Our New House

Things that I love:
*Our mortgage, even with taxes and insurance, is less than rent for a decent apartment around here
*4 bedrooms (on the smaller side, but still 4)
*Living room PLUS fairly large separate family room
*Central heating and CENTRAL AIR!! (I have been turning on heat room to room since I started living on my own)
*All one level (one less stress with a toddler and future toddler!)
*HUGE corner lot, the back yard needs work, but is BIG
*Very quiet cul-de-sac
*Great elementary school
*Within walking distance of public pool, which offers inexpensive memberships and classes
*Very close to gym with same as above

Things I'll Accept:
*1 1/2 bath, with the 1/2 in the master. This will change within a few months to a full bath!
*Kitchen is on the smaller side and outdated. This is on our list over the next couple of years. It certainly will do the job, just needs some updating.
*Though the yard is HUGE, it needs some serious landscaping. Again, a project for the next year or more. We plan to weed, trim, etc. We also want to put in some raised beds to start a garden (this may wait a year, since I'll be busy with a new baby this spring...) and eventually a play structure for the kids.
*The crummy, small cement 'patio'. Again, in the next few years, we'd love a deck or something similar.
*Ugly, dirty family room carpet. Will be done in the next month.

Things That Need Attention ASAP:
*CLEANING. Seriously, I don't know what the sellers were thinking. They are so lucky we were able to see past their ungodly, hoarder-like housekeeping skills. Cleaners are arriving first thing Saturday morning!
*Removal of the 2 hornet nests in the crawlspace. (exterminator coming Tuesday)
*Furnace and ducts cleaned and serviced (Wednesday)
*All gutters replaced and roof cleaned (next week, hopefully)
*Painting the entire interior. Nelson and a couple of guys from church will start this weekend.
*Repair hole in living room wall (Saturday)
*Minor plumbing (will be done when we upgrade the bath, okay to wait that long)
*Minor electrical (within the next week; Nelson's dad is a certified electrician)
*Dishwasher needs replacing (within the next week)
*No window treatments. We are going to buy temporary blinds where necessary (this weekend) and I'll add curtains over the next couple of weeks.

So, all in all, things are looking GREAT! Hopefully we'll get a LOT done in the next few days and can move in ASAP. SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!

A Berry Nice Summer

Being our in the backyard this summer can be summed up with one word: Blueberries!! My parents have five blueberry bushes in their back yard and they produce PLENTY of berries during July and August. We have to compete with five dogs, who LOVE to eat berries right off of the bush, but since they are all low to the ground, there are plenty left for the humans!

Kalaya loves to pick them, especially with Oma, and when she was visiting, Ma Ma (great grandma). She goes out and says, 'cmon Oma, get bucket/bowl and pick booooobewwies!!!' If no one is around to assist, she grabs her sand bucket and helps herself. Or, she just picks them and feeds them to the doggies. The funny thing is, she doesn't really like to eat them plain. She prefers them baked into pancakes or muffins or mixed into smoothies, yogurt or oatmeal.

Enjoy the pics!

Helping Ma Ma



Helping Oma(note the doggies eagerly waiting)


Admiring the bounty!

Happy helpers, who gain about 3 pounds from the berries every summer...

Upcoming Events

Oh boy, oh boy, oh BOY!! BIG and exciting things happening to the Sigrah family in the upcoming weeks! I will probably have less time than ever to blog, because look as this schedule:

This week:
Tues: Trip to the beach with my mom
Wed: SIGNING FINAL DOCUMENTS FOR OUR HOUSE!!
Thurs: Shopping and finalizing HS reunion plans
Fri: CLOSING and getting the keys!! (hoping our realtor can get cleaners in to deep clean the whole house!!)
Sat: High school reunion BBQ, hoping to get some priming and possible painting done on the house, start taking loads over.
Sun: Nelson and some guys from our church will hopefully get a BIG chunk of painting done

Next week:
Mon-Thurs: Finishing all painting, visits from exterminators, plumbers, and roofing/gutter guys. Take loads over every day of our crap.
Fri: (after Nelson works a full day....) Pick up U-Haul and move remainder of stuff from my parents' house and storage unit. Mainly just to get furniture in house, unpack a couple of boxes.
Sat-Tues: Camping at the coast
Note: We made the reservations to do this in MAY. Long before we knew what would happen. Yes, we've considered cancelling, but don't want to lose the money and actually are really looking forward to the time away together just the 3 of us.

