Our New Furniture

Well... after 14 years of marriage we finally went out and bought our grown up set of bedroom furniture.  Now we will have a headboard and footboard along with matching dresser, chest and nightstands.  I guess it is about time, huh.

First Day of School

For Danny's first day of school I copied Amy's idea of taking his photo in front of the door.  He went Thursday and Friday and then had a week off for Spring Break.  He loves school and even has homework every day.  We are working on his handwriting but his math and reading skills are off of the chart.

The Karate Kids

Our Karate Kids strike a pose!

More Fun

While at Mom's house she and I went to a class and made a really cool travel scrapbook.  There was suposed to be be a babysitter to watch Danny during our class but she never showed up so Danny intertained himself  for 4 hours while we took our class. 

DANNY, YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!!

I don't know any other child who could do that.  He watched a little T.V., and did some paper cutting with us and put together his remote control car all by himself.  Another highlight of our trip was when Danny and I went to see Auntie Kay and her dog Buddy.  Danny wanted to take Buddy on a walk.  He had never walked a dog before and had a wonderful time.  He hasn't really been around any dogs because we don't have one and neither does anyone we know.  We walked him around the block where he sniffed at some bugs, went to the bathroom (thankfully not number 2) and then almost got caught on a fence.  We walked for maybe 10 minutes until Danny had to go potty.  After we brought him back inside, had cake, and Buddy gave Danny lots of kisses.  Personally, I think dog slobber is disgusting but Danny liked it.   After our visit there we went to Marta's house and played with the kids at the park while Ry went to his karate class.

MY FAMILY

 

I am truly one of the most blessed people in the world.  I have such a wonderful family! 

Danny's Birthday Party

While in Chicago we had a little birthday party  at Grandma and Grandpa Breit's old house where we had dinner and cake.  It was really nice.  Danny got some really cool presents.  From Auntie Kay he got a book called Doodle Bites and a stuffed Doodle to go with it.  From Mom he got some Toy Story clothes and a Handy Manny construction set.  From Gretchen he got the DVD Toy Story 3, from Marta, Brandon and the kids he got this really cool snap together Bat Man set and from Grandma and Grandpa Breit he got a savings bond but also $20 which he will buy an Angry Bird at the end of the month (story to follow later). As one of Gretchen's New Years resolutions she decided she wanted to learn how to make balloon animals.  What most of you don't know is that when I was in Jr. High School I took a class put out by the park district to learn how to make them.  My desire to learn came from one meal we had at Dennys.  We went to dinner there on a Kids Eat Free night and there was a clown who made balloon animals.  He made for me a giraffe with a meatball stuck in its throat and after seeing that I decided that I had to learn how to make it.   Gretch made swords, hats, flowers and animals for the kids and they loved them.  After she left there was a huge pile of balloon creations in mom's basement. 

Our Trip to Chicago

Our Trip to Chicago
For the last 2 years we have gone to Chicago after our overseas stint to see Grandma Rydin and Grandma and Grandpa Hutzley.  We were so fortunate that Justin's parents could drive up for just the weekend to see us.  They came packed with presents.  They only sent books for Christmas for Danny and Justin's mom tried sending The Elf on the Shelf book but because there was a stuffed Elf inside the Pouch mail refused to send it to us and mailed it back to them.  It will be so fun to have that book out next year. 
I don't like guns.  To be fair, I never actually looked at the Nerf air gun they gave Danny but yesterday Danny got it out and we shot the darts at the wall and we had a lot of fun.  It actually was pretty cool.  G & G gave Danny a Toy Story Leggo garbage truck and I think Dad spent most of his weekend putting it together. Ethan, I am so impressed with the cool Leggo stuff you make.  You must have a lot of patience.  The big hit this Christmas was the pillow pet.  Grandma Hutzley bought all of the grand kids pillow pets.  We had never actually seen one of the commercials because we weren't in the States but he loves watching that commercial and sleeps with his pillow the thing.  Often he brings it out to the family room to watch T.V. with us and has to sleep with it. "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow pet!"
Most of you know this, but Justin's dad makes Girl Scout cookies.  Every time he comes to see us he brings a BIG bag full of cookies.  While Gretchen was working on Obama's campaign she stayed with them in Louisville for about a week and fell in love with the Samoas. She calls Dad "the cookie man" and he brought her a huge bag of them.  We had a wonderful time with them and were sad to see them go home.  The final photo is of my mom and the boys having a pillow fight.     

