Kitchen Peninsula Vote - Help!

So...if YOU were designing a kitchen with a peninsula that had to have a sink in it and stools on the opposite side, would you have one big flat surface (first picture) or would you design in with a step-up to the eating area (second picture)?  Look at the two following pictures and then vote below.  Disregard everything else you see in the pics (design, style, colors...everything), just trying to find an example of the two options I'm thinking about...

Photo from http://www.houzz.com

Photo from http://www.taylormadecontracting.com

Incredible Inventions

There are many things that I am thankful for that make our daily lives so much easier, but I just want to give a quick shout-out to two of the most wonderful inventions in the world!

1)  FREE SHIPPING!  What a wonderful and amazing idea!  Living in a rural area makes running errands really difficult...especially with two little kids.  I'll often plan my whole day around a couple errands that I need to run because between the 30+ minute drive to get anywhere, naptimes, cranky kids, meals etc...it can make shopping difficult and no fun!  For example, I just had to make a "quick trip" over to the Tilton outlets to get something the other day.  I drove for over thirty minutes on backroads with both kids.  By the time I got there, Micah was screaming.  I dragged his carseat into the store and immediately took him out to hold him and try and get him to stop crying.  Meanwhile, Camden ran like a terror around the store, hiding, pulling things off shelves and just being a hyper toddler.  At one point I had to lay Micah down on the dirty floor to clean up 30 Christmas cards that Camden had just dumped onto the floor.  
Juggling kids is tough, especially when they are both hyper/cranky and, needless to say, I couldn't think straight and was so anxious to get out of there that I bought $40 worth of ugly Christmas cards that I ended up returning a week later, just because I didn't want that entire trip to be in vain.  Ugh.  Anyways, living far from stores with kids makes shopping more of a hassle than an enjoyment so I have to say...free shipping is incredible.  I order most of my baby items from diapers.com - they are amazing and I get free two-day shipping!  Love it!  I also just ordered Camden's few Christmas presents on Amazon from the comfort of my own living room!  Amazing!  Maybe I'll just turn into a total hermit and never leave my house again!  :)  Oh, and did you know there's something called Free Shipping Day coming up on the 17th...oh no...that's TODAY!!!  Check out this link to see all 1,759 stores and companies that are participating!  I can't buy anything because we're trying to save money these days now that we're homeowners, but YOU should go buy something and enjoy free shipping! 

2) The second incredible invention is the shopping carts that have little cars for kids to ride in at the grocery store.  Now, I have no idea why, but I didn't give these carts a try until last week.  Oh man...I have been missing out.  I'm not sure why I didn't use them before - did I think they were too germy?  Did I think I had it all together and didn't need them?  Was I too good for the race car cart?  I have no idea what my thinking was, but if any of you have ever seen me trying to grocery shop with both Camden and Micah, you know I don't have it all together.  Camden generally races up and down the isles as fast as he can, occasionally pulling items off the shelf to show me.  I used to dread having to go shopping with both of them (then there was that time I got them both all loaded up, drove the 15 minutes to the store in the pouring rain and after pulling into the parking lot realized I didn't have my wallet...UGH!  THAT was bad!), but these last two times I've gone Camden has ridden in these cool carts and has stayed totally content the entire time!  He LOVES it.  I ask him to help me steer and he uses the little steering wheel - it really is probably the greatest invention of all time (well, almost...I guess there have been a few others that have been more lifechanging...). 

Anyways, free shipping and race car carts are wonderful.  I'm a happy mommy!

Demo!

So, I haven't been very good about blogging about our new house, but that doesn't mean we haven't been super busy with it and super excited about it!  It is pretty much completely gutted at this point!  We (mostly Scott with help from our families) gutted the entire house over our Thanksgiving break.  Scott was at the house from 8-5 everyday.  I'd go over for an hour or two at a time after nursing Micah while one of our parents stayed with the kids.  It was so fun to help out, but I can't imagine being there all day every day like Scott was.  We filled up a 4 ton dumpster in the first two days and had to get another one!  It was a long process, but it felt so good to take ownership of our house and save some money by doing all the demo ourselves rather than paying a contractor to do the work.  Here are some pictures from the demo process!

