Christmas Time is Here

I think this is the longest that I have gone without updating all year.  I had so much going on and not much going on all at the same time.

The last week of school was pretty crazy.  It was spent cramming in the last bit of testing for report cards and completing all of our holiday activities.  I have two students in my class that don't celebrate Christmas so I had to make a special effort to do holiday/winter themed activities rather than Christmas themed.  In the past I have done a unit on "Christmas around the World" and then another one on just "Christmas."  This year I just extended the Christmas around the world unit and implemented a couple of my Christmas themed activities.  It was definitely a learning experience for me.

After putting the kids onto the bus, I definitely sighed in relief knowing that I could breath again.  I needed this break more than any other in the past.  It has been wonderful.  I asked Travis if it was sad that the thing I was looking forward to most about break was wearing comfy clothes and not doing anything all day.  He just laughed at me.  He will never understand what it is like.

I had a couple of days to get things cleaned up and organized before heading down to my parents house.  We left on Saturday morning and apparently we just missed the bad weather.  When we left, it was 22 degrees.  When we arrived in Georgia, it was 56 degrees.  It was a welcomed change!

That evening, after dinner, Nathan brought up that he was speaking in church the next day.  He tried to rope me into taking a portion of his time but my sweet husband knows how much I hate speaking and stepped in for me.  On Sunday I went and listened to dad, Nathan and Travis all speak.  They all did a great job even though I laughed at them all for crying.  I was reminded during that meeting how lucky I am to have such amazing men in my life!

Like usual, the rest of Christmas break was spent hanging around the house.  This year though, it was full of competition.  Travis has been trash talking my dad and my brothers joined in on the fun.  They had a ping pong tournament, bowling tournament, wii bowling, mario kart, and basically anything we did turned into a competition...even family games.  There was no clear winner or loser in anything.  I never won anything but the only thing I came in last place was mario kart.  I am proud of keeping up with the boys.

Dad and Nathan playing ping pong

 Christmas eve we did our normal traditions eating hors d'oeuvres for dinner, reading in Matthew, putting Jesus in the manger and opening pajamas.   Here is a picture of Andrew, Travis and Nathan in their pajamas.  We joke around about their height and Travis being so much shorter so here he is exaggerating the difference to be funny.  

Christmas morning, we were all woken up by Andrew.  I love that he still gets so excited for opening presents.  I think it is mostly because Santa always brings some sort of shooting toy (marshmallow guns, nerf guns, rubber band guns, etc.) that the boys end up playing with all day.

Andrew

 Nathan

 

Mom and Dad opening their favorite gift from their favorite child!

 

I guess now I have to start cooking for Travis

 Travis: These are those things that you attach to your legs and jump around.  Travis saw them at the Circus and has wanted them since.  We were so surprised by this gift.  I will have to get some pictures of him wearing them. 

 

Lindsay, Cameron, Owen and Sam were not able to come down from New York.  We are excited for everyone to get together this summer at the beach.  It will be the first time since our wedding that everyone will be together again.

Dad also fried a turkey for us at some point that week.  I still need to master the art of frying a good turkey.

I can't think of any other big excitement from the week.  My parents are trying to kick me out of the house now that I am going to have a basement.  We came home with a car full of stuff!  It was fun looking through some of my old keepsakes and notes from friends.

Not only did we come home with a car full of keepsakes, but we came home with a car full of clothes for baby girl.  A girl can never have too many clothes!  A family friend was moving away and wanted to get rid of her girls' outgrown clothes.  I reaped the benefit of mom always looking for a good deal.  I am so appreciative to Heather for giving me the clothes!  She will never know how much it means to us.

We are now back in Ohio and I have a few more days before going back to school.  Those days will be spent mostly at home since we were welcomed back to Ohio by 8 inches of snow.  It is beautiful, but I hate being cold and I am even more scared about slipping and falling now that I am big and preggo. 

Color Selections

Are you sick of house updates already?  If you are, sorry.  This whole process is so exciting to me that I can't help but share.  Also, I love this sort of thing.  I have looked at TONS of other blogs for color or decorating ideas even before I was ever married or considering building a house.  One of my favorite things to do is look at houses, so this is like a dream come true!  I love it!

