New Home

We are so extremely excited.  We are moving into your a new (old) home. 133 years old to be exact. But it's beautiful!
We can't wait to make it our own.
This is a house that I always admired. One of those house that you always think "if it came up for sale, I would buy it". And sure enough we did.
We are on cloud nine!
We were in the middle of working on getting plans to build a house. But when we seen this was for sale we couldn't resist.
It really is beautiful. It needs some work, but really nothing major. Mostly cosmetic stuff like paint and carpet. Nothing we can't handle.
We are going from a 1157 square foot ranch to a 1900 square foot 2 story.
It has a 2 car garage,  fenced in yard, pergola porch, front curve around porch with a swing. Truly a dream.
I think we are most excited about being across the street from the park, especially with 4th of July Freedom Fest. How fun will that be?
The kids are super excited! Clint and I drive by every single day and look at. We are counting down to June 1st!

SOLD!

Clint and I have been so patient for so long.  We were young and just starting our lives together when we bought our first house. Who knew we would live there for the next 11+ years.
We have tried to sell it before...actually had a buyer but they backed out on us at the last minute. We were heart broken at the time as we had made an offer on a new construction home. So we decided to wait. Which worked out fine because we decided to have Kaylee. And then Clint had lost his high paying job. We were probably lucky we didn't end up in a bad situation. 
Anyway, we did some work to ours and stayed there for a few more years.  Then a few months ago Clint was casually talking to our "buyer" and asked him of he wanted to buy our house.  Who knew after months of talking that he would actually buy it. We feel really lucky it was so easy. Who knew that a friendly conversation would lead us here. Kind of nervous but to be expected.
After we met with him last night a little part of me was sad. This was the home where Clint and I got married., where we lost our first dog Percy, where we had Logan and Kaylee,  had all of our ups and downs. But again this is something we have wanted for so long.
We have plans to build a new house this spring. We have been pre-approved for a mortgage. We have picked out a house plan. We have picked out the lot. We have the build list ready to go. Our next step is to meet with the loan officer about the construction loan. As long as that goes well, we will be building a house in just a matter of a few weeks.

Our future home: Can you picture it???

 

This is the style that we are going for. It will look simlar to this...not blue. It will not have the 3rd garage bay. But you get the picture.

 

 

Floor plan.

 

Glorious day!

In September of 2010 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. This is the most advanced stage in colon cancer. I had a cancerous tumor on my intestines and it had spread to surrounding lymph nodes and 4 spots on my liver. I was fortunate enough to meet the best surgeons in the Des Moines area. With 2 surgeries and 6 months of chemo, and 2 1/2 years later I remain cancer free.
I started my day by eating a big breakfast at Perkins with Clint..the tremendous 12. We then has a couple hours to spare so we went to a few stores looking for an indoor soccer ball.
We arrived at Methodist Hospital around noon. I had my first mammogram. It was interesting....
Then I went to another office and got ready for my ct scan. We sat out in the waiting for ever it seemed like.  During that time I got to see the new pope being announced. Finally I got called back for mg scan.
Once that was done we went to the Oncology center. While sitting in the waiting room a couple of elderly people were talking. I was sitting from across from them and could quickly tell they were colon cancer survivors as they were both discussing their side effects of the chemo. The one guy was talking about how he couldn't drink anything cold and how in a split second the cold weather hurt. Oh how I remember those days. I don't miss them one bit.
Finally we got called back to Dr Behrens office. The nurse we usually have will usually hint to us that my scans look good. But we had a nurse that we dont normally see and she didn't say anything. Instead she asked me multiple times of I was feeling good. Clint and I were freaking out wondering why she kept asking me how I feel.
When Dr Behrens walked in I was kind of nervous. He didn't seem excited...again I started freaking out (keeping my cool on the outside) Finally he said he didnt have my results yet.  Ahhhhh....ok. He did his exam and then walked over to the Radiology area and got the results.  Thumbs up!  Clean.
Whew....what a day. :)

Reminiscing

I have a new ap on my phone called Photowonder and I've been having fun making collages of pictures of my family. It also has me reminiscing.
I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up.  It makes me sad looking at all the pictures of them growing up.
Seems like yesterday that they were born.

Here are a few collages that I've put together:

 

 

 

BORING!!!

I started this blog, and have nothing to write! HAHAHA....
I am so boring!!

Well this week has been boring.

Updates on Kaylee:
She has mastered pooping in the potty!
She has been very artistic.
She will only wear her hair in a pony tail. She doesn't want to show of her curls. "I don't want crazy hair Mommy!" Ok then.
She loves to watch Pretty Little Liars with me.
Her current favorite song is "Scream and Shout" by Will.I.Am and Britney.

Updates of Logan:
He hates school. Luckily for him he's had 2 early outs this week, and one snow day.
He continues to be obsessed with Monday Night Raw.
He ate 8 chicken nuggets for dinner!! He's been eating A LOT lately! Growth spurt?!?!
His new favorite saying is "rigged".

