Opinions please!!!

Okay, so here are my latest (and hopefully final) ideas about the paint colors for the house..

I just REALLY want other opinions...if you love it, great! If it's not your style, great! If you think it's hideous, great! well, maybe not great , but fine, haha..i just want honest opinions ;)

this is one of those many, many times i miss my mom...she was awesome at this stuff, impecable taste, and a genius with color, ahhhh...i definitely didn't inherit the design gene :P

So, all that in mind, give me the scoop! (oh, and sorry the pics are so small, don't know how to get them bigger from the valspar site ;)

The yellow color is for the living room, we are going back and forth as to whether we want it just like here, with the whitish color to be on the wall below the chair rail trim, or to just have the trim the white, with the yellow bottom and top, what do you think? the dining room is behind, to see what they look like together :)



dining room...now, i realize that it looks different from the above pic, but it's the same, i guess the lighting is just supposed to be different ;)


Audrey's room...i know it's maybe a bit loud...but i want something happy and fun, and matches her bedding...it's pretty much the opposite of her room now, haha


Our room


hallway/entry way...now i was against having the trim painted a "color" because i really don't like the way it is right now, but i liked the idea of using the same color as the main living space, just switching it, i wanted to keep the same feel throughout :)


so what do you think??

big changes..

SO...as usual, blah, blah blah, sorry I don't ever update, etc. etc...i will try to do it more often, etc. etc.

Now that I got THAT out of the way...there is lots of excitement going on in the Lowder household these days! Well, the biggest news is that our household is moving to a NEW household :) Yep! We are buying our first place! This is huge, I mean monumental news (well, at least for me, haha). Anyone who knows me knows that I have not been very happy in our place for a while, I mean for about 3 years, haha. It is pretty dang run down, there is no yard, and we can't really make it our own, because we are renting. I will miss the neighborhood for sure, the trail around the neighborhood, and the multiple playgrounds.

We never meant to stay here long..It was supposed to be a place to live while we were saving money and finding our perfect first home. 4 years later, we are finally moving on. We didn't even plan on looking until next year, we were set to renew our lease until right before Christmas when friends of Ron's dad was looking for a buyer for their home. Everything fell into place, and here we are, just a week until we close!
It is a perfect little starter home, 3 BR 2 bath, a living room, dining room, eat in kitchen, a den, utility/laundry room, plenty of storage and best of all a fenced in back yard with a shed out back :)

Well, what this all means, it that we are busy, busy, busy...and this is the time that I choose to start the blog back up? haha!
What I really want is to let everybody in on what is going on...I felt bad that so many people that care about us don't know what is going on with this big event in our lives, so rather than calling everybody and saying "we made an appointment for painters to come to the house for an estimate" haha, I will just update everybody at once ;)

That being said...Closing is Friday, Feb. 18th.. we are getting most of the house painted in the first 3 days (you will see why in a minute), then we move...and try to be done by Tuesday the 22nd when our moving help and babysitters will be leaving for a cruise :)
and I have a bunch of pictures to share (of course, true Nora style)

It's funny, the time I went and took pictures we were showing the house to Ron's folks with our real estate agent (the night our offer was accepted :) it was night, and I didn't get any outside shots, so those will come later..

For now, here is our new little domain

View from the front door...AWESOME wallpaper..think we'll keep it, what do you think? haha



From the entry into the living room...you don't think we have to paint this room, do you?


Living room into beautimous wall paper entry


View from dining room into living room (those beautiful floors were covered by carpet! They are being refinished for us ;)


View into the dining room, sorry..not a great pic, i was trying to do it fast, while trying to keep kids from harming themselves on all the carpet tacks :P



From dining room to kitchen



Audrey testing out the cabinets and drawers



Eat in kitchen


Eat in kitchen to den (play room)


From den to kitchen



Ron in my laundry/utility room (right off of den)


Beautiful pink kids bathroom :P


Boys' bedroom


Audrey's room (must. be. painted....my girl will not be living in a gray room)


Our gorgeous pink master bedroom



Master bedroom to bath


Master bath shower stall :P


Cabinets in master bath, will be renovated one day..not yet though, sigh



Weeeelll, thats it! And I couldn't be happier :) This is the perfect little house for us..please be prepared...I am already thinking of a post to ask for opinions on paint colors and stuff..I need to hurry up and make decisions! What with trying to pack our entire lives, while 3 kids are running around, while Ron works about 65-70 hours a week, and all 3 kids were sick with the flu (even though they had the flu shot) this week. I have not had time to think about anything!

So, as I started...I will end with a blah blah blah....I hope that I update more, etc, etc, hahaha :)
Thanks for reading!

