New Year's Resolutions

So I enjoy writing New Year's Resolutions.  I like creating goals...my only problem is finishing them.  To make it easier on myself this year I am going to create a list of things I would like to accomplish and then assign months to do each item.  This way I can cross items off my list and actually feel like I am making some progress instead of working towards ambiguous goals like "being more generous" which really can't be measured.  But I can plan on making a batch of cookies every month and giving them away to someone, which can be measured.  Also, with a new baby on the way I need to have better time management skills, hopefully breaking up the goals into months will help me complete my list.  This is going to be the year of Sewing and Baking.  At least I hope so.

General Goals:

1. Renew our Ensign subscription, then reorder if/when we move sometime this year.

2.  Take family pictures up at Memory Grove.  This is a must!  If I have my way it will happen twice, once with just the three of us and then once after our little lady arrives.  I have pictures of my great grandparents up there and my great uncle has a plaque at the memorial. 

3.  Create exercise plan and exercise at least three times a week (with break for birth of daughter).  Stephen bought me the game Dance Central 2 and I LOVE the first one that we have.  I also have Zumba which I plan to start after giving birth as well as some muscle training/building exercises to get ready for labor.  We have so many options, I just need to figure out a plan and stick with it.

4.  Make 30 frozen meals by April.  Need to find recipes and buy casserole tins.  (lasagna, crockpot stuffs).  We have a freezer downstairs and I plan on using it to it’s fullest.  Plus I want to have some dinners made so I will not have to cook and will still eat when adjusting to being a mom of two.  That thought is a little daunting.

5.  Photograph and document living at Grandma’s house.  We totally IKEA’d it up!  Stephen is so creative and has really made living in a small place quite doable. 

6. Read 5 pages every day in the scriptures.  My original goal was to read the entire Bible, Book of Mormon and D&C by the end of next year(totally mathematically doable), but with a new baby coming that isn't going to happen.  So I am planning to read everyday before our little girl gets here and then I will have read the entire Old Testament, and possibly even the Four Gospels (I've already calculated that out).  Or maybe just to read the entire Old Testament this year.  That seems more doable.  Yup; new goal ---- to read the entire Old Testament this year. 

Monthly goals:

7. Bake a new dessert every month.  I never make cookies because with just the three of us I end up eating it all.  I plan to give most of the dessert away which would make this totally feasible.  Plus I always have all these fun dessert recipes to try for fancy events but I don't know that they will turn out if I haven't made them before.  This way I can try them out ahead of time and if it crashes and burns no one will know. 

Ideas: cheesecake, molten lava cake, peanut butter cookies, caramel, toffee, pinwheel cookies, pumpkin roll, mint brownies, chocolate peppermint roll, no bake cookies.

8.  Make one thing completely from scratch every month.   Like mozzarella cheese, graham crackers, biscuits, ice cream, Popsicles, bread, blueberry muffins, flour tortilla, bagels, pretzels, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, granola, lemonade, butter, focaccia bread, rolls...something a little out of the ordinary…at least for me.  

9. Sew something new every month.  Or create something crafty.  Before the baby gets here I want to sew some maternity things as well as some baby things.  Plus I would really like my sewing skills to improve and I hear that only happens with practice...so practice I shall!

Sewing Ideas - car seat cover, car seat re-cover(if I am feeling ambitious), stockings, rainbow quilt, diaper bag, diaper changing pad, baby quilt, apron pattern, maternity shirt or band, baby clothes, finish jean quilt, baby bows, maternity skirt, nursing poncho.

Crafty - earrings, necklace (pendant), Valentine's Day Cards, Height Chart

10.  Read one book from the library every month...so I need to get a library card.  Check!

11.  Try a new hairdo every month.  I am in a mom-hairdo rut. (i.e. bun or ponytail) I need to learn how to better do my own hair, plus I want to be able to do cute things to our daughter’s hair as well.

