My Silly Lilly

Starting to pick up....

So my photography business is starting to pick up which is fun and scary at the same time! If the whole wedding thing pans out, I'd be happy if I were able to book like 10 or so weddings a year, but I'd like to keep the focus on family and children for the time being. I just love the interactions between families. It's just so much fun and I think that I would miss that if I were to focus solely on weddings. Who knows what the future holds, but hopefully it only gets better from here on out. Here's a couple of shots from my family session this past week.....



In other news, I'm missing Lillian terribly!! She's been in Syracuse since Sunday and it's so strange with it being so quite around here. Mary offered to take her a few days before the wedding so I could prepare myself, which in the end has been a huge help. I've been working on getting the images from the family session edited so I can just focus on the wedding first thing Monday morning. It's going to be quite the experience editing and narrowing down a possible 3,000+ images for a wedding compared to my typical family sessions!! I'm sure I'll be a little overwhelmed at first, but like everything in life, practice makes perfect!!

We're coming along nicely with the house. We put in the new screens on the lower rear porch and Dan's going to work on putting the trim up this weekend. He's also going to start taking the paint off with the power washer. Who knows how long it will take for everything to get done, but it'd be nice if we could be done with the outside within a month. But somehow I highly doubt it with all that's going on!

My impatient, hard working....

husband decided that painting the house needed to be moved up. I understand the reasoning.....wanting the outside to look nice because everyone sees that first! My thing was getting the lower rear porch sanded because it was in really rough shape and it'd be nice for Lillian to play in there so I can unpack. Well Dan thought that we might as well start the scraping and painting process too while we're at it. Let me tell you........restoring this house is no easy task!! I say restoring because we'd like to keep the original charm that led us to it. How sad would it be to put up aluminum siding? With a lot of hard work, we can bring her back (yes it's a she) to her original beauty. So, we decided to go green!! It's Olivine Green from Behr just in case you're interested and I absolutely love it. The trim.....well....the first one we picked out totally stunk. So rather than risk another wasted gallon of paint, we decided to play it safe and go with a creamy off white. It's not like we're lacking in color or anything.....especially amongst all of the other white houses around us! We were thinking of painting the door black, but I don't think that will look good with the new floor paint which is going to be a dark brown color. So I'm still going to try and take the paint off and stain it.....otherwise I'll just paint it the off white color. I've been painting like a mad woman and sweating buckets to boot! I'm just really excited to see it all finished, though I'm sure it will be awhile considering we still have to get all of the old paint off. Anyways, here's a couple of pics.....

Been awhile....

I know.....it's been awhile since I posted a picture of Lillian. We went outside today since we finally had some relief from the humidity. I can deal with the heat, but it's the humidity that keeps me inside! Anyways, here she is looking all cute....


I cut her bangs again myself...probably too short once again. For some reason I'm afraid to bring her to the hairdresser! I think a part of it is me trying to deny the fact that she's growing up. She's starting to get so big that I'm probably going to have to make her start walking herself to bed. We'll probably also be removing the front rail from her bed sometime soon....most likely when she gets back from her stay in Syracuse with Grandma and Grandpa where she'll be in a big girl bed all by herself! She'll be there for a whole week so that she'll not only be able to visit but also to give me a break! I'll be shooting my first wedding on the 26th so that week will give me some time to prepare! Anyways, I need to go clean the floor and start preparing dinner.....have I mentioned how much easier it is to clean wood floors.....no more carpets for us!!!!

Oh Snap!!

So this is what I've been up to while it's been hot and humid outside (you can click on the image to make it larger)....

I just finished all of the details regarding the print packages and what not so I'm ready to start advertising. The packages.....let me tell you......are a steal of a deal!!! You'd totally be crazy NOT to book a party with me!!! If you're interested, be sure to contact me soon since my schedule is starting to fill up!!!

Be the first to book a session from this ad and mention the words "I'm first" and receive a free 11x14!!!