Grandma and Grandpa's New House

We weren't the only ones to get a new place.  Here are photos of Grandma and Grandpa's new place.  It is really nice.  One thing that is really neat is their washer/dryer unit.  It actually washes and dries their clothes in the same machine.  I was so glad to see that they were able to bring their things from their old house.  I miss their old house.  It was hard going back there and not seeing it the way I remembered it.  Most of the furniture was gone but we were able to take a few mementos with us.

I LOVE YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA! 

Our New Home

Well, we are finally back from the Philippines and now live in California.  This is our new home.  It is kinda quirky.  There is a giant Family Room that has a half-wall room divider (see lower right photo)  so it makes it into two rooms.  When we first looked at it I thought it looked strange but now it is perfect.  It is like having an extra family room/office.  The half by the fireplace has the treadmill (which hasn't actually been set up yet) A book shelf we bought before Danny was born made out of compressed MDF, our desk and a new bookshelf/cubbie turned on its side to put in our office stuff.  Since the wall is a half wall, I can watch T.V. and exercise or be on the computer at the same time.  On the bottom right photo there is a little corner sticking out.  That is the corner of the kitchen counter. I included a photo of the toilet because it has a wood seat and it reminds me of an outhouse.  On the middle left side there is a photo of wooden arch.  That is our pantry.  It is really cute.  Within the first week of living here Danny tried opening it by holding on to one of the slats and it fell out.  Apparently, at some point, all of them have been hot glued back on and are now only staying up because the dried glue resting on dried glue keeps it there.  They come out if you touch them.  One of my favorite parts of this house is our backyard.  We actually have one now and it is really nice.  The landscaping on the house is different.  In the front, there is a small grass area (it takes Justin 4 minutes to mow) and it is surrounded by colored rocks and a huge overgrown 8 foot wide ivy growth running parallel to the sidewalk.  It is an eye sore but we aren't going to pay to rip it out.  The front is really big so I can see why they went with the rocks for low maintenance but the combo is, well, we just don't look at the front. The backyard is different.  It is fenced in and is dived in two sides.  On the side of the house in the back is an area that  I think used to be grass but they poured cement on it and made a sidewalk there.  The positive thing about this is that Danny can ride his bike on it.  The middle of the yard is small gravel but they're pretty small and flat and then that runs into more cement and a small raised garden plot.  There are some small trees and a couple bushes by the sides and back of the fence but not a lot of maintenance.

My big problem with the house is THE STEP.  If I've already told you the story then please forgive me and skip down a paragraph while I rant. When you walk onto the front porch you take a step up.  You walk in and you are in the hallway.  First of all, the hallway is big, however, there is no coat closet.  There is room for one and it would make perfect sense to have one but for whatever reason they didn't put one.  So, where do you put your shoes and coats???  Our solution to that was to put a cubbie/shelf sideways and I hung coat hooks.  It looks nice.  Now, back to my step issue.  The hallway connects to the kitchen and to the family room, BUT, you have a 3 inch step down into each room.  WHY???  The only logical reason I can think of for having this step in our hallway is that the house is built on a crawlspace and they needed it up for some reason. My next issue regarding the step is that the hallway tile and the kitchen tile are the same so you don't see that there is a step down to get into the kitchen.  The family room has carpet so it is more noticeable but it is still the same color.  While looking at the house for the first time I tripped on the step.  The week before Danny and I got here Justin tripped/misstepped on the step three times.  The first week I was here I did the same, except add insult to injury, I fell on my left him and now am a gimp.  Last week I got an X-ray and it wasn't broken, thank heavens, but I bruised the bone. Now I am hobbling around like an old woman.  Last week I went to the pharmacy they only had canes, not crutches.  Since I was too prideful to get a cane I thought I'd stick it out.  Today I could barely walk so I had to go to two different Walgreen's stores to find crutches.  I feel so pathetic! 

Other than the step issue, I like our house.  It is a half mile from Danny's school and 2 very short blocks to a really neat park.