neti pot

This past weekend I got attacked with hay fever and it's been much worse than I ever remember it being.  Usually I just sneeze, blow my nose a lot, and want to poke out my eyeballs because they itch so bad.  Nothing horrible.

Well this year was different.  More congestion.  Painful.  A weird headache feeling that didn't go away all day long.  I was desperate for a remedy!

I had read a little about neti pots online.  They seemed a little weird.  I mean really, do I want to pour water through my nose, making it run out the other side?  Maybe if things got Really bad. 

I guess last night it came to the point were things were Really bad and I was miserable.  Plus I didn't want it to turn into a sinus infection.  So I went to CVS and got myself a neti pot.

Sorry... I didn't have Chad take a picture of me using it :)

So if you are new to neti pots,  you pretty much just fill this thing with salt water (it gives you packets of the salt mixture to mix with water), put the spout in one nostril, tilt your head, slowly pour the water, and the water goes through your nose and runs out the other side, flushing out your sinuses and all the junk that's in there.  Sounds fun right?!

It took a little bit to get the hang of it, getting the water to flow right.  And one side of my nose was more blocked and it didn't work right at first so I had to try the other side.  At first it definitely felt like when you go underwater and get a bunch of water in your nose and can't breath.. not a fun sensation..  but it did get a little better once I got the hang of it a little more.

The verdict?  It definitely helped rinse out the junk and I felt better right after doing it, but I was still pretty stuffy and congested when I sent to bed.  A little disappointed.

However, after a night of sleep with a humidifier and some strip thing on my nose to help my nasal passages, I feel 100% better today!  No congestion and just back my normal sniffles and sneezes!  I'm just hoping that it lasts through the whole work day. :)

So I'm not sure if it was all the neti pot that made me feel better, I just needed some time to feel the effects, but I definitely think it helped and I will for sure be using this thing again, no matter how weird it feels.

bath time

Beck hadn't been a big fan of baths lately... until he discovered how much fun his squishy cars and trucks are.  Now he says "baf" and actually suggests taking one.  As long as he can play with all of his toys at the same time he's good to go...

Lined up and ready to go!  I love how if you look closely his little eyebrows are furrowed and lips are pursed, showing how serious about the boat noise he is making.  :)  Forget about trying to get him to look up for a picture!

need a new home?

We've decided to put our house on the market in hopes of moving closer to Chad's work, into a house with a little more space... and we're ready to experience a new part of Indy... well, south of Indy really.

Are we sad about the thought of moving?  Not really... neither one of us are too attached to our home, although we do really like it.  We are more excited about the thought of change than disappointed about leaving the little house we've called home for the last 4 years.  Of course it's never fun to move farther away from friends, but we'll still be close to them in relative terms... we won't be moving hours away - more like 30 minutes.  

The good news is that we aren't in a rush to move and don't Have to move if for some reason our house isn't very interesting to anyone else!  However, we have started looking at houses in Greenwood and already and found one we're Very fond of.... patience, patience!

Wow - our grass is bad, huh?!  hopefully it won't take too long to replace this with a 'sold' sign :)

our cute little house!  when we moved here the white trim and garage door was weird purple color?!  we also painted the front door and shutters black.  

our view out back

I did find a couple 'before' pictures of our living room and kitchen - it wasn't very pretty to say the least:

And here are some 'after' ones:

fresh paint, new appliances, beadboarding, new trim, and acid staining the floor were the main changes to the kitchen

we painted the living room the same color as the kitchen, put in new trim here too and switched out the carpet for laminate wood flooring

So if you know someone moving to Indy or within Indy - send them our way!