Okay, just one more!

Because it has been FOR EV ER since I've read anyone else's blogs, I didn't know I was tagged by Aim-Dawg. So here's my REAL last post of the year (probably). Definitely my last tagging of the year! :)

A- Attached or single: attached - probably overly attached to my husband.
B- Best Friends: so many - Marni, Emily, Heather, mom, sisters, scrappy girls.
C- Cake or Pie: cake, really cold cake... almost frozen.
D- Day of choice: Saturday (is a special day, It's the day we get ready for Sunday!)
E- Essential Item: oxygen, and lots of material things that will make me feel shallow, so I won't list them.
F- Favorite Color: usually pink, but I'm really loving aqua
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: both
H- Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
I- Indulgence(s): Cherry Coke, scrappy stuff, shopping, snacks
J- January or July: January - ahh. Still dreaming of a white Christmas.
K- Kids: Samuel, 3; Lillian, almost 2 (20 months).
L- Life is Incomplete Without: my husband and kids, the Gospel,
M- Marriage Date: February 28, 2004.
N- Number of Siblings: 3
O- Oranges or Apples: apples, oranges make me yerp.
P- Phobias or Fears: accidents, snakes, bugs
Q- Quotes: "There once was a girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid."
R- Reason To Smile: gifts, babies, Sam's humor,
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag Three: Stacy, Stephanie, Mary
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I've had plastic surgery
V- (there was no "V" ???)
W- Worst Habit: nail biting
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: 2 babies, (five with Sam, four with Lily), x-rays: foot (thrice); stomach (swallowed a bolt as a little kid)
Y- Your Favorite Food: Mexican and Italian
Z- Zodiac: Libra

YES! We're alive!

You know it's been a while since you blogged --- if you've forgotten your password. :) It took me a minute. *ha!* fo' shame! :D

Anyway, YES, we're still alive! But we haven't hooked up the internet at our new house yet --- just wanting to make sure we can pay all the essential utilities before we start splurging on luxuries we can usurp from my parents. I'm sure it'll be fine, but we're being over-cautious... especially with Christmas and my {Christmas Eve baby} DH's birthday. There's lotsa gift giving going on all at once for my budget to keep up with. Soon, soon, hopefully, soon. Last night I didn't want to do more cleaning or the like, but I didn't want to go to sleep or watch TV either -- it was one of those times that I really missed surfing and blogging.

I haven't taken pictures of the house yet - because I want to show it all lovely. Yes, we've got most of the painting done (thanks, again, to my darling MIL and DH) - and most of our things are unpacked, but there's still lots of decorating to finish. We haven't hung pictures and we have lots of lofty plans for decorating --- but, of course, those will probably take years to complete. I will be taking and posting pictures soon! I promise. Maybe, I'm just trying to frustrate everyone enough that they just come out to the house to see it! Ya, that's it.

Anyway, more than likely, this will be my only post before Christmas (and possibly, the last one of 2007), so I'd love to take this opportunity to let you know that we (The Matkin Family) wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope everyone has a safe and pleasant holiday season! Best wishes!

Where We Are...

Shouldn't have posted that "Woo Hoo" so soon! :) Later that same day, we hit the skids again... only to be sent full throttle the next morning at the very last minute (with a little brake pumping mixed into the same phone call that told us to come running - ha!). Craziness. I'm thinking (and I know) that in the long run, we'll be glad we went with outside lending... but for here and now, boy did they make it difficult!!! Seriously, there were times that I felt that we were being punished or something.

Anyway, we DID finally get our keys on Thursday, November 29th... Sam's 3rd birthday. The guilt was overwhelming the entire day that his birthday wasn't as elaborate as in years' past because of all the chaos of moving, but he had a great day and is now loving being 3. I'll post pictures of his birthday later. We painted as much as we could before Saturday - which was very stressful: having a kind of deadline. Then we packed as much as we could for the moving truck (a whole other mess) and all our furniture and most of our possessions were sent out to the new house. We decided that we would move what was ready, but not kill ourselves trying to get moved by a deadline. So we've been staying at my parents' house and moving more and more stuff every day and getting things unpacked and etc. It's really coming together and I'm very relieved to not have the stress of trying to get it all done in one weekend.