Following week:
(Labor Day) Mon: My niece Allie arrives from Texas
Wed-Fri: Watch my niece and Kalaya while attempting to unpack our house.
Sat: My brother's girlfriend and son arrive from Kentucky. Luckily, Allie, Holly and Archer will be staying at my parents' house from this point on.
Sun: My brother is scheduled to arrive for his mid-tour leave from Afghanistan!!

Following weekend: Pendleton Round Up

Again, all good, exciting things, but WHEW!! We are going to need a vacation from all of this!!!

What I Wore Wednesday 8/17

Confession: I still watch Kate Plus 8 every week, even though their family went a little crazy. She's about the go off the air soon, which I definitely think it's time for, but I still like watching the kids. I am forever connected to that show, because I discovered it at the end of my first pregnancy and while I was nursing a baby late at night. The early episodes were sweet and I miss it and it will always be in my heart. : )

What that has to do with fashion is this: on Monday's episode, she made a statement that literally made me say "AMEN!" and clap for her out loud. "Mother's get a window until their youngest child is 5, where they are allowed to look frumpy, wear old clothes, tshirts, etc, because they're changing their clothes from messes ten times a day anyway!!!" (or something like that) While I applaud women who dress cute every day, it isn't for me. Heck, it wasn't even for me at the time in my life when I felt the most pressure to dress a certain way; high school. I wore what I felt like a lot of the time and that often meant super comfy and casual. If we leave the house, I usually try to at least get out of sweats, but not always. Nelson jokes that we often look homeless at the grocery store together. : ) I love my husband.

The last few weeks have looked like the pics below pretty much every day. I have had some cute looks, but was too busy to grab the camera. The good news is, these clothes are evidence of two MAJOR things: CLEANING and PACKING!!! I have been working on getting things ready to take to our NEW HOUSE, so these types of outfits are a beautiful thing!

(not that you care, but...)
shirt: Youth Group Mission Trip Summer 2010
shorts: Westview (my high school) Football shorts, stolen from my brother (shhhh...)

And, there's a belly pic, just for fun. : ) 16 weeks

As always, I am linking with That Kind of Mom

Ketchup

Lots and lots going on lately (it's taken me about 4 days just to finish this post!!), not been motivated to post! Here's a run down:

*Had another midwife appointment yesterday and everything looked great! I got to hear the heartbeat and it was good and strong. I've gained 4 pounds total and am measuring right on schedule. Blood pressure was great as well. I'm about 15 1/2 weeks and am definitely showing. The first trimester symptoms seem to be fading away (knock on wood), so I'm feeling better. I definitely have more energy and my tummy has been feeling a lot better. Some foods are tasting normal again, but not all. We have our ultrasound to find out gender the 2nd week in September, very exciting!!

*Had a very, very up and down emotional last weekend. On the positive, went to a bridal shower and bachelorette party with college friends and had a really good time. However, it was soured by the stress I've been getting for the last week about my high school reunion. I AM SO SICK OF IT. Long story short, I was part of a committee last fall, they ALL bailed on me, I scrambled to plan something any way, with the help of one other person, came up with (what I thought) were 2 nice events, priced VERY reasonably, put down a large deposit, got negative feedback and not enough RSVPs, cancelled the evening reception because of it, kept the day time BBQ (this was about March-May) and have JUST NOW started getting people who 'wanted to come, but now all of this is too last minute'. ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME??? People have been posting really, really rude things on Facebook, which I'm trying to ignore, but it's been hard. Where these people were a year ago when we started planning.....I've kind of stopped caring. The good news is SO many people have said very nice things to me and been very grateful and understanding, so I feel much better.

