All dressed up and ready to sell

As of tomorrow morning, our house is officially on the market. We took the pictures and signed the contract tonight and the listing should be up in the morning. I was just done vacuuming when the photographer got here. There's no way I would have made it without the help of my sister-in-law who ended up watching the kids all day! Thanks, Jenny!

We packed up, paired down and painted to try and make our house show better. Here's a little tour:

The front--with a for sale sign!

Looking into the living room

The living room facing the window

The dining room

The kitchen

Upstairs bathroom



Master bedroom

The kids room

I think most of our rooms look pretty good in photos, except the kitchen. I would love to have had time to paint it to brighten it up and simplify the color scheme, but it's not going to happen. At the rate I finish projects I would need at least a year.

Of course, there are still a lot of little things that need to be done. Hopefully we can get to most of them tomorrow.

6/25/10 - Our listing is up!

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Matt started a new job on May 17th. He's working for HotDocs Corporation, managing their technical support operations. While he's not working as an attorney we both felt like this was the right job for right now, since it would allow us to accomplish several of our goals--particularly allowing me to quit my job and stay home with Winnie and Luke. My last day of work is June 30th. I actually gave my notice on May 5th and I think it's taken until today for it to sink in that I'm quitting. I've been there for 10 years now! I'm really excited for the transition, but somehow knowing that it's coming to an end is making everything at my job seem fresher and more interesting than it has in years. At least that should make this last month of work go quickly. Matt's been sworn into the Utah bar, so he's going to be doing some legal work on the side to keep up his skills. In fact, he's already got a case he's working on.

The other big change we're looking forward to is buying a house. In fact, we made an offer on the house that I haven't been able to stop talking about for the past year. The house is headed to foreclosure and we made short sale offer, so we have no idea whether or not the bank will accept. We're crossing our fingers and waiting. The bank has until June 30th to respond. If the bank doesn't accept our offer we'll probably try to buy the house at the scheduled trustee's sale on June 29th. It would be the biggest birthday present ever!

A Post About Nursing

I came across a blog post about breastfeeding today, via a friend's blog. I wish I had seen more posts like this 3 years ago. I spent the first two months of Winnie's life doing nothing but nursing, pumping, visiting lactation specialists and doctors, taking every galactagogue known to man and feeling depressed and guilty that I was failing at what should be the most natural part of motherhood. The last thing I needed was strange women in the grocery store check-out line chiding me for not breastfeeding. Let's just feed them, shall we?

Disclaimer: At the top of the post there's a picture of the author breastfeeding. Don't follow the link if that makes you uncomfortable.

Menus

I updated the menus on my side bar for the coming week. We threw a party for Matt's graduation last Friday and this week's menu is heavily influenced by the leftovers. If there are a lot of heavy winter foods on the menu, it's due to the fact that it's supposed to be 80 degrees Tuesday and then snow and rain Wednesday through Saturday.

Luke's First Hair Cut

In honor of Luke's first birthday (although a little late) he got a haircut tonight.

He was really good while Matt was doing it. I'm a little sad because I think it makes him look older, but he looks cute enough to make up for it!

We Have A Birthday Girl

We have a three-year-old now! I can't believe Winnie is three, even though she usually talks like she's 15. I don't ever want her to grow up, but I also enjoy her more and more all the time.

We had a fantastic day. It included a trip to our favorite park, pizza, dinosaurs, doll houses, new books and new dresses.

The cake (you're looking at 10 eggs and 1 1/2 pounds of butter right there).

The candles

The presents. (Someone should brush that poor girls' hair--or at least wash her face. What was her mother thinking?)

The dolls on the cake go to this doll house.

A set of sporty red wheels.

Winnie got a bucket of dinosaurs from her cousins. I think they were her favorite toy of the evening. Even still, she told everyone they could chose one to take home. Only Luke took her up on the offer, though.

As Winnie went to bed tonight she was singing "Happy Birthday" to herself.

And my baby is

On Luke's first birthday he. . .

weighs 23 pounds.

isn't very interested in learning to walk.

says about 10 words.

is almost all smiles--even when he's sick.

loves blankets.

is very patient with his sister, who often isn't very patient with him.