Slowly, I've been unpacking while the painting has still been going on. Shawn and I (mostly Shawn) painted the kitchen. Shawn painted the laundry room (my FAVORITE) and then our friend Kris Gardner came with his awesome power roller and painted the humungus living room, dining room area. Shawn and I joked that we spent the entire day working on three walls in the kitchen and Kris was able to paint half the house in a couple of hours! Incredible! Shawn and my MIL painted the master bedroom yesterday, also incredible! They had it done in a couple of hours! Then they went in and finished off the living room. My MIL is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! You wouldn't believe how gorgeous the house is! I was worried about my paint choices, but now that my MIL has done all the edging... it looks INCREDIBLE! I absolutely love it! Today she went back out to the house and finished off the dining room, entry way and kitchen and when we left her today she was working on the gigantic hallway. She's so funny! She said she'd never seen a hallway that long in a house and got turned around a couple of times. Love it! Like our house is a castle! :)

Anyway, thanks to my MIL and Shawn, most of the house has been painted --- and ALL of the places where there's heavy furniture that I can't move on my own during the day. So we're literally moments away from being completely in. In the middle of all this, Shawn's work schedule got switched to the night shift. And with the rain, he's been working overtime. So he goes in early in the AM, like he used to, but doesn't get off until at least 7:30. Which means, he gets home around 8:30 if we're really lucky. yikes. This also has urged me to want to move completely in a couple of days later. Jared and Rocio will be moved in completely on Friday. *whew* I feel much better about being out there in the toolies with someone I know close by. What would we do without family?

Farewell, Surprise!

Great News!

We're movin' on up -- to the upper West side! ha! FINALLY! We got the call, we're closing tomorrow morning - we're table funding, so it'll all be final right then and there and we can get our keys (hopefully) by the end of the day.

WOOO HOOO!!!

Yeeeee Haaaaawwww!

So we're going to start painting and hanging ceiling fans ASAP, and moving (as scheduled) on Saturday, December 1st. Just had to quick post and let everyone know. I'm off to go get packing and dismantling furniture and all that lovely stuff. Aaaahhh. I'm just really happy that this all worked out with Shawn's vacation schedule and the move-out date we had scheduled with our storage facility. {whew!} We're just thrilled to finally have answers and are able to make some real plans!

So anyway, more than likely my next post will be moving pics and new house pics. Thanks everyone for your kind comments and support! We'll keep in touch!

Last Tuesday - Final Inspection

Last Tuesday went just fine - as far as the orientation and inspection. The title company is less than satisfactory, but there's no use in complaining about it anymore. Here is a cute shot of the little banner Aaron (or CSR) put on our garage for us. Fun! There were just a few things that needed to be fixed, and when we went out to show my Aunt Judy & Ruth the house on Thanksgiving, it looked like most of them had been done... just needed touch up paint.

Aaron is very good. Very thorough and customer quality aware. And he's having a house built right around the corner for himself... so we'll be pounding down his door constantly should something go awry! I think he'd be a great nominee for the HOA President. Who better than someone that knows all about our many warranties and whatnot and can keep everyone informed of all the routine maintenance they're supposed to be doing on their houses. I couldn't believe how much there was! Yeow! Thankfully, they gave us a big binder full of information, so I won't have to remember when we needed to change our sprinkler heads, flush out our water heater, etc.

Jared and Rocio had their inspection and orientation at the same time - so we did our meetings together! That was fun too! I should have been more picture oriented, but I was worried about my kids being naughty for the babysitter, so I just wanted to get going. {Thanks for watching my stinkers, Erin! You're awesome! I just love you!}

And here's a picture of my sweetie pie (always has his eyes closed! grr!) with Aaron. What is the deal? We asked Aaron - do you have to pass a screen test to get hired? Pulte must have an ATTRACTIVE ONLY policy. He said, "Ya, that's actually part of the interview. They won't hire you if you're not good-lookin'." :) I told him that I'd be posting his photo on our blog, so if he wasn't married already... Jamell got good reviews! :) Aaron said, "Ya, my girfriend will love that!"

