Little House on the Prairie

(Disclaimer:  This post contains photo overload; feel free to click out anytime.  My grandma wants pictures of the new house so I gotta provide them.)

 

We are finally in our new house.  It's not the house we anticipate buying, but it's the perfect fit for us.

 

 

The yard is huge.  Sandy, the handsome stud I'm married to, humored me and planted 9 trees, 21 arborvitaes,  3 roses bushes, 3 hydrangeas, 3 English laurels, and 3 box woods. All in the last two weeks!  Yea, I'm beginning to think I might be a titch spoiled. 

 

 

 

 

That man of mine is amazing.  He did not complain one bit, and actually thanked me for being a good wife because I fed him and brought him water with lemon.  Seriously, if I ever complain about him smack me on the side of the head.  Hard.

 

 

 

I wasn't sure I liked the open concept feel of the house.  The formal living opens to the kitchen. We were think about closing off the wall and extending the kitchen cabinets, but I ended up liking the family interaction and views, so we are keeping it as is.  Ya know, so we can buy more trees.

 

 

 

 

 

This boy of mine followed me around flexing the whole time I took pic's.  Apparently I was invited to the gun show.  Boys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grace would like everyone to know she's a "firework".  Direct quote here folks.  Keep it on the down low that we occasionally blast a little Katie Perry.

 

 

Back to business.  The family room.

 

 

 

Guest bathroom.  I feel all grown-up now.

Kid's bathroom.  And all of our friends sighed in relief, realizing they no longer need to use the kids bathroom when they come to visit.  I bet they will miss the wild eyed look of fear that crosses my face when a guest asks if they can use the bathroom. 

Bland baby, bland.  Shannon needs to hop on over to World Market and gussey the place up.

Christian's room.  He likes things simple.  He won't even use a headboard.  Don't worry I will have him tested for decorating paralysis.

This is the before pic of Gracie's room.  I wouldn't want anyone to think we actually keep this joint as clean as we portray.

 

Fake and clean.  You should try it.

 

 

 

Grace thought it was very important that everyone got to take a look at her "fun girl's doll house".  On a fun note, the other day Grace was playing Barbie's and brought me a special Barbie to take a look at.  She is certain I look like a Barbie.  I think the big kids must be coaching her on ways to receive higher quality gifts.

Noelle's Room. 

 

Master Bedroom. 

 

Hey mom! Hey mom!  Take my picture!

Future family room. 

I think the prisoners may have been held here.  When we bought the house the egress windows had grates bolted to the house, and the door downstairs had a lock.  So if you went downstairs there was no way out.  Weird.....

 

See you next time!  Love you gma!



Adventures in Moving

     The moving journey continues...

    Sandy and I journeyed out to what we were sure was our dream home- with a little remodel sprinkled in for fun. The drive out to the property was a lovely winding road in the middle of the woods.  The road fairly shouted adventure and fun.  We rounded a corner and pulled up to our little gem.  I noticed the house had a pond about 50 paces from the front door. Interesting...

    I decided to "survey" the property.  I needed to scout out where this lagoon was.  Interesting thing was I couldn't find it.  As I moseyed (yes moseyed, everything is more fun when you buy a farm) I thought to myself, surely that cute pond couldn't be the  SEWAGE lagoon.  About that time my daughter and her friend dash out of the house screaming their fool heads off. (To this day, I am not sure why.)  My daughter loudly announces she is going to stay in the car and she will not be moving into THAT house.

   At this point I looking questioningly at our realtor and ask, "where, indeed, is the lagoon?  He nods his head toward my pond and says I think that's it right there.  This is the point, I should have given up, hopped in my cozy car and headed for home.  Not being one who gives up easily, I decided to tour the house.  My poor husband followed me, listened to my plan to renovate, and then calmly said, "honey, we are never buying this house".

  Feeling discouraged we decide to head home.  Our realtor mentioned he had two more houses that were nice, but not practical as farms.  We decided to throw caution to the wind and follow him to the houses. 

    We found ourselves winding around the lake, up a tall hill, around a few corners, and pulled into a driveway of a lovely house.  Instantly I was smitten.  The house was lovely.  The layout family friendly, the master suite private, the farm land...well not there.  In fact, the backyard is more like the side of a mountain.  Nary a spot for a garden let alone a chicken coop.  So I did what any sane woman looking for a farmhouse does.  I looked up at that handsome man of mine, batted my eyelashes, and smiled.  He smiled back, and said we will talk about it.

