Funny Farm/Money Pit

Well, we are home owners! And it's been a very interesting process. From having to post-pone our closing 2 days prior, to tearing up the back yard with plumbing issues, it's been an adventure to say the very least. On top of all that, we gutted the kitchen, so major work there! Brandon and I were talking last night and we feel like we are a mix between the movie's Funny Farm and Money Pit. I knew there would always be projects, but I can barely even unpack a box in the evenings beacuse we are just trying to get the house in working order first!


I will wait to post all "after" pics, until the "after" is actually here. But here, is our Home Sweet Home!
Every time you walk outside you get bitten up by mosquitos, so anyone that has any suggestions other than coating yourslef in bug spray, we are all ears!

We are really proud of all the work that we (okay, my dad) has done in the kitchen. Here is a "before" and a "so far" picture. I will have more soon.

Before

So Far

Our plumbing fiasco started when my mother-in-law noticed the toilet gurgling when she was cleaning. Next thing we know, sewage is exploding in our basement when the plumbers take off the main cap (glad I wasn't there!) and then our back yard looks like this! Turns out the drain line from the house was clogged with roots. Donations can be sent to: The Pottsy Fund 310 Benham Dr. Chattanooga, TN 37421. Just kidding, but do please update your address book. I guess I should do the same for all our bills now too... When do they start hunting you down?!?

We are really happy with the way Maggie's room has turned out too. We picked a pretty green color to go with a new rug we bought for her room, and decided to do a lighter green stripe. I love the way it turned out! Now if I can only get her room organized and all her "stuff" put away! This picture was obviously taken before any of the "stuff" got here!

Speaking of Maggie, here are a few recent pics of her doing her thing. She's still a very active child and really runs the show!

She LOVES pockets! She walks around with her hands in her pockets, twisting and saying, "pockets!"

Still obsessed with her passy, at least she uses it in style.

This is a true depiction of Maggie right now. She was probably running from me when I took the picture!

Daddy likes to tickle her under her arms and she just loves it! There nothing quite like the sound of a daddy making his daughter laugh. A mommy can never quite get the same laugh. Something about those daddies.

Brandon has been really excited to get some yardwork done. We have owned our home for going on 4 weeks and Brandon just put together our new weedeater last night! Thanks to a hand-me-down lawnmower (pictured below with the proud handy-man himself) we have all the tools necessary to have a decent looking yard. It's been mowed once, thanks to my father-in-law, who mowed the first week. Our new neighbors in Brainerd Hills are wondering if we are going to be "one of those people" who doesn't take care of their yard! I swear we will! We even got gas for the mower last night!

Despite all the fiascos that happen on a daily basis, like doing my first load of laundry last night and coming into the kitchen and hearing water spraying EVERYWHERE (Yikes! The hose had come loose from the back of the washer and the entire LARGE load, except the few bucketfulls I could manage to catch and run to the kitchen sink, drained onto our laundry room floor, and leaked into the basement! Awesome.) we really do love our house and have enjoyed it the very few moments we have had to relax in it. I hope that all of you will be able to enjoy it with us at some point. You are all welcome at any time (especially now when there is lots of work to do)!

Sweet Tea and Biscuits & Gravy

Happy Holidays from Chattanooga! We are officially Southerners again! Perfect timing too. It's like -15 degrees in Colorado right now! We haven't seen as much rain in 2 years as we have the past 5 days! I'll take the rain over below zero weather any day though! Stay warm our friends in CO!

We now have sweet tea of plenty and have had Hardee's bisciut and gravy twice already! Oh how we've missed that!

The journey out here was long and tiring, but we made it. Sport was such a good sport! He the best travel buddy. Never whined once and slept most of the 3 day journey. We had snow the first day, snow the second and rain the third. Hauling the U-Haul wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but backing it up was way worse! That is not my fortay. At least we drove forward most of the way here.

Sport and I decided to burn off a little steam once we got to our hotel the last night!


We are house-hunting now and finding out it's much harder than expected. There are a lot of options, but I guess there are things that we definitely want, and we just haven't seen 'the one' yet. Hopefully soon, but really no rush.

Check back in for house-hunting updates and anything else that's going on!

Beautiful Colorado

So, today is another beautiful Colorado day. My friend came over to take pictures of us for our Christmas card. She is so talented; I can't wait to see how they turned out! Above is a picture of Maggie on her 1st Birthday! She's 'soooooo big'!



We have had zero snow so far this year and I'm just afraid of what that might mean for the rest of the winter. I did smell manure the other day and supposedly the old wives tale is that when you smell it, it's going to snow. We didn't have snow that day, but I heard possibly tonight. The high country has had snow, and that makes a beautiful backdrop for our view every morning coming out of our complex. Last year the snow was cool because we weren't used to it and Maggie could easily be taken from car to building in her car seat all bundled up. This year I anticipate being entirely different.





A couple weeks ago, my sister was here to help us clebrate Maggie's birthday. We went to a local butterfly pavilion and I got a few good pics. I just downloaded them, so I thought I'd share a few.

Intro of Sorts

So, I've been thinking of blogging for a while. Not because I am a good writer or have all this creative energy I need to get out, but I guess because I feel like I should. Everyone's doing it, right? Yes, I know I started one back when I was preggo, but now I feel like that one doesn't fit our family anymore (www.babypotts07.wordpress.com). It's still there for all to see, and actually just looking at it, it was exactly a year ago since my last post. A little ironic, but not surprising.

Anyone who is a mom would know that it's not surprising, or at least a mom like me. To be honest, I never really even thought about how much time it takes to care for a child. I guess it's good if you don't really know what you are getting yourself into before it happens. Not that it would have changed our decision to have children, but maybe would have prepared us a little more. Nah, I'm a procrastinator for the most part and my time management skills leave much to be desired, so even if I knew all I know now (which still isn't much), I would probably still be the scatter-brained, half-paying-attention, wanting-to-be-perfect mom that I am today. And I've decided I'm okay with that.

I'm not going to try and recap the last year; it's just too overwhelming to think about. I will tell you though that it has been an amazing one that has flown by like none other I've had. Our daughter, Maggie, is the most beautiful little creature that God has put on this earth. No offense to any of the other beautiful creatures out there, but she is! She has such a personality and is such a mama's girl, but showing signs every day of becoming a daddy's girl. She has started to take a few steps towards us, but no more than 4-5 in a row. She loves to point and does so at strangers. It's a little embarrassing. Lately she has been pointing at pictures a lot and wanting to touch Daddy in the pictures. If you ask her, "where's Daddy" and "where's Sport", she will point directly to them, but does not seem to know where Mama is located.

Okay, this is enough for today. I don't want to get carried away. It's not like I'm getting paid for this. I did want to say thought that I am so thankful the election is finally over. It didn't turn out the way I would have hoped, but to be honest, McCain was never 'my' guy anyway. It should be interesting to see how the next 4 years go and if this year was any indication, I will start looking for the ads for 2012 starting tonight. I'm just not sure I would be able to handle it.