the new beautiful area rug I bought last week. I stopped at a store since they are going out of business and saw some berber area rugs for about $30 so I couldn't pass that up. I had my brother with me because he was working on my bathroom and we needed to run out and get some hardware at the store. I asked him if he liked a particular berber I had pulled out. He didn't seem very impressed, he was meandering over to the expensive rugs with cool colors and prints. He pulled one out and said, "I like this one!" I agreed that it was pretty but it wasn't in my price range and I headed back over to the berbers. He said that the one he was looking at didn't have price tag on it and brought it up front to the cashier. They said to him that they would give it to us for $30, even though it was obviously not the size, or style of those of that price. I saved a bundle! On sale that rug should've been $120.00!!! After I paid the woman said to me that I got the deal of the night. I am still so happy with it, it's cool blues and browns and tans in like a checkerboard four square style that has a Japanese floral print going on in the squares. Very nice, and looks awesome with my floors, couch and wall color! So glad I brought him with me! There was another rug in the "cheap" bin which actually complimented the one I bought and I was thinking maybe for the dining area, only it was pretty thin and it might get really wrinkled when the chairs are moved back and forth on it.

We all lost our voices today. And I thought we were getting better!
I think we should all buy soaps and cleaning detergents that are made with plant bases versus petroleum product bases, it'll help lessen our dependence on oil. Recycling plastics DEFINITELY helps as well. I am trying my part. Moving out here has been a real gas saver as well. I spent $37 in the last two weeks. Usually I spent upwards of $140...because I drove further and because the gas prices were higher. Right now they are about $2.29/gal and when we were in Strasburg last week we saw some for $2.09/gal.

Mark has been playing Fallout 3. It's pretty interesting I guess. He will be done his degree at Eastern this February. I can't believe how quickly that went. It will be so nice for him (AND US!) when he doesn't have anymore schoolwork to do. Although he was mentioning his Masters with another school. This online program has really been awesome for us though. He has done so well and has been home with us!

Christmas will be here before we know it. I am not looking forward to the financial part. We'll see what happens. This year I wanted to do something different regarding family gift giving. In past years we've bombarded our kids with gifts and emptied our pocketbooks doing so(and it still didn't compare to what some of there friends got!). They in return seemed overwhelmed and unappreciative. They didn't see the value in the little things. So this year I wanted to get them involved in the giving even though they are so young. I figured that if each of us buys a gift for each of us then everyone will have a gift and have given a gift to everyone. I think it'll be more special and we can focus on giving rather than receiving--and MAYBE not spend as much.
I threw out our Christmas tree when we moved. It needed to be chucked because we had kept it in the mold infested basement and it had a yucky smell. It still worked though, so that was hard. We didn't have a lot of room either so I had to part with it. Last year after Christmas at Home Depot they were selling gorgeous fake trees pre-lit and tall for $10-$30 I almost did it, but I didn't know where I'd keep it and didn't even know our moving situation, but BOY I wish I had one now :) It'll be fun to put lights up this year on the bushes in the front. We had a sterile concrete patio at the last location and I could only decorate with pots.

I need to go to bed :)
Goodnight

THe WhoLE StoRY

So for the past few months life has been busy, crazy and fun. We are chipping away at house work. Mark is just about finished the floor in the basement. That makes all the flooring in the house done, except the kitchen, which we are re-doing in the spring and the upstairs hallway which just needs to be re-situated >>? Evie just got over he first stomach virus. That was really tough for me. Asa had the same thing a few days before. She has mastered the army crawl and can crawl "for real" for short periods of time. She's getting really big too at 6 months she's 16.14 lbs(50-75%) and 27.25 inches(90-95%) tall.

I am so glad the election is over. No more hoping or caring. Now we know and don't need to discuss anything anymore. I didn't vote for Obama but I am at peace with him being our president. God is ultimately in charge anyway. I voted for a Libertarian who I thought would be an excellent choice for Auditor General, but he didn't even come close. I blame that on ignorance more than anything. I think a lot of people vote straight party because they haven't researched the candidates. I am actually guilty of this in the past. Enough of the political talk though!

I still haven't hung anything on the walls yet. Evie's room no longer has a lamp either( i knocked it over and broke the glass) We are still kinda camping, but really settled in as well. I want to get a sectional for my basement and two bookshelves. There is a built in book shelf down there and I want to turn it into a office space, like a built in computer desk and my files can go above it in the shelves. It will be very streamlined and space conscious. I am excited about that. My brother came over and helped us put the light up in the powder room. Now all we have to do to that room is patch the drywall, sand and paint. The flooring in that room will be replaced with the kitchen floor.

We had Empire Today come and put our carpet on the stairs. They did it as quickly as the ads say and at a better price then a local carpet store with remnants, I was impressed!

Our family had some fun outings as the pictures suggest below. Last weekend we went to Strasburg Railroad for FREE!! We got tickets from a friend and some more from my mom and some other tickets for the Choo Choo barn. It was a perfect day for the trip and maybe we can make it an annual event.

The week before that we went to Highland Orchards and also had a great time. I bought this hummus called Bobbi's, I have to say I think it's the best I've ever had! They also had milk there with re-useable bottles. I wish my local stores sold milk like that. I wish we never stopped being so less wasteful like in the past. Everything is about convenience now--but I believe that really comes at a bigger price!

My township just upped their recyling program and will now take plastic #'s 1-7 and all kinds of papers and cardboards and even empty tin cans and aerosol cans plus all the regular stuff like glass and aluminum. Last week we had only two kitchen bags full of trash to throw out. I was so proud :) That is definitely my new goal to have 2 or less bags of trash a week.

Tyler had his hair dyed for the Phillies if you are wondering from the pictures. He got to go to the parade too. Sounded like a lot of fun! Very excited about the phillies. But I am kinda a bad fan who only watches them when they hit the World Series. Oh well!

Thats All for now!

fall

First we have hiking behind our new home. It's a truck graveyard and very interesting place to explore.









Then We have our new home. Evie's room and the color on the Living Room Walls. However I know I need some better pictures, both quantity and quality-wise.







Then We have Highland Orchards and Strasburg Railroad mixed together. Good Times.









And a random picture of Evie in her Halloween Costume: pink bunny. I need to get pics of Asa and Tyler(or should I say Obi Wan and Darth Vader)