Punk Baby

In her 'fortress of solitude'


At-ti-tude! :)

Sweet silly grin

2 more weeks....

We got the last of our paperwork to the mortgage company today, and she said it would be about 2 weeks until we close- so that means we'll be moving in 2 weeks!!

I'm so very excited, granted we won't be able to do the improvements we originally planned right when we move in, but we can do a little at a time, and that's just as fun!

So now we have lots of stuff to do- we're picking up some boxes this week from our friends Erin and Jeff- and after that we're going to start packing up our non-essential stuff.

For the first time in a very long time, I'm getting excited to decorate the house. I've got all my little paint chips ready, and keep getting ideas for how I want to arrange things. I'm nesting :)

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes

Kat's current favorite food is pancakes- she can't get enough and eats them like they're going out of style. We don't even put syrup or anything on them, just the pancakes and sometimes a little bit of butter. I was trying to find a sneaky way to make them better for her and found this recipe- I tweaked it a little bit, but they are SO GOOD! Tim is begging me to make a big batch for him- and I have to say, you can really taste the apple and it smells like fall in our house right now. These freeze and thaw really well, and don't get too cakey so you don't need to worry so much about toddlers eating them.

Applesauce Pancakes
1 cup flour –
1/4 teaspoon salt –
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter –
1/2 cup milk –
1 beaten egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla –
1 1/4 cups applesauce

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl. Combine butter, milk and egg. Stir into dry ingredients. Add vanilla and applesauce; beat well. Spoon batter into a hot, well greased griddle, cook until golden brown.

If you're freezing these, cool them down in your fridge before freezing!

Enjoy!

The geeks shall inherit the earth :)

Inside house pictures, and Inspection Update

So our inspection was yesterday, and in the grand tradition of home inspections, something had to be wrong :) We are having to have someone come in to check out the furnace and the electricity. The furnace is brand new, but not putting off any heat- according to the home inspector, this could be a really simple fix, but he wanted to be sure we had an expert check out the way the furnace was hooked up since it's kind of different than what he's used to seeing. Also it looks like half the outlets are ungrounded (which is common in older houses) but is also a fire hazard, so we are in the process of figuring out how much this stuff will cost us to fix- or whether it's stuff we can do ourselves. We are still definitely buying the place, but the cost may need to be adjusted based on needed repairs.

So here are the inside pictures I took of the house yesterday :) Enjoy :)

The Master Bedroom

The foyer heading into the utility/laundry room

The door leading into the Master Bedroom


The Kitchen and Dining room


Kitchen

The cabinets and counter top in the dining room

Living room shot 1

Living Room Shot 2

Bathroom

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

House!!

So- we found a place, put in a crazy low offer on it expecting them to counter, and they accepted the crazy low offer within hours! Wow!! Tomorrow morning is the inspection, and if that goes well, we should be closing on the house in 2-3 weeks!

The skinny on the house- It's not huge, but it's put together in such a way inside that you don't feel claustrophobic. New roof, windows, and well. It has a large newer shed out back, and a yard that is fenced in on 3 sides (we just need to run one more piece of fence to complete it) It has a cute little yard with a big patio out back (which you can see in the pictures) There is a little park across the street, and the neighborhood is super friendly with lots of kids. Lucky for us, it was privately owned and is ready to move in at closing and in need of no major work at all. Most of the houses we were looking at were going to require work before they were able to be lived in.

We really liked the feel of it, it's very cute and with a few decorative touches and paint on the inside, it's going to be just adorable. So looks like we found our home! Yay!! I'm poring over paint chips and making lists already :) I'm getting so excited to make this house our very own.

Here are some pictures that Tim's Dad took of the outside of the house, we're going to take some inside pictures tomorrow while the inspector does his thing, and I'll post those then.


The Front of the House from the Road



The side of the house, with the shed.


The house view from the back yard.

Another front view from another angle

Another side view from another angle

Don't panic :)

If you see you've lost me as a follower, I've unfollowed everyone on blogger- but because I use Google Reader to read all my blog buddies stuff in one place- so I'm still reading your stuff, I just had to simplify my online life :)

I still wub you!

Bleh...

I have Martian Death Flu :( Okay- actually it's just a really nasty head cold and probably an ear infection (fun right?)

So when this zombifies me, you all have to promise to still love me and keep me in the shed a'la Ed in Shawn of the Dead- okay?