* We are so, so close to getting the house!! Our offer was finally approved a couple of weeks ago and we are scheduled to close on the 26th, 2 weeks from today! It is not completely move in ready though. We will be hiring cleaners BIG TIME and then painting the inside. The family room carpet needs replacing too. The inspection turned out some minor repairs, including replacing the gutters, minor plumbing and electric and needing a new dishwasher, so we'll take care of those as well. Plus, there are some hornets nests to get rid of. Luckily, all of this is in our budget, which is thanks to how long we've been saving, living at my parents' house. The house is a 4 br, 1 1/2 bath, but we can probably to upgrade the 1/2 bath (in the Master br) right away, which is totally awesome! So, the house definitely qualifies in the 'fixer-upper' category, but I'm totally excited. We went to Home Depot on Saturday and it was the beginning of a whole new world for me!! I have always loathed, hated, DESPISED that store, but now? I could spend hours in there, looking for ideas and inspiration. More about plans as we get further along in the process. I'm trying to decide on paint colors currently and am completely overwhelmed!! The good news is that the house had a lot of the major things replaced 4 years ago (furnace, AC, yes, central air!!, all the windows, floors), so the 'bones' are in pretty good shape, which saves us a lot of money.

*At 2 years, 3 months, Miss Kalaya has been enjoying the sun and summer weather we've been having. On warm days, she has a her wading pool on back and we've taken several trips to local fountains to play. She will be starting swim lessons almost immediately after we get into the new house. (long story why we've waited, but the short story is that it's cheaper this way!!) One of the things I am most excited about for the new house is that potty training will kick into high gear. She is beyond more than ready, just a few days of the diaper-free method is going to finish this process up, I'm convinced. I've wanted to do this for longer than the last 6 months, but didn't for 2 main reasons. 1. My parents have carpet that is fairly new and 2. I have heard over and over again that you should wait until after a major change like a move.
Some other favorite things these days are coloring (she can finally make the crayons do what she wants them to do, more or less), being read to, longer and longer 'big kid' stories, take walks, run around and explore rocks and leaves in the back yard, practicing walking the dogs on their leashes, pretending to cook a wide variety of foods, but 'rice and grapes' seem to be the most popular (neither of which I make too often....), eating 'melon' (water melon was a big success on the 4th and cantaloupe is too), practicing letters and their sounds, dancing, singing LOTS of songs, kissing 'mommy's baby', going to the park, getting stickers at Trader Joe's and Target, riding in 'Oma's new car', 'talking on the compooter' with family and friends, visiting 'Elena's new house', playing night night with all her animals and toys, watching 'Pig' (aka, Word World) and practicing 'let's build a word!!' on Saturday mornings (she only gets to watch TV on Sat mornings and Word World and Elmo's World and VERY occasionally Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and lots and lots and LOTS of other activities. She is a little sponge, learning and soaking up SO much new information every day!!

What I Wore Wed 8/3

Finally, I remembered to keep my camera near the mirror! It's been wonderful, perfect summer weather in the Northwest, so we've been outside a lot and enjoying the sun! I have realized I don't have a lot of summer maternity clothes (I didn't need them last pregnancy), so I have some mixes of maternity and non pieces this week. I'll mark those that are not. I'll also mark items purchased this year, incase someone out there just loves something! : )

Shirt: Motherhood (hand me down)
Shorts: Old Navy (hand me down)
Tank* and Bella Band* (not shown): Motherhood outlet

Shirt*, shorts*: Ross

This skirt is possibly the most comfortable piece of maternity clothing I've ever owned!! (my husband thinks it's hideous, but I don't care! : )

Shirt: Costco**
Skirt: Old Navy*

*Shirt**, *Dress**: Target
Shorts*: Ross

Shirt*: Old Navy
Tank*: Motherhood Outlet
*Shorts**: Old Navy
Necklace: Forever 21 accessory store

*Purchased this season
**Non-Maternity

The following outfit is proof of daily accomplishment. It means that I, as a pregnant mother of a toddler, was able to take a shower. It means my body, hair and teeth are cleaned. And THAT is beautiful every day!!!

