Acreage Update

On October 18th, we closed on our farm. Not everything went as smoothly as planned (ie: the outbuildings and the house were still 30% full of the previous owner's junk...even though he had promised to have it cleaned out...but we're over that). We found some SWEET stuff even though it took a little extra time and effort and we're working diligently to have the place ready for renters starting January 1st.

We now own an investment property "and a half" if you count the renter we have in our basement. ;)

My parents came down on the 18th. My mom and I went to Target to pick up cleaning supplies then came home and constructed our 'Game Plan' for the next morning. Our goal was to be out. the door. by 8am.

On Saturday morning we were fresh-faced and excited. We swung through the Starbucks drive-through so I could treat my mom to some coffee as a 'thanks-in-advance-for-helping-us-with-this-ridiculous-project' and you'll never believe what happened. THE CAR IN FRONT OF US PAID FOR OUR COFFEE! We pulled up to the window and the lady read the wrong order, but then corrected herself saying, "Oh never mind, the car in front of you paid for your order this morning." My heart stopped and I literally almost cried with happiness over some silly free coffee. By the time we pulled forward, the car in front of us was long gone and I had no way of signaling our happiness and gratitude via dramatic waving from my driver's seat. It was an awesome start to our morning. The short time that followed was filled with planning and a little silent reflecting on all the blessings God has given us...my mom and I were in my car HEADED TO OUR FARM. Is this even real life?! How a cup of free Starbucks was capable of causing me to pause and be thankful, I'm not sure...and it's a little ridiculous. But thanks whoever was in the car in front of us at 8:13am on Saturday, October 19th, and thanks be to God for His provision, allowing us to buy our dream acreage, even during a drought year!

My parents had never seen the inside of the farmhouse in person before, but they had visited the property earlier this summer. Sadly, Josh had to go to work blowing out irrigation systems before the first hard freeze, and I'm not sure he knew what 'we Keil's' were capable of. ;)

Day 1: We emptied kitchen cupboards, bathroom cupboards, closets in every room and the hallway, moved furniture (what was left is being sent to Leftovers!), Shop-Vacced every wall, window, floor, cleaned fixtures, hauled junk to the dumpster, burn pile, and the "treasures" to my car. We spent some time outside picking up garbage and junk around the property. We rolled up the remnant carpet in the upstairs bedrooms and tossed it out the windows. We tore up the carpet on the upstairs landing and down the stairs...and THEN Josh got there. #keilfaminaction 

I'm pretty proud of everything we accomplished! Josh finished ripping up the carpet downstairs while my dad spent most of his time on the ground ripping up tack strips (bless his heart). Turns out my dad can tear anything apart...it's the handy-man fixing part he's not a master at. ;)

We were all exhausted by 6:30. And all of our feet hurt. It was a 'we're just ordering a pizza' kind of night and I think we were all in bed by 10:30pm! And here's the reason we fell in love with this place...

Day 2: Our goal was to be out the door by 9am. We hit Starbucks on the way out of town again and worked on our strategy during our 15-minute drive to the acreage (have I mentioned its PERFECT location?!) We rescued my old, beautiful doors from the barn and wiped them down. We brought a bird-poop-covered dining room table up from the barn and wiped that down with an AMAZING mixture of dish soap, vinegar, and baking soda...the thing looks like NEW! We pulled out all of our appliances to wipe and vacuumed behind them. We pulled the refrigerator apart and I wiped down the inside (with our special cleaning concoction) while my mom wiped down all the shelves. I Shop Vacced cupboards, we wiped down four cute wooden chairs the seller left for us, and my mom wiped down the washer. We carried 100 Mason jars up from the basement and my dad was helpful carrying other junk up from the basement and to the dumpster. Then he spent most of the day walking around, observing the house, and making really great discoveries for how we can replace trim, hide ugly things with some leftover paneling we found, and replacing some stained ceiling tiles with new ones. Josh weed whacked around most of the trees at the front of the property and down the lane...he also did some weed whacking around the house...which in itself made the place look 1,000 times better!

