Vacation=Getting it Done

  As the beginning of August approaches, that means one thing for me----VACATION!  This year we are not really taking a vacation, but instead have decided to stay home and try to get the new house put together.  We have already gotten a jump on things around here, and today one of my projects was attempting to get things a bit more organized around the kitchen.  Because we have so many jars around the house, I decided to make use of them with this fun little project.  I started with some of these,

and some of this.

I took the lids off of the jars and painted just the center piece.

I applied one coat of the chalkboard paint we purchased at Lowes, and put the lids out in the sun to dry for about an hour.  After they dried, I applied a second coat and returned them to the sun.  As I was on my mission to organization, Adeline hung out on the kitchen floor on a blanket,

and Leo was outside dismantling the very poorly installed stairs the previous homeowner left behind.

After the lids had dried, I began to fill all of my jars with the things from around the kitchen in need of new homes.

After filling all of the jars I labeled the lids with the chalk I bought at O.S.J.L. for only 20 cents!  I am extremely satisfied with the finished project, and in love with the organization in my kitchen!

  Since getting the kitchen organized was my mission for today, while Adeline was napping this morning before church, Leo and I also installed these, purchased a while back during a trip to Ikea.

On the shelf are some bowls and spoons we will start using tomorrow when Adeline has food for the very first  time!  We have been waiting to change her diet until we got the OK from her Dr. because of the weight gain issue we were having, and we are positive that after tomorrow's appt, a normal diet will resume.  I have already gotten all of the ingredients to begin making her rice cereal and other foods from scratch, and I cannot wait!

Cucumber Extravaganza

  So yesterday, thanks to Maegan, I was introduced to the art of pickle making.  Neither of us had ever attempted this before, and since we have both become obsessed with attempting to make/do everything on our own and from scratch, we decided to get together and make a couple of cucumber related delicacies.  This idea was made possible because of the amazing deal offered by her local farm share who is currently offering 20 lbs, for $20.  Yesterday happened to be the day we could both get together, so Maegan and I with the help of our long time friends, Cheryl and Kelly conquered pickles and relish.

  Because Mae supports the effort of keeping local business alive, she purchased all of the materials needed from her local hardware store.  This included items I had never seen before such as one of these,

and these

  Even though a few of the tasks were quite tedious, the whole process was actually not very difficult.  Cheryl was the lucky one who acquired the labor intensive job of finely chopping all of the relish ingredients, and I was assigned the task of snipping fresh dill.  Sounds simple right?  It takes a lot of snipping to fill a cup and a half with teeny tiny dill particles.  Over all the process was quite rewarding and we all ended up with jars of pickles in our fridge waiting for the perfect moment to be eaten.

Home Sweet Home

  It has been quite some time since I have written here and there has been lots of change over the past few months.  We have been living in our new house for nearly two months so I figured I should take some time to go through the house room by room.  We will start in the kitchen.

So this was the kitchen when we first visited the house, these pictures were stolen off of the realty website.  :)  Notice the wooden ducks on top of the cabinets.  Fancy.

  As you can see, there was also no stove.  Thanks to my father who gave us the money to buy a new stove as a house warming gift, that empty hole you see is now filled with a five burner gas stove that cooks like nothing I have ever cooked with before.  :)

More ducks!  There is however, a nice slab of granite over there around the sink.

  The kitchen is great, very spacious, but the decor left nothing to be desired.  So after a warm coat of almond paint, we decided to tear out the the 1990's flooring which revealed beautiful, warm, wood floors.

  What a difference the floors made in the kitchen, it looks like a completely new space.  Now, to address the cabinets, which actually are very nice, I just added some new knobs to take away the country vibe.

On the bottom are the old knobs, and on top are the replacements.  Just a little swap makes a world of difference.

  You probably noticed that there is not much counter space in this old 1920's house.  All we had when we moved in was the small section of butcher block next to the hole where the stove now lives, and the granite on the sink portion of the counter.  To address this problem, we bought 2 units from ikea and put them back to back in the middle of the kitchen.  We love them!

  We have since gotten stools to go under the table portion of the island, and added curtains and a new ceiling fan to the space.  I can now say that I love my kitchen and all of it's character.

  Because we have not really done much in the dining room, I will add it to this blog.  The paint color in the dining room was fine, and the floor had already been redone.  All we bought for this space was the rug, everything else is stuff we had from the condo.

  We also replaced the glass, and blades from the outdated ceiling fan, and still plan to replace the knobs on the lovely built in.  

  So that is the kitchen and dining room so far, and I will end this blog with a picture of the view of the deck from the dining room.  This picture was actually taken in the middle of the tornadoes.  I was trying to capture the eerie yellow color outside, but it does not really show.  Either way, you can see our deck and the wonderful fenced in yard.

Thanks for reading!