One last thing that helps me feel better is a pedicure. I go very infrequently and it's the only pampering I really do for myself. (I am not exaggerating. I get my hair cut as Great Clips and only with a coupon!!) It always feels so nice afterwards!

I am linking up with That Kind of Mom.

First Recipe Post: Peanut Chicken Bowls

A lot of the blogs that I read often post step by step recipes, and I love it! One of my favorites is The Pioneer Woman and I have used several of her recipes over the last couple of years. I have wanted to try posting one for awhile, so here goes!

I'm not sure why I'm starting with this one, other than the fact that I made it last night and actually remembered to grab my camera as I was cooking! It's a pretty easy recipe that I've made for a couple of years. I like it, because it falls under the Rachel Ray category of MYOTO (Make Your Own Take Out) I have no idea what magazine I originally found it in. All I remember was that a college student wrote in asking for a way to make Top Ramen more exciting and this was the suggestion. I have adapted it a bit over the years, but for awhile, I used to make it exactly as the magazine said! It was originally designed around:

Oriental Top Ramen (is that racist yet?)

Weird that I have that lying around.....I may have had a weird pregnancy craving.....

Here are the ingredients that I use instead:
Whole wheat spaghetti, about 3/4 of a pound
(in the orginal recipe, this was 2 packages of Ramen)
3 cups of frozen broccoli and carrots
1 1/4 cups of water
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of soy sauce (I use low sodium normally)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you want it)
Approx 2 cups diced chicken
1/2 cup of peanuts, chopped if you have them
1/4 cup chopped green onion (optional at our house, only if I already have some)

1. Brown chicken in some EVOO, put a large pot of water to boil. Once the chicken is cooked, set to the side, off the heat.

Yup, my mom owns The Pasta Pot. And it is AWESOME!

2. Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for the sauce; water, peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, corn starch and red pepper flakes. (the original recipe called for a packet of the oriental ramen seasoning too. You will not miss it) Whisk all together and begin to heat until smooth over medium heat. Keep an eye on in, it will get thick and bubbly. Whisk it occasionally. Once it does, cook it for 2 more minutes, then remove from heat.

3. When the water comes to a boil, throw in the pasta, with a little salt if you prefer. Cook as directed on the package.

4. When the pasta has 3 MINUTES LEFT to cook, throw in the veggies, bring to a boil and allow to cook for the remaining 3 minutes. Drain veggies and pasta.

5. Add the chicken and pour in the sauce, mix all together.

6. Throw in a handful of peanuts (I didn't have chopped that night) and mix.

7. Serve and enjoy! Not glamorous, but tasty!

And toddler approved, she had 2 helpings and requested it for lunch the next day! Success!

Small Style 7/28

Finally! Some summer weather in the Northwest! We've been busy enjoying the sunshine, so I haven't done a Small Style post in a few weeks. Here are some shots from our trip to the Oregon Coast last weekend and we actually had sunshine!

Beach Coverup: Carter's (hand me down)
Sandals: Hand Me Down

Hat: Fred Meyer

Swimsuit: Carter's (gift)

I am linking with Mama Loves Papa.

What I Wore Wednesday 7/27

I am so proud of one of my all time best friends for passing along the 'What I Wore Wednesday' posts and adding her on twist. You can link to her below!

If you are new to my blog, welcome! What I Wore Wednesday has recently started changing for me, since I'm pregnant with my second child! I actually really like a lot of the maternity clothes that I have from my first pregnancy and have already picked up a few new pieces.

I love the search for inexpensive maternity clothes. I have gotten some great stuff handed down to me and I love going to Goodwill to find more. It's so great, because thrifted maternity clothes tend to still be in GREAT shape, since they only get worn for a few months! I find lots of brand names, my favorite being Motherhood, but pay SO much less than the prices in their stores. I also find pieces at Ross, Target and Old Navy.

