Bits and Pieces

Life has been a bit on the busy side lately between making major life decisions, getting Preston ready to graduate, working on the house, and Cohen starting to get more mobile. It's a good kind of busy but I will be glad when Preston is officially done with school and we can have more time for fun.

A lot of people have been wondering what our plans are after graduation so here is the scoop. Preston really wants to go to grad school at the University of Texas in Austin. It has the exact program he wants, a great reputation, lower tuition than most grad schools, and it is in a good area with a low cost of living. We have been praying about it for months now and we feel really good about moving to that area, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, because of the bad economy, the engineering program had an unusually high 1,100 applicants for less than 200 open slots and they had to turn away tons of qualified people that would have otherwise been selected. We were one of them. We were really disappointed and not sure what to do but after more consideration and discussion and prayer, we decided that for whatever reason, we still feel good about moving to Austin. We love Colorado and we have always talked about going back but for some reason it just doesn't feel quite right to do it right now. Hopefully someday. So the plan is to look for jobs in the Austin area and when/if Preston gets hired we will move down there. We will establish Texas residency and try again for grad school at UT next year. His second choice school is Texas A&M so if he doesn't get into UT and gets accepted there, it would be an easy move and we would still have in-state tuition. I guess we will see what happens. I have always mocked all things Texan, (including people, I admit) so it is odd that I am so excited about this.

So basically, we still don't have any definite plans. If he finds a job there it could be next month or six months or next year. He still has a job here as a backup, thank goodness, so there is really no huge rush to get down there. In the meantime, we have decided that we are going to sell the house when we move. We thought about renting it out but we would really rather not deal with that if we don't have to. We are slowly trying to fix things up around the house here and there before we put it on the market. A lot of it is just cosmetic, but hopefully it will compete well with other houses like ours when people walk through it. With Preston working and finishing up school, I have been doing most of the work so far...which is fine by me. Anyone who knows me knows I love to do stuff like that. Plus, a lot of the stuff I have been doing has involved being crafty and finding frugal ways to make our house look nicer and more updated.

PS. just a little disclosure (as in, don't have a heart attack when you read this)....I, Amber Hennrich, actually SEWED. Yes, you read that right. I sewed. As in, sat down with a sewing machine (I had to learn how to use it first) and sewed. I, along with most people, never thought that would actually happen, but it has and I have to admit I actually kinda like it. Well, I get really frustrated with it too sometimes, but for the most part, it has been fun learning something new.

I don't have any of the rooms completely done but when I do I will show you before and after shots because I LOVE the changes. But for now, here are some snippets of what I've been up to.

Kitchen Wall and Window Before

Kitchen Window After

Kitchen Wall After (made this from stuff laying around the house)

Other Kitchen Window Before

Other Kitchen Window After

I even made the tie-backs. I love them!

New Curtains I Made for the Living Room-anything beats the black ones I had there before. What was I thinking??? Oh, and I made these out of canvas drop cloths from Lowe's for $9 ($4,50 per window actually)

Fireplace Screen Before-(Please ignore the trash waiting to burned, how embarrassing!

Fireplace Screen After

Amazing what you can do with a little black spray paint and some wire hangers!

Area Rug Before (The black spots are from tank walking on it with black paint on his paws...long story). And yes, that's March Madness basketball on the TV. :)

Area Rug After-Yep, I painted it

Mantle Before

Mantle After-Still a work in progress but at least it has more color

None of these things is really a huge deal but sometimes it's nice to have a change. Once you see the whole room before and after shots of the upstairs kitchen, downstairs kitchen, and living room, it will all come together more. Today I am refinishing a desk (which I am sooo excited about-I'm going bold!) and attempting to slipcover our couch (yeah, I know, good luck right?)

Oh, and just in case this post isn't long enough already, here are a couple pics of Cohen, just cuz he's cute. :)

Isn't he getting so big!?! He's 8 months already!

PS. I dropped our camera in the tub after this shot. Talented, I know.

He can scoot around in circles and go backwards but hasn't figured out forward crawling yet.

He can't crawl but he can pull himself into standing position with no problem and he loves it!

Okay, well that's our life for now. More to come soon!

