I Wish...

I wish:
That being over 40 didn't mean that it's harder to stay in shape, and harder to see things without reading glasses.
That I could do my own nails and it would look like I stepped out of a nail salon.
That my beautiful hardwood floors cleaned themselves.
That it didn't take me longer and more products to look decent every day.
That I had an unlimited budget to decorate this beautiful house the way I want.
That my dogs weren't getting older and going to make me sad one day.
That my kids could be closer to me, no matter where I move.
That I could have Sunday dinners with all my kids once in a while (see above)
That my kids could all be happy, safe, and financially secure...forever.
I wish for world peace. I know everyone wishes for world peace, but being an Army wife and seeing just how much the lack of peace hurts the people who fight for it...makes me really, really wish for it.
I wish all the service members serving in dangerous areas of the world could be home with their families. I wish there was no hurt in the world.
It's a lot, but it can't hurt to wish, right?

A Work in Progress

Since I posted photos of the empty house, I've had a few requests to post photos of the house with stuff in it. We have accomplished a lot, but there are a few rough edges still. I'm still looking for the right rugs for some rooms and new bedding for others. You will be able to see, from these photos, just how big our bedrooms are. They look so empty, even with our stuff in them!

As promised, a photo of the outside. I'm really glad I took this because now I can see just how bare it is out there. It's a grand house with a grand yard and I need to step up the plantings a bit. Those little pots look pretty wimpy out there!

This is one shot of the kitchen. Notice the little flat screen TV?  I LOVE that. Since the kitchen sits off by itself, I can't see or even hear the living room TV and I love to have it on while I'm cooking or baking. Nick bought it for me for purely selfish reasons. If I like being in the kitchen, I cook and bake more.

Do you just LOVE the old coke crate on the left of the stove?  My friend Debra had one in Rhode Island I just loved it. I am using it for a spice rack, just like she did.

Kitchen sink. I love the big window and the fact that it has a window sill that i have junked up.

This is a shot looking back toward the dining room. I can't manage to keep my counters clutter free. What can I say? It's a working kitchen. Notice the baby loves of banana bread cooling on the butcher's block. It's because I have a TV in my kitchen. Oh, and very ripe bananas.

This is the dining room from the entry hall. That's my big ol' purse on the left side. I should have moved it. Yes, I only have five dining room chairs. Yes, it looks off balance... and yes, I hate it. I can't wait to get a new set. I've ordered a beautiful rug for this room. I can't wait to get that in there to finish it off.

The other side of the dining room. You can see the kitchen through the door there. And the rug rolled up on the other side of the table. That's the beautiful rug I first ordered for the dining room but realized, too late, that I clicked on the wrong size when ordering it. It's going back.

Living room from entry hall. The living room tables are the next things to go. They are past their time and I'd like something a little smaller for a coffee table.LOVE the fireplace!!

Looking just to the left of the fireplace to the built-in bookshelves. I love these too.

The last side of the living room. This room, for as large as it is, is laid out terribly. There are no good walls for furniture between the fireplace, the large entry and bookshelves. I had to make do with what I have. The love seat is in the sun porch for now. I think it will make it's way upstairs to the guest room. Did I mention how big the bedrooms are?

This is the little wall under the stairs as you go through the entry to the back door and back entrance to the kitchen. I would love to add to the collection of crosses and the needlework is an Army Wife's Prayer hand stitched by the chaplain's wife in Hawaii. We just found out that he is going to be Nick's chaplain again here and we are so excited!

This is my tiny little bathroom downstairs.  It's done in a nautical theme. My girlfriends and I back in Rhode Island shopped for weeks to find stuff for our new nautical bathrooms once we moved.

Love these oars I found in Newport. they are hanging above the tub.

Cheesy little soap and toothbrush holders but I love them. The starfish are temporarily on the back of the toilet awaiting just the right basket or bucket to display them in.

Going up the stairs. Oh and there's Cleo watching me from the back door.

Guest room. One of the rooms that still has some rough edges. I guess I should have moved the lamp out of the way. It's just sitting there awaiting a new home. I have furniture in storage that will help fill this room.

Master bedroom. Doesn't that queen sized bed look lost in there? That's a full triple dresser to the right and we have still have loads of floor space. We definitely need rugs for this room. Winter will bring some cold floors!

A shot of the other wall with the dresser.

Opposite the dresser. A big ol' bookshelf and TV stand. Still loads of room.

My dressing room. I stole Callie's vanity that goes with the bedroom set in the guest room (it's all hers) There's no way to get it to her now and I have this lovely little room.

I didn't get a shot of Alex's room because I'm awaiting new bedding. Something fitting for a young man and not a boy. The stuff he has is very juvenile and I think it's time to grow up. I also skipped the home office (sleeping porch off the master bedroom) it's a hot mess right now.  I will continue to post as I finish off more rooms.

The New House

I've been such a lazy blogger lately. I took a few photos of the house before we got our household goods delivered, but after that, I didn't even take the camera out of its bag for about a week or longer.
We have almost completely settled in. Just in time for our second shipment (stuff we've had in storage for the last year) to be delivered. I wish I could remember what all is in that shipment. I have a feeling it will show up during the time Nick is gone to the pre-command course. Won't that be lovely?
I worked like a crazy lady the first three days we were here. Suddenly, I lost my steam. Right now, we've been in the house around 11 days and I still have something in every room that needs to be finished up. UGH!
Today, Nick is back to work doing his in-processing. I am determined to finish up downstairs. I have a list and I hope I can stick to it!
Enjoy these photos of my empty house. It's a great house and I'm going to love living here..if I can just get finished.

