House Update

Lots of things happening at the house!  Things are coming together... But still a lot to get done before move in. 

1. The two new fireplaces are finished and look absolutely amazing thanks to my talented uncle who took our vision and made it better!  Probably my favorite thing we've done so far! This is the outdoor fireplace/patio.

This is the opposite side that is going to be a sunroom!

2. The living room fireplace got a new face lift as well!

3. We now have a working HVAC! Yay for no more nightly fire building runs!

4. The walls in the basement have been framed out and are ready for drywall and josh had started on the dry wall work upstairs.

5. We have a layout for the kitchen and have ordered cabinets!  We are going to save a ton of money by getting unfinished cabinets and painting them ourselves.  We have better drawings somewhere but I can't find them right now.

6. We have ordered the flooring for the upstairs and downstairs.  We found a great price on dark stained bamboo hardwood that will go through out the upstairs...Everywhere but the bathrooms which will be tile.  We also found some decent laminate hardwood for the family room and laundry room area in the basement, these are going to be the only finished rooms down there for a while.

Next up is finishing drywall work so we can start the overwhelming task of painting and getting the sunroom built.

Update on Whitman

So many of you have probably heard that Whitman had an anaphylactic allergic reaction to a pistachio on Friday night.  It was a mother's worst nightmare when I got a call from my MIL saying that Josh has called 911 because Whitman wasn't breathing well and was projectile vomiting less than a minute after Josh had given him two pistachios.  I was a minute away from being there and I drove like a mad woman after hearing those words.  When I arrived I was hoping that Josh has just overreacted in calling for an ambulance, but it was all to plain to see that it was not an overreaction.  My normally super sonic high energy boy was a limp rag with glazed eyes, puffy cheeks, copious amounts of drool, wheezing, and working to breath.  I held him and monitored his breathing until the ambulance arrived a minute later.  They quickly assessed the situation and we headed to the Frankfort ER.  After a neb treatment by the EMTs the wheezing was gone, but his cheeks continued to swell and he couldn't swallow.  Once we arrived in the ER they took an assessment and history, this felt like forever.  I just wanted them to give him some epinephrine because the problem was so obvious to me, but the doctor was concerned initially that he aspirated on the nut.  The nurses started an iv and finally gave him a shot of epi, iv benadryl, and iv steroids. There was a brief moment of fear when his heart rate dropped after the injection of epi and benadryl. Still not sure what the exact cause was, but the meds did their job and after an hour the swelling was almost back to normal. The doctor in Frankfort was not comfortable sending him home, but felt he needed to be seen by the UK doctors for observation.  So Whitman and I went for a second ride in an ambulance to UK. By the time we got to UK he was pretty much his old self.  They observed him for a couple hours and gave him some oral steroids to prevent a rebound reaction and sent us home with a prescription for an epi pen. 

It was a very scary night but I am so thankful for so many things that happened that made the best out of a bad situation.  First, I really believe the Lord gave Whitman peace about the situation. He was never outwardly terrified or even upset.  He enjoyed the ambulance, barely whimpered at the IV, and thanked the nurse after she gave him a shot in the thigh.  Seeing him taking it all so well helped me be calm as well.  Second, our nurse in the Frankfort ER was awesome!  I plan to write a letter thanking her for her care.  Third, I was glad we were with Josh's mom and dad.  They just took Waylon and we never worried about him.  Fourth, it was such a blessing to see a familiar face in the UK ER. Lindsay was there to show support and give me a hug...and get Whitman a popsicle!  Fifth, (and most importantly) my little boy is doing OK and completely recovered.  Many thanks to those who were lifting us up in prayer during this time.

Now our lives are changing.  I have a better understanding of parents who have kids with severe allergies.  I've always understood in my head, but seeing your child struggling like this just changes your out look on things completely. We are reading labels, educating ourselves on the subject of tree nuts, and going to get further allergy testing in the coming weeks.  For those of you who have allergies or kids with severe allergies (especially to tree nuts) any resources or helpful tips are appreciated. 

Continued prayers are appreciated as we get use to a new normal.  Tree nuts are in many things and processed along side a ton of foods.  We are learning all we can and reading every label, but right now I'm fearful that we might mess up.  We are also adjusting to carrying an epi pen with us everywhere we go.  Just wanting to keep our precious boy safe.

January House Update

We have been so crazy I haven't had time for much blogging lately. But here a fast run down of our past month.  Minor issues left us putting off packing until the last minute, packed one house into two houses(harder than it sounds), visited with my parents who were in from Panama, unpacking (still), trying to find things (still), Christmas, New Years, and now it's time to get down to some serious work on the new place. 

We are still getting things done in the new place.  Just to name a few... New plumbing is mostly installed, working toilet, electric is back on, rewired most of the electric, a few walls are framed in the basement, working on getting pocket doors installed in the master bath and closet, functioning fireplace, driveway expanded and leveled, and security system installed and working. 

The thing I'm super excited about right now is the new fireplaces that are going on the back!  They will use one chimney and one will be on the outdoor patio (The lower patio) and the other will be in the sunroom that's going to be built soon(upper patio).  My super talented uncle is going to be doing this for us as soon as the weather starts to cooperate.  I know it's going to look amazing and I can't wait to see the finished work.  Also the brick walls on the upper patio were torn off.

 We should have working HVAC this week! Yay, for no more nightly trips to start a fire!

Another thing I'm excited about is this...