12.  Curl or crimp my hair once a month.  While I was a freshman in college I used to curl my hair almost every.single.day.  I haven’t even used my curling iron since we moved to Utah at the end of May.  Things have changed. 

13.  Redo toe nail polish once a month.  Take pictures using each of my polish - I don't even know what some of them look like!

14.  Plan out and do one Family Home Evening a month.  Song, activity, snack. 

15.  Take Little guy to story time at library (need to find times) once a month. 

16.  Take Little Guy to a new park each month. 

17.  Visit someplace fun (for me) in Utah.  Like Park City, Brigham City, Antelope Island, Gardner Village, Cedar Fort, Thanksgiving Peak, Logan…maybe even visit all the temples!  I LOVE to travel and riding/driving in the car is one of my favorite things to do. 

18.  Eat out at a local restaurant once a month.  This can be donuts for breakfast, an ice cream parlor, or a fancy dinner out on the town.  We have our favorite chain restaurants but we really want to start supporting more local places.  Already on the list is The Olympian where Grandma ate breakfast about once a week for who knows how many years.  And I’m not sure if the Iceberg counts, ‘cause we eat there anyway.

So, if any of you have any ideas for fun places in Salt Lake City to take little guy, to visit myself, or local eateries you enjoy...let me know!  I'm super excited!

P.S.  Realistically I just want to do these things at least 9 months out of the year.  I know that things are always crazy for us, but at least I have goals to try and live up to!  And hopefully this will mean I will be posting at least once a month as an update of how my goals are coming.  Sweet!

Christmas Success

So part of my problem is that I now take pictures with my phone and I haven't quite figured out how to get those on my computer yet.  Kinda lame I know.  Anyway Christmas this year was a success.  It was a Zank family Christmas and it's always different having a Christmas with other people and other traditions.  I was in charge of breakfast for everyone, which was like 14 adults and 6 children...give or take.  It was kinda intimidating.  I made things typical for my family's Christmas and luckily Stephen's family liked it too!  I love trying new recipes but I am always nervous with how they will turn out.  I would rather get new recipes from people I know so I can be guaranteed they will turn out...so I am giving the recipes I used so if you need any breakfast ideas here are some to choose from.

First up is the Breakfast Casserole:

 

Looks pretty good.  I made two batches of this one and it's so easy because you make it the night before, and then pop it in the oven in the morning.  I like the above picture best, but I found the recipe here.  (I left out the mushrooms)

Next up I made Caramel Monkey Bread:

This one is sooo good, and super easy too.  And it's another overnighter...perfect!  I found the recipes here.

While the Breakfast Casserole was in the oven, I put this one together

Cream Cheese Danish

So freakin' good!  I had never made this before and I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be great.  It.Was.Amazing.  I found this recipe here.  I don't think I can rave about it enough!  Yum!

Again, no pictures

I really need to update this blog with photos, but an update is better than nothing, right?

I am crazy busy right now.  I am 18 weeks pregnant and am showing.  I went down to Arizona for Thanksgiving and it REALLY bothered me when people pointed out I was showing.  I don't know why, but I didn't think I was really showing yet.   Oh well.  Luckily my morning sickness(hahaha!) stopped at around 16 weeks. That was the end of the all-day constant nausea and throwing up.  Now I feel great but I am still throwing up EVERY morning.  Super fun.  And now I have heartburn.  Great!

Our Christmas Tree is up and Little guy LOVES it!  We have been watching Christmas movies and he calls ALL of them "Christmas" or "Merry Christmas".  I love it.  He also calls dresses "princesses" so any time there is a girl wearing a dress or a skirt he refers to her as "our princess".  I will not be stopping that anytime soon.

Whenever something tastes good he call it, "Go-licious!"  Like good and delicious combined.  He has started saying "I love it" and "me too" all the time.  We were driving around and he exclaimed, "I LOVE cameras!"  to which I replied, "You love cameras?"  He excitedly responded, "Me Too!"  Haha!