I'll post pictures of all of this once we get a little farther along. ;)

Josh's friend Tommy stopped by to take a look at our washer and dryer and run some 'diagnostic testing' on our appliances. :) The washer passed and once the dryer got cleaned out, it passed inspection too. They hauled them outside, tore them apart, figured something out, and then brought them back in. All I know is that I've been washing rags while I'm out there and they both work great now!

Our friends Ben and Tom stopped out for a couple hours, which I was thrilled about. These two are true farm boys, and can accomplish more in an hour of their time (if they're not distracted with climbing windmills) than most humans can accomplish in an entire afternoon. They hauled our giant pile of carpet down to the burn pile and started work on cleaning up junk and brush around our little shed. 

I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of snapping pictures during every sunset...they're pretty every night! 

Day's 3 - 7: Josh and his brother spent a lot of time at the farm last week setting some mouse traps (yes there WAS a mouse problem, but I think our cleaning frenzy did a good job of taking care of most of that...he's only caught two!), filling cracks in the foundation, and more endless weed whacking. Josh also found a pocked door hidden in the walls in the living room! Jamie and I came out and did a pretty decent job of emptying the corn crib and barn of junk and sorting everything into 'Keep,' 'Burn,' 'Dumpster,' and 'Scrap Metal.' The four of us worked together to move a big metal gas tank and a metal fed bin (excuse my lack of farm-girl terminology...I don't care what that thing is called, I just know it's ugly and needs to go) to our scrap metal pile...I'm thrilled both of those large things are out of sight for possible tenants driving by with interest.

Day 8: Josh and I woke up on Saturday tired, but excited to get to our farm and start working more on the inside of the farmhouse. Josh continued weed whacking and I started puttying cracks in the first bedroom upstairs. Josh joined me, and we finished that bedroom together. Because it was a nice day and apparently we have a hard time working inside, we went outside to keep working on cleaning the outbuildings and sorting the junk. ;) 

I also wanted the barn to be cleaned and arranged in certain spots so it would be ready for pictures that night...Here's another one from our farm photo shoot...I'm IN LOVE with these pictures!!!

Day 9: We got a late start since we went to late church...but we were in serious need of some sleep...so it's whatever. We have to ease into this 'farm life' thing...it's a lot of hard work! :) Josh and I filled the cracks in the second bedroom upstairs, finished the hallway and the stair way, and also filled cracks in what I'm calling 'The Parlor'...it's the front room on the main level and is quickly becoming my favorite room. It's right off the front entrance, but it has that secret pocket door, a stained glass window, and another pretty door separating it from the foyer entrance. It could be a bedroom, a play room, an office, or... a 'Parlor.' :) I can hardly wait to get my hands on a can of gray paint so I can go. to town. Josh sanded the putty in the first bedroom upstairs and we couldn't stand being inside any more. Josh moved some logs, I kept compiling and organizing my 'wood-that-would-be-good-for-crafting-a-Pinterest-sign pile' and we called it quits when it got too dark to see in the barn. ;)

It might not seem like much, but brace yourselves for when I post the before and after pictures. The process is slightly less enjoyable because we're working with a strict deadline in order to get the place rented in time for turnover...but I think so far we're doing a decent job of balancing the duties in our 'real life' with the work we have left to accomplish out at the farm. Certain things have had to be cut out and some of our time and energy has had to be redirected, but our priorities are straight where it counts...we keep telling ourselves 'we'll have time for that after January 1st.' :)

If you feel like painting...or chopping down a tree...or burning a GIANT pile of crap...or raking out a barn...lemme know. I can hook. you. uuuuup. ;)

MmB

Fall Feelings

Falling Pt. 1
Falling Pt. 2
Falling Pt. 3

Before the Christmas season completely takes over our house and our hearts, I have a few more fun fall things I wanted to share...

I made this wreath for my mom, but then I decided to keep it for a couple months because it matches my backdoor so well...and my mom won't be using it until spring. :) Is anyone else obsessed with making these fabric rosettes? I just used every scrap of cloth I had and spent an entire day hot gluing and rolling fabric.