Also yet another house that we were really interested in has been sold- so bleh again... We only have one solid possibility left and we're going to see the inside of it today, but it's really tiny so it may not work out either.

I just had to whine LOL, and since you stuck with me through my whine, here's something to make you smile:

Kat feeding the ducks, and an update

Last week we took Kat to the park that her Grandpa works at to feed the ducks and play on the playground. Since she had never seen ducks up close, but seemed to be a big fan of animals in general we thought it would be a fun trip.

I knew my kid was a little fearless (something that freaks me out as a Momma) but she really surprised me at the Park! These ducks are pretty tame, and pretty used to being fed, so the minute they figured out we had food they swarmed us (probably 30-40 ducks) and Kat just got down and stood in the middle of it and giggled and laughed. I figured any toddler would be a little freaked out by ducks running at them (since they're almost eye level) and eating corn off their feet, hands, and picking it out of their overalls- but not my kid. She didn't even blink. She loved every minute of it!

She had fun going down the twisty 'big girl' slide at the park, and swinging on the swings (as you can see below)- then we all went out to a local Polish restaurant and had pierogies- a good night :)

Enjoy the pictures, our little family update is at the bottom :) Dessert first is always a good thing!











So- a sudden change in plans for us- if you haven't heard- we're house hunting. And it's kind of a rush job, we need to get a house under contract by the beginning of October to get this awesome tax credit thing (closing needs to happen by November 30th)- and this is a bit of a quick development in our world. It's a long story, and a boring one, so I won't bore you silly with the details.

What that does mean for us is that we're having to come to terms with parting with the house that we've loved and put so much heart into (sad) but we might actually get a place of our very own with some more space (happy). It also means we've been spending every night looking at houses, and let me tell you- there are some scary places out there. We fell in love with one house to find out it was listed incorrectly and was a short sale (those take forever and would never make the deadline)- I've been doing paperwork and running around like a crazy woman trying to keep Tim and Kat happy, taken care of, and above all- sane.

To add fuel to the already raging fire- Kat is cutting 2 teeth, Tim is having some major dental issues- and I woke up this morning sick.

When it rains- it pours :) But I'm still smiling- I have to- it keeps me from freaking out LOL

Toy baskets are more fun than toys!!

Hmmm, blogger is underlining all my stuff again, oh well- you can still read it :) Kat was being so silly with her toy basket today that I had to take some pictures. She wedged herself in there, and when I got the camera out and started laughing she got out of the basket and started clapping for herself :)


I love this kid... and I'm focusing on that to keep from breaking my neighbor's OTHER leg for him *grin*

It's been awhile!

It's been awhile since I posted any pictures, so I figured I'd share a few that I've taken in the last week or so. Kat's new favorite thing is playing outside- she crawls all over the yard chasing the 'Doggie' or digging in the dirt of my garden- seems like our time at the beach gave her a taste for digging in sand and dirt, so she has fun. She also 'helped' me weed the garden today (IE played in the dirt and ate leaves off the Peppermint) and had a blast.

Unfortunately we tried to play outside again tonight and our neighbor's pit bull came wandering over yet again, so we're stuck in the house now. I'm just not comfortable with letting Kat play in the yard when the dog is wandering loose, he seems friendly enough but you never know what a strange dog will do. Our town is working on having stricter leash laws due to the abundance of aggressive pit bulls we have running loose all over town- just last week 2 of them got into a fight with a third dog in the parking lot of the apartment building next door- it was awful. I just hope our town does something, Animal Control just blew us off and didn't help at all. Anyway, sorry about that ramble, it's just on my mind right now... luckily if we go outside during the morning, we don't seem to see the neighbor's pit as much as he's still inside- so we just play early :)

The Kat in her Natural Habitat LOL

Playing in the dirt in Momma's herb garden

Look how big she's getting! What a wonderful little monkey I have.

Inspecting the Lemon Thyme, eating the Lemon Thyme LOL

Kat and her little car- she likes to scoot around on this on our little sidewalk out back :)

WOW! Momma did you see what I found?!?!? It's awesome!

The little creek behind our house :)

This picture just chokes me up a little, I love watching her toddle around holding Tim's hand :)

Playing with her walker outside.

What a big girl! I can't believe she'll be a year old soon! Wow!