Unfortunately, the entire first day was spent cleaning out the previous owners belongings and taking trips to the dump.  Here is just some of the junk we pulled out there...

 Here I am kicking in a wall!

Here is one room before (with the owners stuff in it)...

And here is the same view AFTER...

Before:

AFTER:

An upstairs bedroom before...

And after...

My sexy, dusty man...

HOMEOWNERS...

Now for the fun part of putting it all back together!!

One Year!

One year ago today was a scary day for our family.  My mom had a mastectomy after finding out she had breast cancer last fall.  Her surgery was successful and after opting not to undergo chemo and radiation, but instead focus on eating healthier, exercising and researching ways to live a healthier lifestyle we can happily say that one year later she is cancer free!!!  YAY MOM!!!!!  What a relief and answer to our many prayers.  Cancer is such a scary thing, and it seems to be almost an epidemic this day in age.  It doesn't seem to matter how old you are or how healthy you are...it's everywhere.  My mom has been such an incredible example to me of taking something that could have crushed you to the core physically and emotionally and taking charge of it and making the best out of a intensely difficult situation.  I can honestly say that I've never seen my mom with more energy, more zest for life, more discipline before in my life.  Thank you mom for being such a great example to me and all the students you come in contact with everyday.  Thank you for showing us all that circumstances do not need to dictate your life.  Everyone says we look exactly alike, but I hope I got more from you than just your stunning good looks!  I love you!

Five Years Ago...

Five years ago yesterday I was in Scott's apartment at Cardigan when I got the phone call from my dad.  I had never gotten a call like this before and I remember dropping the phone and sobbing on the kitchen floor.  Scott couldn't even gather what had happened as I couldn't speak.  Our dear family friend (one of my dad's best friends who he coached and played with for years), my high school soccer coach (and club coach in the summers who, along with my dad, really sparked my passion for soccer in my late middle school years), the husband to a wonderful woman and father of three beautiful young boys who I used to babysit had suddenly (and I mean completely out of the blue) died.  He was young, healthy and in shape and he was just walking up a neighbor's driveway in his neighborhood when he collapsed. 

Bob was so funny.  He was a total space shot and his kids used to come to practice with him and run aimlessly in the woods for hours without Bob having any clue where they were!  He loved his family so much and was super involved in our community.  For years he had been the head soccer coach at the high school and he was SO good at it.  He won coach of the year and brought his teams to many championships, but mostly he shared his love and knowledge of the game with his players and we all fell in love with it. 

I still can't watch or play a soccer game without hearing Bob's voice in my head ("see how the ball never stops moving?  Heels to the touchline.  All you need is half a step to get the shot off...")  He had his priorities straight always telling us that Family came first, then School then Soccer.  Boys were not on the list (at least not until after soccer season according to Bob).  "The boys will wait," he used to say..."If they like you enough, they'll wait for you."  This was never an issue for me as I didn't have much (aka: any) interest in dating in high school, but I liked the concept of it.  If a guy really likes you, he'll respect the time you are committing to something that you're passionate about and he'll wait for you.  If he doesn't wait...he's not worth it.  I have to say this was a good lesson Bob taught me as Scott had to "wait" for me to come around for a long time in college and his patience paid off and proved to me that he was serious about me.  Bob came down to Gordon occasionally with my parents to watch me play and I always wanted to impress him so much.  A big hug from Bob and hearing him tell me how proud he was of me meant the world to me.  The summer before Bob passed away, Scott and I worked for him running a summer camp for local kids and I'm just SO incredibly thankful that Bob got to meet Scott and give me two big thumbs up.  He used to tell us that summer that whenever we were ready to buy a house, to look for the worst house in the best neighborhood (I think he'd be proud of our new purchase!).  Now, five years after his death, Bob's oldest son is a junior at Proctor and Scott is his advisor.  The fact that we can still be a part of their lives, that we still see his wife all the time and go to their house for dinner, that we can play a large role in his son's education the way he played such a huge role in my life is amazing.  Bob left this world way too soon, and I can only hope that I can impact one kid (whether on the soccer field or elsewhere) the way Bob impacted me. 