New pics

So I thought it was time to finally update what we've been looking at for the past couple of days. It was a lot of work, but well worth every drop of sweat. I'm sure we saved a bunch of money doing it ourselves and I happen to think that it turned out okay considering that we've never done it before. There are some water stains that we weren't able to lift with the sander, but I think that it only add to the character of the house. So as you can tell from this pic, things are coming along nicely. I still need to get a couple more sets of curtains and some stuff up on the walls and then we'll be all done with this room.



I'll be stripping the paint off of the front door and staining it since the paint kinda looks icky. Just another one of the many summer projects at the Bombria house this summer......that sounds so strange to me still.....Bombria house......it's actually ours!!!



So our next project is the drywall in the kitchen. We're going to replace it because it's really damaged and I don't think that I can stand looking at the wallpaper much longer. The major kitchen remodel won't happen for a couple of years, mostly because we want to do it right. Tearing down a few walls, getting all new cabinets, appliances, floors, etc. isn't going to be cheap and obviously it isn't something that we're prepared to do right now......I guess now would be a good time to win the lottery! I'm just really proud of all of the work that we've been putting into the house so far......my only wish is that all of the boxes would unpack themselves because I really HATE unpacking....but at least this is the last time right?!

Anyways, not much else is going on. I'm turning the big 2-9 tomorrow.....for the first time too!!! Can't believe I'm that old.....it still feels like I just graduated from high school sometimes. Nothing planned because really....who wants to celebrate your 29th birthday?! Maybe I'll pick up a Carvel Ice Cream cake for myself since Dan will most certainly forget like always (I'm used to it).....he'll remember like a week later though so I guess that's all that matters!!!

The Outside....

So this is the outside of our house. It was built in 1927 and we have a slate roof. As you can see, the slate needs to be cleaned, but other than that it will probably outlast us as long as we take care of it. Since Dan used to do landscaping, he'll be working his magic with our yard. That big old bush/shrub/whatever it is next to the stairs is coming out. We're going to put raised beds around the house and put some flowers and what not. The beds won't happen until next year, but we'll probably just rip that bush and trim the rest in the meantime. We also plan on taking out the concrete paths out and replacing them with something else. We also need to pave the driveway at some point as well.
Here is the main reason that we're painting this year. The whole house looks like this and with a 2 year old running around it probably isn't the safest having little paint chips all over the place. In all likelihood there's some lead paint involved so we'll be taking extra special care with the scraping and disposal of everything. We're painting it some shade of green....like a moss or sage sorta color with tan accents.
And this......this is where it's at!! This is the Battenkill River from our backyard. The water is a little high at the moment because of all of the rain that we've been getting. It's such a beautiful river and Dan's told that there's a fishing hole right around the bend.....who thought we'd be able to put our waders on and fly fish from our backyard!! We're just going to make a little path to the river and leave the rest as it is because it's part of the habitat for the fish



So when I said that we have a lot of work ahead of us, I wasn't kidding!!! It'll be a complete transformation inside and out!

Whew!!!

I'm pooped!!! Actually we're both really pooped....or maybe more exhausted....and we haven't even moved in yet! We closed on Friday and started working on the house as soon as we got the keys. We came back and started painting the living room. Pat picked up Lillian after work (which we're so thankful for....no way we would have been able to finish with her running around!) While we were waiting for the paint in the living room to dry we started painting the dining room. It's a dark teal and it was a little shocking at first, but I really like it (need to take pics today of it) Yesterday we spent the day sanding the floor in the living room. We now know why the professionals charge so much to do it......it's A LOT of work. But we saved so much doing it ourselves. It looks like the last time it was done they cut some corners and were a little sloppy with their work. They used a circular sander around the edges of the wall and left some circular marks in the floors. I did my best to remove what I could, but I guess in the end it adds character to the house! So, how about some pics?!

This is our lovely 1970's kitchen....wallpaper and all! We have a lot of longterm goals for this room which include ripping out the the wall of cabinets and moving in the wall on the right. The wall with the sink and fridge will turn into a half wall to open it up to the living room. Since it will be a couple of years until we're able to tackle this, we're going to work on some short term goals. First thing to go is the wallpaper and some of the drywall which is damaged. We're also going to put some of that peel and stick laminate flooring down that looks like tile since the flooring on it now is damaged. We're going to paint the fridge black to go with our new stove. I'm sure once we're done with the short term stuff it will look like a completely different room.....which is certainly a good thing!!

