Our New Home

Many of you have asked to see pictures of our new home, so here they are!  Come on in (imagine my hand waving you in)........

The front....which I love!  I have always wanted a brick 2 story

Main Level 

Front entry way

Front living room....yeah we will be painting this room

Dining room...*note: all window treatments must go!

Eat-in kitchen :) *needs to be painted!

Deck off the kitchen

awkward pic...powder room off the kitchen....also needs to be painted!

Main level family room...*ugly window treatments...again

BASEMENT

Full bath in the basement

2nd Floor (bedrooms)

When you are at the top of the stairs to the right is TJ's room, his bathroom and our room

T.J.'s room...needs to be painted AND the window treatment needs to be removed.

Main upstairs bathroom...I love the double sinks!

Master bedroom

Another awkward pic....this is taken form the master bath looking into the bedroom, what I was trying to capture was the 2 walk-in closets!!

Master Bath...double sinks!! *paint

Ok, back to the top of the stairs, to the left we have 2 bedrooms and laundry room

*paint

*paint

So that's the grand tour!  We are so excited about this house.  For those of you who don't know, there are 2 important details that make this move so exciting for our family....First of all, our home in Hawaii was a 2 bedroom 800 sq ft condo.  I now feel like I am living in a mansion!!!  Secondly, we bought this house without EVER seeing it in person!  So it was such a relief to walk in and love it!! 

 We have a ton of space and would love some visitors!  Plan a trip to the east coast and stay with us!  I will post some more pics once we actually get some painting done and our furniture/stuff arrives from Hawaii!!

Starting .HERE.

Life has been in a constant state of change for us over the last few months.  I finally feel like I am settling in to our new life and couldn’t be happier!  I have started multiple blogs over the last few weeks, but I find myself constantly trying to “catch up” on things I should have written about months ago.  SO, I am going to start HERE and maybe do some "catch up" later……

Fall + Friends/Family + Apple Orchard = A Happy Girl!

Now that we are living in a place of "seasons" my heart is tickled just thinking about all of the activities the next few months will bring.  I searched high and low for the best apple orchard around, I called ahead to reserve my cider donuts and confirm the picking schedule for Saturday.  Let's just say I was a bit excited :) 

Tim had been out of town for the week and would be returning late Friday night....just in time to wake up Saturday morning and escort me on my adventure!  My wonderful sister-in-law was staying with me for a few days to visit (and make sure the boogie man didn't get me while I was sleeping alone in our new big house), so it was a perfect time for some family fun! 

While going over the plans with Tim on Friday night we realized I choose the farthest possible apple orchard to go to.  After some pouting looking, we decide to go to Rockhill Orchard, a bit smaller, but only about 30 min away.  The bonus was that the orchard was close to some of our friends, and they were able to join!  It was not quite the extravaganza I had imagined, but it was a quaint little orchard with some delicious apples!   

Our friends Mike and Angie

Auntie Kim with T.J.

What does one do with 15lb+ of apples??  Why, make apple crisp of course!!  I looked up multiple recipes and came up with this make-shift recipe:

• 4 cups (about) peeled/chopped apples
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup oats
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• 1/2 cup of melted butter

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add the butter to the dry ingredients.  When mixed well, add the apples (I just used my hands to do the mixing for this part).  It's that simple.  Bake at 350.  This mix will fill an 8x8 pan.  I decided to try it in a muffin pan and there was enough to fill exactly 12 muffins.  Using the muffin pan I baked it for about 25 min (or until golden brown).  When I make them again, I may sprinkle the tops of each muffin with brown sugar and cinnamon to give it a little something extra.  They were delicious and gone by the next day!

All in all, it was a great start to the fall!!!

Lemons make Lemonade

My friend Maggie has a lemon tree in her yard and she brought me a bag full of lemons.  When friends give you lemons, make lemonade!

 I have never made real lemonade before, I had no idea how easy it would be!  I looked up multiple recipes for lemonade, they all had the same 3 ingredients (water, sugar, lemon juice...pretty simple).  Each recipe called for a different ratio of these ingredients so, I decided to let my taste buds be my guide.  When I was finally satisfied, this was my recipe:

6 cups water

1 cup of sugar

1 1/3 cup of lemon juice (for me this was 4 lemons, but my lemons were pretty big)

I also had some old(scary, almost moldy) strawberries, I put them in my poor-man's "magic bullet" and  voila! Strawberry puree :)  I added a spoonful to each glass of lemonade....it was de-lish!!

A day at the beach

It was a beautiful Saturday so we decided to head out to the beach.  This was Baby Love's first time and it started out great...............

