Kitchen Survey

I have a strange new conversation starter......"so what kind of counter tops do you have and do you like them?" I went to work and asked that, I interupted a Pamper Chef party to ask that, (Sorry again Jeannie!!), I just seem to be asking everyone that lately. I think I am getting weird in my old age. You see....as noted from an earlier post....we are remodeling our home and have been for 3 1/2 years. So for 3 1/2 years I have dreamed of my kitchen. Well, now that Miguel has almost all of the dry wall hung upstairs I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for getting to FINALLY redo my kitchen. I started exploring counter tops options, since I have pretty much decided on my cabinets, and I was blown away about how many types there are out there. As this is going to be one of the most expensive remodel projects...I HAVE to get it right the first time. So, that is where you all come in. "What kind of counter tops do you have and do you like them?"

Now what?

Well, dear readers, I now have the 3 posts made that I originally started this blog for. =) Yeah for my big accomplishment but now what do I write about? I do want to say this....I am not going to be a facebook/internet/blog basher.......but starting this blog was seriously a big step for me. There is good and evil in EVERYTHING, but I have always been of the mindset that the evil out weighs the good with the online networking forums. Again, please, I am not trying to be a basher or a finger pointer, but I have first hand seen a lot of people hurt by facebook, blogs, etc. There seems to be a lot of gossiping (did you see so and so's pictures....I thought they were a Christian) and even to the extreme that I know people that have cheated on their spouses..maybe not all of them physically but emotionally counts too. You don't like how your real life relationship is going so you will talk to someone online for hours that says all of the nice things you want to hear. Plus the time that it takes. For some reason it can just suck you in and before you know it you have been on for HOURS. We only get 24 hours a day and I want to make sure I use them to the best of my ability...that means God and family need to get the bulk of my time....not the internet. I really didn't want to be a part of all of that. But I really wanted a place that people that wanted to be updated on my family and I could come because, let's face it, most everyone is on the internet and this is the easiest and quickest way to update people. So I decided I COULD have both. I could update people and maybe, just maybe encourage as well. I prayed before I began this blog that what ever I would write would ALWAYS be edifying and encouraging. So readers if I stray from that, please notify me. Seriously.

So, with that all behind me, if anyone ever reading this needs a friend, someone to listen to them, someone to pray for them, someone to laugh with, or whatever I would be happy to do that. Just let me know. I REALLY mean that. Let us remember to pray for the people in Haiti as well. I can't even begin to fathom what they are going through right now.

Testify to everyone you meet....and if you have to, use words.

Psalms 127:1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it

As promised this post will be about something that takes quite a bit of Miguel's and my time....our house. When Miguel and I got engaged one of the things that we agreed on was that we did not want to rent....we wanted to own our own home. That being said we could not afford much because we did not want to be house poor. So we decided we would get a "fixer uper". So we looked.....and looked.....and looked some more. Have you ever, dear readers, been in a house that is listed at less than $10,000? Well, I have and let me tell you it is SCARY!! We were at one of these scary houses when the realtor said, "Hey I have another house that you might be interested in if you have time to look." My mom and dad were with us and we said sure. This house had a lot of things that we wanted...it was out in the country, had a good size yard, and had some growing room. Yes, there were certainly some scary parts, but I asked myself the question that my mom told me to, "Does this feel like home" and it did. My dad was telling Miguel to ask himself, "Do you really want to work 8 hours a day and come home and work on a house?" (Chuckle) Well, we put in an offer and after a VERY long ordeal that would take pages and pages to go into, we were finally home owners. Let's just say that the bank messed up soooo badly with keep delaying things that they ended up paying ALL of the closing costs and cutting us a check for $900. Now the fun begins. Our house is about 100 years old. It has 5 bedrooms, living room, dining room, family room, utility room, and one bathroom. It has 2,200 square feet. It needed A LOT of work. We had 1 year to get a new roof on, siding, new windows, and some of the rooms didn't even have dry wall. The walls just had studs. The front room when you enter the house was actually being supported by floor jacks because the previous owner decided to knock out a supporting wall. But, as anyone knows that has done any remodeling, the work was way more than we orginally thought. The house had the orginial wiring in it from probably when they first wired the house for electricity. So EVERY wall had to be knocked down so we could rewire it. With the deadline looming over us some really awesome family members and friends spent countless hours tearing off the roof, drywalling, painting, or whatever. You know who you are and I still get teary eyed thinking of all of the help that we received. I know God will bless you. Now we have been living in the house for about 3 1/2 years......in adition to all the work that had to be done within a year, Miguel has put in all new doors inside and out, reinsulated every room, new wiring in every room, which means new dry wall in every room, new floors, we have added walls, and knocked out walls, and took out doors. Did you ever noticed that old farm houses have doors every where?!??! For instance, the kitchen originally had 4 doors into it and there was a door from the dining room into the master bedroom. We still have more to go, of course, but we have come a long way. We still have some of the bigger more expensive projects, like the kitchen. Looking back would I gone this route? Being newly married, living in a continual project? Hmmm I'm not sure....but I can tell you this...I have learned A LOT. I always joke that if you want marriage counseling...work on a house together. I have learned when to give my "helpful" suggestions and when to be quiet, I have learned to be more patient, I have learned that there are still awesome people that will drop everything because you need help, I have learned that it's not what you have or how everything looks that people visiting your house notice its the love and peace that fill your home, I have learned to budget my money better, and I am still learning that there will always be projects and things to do, but I will never have this day again to spend with God and my family......so some things can wait. =)
And now I give you some before and after pictures.............................