The view from the front door. Dining room on right, living room and sun porch on left.

The living room, facing the front wall (with built-ins)

Better shot of the built-ins and you can see the front door over to the left.

The sun porch which is just on the other side of the fireplace wall. I love this room!

The dining room from the entry hall. You can see the kitchen door on the left.

This is a shot of the kitchen from the dining room. Once you walk in, immediately to the left is a butler's pantry which is just below.

Butler's pantry. Just to the left of the cabinet shown is a floor to ceiling pantry. Love it!

This is a shot of the kitchen looking back toward the dining room door (just to the right of that cabinet and two window wall) I am standing in the other door to the kitchen which comes in off the back door hallway.

Tiny little "bedroom" downstairs. That bathroom through the "bedroom" is the only bathroom downstairs so we will make this room a "sitting" room with Callie's old futon. That way it can be converted to a bedroom for a kid when we have guests that need to take his room.

This is the master bedroom from the hall. See that door?  It goes out to the "sleeping porch" which is right above the sun porch downstairs. It's wall to wall windows too and will be used as our home office.

This is the sleeping porch. Isn't it wonderful?!

This is a little room off the master with those built in closets. It is labeled the "dressing room" on the floor plan. That's what I use it for. I have Callie's old vanity table in there and all my clothes in those closets. It's too cool!

Here is the master bathroom. I finally have a bath tub again! I am enjoying it. It's SO long though, and I'm short, so it's a struggle to keep from drowning :)

This is the shower head in our bathroom. I thought it was very cool, but now I'm not so sure. Yes, it falls like rain. Yes, it looks all modern and what not, but like I said, I'm short. This sucker is so far up the wall that I seriously can't reach it to adjust it from a standing position in the shower. I have to stand on the side of the tub to adjust it. By the time it hits the top of my head, it's such a large spray that I have trouble rinsing my hair. Such a silly thing, but I think it doesn't spray very hard (dang water savers) and I have trouble and take longer in the shower now.

This is the upstairs hall. Linen closet on the right. I have tons of closets!

This is a shot of the guest room. The bedrooms are really big in this house.

Since I am having a hard time uploading more photos, I will leave you with these. This covers most of the house. I don't have a real photo of the outside, but will get one. I took one with my phone to send to friends and family and post on facebook, but it's not that great.

Thanks for being patient and hanging with me through the move. Hopefully, I will get a routine going again and start blogging about real life stuff. I'm so anxious to get involved in the community here, and there are LOTS of opportunities already. My neighbor has already tried to recruit me for the spouse's club board. I have a feeling I will be very busy, very soon!



Road Trip Continued

After the big wedding, we flew back to Green Bay and enjoyed a down day on Monday. It was so nice to enjoy cooler weather, do laundry, and not rush out that morning to hit the road again.
On Tuesday, we hit the road running. Since we had left Callie in Texas (after moving her into her apt) we only had Alex with us. We left Nick’s car in Green Bay to be shipped the rest of the way so we were down to one kid and one car. Needless to say, we were PACKED in that vehicle on Tuesday. Two adults, two dogs, a teenage boy and a whole bunch of stuff.

Max curled up in his tiny space.

Cleo in her cage.

There was some really beautiful farm land between Green Bay and Fargo. What a fantastic part of the country… in June. Not sure I want to experience it in the winter.
We arrived in Fargo Tuesday evening, dropped Alex off with his mom and checked into our hotel. Now we were down another kid and a whole lot of stuff he brought with him.  We spent the following day with our other Callie in Fargo. Once again, it was nice to not get up and hit the road. We struggled a bit to find something to do to fill up a whole day in Fargo, ND. So, we hit the zoo.

It was a small zoo, but so well done. I have to give it to the community and people of Fargo. They have put great effort into this zoo and it has the potential to be a very cool place.
The next morning it was just Nick, me and the dogs. We have three more days! The drive between Fargo and Billings, Montana, which was our scheduled stop, was very beautiful. We saw lots of flood water and the Badlands. Beautiful!!

Did you know that North Dakota grows a huge percentage of the world’s mustard? It’s a beautiful crop!

That night brought us to Billings, Montana. We stayed in a very cool Best Western and saw this outside our rooms.

Little bears outside like they were climbing up the balconies. No, they’re not real! The whole place was decked out in a cool Montana, log cabin, ranchy kind of way. I loved it.
The next day we drove on to Spokane and stayed in another fantastic Best Western… who knew?  I didn’t take a lot of photos that day because, honestly, I was getting tired of the whole road trip thing. Here are a few interesting things I saw.

This was a huge cow sculpture up on that mountain. I can’t really know why it’s there, but it was photo worthy.

The flying geese sculpture. Again.. why?

Max with his head wedged between the back of my seat and the door. I can’t describe how bad the smell was with his breath fogging up the right side of me.

Cleo.. still in the cage...still not liking it.
Saturday, we finally arrived in the Tacoma area and checked into what would be our home for the next few days while we waited for our stuff and our house.

How cute is this place? 
I will post photos of our new house soon. After that first day of walking through it empty, I’ve not even taken the camera out of its case. I’m such a slug. The unpacking and settling in has taken over my life. I will take some soon. It’s a fabulous house and I absolutely love it!!
How cute is this place?