422 13th St. is hosting Thanksgiving for my side of the family for the second time...and I'm shocked at how excited Josh is. Although the 'hospitality bug' seems to be 'my' thing...he gets weirdly possessive and excited about holding gatherings and festivities at our house, especially during the holidays. Sometimes he'll randomly say, "So what's the set-up going to be for the tables at Thanksgiving?" or, "Wouldn't it be great if the weather was like this for Thanksgiving so we could have people be around our table outside?!" 

Since we only host every couple of years due to bouncing around with both sides of the family (and because we begrudgingly share the hosting duties :), I'm going alllll out in a Pinterest, burlap, brown paper, crafty, glittery, adorable-place-setting frenzy. And when hosting a gathering for people who aren't all under the age of 26, Facebook cannot be used as an appropriate invitation system. So I whipped up some super cute (and CHEAP) Thanksgiving invites. I found my inspiration invite on Pinterest and then re-made it myself using Microsoft Publisher. I printed these in color on card stock, snipped a little piece of burlap, and tied twine in a bow around the invitation. Sometimes the burlappy-country-woodsy theme is too much for me, so I sprinkled a little gold glitter inside the envelope to balance that out. I heard it was a real hit with the husbands who were on the receiving-end of this invite. :) 

I was also pretty proud of the little leaves I free-handed with magic marker on the envelopes...

Because I used things I already had, I'm just going to go ahead and say these were free to make. BUT If I had to guess, I'd say each one cost less than a $1 to make...and that includes postage. Boom.

I forgot to include this picture during the fall tour of our house...but even our bathrooms get a little Autumn glam! I'm telling you...printing your favorite pictures from Pinterest and putting them in frames throughout the house is the best way I've found to cheaply add a little touch of 'fall' in every room. Even if that picture sits on the back of the toilet. ;)

We had some adorable (if I do say so myself) fall pictures taken at our acreage on Saturday by the amazing Lori Mortensen of Le Photo Design. She was fast (which Josh appreciated) and took some amazing pictures (which I appreciated). Call her the next time you need someone to take pictures for anything. I'm dying to see the rest, but for now she's just teased us with this...

Here's the link to her Facebook page so you can 'like' it...and we even made the cover photo!!! ;)

MmB

Tonsillectomy - Part 2

Tonsillectomy - Part 1

On September 26th, I had my tonsils out. And thus began the most annoying two weeks of my life. Behold, the unabridged tale of my tonsillectomy.

My mom came down on the Wednesday night before surgery, helped make my 'Last Supper' (tacos), and took me to the hospital at 6am for my surgery on Thursday. I've never had a 'real' surgery before and was excited about my grippy hospital socks. As the nurse wheeled me down the hallway to surgery I waved to my doctor and my nurses like I was in a parade, because it sort of felt like a parade with everyone standing around watching me wheel by. It's obvious to me when you feel like you're in a parade, you wave like a beauty queen on the back of a convertible (even if you are in an ugly hospital cap and gown wearing no make-up). I would do it right now if the opportunity presented itself. They assumed I'd already gotten a little 'buzz' from the anesthesiologist...I assured them, "No, this is how I normally am."

After moving from the hospital bed to the operating table, I recall asking the anesthesiologist how really fat people fit on the skinny table. I'm not sure if he had started anything in my IV at this point, but the last thing I remember was the doctor answering, "The human skeleton fits on this table, some people just lop over the sides a little bit." I'm glad I remembered this conversation when I woke up.

I have near perfect vision, so waking up was the weirdest thing everrr.  My eyes were wide open but everything was blurry, and I remember thinking, "Is this how Jamie feels all the time?" I also remember being rolled back to my room and specifically asking for our friend Jonas, who is on staff at the hospital. The nurse called for him and left a voicemail and I remember thinking, "Yay! I will have visitors in my room!"

I don't remember the timing of things, but after they wheeled me back to the room, everyone was telling me I needed to DRINK WATER and I wanted to PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE. The doctor used some incredible numbing spray on my throat (I woke up with a '0' or '1' pain level and everyone was shocked) but I literally couldn't swallow. I couldn't feel the muscles in my throat, and when my mom gave me little drips of water, I felt like I was drowning and I choked and sputtered over one little drip.