70 times 7

Today I was reminded of how precious life is, and more importantly, how precious family is.  I had the pleasure of spending the entire afternoon with my crazy, in a good way, family.  My auntie Donna passed away this morning, and the rest of the family spent a good part of the day in her home chatting, laughing, crying.  I am honored to share a middle name with such a wonderful woman and will think of her every time I write it down on paper.  I had Adeline with me this afternoon, and even though she was fussy for a good part of the day due to teething, I think she brought a little light to the situation, for me at least.  It was very easy to remember what life is all about with this little fussy miracle being passed around the room amidst all of the sadness.  I also sat there realizing how sad it is that the family rarely gathers together unless something like this has taken place.  I think we all take family for granted, me included, and I always hope that when something like this happens that it will change.  I know that I have fun whenever we are all gathered together making fun of one another, laughing, and even with the occasional drama. As I was sitting in the bedroom alone nursing Adeline this afternoon I was thinking of all of the things I wanted to do with her in these next 3 precious weeks.  It is so hard to be thankful for my wonderful job right now when I am so sad about leaving her at home, but I know that it is by the grace of God that I have this job.  I had no idea it would be this hard, and it has not even happened yet.  I cannot wait for weekends spent with her, and for family vacations.  I can't wait to teach her to appreciate the small things in life and to value the time she has with her family.

Adeline Faith

  It is during these quiet times throughout the day when I am alone with Adeline that I wish someone were here with me to capture these moments in time.  Every little thing that she does is the most adorable thing I have ever seen.  What a precious gift I have been given.  I always knew as a child that I wanted to be a mother some day, but until it actually happens, you never really know what it will be like.  All of those countless hours that you spend day dreaming about what she will look like, and what kind of personality she will have, and when it actually happens, she is nothing like you had imagined.  She is more beautiful than I had ever dreamt she would be, every little detail of her cherubic being is perfect.  I love the faces she makes while taking a bath, and the little noise she makes when her body tricks her into thinking she is about to sneeze.  Her skin tone is so rich and so smooth, complimenting the perfection of her little body.  What a miracle life is.  I am so in love with motherhood.

Life as we know it

Well here it is; I have decided to start a blog. I am not really sure what I shall write about in this blog, but I enjoy writing so I figured this would be a good outlet.  I am currently sitting here on my bed in the dark.  To my left is my husband fast asleep, and to the right is my beautiful baby girl also fast asleep in her bassinet.  The fact that she is fast asleep is a miracle in itself, and to top it off, she has been fast asleep since 10:50.  Today has been day one of project pacifier removal, and so far so good.  She is actually sleeping soundly and went to sleep after only 9 minutes of crying.  Every single night for the past 6 nights in a row I have had to put the pacifier back in her sweet little mouth every 1 to 2 minutes for 2 to 4 hours before she would finally sleep soundly for only 2 to 3 hours.  This has been exhausting, and not good for either of us.  Leo however, has slept through the ordeal in its entirety, which is what I should be doing right now while she is asleep!

  Anyways, since I am going to start a blog, I should first write a little bit about my life it its current state.  First I will give some background on Leo and I to catch you up.  Leo and I began dating in 2004, became engaged in 2006, and married in 2007.  It has been a long journey filled with its ups and downs, but I would not change one bit of it.  When we got married, we moved into the condo we purchased a couple of weeks before our wedding, and that is where we began our life together as Mr. and Mrs Olbrych.  Soon after we became husband and wife, a Boston Terrier puppy we named Tyson, after Mike Tyson because of one ear being shorter than the other, joined our family.  2 years later we got a second Boston Terrier which we named Rasta after a Bob Marley song which came on the radio shortly after picking her up from the family we adopted her from.
  We stayed in the condo for 3 years and in July of 2010, a month after finding out we were going to be parents, we sold the condo and moved in with Leo's parents while waiting for a house we had planned on renting from a friend that would be big enough for our growing family.  We had originally thought we would only be in Wilbraham for a couple of months, but when the move did not happen for our friend, our stay became much longer.  With Leo only being a temporary employee, we could not really make the move on purchasing another home, and wasting money on renting an apartment just did not make sense for us.  So we began to save money and wait, hope, and pray that Leo would get hired so that we could buy a home.
  As the months went on and the birth of our daughter was nearing, the both of us became pretty discouraged with our situation, but....Adeline Faith was born on January 30th after 29 long hours of labor, and about 2 weeks later we found out that Leo was being hired.  We began the house hunting right away because in the 7 months we had been living with his parents we had saved up enough money for a down payment.  Two days after Leo's first day of work, we put an offer on a house.  Our offer was excepted and we will close on May 13th.

Our condo

Tyson and Rasta

Our beautiful Adeline

The new house

  In a matter of 2 months we have become parents, Leo got a job, the first stable job he has had in the 7 years we have been together, and we started the process of buying a house.  We are soooo excited to start our life together as a family and at least once a day I tell Adeline all about the nursery we will make for her, and the big yard she will have to play in.  In response she just stares at me with her big beautiful brown eyes as I picture her twirling around our yard in a sun dress.  I love her more than words can express, and I am so blessed with the life I have been given and the people I can share it with.