So... that was Tuesday. It went well enough and now we're just waiting waiting waiting to hear that we're all set to go sign. *sigh* We're trying to be understanding and patient. I think we're doing really well. Just wish the target on our backs would disappear. Yes, we've continued our streak of attracting poor service. Why would a major purchase like a house be any different than going to a restaurant? *sigh* It'll all be over soon and we'll be done with this and hopefully we'll remember it enough to remind us that we don't want to move again for a little while.

Pancakes in Emerald City

My kids love pancakes! Sam especially likes them to be color pancakes! On this particular pancake day, he chose blue. So I mixed in some blue food coloring. It wasn't quite blue enough, so I got out the food coloring to add some more... at which point, Sam decided he wanted green pancakes. (of course) So I added some green, and they turned out SUPER DUPER EMERALD GREEN. So I decided that the Ozians would have sung this: "That's how we color our pancakes in the merry old land of Oz!"

I have to mention this part, my mom thinks I'm making it up... but I was just as surprised! As we came downstairs to make pancakes, Sam darted ahead and Lily lagged behind on the stairs. So as I was waiting for her, I started to worry about what Sam was getting into. The night before, he and his sister had been playing happily in the toilet... (ugh, the worst!). So I called out to Sam and he didn't answer. The first sign that he's into trouble. Finally, Lily made it downstairs and I could go see where Sam was and, more importantly, what he was doing.

We cook pancakes on a large griddle that we keep in the box in the spare bedroom downstairs. When I found him, Sam was dragging that big griddle box out. "This is for Mama," he was saying. LOVE THAT KID! LOVE THAT GOOD HELPER! Isn't it wonderful when you think you're kids are making trouble and then you find that they're trying to be kind and helpful!?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Had to post this on the off-chance my FIL checks my blog today! Hey Ralph! :)
Hope you all have a lovely day! Mmmm, Cranberry Sauce! I've been waiting all year for this! :)

We've come upon a...

• problem
• glitch
• snag
• holdup
• delay
• catch
• hindrance
• trouble
• hitch

{Choose your favorite synonym.}

...in the closing of the house. What!? Yes. Of course. What's the deal??? Three little words: PAPERWORK, PAPERWORK, PAPERWORK. We still have our final walk-through at the house in the morning, but there are SEVERAL things (items of paperwork) that have put us to a HALT. I (understandably, I hope) am not in the mood to list them for you, but just wanted to keep those interested enough to read my blog regularly "in the know" --- as we were all excited for tomorrow to be THE BIG DAY! *sigh* More than likely, it'll just be a matter of days - and only a couple at that - but our closing is probably not going to be complete within the week. The good news is that the title agency recognizes that it is NOT us holding up the closing, and they are less likely to assess us late fees for the delayed closing. There's some silver lining for ya! :) Anyway, I'll keep you all posted. I won't know until the last minute whether or not our 1:00 p.m. appointment is being cancelled. Excuse me.... "Put on Hold". grrr. I'm going to bed. I've been packing all day and we have an early morning.

Goodnight everyone! Sorry I haven't been checking blogs and commenting lately. Any spare moment I have, I've been packing up my life. It's lots of fun. Needless to say, I am NOT worried that we'll have an empty house. Where did all this stuff come from???

Our ZOO Day!

