Muldoon Memos

Our home was in need of a major face lift this summer! We were so thankful to find a teacher at our church who does handy man stuff in the summer because he was AWESOME and affordable and truly such a blessing. He (and some high school boys!) replaced a bunch of rotten siding, added trim boards, brick molding on every window, painted the whole house, and did a bunch of little things for us like fixing some stuff around the fire place vent and filling cracks in the patio cement. It took him over 2 weeks! We also had 2 windows installed through Lowe's. (Not a great experience...) We LOVE what our home looks like now though. It feels so great to be DONE. Top: final product Bottom: old  See the rotten yuckiness? New siding, all prepped for paint (it was warped and rotten under that window...) In progress ...  Final product with new windows, paint, and new gray front door too.

I'm already like 5? weeks into summer! So sad. I don't get to read as much during the school year, but I've knocked out a few so far. I always am listening to an audio book in the car, reading a fiction book (which I usually read really quickly) and a non-fiction book (which usually takes me forever).  The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017) Summary: Starr, a 16 year old, lives in the "ghetto" of Chicago and is with her friend when they get pulled over and he is wrongfully shot. The book explores how Starr reacts, conflicting feelings about race (she attends a 99% all white private school in the suburbs which adds an interesting layer to the story), her boyfriend, gangs, changing family dynamics, etc. My take: Interesting story with a valuable perspective to such a hot-button topic in society today, but it has WAY too much language for me to feel comfortable recommending it to a 9th grader. (I'd say 11th grade+). Girls on the Edge by Leonard Sa...

Condition of old deck: peeling paint, rotting boards, yuck The stairs didn't actually touch the ground on the right-hand side....  See giant bird nest that darn bird built 2x, so I just stopped knocking it down. After 2 workers worked an 13 hour day, we have a new deck! Yay! I even requested a gate so Luke can play on his water table outside alone for a little bit and I don't have to check every two seconds that he hasn't run into the yard and to the front.  Luke was so entertained! We still have to decide on a stain, but SO MUCH better =)  Let's just say the guy made more today than I make in an entire month, so apparently I went into the wrong business. But, I have NO IDEA how to build a deck, nor do I want to, so I am just glad it's the first project -mostly- done! Looking for new cushions for those chairs... any suggestions where to look? Love the gate!! Unfortunately, the deck people didn't really clean anything up, so th...

Norah turned ONE a month ago already. She's a delight! Here are some pictures from her party =) I was pretty proud of her month picture banner, but she has barely changed at all since month one! "Under the Sea" theme, so I made everything have stupid pun names My mom made delicious cake balls! Add caption She loved the cake! Ha! And she had about 3 headband changes throughout thanks to my sister.  Some more about Norah: She loves fruit, ham, hamburger, noodles, cheese, and graham crackers. (And uses a fork really well!) She still has a bottle before nap and bedtime (with just whole milk). No more formula! Yay! She is walking everywhere and climbing on everything. Norah still takes two naps, usually totaling 2-3 hours and sleeps from 6:30pm to 6:30am. Her hair is still too short for any sort of ponytail. She weighs 24.8 lbs (94%) and is 28.5 inches tall (10%), which translates into size 5 diapers, 18-24mo clothes, and size 3 shoes. We l...

Just to pop in during nap time... A random picture of Norah from her 1st birthday last month.  1. For the last few months I've been reflecting on what is motivating -or discouraging- for me in terms of food, heath, fitness, etc. I think I'm kind of weird about a lot of it... but a few things I have discovered: if I buy sweet treats like cookies or ice cream, I will eat all of it in a few days. I have little will power over sugary goodness. But otherwise, I always get at least 2 servings of fruits and 2 servings of veggies in each day (which I think is pretty good?). 2. Along the same "health" line, Jazzercise had free classes in May. I went 22x. I love the feeling of "cheating the system." It's normally $70 a month, so I took total advantage of it! And I just joined for June, July, and August as a teacher special. Surprisingly-- I've been going at 5:30am at least 2x a week and it's so energizing! I love that I can workout, shower, and dri...

I would take a ballet class. It was my favorite dance class in elementary school, and I love how my body feels when doing similar moves in workout classes. So strong, yet graceful.  Speaking of workout classes... I think one day (if I ever get to stay home), I'd like to become a Jazzercise or Zumba instructor. Jazzercise isn't nearly as fun, but the routines are also much simpler so it seems less intimidating. But I love Zumba much more-- it's SO fun!  I'd also volunteer with a pregnancy resource center like EPS or do something to give of my time and talents to pro-life organizations. I'd like to learn to embroider cute wall hangings... AND I'd do all of that while listening to a million books on tape. #dreaming

Our siding is not in good shape, somewhat due to us being new homeowners who didn't realize it needed to be painted the moment a spot appeared or else it would all rot, and somewhat due to it being in crappy condition when we bought it four years ago. Anyway, a lot of thousands of dollars later, and our house is going to become dark gray with white siding! I'm still deciding on a door color... do I go with black? a fun color like yellow? We also need a brand new deck because ours is rotten... another few thousand... Oh and we need two new windows... another $1500... So at this point, I figure we should just spend another $2500 and fix everything else in the house I dislike too! Scott isn't quite so sure, but I'm trying to convince him to let a painter do the rest of our tall interior walls in the living room, add a tiled backsplash to the kitchen and get new countertops, and get new carpet in the basement + painting the wainscoting gray.... Hahaha. Before and...