Clint:
He's getting ready to coach soccer. He's nervous, but I'm sure he'll do great.
He's been busy snow blowing this past week.

Me:
Busy with work.
Leaving work early tomorrow to go to the Capital to see Governor Branstad sign a proclamation proclaiming March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
Failing at eating healthy. So hard to do, as I love food too much. I havent been eating BAD, just not good.
And Saturday Night we will be kicking of Colon Cancer Awareness Month with a benefit concert to raise money.

That's All Folks!

Healthy eating update.

I thought I would update everyone on my eating. 
I know it's only been a week, but so far, so good. I have been eating better during the day and eating better snacks. I can't say that I have cut all the bad stuff out, but I really have been trying. Clint and I went grocery shopping yesterday and we didn't buy any red meat or junk food. However, we still have pork and ground beef in the freezer we need to eat. We had spaghetti tonight with ground beef, but I only used half a pound.
I only left work one day last week to get something and I went to Quiznos and got a flat bread sandwich and baked chips.  No pop!
I'm trying my hardest to stick with this.  Can't say I am not ever gonna cheat but I think this better than nothing.
Here are a few of my favorites so far:

This oatmeal was surprisingly good:

I also bought Special K cereal and cereal bars versus the Frosted Flakes or Lucky Charms:

 

For lunch I have been eating a lot of grilled chicken with frozen broccoli/cauliflower/carrots. I also have been buying brown rice. Add a little olive oil and mix all together it is quite tasty!

 

And for snacks I have been eating these: YUMM-YYY

The Raisins are to die for!! :)

 





Best Friends

My little Kaylee sure is lucky!!

When I was barely pregnant with Kaylee I learned that my sister-in-law was also pregnant.
I never did imagine that our daughters would be so close. Kaylee will never have a sister, but she has the next best thing. Her cousin Sydnee and her are best of friends. They even plan sleep overs with each other.
This weekend it was our turn to have the sleep over.

We got home from Grammy's house a little late last night, so they both took baths and they laid in bed and watched a movie and shortly after that they were sound asleep:

 

                                                    This morning they played dress-up:

 

And we had Fun-Dips!



Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm not a huge lover of Valentine's Day. To me it's just another day but my kids have fun with it. We addressed our valentine cards last night.  And when I got Logan's class list out I noticed he was supposed to make a valentines box. I panicked as I wasn't prepared. But thanks to Google and an old supply of scrap booking supplies we made the most awesome box! I think he loved it.
Kaylee picked out (with the help of mom) Goldfish crackers and Minnie Mouse cards with pencils for her friends at daycare and pre school. 
And tonight after school they will receive a little surprise that I left this morning.
I hope you all have a great day and get to spend it with your loved ones!

Healthy eating

One of the things that Clint and I are seldom discussing, is that we need to start eating healthy. Now, I know I don’t need to lose weight by any means, but my diet is anything but healthy. It consists of a lot of pop, chips, crackers, candy, fruit snacks, processed food, and fast food. But every time I go to the grocery store, I think “my gosh, produce is soooo expensive”. Maybe I need to face reality. I mean, a head of broccoli is currently $2.99 at the local grocery store, and a bag of Doritos is what, around $4.00. So I can get a bag of junk for $4.00 and my family can devour it within 2 days, or I can buy a head of broccoli and fix it as a healthy side and have it last 3-4 days.

So I think I have come to the conclusion that I need to change my eating habits, as well as my family's. Right now if you looked in my cupboards you will see the following: pop tarts (this is going to be the hardest to get rid of), chips, ramen noodles, mac n cheese, fruit snacks, Cheez-its. I think this is going to be a challenging change for my kids.

My plan is within the next week is to slowly transition our diets…I mean, I can’t waste the food that has already been purchased, right? But I did get a few items that the family likes to eat for healthy evening snacks like yogurt, and apples.

I will try to keep updated on our transition, whether it be good, or bad.

Here is a list of healthy(ier) foods that I have down for my next grocery store trip. What are your favorite meals/snacks that are on the healthier side??

Grilled/baked chicken.
Fish – I am not a fish eater, but I am willing to give this a try.
Broccoli and Cauliflower.
Yogurt
Hard boiled eggs.
Green pepper
Cucumbers
Carrots
Salad greens with spinach leaves. Laughing cow cheese
Turkey burger.
Frozen Veggies and frozen fruits are a good alternative if you do not want to get fresh produce.
Apples
Grapes
Oranges
Bananas
Brown Rice

Virgin Blogger

I really enjoy reading my family and friends blogs, and I was thinking to myself, "why not start your own blog?". However, I don't feel that I am as creative as some of you out there. I feel that I am quite boring! Haha...although my life is anything but boring. There is always something exciting going on. 
And I have always wanted to journal my day to day life, especially these last couple of years with all the new and triumphed memories we have had.
So here's my blog....