It's Spring here! The snow is gone, the grass is getting green, and the tulips are almost 6 inches high already! And with the arrival of spring comes lots of changes as well.
We have put our house back on the market. We've gotten good feedback from both our realtor and other MLS agents, and have our first open house scheduled for this weekend. We hope, and pray, that at least this go around that we'll have an offer to work with!
We have new countertops and a sink in the kitchen! That was good to get done. The challenge now is to keep the house "showing" clean and ready! It's definitely a challenge when the boys want to "help" clean, haha!
The only thing left to do is to stain the deck and fence. We've talked about painting the outside of the house, but we may wait with that and see if that is something a prospective buyer wants to take care of.
Our spring and summer are fast filling up, and now fall will be a very busy time for us as well with the arrival of Baby Bloedel #3! He/She will make an appearance sometime mid-September; we are very excited, and the boys are (so far) taken with the idea of having another baby around.
Hope you all have a great Spring too!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Uffda!
I apologize. I'm not as good of a blogger as I thought I would be. But, we've been pretty busy these last couple of months.
As mentioned in the previous post, we got the roof fixed. We have a new water heater and furnace installed. We put storm windows in. We have a new screen door. We've picked an outside paint color for the house, which we will hopefully get done this spring. Oh, and we redid all of the outside front landscaping!
We picked up the laminate for the countertops a couple weeks ago -I had hoped that maybe it would be done sometime in January, but now I'm thinking sometime in Feb. By the time everything is done this will be pretty much a brand new house! Hopefully next time around on the market it might actually sell!
Christmas and New Years was exciting. It was so fun to have all the little cousins together. They played pretty well together too. There were lots of parties and running around. Something to do every weekend from Thanksgiving to after New Years! So it was no small wonder that the boys and I got sick after everything calmed down. Luckily, Alexander avoided everything.
Noah is getting to be quite the little kid. He's learning to read (Thanks to his Nana!), and now recognizes about 10 different two and three letter words! He also got a learning toy ( I have NO idea what it's called) that has 8 different functions and he can spell about 20-30 three letter words! He also has quite a sense of humor, and keeps us laughing with his observations of the world.
As for Christopher, he is all boy. He loves to follow his big brother all over the house, and gets himself into all sorts of mischief, i.e., climbing on the piano, sliding down the stairs and "cleaning" out his bedroom closet! Learning by association, he can "spell" a few words too (I'm sure that somewhere in the world there is a language that recognizes P-T-D as a valid word!). He is also my little singer - I catch him often singing parts of "Jesus Loves Me" or the refrain from "Angels We Have Heard On High."
That's it for now - we (well, mostly me) are really looking forward to spring...especially on days like today where we are supposed to get up to 12" of snow in a 24 hour period. At least I haven't had to shovel yet! :)
'Til next time!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Playing Catch-Up
Wow, have the last 6 weeks gone by fast!
We've just been doing a LOT of catching up around here....I think that the lawn is finally under control and we can see all of the flower beds again!
We had discovered some water damage to the kitchen when we got back. Long story short; we wound up putting a new roof on. The guys put in 23 hrs in 2 days - but the weather cooperated and wasn't too hot or too cool, and no one fell off! Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have the new cupboards and countertops in the kitchen. Then THAT whole project can be done.
Last weekend brought on a whole new set of house problems though...by way of putting in a new dryer vent, we discovered that not only did the person(s) who built this house did not use flashing under the patio door...but also that our water heater had been leaking for quite some time and we'll need to get a new one. Since the furnace will have to be taken out to replace part of the sub-floor, we decided to upgrade that as well. Both are original to the house, so apparently are in the age range to be going out anyway....but is still a major headache to have to deal with going into winter.
We hope to fence in the backyard and build (or re-do the current one) a new deck next spring; We've also picked out a paint color for the outside...don't know if we'll get to that yet this fall or not...
On to happier news...We got a PIANO!!! We had the tuner here last night, and will have to have her back at least twice more to get it where it should be...but it sounds goods and is now in tune with itself; planning on long sessions on the bench, haha! The boys seem to be loving having something to make noise on too. They currently like to play random notes and sing "Hallelujah!" as loud as they can. However, I noticed this morning that they're branching out to include Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. :)
Now that the piano is in tune, I plan on starting Noah with some simple lessons. And who knows...I might even try to find some more beginner student too.
Well, my coffee cup is empty so that means that I better get to the "work" part of my day!
As for posting...all I can say is just keep checking back. Eventually I'll get on the other computer to upload pictures of everything, I promise!
