Our new house, a work in progress. The "little man's" bedroom

This is our "little man's" bedroom. This is the first room I finished, well I use that term lightly as we still aren't fully unpacked. That actually includes putting all the clothes away as I haven't even found all the clothes or even all the hangers, yes I am currently taking all the hangers stores give me with my clothing purchases. Oh the joys of moving. 

Anyhow, this is the before picture of his room. It had decent looking roman shades although they were broken. It also wasn't quite as bright or dark of a color as several other rooms were and therefore didn't require as many coats of primer. 

The "little man" picked out the paint color for his new room, Valspar sweet mint. We actually liked it enough that we painted our bathroom the same shade and now I am really loving the name of the color because we just picked out our new dog yesterday who's name is Minted, how appropriate and funny that I just realized that his room is sweet mint and he picked a dog named Minted. 

I picked up the new bedding for his room at Target as he wanted a pirate/beach room. I loved the octopus pirate pillows so that was a bit of a splurge for his new room but given the quilts from his old room worked with the new bedding it wasn't that big of a deal. The sheets from his old room will be used in his play room/kids guest room when I finally get beds in there. 

As for the blinds we took all the window treatments in the house down and ordered new natural shades with black out liners from Lowes. The black out liners will not only provide privacy and allow the rooms to be dark for sleeping in and such but should also help cut down on the need for AC which is pretty high in Florida. I will post pictures of the blinds when they come in. I will say I loved how we could borrow the window blind book to check the colors at our house, we changed our color to a slightly lighter and brighter shade when we saw them in our house with our paint colors and all.

Removing popcorn from ceilings

Well we closed on our new house last Monday, so last Monday a lot of hard labor began for me. First on the list was taking the popcorn off the ceilings so they can be repaired and textured, yes they needed repair so I figured as long as we have to have them repaired we may as well take down the fabulous glitter popcorn and bring the house into the 21st century. Besides you can always tell where a popcorn ceiling was fixed no matter how good a job they do.

I won't lie to you, removing all that popcorn was not really an easy task but I kept telling myself I'll have some awesome looking arms when I finish will all of this work. It took me 10 days to get all the popcorn off all of the ceilings in the house. I will admit I did not actually work on the ceilings everyday of those 10 days either, probably about half of the days. My method of removal did evolve over the course of my project so I thought I would share some of the highlights and low points so you can learn from my adventure.

The first day I had a spray bottle and a putty knife. I sprayed the water using a spray bottle and scraped it off with a putty knife. It was very slow and the spray bottle kind of hurt my hand after a while, however if you are really tight on cash and not so tight on time this may be the best way for you to go as you can probably find all your supplies at the dollar store.

After that first day I ran out and picked up a garden sprayer and a wider blade on a longer handle so I wouldn't have to climb up and down the ladder all day and could spray more ceiling area faster. I used more of a floor squeegee as this is what I saw at the small hardware store right by the house and didn't have time to run to a bigger store that morning, it took a bit of elbow grease to get it to scrape as well as the metal blade on my putty knife. The garden sprayer definitely made life a whole lot easier and for about $20 was very well worth the money. The squeegee was definitely better, but when I had almost finished my project I discovered something truly awesome when I was wondering around at Lowe's (I'm sure other stores carry this too and wish I knew of it's existence sooner).

What did I discover? It was a blade for scraping popcorn off the ceiling that had a frame around the scraper that you attach a bag to so you catch all the popcorn in a bag instead of all over the floor and yourself. It was about $20 and you could attach it to a screw on handle to lengthen it so you don't need to climb up and down a ladder all day which trust me is a good thing unless you really want to feel the burn in your legs.

Also worth mentioning is to run into your local dollar store first and see what supplies they have. I got gloves and masks and plastic tarps and spray bottles and mops and putty knives and all kinds of great supplies so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning all those little things when I am done. Yes I know that it isn't very green to dispose of things but sometimes it is greener in it's own way and to me this is one of those times. Trust me you don't want to try to clean that popcorn off of anything you don't really need to, it is a really tedious prospect and uses a lot of water and still often doesn't really come clean. Also, that popcorn is hard on some of these things. My putty knives rusted quickly even while working on a room, that wet popcorn just sticks to things and rusted my putty knives quickly. Plastic tarps that are catching a big mess like this are definitely something better off thrown out, I just rolled the edges into the center and threw the whole mess in the trash.

This is a picture of the last room I scraped popcorn from. Yes that project is marked off my to do list.

You may want to know what you need, in case you plan to do this yourself. Well, you definitely need some water (you can use a hand spray bottle like I bought at the dollar store or you can use a garden sprayer like I opted for in the end) and a scraper (you can use a putty style knife like I bought at the dollar store or you can opt for a wider blade or maybe even go with the one that you attach a bag to to catch all the popcorn and you may want to get a longer handle so you don't need to stand on a ladder or chair).

Some things you should definitely consider are goggles, masks to cover your nose and mouth, gloves (I found some for gardening that had a really nice grip on the underside at the dollar store) tarps to protect your floors (especially carpet or wood, I wasn't as careful on the tile floors) and a mop to clean up the floors when you are done. If you get it on the walls you will want a microfiber towel or something to get it off the walls. I used a dollar store water bottle with mostly water and a little white vinegar added to it to really dissolve the mess off the walls and floors. 

