New floors!!!

The Carlson family began its home-owning experience back in 2003. We were so excited to get to be able to build our house (with the help of Pioneer Homes). One of the steps in that process was going to a design center and getting to pick out all the carpet, tile, counter tops, etc ... If only we had known then what we know now - lol.



We tried to choose wisely.



Emphasis on tried.



We, on purpose, chose the lowest grade 5 year carpet. Not so much a bad idea except in 2009 our 5 year carpet was now 6 years old. So after 6 years, a dog, and 3 children it was time to get new carpet. And, heck, if we are gonna get new carpet then we might as well go ahead and get rid of the nasty tile all over the entry-way and kitchen, right? (k, so the tile itself wasn't nasty, but our grout was horrible). So after lots of shopping around and decision making, we pulled the trigger on hard-woods downstairs and also replaced the carpet everywhere else.



No one told us getting all this done was going to feel like moving out of our house and moving back in, all in three days time - lol. Well, the dust has finally settled, mostly everything is back in its right spot, and we feel like we have a brand new house (and hopefully one that's worth more now that it was 6 years ago). Here's some before and after pics. You can click on them to get bigger versions of them:

Still going

Well, after roughly 17 weeks, I hit my goal weight! I started at 249 pounds on July 2. On 10/26, I weighed in at 189 which was 1 lb under my goal weight!!!!! I could totally be one of those poster boys for weight loss.

"Hi, I'm Todd Blankenship. I lost 60 pounds in just 17 weeks. And you can do it too!!! Just look at my before and after pictures .... "

"I feel like a new man!"

I would have to use a fake name so no one would know who I was. My fake name is Todd Blankenship.

So, since I hit my goal weight ahead of time, I reset my goal to 175. As of today I am at 186, so I'm only 11 pounds from my new goal. woohoo! Please pray that I can maintain this new weight/eating lifestyle once I am officially off the diet.

Next up on the blog catchup ..... more before and after pictures. Have a great weekend!

Following in Mommy's shoes

While Julia's eyes and personality are exactly like Daddy's, that's where the likenesses stop. She is girly girl through and through. Her career aspirations have ranged from Daddy's wife (?) to ballet teacher, but after our newest instrumental addition to the family, she now aspires to be a violin teacher .... following in Mommy's shoes!

We are very excited to see Julia grow musically. Julia's enthusiasm for learning the violin is so cute. The first day we had the violin, Julia got it out and played it like twenty times! She has already started lessons with Kelly and she knows all the parts of the violin and bow.

Stay tuned for more quick updates .... there are some very cool things for us to blog about.