Family Room

Our family room is in the basement and is now our Disney room. We have all of our Disney pictures up and we LOVE coming into this room. I can hardly wait to decorate this room for Christmas.

Colts Bathroom

Larry was being very kind and supportive of the colors his females were choosing. I was beginning to feel sorry for him with all of the pink and purple so I surprised him with a Colts bathroom. It's not quite done yet. We still have some more Colts items to put on the wall.

Guest Bedroom

This is the guest room that is in the basement and also the treadmill room. We don't have pictures on the wall yet but hopefully soon.

Our Bedroom

Just to clarify - our bedroom is purple but it is a much deeper purple than in the picture.

We love the double sinks. We may have been married for almost 19 years but we still don't like to share the bathroom sink.

Kitchen

This was the one area of the house that we were concerned would be too small for all of us to be in at once. We have been pleasantly surprised and we are all cooking dinner in this kitchen. At the end of the kitchen/hallway area there is a closet, pantry, half bath, door for the bonus room and door to the garage.

Living Room

We love this room - especially the fireplace. We are looking forward to sitting in here during the cold Iowa winters.

Dining Room

Larry picked out the color for the dining room all by himself. I was impressed.

Stairway

As you walk in the front door this is the stairway to the girls room. Gabi's room is on the left and Emily's room is on the right. Their bathroom is in the middle. Notice I didn't post a picture of their bathroom. Their is good reason for that. They may be wonderful, intelligent children but their bathroom quickly reminds us they are teenagers.

The door to the right on the main floor is our bedroom. If you go to the left as you enter the front door it is the living room, then dining room and the kitchen. The basement door is across from our bedroom.

Gabi's Bedroom

Gabi wanted a pink bedroom with her love of swimming to show through. Her room was blue in the beginning and she liked that color since it would go well with swimming but really wanted hot pink. We kept one of the alcoves blue and painted the rest hot pink. We hung all of her swimming ribbons on the wall and she still has room for more. Yes, that is a real lane line that you see in the picture. We ordered replacement pieces for lane lines and strung them together to make her very own lane line.

Emily's Bedroom

Emily requested a purple room with her Tiggers and basketballs. Emily and one of her friends painted the entire room. She couldn't find a desk that she loved so she is using a cardtable and Grammy made a cover for it out of a shower curtain that went with her bedspread. Last weekend Emily and I painted the basketballs to add the finishing touches to her room. I'm not sure she is ever going to want to move out.

Outside of House

It is almost Memorial Day weekend when I said I was going to post. Anyway, over Memorial Day weekend we were able to get the shrubbery trimmed and lots of weeds pulled. We do have flowers and ferns hanging and two pots of flowers on the front porch as well as the 4 white rocking chairs. We still need to paint the porch, paint the shutters and powerwash the house. It is getting there but we're not done yet. Those projects will take more time so I'm not as concerned with them right now.

Where's Rufus & Benny?

The dogs found a place to stay out of everyone's way the first night. There was so much stuff in our closet that we did a double take and didn't even notice they were in the closet. The dogs have been just as good of troopers as the kids with all of these moves.

Home #14 - Mortgage #4

We have finally given in and decided to purchase our fourth home. This is the 14th home we have lived in since being married 18 1/2 years ago and our 4th mortgage together. I must really love him to agree to mortgage #4.

With the uncertainty in the economy and the fact that we both have very good, stable jobs we have decided to stay in Iowa. Although we miss Indiana more than anyone will ever know we are finally beginning to settle in here.

I must admit this is by far the most beautiful home we have ever owned and we are excited to have this much space. We live on the outskirts of town so we are still able to have city utilities but we have 3/4 acre of land. I have been drooling over this house since it came on the market over a year ago. Unfortunately for the seller they had to drop the price dramatically but that was our good fortune and we were truly blessed with a beautiful home.

We now have 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, living room, dining room, family room and a bonus room. Honestly, we have been so used to living in cramped quarters the past few years we are having to yell throughout the house to find each other. For the first time ever we are not painting with only neutral colors because we plan on being here for 25 years until we retire. I have told Larry that I leave in a body bag or a straight jacket if it is before we retire....

We have painted almost the entire house but still need to paint the porch, hang flowers, work in the yard, hang pictures and get Longaberger in the right places. Since it is going to be in these places for the next 25 years we need to make sure we like where the Longaberger is placed and the pictures are hung! As soon as that is all finished I will take pictures throughout the house and post. My goal is to have that done by Memorial Day weekend.

We miss you all!!:)

Gabi's 15th Birthday

Gabi turned 15 on April 6th. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, oldest teenage daughter. Happy Birthday, Gabi!!

There is a reason that once again I am behind posting so hopefully this weekend we will be able to show you what has been happening in our lives.

Honor Roll

Second trimester report cards have arrived and the girls have made honor roll again. I just have the feeling that it has something to do with honor roll being connected to their cell phones. Whatever works:)

Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon 2009

I am sure there is nothing better than being in Disney World with my 3 favorite people in the world. It takes Larry about 24 hours from the time we leave the house until Mr. Engineer begins to relax, and from that point on it is just a blast.

The girls were amazing in their first Disney 1/2 marathon. They stopped for many pictures and still finished way ahead of us. I began crying at the Start line as they were crossing, realizing how quickly they are growing up. They had cell phones to call if they needed us, of course we found out they were texting friends as they were running. Larry and I are just trying to breathe and they are texting - but we are not getting old.

It was wonderful that all of us finished the same race and we had so much fun wearing our medals to the parks the next few days. People were shocked that we did this as a family. We did admit that the girls finished way before us. I found the only downside was how much it bothered me to not be able to watch the girls cross the finish line. I explained that I only saw two solutions and that was for me to run faster and beat them or not run the 1/2 on Saturday but run the whole on Sunday. My family explained very quickly that me running faster and beating the girls just wasn't going to happen. So, the plan as of now is for Larry, Gabi & Emily to run the half on Saturday while I cheer and I will run the whole on Sunday while they cheer in Januar 2010. Hey, when you live in a cornfield you have to have something to look forward to at all times.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!  We wish all of you a wonderful 2009 full of blessings.

Pictures from the 1/2 Marathon will be coming soon!