The house is mostly unpacked and decorated….yay! It looks pretty darn cute if I do say so.
Before I show you some of the decorated rooms, I wanted to show you Video #2 of the house after I painted and did repairs to all the rooms. Again ignore my rambling awkward talking (in fact its best to just turn your sound off): Oh and in case you want to watch VIDEO #1 (pre-repairs and paint) Ill post that one first:
And the LATEST video:
Oh hey, I moved!
Sorry that this is the first update, its been a bit of a transition moving to Washington (from Colorado) but I finally have something worthy of talking about.
So prior to us moving here, my mom found us a little old house to move into. For the last 3 years we had been living in very nice upgraded condo, but never had a yard or a patio or anything like that. We knew when we moved to Bellingham that we wanted a different sort of living situation. Something that well help us focus more on the lifestyle we want to live.
Now I will be the first to say that I had a minor freak out when my mom and I met with the landlords on day one. I knew the house would be older and wouldn’t have the brand new shiny appliances I had been a custom to. However I was not prepared for the dirty grimyness of the place. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of money and work that would need to go into a place we were just renting. On top of that, Mr. Gaunt is till in Colorado, and he is the one that keeps me focused, keeps me level-headed.
So I went back and forth on how I felt about the house. Was the work worth the benefits? Could I handle crazy unreliable landlords that felt it fine to leave a bathroom unpainted and house uncleaned? (note: I spoke with them about having it professionally cleaned, and they are giving me a $150 budget to pay someone to clean)
During all of this I am living at my moms on her couch with all my stuff spilling out of suitcases. I’m a bit in the way, and my 4.5 years of life in Colorado has definitely changed the way I look at life and things a bit. Its been hard. Not stepping on people’s toes, not freaking out. I’m not really a “go with the flow” kinda girl (I’ll add it to my very long list of NEEDS IMPROVEMENT). All in all my minor freak out turned into a balls out yelling and crying freak out…..ugg.
So I did what I always do, I called Mr. Gaunt. And we talked for an hour. Talked about the pros and the cons of everything. Talked about all our plans that we had. Talked about how to clam me down and focus. Needless to say I’m pretty pleased I am marrying his butt.
Last night (after said total meltdown) my sister and I went back over to the house to make a video for Mr. Gaunt. Being there at night actually made the place feel warmer and cozier than in the day. And my sister was really great at pointing out all the cute things, and agreeing at all the dirty things. I felt better overall. This might work.
So Mr. Gaunt (I say this, because although he is not here, we are a team) and I have hired a family friend to come in and do a good cleaning, using the $150 our landlords will pay, and then paying whatever else on our own. After that I have to get some repair supplies, paint, contact paper, etc. And spend the next few weeks making this funky old house a home.
So I leave you with the Video we made for Mr. Gaunt. Please ignore my dorky voice and commentary. Oh and because it was night I was unable to film the yard (which is almost the best part). I will do a 2nd video of that later….maybe today.
Now according to this website these are only 1 point a piece! Now Im not 100% on that, but they are butter free so they can’t be too bad for you. While making them I was a little worried what they would turn out like, but oh my! Theses are probably he best cookies I have ever made! They are crispy on the outside and warm and buttery tasting on the inside…sigh. Yum. Mr. Gaunt thought they were amazing too. And they were so easy too, here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups Baker’s Angel Flake Coconut
2/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour cookie sheets. Mix coconut, sugar, flour and salt in bowl. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets. Cool on wire racks.
The only changes I made were that I used Whole Wheat flour and I did half white sugar half brown (because I didnt have enough white) I would do this combo again when making these because why mess with perfection?
Oh and I leave you with a fun little video Mr. Gaunt and I made when I showed him what happens when you squeeze a cattail! Very fun, but very messy. Enjoy!
Mr. gaunt and I had a pretty busy weekend. money is tight right now so we have been trying to do more less expensive or free things (like yesterday’s pumpkin patch) instead of shopping or anything like that.
For the last three years we have been trying to make it up to the mountains to see the Aspens in full yellow leaf lovelyniss, but always seem to miss it. We tried to go the last few weekends in a row but stuff came up, so Friday after work we headed up into the mountains all excited, but realized quickly that once again we had missed it. Oh well, we still strolled around in the woods, we even found a giant pig rock!
Us in the woods
See a giant pig rock in the woods!
Riding side-saddle?
Shadow Kiss
Windy and Cold!
Cute town of Idaho Springs
Today we decided to ditch house cleaning and go stroll around Denver’s Pearl St. and window shopped. It was BLAZING hot today, I think around 85 degrees, so we ate lunch on the Patio at The Crushery and had totally fattening Paninis! They were amazing, so if your down there you should try it! After that Mr. Gaunt drove us over to Washington Park and on a whim we rented a two person paddle boat ($15 for an hour) and paddle ourselves around for a good while, I even made a little video of us:
Anyways that was really fun! Tonight we carved pumpkins and watched Casper! Overall a great weekend! Not so great on the eating front, but Ive decided to move my weigh-in to Saturday so I wont be doing that for a week. That means gym gym gym for the next five days!
The Family Chapters 