New house pictures...

We went to visit our new house on Wednesday to see how everything was coming along and I took these pictures. They have finished:

1. putting in the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms
2. done all of the trim (baseboards)
3. started working on the chair rail in the dining room
4. finished all of the light fixtures
5. put in all of the appliances
6. finished the linoleum on the bathroom and kitchen floors
7. finished the formica on the bathroom counter tops
8. have started working on the tile work throughout the house.

There will be tile on the counter tops in the kitchen, on the front of the fireplace, on the floor in the entry way and the powder room and in the master bathroom around the tub and shower. They have laid all of the tile, but have not started grouting it yet.

kids bathroom

master bathroom

master bathroom again

tile entryway

powder room vanity

*more pictures to come, blogger is acting funny again. I have pictures of the kitchen and the chair rail in the dining room to show still. :)

We are all moved out...

It has been a really difficult move for us. We had to put our dog Max to sleep, move in 95+ degree weather, get a root canal and leave our home.

Max had a lot of fun in his last few days of life. Matt took him swimming in the lake, took him for a few car rides and we even gave him his own ice cream cone on the last night. Matt said that putting him down was one of the hardest things that he has ever had to do. We will all miss Max very much.

We started moving our stuff at the end of last week and it just happened to be some of the hottest days here in Western Washington in years. It was so hard to move in hot weather when we don't have air conditioning. Luckily we had help from my Mom and Step-Dad and we got everything moved out of there yesterday. It looks so empty and sad in the house now. I will really miss it.


To top it all off, my tooth started bothering me right when we started moving as well. So I was hot and high from the pain medications that they gave me. Not a good combination! I got my root canal done on Tuesday and I am feeling much better now though. Thankfully that is over with.

So after one crazy week, our house is empty and we are now living with my Mom and Step-Dad. 6 people in a 1200 square foot house for 1 month. This should get interesting....I am sure I will have a lot to blog about in the upcoming month. Talk to you soon. :)

My car is fixed...

$1,392.64 later and my car is back.

They had to fix and or replace the:

1. head gasket
2. thermostat
3. timing belt
4. water pump
5. drain plug seal
6. engine seal

Thank god my baby is back in working condition though. It is so hard to have 1 car for our entire family. Hopefully these things will help it last for long time now. They said that I should pass the emissions test with flying colors now as well. I can't believe how much I missed my baby. I have had my car for 9 years now and although it is very impractical for our family, I love it to death. It was the very first expensive thing that I paid for all by myself and when the time comes to give it up, I will be very sad. Thank you Greg's Japanese Auto for nursing my baby back to health!

More pictures of our new house...

They finished painting the inside of the house and putting in the outlets this week. I took my Mom and Monica down to see it for the first time today and took some more pictures. We also finally got to go into one of the other houses with the same floor plan as ours that were a little bit more finished than ours so we could see some of the finish work. Here are the photos:

large storage closet under the stairs

Sold sign on our house

archway from the dining room to the entryway

Monica in my scrapbook room

light fixture in the formal dining room

light fixture in the entryway

*more photos to come...Blogger is acting weird right now.

more pictures of the house...

This is the home that was almost finished (not ours), but this is what the kitchen layout and cabinets will look like. They don't have the knobs or anything put on yet though.
This is what we could possibley have for our counter tops. (tile) I actually would prefer darker ones, but we will see what our choices are on Tuesday when we go to the design center.

Master bathroom layout. I don't really like this darker tile that they had in this one, but at least you can see the shower and tub all finished.

Dining room with fake wainscoting. I am not sure if ours will have this, but I really liked the look of it in this house so hopefully ours will have this as well.
Where the sink will be in the laundry room. I love the idea of having a sink in the laundry room!

My new best friend...

I always try new things at the gym because I tend to get bored doing just the elliptical for my cardio all the time. I don't feel like I get a good enough workout on the other machines though. The other day, I started doing the elliptical for 20 minutes and then the stair climber for 10 minutes and it felt so good to do 2 different things. So now I am doing 25 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the stair climber and I love it! I have done this once before and I am not sure why I stopped, but it is really helping me jump start my weight loss again. I am officially down 67 pounds now! WOW! So now the stair climber is my new best friend at the gym. I love it!

64 pounds down...

It has been quite a while since I have updated everyone on my weight loss. What a journey it has been. My weight seems to be coming off a lot slower lately, but I am still down 64 pounds which I am very happy about.

For the first time ever I actually had something other than a burger from Red Robin. I am really trying to be good so I can get over this plateau that I seem to be on. Matt was shocked when we went to Red Robin tonight and I ordered the Ensenada Chicken Platter instead of my usual Red Robin Bacon Burger with cheese. Here is the description of the chicken platter that they use on their menu:

Two tender, juicy charbroiled chicken breasts
basted with a zesty Mexican blend of
seasonings, then charbroiled and bursting
with Baja-style flavor. Served with a side salad
and two dipping sauces: salsa & creamy lime.
Muy Delicioso!

It was surprisingly super filling and super yummy as well. I felt so good about eating that instead of the burger that when we got home I went on a 1 mile walk around the neighborhood. Yay me!



I am just hoping that making better food choices will help me get over this plateau. I am on my way to 100 pounds in 1 year which was my goal. I have 37 pounds to go and 4 months to do it. :)