If I could walk into my new bathroom right now, this is pretty much what I’d want to see
From HGTV; Designer Lina Khatib
OR
From HGTV; Designer Cindy Aplanalp
Let’s make it happen!
what i did today
Laying the Groundwork
Today we met with the designer and our friend that’s a builder. Both were really good meetings but boy, do we have a lot of decisions ahead of us.
The designer looked at a few of the designs we had come up with and liked one that I actually didn’t post. The biggest thing she recommended which really surprised me was to not do the tub if we don’t use it. She suggested instead to do a huge tile shower which would still satisfy the spa type feeling for the master. The plan also takes into account the split closets we wanted. She’s supposed to be putting a plan together this weekend so I’ll share when we get it.
We spoke with the builder and all seemed well. There were no hiccups or gotchas that came up and in fact, we think we might have a few extra feet on the end of the house to use. He gave us a few steps we can start with, mainly getting our survey from the courthouse to see if we need a new one or not. And then there are A LOT of decisions to make on what materials to use so he can do a proper bid. A few of the bigger things we’re having to consider right now:
- Side the whole house or just the addition with an accent siding on the front? In which case he recommended bumping out the front of the house about a foot.
- Where to put windows and what size.
- Flooring.
- Type of cabinets and countertop and overall look and feel of the bathroom.
- How to run the water lines and what to do about the hot water heater. Considering putting one of those instantaneous things in.
- Putting in a well while we’re at it to get better water pressure and reduce monthly water costs. Our pressure is AWFUL and we’re concerned it won’t support our nice big shower. This was just mentioned, not sure if we could if we wanted.
I won’t overwhelm you with more, that is quite enough to think about. I’m horrible at decisions so you can imagine that this blows my brain a bit. But, at the same time, it’s fun picking new stuff out!
Wordy Wednesday
I feel like the last week and a half has been a month. After a long snow week, we basically slept through the weekend. Sunday night Lexi got sick so we’ve been home, trying to nurse her through that. Looks like she’s coming out of the woods today. Although it feels a bit like everything has been on hold, there are a few highlights.
Addition of the house variety
Tomorrow morning we have a designer coming to look at the house and help us brainstorm about how to set up the addition. I am ITCHING to see what she comes up with.
We are having a friend come over after that and give us a ballpark estimate. Hoping that will happen this week as well.
I’m supposed to be talking to a bank about the loan today.
So yeah, we ARE moving forward!
Addition of the family variety
Friday we met with a couple from our church that is adopting. She filled us in on her story and what they are doing, gave us some contact info, answered our questions and gave us some books to read. I read Adopted for Life this week and can’t recommend it enough. For EVERYONE. It gives you a Biblical representation of adoption, helps families of those thinking about adoption and lots of tips for adopting parents and even adoptees.
So we haven’t physically done anything about the adoption. Initially we thought we’d be adopting from Haiti but so far that doesn’t seem to be the direction we’re receiving right now. We know we want to adopt 3-5 years old and feel like our local DSS is where we’re headed. I have to admit, it’s scary. These kids have baggage, no doubt. And this isn’t the pound, you can’t take the child back if it doesn’t work out. I hate to sound so callous but it’s actually quite the opposite. This child will be ours forever, I truly believe God had picked this child for us since the beginning and they will be a Bennett. Emma and Lexi’s brother. Our son. And to type that is overwhelming. And thinking about my son with baggage is hard. So to make that first call is like signing up for life, not just getting some info. So yeah, I guess I’m scared to do anything. But we will. We will. I feel like the rush is on the house right now so that’s what we’re concentrating on.
Feeling crafty
Monday I was feeling inspired by this post, so I got out by myself for a bit and went to Michael’s. I had a 40% coupon and I was gonna use it! I ended up stumbling on their 80% Christmas sale where I got lots of little red stuff for only .20 each that I could use for crafts. They also had paper on sale and I used my coupon for a little heart wreath. I spent a few hours after getting home making a few crafty layouts with the paper for Valentine’s Day and just fun ones for my office. I may not keep it around or I might. Each one only costs about a quarter since I already had the frames lying around.
Is that owl not so cute? That is an owl from one piece of paper I painstakingly cut out and taped on that awesome, colorful paper behind it. The bird on the top left one says “tweet”. It of course reminds me of Twitter. I had to literally, yes, literally, cut and paste some of the birds around that piece of paper to make it look right in an 8×10 frame. I love the heart on the picture of the Eiffel Tower, which yes, was part of a piece of craft paper for 19 cents! The flag one was hard. I don’t have a Silhouette so I had to break out the razor blade to make the flags. The last one on the bottom right is simply a sticker with a bunch of romantic words and definitions (which I already had in my craft supplies) stuck on a red piece of paper. So simple and only 25 cents!
Feeling clean
With all the time in the house, I’ve spent some time cleaning out my closet and kitchen drawers the past week. Can’t tell you good that feels. I’ve debated consigning some of my clothes but I’ve never done that. Is anyone familiar with the process? Wondering how much you actually get. Our local ones either do 60/40 or 50/50 split but I wonder how they price them and if the split really makes it worth it.