All About the Babe

I've realized lately that I haven't done any recent posts about Cohen so I need to fix that asap! He is growing up so fast, I can't even believe it. It's like he's still a baby but kinda not. I mean, he's not really a little boy quite yet, but he isn't this tiny little innocent child who stares at the wall and needs my help with everything. He is seven months old now (well, he will be on Friday), and I am enjoying being with him more and more every day. I love this age and watching him learn things and figure things out on his own. I love that we can interact more and laugh together. And this kid's smile can change my day, no matter how rough it may have seemed before. It's impossible to not smile when I hear him laugh. He really does bring so much joy to our lives. I've added pictures of him to the end of this post.

Here are some random facts about our growing boy:
1. He makes all of his cutest/most interesting noises when he is getting frustrated and about to throw a fit. (I always know it's coming but I leave him there just so I can listen to his funny noises....is that wrong?)
2. He is 17 lbs 11 oz and about 27 inches. Still kinda short but getting better!
3. He loves to spit and has learned how to do it with food in his mouth.
4. He has been feeding himself (with a bottle of course, not with a spoon yet) for a couple months now. (He has huge hands!)
5. He drinks out of a sippy cup on his own and also loves to drink out of our normal cups.
6. He now eats baby food and so far there is nothing he refuses to eat. He, surprisingly, even gets excited about peas and green beans. I know I wouldn't.
7. Whenever I go to get him out of his crib he has randomly pushed himself up into the corner of it and is covered with his stuffed animals.
8. 9 out 10 times when Preston changes his diaper, he lets loose and pees all over himself. He has only ever done it with me once...for some reason Preston just brings that out in him I guess. Male bonding, perhaps?
9. He LOVES Tank. He is always reaching for him and trying to pet him and letting him lick his hands (don't worry I try to clean them off) and he gets all excited to see him. It's cute.
10. He is finally sleeping through the night again. Hallelujah!
11. He has two teeth and is working on another one.
12. He LOVES his daddy. Smiles pretty much every time he sees him. I get kinda jealous but I can't really blame him. I love his daddy too. :)
13. He continues to have the best pouty lip I have ever seen on a kid.
14. His hair is still red but changing from fiery orange to more of an auburn and we get compliments on it everywhere we go, without fail.
15. He loves being upside down, he loves riding on Preston's shoulders, and he loves peek-a-boo.
16. He cocks his head but only to the left, slaps his knee with only his left hand, and kicks with only his right foot. Kinda quirky but cute.
17. He's a typical red-head...stubborn, feisty, and determined. With us as parents, could you expect anything less?
18. He is an angel in public. I have never had him throw a fit while in a restaurant or store or ward activity. He just sits quietly and looks around at everything wide-eyed.
19. He's not much of a cuddler, which makes me sad. Maybe one day...
20. He knows how to roll over but refuses to do it. He rolled over for two weeks straight then decided he didn't want to anymore and now he just lays there and throws a fit until I pick him up. Frustrates the heck out of us but oh well.
21. Not crawling yet but slowly getting closer to figuring out the hands and knees thing.
22. Loves being outside and going for walks.
23. Has more facial expressions than I've ever seen on such a tiny person and can change to five different ones in 2 seconds. No exaggeration. I can't get my videos to upload to my blog but I would show you if I could. It's hilarious.
24. I can give him ten different toys, including an old cell phone that no longer works and without fail, the one thing he wants to play with is MY phone. He is obsessed with my phone, the tv remote, and the laptop. In a brief moment of non-supervision (he was on my lap but I was on the phone), he managed to bookmark a random page, open an excel spreadsheet, and perform a search. LOL.
25. He is pretty much the Cutest. Kid. Ever.

I could go on forever but I won't for your sake. I'm just so grateful for this beautiful boy and that his very existence inspires and pushes me to be a better mother and a better person. It's amazing how much a child can help you learn patience, compassion, charity, selflessness, and love.

In other news, still no word from grad schools (specifically the University of TX in Austin, our number one choice) but we are hoping to hear back anyday.

I can't believe Preston finally graduates in just a few weeks. When we first got married it seemed like it would be forever and now here we are. I am so proud of him.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this before but we want to/plan to live abroad someday (temporarily of course, for just a few years) and all the places we prefer to live are German speaking so we have decided to learn German. I am actually really enjoying it. It's something fun we can do together. If you come over, please ignore the random sticky notes all over our house with German words on them. :)

I think that's all that's new with us but hopefully we will have grad school news to post soon! Here are the pictures of Cohen I promised...watch out, there are a lot!