{This is a FIRST! I'm actually posting something that happened SAME DAY! HOLY COW!}

Today, we went to The Phoenix Zoo. We were fortunate to receive an email offer from Jesika for super cheap zoo entrance, and we jumped at the chance to go to the zoo as a family! My entire family got in for only $8! AWESOME! Shawn ended up going to Utah with his brother, Jared, for the weekend, so Jared's wife, Rocio and 3-week-old baby Connor came in his place. We had so much fun! I'm just now realizing that I didn't take a picture of Rocio and Connor today! Darn it! Anyway, we had lots of fun! The weather was PERFECT and I was thankful for the venture outdoors! It was so much fun! {I did miss my husband, though. I always miss him.}

This is how our day began... two kiddos in a big stroller, fruitbars and grumpy faces ready to go see some animals! It gets better. :)

Our first animal stop was to the *something* cattle and giraffes. Sam is making a weird (for him) smile, which reminds me of my nephew, Justin. And my dad. And my Aunt Judy. Anyway...
The giraffes were far away, but this picture give you an idea. We were facing the sun for most of the good shots, so they're not that great, but I'm not hoping to publish a "The Phoenix Zoo in Photography" book anytime soon. :)
The tiger! He was so cool! He was making the coolest noise when we were watching him. Seriously, he sounded like a cow. It was sooo cool! In this picture, he had just finished cleaning himself. It was interesting. Just like a housecat. Kinda funny! :)
And here he is glaring at us while we begged him to pose for pictures.
Here's my gorgeous girl hanging out in her stroller like a little angel. So pretty!

MEERKATS!!! "Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel! Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel! Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel! Quick before the hyenas come!" So cute! I was surprised there were only seven meerkats in this exhibit. It seems like there are 40 or something at the Wildlife Animal Park out on this side of town. Maybe I'm crazy. I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, these guys were so cute. I don't think they moved the whole time we were there. You can probably go back there tomorrow and this is what you'll see. Only, I won't be there singing songs from "The Lion King 1 1/2". :)
The baboon! How cool is that face?!?!! RAFIKI! :D
On the other side, you can go up to this window right where the baboons are... right before I snapped this picture, the baboon yawned and this is Sam taking off. Jeff (in green) was close behind him. Baboons have GIGANTIC teeth. I think they said a baboon's canines are only a little bit smaller than a lion's. Wow!
More baboons... smaller ones.
Me trying to be artistic. The previous baboons are the ones in the background in this shot.

My cute son that loves tractors! We had lunch (more of a snack really) in the petting zoo area -- where we were BOMBARDED by girl scouts. It was Girl Scouts day at the zoo, apparently.
The only thing Sam wanted to see at the zoo was a cow. Is he hilarious? So this is the cow he saw. Besides that first giant cattle guy.
Another tractor. Wish we still had that blue tractor at Nakamura Farms for him to take a ride on with Uncle Sto! (awww. memories.)
Here are my little angels trying to see the elephants. They were just about done with the zoo at this point.
And here's the elephant! They're so tiny! Of course, I say "tiny" - the zoologist told us that this particular female is 9000 lbs! Made me feel light as a feather! Love that elephant! I think he said she was 42! Can you believe that? 42! Who knew they lived that long?!
Sam has been imitating the zoologist all evening. He's pulled out all the animals from the toyboxes and told what the different animals like to eat. So cute! I didn't realize it at first, but he's even holding a makeshift microphone as he's walking around. So cute! I'll see if I can get video of that to post!

And this is where our zoo journey ends this time. It was so fun! I'm so so so so so glad we went! And I'm really glad that Rocio and Connor journeyed out for their first big outing! Wish I had taken more pictures! (SHOOT!)

Next time, I'll also have to post a picture of Lily with her new "baby" --- the cutest little giraffe ever! She LOVES it! She just lights up when she's playing with it! I'd take a picture of it right now, but they've gone to sleep for the night.

It's so SAD...

He's so tired. But here I am blogging. So he hasn't gone to bed yet. He's so cute. I chose well! :) Love you, BABY! xoxoxoxo

ONE MORE WEEK!!!!

We have our final walk-through appointment and we sign our closing documents on Tuesday, the 20th!!!

WOOO HOOO!

It's so scary! Fun! But scary!

And yes, we're really going to miss my parents.

Yes, I'm sure the kids will have a hard time for a while.