We have picked out all of our color options for now.  I still keep going back and forth on the siding.  I thought last week was our lock-in date, but I think we still have a little longer.  Since choosing the outside was so difficult for me, I thought the inside would be the same way but it was a breeze!

Let me just stay on the outside selections a minute though.  We liked the darker colors, but kept going back and forth between grey or brown.  We kind of have to base our decision off of the stone since our options are limited.  The stone we wanted is used on the house across the street, so we are left with these 2 choices.  (There were other choices, but we liked these two the best.)

The style of this stone is the same as the one we like, but the colors are different.

After talking with our Agent, we ended up going with this one.  It looks more brownish/redish in this photo than it actually is.  These are the colors of the stone we like, just rounded.

I am just not in love with the round stone.  We ended up choosing it because we know the colors look good with our siding color choice.  My concern with the stone in the first photo is that the whole house would end up looking the same color where this one has more contrast.  I really need to get a more accurate picture of the color!

To give you a better idea, this is what the colors look like on a house.  Our stone won't go all the way up.  It is just a small wall like on the right of the picture by the garage.  What do you guys think?
While we are on this picture, our siding and shutters are the same as this picture.  (Pebble clay-shake, Sandy tan-siding, winestone-shutters)

 

Here is a random Ryan Home with the rounded stone.  What do you think?  Our house is the cottage style, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad?  I am just really struggling with this decision! Travis is also second guessing the decision thinking that maybe the browns look better on a one level house and greys on 2 stories.  I seriously would love to hear your opinion!

Ok, now we can move on to our other selections.  Last week we went to RiteRug to pick out flooring, counters, etc.  I was surprised at how fast we made decisions.  I think it was made a little easier by the selection.  For each option (carpet, tile, hardwood, laminate), it was grouped by price.  We knew our budget so we only looked at options in that area.  It made it a lot less overwhelming!

Let's start with the main level.  

Cabinets (kitchen and bathrooms):  Tahoe Cherry Bordeaux

Carpet (Great Room, Office):  Level 2-Capri

Laminate (Kitchen, Morning Room, Foyer, Mud Room and Powder Room):  Mahogany

Kitchen Counters: Laminate, Butterum

Carpet (Dining Room, 2nd floor):  Level 1-Rockport (I didn't get picture)

 Fireplace: Ubatuba with white mantel

 

Stairwell:  Metal Balusters with Black Cherry Stain

 

Laminate (Spare Bathroom and Laundry Room):  Level 1,  Initiator

 Tile (master bathroom):
Floor: 12x12 Fidenza Cafe
Shower Wall: 9x12 Fidenza Cafe
Listello: Universal

 Last but not least, a picture of our lot!  They just broke ground on the house being built next door to us.  It is going to be crazy with two houses going up about the same time!

Pregnancy Update

I haven't done a pregnancy update in a while.  I am now 26 1/2 weeks pregnant.  That means I only have 13 1/2 weeks left to go...95 days to be exact!  That is CRAZY to me!  That doesn't seem that long!  I feel like it really has flown by.  I think that working, building a house and being in young women's has helped everything fly by.  I am always doing something for one of those things, so I don't have time to think about the length of my pregnancy until someone points out how long it has been.  The other day, my friend Jannie said she felt like I have been pregnant forever.  I was a bit surprised because I don't even feel like it has been that long.  When I asked why, she said it's because she has only known me as a pregnant lady and she feels like she has known me a while.  That was crazy for me to think about.  I can't wait for her to meet non-pregnant Amber!

I do have to admit though, I think I am a pretty good pregnant woman (knock on wood).  I did throw up at the beginning, but I have friends that threw up their entire pregnancy.  I go through ups and downs of being tired, but I keep moving along fine.  It may just be tiredness from teaching kindergarten again full time.  I haven't had any food aversions or cravings (except when I pretend just so that Travis will give in and get it for me).  I have been able to continue working out without a problem (besides frequent bathroom breaks).  My migraines have improved dramatically and I don't think I have been emotional or moody.  I am pretty lucky I guess!

So, at 26+ weeks, I am feeling great!  I haven't had time to stress about the fact that nothing is ready for the baby room.  I have gotten lots of flowers for her hair and some outfits for her to grow into.  We are pretty sure that we have picked a name (but we aren't telling! hehe)  And I can't wait for Christmas break to just chill and bum around in my sweats! 