We've just been doing a LOT of catching up around here....I think that the lawn is finally under control and we can see all of the flower beds again!
We had discovered some water damage to the kitchen when we got back. Long story short; we wound up putting a new roof on. The guys put in 23 hrs in 2 days - but the weather cooperated and wasn't too hot or too cool, and no one fell off! Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have the new cupboards and countertops in the kitchen. Then THAT whole project can be done.
Last weekend brought on a whole new set of house problems though...by way of putting in a new dryer vent, we discovered that not only did the person(s) who built this house did not use flashing under the patio door...but also that our water heater had been leaking for quite some time and we'll need to get a new one. Since the furnace will have to be taken out to replace part of the sub-floor, we decided to upgrade that as well. Both are original to the house, so apparently are in the age range to be going out anyway....but is still a major headache to have to deal with going into winter.
We hope to fence in the backyard and build (or re-do the current one) a new deck next spring; We've also picked out a paint color for the outside...don't know if we'll get to that yet this fall or not...
On to happier news...We got a PIANO!!! We had the tuner here last night, and will have to have her back at least twice more to get it where it should be...but it sounds goods and is now in tune with itself; planning on long sessions on the bench, haha! The boys seem to be loving having something to make noise on too. They currently like to play random notes and sing "Hallelujah!" as loud as they can. However, I noticed this morning that they're branching out to include Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. :)
Now that the piano is in tune, I plan on starting Noah with some simple lessons. And who knows...I might even try to find some more beginner student too.
Well, my coffee cup is empty so that means that I better get to the "work" part of my day!
As for posting...all I can say is just keep checking back. Eventually I'll get on the other computer to upload pictures of everything, I promise!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Update
Hello everyone! We have made it back to the lower 48 safe and sound. Beautiful fall weather the whole way down, with the exception of some rain the first day or so.
The house is getting set up, slowly but surely. Lots of little hands wanting to "help" :)
Sorry for the short post, but I'll work on going through photos and writing out our return trip soon!
All the best to everyone out there....
The house is getting set up, slowly but surely. Lots of little hands wanting to "help" :)
Sorry for the short post, but I'll work on going through photos and writing out our return trip soon!
All the best to everyone out there....
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Getting Ready
Whew! You'd think that packing up would be fairly easy since most of our belongings were still packed from before; but after looking at some of the totes and boxes we could tell that some of it needed to be repacked. Our new best friends are bankers boxes and stretch wrap!
Saturday night, Alexander's cousin flew in to Anchorage. Sunday they went on a Salmon Charter - they hooked a lot of fish, but mostly Chum (?) which I guess looks a lot like salmon, but is not good for eating. The nice salmon that they did catch they couldn't keep - snagged on fins or on the back are against the law to keep...but they took a few pictures that we'll put up later.
Monday we took a trip down to Seward on the Kenai Pennisula. On the way there we stopped at Alyeska Ski Resort and rode the Tram up the mountain. That was a lot of fun. Really awesome views and we had beautiful weather to boot! On the way back to the car, Christopher said, "Mommy, I liked that train ride!" So cute. :)
Took a lot of pictures driving along Turnagain Arm. The foliage is starting to turn, and the the water was so calm it almost looked frozen.
Got to Seward, and drove along Lowell Point for a ways. Saw a Sea Otter playing in the water ~ he kept rolling over and over again, and was turned away from us, so I hope the picture turns out ok.
Went back into town with the intention of going to the Alaska Sea Life Center, but after checking out the prices, we decided not to do that! I'm surprised that they get anyone to go in there!
Drove out to the cruise ship dock to see the ship that was there. Not sure if it was directed to us, but they blew the horn three or four times! Loud! The boys got a kick out of that.
We headed back home, stopping in Anchorage for some supper. Got back to the valley just in time to go to bed.
Doing all of the last minute packing today - almost done! All of the "Boys" are hiking in Hatchers Pass today and throwing rocks in the river. We're planning to hit the road very early in the morning as we want to stop along the way towards Glennallen and Tok as that was all driven in the dark on the way up here. Will be interesting to see just how steep the Glennallen Pass is!
All for now; no more posts unless I get a chance to update during the trip at one of the motels.
Can't wait to see everyone!
Saturday night, Alexander's cousin flew in to Anchorage. Sunday they went on a Salmon Charter - they hooked a lot of fish, but mostly Chum (?) which I guess looks a lot like salmon, but is not good for eating. The nice salmon that they did catch they couldn't keep - snagged on fins or on the back are against the law to keep...but they took a few pictures that we'll put up later.