Need a 30 year old stove?

The lovely wallpaper with glitter on it.....seriously......how could this have ever been in style?!

Living Room Before

Living Room After Paint and sanding....Dan also put in new light fixtures and the base and top of the stairs.

Living Room Before.....the main reason we decided to sand the floors!

After sanding. We're staining today......a dark walnut color!

The nice and wide staircase!

Living Room Before

After

Anyways, it's going to be a long week and we're going to be really tired.....but in the end it'll so be worth it. Besides the kitchen stuff that we'll be doing a few weeks our only other major task this year is going to be repainting the outside of the house. We have to completely scrape the entire house. We'll be starting late August so we'll have a little time to relax.....but not too much time. We knew it was going to be a lot of work when we bought it, but it's ours and we can make it our own!!

The day before....

So it's finally here. Tomorrow is the day where I'll finally feel like a full fledged adult.....silly I know! Renting really sucks. You spend all of this money and in the end you have nothing to show for it. Up until this point, buying our own home was the last piece of the puzzle for me. My family will finally have some roots to plant. Tomorrow is going to be such a whirlwind of a day for us and I'm sure in the process I'll probably shed some tears because of shear joy......and then later on from shear exhaustion! Over the next week we have a long list of things to tackle before the final move which includes.....

Paint Living and Dining Room
Paint Bathroom
Sand, Stain and Seal Wood floors
Install Kitchen Sink Faucet
Install Shower Fixture
Clean Attic
Prep Kitchen and half bath for new floor
Clean up yard

The next few years will be devoted to remodeling the house. We'd like to do the upstairs bathroom later this year and I'm really excited. Next year we're probably going to replace the windows since they're the original ones that came with the house which of course means that they're single pane......not exactly energy efficient!! The biggest task will be the kitchen. We plan on knocking down a few walls and completely opening up the downstairs.

So.....when I get back here this weekend I'll be sure to take some before pictures.....including the beautiful wallpaper in the kitchen.....gotta love that 70's wallpaper that has glitter in it!!!

This....

Pretty much sums up how we're all feeling here in Bombria land! We're pooped and we're ready for this week to be over with! Lillian has a slight touch of a cold and I'm trying to stay on top of it because I don't want to make another trip to the hospital (knock on wood!) As of right now, our closing is scheduled for Friday at 11 am......it was pushed back a day. What does this mean for us.........a longgggggg Friday night filled with painting 2 rooms that need to be sanded the next day!!! We have to paint the dining room and the family room in one night. I know we'll be able to do, it's just going to be a long day/night!!! We're going to spend the night at the house and put Lillian on the twin bed and me and Dan will sleep on the blow up. Anyways, I just thought that I'd update the blog since it's been awhile!

Maine 2008

We're Back.....

and we're tired!!!! It was a long and great week and we certainly loved getting away from everything. The weather wasn't the greatest, but it could have been a lot worse. It rained almost every evening, but for the most part it stayed dry during the day. Lillian did okay.......just

okay.....not great, not horrible.......just okay! It was most certainly a learning experience and something we won't be doing when we have another 2 year old. It goes to show how important a daily routine is to a two year old. Change things up a bit and they just don't know what to do with themselves!!! Don't get me wrong, I loved our vacation. But I want her to love it as well and I'm not sure that she did. She did love the beach though......so much so that she didn't want to leave. She's back to the "normal" Lillian that I know and love now that we're home and I'm happy to report that she slept in her own bed last night. You would think that sleeping in a king size bed would be more than enough room......well not when you sleep with Lilly! Anyways, I'll be editing pics and putting all of them in a slideshow that I'll probably finish up on Monday or Tuesday so in the meantime here are a few from our week.....
First time in the ocean!

A field of Lupine's on the street that our cabin was on

This was the view from our cabin

And this was the view from a rock that I was sitting on while I waited for Dan and Lillian to return from their little adventure on the carriage roads.

Well, we've got a busy week ahead here in Vermont since we're closing on the 20th.....time is just flying by!!