It was ridiculous and annoying.

My favorite doctor came in and said, "Just give it a few more minutes and try drinking again in a little bit." Why thank you for understanding my plight, Dr. Griffith. So I napped for a while and kept trying to swallow. One minute I couldn't, and the next minute I woke up and announced to my mom, "I just swallowed!" It was so weird.

If you're in the Ames area and in need of an ENT, I would HIGHLY recommend Dr. Griffith. He spent plenty of time explaining everything and talking to me during appointments and was a rockstar surgeon. I was actually excited to see him at my follow-up yesterday because he's like a nice G'pa...with a better fashion sense.

I had an issue with nausea while I was in the hospital (and the next two days while I was home before my mom called FirstNurse and demanded nausea medicine), so it's a good thing I'm a boss at avoiding throwing up at. all. costs. Seriously, this has been a character trait of mine since childhood. It takes a lot of  focus, but I made it through my entire recovery without throwing up! Thinking about throwing up early in my recovery was absolutely terrifying because my throat looked like a war zone...and I did NOT want to find out what might happen if I gave in and puked.

I took my first round of pain medicine, relaxed, napped, attempted to text Josh, Jonas, and accidentally sent a few texts to Caleb thinking he was Josh while I was waking up and couldn't see. Woops. I think around noon I was able to get dressed and was wheeled out to the car to start the trek home.

We live two blocks from the hospital. I fell in love with the location of our house all over again on September 26th.

This was my set-up once I got home. These items didn't leave my side for two weeks. Notice the pretty pink barf bucket...I didn't let that baby out of my sight (even though I never needed it :).

These are the beautiful fall flowers Josh's parents sent me on Thursday afternoon when I was home and still feeling great!

The first 48 hours were a breeze. I ate some soft things, we watched Christmas movies and napped, my mom kept my house clean and made Josh's lunches in the morning. She ran to get medicine and other supplies I required from Target and even kept the laundry caught up. It's possible she was going a little overboard with helping because she desperately wants to be invited back for weeks at a time when we have babies...and I would say after this experience, I'll keep her at our house for as long as she'll stay.

Josh said, "If your mom is here doing all of this stuff, shouldn't we, like, pay her or something?" Forgive him and his 'business-owner' mindset. He can't help it. :)

We had heard from friends who had tonsils out as adults, that days three and four were the hardest...so my mom felt okay heading home on Sunday while Josh could be with me and Patti was planning to come on Monday.

As it turns out, the four days my mom was here were the four easiest days of my whole recovery. Part of that is because she is my mom, and part of that is because the hardest part of recovery hadn't 'hit' yet. Sunday night through Friday night were. the. worst. I didn't leave my bed except to shower and fill my princess cup with more water. I didn't feel like watching movies or working on scrapbooking or sewing projects or even talking or texting. I laid in my bed all. day. long. Josh felt helpless and I slept right through him leaving in the morning and coming home in the evening.

I wouldn't have made it through without this trusty cup:

I was consistently ready for my pain medicine an hour early, which was not good. I had to take some medicine in between for 'breakthrough' pain and that medicine was a joke. It didn't work at all. Moms are great, but they are sticklers for staying on schedule during things like this...husbands are great because when you come into their room in the middle of the night crying because you need your pain medicine 45 minutes early and you can't even open your mouth to explain anything because your throat hurts so bad, they just get up and give you what you want, no questions asked. :)

They might also surprise you when you send them to Target for more medicine and come home with THIS!

Once I started feeling better I watched a lot of Gilmore Girls, finally started and finished our vacation scrapbook from last year, organized every closet in our house, and lost 15 pounds as of today. I was glad I had my personal nurse Kylie on speed dial and texted her throat-picture-updates daily. I stayed on pain medicine every four hours (around the clock) for 12 days and last Tuesday woke up and decided to stop so I could FINALLY get out of the house to drive and get back to work. My throat bled a little last Friday when I sneezed for the first time since my surgery, but other than that it's been smooth sailing.