  Long story short, he decided we had found the next house for our family, and we could make an offer.  The adventure begins....

Chaos and Mayhem, Moving and Whatnot

     Hello blog friends, okay who am I kidding.  Hello Grandma!  It's been forever since I've blogged, well, because life has been busy.  So today's post will be a little family update.

      We'll start with the boys.  Sandy, that handsome hard working man is still as handsome as ever.  He is still self employed.  Have I mentioned that self employment is heavenly?  Now there's that minor detail of finances, but really who cares.  I love that he is home on all my days off; even if he's working in his office.

 Christian turned 13 in July- I am so proud of that kid he is becoming an awesome young man.  He has worked so hard to overcome his dyslexia; this year he is doing amazing in school and rarely wants our help with his homework.  Let me tell you, that right there is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

     The girls have been busy too.  Noelle turned 16.  CRAZY!  When I look at that beautiful girl I can  hardly believe she is ours.  She is so much fun, and has matured into a wonderful young lady.

Faith (my sis), Noelle, & Krissy (my newest sis)

 Gracie girl turned 9.  She is a pure joy.  She's hilarious and can be a bit, shall we say, unfiltered.  The other day she assured me that she would probably meet her husband on Christianmingle.com.   I'm glad she has that figured out, ya know I thought she'd probably meet her future husband in college.  Silly me.

    I've been busy too.  I switched positions at church, and now I am the hospitality ministry leader.  It's been a big change, and a whole bunch of fun.
   
     We also randomly decided to sell our house to buy a farm.  I figured we would get some chickens, two cows, a few fruit trees and call it good. Sandy could learn how to bring in the hay, bale the hay, whatever.  Now buying a farm is not easy as one may think.  First, you have that big casting vision piece with the good ole spouse.  That was easy, all I had to do was say I would be in the kitchen whipping up some homemade pies and such.  Sandy was in.  Now Noelle, had to be all practical, and mentioned that she didn't think it was wise to buy cows as I have an aversion to all animals.  She kindly recommended I start with a chicken.  Whatever.
   
     With great anticipation we began our farm hunt.  Well, one thing we did not factor into the equation was our budget.  You see, I had glorious vision of a spacious farmhouse with a wraparound porch. Tulips and daffodils would surround the porch in the spring, giving way to heirloom roses and hydrangeas in the summer.

hookedonhouses.net

 Problem was the b-word kept getting in the way.  We would travel to the farmhouses in our budget only to find rundown, funky smelling shanties in their place.

www.houseofedgeworthsc.com

 

  One such place boasted a practically finished remodel with partial lake views.  The sewer system was noted to be a lagoon; so we googled lagoons and phoned a friend.   We learned lagoons were an acceptable sewer system and actually better than septic alone.  Sandy and I decided to make the journey out to the house, sure we were being led to our dream house....To be continued

Planning the Anniversary

    I haven't blogged forever, even though I know my grandma loves to read about our family nonsense.  Tonight I decided to go through some of my old blog drafts and I came across this little doozy I wrote almost two years ago and never published.  The post cracked me up, so I decided to share it with you.

 

   This year is our 15th wedding anniversary.  It is amazing how time has flown by.  I love my man more today than ever.

  I REALLY wanted to go to the Melting Pot for our 15th anniversay, it is hands down my favorite resturant.  The problem lies in the fact that Sandy is, well, cheap, I mean frugal  and would like to go to a midlevel priced resturant.  Hummm...

2.  Here's a delightful snipit of a conversation had by me and my hubby:

       Shannon:  "Babe, I think we should go to the Melting Pot for our anniversary."

       Sandy:  "Hon, Let's be responsible and go somewhere cheaper."

       Shannon: "Babe, we barely made it, I think we should go somewhere nice to celebrate."

       Sandy:  "I don't think that's funny!"

       Shannon:  "We should have that put on our tombstone:  "Here lies Sandy and Shannon- They barely made it."  

    I think I'm hilairous, though it's possible I may get a gift certificate for marriage counseling for my anniversary gift.

