Profitable Day

I love days like this, even though we both woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep.  I finally did and woke up groggy and blah.  I didn't even drink any coffee or eat breakfast before we went over to babysit, but I did get a cup of coffee over there.

It was a fun morning.  I took a catalog of toys - most of them out of my budget but fun to look at - called Magic Cabin Toys.  I was trying to get some ideas of a special gift for Graysen's birthday in a couple of weeks - and believe me, I did.  She didn't realize it was things she could have but treated it like a picture book, and every page was met with ooohs and ahhs.  She had little stories and questions about everything on every page, and we spent a LONG time looking at it.

Kate was pleasant and cuddly and ate lots of cereal, applesauce, and bananas.

She's doing her best to crawl, getting up on all fours, but then she can't figure out how to go forward.  Nothing like a little help from big sister.

 Always a dance going on.

 The afternoon was nice.  We walked down to the coffee shop and met our insurance agent, Steve, to see about changing our health insurance.  It went well, and let's hope we made the right decision.  Mine is no premium and free medications and preventative medicine - so I'll be okay as long as I stay healthy.  Mike's is a little more complicated but still sounds good.

After that, we walked over and got our library cards.  It's a neat little library with a limited collection, but the librarian said we could request books or audio books from 48 other libraries with no fee.  Sounds great to me.  The children's section is nice too.  We'll take Graysen to story time on Wednesday and check her out a few books.  I got 2 knitting books (they have 4 shelves of them), 1 sewing book, and 2 novels.

Mike left me there without checking out anything, but it was so much fun to walk home after I had browsed around - about 2 blocks - with an armful of books.  I've never lived so close to a library.

Organizing for today:  I had high hope for these but was a little worried after the troubles we had yesterday.  They were perfect though.

This was where I was trying to milk a little storage.

I bought 2 of them and stacked them, and they were perfect.  It was just a perfect fit - not a quarter of an inch to spare at the bottom.

All those herbs and spices stuffed in the cabinets are perfect there.  The only problem is having to lift them up to tell which is which.  I guess I could write the names on the caps - if they get used that much.

 

 Baby food and formula and bottles will be perfect on the next to bottom row, and cat treats and food will go on the bottom shelf.

This empty top shelf will be filled with sippy cups and little spoons and bowls and things.

I had ordered a utensil crock to corral all those spoons and spatulas that I didn't have room to store.  I didn't know it was going to be bigger than the coffee pot!  But that part of the counter looks a lot better now.  That starfish appeared and has been kicking around since we moved in.

We have plans to take the day off and get ALL the boxes and bins downstairs finally.  I'm a little more encouraged about things than I was this time last week.  We've now been here 2 weeks and no homesickness or regrets.  Well, some sadness in the late afternoons the first week, but that's better now.  It's all good.

Wednesday Progress

Every little thing we do that makes it easier to walk around and find things is just major lately.  Even with throwing away or storing a lot of things, we're still having to be creative to find places for things - places that we will remember and that will making life easier.

We took the day away from babysitting to see what we could accomplish.

We drove to Bellevue to the cable place.  We had had Logan the cable guy come install the basic cable service for us, and he told us we could get HD and a few more channels for just a few more dollars, so Mike went in and picked up a new box.  I can't say it was easy to do.  He was on the phone several times before it all came together, but it's nice to have it going.  It's funny not to have ESPN stations and some others we were used to, but it's more than we'll need.

We're still getting used to a TV up high, but it's not so bad.  And those cords are not as noticeable as they appear.  Seems like we need to get a bigger TV.  Not!

Second stop was Costco.  We heard that Wednesdays were better for shopping there to avoid the crowds, but no one told the people there.  We got there about 10 minutes after it opened and could hardly find a parking place.

It was crowded but not unpleasant.  I don't go enough to know how to shop there, but we'll try to go at least once a month for some things.  The prices up here don't seem to be overall a lot higher than Montgomery, and we don't have the 10% sales tax, so we can still eat.  It's going to take some learning to figure out the places to shop and get club cards and coupons and such.

I had ordered several things to make it easier to find things, and this was the one I was looking forward to the most.  Eight glorious storage baskets to hold all the cleaning supplies and some groceries.

I filled them up completely and stood back to admire it, closed the door, and later on we heard the crash.  The reviewers on Amazon were right when they said you would need to anchor it to the door with screws or the sticky Command hooks.  

