Quick snack

After helping mommy shuck corn before dinner, Noel grabbed some goldfish from the cabinet for a quick snack!

I like these pictures especially because of how LONG and BLONDE her hair looks. What a beautiful little girl she's becoming - no longer a baby!

Sweat Equity

If you ever have a chance, I would highly recommend the show "Sweat Equity" on the DIY channel. I've learned a wealth of information and it's always interesting to see how a home transforms!

Tim has been performing his own 'sweat equity' ever since we moved - he pressure washed the exterior of the house, and has begun digging out the flower bed in front. The original flower bed only extended out in front of the porch, which was done incorrectly. He's making it so that all of the garden stones are level, and extend over to the end of the house. We're also putting one on the right side of the porch.

He's also burned a ton of brush in the yard, so the half acre next to the house appears much more "park-like".

So far there hasn't been a huge transformation, but we're getting there one step at a time. Next spring we plan to have all of our shrubs/flowers planted.

Before

Now

Next on Tim's list is front porch staining/sealing, and painting the shutters/front door. For now, my entire list consists of painting the Master Bath (again, too dark!) and touching up other areas around the house.

3 weeks in Roanoke

I'm sure some of you might be wondering where I've been this past month! We've been busy!

Noel and I spent 3 weeks down in Roanoke, while I took a nurse aide course. It was a condensed course, so it was pretty intense, but thankfully the class part was super easy. It was just very time consuming and the clinicals were exhausting! Remind me to NEVER work daytime shift at a nursing home. WOW.

My experience there made me feel like I'm in the right line of work, but I do look forward to progressing past "nurse aide". Like I had expected, nursing assistants do everything everyone else doesn't want to do.

I'm hoping to find a job working night shift at the hospital, but I'll be happy to find a job at all. I haven't had ANY callbacks yet.

Anyway, Noel changed a LOT in the three weeks that we were gone (or so Tim says). She has become much more interactive, and can speak much more clearly. However, there are still some words of hers that I can't seem to understand their origin. For example...

Bah = Spoon, Banana, Fork, Ball, Bane
Gah = Eye, Ice Cream, Egg
Tah = Soda

Who knows!

She has changed and grown so much. Nearly everyday I see her do something that makes me realize that fact. Today she watched a Caillou episode in which Caillou pretended he was a police officer and he was catching the bad guys. Then while we were outside this evening, we had to move my car. Noel sat on my lap, and after we were done, she started turning the wheel back and forth and saying "bad guys bad guys bad guys". Haha!

Here are a few pictures of our visit!

Hall Bathroom Refresher

Ever since we looked at this house, the one room I wanted to paint the most was the hall bathroom. It was a very vibrant cerulean blue - there was a rubber ducky sticker on the wall, so I assume that was their theme in there.

For such a small room, on the interior of the house, the color was much too dark. I spent an entire week painting the house before Noel and I went to the beach, but the bathrooms were put on the back burner.

I hadn't really planned on starting the bathrooms this early, but to be honest I couldn't stand walking into the bathroom anymore.

I was originally inspired by a friend of mine - who used Olympic's "Dancing Light" in various areas around her home. After a trip to Lowe's, I discovered that 'Dancing Light' was either given a new name, or discontinued. :(

While at the beach I noticed the walls were painted a very similar color - so we went to Lowe's and picked out every single green they had and matched each one to the wall. It turned out that one of Valspar's Signature Colors matched almost perfectly - it was called "Olive 3". I like the sound of "Dancing Light" better!

Anyway, I painted one wall with "Olive 3" and the others Off-White, because I didn't want it to be too dark in there. I plan on doing a beach theme in there - I can't wait to finish with wall art, a new shower curtain, and bathroom accessories.

Here are the pictures. It's amazing the look of the sink in the before and after pictures...these were all taken with the same camera!

BEFORE

AFTER

Fruit Salad...Yummy yummy

I'm sorry for the LONG hiatus - I have been very busy lately with moving, unpacking, and organizing.

A few weeks ago Noel and I went to the beach while Tim stayed here and worked on the house to get it in shape before we moved. I'll be sure to make a post with all of our beach pictures.

But in the meantime, I wanted to share a recipe for a very simple yet very yummy fruit salad. While we were at the beach, Dana made it for all of us - and Noel loved it! There is a Wiggles song called "Fruit Salad", so I started singing "Fruit Salad...yummy yummy" - now Noel just calls it "Yummy yummy".

I made some last night and took a few pictures of the process.Add any fruit you want - I used Bananas, Blueberries, Strawberries, and Grapes.

Don't tell Noel...I added some shredded carrots!

Add some Tang - I fill it up to the first line inside the cap.

Voila! The tang mixes with the fruit juices.