Blood:Water Belt
We’ve picked up a little steam on the Blood:Water Belt this week. Several ladies have sent in their pictures and have done some more posts about it. We’ve gone over the 50 mark, with over $1500 raised. So amazing. When I see the pictures of everyone in it, I’m just amazed.
Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights is coming to a close. After tonight, only 3 weeks left. Kaitlin and I have continued to do our fan site and podcast. We had the pleasure of interviewing Connie Britton “Tami Taylor” last night. My favorite interview to date. She’s so well-spoken and really knows her FNL. She’s not doing any TV or movie projects right now and is doing some charity work. You can tell she lights up when she talks about their projects. It was a little sad afterwards to be making plans with Kaitlin for when to shut everything down but it’s been fun. I have made a life-long friend with Kaitlin through this, had a blast doing the podcast and even going to Austin to meet some of the cast. It sounds a little trivial at times but I’m glad to have spent the time on it that we did. At the same time, I think it’s good timing with the above-mentioned stuff going on that I move on from this. A time for everything right?
Bible in 90 Days
Today is the half-way mark with reading the Bible through in 90 days. I’ve managed to stay on time every day and oddly, God has been stopping me from reading ahead even when I’ve had time. He’s showing me it’s my DAILY bread, not a sprint to completion. And still, I can’t recommend doing this for no other reason than it forces you to stay in His word.
So that’s a lot! I think that catches you up and I keep saying it, but I really want to get back to daily postings here!
Snow Day. I Mean, ICE WEEK.
What do you blog when you’ve been snowed iced in for 3 days? What do you blog when your husband has worked 7 evenings in a row? What do you blog when your day has been a monotony of wake, cook, work, cook, eat, cook, entertain kids, cook, sleep?
Well, if you’re me, I guess you don’t.
As I imagined, this week was tough. Not tough, tough. No crying spells or pulling out my hair or yelling (and I have PMS—it’s a miracle!). Just having to keep-on-top-of-everything- I-don’t-have-time-for-anything-else. You know, PARENTING. So I don’t have anything amazing, blog-worthy things that have happened this week. Just a lot of good home time. I have enjoyed the late mornings and not rushing to go anywhere and eating in and lack of drama. It’s actually been a nice week now that I think about it.
Wednesday afternoon we managed to get out to the bank and post office and stopped my parents’ for a few minutes. Their yard was still very iced over and the girls had a blast playing in it for a few minutes. Of course they thought it was like a skating rink. And in fact, some spots did hold Lexi up. So here you can hear my mad parenting skills and if you watch to the end, you can see Lexi take a couple falls. And yes, she IS wearing her Halloween costume and a lightweight jacket.
Hope you guys are having a great week!
Weekend Recap and Snow Day
Weekend
So I finally set down my ruler and pencil and have given the floor plans a break. No floor plan pictures today! I think we’ve done all we can and we’re just going to have to wait until the snow melts enough for someone to get over and look at the house.
We had a low key weekend this weekend. I had to work on and off through the weekend on a conversion we’ve been working on for six months. It went smoothly and it feels good to have it out of the way. Other than getting out to the mall, the grocery store, church and Sunday dinner, we were at home doing stuff like laundry, cleaning, cooking and exercising. Yes! Exercising! I bought a few new workout DVDs with my Swagbucks and Opinion Output rewards at Amazon. I’m not committing to any exercise goals but I have been trying to do some type of something in the evenings. How’s that for noncommittal?
Snow Day
As for today, I’m sure you’ve heard that we are getting 4-6” of snow dumped on us as we speak. It’s beautiful, but really, a pain. The kids are home basically going back and forth between 2 rooms. Scott is sleeping from working this weekend so they’re having to be quiet. I work from home so snow is not stopping me from having to work today. And to top it off, Scott has been called in for two additional 12 hour shifts this week, totaling 7 days straight working. So now he actually has to be out in this mess working all the wrecks out there. Yay us! So, besides the snow cream, I’m really not jumping for joy over this snow. If I didn’t have to work then it might be a different story. But no. I hate to be a buzzkill but keeping it real!
On a high note, I did make some very yummy French toast this morning. I’ve never been good at French toast but I think it’s because I never used French bread. I took a note from my mom’s friend that cooks it when we visit in Pennsylvania and bought a loaf at the store yesterday and then followed these instructions. Enjoy!
I’ll leave you with a sure-to-be-famous “Amy story”. I have many in my past.
Last night the girls and I were trying to switch from Wii Sports to the Wii Fit DVD. I put the Wii Fit DVD in the Wii but it wasn’t recognizing it so I tried to eject it so I could clean it. Nothing! I went online and then followed all the online recommendations for ejecting one. I put out a complaint/plea on Twitter about what to do. Best I could tell, I was going to have to get it sent back to Nintendo to get fixed. It was REALLY stuck though. I could even get another DVD in the Wii and get it to eject that but the Wii Fit was lodged somewhere that couldn’t get out. Well. This morning I told Scott about it hoping that he would have some magic fix. Turns out he did. He hit the eject on the PS3…right where I had put in the Wii Fit DVD. Fail, Amy, fail.