The doctor said I won't feel 'normal' again for a week or two because my body is still repairing the scabs at the back of my throat and fighting off germs. This probably explains why I came home on Monday and felt like I had been hit by a truck and took a two hour nap. And also why after working a long day and going to D6 Dance practice yesterday, I slept for 11 hours last night.

And now, the picture I promised...

iPhones take excellent pictures, don't they?!

MmB

Falling...............Pt. 3

Now that fall finally happened on the OUTside of our house with leaves changing and cooler temperatures, I'm excited to share a few more of my fall decorating ideas.

The fall festival my hometown has every year happened two days after my tonsillectomy in September. I was heartbroken at first...But I used my recovery as leverage to talk my dad (who was home alone while my mom was down taking care of me) into buying me all of my outdoor fall supplies. I had 'mentally prepared' him about going shopping for me the week before, so he had an idea of what I needed.

My dad called me on Saturday while he was at the pumpkin sale to ask exactly what I wanted and to discuss prices. I told him I definitely wanted a mum and he told me what the color options were (he was nervous about getting the wrong color, so I tried to be laid back about it, but I'm in LOVE with the color he picked! ;) The huge mum you see in my pictures only cost me $10. At Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee where I've seen mums comparable to this size, they are between $20 and $30...sometimes shopping in Manson is SUCH a great deal. Here's a tip: I would encourage shopping in smaller towns and at smaller apple orchards, rather than buying your pumpkins at stores in the 'big city.' 

This is the same reason I refuse to get my hair 'did' by anyone besides by my bestie Erin Hood in Manson at her salon. Seriously...$60 bucks for full color, a trim, AND a 15-minute tan...just shut up. BTW, I'm in love with my new fall hair...

My throat hurt, but we continued to discuss the sizes of pumpkins and prices. I told my dad I wanted a variation of pumpkin sizes, five orange, and three or four white. He was very specific and tried to describe the size of the pumpkins on his end. I felt bad sending him to the fall festival alone, plus I just knew he was being awkward wandering around the sale with me on the phone trying to decide what to get...so I wrapped up the phone call and hoped for the best.

I didn't know this until three days ago when I was in Manson to pick up my fall goodies, but my father preceded to get eight of THE biggest pumpkins I've ever seen. Bless it.

You'll notice the ginormity of these pumpkins in all my pictures. My dad got quite a bang for my buck I would say, as I compared prices for everything I got in Manson to prices in Ames and realized I would have easily spent more than $100 on everything  you see outside my house. Instead I got all of this for $40.

I also found out later, that because of their size and where the fall sale was located this year, my dad had to back up the van and take multiple trips with a small red wagon to load all of these pumpkins in the vehicle...then turn around and unload them in the garage. Bless his little heart.

So while my mom was down taking care of me, my dad was home lugging a couple hundred pounds of pumpkins around, and this is my finished product:

Sometimes I think I need my parents more now than when I was in college. This weekend they're headed down to Ames armed with a shop-vac and supplies to start clean-up on our acreage. #spoileddaughter

In case you missed what the INside of our house looks like...you can see all my decorating ideas and shopping tips here and here. 

MmB

Tonsillectomy - Part 1

It's been 10 days since my tonsillectomy and last night Josh proclaimed, "Wow, it's like you're a real person again. You're walking around and eating and everything!"

Last night it took me about 45 minutes to eat three Little Ceasar's bread sticks because of all the chewing that was involved...but they. were. delightful. It was literally like tasting heaven after a diet that only consisted of pain medicine, some noodles, Popsicles, and broth for the past ten days. I'm actually not kidding...I did not eat ANYTHING 'real' for 10 entire days...so you can imagine my depression to find that I've only lost about 10 pounds. Totally lame. But some good motivation for the elliptical once I'm feeling better!

The past couple months when I would inform people about my tonsillectomy, family and friends immediately asked, "WHY are you getting those out now?!" Let me explain...