I had ordered the hooks but was procrastinating on using them.  I didn't have to be reminded twice.

Now I think it will stay if we don't do a lot of slamming of the door.

Each bedroom has a closet, including one walk-in, but this hall closet is IT as far as other storage.

Last week:

Today after a little makeover:

It will be good to keep those pesky things that get lost so easily.  Appliance instructions, batteries, labels, light bulbs, etc.  Again, I need some nice labels.

Laundry room is coming along.

Earlier in the week:

In progress.  It's hard not to add shelves and hang things like when you own a house.

It looks like I should have a clean house with all those cleaners, but I had sets of cleaning supplies in 3 bathrooms, the kitchen, the laundry room, and the garage before.

 Now I have to reluctantly go see how our one clothing closet looks since Mike has been unloading his "stuff" tonight.

I'm afraid.

This is how it looked last week:

I'm so proud of the Christmas cactus that made it all the away across the country in a loaded down car and in freezing temperatures at times.  It  seems to like it here fine.

Oh, almost forgot my little coffee pot which came today also.

I think it will do fine for 2 cups of coffee at a time (makes 5 but not really).  We need the counter space, and this seems perfect.

I can't wait to get to the sewing room when the storage units get up here, but that's a little scary too.

Back to babysitting tomorrow, and it will be good to get away from organizing a little while.  I have Graysen some lovely strawberries to take for her lunch.  

Fun Mornings

On Monday, Mike and I both went over and babysat while Ryan went fishing, and today I went by myself until around lunch time when Mike came just in time to carry a sleeping baby upstairs and feed Graysen her lunch.

These are some pictures from yesterday and today - just dumped my camera onto the page.

This was a teasing thing with Graysen pretending she couldn't walk down the stairs by herself.  It may have had something to do with my getting Kate dressed and carrying her downstairs.

She's beginning to look like a 3-year-old now for sure.

 Pop-pop handling two hungry girls.  I think I was enjoying a cup of coffee.

Graysen had gone probably 30 minutes without squeezing Kate's little feet, and I think this was about to happen.

She's not big on lunch lately, at least what I had to offer her.

Graysen is 99% sweet and charming, but she does have her 1% of pouting time or rebelling.

Looks like I have a dirty spot on my lens.

Nap time, complete with piles of books, blankets, and friends - and one Cinderella glove.  It's a sweet cuddling time.  She has a bookcase full of books but since we've been up here, the only book she wants for nap time is the Nutcracker book.  Not the story of the Nutcracker but the program from the ballet that she went to.  We have to look at every page, including the ads and behind-the-scene pictures.  She never gets tired of it and exclaims every time I turn the page, even if it's just a picture of a box of cupcakes.  She usually goes to sleep and sleeps for 4 hours or more.
 

This was the Tuesday morning scene.  Clothing is optional if left up to Ryan and Mike.

And pajamas work just fine without being snapped at all.  In fact, it probably helps the jumping go better.

After a good breakfast of cereal, applesauce, and some sweet potato/barley/something, Kate's ready for a bottle and sleep.

When we left about 12:30, both girls were sound asleep, and we headed home to take a few boxes down to the garage.

I wish I could say things were straight in the apartment, but it seems like the closer we get to getting one room done, we keep on dragging out more boxes and having to find places for them all.  

I went around the other day and took pictures of all the crammed in things and hoped that would make me work on organizing them.  The first thing I tackled was the pantry.  It's a nice-sized area and much needed in this tiny kitchen.

As we unpacked, I just crammed things in without much thought - and got a little depressed.

Once everything was out, we could try and figure it all out.  It helps that we don't have much food bought yet!

I need to get some cute labels to put on all these baking canisters.  Some are empty right now.

It's a good place to relieve the regular cabinets of some baking dishes and things.  I probably won't be using half of these, but it's hard to let them go quite yet.

I have plans for this space, and hopefully it will be here tomorrow.  It's a slide-in set of shelves that I hope will work for handling some spices and cans or cleaning supplies.

One of the few casualties of the move was my old friend, the Keurig.  It's served me well - Mike drinks only Taster's Choice.

 Three mornings last week, Mike walked down to a coffee shop and brought back a couple of cups of coffee that lasted me all day.  I think he just enjoyed having the girl ask him if he had a fun day planned.

Any coffee is better in my cat cup from Debby.

I might be brave enough to post some more house pictures tomorrow, although we did nothing today except move a bed 90 degrees to make more room in the guest room/playroom.