too much music

I just need a minute to complain. But first I will say that most of the time I honestly do not mind living in this apartment. In fact, it's been very nice to us.

But

A month or two ago two boys (early 20's?) moved in downstairs, directly beneath us. They are musicians. At first I actually found it cool when I heard them playing their guitars while I was downstairs waiting for the bus.

But

Not cool anymore. This guy can sing at a normal volume OR at screaming yelling singing volume. And has done so at both 12:45 am and 2:30 am. AND his voice is bad. Bad. Horrible. Off key. Scratchy.

And

He has a temper. Amidst some drumming/playing the other day (and once in the middle of the night) I heard occasional outbursts (yelling, swearing) of frustration when there was a mess-up.

And

During most of his songs he really only switches cords twice.

And

Did you notice "drumming" up there? Yep. Real genuine drums right below my living room.

Complaining over. Thanks.

First Snow

This morning we were surprised to wake up to two inches of snow! The energy in the house was palpable. I remember, those were the best mornings in the neighborhood when I was growing up. Good timing too, late last night Daniel and I had all the Christmas presents out--dividing them up, seeing what we needed, what we didn't. We were remarking how it felt like Christmas Eve! And lo and behold, it should have been!

Waiting for the bus...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

My mother is Earth friendly. She's so good at using up what she has, reusing what she can, and recycling what's left. Even to the point getting a laugh--Mom was caught reusing a Hershey's syrup bottle as a water bottle! And of course I thought of Mom as my Abby decided to wash out a parmesan cheese bottle and use it for water! So, maybe this time it wasn't for the Earth, but you gotta admit, containers are fun!

Birthday Dress

Well, I want to eat her up.

curtains are up!

These lovelies make the apartment feel more like a home...

My baby turns 3!

If you've read the previous entries, you can see we've been busy with celebrations around here!

My little one turned three last week! Because of my brain was nearly fried I wanted to plan an easy (but still fun) birthday celebration for Eliza. Pizza hut took care of the lunch for me, the kids and Daniel covered game ideas and prep, Daniel put up the streamers, and I did the cake.

Pin the crown on the princess (Andrew's idea):

...turned into transforming the game's crowns into wearable crowns...
The little girl in blue next to Eliza is Grace. Grace and her sister Hannah (in yellow) lived below our apartment for a while and we love their family! Every time somebody mentioned how Eliza was turning three, she'd say, "Like Gracie!!"

For the cake I did a cool tracing method my sister taught us years ago, and took a picture before I transferred the picture onto the cake...just in case I botched it. (By the way, her face is under the peach frosting and shows up when you flip it.) I'm a little bummed I didn't take a picture right after the transfer because it worked great! By the time we had cake and ice cream the black frosting had bled somewhat into the yellows.

Daniel turns 32!

Dude, that's a lot of candles!! I really wanted to celebrate Daniel's birthday right this year. Last year we had moved in just ONE day before his birthday. So, we celebrated among a mess of boxes and his cake was the free slice at a local restaurant. So, with help, I cooked up a little surprise. I originally wanted to have him come home to a surprise party. BUT it was nearly impossible to come up with the right times/people/scheming. Instead we brought the surprise home to him! 3 families from church showed up Sunday afternoon with balloons, party hats, a birthday banner, and even a cake! It was so fun! BUT since we don't really do parties on Sunday, we called it a "Birthday Fellowship." heh heh. We played a couple games, had cake, ice cream, and apple pie. Yum.

Trick or Treat!

Better get this on the blog before Thanksgiving, eh? Here is our Halloween excitement!

Strawberry Shortcake. Here's Abby's complete look. Can I just say, I had a lot of fun putting these costumes together this year. So... we opted out of the striped shirt (how many hours of shopping would it take...) and instead I ironed on a picture of Strawberry we found on some fabric. And by the way, every strawberry on that hat was ironed on by yours truly.

Strawberry Shortcake's little sister, Apple Dumpling. This outfit we modified to reduce stress. I thought it turned out pretty cute! I added the gingham collar and ruffled cuffs around the pants as well as the apples to the yellow outfit. And did the hat...

The full view of the hat. Here's Yoda. With ears, a hooded cloak, and six fingers in all. Basically I modified (widening arms, adding the hood) a robe pattern. The ears were fashioned after a dog Yoda costume I saw. And I have to send a shout out to Debra who helped with a lot of the searching and ideas for the costume details!Carving time. Eliza immediately told me she wanted a SCARY face! This face!

After trick-or-treating...

First Trophy

The kid couldn't have been more proud!