The most important thing for me with all of my clothes, whether pregnant or not, is comfort. I have been surprised over the years to discover some trendy clothes that actually are pretty comfortable. I know a lot of pregnant women need to fit in their pre-pregnancy clothes as long as possible and as soon as possible after their baby is born. That didn't bother me with my first pregnancy and it hasn't with this one. A large part of that is because I think that maternity clothes these days are really cute! And there are so many styles to choose from of all types of clothing. Some stuff does look baggy for awhile (though that ends all too soon), because they do fit differently in more areas than just the waist (aka, most jeans), but there are lots of other options. With my last pregnancy, it was late fall through spring (in Oregon), so I mainly wore cool weather clothing. This pregnancy, I'm pregnant in the summer, so I've had to get some new things. Plus, I started showing about 30 seconds after I got pregnant, so I've needed things sooner this time!

I found this dress at Goodwill for less than 7 bucks and I love it. It's super comfortable and really versitle. I wore it out for our 5th anniversary and plan to wear it to a wedding in a few weeks. It's not too dressy though, I can wear it just about any where, just have to change shoes and accessories. This may be one of my last time with the wedges though, my balance felt a little off with the extra weight in front!

Dress: Goodwill (originally Motherhood)
Shoes: Nordstrom Rack
Purse: Ross
Necklace: Some boutique in Spain, 2005

I am linking with That Kind of Mom.

Our 5th Anniversary

For our 5th anniversary, we went away for a nice weekend in Lincoln City! One of Nelson's groomsmen's parents (got that?) own and rent out a house and they were nice enough to give us the 'family rate' for their gorgeous house. It was a good deal! We hope to spend a lot more time there in the future! Nelson took off Friday (last vacation day for awhile, he's saving up sick and vacation for paternity leave when baby comes, a wonderful blessing, he should be able to get at least 6 weeks!!!), so we went Thursday night through Saturday. (the house was already reserved for Saturday night. Here's the house:



I told Kalaya that the front door said 'welcome' and for the rest of the trip, we had to hear over and over (and OVER AND OVER) how, 'It says welcome! It says welcome!' It was pretty cute. I wonder if she'll recognize the word out of context in the future?


Thursday night we went out to dinner at Mo's (yeah, about as touristy as you can get, but I was craving a cheeseburger and fries and theirs are yummy!) and then walked down to the beach, which was less than a block from our house. She played with her sand toys and then wanted to test the water. It was actually a really nice evening, even for the Oregon Coast, pretty warm, only a little windy and the water actually wasn't ice cold. So, Daddy let her put her feet in and she wanted to go further and further and LOVED the water. We had to drag her back. It actually felt pretty good!



Saturday morning she got up VERY early (around 6:30, I think), because the master bedroom was very bright with four windows. She had breakfast and was asleep on the couch within an hour and slept for another 2 1/2 hours after that. (we are not morning people at our house. A typical morning for her starts between 9 and 9:30) A quick lunch and down to the beach! It was perfect weather and she dug, searched for rocks, buried herself, ran around and went in the water (with Daddy's help) to her heart's content. This was followed by another afternoon nap (the morning one really was just finishing off her night, she'd gone to bed late Thurs night) and then out to dinner at a local brewery, where I had some delicious shrimp!


The hot tub was also a big success, especially with Daddy! (I didn't go it, of course...sacrifices for pregnancy!)


Saturday morning was packing and getting ready to leave, but not without breakfast first!


We finished off the trip with a stop in Salem to see Grandma (Nelson's mom) and drove home on Saturday. Sunday Nelson and I had an anniversary celebration during Kalaya's nap, while Oma took over for a bit. We went to a yummy lunch at Benihana and a movie.


Yup, our daughter is too young for a movie, we went to Winnie the Pooh's latest by ourselves. : )

We know that many people/couples think it's important to have time away just the two of us, but we don't feel that way. We just aren't the kind of parents who go on vacation without our whole family, at least not at this point in our child's life. We understand why some think that's important, but we know we'll have years and years to be alone. We treasure every moment with our whole family! We feel that our relationship is plenty strong enough without dropping the kid off at the grandparents so we can be alone. At least, not for more than a few hours. Definitely a personal preference that each family has to make for themselves!