We have a screen door on our front door and so when Stephen comes home you can hear him open the screen door first to know he's coming.  Little Guy gets so excited when he hears the screen open and he'll cup his hand to his ear and say,"Hear that?!  It sounds like......Daddy!"    Love it.

And as for news about my husband....he injured his elbow snowboarding.  He was convinced it was just a sprain and after much prodding and pain he finally went to a doctor where he found out it is fractured and not just sprained.  So he's in a splint and a sling.  I have to help him get dressed and undressed and I always imagine this is what a subservient wife would be doing regularly.  Like taking off his shoes when he comes home from work.  haha.  That is not me AT ALL.  But then I remember he'll be helping us out tons when I have this baby and I let it slide.  ;)

We're doing pretty good, just truckin' along.  I had every intention of getting Christmas Cards out this year but it just isn't happening.  Maybe one year we'll have them to send out.

Random Stories

I have two stories which both have the same ending. I'm just not sure which one is more enjoyable. So I'll share both.

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Sooo, I have been a slacker at blogging lately. And I don't even have any pictures to go with this post. The problem was that our office and computers were't set-up yet. But now they are.

The attic is now our office and it's pretty cool. It's also very problematic for me. For starters it has pull-down stairs to access it, and they are kind of scary. Secondly, the attic smells. Not bad, just like wood. Like stinky wood, but no one else can smell it. So I can't go up there to put pictures in my post. The iPad I am using is great, but not that great.

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After having IV, I have struggled with my body image. I have come to realize I will never be a size 0 again, nor will I ever weigh 105 again (that was my pre-pregnancy size).

Anyway I am realizing that just because I HAVE fat, it doesn't make ME fat. Or at least that's what I have to keep reminding myself.

I had gotten to a pretty good weight by working out, and then we moved and I stopped. Now I am almost down to my goal-weight. I wish it were from working out and eating right but it's not.

It's from all-freaking-day morning sickness. Yay! And boo! We are so excited, but I think at this point I am more sick than excited. Someone asked me what's it's like and the best way to describe it is that I feel like I am on the verge of puking (I need a better word for that) every second of every day. Yuck. I had to quit my job because I can only stand for about half a minute before getting dizzy and light-headed.

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So, being pregnant is why I can't blog with pictures, and why my clothing is looser. Sweet. (and no, the attic doesn't really smell, but it does for my over-active nose. It isn't the only thing that's been banned, my brother-in-law also knows to stay FAR away because of his cologne. Yuck. )

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Now for some cute stories of my son. He likes to imitate words that we say. When something is cool he'll say "awesome!" or "sweet!". He also has started calling us (his parents) "honey" and "babe". It's adorable.

We've told him about the baby and when we ask where the baby is he'll look at my belly button and either say the baby is sleeping or hiding.

He knows all his letters, what sound they make, and some words that start with each letter.

He also knows what s-t-o-p, e-x-i-t, d-o-g, and m-o-m spell.

For some reason I am mom-mom, and Stephen is daddy.

He loves to come and give my hugs and kisses. Especially if I am watching something and start crying. Which is like every two seconds now-a-days.

While I am sick in the bathroom he will come and pat my back and then ask me if I am "all done hiccups?"

We sure love him and are excited for another one.

The Help

I know, I know. You've already read the book, discussed it with your book club AND seen the movie in the theatre. It's soooo last season.

But here's my problem. I didn't like it. At all.

Well, maybe "at all" is a little harsh. But I certainly didn't care for it, and I will never read it again. Throw your stones if you must, but seriously there are so many better books that approach this topic with much more passion.

While I did like that the book presented different cases of "help" who were treated nicely and horribly, it left me wanting more. I wanted to come away from it inspired to be better. And I wasn't.

First off, I wanted it to have a better ending. Seriously Abileen got fired? Who is going to raise those kids? I feel sooo badly for them, and I have no compassion for their mom. She fired the best thing that ever happened to her family so she could stay in favor with her friend? Yuck.