Monday we took a trip down to Seward on the Kenai Pennisula. On the way there we stopped at Alyeska Ski Resort and rode the Tram up the mountain. That was a lot of fun. Really awesome views and we had beautiful weather to boot! On the way back to the car, Christopher said, "Mommy, I liked that train ride!" So cute. :)
Took a lot of pictures driving along Turnagain Arm. The foliage is starting to turn, and the the water was so calm it almost looked frozen.
Got to Seward, and drove along Lowell Point for a ways. Saw a Sea Otter playing in the water ~ he kept rolling over and over again, and was turned away from us, so I hope the picture turns out ok.
Went back into town with the intention of going to the Alaska Sea Life Center, but after checking out the prices, we decided not to do that! I'm surprised that they get anyone to go in there!
Drove out to the cruise ship dock to see the ship that was there. Not sure if it was directed to us, but they blew the horn three or four times! Loud! The boys got a kick out of that.
We headed back home, stopping in Anchorage for some supper. Got back to the valley just in time to go to bed.
Doing all of the last minute packing today - almost done! All of the "Boys" are hiking in Hatchers Pass today and throwing rocks in the river. We're planning to hit the road very early in the morning as we want to stop along the way towards Glennallen and Tok as that was all driven in the dark on the way up here. Will be interesting to see just how steep the Glennallen Pass is!
All for now; no more posts unless I get a chance to update during the trip at one of the motels.
Can't wait to see everyone!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Big News
So it's been a while since the last post, but I have good reasons for the lapse, I promise!
Anyhow, the long and short of it is that we're moving back to Iowa! Alexander recieved an excellent offer from his preveous employer, so we'll be living in our house in Newton.
(There are extenuating circumstances we took into consideration on whether to stay or go back; however, I won't go into details on here. Sorry for being cryptic - if you really want to know more, call me).
So I've been busy re-packing some of our stuff, and packing up the rest of everything.
Don't exactly know the timetable yet - for now we're leaving next Wednesday and arriving in Newton the following Wed. or Thurs.
In between packing, we've been doing some fun stuff too. We went out to the State Fair last Thursday. It's a lot smaller than you'd think, but someone explained that the state is broken into regions and each region has their own State Fair. We do have pictures but I don't have access to them at this time. I'll post them later when we get set up in Newton.
We've loved living here in Wasilla, even with the rainy summer they had this year. The people are wonderful, the scenery is beautiful, and we'll miss the friends we made here. But we look forward to being close to family and friends Outside as well.!
Till next time....
Anyhow, the long and short of it is that we're moving back to Iowa! Alexander recieved an excellent offer from his preveous employer, so we'll be living in our house in Newton.
(There are extenuating circumstances we took into consideration on whether to stay or go back; however, I won't go into details on here. Sorry for being cryptic - if you really want to know more, call me).
So I've been busy re-packing some of our stuff, and packing up the rest of everything.
Don't exactly know the timetable yet - for now we're leaving next Wednesday and arriving in Newton the following Wed. or Thurs.
In between packing, we've been doing some fun stuff too. We went out to the State Fair last Thursday. It's a lot smaller than you'd think, but someone explained that the state is broken into regions and each region has their own State Fair. We do have pictures but I don't have access to them at this time. I'll post them later when we get set up in Newton.
We've loved living here in Wasilla, even with the rainy summer they had this year. The people are wonderful, the scenery is beautiful, and we'll miss the friends we made here. But we look forward to being close to family and friends Outside as well.!
Till next time....
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
It's Official
"As of Monday Anchorage has had 30 consecutive rainy days, beating its previous record of 27 days set in 1951.- from KTUU Channel 2If the overcast weather holds up, Anchorage is going to smash that record. Meteorologists say we can expect rain through Tuesday and Wednesday, and possibly for several days after that.
It doesn't need to be a downpour to count as a rainy day: all it takes is a trace of rain at the airport, or the National Weather Service."
Here's the kicker....Fairbanks is 300 miles NNE of Wasilla, and it has been sunny and in the 90's for most of the summer! Maybe we'll get up there yet this summer and dry out for a weekend!
***
Last Saturday, we went for a drive. We went north of Palmer and found this scenic pullout:
These pictures really don't do it justice...
You can't really tell from the picture, but it's a long way down to the bottom!
***
My children have an obsession with "Mack Trucks" stemming from the Disney movie "Cars." The last few days there has been a lot of truck activity in the dirt lot that our window overlooks.
Hours of watching out the window. Christopher loves that bulldozer. :)
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