Here is our "cottage update" for this week:

We have lovely, lush green grass!

The front door has been painted.

The garage door has been painted.

The microwave has been installed and the oven/range will soon be installed, if it hasn't been already.

The side wall has been installed. As you can see, the neighbor to the East paid to have their wall brought forward... so we're going to bring ours forward to meet them!

As well as on this side. The neighbor to the West also paid to have their wall brought forward... so we'll be bringing ours forward to meet theirs. :) The gate has been installed.. backwards. *sigh*

I'll just put this out there again... :) Anyone wanting to get rid of some moving boxes, help pack, paint, move, hang wainscotting, babysit, etc.... We're accepting! :)

DONE! **wild crowds cheering**

FINALLY! I may be close to the last HP fan on earth to have finished this book, but I'm thrilled to have read it nonetheless! This was a goal of mine this past week and I'm pleased to say HOORAY, I'VE READ THE ENTIRE SERIES! And also:

1. THANK YOU, D.J.!!! YOUR BOOK WILL BE RETURNED PROMPTLY! Isn't it funny that I finished it, literally, three months TO THE DAY after I borrowed it from you!?!
2. Awesome! Just awesome!
3. Can't believe how everything tied together! Just amazing! Sometimes I wonder if that was the plan all along... she's brilliant. Can't imagine what her notes looked like! Yeoww!
4. Shed a tear at the end - sooo good!
5. I WAS RIGHT ABOUT SNAPE ALL ALONG!!!! I knew it!
6. Loved it.

The only downer for me was... well, I won't say it. I don't want to offend anyone or ruin the book, if you haven't read it yet. Anyway! GREAT READ! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU D.J. AND CHRISTINE! Sorry it took me so long! It was inexcusable of me to hang on to your book for so long! I apologize!

no scrappy stuff

For anyone that cares... I haven't been posting scrappy stuff for a few reasons.

1. I've been working (mostly) on Christmas gifts - and I can't post them! The recipients might see! Not that I really think they check my blog that often (if ever), but on the off chance - I don't want to spoil Christmas! :)
2. The other stuff I've been working on has been for swaps over at SS. Again, I don't want to spoil the surprise when they are "revealed" in the online forum... so I've had to keep it to myself and bug my husband to oooh and aahhh over it. Narcisitic! :)
3. I'm starting to pack for our move, and the location of my scrappy area is going to be filled with boxes. So the scrappy stuff is going to be sacrificed for a little while.

Just in case you were wondering. I am working on stuff, I just can't post it and the scrappin' is being put on hold for a couple of weeks. :) I'm hoping to start up again as soon as possible! I'm excited to get working on layouts again! It's been a long time!!! :(

pfffft!

***AHHH... the absolute JOYS of motherhood!***

Last night, as I was getting the kiddos out of the bathtub, I realized that that I was out of diapers (upstairs) for Lily. So I called to my father to fetch them out of my car (in the garage) and bring them upstairs to me.

***you can see where this is going, can't you?***

***no pictures, of course.***

***you can thank me later!***

So! I figure--- NO PROBLEM! I'll just get Sam dressed first. It'll only take a minute. We'll be fine. Then, of course, I hear the horrifying little noise and realize that I've severely (once again) underestimated my daughter's sense of humor and comedic timing.

I look over... and she has pooped on Sam's pillow. So I quickly grabbed her, placed her on a towel, started mopping up the mess with baby wipes. As I'm tossing those into the diaper pail, I see her squatting (away from the towel). She's peeing. great. Thankfully, it didn't get EVERYWHERE (as it has in the past). aaahh. I love the washing machine! I wouldn't have wanted to trek down to a creek or river or something to launder at 8:00 p.m.!

Love that girl! You can't say she doesn't do her best to keep my alert and on my toes!

minor edit!