Getting ready for Little Man's 3rd cruise

In just over 2 weeks we are going on our 3rd cruise with our Little Man. He is 3 and a half now, his last cruise was just before his 2nd birthday so it has been a while for all of us. So much has changed in the last 20 months so it will be a whole new experience for us. He is now old enough for the kids programs and is potty trained so he can use the pools. He has been in preschool for about 10 months so he is more accustomed to being away from mommy and daddy for extended periods of time.

What has changed?

Well we probably won't be bringing our trusty umbrella stroller with us, we have one that reclines so that he could nap easier in it. It was truly a great splurge for us, perfect for travel or even just taking the Metro around town. It folds up small enough to fit under the beds in hotel rooms and on cruise ships, saves so much room when you are already in cramped quarters. If you are wondering what stroller we have it is the Maclaren Quest, and actually we used it so much that we bought a second one for ourselves and even bought one for my sister for her daughter when we were in San Francisco utilizing the public transportation extensively. This stroller is perfect for those who are taller as the handles are much higher than on most umbrella strollers, no hunching over required for most people, but they aren't so high as to be uncomfortable for shorter people either.

We are leaving our car seat behind at the port, but this is the first time we are sailing from our home port. In the past we have always had our cabin steward store our car seat for the duration of our trip, most places in the Caribbean don't have seat belts to accommodate a car seat and if you take tour buses you will also not be able to use a car seat (just like on public transportation). It took us a little time to realize that we were always fine taking our little one on the buses and trains where we live but that taking him in a van or a bus elsewhere was really no different.  Once we got past that we had a great pair of cruises and were more than happy with the amount of stuff we saw, we just never sat in the front of the vehicle with the little one on our lap.

On our previous sailings (and other trips) we just packed the diapers and supplies in a bag and then we had somewhere for extra stuff to fit on the way home. Some people will pack those items in a box that they can dispose of after all the supplies are gone. Just make sure to bring more diapers and wipes and formula and other necessities than you think you could possibly need because it will be difficult and expensive to find additional supplies if you run out.

As far as snacks we don't really pack much to bring with us onto the ship as there is food everywhere. I have been known to stop by the breakfast buffet to grab a prepackaged serving of Cheerios to keep on hand as a snack as well as a few pieces of fruit. I also bring a sippy cup to put some orange juice into for later in the day as it is often difficult to get orange juice after breakfast and it is our little one's favorite beverage. Also if you have to mix formula just bring a reusable water bottle to fill with drinking water as the water from the tap is not potable. Don't forget a little bit of dish soap to wash sippy cups and bottles with, you may even want to bring a bottle brush to make it easier to clean things.

There are so many other little things too, but these are some of the big things when taking a cruise with a little one. If your little one prefers a bath you will also want to consider bringing along an inflatable bathtub to put in the shower, Holland America and Disney are 2 cruise lines that have bathtubs in most rooms.

Tangy Vegan Crockpot Corn Chowder

I found this recipe online the other day and whipped it up for dinner tonight. This was a delicious soup, of course I made a few alterations to the recipe as it was printed out on AllRecipes.com. Here is the recipe as I made it.











Tangy Vegan Crockpot Corn Chowder

2 (12 ounce) cans Whole Kernel Corn
3 cups Vegetable Broth
3 Potatoes, diced
1 large Onion, diced
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Chili Powder
2 teaspoons Salt
1 tablespoon Parsley Flakes
1 3/4 cups Soy Milk
1/4 cup Margarine

Place the corn, vegetable broth, potatoes, onion, garlic, chili powder, salt and parsley flakes in a slow cooker, cover. Cook on low for 7 hours.

Stir in the soy milk and margarine, cook on low for 1 hour. 

All new mirrors

It has been about a year and a half since we bought this house. It took some time to get the bathroom painted, new vanity mirrors hung, a shaving mirror put up on the wall, and a new picture hung on the wall. The picture is thanks to my mom who has been very generous in finding and purchasing art for us from the area I grew up, both my husband and I grew up in South Florida so it is nice to have some art from our area on the walls of our house. 

Creamy Potato Soup in a slow cooker

We finally got around to buying ourselves a slow cooker after using our rice cooker as a make shift one a few times. As we are enjoying some fairly chilly weather lately we have taken to enjoying more hot soups and other heavier meals, many that can be made in our slow cooker.

I found this Creamy Soup Recipe online. It is really good, I actually followed the directions and didn't do any substitutions or alterations when I made this. I just prepped everything in the morning and set the cooker and when it was close to dinner I added the milk and cream and put some dinner rolls in the oven (toaster/convection oven).

my weight is still going up

Let me just say that I did not sleep well last night and I am very tired. I am sure that over time these numbers will start to look better than they are right now. Remember muscle weights more than fat so as we add muscle our weight may increase, but muscle mass also burns more calories than fat. I am reminding myself of these facts so I don't get discouraged.

BMI = 25.23
Weight = 166.4
Wii Fit age = 38

My day is going by faster than I would like, well I did have a breakfast date with my husband so that did put my exercise schedule a little behind for the day. I have to go get the little man from preschool soon so I did not get my run in yet, I am hoping he will run with me after I pick him up. I did get in 2 Zen classes and 1 new cardio class, with all the training time to learn all the new moves it was like doing 2 sessions.

Run accomplished and then some. I actually started my run and was a good 5 minutes plus into it when I had to tend to the little man's needs so I restarted my 30 minute run and I have a new record for my 30 minute run even after running for 5 minutes shortly before starting my 30 minutes. I am so happy. I got a good work out in 5 days in a row and I outdid my current record on my run 4 of the 5 days. Hopefully if I keep up with my exercises I will start to see a difference in the number on the scale or at least a difference in the way my clothes look and fit on me.