I will post a picture in a couple weeks when I am officially in my 3rd trimester.  (WHAT?!?!  Third-trimester in 2 weeks!  Where is the time going?!?!)  My belly has definitely popped!

It's Official...

Travis and I are buying a house (I started writing this post before I wrote the last one, so most of you already know)!!!  Ever since moving to our new place, we have toyed around with the idea of actually buying a home rather than renting.  Since our lease will be ending in just a few months, we thought it was time to start thinking more seriously about it and start looking.  We walked through lots of homes and looked at another hundred online.  We have spent our Saturdays driving around and peeping into empty homes.  We finally got it narrowed down to two options.  One house was located close to our old apartment and the other is close to where we are now.

The first house is a huge, bank owned home so it was a great price.  We went and looked at it and it was in pretty good condition (besides being dirty), especially for it being bank owned.  We saw some pretty trashed homes throughout our search.  The only thing holding us back was some of the damage.  It looked like mold on the ceiling in the living room and water damage in the kitchen.  We were wary because this could only lead to bigger, unseen problems.

The second house I fell in love with was the model home for Ryan homes development.  Unfortunately, it was $260,000...not a great price and WAAAYY out of our budget.  We tried figuring out a way to get the price down, but we would have 0 upgrades so the house would be totally different than the loved model.  We began to look at other floor plans and found one for a great price with great incentives.  The agent told us there was a model being built in Beavercreek so we decided to take a look.

As soon as I walked in the home, I knew it was the one.  As compared to the other home where I just felt stressed, I felt so happy as soon as I walked in the door in this one.  I have to remind you that it was just dry wall so my mind wasn't clouded by all the fancy interior design elements.  I loved the floorplan!  Travis loved the basement!

This was our house so we scheduled to meet with an agent to go over pricing and options.   Everything has happened so fast! Let me give you an idea here.  November 24th is when we walked through the model and knew it was our house.  November 27th we met with the agent, Kellie, to initially go over options and pricing.  At that meeting, she let us know that prices on this particular floor plan were going up December 1st.  We had to make a decision and do it fast!

November 30th we met again with Kellie to edit/finalize our option list and sign a contract.  I was excited from the beginning, but Travis was a little stressed because of it being such a big and quick decision.  Now he is just as excited as I am.

Ever since this meeting, we have been meeting with everyone involved in the process.  It is so crazy how much goes into building a house.  That has been our life the past couple weeks.  It is so fun/exciting, but stressful at times. 

I will post more as we go and as we get pictures.  We have met with the loan officer, finalized our exterior look and structural elements and picked out our flooring and counters. This week we are meeting with Guardian to do our cable stuff.  It is so much fun and I am sooooo excited!  I can't wait for this beautiful home to be built! 

Christmas Parties

This past week, Travis and I went to two different Christmas parties.  One was his work party and the other was with a group of friends.

Travis' work party was at Carabbas.  I have only been there a couple times and it was delicious!  Something I enjoy about other people paying for my food is that I am more willing to try new things.  I couldn't decide on which chicken dish to get so the waitress suggested the chicken trio platter that had all three things.  It was so good!  I know next time I go back which one is my favorite!

After dinner, we did a white elephant gift exchange.  Travis and I brought in a bottle of wine that had been given to us by our landlord and an Optimus polo that was too big for Travis.  His boss ended up getting our gift.  It was funny because he is the one that gave Travis the polo.  We came home with a bottle of sparkling cider and beans.  The most popular gift was a Starbucks coffee package.

After the exchange, we watched a video that everyone put together as a goodbye to one of the guys that is opening the Columbus office.  Travis won the award for best acting!  It was pretty funny.  I was excited to see it because Travis kept telling me about it.

We feel really blessed that he works at such a great place with a bunch of amazing people.  I tell him how lucky he is all the time.  I don't see these people very often, but when I do they treat me like family.  Initially Travis took this job because of the people working there and that is why he wants to stay.  They really are so amazing and would do anything for each other!

This weekend we had our friend's Christmas Extravaganza!  We were told to wear our ugliest Christmas sweaters and bring a tacky white elephant gift.  When you give us a challenge, we take it.  We definitely had the ugliest Christmas sweaters!  We borrowed the one I wore from Travis' boss and Travis made his.