The Countdown Begins

2 Year Check-up

My little girl isn't so little anymore! She's still in the 90th percentile for height at 35 1/2 inches tall and she's average weight at 27.5 lbs. She didn't receive any immunizations today but did have some blood drawn which she was not happy about and screamed bloody murder!!! We stopped at the grocery store to get her a donut for being such a good girl. Dr. Orton is happy with her progress and even said that we can get her a tricycle which I'm excited about and we'll probably get her that for her birthday!

Today we're packing for our vacation. So, so, so happy to get away from here and the stress of everything going on. We're leaving at 2 am Saturday morning in hopes that Lillian will sleep for a good portion of the trip. It takes around 8 hours to get there so we'll probably stop for breakfast along the way and then pick up our groceries for the cabin before our check-in time at 1. After we get there we're planning on getting our weekly car pass for Acadia National Park and do the loop around the whole park. We'll be making our own breakfast and lunch for each day and eating out for dinner and ice cream each night! With gas at the current prices, we're pretty much planning on staying on the island......not that we ever really need to go off of the island! We're going to go biking a couple of days, hike a mountain ( a small mountain.....I'm REALLY out of shape.....and I have asthma!!!) I'm not too sure what the plan is with Lillian and her naps. She'll probably only sleep in the car so we'll see what happens. She slept in bed with us the other night so I'm sure everything will be fine in the king size. Anyways, we'll come back from our trip refreshed and hopefully with some great photos to share!!!

Couple more days.....

until we head off for Maine. I'm so excited to get away from everything, especially our next door neighbors! They are so loud and so rude that it's really stressing me out. They've woken up Lillian a couple of times in the middle of the night this past week because they're playing their surround sound way too loud. A whole week of peace and quite.....CAN'T WAIT!!!! And then when we get back we'll be closing in 12 days!!!! It's still hard to believe that it's finally happening, probably because we're so ready for it to happen.

Anyways, I've been knitting again. I always start a project and never finish. I went to Greenwich this past weekend to buy some good yarn but then when I nearly finished the hat I realized that I had misplaced some of my double point needles to finish it off. So yesterday we went to Manchester and they had such an amazing selection of yarns. She said that they have knitting groups each month so I'm thinking that once things settle down after the move that I'll start going. So here's a pic of Lilly in the finished product....
And then just a sweet one of her with her sweet little smile!!

A photo tells a story....

and for me, it opened my eyes. Last night, I sat down at my desk and put a memory card in my camera and uploaded the photos from my niece Marianna's baptism in which me and Dan were the godparents. I started going through the images and there it was, in plain sight, a picture of me. I wanted to cry, but I didn't. Actually now thinking about it is bringing tears to my eyes! Basically, I look like crap and that's putting it nicely!!! How did I let myself get to this point?! I'm sure being a SAHM has played some role in it, but it certainly isn't an excuse. I was active in high school and stayed relatively thin......too think that I thought a size 6 meant that I was fat makes me cringe now!! I stayed pretty thin until I got an office job and then it all went down hill from then. And then I got pregnant. I lost 38 pounds throughout most of the pregnancy but gained 10 of it back the week before Lillian was born because of my blood pressure. And now here I am. I hate the way I look and I just can't do this anymore. I want to be proud of what I see in the mirror. And most importantly I want to be around to watch my daughter grow up, and if I stay the way I am I may not have that opportunity. Plus I want to have another child, and it certainly isn't a safe decision to make at this weight. So, you may be asking, what are you going to do to change your current situation.

Well.....at this point, I have a lot of stress, although there's really nothing to be stressed about. But for me, buying our first home and not knowing what to expect is very stressful on me. I go to bed with Dan now around 10 p.m. and get up with Lillian around 7:30, which is certainly more than enough sleep, but I still don't feel rested even though I'm not waking up throughout the night. So, I've decided that the first night that we spend in the house, is the day that I start changing my life. For me I know the biggest thing missing is the activity factor. We'll be living across the street from a great park and I plan on taking full advantage of it. And I also plan on getting Dan in on the action too because we both need a good kick in the butt. I'm just ready to look in the mirror again and be happy with my reflection. Anyways, I knew that if I spoke outloud, that I'd have to hold myself accountable.......so we'll see how this summer goes!!!!

