All Staged And Ready To Go

Those who know of my.... eh umm....decorating "skills"....probably won't be surprised that our realtor had stagers come decorate our house to get it ready to sell. I try very hard but there's just something I lack when it comes to mixing aesthetics with functionality. Functionality usually wins! These two women did more in 3 hours than I have done in 6 months. They moved furniture between rooms, dug through closets to find decorations, and found pictures in the storage room I hadn't hung yet. It's a little less functional, but they did a wonderful job....all with stuff we already had!


OK, so they didn't do anything to the outside, but I think the last picture I posted of the outside was of a house with no porch. We DO have a front porch now!

Here's the front entrance. Check out my sofa table that I refinished. (It used to be the ever popular Honey Brown color.) The decorators thought I got it from Pottery Barn. One point for Robin!! Whoo-hoo!!!

This is the formal living room....what used to be Brinn's playroom. Looks much better, but a lot less fun!

Here's the great room. I had pretty much all the furniture shoved into this room before they spread it out. Had we stayed here, we were going to build a T.V. niche above the fireplace.

This is the formal dining room. Since we are not formal people we were using this as our office area.

Kitchen. Not much to change here!

Eating area.

This is the basement living room. We don't use it much - just to watch movies here and there.

Please help us pray that it sells quickly. Brinn has been through so much chaos and change in the last year and a half. We would like to give her some normalcy in her life!

P.S. For all you HGTV lovers out there: Shane said I should name this post "House Hunters" and say that Suzanne Wong stopped by. He even suggested I download the "House Hunters" music to it. And who says he wouldn't make an excellent blogger!?!?

My name is DIVA

Thanks for the votes....I'm sure I will live up to my name in the years to come!

Top 12 Audition

We have loads of fun on American Idol nights, and not just watching the television. Brinn provides the entertainment on commercials!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Deja Vu, I Love You

About a year and a half ago, Shane and I learned we were pregnant with multiples. Very shortly after that rumors began that the company Shane works for would be laying off. The rumors turned out to be true and Shane was displaced in Wichita, but, by the Grace of God, offered a position in Missouri. Although moving away from our families at a time like that was not what we wanted to do, we knew we needed the insurance coverage for our babies NICU stay. So, off to Missouri we went. And you know how the story goes up until now.

Well........I'm not pregnant this time, but late last year the layoff rumors began to circulate again. And would you believe, Shane was recently displaced in Springfield but offered a position in Wichita! That's right, here we come (back)! The house went up for sale yesterday. This area is really beautiful but it will be so nice to be close to our family and friends again!

So, I'm figuring.....since we're doing this whole deja vu thing backwards, the next thing we should do it get pregnant, right? We'll have to get working on that. Stay tuned!

P.S. Don't forget to cast your vote for the name of Brinn's new puppy! (on the right)

She's HERE!

We've been pretty busy here in the Armstrong house and time seems to have gotten away from me. This past weekend my sister Dawn and I moved our youngest sister down to Wichita (from Illinois). Yeah!!! This has been a long time coming and we are all so happy that Lisa is finally close to the rest of us.

Our little baby Eskie was ready to be picked up on Valentine's Day but since we weren't in town we were going to pick her up sometime later this week. But, we were back by Monday and too excited to wait any longer for her. So, even though all of us had enough windshield time over the weekend, we hopped back in the car for the two hour trip to pick her up.

She has been a great puppy so far. She's really laid back (for a puppy!) and goes along with pretty much whatever Brinn does. Brinn's already had her dressed up, in the stroller, in the baby pack-n-play, wrapped up, held for hours on end and says they are already best friends. She is really worn out by the end of the day!

Sadie and Sage have responded pretty much as we expected. Sadie is pouting and needs a lot of reassurance that she will never loose her first-dog status. She also drools like a water fountain which she usually does when she gets around puppies. I don't know what that is all about. Sage gets nervous when she comes near, then gives her a very vicious bark, then runs away before she can "hurt" him. He seriously has no clue that he weighs 100 pounds.

Unfortunately, none of us have really settled on a name for her yet. We'll call her one name for a couple days, then try another one for a couple days. So, before our new, sweet little baby girl develops an identity crisis, we need your help! Please vote on the poll at the right to help us decide what to call her. Yes, we are serious!

Valentine's Party

Brinn had her Valentine's Party at preschool yesterday. Of course, ALL the moms showed up to see how cute their kids were at school. We would give anything to be a fly on the wall everyday!

Baby Eskie - 5 weeks

She's getting bigger!! It won't be long now......