Note:  We had a lovely time on our anniversary, and he took me to Maui for our 16th, so all in all it was a win.  :)

Simply Amazing Granola Bars

     Every Fall I go through a nature mom stage, I feel the need to bake fresh bread, create amazing homemade soups, can peaches, bake fresh apple cake, and the list goes on and on.  Recently, I tried a recipe for homemade granola bars and they were AMAZING.  I found the recipe in, "Harrowsmith Country Life Baking Book".  Here's the recipe tweaked Shannon style:

Chewy Granola Bars

1 c. brown sugar

2/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup butter (melted)

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups oatmeal

1 TBSP. flax

1/2 Rice Krispies

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup mini chocolate chips

Home Ec for Christian

 Preheat oven to 350.  Mix brown sugar, peanut butter, corn syrup, butter and vanilla.  Stir in oatmeal, flax, Rice Krispies, coconut & chocolate chips.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  Cut into 18 granola bars.

   My family loves these delicious treats.  I usually cut granola bars and then place them in snack size sandwich bags, so my  kiddos can pop them into their lunchbox throughout the week.  If I leave them in the pan they are devoured in a day.  Hope you enjoy this delicious treat.

Head Chef

Blessings to you and yours!

I'm linking up with "The Stories of A2Z".

The Truth Comes Out

   

                              

     My lovely husband has taken to reading my blog, nevermind that I stopped posting about five months ago and have recently posted only twice.  Apparently, as with all great writers, you're not appreciated until you stop writing. Ha!  Anyhoo, Sandy feels that I have failed to follow-up on some of my old posts, and therefore I need to update with you mindless info you missed this summer.  So here you go:

1.  I once posted that I was handing over the finances to my husband.  Now this was a great idea, at least in theory.  I have to admit, he was never able to pry the checkbook out of my hot little hands.  Apparently, now that Sandy's read my blog, he wants to "discuss" taking over the finances.  Hummm....

2.   Last winter Sandy purchased a boat without telling me.  Now, this boat wasn't your typical run of the mill boat, it was a hurkin' huge, ugly boat.   Sandy being the studly fix-it  fella he is, whipped the boat into shape, purchased new seats, and restained all the wood work.  The boat then went from extremely ugly to large an awkward, but at least he was able to collect a tidy profit when he sold it.

3.  Tonight in a passive aggressive move, I started the dishwasher and the washing machine (using hot of course) while Sandy was in the shower-  I was hoping he'd get a "refreshing" splash.   Ha ha!

                                

4.  Last year I lost 30 pounds.  Woo hoo!  The problem is I gained 12 pounds back.  Now my question is, did I lose 18 pounds or gain 12?  Hummm.....

5.  Someday I would like to write a book.  Here are a few titles I'm considering:  "10 Reasons NOT to Call your Husband a Little Moron",  or "When Teasing Becomes Truthful".  Ha!

Disclaimer:  If you were offended by tonights post.....  You should know that:

I have the worlds most amazing husband. 

 He smokin' hot and kind. 

He doesn't mind if I tease him.

 Hope you enjoyed the random blither of tonight's post.

Blessings to you and yours!

    
   

Arch Enemies or Best Friends?

The littles...I think it's possible they are going to be the death of me....

Sure they're cute, even though they don't like to brush their hair.

But they fight every stinkin' day...   AHHHHH!!!!

On the upside, their arguments are often hilarious.

Here's a sampling of a typical night at the K's house:

After finishing dinner I realized Grace needed a pink tutu

for tomorrows "Twins Day" at school, and I didn't have one.

I hoped in the car and headed to Target, about 1.5 minutes

into the drive my cell phone rings. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Christian:  "Mom! Grace just chewed up lettuce and spit it in my face."

(Insert:  Shrieking.)

Grace:  "LET ME TALK TO MOM."

Christian:  "Fine!'

Me:  "What on earth is going on, and where is your dad?"

Grace:  "Christian opened the refrigerator, and took out the whip cream and was going to eat it!"

Me:  "Okay?"

Grace:  "I told him that  he is NOT allowed to eat the whipped cream."

Me: "Okay?"

Grace:  "He won't obey me, so I chewed up some lettuce and spit it at his face."

Me:  "Grace Elizabeth, you are not allowed to spit food at your brother."

Grace:  "HE DIDN'T OBEY ME!"

Me:  "Grace, you are not the mommy, and Christian doesn't have to obey you.  Besides,  we never spit in someones face to discipline them.  Mommy doesn't chew up her food and spit at you when you are naughty."

Grace:  "Well, maybe you should!"

Me:  "Go to your room."

Hummmm....new parenting technique?????

Blessings to you and yours!