We were all smiles

Hanging out with Dad (thanks Auntie D for my awesome outfit :)

and Mom

We were having a great time, but it was getting a little hot.  So into the ocean we went......

Daddy tried first

ummm, not so much.......

Then Mommy tried

Yeah, still not really into this whole "beach" thing yet.  At least we tried.   

Walking in Hawaii

In an attempt to lose the "baby weight" every morning I put Baby Love in the Bjorn and we are off.  We live in a valley, so I always feel like I am Dora the Explorer;  pass the mountains,  into the grass forest and through the land of trees....{I can hear Boots' voice in my head as I say it}

pass the mountain....

into the grass forest......

and through the land of trees.

In order to have a successful walk there are a few rules:

1. Never leave after 8am, you will die from sweat and sun burn

2.  Always face Baby Love out in the Bjorn {even when he is too little and doesn't have good head control}  Otherwise he will scream the ENTIRE time.

*3.  Always keep an eye out for the local animal species

*3 is very important!  During early morning walks you will encounter two types of animals; feral cats and wild boars.  Both of these are no joke and can be scary!  The wild boars are the easy ones, most of the time, they run back into the grass when you get close.  However, every so often a big Papa boar will stand his ground and even take a few steps toward you.  That is why I always know where the nearest light post is so that in case Papa decides to charge I can quickly climb to safety {I am serious}.  You might be asking yourself, cats...really?  Yes, until you have had a pack of stray cats start following/chasing you with all of their diseases {cat scratch disease anyone?}, you have no idea how creepy it can be.  I am not a cat person to begin with and when they start rubbing on my leg I want to kick them.  I  do refrain, but I may "gently" nudge them yet, they keep coming at me.  Then I pick up the pace and say things like "go away" or "RARRR" to scare them.  It doesn't usually work.  After a block or so they typically give up on you and go back.  Sometimes I just start to run...sometimes it helps to run screaming {again, I am serious}.

My little walks can be quite the adventure.  Feel free to call me Dora, I go on adventures, I have a backpack {aka bjorn} and a little friend that goes with me.  Only problem is I am not 4, tan with brown short hair, nor do I speak spanish, but whatever.  I enjoy the fresh air and getting a little exercise.  Baby Love enjoys........well, let's be honest, he's just a baby :)

*unfortunately the one time I bring my camera there were no wild boars and very few cats out.  I will have to follow up later with a few pictures of the local species.

So I guess it's been a while....

I'm jumping back on the blog waggon.  I've been meaning to for some time now, but life kept happening.  Now I am so far behind on the things I would have wanted to write about, I am not sure where to begin.  So, I present: "a year in review" ....

Last May, I quit my job at Central Christian School and decided to go back to teaching full time.  Of course this sounds ridiculous, but I was super bored working part time.  I had very few friends and Big Love was traveling all the time, I needed something to do.  I applied for a teaching position with the DOE. In Hawaii you apply with the state and once you are accepted your name goes on a list and you wait for a call.  I was a little anxious to start over again (for those of you who don't know, due to my many moves, I have taught at a new school every year for the past 4 years), but I was also ready to be back in the classroom full time.  So I waited........and took a little intermission the whole month of June........in the form of a trip to Italy :)  

Font Di Trevi

But, first we had to make a pit stop in Germany so Big Love could do a little work

Not here specifically, but wow!  Isn't this gorgeous!?  Germany was beautiful!

Venice

We visited 5 main cities/areas; Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Tuscany and Rome. 

Cinque Terre

Florence

 Ponte Vecchio

We were able to catch part of the Palio in Siena.  It's hard to tell, but there is a full fledged riot in front of us.  We were able to witness an Italian beat down!  At one point Big Love actually picked me up and ran!  It was definitely one of the craziest experiences of my life!

View of Tuscany from our balcony

 The Vatican

Colosseum

Needless to say, we had an amazing time!  Despite my month long intermission during prime teacher hiring, I was hired as a Jr. Kindergarten teacher at a school only miles from my house.  I was so blessed, it is seriously one of the best school to work at on the whole Island.  I got the job the week we returned and started the following week.  For all of my teacher friends, I am sure you can relate to how stressful the beginning of the school year can be.  So imagine the added stress I had when I was suffering from what I thought was jet lag and generally ill feelings ..............well, I guess this little guy was making himself known long before I ever met him :)  Apparently we had a REALLY good time in Italy.

With a face like this, it's no wonder he was making my life difficult :) 

That pretty much sums up the last year.  Wow, it's crazy to think how much things can change in a year.  I went from being a stay-at-home wife, to teaching full time, to being a stay-at-home mom.  God has amazing timing.