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

We've had fun this week getting into the Christmas Spirit!  On Sunday we went to a local tree farm and cut down our own tree!  Camden enjoyed his first candy cane sitting in front of the roaring fire in the little Christmas house.  We pulled out all of our Christmas books and Camden LOVES reading them.  He keeps pointing at pictures of Jesus and saying "Look!!!  Jesus!!!" as if he's shocked that he's showing up so many places these days!  We've been talking to him a lot about the fact that it's Jesus' Birthday and he got pretty excited when I told him we could make Jesus a birthday cake!  He's also been talking about Santa a lot, and told us that Santa had been taking a nap all year until now.  It's so fun having a little kid to share the wonder of the season with!  We decorated our tree tonight and have been listening to lots of wonderful Christmas music.  (Alrighty, Micah is starting to fuss...time to upload a few pictures!)...

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for this holiday season.  A few things that top my list are:

-  My two beautiful, healthy little boys

-  My amazing husband who is so dedicated to our family.

-  Our new house that we have been busily tearing apart this week

-  An incredibly supportive extended family on both sides that we love so much

- The freshly fallen snow out my window

-  My loving God who has blessed me with more than I could ever deserve

Dinner with Friends

We had a wonderful time with some good friends this evening.  We have become close with our friends Gregor and Amy over the last 5 years that we've been at Proctor.  Although they are a few years older than us (in fact, I think Gregor used to babysit me at one point in my life!), we actually have a lot in common.  Gregor and Scott coach basketball together which means they spend hours and hours together in the winter.  This also means that Amy and I are "basketball widows" and enjoy spending our husbandless afternoons together.  They got married young and had kids young just like us (which we've found is very rare around here.  I think most of our Proctor friends think we're crazy for being married and having two kids AND owning a house(!!!) when we are only 28).  They also have a deep faith and although we worship in different ways and have theological differences, it's really nice to be friends with people who value what you value and want to honor God with their lives.

Long before we were friends with Gregor and Amy, I grew up with Gregor's younger brother, Glenn.  We have been friends since we were 3 and were in the same small class in elementary school.  Even before we were old enough to go to school, Glenn's mom used to babysit me while my mother worked at Proctor and we therefore spent a good deal of our early childhood together.  Like most of my childhood friends, I lost touch with Glenn when he went to high school at Proctor and I attended the public school, Kearsarge.  We keep in touch on Facebook and I've seen him a couple times in recent years when he's home to visit his family...but we really haven't spent significant time together since probably 6th or 7th grade!  We had a blast having dinner at Gregor and Amy's who are hosting Glenn, his wife Kim and their son Tate for Thanksgiving.  So fun to all be together and reconnect with old friends.  We had a delicious meal of pancakes, waffles, eggs, muffins, potatoes fruit salad and bacon for dinner and had fun playing games and catching up.  Camden and Paige had fun chasing each other around the house and attacking each other with hugs.  They're quite the pair!

Here is a picture of Glenn and me that I just found in the Proctor Archives from back in the day...

 

Glenn and Amy...

 Kim with Tate and Brynne...

 Cope, Scott and Gregor...

 Paige and Camden take a rest after chasing each other around the house all evening...

 Playing Pit...

 Nelson, Camden and Cope...

 Brynne holding Micah...

It was great to see you Glenn and Kim!  Thanks for hosting Gregor and Amy!

Exciting News!!!!!!

We have some very exciting news, and no, it doesn't involve a baby this time!  We closed on our first home today!!!  It is going to be a major project, as it is in really poor condition right now, but it is in the ideal location for us!  It is located on a little dead end street with only three houses on it and the neighbors on both sides of us are family friends that I've known for my whole life.  I grew up playing on this road and we are so excited to live next to such wonderful people that we already know and love!  We are still only 1/3 of a mile from the village (aka: my parents house, the elementary school and library and Proctor's campus), but it is on the outskirts of town and will feel much more private and secluded than anything we've ever lived in before.  The property backs up to Proctor's land (a huge meadow, river and ski hill) in the back so the boys will have lots of room to play. 