Secondly, there were no GOOD men in the book. Why? Why couldn't there have been any good male figures?

I have this problem where I internalize the atmosphere of the books that I read. If I read a book where the husband is unfaithful, suddenly I am upset with MY husband. If I read where a guy was super sweet to his significant other, my husband is suddenly the best guy in the world. Seriously, it's a problem.

Anyway, it has made me realize that I need to be careful when choosing books to read.

The only semi-good man in the book was the one(I already forgot his name) who lived out in the middle of nowhere. And he was only SEMI- good. He didn't do anything amazing, he simply didn't do anything bad. That is not enough in my book. (ha, I didn't even realize my pun)

Mostly my problems with this book are just that it isn't something that I like to read. I need good endings, realism and hope. While is book was real, it didn't have either of my other needs.

My suggestion of better books?  Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe (the movie is good too), and Welcome to the World, Baby Girl. Incidentally these are both written by the same author. Maybe it's just that I like the author. Shoot, even To Kill A Mockingbird is better. It's not the author. I just need more hope and happiness. And really, who doesn't need that?

Highlight of My No Good, Terrible, Awful, Day

So, let's not talk about how bad today has been. No. Instead let's discuss how adorable my son is. On the way home from my sister-in-laws I didn't want Stephen to sleep or he wouldn't nap at home. So I tickled him, yelled how much I loved him (as opposed to just yelling AT him), and did everything I could to keep him awake. Then I started loudly chanting, "No sleepin' in the truck! No sleepin' in the truck!". To which he replied, "No truckin' in the sleep! No truckin' in the sleep!"

Keep in mind he pronounces his "tr" as an "f".

So it sounded like, "No f*ckin' in the sleep! No f*ckin' in the sleep!"

He thought he was *so funny* for mixing up the words, but little did he know how funny it actually was.

And Dad, no I did not get it on tape.

Movers and Shakers (AGAIN!)

So, we've moved.  Yet again.  We might actually stay at this location longer than a year!  Yipee!

We now live in Utah.  Something that I told Stephen I would NEVER do.  I also made him promise I would continue with my degree before we started a family.  That didn't happen either.  I also said I would NEVER get married at 18 because only stupid girls did that.  Oops.  I also said I would NEVER attend ASU and yet it was the only school I applied to.  Apparently whenever I say I will NEVER do something that just means I WILL actually do it. 

I will NEVER be a billionaire.

Hey, a girl can hope, right?!

One day I will get around to posting pictures, but the house we will be moving into isn't finished yet.  Stephen has been diligently working on that while I have been working.  The house has gone through quite the transformation; but not without it's ups and downs (haha.  that is such an understatement!)

Now I bet you want to know where I'm working?!  Or that's probably too narcissistic of me.  You probably didn't even notice.  But I'll tell you anyway.  Cause I'm nice like that. 

I work at Hobby Lobby. Yup.  It's awesome.  I work in the custom framing department and truthfully?  So far I love it.  I had to take a math test and I did awesomely well.  They were all surprised with how quickly and accurately I finished.  Then they read that almost all my former jobs were as math tutors.  While they were checking my answers I made a math joke with them that I am sure went over their heads. 

I can totally tell that I work in Utah.  For the background music, they play LDS hymns about half of the time.  And in just one day of working I heard multiple conversations that were Mormon-related.

"Bishop!  What are you doing here?"

"Mom, I don't care what ward he's moving into, I don't want to date him!"

haha.  I love it. 

So while Stephen finishes the house, we've been living with his family.  It's been awesome!  I love making dinner with other people.  And we've been able to have game night almost every night.  IV LOVES his cousin Zinnidee.  He calls her Zinni and it's about the cutest thing ever.  (pronounced Zin-knee! with an emphasis on the knee).  She's not yet one and IV adores her.  He gives her multiple hugs a day which almost always involves her falling over afterwards.  And when he hears her on the monitor he gets really upset until we go and get her.  They love to play "Ditch"  or where Zinni will come to get him and he will run away giggling.  Then she'll play with something else and he'll call her name until she crawls after him again.  Adorable.

oh yeah.  The house will are moving into is in SLC.  Sugar House to be exact.  I am soo stoked!  I have ALWAYS wanted to live in that neighborhood!  Sweet!  One day I'll post pictures, but not today because I left work early cause I am sick.  Running to the bathroom every 10 minutes isn't my idea of a fun day a work.  TMI?  Maybe.  Cause I'm nice like that.