Photo Clocks

We do not have a single clock up in our entire house (unless you count the microwave!). So I was looking at craft blogs one day and ran across this at http://rosyredbuttons.blogspot.com/

Of course I decided we needed one and that I was going to make it myself. I originally narrowed it down to five pictures but had such a hard time deciding I ended up making two clocks, one for the living room and one for our bedroom.



I have to say I really like how they turned out. Definitely better than I thought they would! What do you guys think?

Craft Blog Overload

So ever since I decided I wanted to try to be more crafty, I've become obsessed. I really love the concept of making your home look cute or nice for as little money as possible. I love re-purposing items or making masterpieces out of old yard sale finds. It's something I've always enjoyed and wanted to do but I haven't done it much because we don't plan to stay in this house for long and I don't want extra stuff to have to move. We already have way more junk than we need as it is. Preston is one of those get-rid-of-everything type people and I'm a total pack-rat. I think we find a pretty good balance...most of the time. :) But I like being able to dig through stuff in the garage or basement and use something that I haven't touched in months. Okay, years, who am I kidding?

Anyways, so in this new quest for craftiness I've started looking at craft blogs. The problem is that I find a blog I like that fits my style and has stuff I want to try and then I look at the list of blogs that THEY like and I find ten more websites that have cool stuff I want to try, and then each of them has links to sites that end up being cool and so on and so forth. It's never ending. I've had to force myself to stop looking at new sites. As it is, I already have like forty websites bookmarked on my computer. It's almost ridiculous. Okay, not almost. It IS ridiculous. It's just that they all have things I want to remember. I mean, I'm coming up on thirty, my memory just isn't what it used to be and there's no way I'm going to get to ALL of these projects anytime soon.

It's just so addicting for some reason. I've never so much as learned how to properly sew a button on my shirt but some of these blogs have me wanting to buy a sewing machine so I can make cute aprons and baby shoes and drapes and re-purposed old clothes. Preston is a little hesitant to let me buy a sewing machine, which is understandable. Especially considering he had a pair of sweats with a hole in it that I told him I would stitch for him like two years ago. A couple of weeks ago I found him sewing it himself. Oops. I should probably work on my being-a-good-wife skills but to be honest he probably did a much better job than I would have anyway. :) So yes, his hesitation is understandable. Maybe I will give it a few weeks and see if this ends up being another "phase" where I get excited about things and then never do anything about it. Yeah, I know, I have problems. I'm working on it. Kind of.

I've never been one to decorate my house for any holidays besides Christmas but I'm giving it a shot this year. I even got a little cutesie with it. P.S. I should probably give due credit to the different blogs where I got all of these ideas, but I don't really have time to look through each of those forty bookmarked blogs I told you about to find which ones I used.

Everything on this mantle cost me a total of $4

An old picture matting I found and backed with the bottom of a christmas box, then lettered with tissue paper rosettes.

Tissue paper rosette topiary with a metal pail I got at DI years ago, and a candlestick my friend Ashley brought me from Denmark ages ago.

Picture frame for $0.50 at DI, backed with an old Victoria's Secret gift bag, and covered with soap roses from the dollar store for $1.

Wood blocks for $2 (for the whole pkg) that I painted, glittered, and covered with sticky letters I already had.

My magnet board from Christmas where I added a couple of wood hearts from Robert's for a few cents each. A $1 styrofoam ball covered with red tissue paper and pearl pins and another DI picture frame I painted, backed with an old gift bag, and covered with tissue paper roses and a real flower.

You probably can't read this but it says Always Kiss Me Goodnight. I hung it above our bed. They are $1 platters from the dollar tree that I spray painted and the vinyl was from
the dollar store as well. I already had one platter so this cost me $3 total.

I'm working on another project right now for Preston's Valentines day present that I may put pictures of later...if it actually turns out!

Well, I have a baby to feed, a floor to vacuum, a dog to brush, and a sink full of dishes to wash (all in the 45 minutes until Preston comes home, LOL) but next time I have a minute I will finally post a Cohen update with some cute pictures so stay tuned.