Santa used to be a toilet seat cover.  This sweater was so comfy!

 We sat around a talked and ate yummy treats for a while before doing the gift exchange.  This exchange was a lot more entertaining than the work one.  People stole gifts from each other and others tried their hardest to give theirs away.  We brought a ceramic snowman that lights up and a crazy feather hat.  Surprisingly, the hat was a hit!  The most popular gift was a mug shaped like Darth Maul and one shaped like Chewbacca.  I ended up getting salt and pepper shakers shaped like reindeer heads and Travis got some batteries and milk duds.

Kent and Leisy ended up with the feather hat.  

Besides me being a little under the weather, it was a fun night!  I seriously have the best friends here!  The reason I love Ohio is because of them.  I don't know what I am going to do once they move.  Thanks Leisy for the fun night!

New Perspective

Yesterday's tragic event in Connecticut brought new perspective to me.  Whenever I hear about school shootings, I am saddened but not struck full of fear.  Why?  Because I teach at an elementary school and something like this would never happen.  I always thought that those sort of things only happened at middle and high schools. I never had reason to fear.   I think of situations where people are bullied by their peers until finally they break. 

Travis texted me at lunch yesterday and told me that there was a shooting at an elementary school.  I was in shock.  Not knowing any other information, I wondered what happened or what would compel a student to do such a thing.  After school, we had a staff meeting to discuss the issue.  I found out that 27 people were confirmed dead and it was an adult man that did the shooting.  When I got back to my classroom, I checked my email and had a message from Travis' brother.  The school is located 25 miles from him and there are students in his stake that attend that school.  (one of them being a kindergartener that did not survive)  It kept getting closer and closer to home for me. 

As I drove home, I called my mom to find out more details.  It was a kindergarten classroom.  Kindergarten!  That's when I broke down.  I can not imagine all my little kiddos being faced with that situation.  What would I/could I have done?  Would I have tried to stop him?  Would I freeze?  Would I stay calm and try to get my kids to safety?  What would I say and do to the shooter and my kids? 

As I was glued to the tv the rest of the evening, all I could think about were the teachers and students at that school as well as my own.  I am impressed with the reactions of the teachers.  They stayed calm and tried to keep the children's minds occupied with good thoughts.  They tried to protect them from the images and reality of the situation.  I am impressed with the students.  From what I understand, the students stayed calm and listened to their teachers.  They did not yell or scream or run.  They walked single file over to the fire station. 

My heart goes out to all those students and staff that lost their lives in this tragic event.  It has brought new light to the reality of the situation and made me think about what I should do if this ever happened at my school.  I am grateful for the wonderful staff at my school and I will definitely hug my kids a little bit tighter as they leave me for Christmas break this coming week. 

Help needed!!! Our Palermo!

Ok guys, I need some help.  I was planning a creative blog post to announce this but sometimes life throws you a curve and you have to go with it.  We are building a house and I need your help!  (Yes I am very excited! I will do an official blog post about the experience later, but I need help now.)

Tomorrow we have to finalize our exterior colors and I don't know what to do!  The colors that I debated about and finally decided on, based on other homes in the neighborhood, are no longer an option.  So, please tell me your opinion.  We are leaning more towards one, but are still unsure. 

Sorry for the bad quality, it is the only picture I can find with our particular elevation.  It will be exactly as seen.  If you look, it has two types of siding.  There is shake-over the porch and garage then beaded siding on the rest of the house.  We HAVE TO choose two DIFFERENT colors.

 These are the options that we have it semi-narrowed down to.  We are using the type of stone in the picture (Conestoga) because our top choice (Bucks County) is used next door so we can't use it.
On the left side we have our greys.  The lighter one is silver mist and the darker is graphite grey.
On the right we have our browns.  The lighter one is Natural Almond and the darker is Pebble Clay.
The shutter/door colors we narrowed it down to are navy, black or maroon.

 Or you can tell me other options you like.  Maybe Pebble Clay and Sandy Tan?

 I am a very visual person, so here are a few houses (not our plan) using Silver mist (lighter) and Graphite Grey (darker).

This last house uses Pebble Clay and Sandy Brown I think. 

So please, comment on what you like and don't be offended if we choose something different!  This is just a huge decision and I am feeling indecisive since my favorite option is out!  Thanks for your help and I will post more later!