This house first went on the market in mid-July and we were out for one of our many walks and decided to walk by and check it out.  We ran into the woman who lived there and she offered to bring us in and show us around (no realtor or anything, we just went in right then and there)!  Most people would have been scared off immediately.  The house was a mess and needed TONS of work, but we both left super excited about it!  We had visions of what the house could be and we started to pursue it more formally.  After four months of negotiations, a potential oil tank spill and the following state testing and results and many other random hoops to jump through we finally closed today! 

We can't wait to get in there over Thanksgiving break (which starts today!  Woohoo!) and start knocking down walls and tearing out broken kitchen cabinets.  It needs a complete overhaul and luckily we were able to purchase it for a low enough price that we will be able to put money into it to make it our own.  It will be the perfect combination of old and new as the house was built in the mid-1800's with beautiful wood floors and unique designs, but will be completely renovated (eventually) to meet our needs! 

 We can't wait and are excited to have a big project to keep us busy (haha...as if we need to be more busy) over the course of this year.  I'm sure I'll be updating the blog often as we make progress on the house!

Entering the house for the first time as homeowners...

JillandKate

Two of my good friends from college have been pursuing their passion for music since meeting one another at the Contemporary Music Center (a semester-long program held at the FOCUS Study Center on the Vineyard (where I used to go to summer camp!) for Christian students from schools all across the country).  They have been working in the music industry full-time since graduating from Gordon, balancing their time between touring the world as Kelly Clarkson's backup singers and pursuing their own career as the incredibly talented duo, JillandKate.  They write all their own songs and their voices blend so beautifully it is as if they were created to make music together.

They have quite a following of devoted fans and on the 17th day of each month they post a video of them singing a new song on their blog.  Just yesterday they released their first acoustic album (this is their third album overall) and it is a compilation of many of the songs they have sung on their blog.  When I went to bed last night, their album, Songs on the 17th, was ranked #5 in the Singer/Songwriter category on iTunes, just behind James Taylor's Greatest Hits and just ahead of The Best of Simon and Garfunkel!

Check out their music on iTunes!  You won't regret it!  Click here to go straight to their new album!
 JillandKate's Blog
JillandKate's YouTube Channel
JillandKate on Facebook

Brian and Sarah's Wedding

This weekend we had an incredible time celebrating Brian and Sarah at their beautiful wedding in Groton, MA.  It was a weekend filled with laughter, happy tears, family and friends and it was honestly one of my favorite weddings I've been to.  It was a little exhausting with our two little ones.  This was our first big outing as a family of four, and it was challenging at times.  Sleeping in a hotel room with two babies is tough.  Camden would be sound asleep and Micah was up until almost 1:00am both nights so Scott and I would take turns walking the halls with him or hanging out in the lobby so his cries wouldn't wake Camden up!  Luckily we had lots of family around to helps us out.  Despite bouncing babies and escaping to nurse Micah throughout the weekend, we were able to truly enjoy our time.  The wedding ceremony was beautiful and contained many Jewish elements that Sarah and Brian thoughtfully included.  I had never been to a Jewish wedding before and it was a blast!  They had an incredible band and Camden had a BLAST dancing the night away!  They also had a delicious ice cream bar from Kimball's (my favorite ice cream place!) which was a highlight of the night.  The food was delicious, everyone was having a wonderful time and Brian and Sarah are just perfect for each other.  Congratulations Brian and Sarah!  We love you!!!!

Sarah with her sister, Jessica at the rehearsal dinner...

 Reading his new Curious George book with Uncle Brian and Aunt Sarah (it's official now!)...

 The Best Men...

 Our little family...

 Love this one. 

 Sarah looked amazing!

 So fun!

 Hanging with Ami - it was SO wonderful having my parents there - they were a great help with the boys!

 Dancing with Nan and Pop...