It's a beautiful antique buffet that is going to be the master bathroom vanity!  I have a tulip vessel sink and gorgeous facet that is going to look amazing!  I'll probably paint it white and keep the oval pulls.  I know some will think it's a crime to paint such a gorgeous piece, but I think it will hold up better to water splashes. This is my inspirational picture from pintrest for the project!

I'm really excited because i LOVE this and mine is similar.  We decided not to do a double sink like this one because we feel space might be an issue.  

Lots of stuff happening!

Kitchen Layout Woes

Currently we are struggling with the kitchen layout.  I think Josh and I have this problem/creative process where we think we have something figured out, but there's this one thing that bugs us about it. At first we convince ourself we can live with it...and then as the time gets closer we gradually tear it apart until we come up with something totally different.  I can think of several times we've done this.  We did this when we were naming Waylon, but that's another story.

This is the rough layout that we originally were thinking we liked...

Josh is not a big fan of the booth in this layout.  I really want a booth.  I think it's such an efficient use of space... And they can have so much character with built in storage and cushions!  

So tonight we decided to take another look at it and see if we could liked moving the booth to be a part of the island...

Not bad... But Josh felt like it wasted some space in the dining room and I didn't like the bottle neck between the island and wall.

We decided to sleep on it, but I couldn't sleep.  I had to get up and draw this... Totally different.

When I started drawing I didn't think I would liked it, but just needed to get the idea out of my head and see it on paper.  Josh at some point had made the comment that we were wasting space by trying to have two large walkways into the kitchen.  I thought why do we need that?  The only draw back to this one is that there is a window that is along the far wall that is very low and we will probably have to block about a foot of the window.  That's a sacrifice I think I could make....for now anyway.  I guess I'll try to sleep on this now! 

Which one do you like?

House Updates for November

There is lots of activity going on at the new house!  The basement is fixed, the land is regraded, and new doors are installed!

The electricity is also back on which means that the next few things will be installing a security system, new garage door, and then on to the plumbing!  We had fun picking out many new things for the plumbing at Lowes!  Here's a few pictures of the things we decided on...

Yay, jacuzzi tub!!

Just the tub and surround here... Not the doors.  Too hard to wash up two boys with those doors!

Sorry these pictures are not the best but many of them were displayed really high or underneath a shelf.  The installed pictures will be much better!

I also got a chandelier from amazon that I love!

In other news we have a contract on our Lexington house!  Praise the Lord, it sold in two weeks!  Closing date is set for mid December!  It's going to be a crazy Christmas for sure!  

Big Way to Save Money

One huge way we save a lot of money is with our deep freeze.  We are able to buy many things in large quantities when they are on sale.  I buy a ton of meat that goes on sale due to the expiration date coming close.  You can just put it in the freezer and it's still good when you come back around to cooking it in a couple weeks. 

I have found things like bacon, sausage, and ribs on sale recently for 99¢/lb!  I just throw it in the freezer!  Other things I freeze are cheese, butter, soups, broth, bread, and deer meat (for all you hunters out there).

Also consider freezing leftover meals.  I do this in large and small servings for family dinners or to take for lunch.  Yesterday I found a Boston pork butt on sale for 99¢\lb.  It was 6.5lbs!  That's a lot of meat!  I've got it cooking in the crock pot with some bbq sauce, and I'll keep some in the frig for leftovers and then freeze the rest for later!

If you don't have a deep freeze I would recommend looking into getting one because you really can make your money back with your savings.  They do take up some room but keep in mind that they come in small and large sizes too. 

What's you favorite thing to freeze?

Couponing is back!

I haven't done much extreme couponing lately.  I haven't had the time or energy.  Plus, I've decided that for right now it's just not worth it unless Kroger is having a mega-sale.  Well it's been a while but the mega-sale is back this week!  It was definitely worth my time to clip a few coupons! 

Here's what I got...

Here's what I paid...

These are the things I got for free... Or practically free.  By practically free I mean I paid 4¢each for the Aveeno shave gel, but I made money on the cheerios and scrubbing bubbles so it evens out.

First let me explain Catalina.  A Catalina is basically a blank coupon that prints at the register and is good on your next purchase.  Normally for buying multiples of a product.  These coupled with sales and coupons made the shaving cream (basically) free and the scrubbing bubbles toilet cleaners were actually a money maker!  Here's how it breaks down.

The shaving cream was $2.79 each with the sale.  I had coupons for $3 off of two aveeno products.  Then at the register a $5 Catalina printed since I bought at least three aveeno products.  

So four shaving cream equals $11.16 total with sale... Minus $6 in coupons... Plus five dollars back in Catalina form equals...16¢!! 

The scrubbing bubbles were $1.69 each ($3.38 for two) minus coupons for a dollar each ($1.38) plus a $2 Catalina!  That's a 62¢ moneymaker!

As far as the other few things I got, the eggs and cheerios were free with a coupons that Kroger sent me in the mail!  I LOVE the personalized coupons they send!  We rarely have to buy eggs.  The yogurt was a free Friday downloaded coupon.  And the pasta was 49¢ each and you can print a coupon for $1/2 boxes.

Another great deal that I stocked up on... Butter!  They had this sale about 6 months ago and I stocked up but we just ran out of our stock pile last week so this is a perfect time for us!  Land O lakes butter is $2.50 with the sale (remember to buy things in multiples of ten)!  How do you stock pile butter?  It keeps beautifully in the freezer!  They only had 5lbs last night so I'm going back again during the sale for more!