Sorry if you got notice that I'd posted twice... I had tried to be cute and have my last blog post be green, but it was hard to read, so I switched it back. :) Don't want anyone straining their eyes to read my nonsense! :)

Honorable Mention

In my last COTTAGE update, I forgot to mention a couple of things... like that all our lighting fixtures are in! DUH! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the lighting in our house! The recessed lighting in the hallways and in our kitchen is LOVELY! It's all nice and bright and wonderful!

Another thing I neglected mentioning --- the patch of our front landscaping that is unfinished is going to be grass. I'm sure many of you deduced this, but I just thought I'd confirm for you. lol. So far, we're the only house on our street with grass. I kinda hope it stays that way so when we give directions to our house, we can tell people, "You'll know our house... we're the only ones with a lawn!"

Also, our doorbell is functional. A lovely little sound. In the house where I grew up, the front door was a terrible BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! In this house, it's a bell, but if you don't push it right, you can hardly hear it. {It's a good thing we have a spastic dog that gets excited for visitors, otherwise we'd miss a lot of our guests at the door.}

Finally, I wish I had taken video or pictures AT LEAST of this: We (Shawn, myself, kids and my parents) all took our shoes off as we went around the house and Sam and Lily were tickled pink! They loved running around the house! I have this perfect picture in my mind of the joy on their faces as they roamed around our new home. It was so fun! I just loved it! Wish I had captured it with my camera, but I'm grateful for my brain and my eyes --- I was able to see it and my mind remembers it. :)

All that's (visibly) left now is some patch work on the walls and the installation of our stove and ovens. :) WOOOO HOOO! I'm off to go pack some things. :) Anyone wanting to offer more boxes... feel free! :D

In the Cottage there is CARPET!!!

We have landscaping!

And front porch lights!
And CARPET!!! Holy cow, is that lighter than I thought it would be!!!

Yikes!
These are the countertops - all the plumbing fixtures have been installed!
This is the kids' bathroom...
Mirrors and light fixtures installed!
Yea!
This is our bathroom... bitty... but OURS!!
The block wall is pretty much finished... just need gates.
This is a picture of what the carpet really looks like... and it shows how nicely it flows with the vinyl flooring. I'm really wishing that we had upgraded the flooring, but we will soon enough. The tile I want wasn't even available at the design center, and it would have been triple (including installation) what we're going to pay for it. It's getting close! Only two weeks (on Tuesday), until we have our final inspection and go sign our closing docs. Woo hoo! So very exciting! When we were there today, it really felt like home. Many neighbors have moved in. I'm excited to go introduce ourselves! Yea!

By the way: It's a really far drive folks. I'm thinking that NO ONE is going to want to drive out there for a crop night or girls' game night! Seriously. It's OUT THERE! We may have to have a Super Saturday crop instead. And as far as girls' game night... I don't know. I really can't imagine anyone is going to want to drive that far out there! We'll see! :) I'm really excited to move in and get settled and then start having people over! Maybe I should start a sign up sheet for people to come over for dinner! :D

Our Happy Halloween

Here are the pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes! Since Lily has the cutest little bunny teeth right now (and her Daddy calls her a "wascally wabbit"), Lillian was a bunny this year. And what matches a bunny? A MAGICIAN, of course! It was so fun teaching Sam to say, "Abracadabra!" "Hocus Pocus!" "Alacazam!" "Ala Peanut Butter Sandwiches!" - the last one was Heather Aston's contribution - from Sesame Street. :D

The first set of pictures were taken when the costumes came in the mail about a month ago, or so. The next ones are of just before we left for the "Trunk or Treat" at the Church and then the last ones are from Halloween Night - trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

Are they not the cutest kids ever? Sam was frowning up there because I scared him to get his attention - to look at the camera. :) The best ones were after we had finished trick-or-treating and were sitting in the front yard handing out candy to all the kids. It was insane! We ran out of candy early - which is good. Typically, we have TONS left over - and it gets tossed just before Thanksgiving. :)

My favorite part of Halloween is visiting with our neighbors. It's almost tradition that after all the trick-or-treaters have gone, we hang out in our front yard together and chit-chat. Just love it! It's one of those things I'll miss when we move. :(