Melanie's Top Ten List

Here are the top ten reason my new house has made my life easier. Not hard to find reasons after living in an apartment for several years, but it was hard to narrow it down to ten ... here they are:
1. After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, it's ours, we pay our own mortgage, not someone elses!

2. We can roll on the carpet without wondering what's been spilt on it, whose cat or potty training child has peed on it, how many muddy shoes have walked on it. Only ours, and our guests.

(There was a picture of our car in the garage here, but I accidently deleted it. I'm tired and am not going to fix it.)

3. We don't have to walk three blocks from our carport to our front door, we have a garage! One of our first goals was to get enough boxes out to fit the car in. It only took 2 weeks.

4. Tile under the table. No more getting the Resolve out after every meal.

5. I don't have to be showered and ready for the day to drive the kids to the park. I can just shove them in the back yard, snuggle up on the couch in my robe, slippers and watch Oprah. (Yeah, like that really happens)

6. I now have somewhere to put our food and a way to keep the kids out. We have a pantry, with a lock.

7. I never have had to go to a laundromat, but I have been using stackables for the last several years. I can get the laundry done in half the time now.

8. I no longer have to listen to Joel complain about my hair in the sink. We have double sinks in the master bathroom and a little place to sit in between to do my makeup.

9. You get a two-for deal here. Look past the mess and appreciate the fact that we have this little section (that holds boxes we need to unpack for now) that we haven't figured out what we want to do with... what... extra space! The second part is the big-ol' window. We now have some natural sunlight coming in our home because we have big-ol' windows all over the house.

10. Finally, you have to look close to notice this one, but our furniture is not touching eachother, or the walls, and there is nothing stored under them either. Wow, it all fits!

I hope you have enjoyed my little tour, and you are all invited to come visit anytime you are in the Sacramento area.

Well, it's been a while now but a lot has been going on. We are getting ourselves settled in our new home and it has been quite an adventure so far. Each project has lead to 3 or 4 new projects and at least 2 trips to the hardware store, but we are learning where everything is and how everything works. I think Ethan knows the names of more tools than I do now. We feel like our hard work is really paying off and the house we bought is quickly becoming a home.

My morning sickness is starting to ease up (knock on wood) and I have reached the "I just look fat" stage in my pregnancy. Everything is going really well though and it seems to be going much quicker this time.

As soon as we unpack the camera I will post some pictures. We love you all and are so grateful to everyone who has helped this transition go a little smoother.