Scrapping....

isn't something that I have a lot of time for anymore! I'm only on one creative team thankfully and it's been hard enough just meeting my minimums, so I've been trying to do a little better....even with all that's going on this month!


Dan brought down the large boxes from the attic last night and I'm going to start going through them today. I know that I need to get rid of a lot of clothing, stuff that I simply don't fit into anymore. Even if I did lose enough weight to fit back into them I'd still want to get new stuff. I'm hoping to lose a lot of weight when we move into the house. I can't wait till we can enjoy being in our own lawn and having a great park right across the street. Me and Lilly are going to wait to start going to the playgroups at the library until we move.....too much going on right now! Anyways, we'll be spending this beautiful day indoors throwing stuff out and putting stuff together for our first yard sale!!!!

She makes me laugh....

and she really makes my day!! Lillian has been walking up and down the stairs by herself for the past couple of months. Everything upstairs is just as safe downstairs so she's able to roam freely and play where she likes. So this morning we came downstairs as usual and she got her morning milk and watched a little Noggin. I decided to start the laundry a little earlier than normal (yes I am the worst when it comes to laundry as Dan likes to point out!) and Lilly decided she wanted to go upstairs. Typically she'll turn on her radio and dance or turn on the water in the bathroom sink and brush her teeth. Welllllll.......she was being REALLY quite and that can only mean one thing......she got into something. So I walk upstairs and she's in our bedroom......and her head is COMPLETELY COVERED with Dan's hair gel!!!! I just started laughing hysterically and couldn't help but grab the camera........

answered prayers

Well, the big man up above was listening to our prayers!! We finally got word back from the bank today and they took a closer look at the flood zone and verified that the house isn't in the flood zone! To say that this has been weighing heavily on our minds the last couple of days would be an understatement. The thought of having to pay that much a year in insurance was doable, but certainly not something that we were looking forward too. I'm really glad that I didn't cancel our vacation......and that we questioned where the flood zone actually was....could you imagine if we didn't! So now the countdown begins....34 days until we close.....WOOHOO!!!!

Life wouldn't be the same....

without a little bit of drama!! On Tuesday I received an email from the bank.....about something that we didn't want to hear. The appraisal said that the house was in a flood zone. Keep in mind that we were told that the current owner doesn't have flood insurance and that there was paperwork stating that the house wasn't. To make matters worse, we were extremely nervous about the septic inspection. I didn't really sleep Tuesday night and I was a wreck all the way to the inspection. Luck was on our side though. The septic is in great condition and it's been pumped so at least we don't have to worry about it for 4-5 years! We also had the opportunity to meet the seller. You can tell that he really loves the house and is sad to see it go. He lives out on Cape Cod and his daughter just finished her first year of college so he needs the money for that reason. So last night I received a call from our attorney. He received paperwork from 2005 from a private survey that was done on the house that it isn't in a flood zone. The paperwork that the bank uses to determine in the flood zone isn't done on each individual property and it hasn't been updated in quite some time. The backyard is in the flood zone, but the house isn't. We were told by the homeowner that the people that had lived in the house previously were in the house from 1940-2005 and that the house had water in the basement once when the old bridge that spanned the river caused the ice to jam and the water flowed down the street. Since then, the bridge was raised and replaced and the house has never flooded. These are the type's of things that we want to hear. Obviously, with it being on the river, it's always a possibility. But we're hopeful that the bank will accept this paperwork and we won't need the flood insurance. Either way we still want the house, no matter what.

In other news, we decided to go on our vacation. When we received word from the bank about the flood insurance, my first instinct was to cancel. But.....we both need a break. We haven't been on a vacation since our honeymoon and we really want to take Lillian to Maine. We weren't planning on spending a lot of money when we first booked anyways, so we'll just stick to that plan. We don't need to bring back a bunch of crap with us, just a lot of great memories, and those tend to be free! We're going to make our own breakfast and lunch each day and eat out for dinner.....probably pizza a couple of nights at our favorite pizza place on the whole entire earth....Rosalie's......yum!

Anyways, I'm going to think positive about this whole flood insurance deal......what will be, will be!!!