National Prematurity Awareness Day

Tomorrow is National Prematurity Awareness Day.
Prematurity is something that at one time I wished that I was not so aware of. On 5.10.08 I went into the hospital at 30 weeks pregnant with my twin boys. I was pretty sure I would be released later that day, still pregnant, feeling terrible and having non stop contractions. In fact every doctor and nurse were sure that I was going home too. All day, from my check in at noonish, until midnight that night. I was told "you are just going to have to deal with it, contractions are a part of twin pregnancy", and in response to my breathing problems "do you have anxiety problems?".
Thank God for shift change. At 10 there was a shift change. I got a new resident, who actually listened to me. Suddenly, my breathing trouble was taken seriously, i had a ct scan ...which showed fluid in my lungs. The resident spent time talking to me, and at one point said, "well, your BP is fine, so we don't have to worry about Pre-Eclampsia" I said "well...as I have told the other doctors and nurses..my BP is usually very low, this "normal" is a rise for me"..he looked at my charts from my OB visits, and said "you are right, I'm ordering blood work". Probably 30 minutes later he walked in with the on call OB from my MFM office. "well, you have severe Pre-Eclampsia and HEELP, we will need to deliver immediately". I had 2 thoughts. I need Ron here (he was playing a show), and good, i just want this horrible feeling to stop. The doctors said we could wait the hour it would take for Ron to get there. I didn't even think about the consequences of what was going to happen until I called my brother, and broke down crying. I still didn't totally get it. I didn't know how sick I was...I had NO idea the severity of HELLP. I had no clue if my boys were ready. I had heard of other women who had to deliver early having an amnio to test lung maturity...we did not have the time. They needed to get out....and at the time I didn't know, but it was to save their lives, and mine.


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1019232648002&set=a.1019226887858.2003883.1440742341&pid=30062148&id=1440742341
Just writing this makes me emotional. It is much more tough to relive these moments now...now that I know my fabulous little guys...my strong little warriors are here, I can't imagine the danger they were in. I can't imagine a world without them, and to think how close we could have been to that is terrifying. Also, I was on auto-pilot for the next couple of months...I couldn't even see the boys for the first 2 days. I was too sick. When I was finally cleared, I was there non-stop. I lived in the hospital (literally) for 2 weeks...took out a room, and was there around the clock for feedings, pumping every 3 hours, even over night. Was there for doctors rounds every morning, trying to make sense of everything. I had to try to understand, had to fight for them, to make sure that every possible issue was taken seriously...since mine was not until it was almost too late.
We had breathing trouble (apnea), horrible reflux, Ronnie had a PDA (which scared the hell out of us). These are all common issues for a premature baby . But ya know what? All of this considered, we were lucky...SO freaking lucky...I mean, I cannot express how thankful I am for the fact that THIS was all we had to deal with. I saw some very sad things in the nursery. I have heard too many sad stories from other women who I care about. They have experienced the devastation of what prematurity can be.

We are a prematurity success story. For this I am eternally grateful. I owe this COMPLETELY to research funded by amazing foundations such as The March of Dimes.
It was a road...a long road...I won't say difficult, because we did what we needed to do, and so many had it much tougher than us. My guys are caught up...just as premature babes usually are by 2. They are normal..just right...just perfect, and every day I am more thankful for them than the last. If anything could possibly come from what we have gone through...I hope so much that telling people our story could maybe lead to earlier detection. As well as I have and will continue to every year walk for the March of Dimes. It's my way of saying thanks...a million times thanks for giving me my healthy, perfect boys..

the sickness

So, I totally meant to update with another nice complete update from the last couple of months...then the sickness descended upon our house :P
Of course my poor little bug got it worst. He confirmed that yep..Asthma is definitely going to be a problem with each cold :( we were holding a tiny bit of hope that last time was just really bad bronchitis. Well, as soon as this cold hit...so did the wheezing..
So we got even more friendly with the ol nebulizer...

He does daily treatments, but when he is sick he needs treatments every four hours....he has gotten SO good, and hold the mask himself (he won't wear the strap around his head :P)..I am so proud of him.

Now poor lil A has it the worst...please excuse the gross pic..but this just says it all about her...snotty as heck, but smiling :)


Well, in light of all of this...I'm of to bed ;) I will try to do a nice update with a bunch of CUTE pics tomorrow or the next day!

Life as we know it..

Obviously it's been a while ;) So I will *try* to do a quick wrap up, haha




basically this is what we did all summer...

















We had an awesome trip to the beach with the Grandparents and and Aunt Kimmie and Kyle..


One of the not so great parts of our summer was that we found out that our poor Ronnie bug is allergic to peanuts :( The doc says there is about a 20% chance of him outgrowing it...we will know more with his next test next year...unfortunately he has also developed asthma (maybe aggravated by his dog allergy) :( We had a scary experience when he had his first cold of the season, and ended up at urgent care and now we have to give him daily breathing treatments...but he is doing great with them!


Also, we did the big switch :P Toddler beds...ah geez...the boys love em...but I can count the number of naps they have taken since the switch on one hand. BUT, they end up in each other's beds a lot of times...which is very, very cute :)



We spent plenty of times with those we love too ;)





Well, that is a short wrap up ;) I will try to do a post Audrey's bday (Oct. 1st) tomorrow, so I can catch up completely..
just want to get the rest of that out..and get the ball rolling on the return of the chronicles :)
LOVE to all!!- the gang