My tonsils, specifically my right one, have been a problem for some time. Let me paint you a word picture...My tonsil had big holes in it where food and gunk would get stuck. The right one also ached constantly...not necessarily like a 'sore throat'...but an achiness that was just always there. I went to my regular doctor, who referred me to the Ear Nose and Throat Doctor, who used his head-flashlight to take a five-second look into my throat and said, "Yep those need to come out." He went on to explain that when I had mono, my tonsils got really swollen. Then after I was better, (brace yourself for another word picture) my tonsils were like a fat person who lost a lot of weight but had leftover wavy skin flaps everywhere...just lovely.

So this was my thought process:

1. If the doctor says they need to come out, they probably should. I know that's not reason enough for everyone, but it's usually reason enough for me.

2. Unless you've been living under a rock, you are probably somewhat informed about what is happening in this country concerning health care. I figured it was a good idea to get this done while I still can...with the rock star insurance we pay up the butt for we have now before it's too late.

3. I could put this off for a few years until I'm older and...we have kids running around that need to be dropped off at school and soccer and dance and sleepovers and doctor appointments and they need to be fed and bathed and potty trained and fed and bathed and I can't do any of it because I'm dead to the world for 10+ days after a tonsillectomy...

...yea I figured now would be as good of a time as any.

Beware, my next post will feature a post-tonsillectomy picture of my tonsil-less throat. It's pretty awesome. And gross. Soooo awesome and gross. All my visitors have either seen this picture, or seen it in real-time and the only person who was really bothered by it was Josh's brother Caleb. I even showed my boss! But view at your own risk. :)

I woke up at noon today and all I've done is shower, wash a pan, and get the mail...and I'm exhausted. It's just ridiculous.

MmB

Fall...............ing Pt. 2

In case you missed part one here it is.

I'll start with a picture of my favorite part of our house...

Our dining room! I love how much fall charm is packed into this corner. I've had the table cloth, the glittery pumpkins and little candles that are on our table for the past three years. They were all picked up at Wal-Mart the day before we hosted our first Thanksgiving. :) Which also meant they were on SUPER sale since usually most fall decor has disappeared from store shelves by November 1st.

Again, I just cut off some burlap and frayed the edges to make a table-runner. The center-piece is a pretty and long tea-light candle holder that I picked up at Leftovers (more on this in another blog...basically Leftovers is an indoor 'garage sale' where people donate their stuff and then other people come to shop, buy the stuff, and everything we make goes toward sponsoring kids in Africa). It adds just enough height but it's small enough that I don't have to move it off the table every time we have people over.

They're kind of hard to see in this picture, but I collect glasses and bottles and jars of all sizes and shapes, and then cover them with twine. If you missed my enthralling tutorial on how easy and cheap it is to wrap bottles with twine, here it is. I spaced them out all over the house and filled them with coffee beans. I put tea lights in every jar so when they're lit, it warms the coffee beans a little and smells like heaven in the house (thanks Pinterest).

The brown wicker pumpkins I have scattered all over the house were found last year at Target at the One Spot for $3/each...and every time they were re-stocked, I bought a couple more. I think I ended up with six or seven.

I get out my dried hydrangeas in March and leave them up around our house until November. They add some 'bigness' to every background, and I love how poofy and hearty they are. I've had them for about three years, and I literally throw them in a box and put them in the basement during the winter. When I get them back out they shed some petals on the carpet while I rearrange them...but end up looking great.

I've somehow ended up with six of the exact same garland from Hobby Lobby, and they were all bought during different years! It's been easier to add to my collection a little over time, and I'm thrilled that Hobby Lobby keeps their decor consistent and I can almost always count on what they will have each season. I get these garlands for $12.99, but use my 40% off coupon on top of that...it kills me that the 'real-looking' garlands can be so expensive, but I don't think these ones look too 'fakey'.

My tonsils came out nine days ago, and I had dreams of blogging to my hearts content, but all I've been able to accomplish is finishing the last paragraph of this post that's been in my drafts for more than two weeks. Throat. Still. Hurts. Immensely. But I'll save the gory details of that experience for another blog.

MmB