Check out these posts...

On my sisters' blog that is.  This week I've done a post on how to easily cube a watermelon, a trick to make chocolate chip cookies look better and a today I have a recipe for a delicious Strawberry Lemonade Slush.

The week before my sister Anjeanette did a series on how her family handles her son's EE.  It's definitely worth a read.  You even get to see a little about tube feeding.  I've babysat this nephew before and setting up and taking down the tube feeding is quite the task.  (The posts were for National Eosinophil Awareness Week)

And just to clarify, I had my posts scheduled and didn't know about Anjeanette's week of posts.  And now it seems awful to have a week of posts on food right after sharing awareness for my nephew's inability to eat some of those foods.  Sorry, Anj!  

Master Stephen

Stephen graduated from ASU with his Master's Degree!  We are so proud of him and of all the hard work he has put into this.

 Replicating his favorite pose from when he got his bachelor's degree.

 Our cutie-patootie.

 Stephen's mom and step-dad were able to come down and visit and we had such a great time with them.

 I made this totally awesome sign that even Stephen approved of.  

 And our son even helped me to create it.

We are so proud of Stephen!  Now on to the next stage in our lives!

Easter Outfit

My sister Anjeanette made an Easter Outfit for her oldest son several years ago.  While we were in Maryland she dug it out and gave it to us for little guy to wear.  He wore it for Easter, but I didn't get any pictures of it then.  So Sunday I dressed him in it again and took photos to show my badgering sister.  haha.  

First up is the temper tantrum.  We had to walk by the park at our apartments that are being worked on and someone (I'm not a name dropper ;))  was upset that we couldn't go and play.

 Next we have his "model pose".   I love to watch The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green and this reminded me so much of  Josh's "model walk".  haha.  I love it!

And here's the face we get when we ask him to smile.  Too cute.

Hope you like them, Anj!

I Won!

Back in April I won a giveaway on a Blog!  I was super excited, I have never won anything like this before so I was so happy.  I won this adorable pendant from nonsense & whimsey.  

 And I love, love, love, love, LOVE it!  

I had wanted one of these pendants for quite some time but I hadn't told anyone so I was so shocked and thrilled to get it.  Yay!

Funny Stories from Maryland

Of course AFTER we ordered from this restaurant:

 

we realized that it was a cash-only place.  And we certainly didn’t have enough cash!  Sadly this is not the only time this has happened to us.  I guess this is what we get for supporting local businesses instead of the ever-prevalent Subway across the street.  Oy.

……….

One day my little family decided to head down to Frederick and we had to take my sister’s car.  That’s a stick.  I don’t drive stick.  Not because I won’t but because I CAN’T.  As in I don’t know how.  So we were joking that we had to get back early in case my husband started getting drowsy at the wheel.  (It happens)

Well, we are backing out of their driveway and my husband realizes that he doesn’t know how to put this specific car in reverse.  Luckily their driveway slopes down so it wasn’t an issue.  I wanted to run inside and ask my sister how to shift into reverse but Stephen didn’t want to waste the time.  So instead we both agree to not get into a position where he would have to shift into reverse.  Do you sense a problem yet?

There we are, driving away into unknown territory when it is realized that we missed a street.  Instead of waiting to turn at the light he decides to turn around.  Unfortunately it was only a two-lane road.  Problem!  We couldn’t reverse to make a three-point turn and were stuck! We were blocking traffic with no idea how to reverse!  HAHAHA.    I even tried looking through the glove compartment for the owner’s manual to figure out what to do.  In retrospect it’s hilarious.  At the time?  Not so much. 