Project Central

I LOVE being a mom. Cohen is seriously the cutest kid ever and I have so much fun with him every day. The first three months or so were pretty rough for us...he wasn't the easiest baby, but even then I couldn't imagine not being able to be home with him every day. He laughs and plays and reaches and grabs and gets excited and talks a ton. He rolled over once but I missed it and I haven't gotten him to do it again. He is almost sitting up on his own and he eats rice cereal like a pro. His hair gets more and more red every day and it has actually grown on me a lot. I think it's cute. He has a giant swirly cowlick in the middle of his forehead that I'm sure he is going to hate one day but I think it is adorable. His little personality is emerging and we are having so much fun with it.

However, going from being a full-time career woman for the last ten years to being a stay at home mom has been a bit of an adjustment for me. I know, and strongly believe, that being a mom is the most important job in the world and every little mundane task you do every day is important and shows how much you love your baby. But sometimes, day after day of doing nothing but feeding, changing, burping, rocking, bathing and getting spit up/thrown up/peed on can sometimes make you feel like your contribution to society is somewhat minimal and you've sort of lost your identity a little. Well, maybe others don't feel that way, but I have.

My solution to this problem...I desperately need a hobby. The problem is, I have no idea what I would do for a hobby that is both affordable and something I can do with a baby right next to me. I've thought about learning to knit or crochet. I see all the cute little hats and scarves and flowers that other people make and I love them, but for some reason I just don't get that excited about making them myself. So then I thought about learning to sew. Slightly more interesting to me, but still not very exciting. Maybe if learned to do something cool I would find it enjoyable. Who knows. But I don't have a sewing maching, nor the money to buy one at the moment, so I guess that option has to be on hold for now. Unless someone out there has an old one they are wanting to get rid of?? I have started to enjoy cooking more but it's kind of hard to make great meals with such a young baby who needs constant attention. I know every other woman on the planet is capable of doing it but I haven't quite figured it out yet. I've still been trying, but I don't think it is going to become an art form anytime soon. Something I actually do get excited about is refinishing old furniture and turning old stuff into nice, new-looking stuff. Unfortunately, being outside in the garage in the middle of winter working with power tools, turpentine, and paint isn't really the best atmosphere for a four-month old. Guess that one is going to have to wait awhile too. So the only thing left that I could think of is getting crafty in my home decor. I'm not a real crafty person but I do love decorating so it's a good compromise. I'm terrible at being creative enough to come up with stuff on my own but I'm decent at taking inspiration from other people's ideas and making them my own.

So I decided I really need a project to work on and with Christmas around the corner I decided that decorating my house for Christmas would be the perfect place to start. I wanted to put up some different decorations than usual and use different colors than the typical red and green. I received most of my inspiration from a really cute blog that my friend Michele told me about, http://houseofsmiths.blogspot.com. I did my kitchen in silver, white, and different shades of blue. I did my living room in silver, pearl, and different shades of sage green. Here is the inspiration picture on the houseofsmiths blog:


Mine doesn't look nearly as cool but here is what I ended up with:

This is made out of 4 paper napkins, believe it or not. Probably one of the cheapest crafts you can make.

This is a magnet board I bought on sale at Roberts, as well as a pack of wooden letters, a pack of small magnets, and a wooden tree for like $0.79. I like this because I can change it up for different holidays or occasions and put whatever I want on it.

You probably can't read it because I didn't buy big enough letters, and I should have used all blue ornaments, but this spells out Merry and is hung right above the Christmas sign.

This picture is blurry but it's just a vase from my wedding with silver tinsel, blue tissue paper, and a string of silver beads.

This is the centerpiece for my table. nothing super fancy but it works.

The letters are still small but I learned my lesson about using all blue ornaments so you can read it better.

These next few are just old vases filled with branches from our yard that I spray painted white, and covered with green beads and silver ornaments from the dollar store. Then I took some silver picture frames, also from the dollar store, and printed out pictures of Cohen from our computer and hung them on as well. Sorry for the bad lighting in these pictures.

My $30 garage sale village. I made the little pond out of aluminum foil. I know, very innovative. I'm a genious.

Not a very good picture but I used champagne type glasses and put tea lights in them to make candles and then just put some greenery and some silver ornaments to give it some color. Again, nothing fancy. I'm thinking about getting some silver colored candlesticks and doing then napkin snowball flower things like I did in the kitchen.

And our tree that contains some unique ornaments we got from Salzburg, Prague, Venice, and Switzerland. Preston mostly loves playing with the train. Same with Tank.

So, that's basically it. Nothing big but it gave me something to do and helped me feel at least somewhat accomplished for the time being. Anyone have any suggestions for other good hobbies to take up??