Moving, cleaning and staying cool.

We moved over the weekend. It was just under 110 degrees. But we survived. We had a great team of men, two of whom we met Saturday morning, and they all kicked some serious moving butt and it only took them about three hours. A huge THANK-YOU to all of you who helped on moving day...and before (this includes watching Max and helping paint too, etc.). Moving is not fun no matter how you look at it. So thanks to all who made it easier for us!

We have two days left in our little yellow house, today is cleaning day for me. I didn't expect it to be a sentimental day. But it is. We have a lot of memories in this little house. As I clean little hand prints another memory fills my mind. So I am actually enjoying cleaning here. This was the house that we lived in when we brought Max home from the hospital. This is the house I took a positive pregnancy test with the new baby. This is our first house as a little family. It's small, there is no privacy, you have to walk through the family room, kitchen and laundry room to get to the bathroom. But, its one of my favorite houses.

It's old. I love the characteristics and charm. There is a HUGE front porch, a great lemon tree and the owner left a lot of things original. We are so close to downtown. We are just blocks from all downtown activities and we could even see the 4th fireworks from the porch. We always get comments from neighbors about how much they love this house and the owner did a fabulous job repairing it. We have great neighbors who have told us they are sad to see us go. The gardening here is great. The owner does the yard work (yay!)! The backyard is huge and shaded.

As I mentioned, this is where we started our little family and that will always be a favorite memory for me. Max crawled here and took his first steps here. He turned into a toddler here. The picture below is another moment when I couldn't find him. I should have figured it was garbage day, and he'd be trying to find ways to watch the trucks go by.



The next time he'll be able to look out the window on his own two feet, he'll probably be 4 or 5. (Or at his rate, next month :)).

So we start our new adventure as homeowners. It's been interesting so far. I promise I'll do before and after pictures (CARLA!!!) so you can all see the changes. As for now, our A/C went out yesterday so we are waiting for the repair guy. But, guess what's covered on our brand new home warranty...yep! The A/C. We never expected to use it two days after we moved it though. (Might I add, one nice thing about the yucky economy is people are waiting for work! Meaning we have had some GREAT and FAST service!!!). Until then, we are enjoying Max's blow up pool...it was 96 inside yesterday...107 outside. Whew!

This turned out to be more of a vent and emotional dispense than a blog post. But I'll look back and want to remember this time. Buying our first home. Pictures to come...

Back to cleaning off all my memories...sniff sniff.

Max's "Mills" side.

When Mommy makes cookies and gives us the spoon to lick, we take it seriously. When we accidentally wipe some on the cabinet, we think about what to do..

...then we do the obvious. Duh.

Boxed up with a Veggie Twist

You know you've heard the saying, "All kids want is the cardboard box it comes in." Well it's true. Especially with my kid. He does love boxes and he especially loves boxes with pictures of vacuum's on them. John and Carla gave us some of their boxes they used with their recent move and they have sure come in handy. As a babysitter. A couple months ago the box in the picture below became Max's favorite spot to sit. He giggled every time he saw it and played with it for long periods of time. Well, it went into hiding for a little bit and I pulled it out again the other day to occupy him while I packed.This kid LOVES vacuum's. Seriously. He loves them. Until they turn on. Then he'll run away or jump on the couch with fear. So for him, the box is perfect.

I know the picture below is not a good one, but I wanted to show a picture of Max with his smoothie. Erik's sister, Nicole, started drinking smoothies to add some nutrients to her system. So we started too. We've enjoyed fruit smoothies from home now and again. But now it's regular for us. Especially since Max won't eat anything green, unless it's a pickle. We add frozen fruit (any kind you like, we get a big bag from Costco), berries, yogurt, bananas, juice (any kind), etc. If you can plan ahead and freeze your fruit, I think it tastes better nice and cold. Add whatever you want. We added spinach for some greens and you can't taste it at all. I wouldn't drink it if you could. But Max doesn't know the difference. (I experimented with bell peppers once too...don't do it. Gross.) And we most recently added (ground) Flax seed. Throw it all in the blender (I used the food processor too, when our blender broke).

Luckily we had a cup leftover from Fenton's that works well for the thick smoothies. But a sippy cup with a bigger sipping hole has worked for him too.

It's a simple way to get some healthy items in your system, and Max's. We've frozen the leftovers in popsicle molds too. Max LOVES them. Cold and sweet...mmmmm...

Try it, you'll like it.

The key...

...to our first home.

We are homeowners!!!! YAY!!!!!

Let the "fun" begin...