Alicia, you are beautiful we love you guys

The over excited first meeting, I walked with my lap top and Dawn and Jeff on skype so they could meet Lilyana along with us, sorry about the poor photography, but who can worry about where the camera is pointed when you got a new baby to focus on :-) (if that makes any sense) also I have it put together backwards, this should have started where Dawn is talking and Dad says *here comes the Dr.*

Of less importance now that Lily is here :-)

I have been pretty excited about my furniture purchase but Man Who cares now that we have our Little Lily! WooHoo I am fired up!!

Our new baby girl Lilyana Grace Collins

With Alicias permission

~Whew, Shopping stresses me out~

This is our new dining table & chairs to be delivered in about 4 weeks.
Big problem is that the top has tiles, like the one Gramma gave us I HATED the tiles, so I gotta do what Matt suggested and get me a glass top. Other than that I think I did ok in my furniture shopping

Yahoo had this on their front page

It's a good reference for me so when at the kids house I will fully understand what I am doing if I so choose to help out :-)
1. Load large items at the sides and back of the dishwasher, so that they don't block water and detergent from reaching other dishes.

2. Place the dirtier side of dishes toward the center of the machine to provide more exposure to the spray. Don’t let dishes or utensils nest, or rest side by side, which can prevent water from reaching all surfaces.

3. Use the top rack for plastic and delicate items that are dishwasher safe.

4. Rest glassware on prongs to prevent breakage. And to prevent chipping, make sure that china, crystal, and stemware don’t touch other items. Don’t machine-wash brass, bronze, cast iron, disposable plastics, gold-colored flatware, gold-leaf china, hollow-handle knives, pewter, tin, or anything made of wood or with a wood handle.

5. Load silverware with handles down but place knives with the handles up. If your dishwasher has an open basket, mix spoons, forks, and knives to prevent them from sticking together.

6. Place items with baked-on food facedown and toward the sprayer in the bottom rack.

Well, I didn't tell the entire truth

First of all I'd like to say this is just a good place for me to vent, you don't really need to read it all, bottom line is I got new carpet in :-)


My carpet, see I mentioned before *the carpet people* because I didn't think it nessessary to say Lowes, Yes Stupid me shopped at Lowes for a carpet. Reason for that is I hate shopping anywhere, and I knew a real carpet place would have 50 salesmen all fighting to get at me if I went into a store like that. I have been looking at carpet samples all on my own for nearly a whole year at Lowes, never bothered by salesmen, just how I like it. The salesman once asked me if I had the measurements of the rooms ,got to know me and Knew that I would talk to him when I am ready.
So one day I finaly asked him a few questions, like
1: what do they charge to remove old carpet
2: what do they charge to move furniture
it was like 28 cents per square foot so I decided to save a bit and do that part myself, or er, I got Paddy boy to do it :-)
I knew the guy wanted measurements so Dad did the measureing and came up with 360 square feet of carpet needed, he even measured where cuts would be made.
I went to Lowes with all my information, but not before I got rid of, or moved all of my furniture except the big couch. I felt ready.
I went to Lowes and looked at the carpet I wanted, just needed to decide on a color. Told the saleman that I'm ready to do the deal.
He told me I could bring home the samples because they have this deal where you can't order and make any final payments until they send their own Measureing guy to the house, Then I could come back to Lowes and Show him my choice and Pay for it, too many customers came with wrong measurements so I agreed to let them do that I understand why they might not trust my numbers.
I have Never bought carpet before so I have no clue, I gotta just put my trust into this guy and go with the flow.( I begged him to just let me make my choice now then deal over the phone, but he didn't go for that)
Next day the Measure person comes (Lowes contracts out their install work which I didn't know untill I met this person, I had even mentioned to her that I should have known, I never buy fish at a steak house)
She has a fancy little laser measureing tool and all seems good.
I asked her when she would send the measurments to lowes and she said the next day probably and that I should wait for Lowes to call me.

