The Quest to Clean out and Declutter.

I've been trying to purge our house of overly expired products so that they don't move with us. We were eating frozen "wedding food" for 4 years after our wedding and my mom asked me the other day if we were still eating it because I've been trying to clear the old stuff out of our freezer and cupboards. (The "back of the freezer smoothies" were quite the adventure with possible breast milk contaminated carrots... Those followed the "back of the cupboard krispies" we fed the missionaries which were quite tasty). No, we don't have any wedding food left, but there is turkey from Thanksgiving 3 or 4 years ago... I'm thinking it will end up in the garbage... and the Ramen noodles that we were told were rancid 3 years ago by a house sitter and haven't been touched since. I am running out of time to use up the 2002 salad dressings which will surely move with us.

I did have a triumph today though. The attached photos are of lotion that has followed me from Colorado, two locations in Texas, to Nebraska. I'm thinking I've had the stuff since early high school by the 01/97 expiration date. I finally ran out of the "Vani Cream" in the pickle jar and came upon this stuff. I've been especially (as Ryan calls it:) "freakish" about washing my hands 20+ times a day (I think I've always been that way though) and have to put thick lotion and socks on my hands over night (especially in the winter) or they crack and bleed.
I haven't found my next purging project yet, but it's probably the giant bag of unshelled peanuts that hasn't been touched in a year or two. I'm not sure if they're rancid, but haven't been in a hurry to find out.

Christmas Extravaganza!

We started letting Benjamin open presents a week before Christmas because we and his grandparents went overboard this year. The finger paint opened on the 23rd was a flop. It was returned to the store yesterday. (I probably wouldn't have known Benjamin was so against the finger paint had it not been opened independently. He tried to put it back in the wrapping paper and told me he needed a different present and then was really sad when I wouldn't give him one. I explained that he was a really blessed little boy to be getting so many presents and he should be grateful for what he had.) I have a recipe for homemade finger paint, so I'll try it out on him in a few months.

Benjamin really wanted Luigi and the Ferrari matchbox cars from the Disney "Cars" movie when we were at the BX. (I'm thinking we already own about $100 of matchbox "Cars". It really adds up...) I was wary of buying them after getting him so many presents, but then Ryan reminded me that the cars could be an exchange for the finger paint. We do need to start getting him things he really likes instead of things we think he would like. I was thinking we should get Benjamin a tricycle for his 3rd Birthday, but now I'm thinking he'd really like a Fisher Price camera a whole lot better.


Benjamin just made me watch the attached video ~10 times and is still begging to watch it again. Hopefully this is a teaching moment. It does make me laugh when he grumbles about not getting what he wants. He started doing that about a month ago.

New Christmas Eve Tradition

Benjamin got the "Little People Inn" this year to finish off his Little People Nativity set. We "acted out" the Nativity story using it on Christmas eve. Hopefully in the following years it will go much smoother. Benjamin kept running off with the Holy Family during it.

We had the missionaries from our congregation over for dinner. We got them Offutt AFB hats because we figured with 2 Christmases in Nebraska someone had surely already given them Husker corn cob hats.

Christmas Party at Great-Grandma Hoffman's

Benjamin and I went to the Christmas Party at Bethany Lutheran Home today for Grandma. We were running late and Benjamin fell asleep in the car because it was during normal nap time. It was kind of nice because then he was really mellow. They painted Grandma's nails and curled her hair. She looked great for being 90! I can't tell if I look old or if Grandma looks young because they always seem surprised to find out that I'm her granddaughter and Benjamin is her great grandson.

Benjamin was impressed with the mini cheesecakes. He refused to try the eggnog.

It was freezing today (the high was 4 degrees) so we were hunkered in at home the rest of the day. I don't like cold winters!

A New House

I'm not quite sure if it's good that Ryan is as impetuous as I am!!! We've been looking at houses for the last couple of years and almost listed ours last summer, but didn't get around to it. I've been watching a house for a couple of weeks and saw the price drop. I set up an appointment for us to go see it on Friday evening. By Saturday afternoon, we had made an offer. They countered and we accepted after looking at it again last night (Monday). If the inspection and everything else goes well, we'll be closing on January 9th.


The house is in Fontenelle forest where deer and other wildlife are known to wander. (I've heard a guy went bow hunting in his back yard and got arrested). It's a 1.5 Story with a walkout basement.

The deck has as much square footage as the main floor of our current house. It will take Ryan all summer to refinish! (I doesn't look like it will need it for a while though). Benjamin was impressed by the wild turkey and raccoon tracks in the snow in the back yard. The yard has two wooden play sets and a sand box.

The front door is on the left of the photo. We'll have to put netting on the railing when the new baby starts to crawl or add slats to it. On the very top right of the photo, is the balcony from the office that is attached to the master bedroom. Last night, I was impressed to discover the built-in ironing board in the wall of the office. There is a laundry chute and we'll have to teach the kids that nothing but laundry goes in there. It would be horrible to have to clean cat guts out of the bottom or have a cat stuck in it!!!

Benjamin has already picked out his bedroom. It has a horse mural on the wall. We'll probably have the boys share a room and make the other room a play room until they get older (and/or we have more kids).

The upstairs full bath has a fish motif which Benjamin liked. I think the realtor asked if the sellers would leave the soap dish etc. for us.

Master Bedroom. It has a partial walk-in closet and a 3/4 bath with double sinks, tile floor, granite counter top, and ceramic shower.

Living Room.

Dining room. I am a bit sad the house doesn't have an un-carpeted eating area, but we can eventually put a wood floor in the dining room.
Kitchen and Family Room. To the left is the garage, a half bath, and a mud room with nice built in shelves.

Corian or granite counter tops would have been exquisite, but I love the kitchen nonetheless.

The basement has a large rec room, bedroom, laundry room with an attached 3/4 bath. The linoleum is 80s and the carpet isn't that nice, so the basement is really the only thing that could be fixed up more.

So that's the house. It's one that we hope to be living in for the next 20 years.

Family Photos

We went and got family photos taken today. Benjamin is sick with the stomach flu Ryan and I had on Monday and I was tempted to cancel, but it would have been the 3rd time rescheduling so we decided just to go. For Benjamin being sick, he sure has a lot of energy.Benjamin was doing this weird squinting thing in almost all the photos so we didn't have a lot of choices out of the 71 pictures they took. The one I've included is the one that ended up on the wall in our living room. I don't want to spoil the one going out with our Christmas letter (which I WILL get out this year... I only mailed ~10% of last year's... Not to mention Benjamin's 1 and 2 year old photos!) The other photo has my pregnant belly in it.