Hanging Pictures

I promised myself that when we moved, I would make sure that everything had a place. Right?!? I wasn't going to just "stick something in a drawer." If I couldn't find a proper place for it, then I didn't need it.

So, on September 1 we will have been our house for two months. I am still trying to find proper places. I haven't hung up many pictures. I don't want to just stick pictures on the wall. I want them to be hung there because I love them, and they are perfect. I think this is becoming a phobia - I can't find the "perfect place" so I don't hang anything at all. Maybe I should Google some therapy.

Anyway, this is what I have hung so far. An artist that I found on the Internet did the picture in 2006 to commemorate the birth of Alexandra. She was very honored when I asked her do a second picture after Christian was born. These two pictures are on the top of my list of "what to grab in case we must evacuate for a hurricane."


BTW, here is a picture of what the foyer looked like before...

We painted the wood white, took down the wallpaper and replaced the chandelier. I need to get a better picture of the after from this same vantage point.

Starting to Feel Like Home!

We've now been in the new house for six weeks. We keep wondering when it will quit being called "new house" and just be "our house." I have to say that it already feels so much like home.

We've had our first overnight guests! Friends from Dallas came a spent a long weekend with us. It was nice to see them and nice to finally feel like things are back to normal.

We keep getting the same question over and over again. Yes! We love having a pool. Chris will say that he loves it in the summer. I am not sure how I will feel about it after we can't swim in it anymore, but I LOVE OUR POOL! We often wonder what we did after dinner when we didn't have a pool. The kids love to eat supper and jump in for an hour swim before bedtime. Alexandra is now swimming on her own (NO FLOATIES!!!), and Christian is swimming very well in his Puddle Jumper (see the picture).

The kids begin school on September 1. I asked Alexandra how she would sum up our summer. Here's what she said, "Willie (that's our painter that has become a part of our family), swimming, saying goodbye to my room, unpacking and corpse flower."