OMG I have no furniture in the two rooms, I am tired of standing around
{8-P <~~that is a bugged eyed smiley with his tongue sticking out in case u didn't know.
Next day, I wait all morning, nothing. Around 2:00 I call and they say they still don't have any call from the professional measure person who has a laser tool and can get it right.
30 minutes later Lowes called me and said the girl is calculating now and as soon as shes done they will call me to come on over (they know I am in a hurry to get this done)
2 hours later Lowes calls *Come on over says he*
Yes! I bring my carpet samples and go straight to the carpet department. It's a different saleman, but it's alright, he seems do-able. *sighs*
I show him my choice, he types for 20 minutes, prints out all kinda crap I give him my card and tell him just pay in full so I don't need to come back.
He says take these papers to the register up front and pay there.
Well? When are you guys gonna be over?????
OH anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks, WHAT??
Yes this is a special order, we need to call all the Lowes and if they don't have it then the wait may be as long as 3 weeks. OMFG!! Why didn't they tell me they don't really have any carpet? I told the guy I never did this before, wheres all the information before the purchase? I had no idea the number one question you must ask is *1: do you have this in stock?
Fine, I go home pouting, what else can I do but wait?
One week later: they call and say they got the carpet and will come friday at 9 am.
Yippee!
Thursday: They call and say the carpet that came has no backing on it so they gotta reorder it, give them 1 to 3 more weeks. OMFG!
I panicked and said NVM I want a refund, forget the carpet.
I am going to do what Cyndi told me in the first place, go to New York Carpet world who claim they install the next day.
Friday: I go pick some carpet, tell the guy my measurments,
Saturday: New carpet is installed by 10:30 am.

Ps. Did I mention that Lowes Measure person with her fancy laser tool came up with 70 square feet too much? OMG they tryed to sell me too much carpet!
Did I mention that you don't need to remove old carpet tack? They can reuse that stuff forever. $100.00 for that mistake.
anyway I got all my money back with out even needing to explain myself, they musta known they made a major mistake. (Or was it my mistake?)
pps. Now the furniture store. OMFG whats going to happen there?

Clean & organized shelf

Alright, here's the before

Now here's the after



Then celebrate with a He-Man size dinner heavy on the Ketchup!

Sick of spring cleaning

This spring stuff isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
My game plan isn't really going as I hoped. The carpet people didn't trust my measurements so I had to make an appointment for them to come out , then I needed to come back and give them my choice so I brought home the samples that I chose, well looking at them for 2 days makes me want to choose something else, I don't like these samples anymore :-(.
This stuff is hard work for me, they gave me time to change my mind. So I hope tomorrow I just grab a swatch and tell um I want it then be done with any decision makeing.
Duct cleaning guys came today, It sucked waiting for them, But they sucked the dust out and it feels a bit better in here now. Carpet measuring person came today, it sucked waiting for them too.
I washed a few walls last night.
I found myself standing most of the day yesterday,I raked a few weeds away from under the front bushes before the furnace guys came. I took a 2 hour nap after my hired help left. When I woke up my everything hurt couldn't hardly get down the stairs, my hip is so outta whack, I shopped online for an arthritic cane, yes there is a difference the hand piece for comfort. I didn't buy one I just looked, maybe I'll tell my Dr then he can write a RX and my insurance will pay for part of it.
So I gotta wait for carpet ppl to call tomorrow then who knows when it will get installed.



Ya man this is not fun

Spring cleaning

Wow, Craigs list is pretty cool. Even though it was just a drive by who actually got the table and chairs, some guy from Craigs list came looking for it too. I hadda call Pat to get the pass word and delete our ad. If I didn't see it for myself I would never believed it. People do want yer crap!! But Dad made me take the junky couch off cuz it's just too way messed up, I wanted it on just because it's too heavy to drag to the curb. So here's what we got rid of and whats done so far, Thanks to Paddy Boy.
In the morning I will call the furnace cleaning people, then go for new carpet, then after that's installed, off to the furniture store. ~whew~

Just to verify what we called the basement

It wasn't underground.

Candis likes to share with me on what she's doing.

Candis has a pretty huge yard between her house and the lake, her Dad made this hill starting at the front side of her house and curved it around behind the shed into the back yard but not into the Lake :-) Check out how kewl it is.
Candis Sleds