(He did figure it out…in case you were wondering)

……….

My husband has to drive most places we go because otherwise he gets car sick.  So he ended up driving us home from the airport the first day we got there with my sister sitting shot-gun telling him how to get to her house. 

Her directions were PHENOMENAL.  Not being from Maryland her tips were spot on.  If you’ve never driven anywhere before.  Which we have. 

   

“Now you have to watch out, because you won’t be able to see the other cars coming until you reach the top of the hill.”   Surprising, huh?

“Now this is tricky because there’s a road coming up and you’ll have to look both ways to see if any cars are coming.”  Shocking.

……..

This is my nephew Happy (my sister’s blog name for him).  He is pure trouble and very DANGEROUS.  And such a cutie patootie.

Happy-ism:

He had a friend over playing on their new swingset.  The little boy had to go to the bathroom inside and unfortunately somehow got his pants wet.  He was SUPER embarrassed but luckily his mom was there to take him home. 

As they are trying to discreetly walk away, Happy from on top of the swingset yells, “Did you PEE your pants?”

Niiice. 

……..

This is Happy’s older brother SuperBoy.

I was trying to help him with his math homework and he was having trouble remembering 8x8.  So I let him in on my little math trick that has saved me in this situation;

“8 and 8 walked into the store to buy themselves a nintendo 64”

“What’s a nintendo 64?”

Even my math tricks are aged.  Ugh.

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My husband left 10 days before IV and I did, and I was the lucky one to take him down to the Baltimore airport.  It was quite far away and I'm sure the family was nervous with me driving back up alone...but I made it!  After I dropped my husband off I struggled to get back onto the right freeway...going the right direction!  Finally once I was headed on the right path I got a call from Stephen telling me that I still had his debit card.  I drove back to the airport only to realize it was at Anjeanette's house!  Argh!  Again, funny in retrospect...not so funny in the moment.

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One of the days we were all there we headed on over to the Antietam battlefield.  The road leading up to it has one of those "Adopt-A-Highway" signs and no joke, it's taken care of by the local paranormal activity society.  I just thought that was so perfect!

SuperBoy and Happy were quite disappointed when we got there that there wasn't an actual battle going on.  Where are all the men and cannons?  We explained that it happened a long time ago and SuperBoy commented that if you dug right where he was standing you would probably find a dead solider.  haha.  Again we explained they were all buried in the cemetery.  They definitely helped keep things light.

..........

I was home alone one day with IV and a repair guy came over to fix the new desk.  IV was chatting away incoherently with me and I would respond with "Oh yeah" or "That's right"  or something similar and the repair guy asked me how I knew what the little guy was saying.  Ummm, I don't I was just responding.  Then he asked how much fun I was having babysitting my nephew.  Nope, this one is mine.  The final kicker was when I said I was from Phoenix and was grateful for the cooler weather in Maryland and he looked at me like I was crazy and said "Is it really warmer in Phoenix?"  Yep, pretty much.  

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We really enjoyed our trip and can't wait to go back!

Trip to Maryland: Part 6…Houses in Middletown and The End

Middletown is larger but still near Keedysville and Boonsboro.  I LOVE Middletown.  It’s where I would want to live.  If ever I had a spare million or so.  Seriously I don’t even want to know how expensive these houses are. Middletown might just be my favorite.  Oh, except for that town we visited on the last day, the one college town in West Virginia.  That was cool but I didn't take any pictures.

 These are right on Main Street in Middletown.  We couldn’t really stop to take pictures and so these were taken from the car as we were driving. 

I LOVE the patriotic swags going on here.  My dream house has these as well.

Some are incredibly ornate.  This one even had decorated roof tiles, I think they are flowers.

I love the well-manicured gardens.

And the wrap-around porches!

 

And yes, that is my son’s head in the bottom corner.

Gosh, maybe one day when we’re rich and famous we’ll live nearby! 