All About Adaliah

As denoted by the title....this post is going to be all about my baby who is not quite a baby any more. Said daughter is down for a nap allowing me the time to tell you my dear readers all about her. She was born Jan. 2, 2009 three days late. Three days does not seem like a big deal, but I am telling you every day felt like a week! I had the world's easiest pregnancy though so I can not REALLY complain. She was born at the Van Wert Co. Hospital at 2:51 p.m. on my sister Nicole's son's 1st birthday.




So we kinda ruined his first birthday party. =/ Sorry! She weighted 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 19 3/4 in. long. Adaliah was the first baby born in Van Wert Co so she got her picture in the paper and we received some really nice things from some local businesses. I get a lot of questions about her name, so I shall explain it. Her middle name was always going to be Ruth as that is my middle name and is kind of a tradition to pass the name on when you get it. It was my adored grandma Barnhart's middle name, a great aunt's, my cousin Ginnys, her daughters, and now my daughter's. I liked the name Adalyn. Well I was looking up the meaning of that name....since meanings of names are very important I believe...and it didn't have a meaning because it is two modern names simply put together. Well that didn't sit well with me or Miguel. Right under Adalyn was Adaliah which is a Hebrew name meaning "God is my refuge" or a Spanish name meaning "Noble". We loved it so she is our little Adaliah Ruth Calderon.

I LOVE being a mom. I must admit that the first few months were a challenge though. Adaliah fought sleep and completely had her days and nights turned around for a month straight. This was VERY difficult especially since I had to go back to work when she was 5 weeks old due to Miguel getting laid off when Adaliah was three weeks old. Not what we planned as I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom, but God knows and has a plan bigger than MY plans. So dear readers if you have any questions about how to get a baby to sleep, please feel free to ask as we have been down that road. At 6 months she was still getting up 3-5 times a night so we moved her into her own room. She cried for 2 hours straight. That was one of the hardest things to do...to not go and comfort my baby but I knew there was nothing wrong with her she just wanted attention. After that first night, she started sleeping through the whole night and Miguel and I started to feel like normal human beings again.

When Adaliah was 6 months old she got to go visit her family in Arizona. She did wonderfully on the airplane and she received LOTS of attention for the almost two week we were there. Here are some pictures of our family and our adventures out there such as playing the Wii to the wee hours of the morning...thanks Terry and Sam that was fun, spending lots of time with our neices and nephews, bonding once again with my bro-in-laws- thanks for the shooting lessons Alex and for the food Roy- you really need to teach Miguel to cook like you guys! Thanks also to Canti and Al for helping with the cost of getting us to AZ. And to girl time with Jodi! Yeah! Great to see my mom and dad-in law as well. =)

Adaliah is now one....I will post pictures later from her and Micah's party and is soooo much fun! She says "dada", "mama", "dog", and "hi". She is taking steps but not "officially" walking. Crawling is still so much quicker you know. =) She loves to laugh, eat, and be with her family. She makes dinosoar noices and this weird"gully-gully" noise while rolling her tongue. She is quite talented. If I can figure out how to post videos I will put one up of her doing that. Don't wanna miss that! I really can't think of anything else now but if I do I will blog about it later. So...drums roll please.... I give you pictures of Addies through the last year. Thanks for letting me tell you ALL about my baby and enjoy your day.....this day will never happen again you know. =)

I Did It!

I did something I thought I would NEVER do....I have now created a blog. I have done this mainly to keep more connected with my family out in AZ. Also so my sister Maria does not have to keep shouldering the burden of keeping people updated on us. But for anyone else that has stumbled onto my page "Welcome!"; pull up a chair, kick up your feet, and be updated on the lives of the Calderon's. =) I can not promise to be a faithful blogger, nor an interesting blogger but I shall do my best.

To get everyone up to speed......I used to be Stephanie Daniels but now I am Stephanie Calderon. I have been married for about 3 1/2 years to Mr. Miguel Calderon whom I love dearly. God knew what He was doing when He put us together. (I can see my Ohio family gagging right now and my AZ family asking themselves if I am I am talking about the same baby brother they know) So to my Ohio family allow me my gushy moment and to my AZ family, yep he turned out pretty wonderful.

I am also now the mother of the most beautiful girl, Adaliah Ruth who just turned one on Jan. 2, 2010. She brings joy and wonder into the most ordinary day and she inspires me to want to be better....a better Christian, a better person because I now have a little miracle that is watching me and I am responsible for. I am very blessed! Miguel works nights at AAP in St. Mary's, Ohio and I am still teaching part time for ATM Education and Vantage Career Center. My dear mother watches Adaliah for us when we are working at the same time. Who better than my own mom to watch little Addie for us seeing how she raised 7 kids of her own and has babysat for years, but it is still hard on me to leave my little one.

We ( and I am using that term a bit loosely seeing how it is mainly Miguel) are working on our 100 year old farm house. That takes a lot of our time and $$! I love my house though and it is going to be worth it in the end. We are attending Bro. Ray Erickson's church in Blufton, Ohio. We spend a lot of time with my family eating, laughing, and having a good time. We have two Boston Terriers and currently just one cat....much to Miguel's dismay.

That is about all of can think of to catch everyone up on the Buckeye Calderon's. I hope to have something wonderfully exciting to post soon. Hopefully not TOO exciting though! =) God's blessings on each of you who read this. Have a wonderful day!