Oh wait, in other big news today, Lexi lost her front tooth. She now looks like a legit kindergartner.
OK, now my blog has been down so long that I have a few snow pictures. Girls eating snow and then jumping on the trampoline with 4” of snow:
It’s the Small Things
Small screens, in this case. Scott bought me this printer for Christmas years ago. It has to be at least 5 years old. Within six months the screen went out and Epson shipped us a new one. Within another 6 months the screen went out again and Epson wouldn’t ship us a new one. A few years went by and I did some research and it turns out there was some sort of defect with a fuse on a board. Just a little solder and it would be fixed. I mentioned it to Scott and he didn’t seem too enthused. I didn’t push it because really, I’d rather have a working printer with a broken screen rather than a broken printer.
Yesterday Jaynee’s husband posted on Facebook about soldering a part in a cable box and fixing it. It prompted me to nudge Scott about the printer again and he agreed to take a look. Well, as you can see it all worked and omigosh, I have my printer back again. I hear this fix lasts for years and man, it’s like I have a brand new printer again and we didn’t even pay a dime! LOVE.
Christmas Recap
We had a lovely Christmas weekend. Scott had to work Friday and Sunday but we fit in a trip to each of our parents’ Friday night and Saturday. Sunday was spent at home trying to figure out where to put everything AND playing in the SNOW. I think it was the first white Christmas in Charlotte in 60 years or something. In true Carolina fashion, the sun was out as soon as it was done and is quickly melting it today.
I have a few favorite memories I hope to keep with me from this year.
I created a “package station” where the girls had their presents in stacks, labeled with handmade paper snowflakes above it.
Making the snowflakes brought back great memories of doing them in school.
But seeing the girls see something new and fun that I actually managed to hand make was WAY better.
We still have the snowflakes up and really I have no desire to take them down.
Mom and Dad bought Lexi a police officer outfit. Cutest thing ever. Lexi has Emma in handcuffs as I type this and Scott is telling “security” to “take her away please” as he sits at their new Barbie cash register at the “mall”.
Lexi was quite animated opening presents. This particular score was over new earrings.
Emma was just as excited but reserved in her reaction. Her best reaction was over a Taylor Swift CD. I loved reading the lyrics in the jacket cover as she played it on her new CD player my aunt got her. I haven’t done that since 1997.
It’s not that she hated her unicorn pillow pet as I assumed when she busted out crying after opening it. It was her last gift in her pile, none of which included the American Girl doll she was desperate to have. I thought I’d be clever and put all but their big presents out and at the end say, “I have one more present for you." and then bring it out with much fanfare. Christmas FAIL. She calmed down when I explained it but wow, she really wanted that doll.
Which makes this pictures of the girls with their American Girl dolls oh so wonderful.
Love this impromptu family picture. We had all piled in the chair in preparation for opening presents at Scott’s parents Saturday.
And finally, Emma and Lexi cackling over something at the snow man yesterday. Not much better site than that.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
A Christmas Gift
*UPDATE*
THE LAPTOP IS SOLD!!
Post like these I don’t really know where to start. Because really they started days, weeks, months ago.
But let me start with tonight.
I listed my MacBook on Craigslist.
For those that know me well, that’s a big deal. That MacBook was a gift from Scott two years ago for Christmas, technically a gift from myself from my blogging income. A tool that I would and did use for more blogging. But I don’t use it much for blogging anymore. In fact, I don’t use it much at all. And knowing how many hundreds of dollars is just sitting there staring at me knowing that there is so much need out there just doesn’t sit well with me. And that’s just me. And it’s just that laptop. Not all laptops are bad. People that own laptops are not bad.
But mine needs to go.
And I’m ECSTATIC for the money to be used to buy a computer, a pig, two chicks and a goat from our family. The family all picked out their gift from either Compassion or World Vision. I am thrilled to exchange my laptop for a computer for someone. Lexi wanted a pig, Emma wanted to give chicks and Scott a goat. Just typing that made me smile. Depending on what we get, the gifts might have to change, but that’s where our hearts are. With Christmas tight, I couldn’t find a way to make it happen but letting this go is the perfect marriage of freeing me of a weight and freeing who knows how many people of who knows how many things.
So here’s the thing. I need someone to buy it. I’ve listed a very basic listing on Craigslist and I’m selling the computer, my incase bag, my HDMI wire and my TV Tuner (which is AWESOME) all for $800. I’d really like to skip over eBay and all their fees so I have enough to buy all this. Plus, I think it’s worth it.
So check it out, forward it to anyone looking to have a rock star laptop set up and let me know if you or someone you know is interested. (Email: amyjbennett@gmail.com Text/Call: 803-322-6052)
UPDATE: Just want to clarify that the Craigslist post says local pickup only but that is only to ward off Craigslist weirdos. If you are a blog/Twitter/Facebook reader I’ll be happy to ship at the buyer’s cost and will ship after I have a cleared check or money order.
And of course, please check out the gift guides on Compassion and World Vision.