Because my husband had left already, IV and I got to make the flight back by ourselves.  I very much dislike Baltimore airport because it was not very family friendly.  In Phoenix you get a shorter security line which really makes a difference.  We ended up singing ABC's about five times, lost his shoe twice and then still had two tantrums all while waiting in line.  Yuck!  

The flight itself was ok.  I knew that Stephen would need to sleep but he had such a hard time going down.  He was kicking and flailing and just couldn't get comfortable.  Poor guy!  Luckily there were other kids on the flight who were crying the whole time and so no one was upset or rude with us.  The lady sitting next to me was so wonderful!  I am grateful to all those on the flight who helped us out with putting up our luggage, getting it down, trying to help with IV and just being understanding!  

Getting off the flight was rather difficult as I had about a million miles to walk holding IV and pulling all our luggage.  We were both sooo glad to see Stephen!  IV instantly went to him and was giggling! He was so upset when I had to take him back to change his diaper!  Haha.   It was a great trip and I am sooo glad that we were able to go! 

Trip to Maryland: Part 5…Exploring with Anj in the Country

My sister will tell you she lives out in the country, in the sticks.  Don’t believe a word she says.  There are still tons of people around and it felt like every 10 minutes or so you would run into another small town.  It is too cute!

This is the adventure to get to and from Happy’s Preschool.

This is on Main Street Keedysville.  So many of the houses will have a lit candle in EVERY window at night.  I’m sure they are now battery-operated, but it is soo cool.  I just wonder where the tradition started from.  Anyone know?

Next up is one of the many farms you pass by.

I LOVE how old some of these homes are… 1803!

And here is the Rockland.

Another house, this one does have candles in every window too.

Maryland-style log cabin.  U-G-L-Y…you ain’t got no alibi….you ugly…yeah,yeah…you ugly.   Yuck. 

The house my sister wants us to buy.  It’s gorgeous and comes with tons of farmland.

And the reason we won’t be buying it.

I will NOT live that close to a main free-way.  It was so surprising to see homes literally butted-up against the road.  No thank you.

But it sure is cute!  I love the matching swing on the porch.

Haha.  There’s a good story to this one.

Doesn’t look like much does it?  It’s this little western-style town that we have not much more information on it.  I was busy jumping out of the car and running to take pictures and Anj’s job was to drive as close as possible to the site.  On this occasion she barely pulled off the road.  I had to run the whole way up to this area and I was so scared I would get in trouble!  Literally RIGHT after I took this picture some men came into view and I ran as fast as I could back to the van.  Laughing the whole way of course.

Our favorite farm.

A wider angle of it.

There are these old one-lane bridges that you have to cross over.  Soo pretty.

This one was built in 1850 for just over 1 thousand dollars.

A mill that’s now used as a house.

Many of the old homes had signs like this.  Pretty much any building was used as a hospital.

The remnants of the working part of the mill.  So crazy that they put these stones in by hand.  I can’t imagine how much time and effort that would have taken.

Daffodils in bloom!  As an Arizona girl I have never understood bulb flowers, but to see them bloom in the midst of the dreary winter that never seemed to end was quite the sight.

And I love the stone wall behind the flowers.  These were all over and were again placed by hand without any mortar.  Soliders may have crossed over these during the Civil War.

Here’s the remnants of an old bridge.

See where it connects on the other side?

Yeah, clear up there.  This was a Civil War bridge and certainly would have been cool to see.  It spanned quite a distance and went extremely high up.

So many cute churches.  Each small town had several at least.

I love this stone-work!

Keedysville Main Street.  I love seeing the flag and the steeple of the church.

Cute houses.

I love the old red brick poking through.

Sometimes at the top of the brick fences would be these rocks poking straight up.  Ouch!

Just lounging.

These homes had the craziest switch-back driveways. 

It is soo rocky and hilly there.  Most of the farms raise animals instead of growing plants for sell.  At least most of what I saw.