Work Party

Wow.

I am amazed at how incredible my ward family is.

It's true, that wherever we've lived, we've been surrounded by wonderful people. You have all become our family at different times in our lives. (Which is why I blog...to keep in touch and up-to-date with you!) It doesn't matter what state we live in, wherever we go we know that we will have friends and support group.

Saturday we had a "Work Party" at our new house. (Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? -is that how you spell that? --looks ridiculous....) Anyway. It was amazing how many people showed up, early on a Saturday morning, to help us tear nasty doggy-pee carpet out of our house, scrape linoleum off of the floor --some as a suprise under carpet!, wash walls, mow the lawn, remove bushes, clean gutters...etc.-and babysit kids. Even more amazing was how many stopped by or called later that evening to see if there was any more they could help with. And were we going to do this again with the next phase? They'd love to come help. (We got so much accomplished in that one day--more than we could have done on our own in a week! We've got a jump-start and I'm super impatient to keep going. Kilz-ing the house is next!)

I am so humbled to be the recipient of such service. Such cheerfully and freely given service.

Thank-you.

Crankiness Justified

My darling King H is growing up too fast. During vacation he sprouted two new teeth! The funny thing is, he got his front left, then lateral right (is that correct?). He's sporting the most adorable snaggle-tooth grin right now. (hard to photograph with those tight little lips in the way!)

I was worried about the placement of his teeth (gaps forever? orthodontics?) until I noticed two more breaking through-the right front and left lateral. Poor kid, crazy teeth coming in all at the same time, in a strange order. At least the gaps are filling in.

Makes me feel better about the dose of tylenol I gave him at nap time yesterday.

House Musings

I've been distracted as of late, dreaming of color schemes and materials for my house. I considered waiting until it's all over to suprise y'all with the outcome, but let's be real....it's sketchy at best if that will happen. (the picture and posting, I mean)

So, here are the ideas I've gathered so far...Let me know what you think...

colors:
I want the entire house to be one main color (squire hill buff-1068), with ultra-white trim. Then I can add accent colors to rooms as I feel like. I have the dining room color (upper left corner, cranberry bog-ms002-on two walls) and the living room color (benjamin moore-classic caramel-1118). I tend to be attracted to greens, reds, browns, creams--did I mention that the outside of the house is blue-almost periwinkle? I think the main bathroom will be green-ish. The boys room will have more blues in it. Sweet A's room will be pink-ish and the master I see with chocolate brown and blue-grey. We'll see.

The countertops in the kitchen will probably be this. And the plan for the cabinets is to paint them white. Or off-white. Perhaps colorwash them and layer white/ivory. They are very un-charming 70s dark brown with no hardware and flat fronts. The budget doesn't allow for re-facing or replacing, so it's painting for them. After all is put back, I want to make a glass/ceramic tile backsplash. Probably all glass tiles behind the stove, and then (budget allowing) either a ceramic with glass accent backsplash behind the counters, or all glass tile mosaic (in browns/golds like this).

We're planning on putting in laminate in the kitchen/dining/hallways/family room since that's a pretty continuous space right in the center of the house. The family room at one end and the bedrooms at the other will get carpet. The bathrooms will just get fresh paint, and either ceramic or vinyl floors. Depends on budget when we get there. Haven't made it to carpet or bathrooms at the moment. I'm hung up on the laminate. I like this. (quintessa collection, walnut pattern). I like wide planks, non-shiny finish, and darker wood.

Those are the exciting parts. The boring parts are unscrewing cabinet doors (Sweet A removed nearl 100 screws from the backs of our cabinets--we pulled 33 out of the kitchen, and she and Sir C nearly took all of them out with the drill and screwdriver bit!!) removing plug and light switches, removing wood paneling, priming, tearing out carpet (we found the pooches favorite spot(s)...eww stinky!), discovering brown/green/orange/gold vinyl (I have to get a picture of it!), removing the vinyl, removing baseboards, tack-strips, doors.... you get the idea. We're still in the middle of all that. Then we get to clean it and prep it for paint. Then paint....and paint...and paint.

I haven't even begun to talk about the yard...

Solids-Part II

We're entering the solid food stage of life.

This is such a painful stage for me. I believe I am one of the minority in the parenting world with children who don't really love to eat. (Or, perhaps more are like me?!?) When I see my friends kids eating everything, and scavenging food from other plates (probably that belonged to my kids), I am amazed. Daddy is always better at feeding solids-I figure it's because they know that mom's got "the goods" and what is this solid junk anyway? Unfortunately, daddy's not always around to feed the baby bird. King H was doing quite well until we went on vacation. Now, he's not interested. He even spits out cheerios.

Yesterday I tried to feed him some rice cereal with pears. Not interested. I had to pry his little lips apart with the spoon, and dump the cereal above his tongue. Then he would swallow. Somehow we managed to get most of the food in his belly-albeit with MUCH complaining. I felt triumphant.

Fast-forward to dinner. He complained so much about sitting in his exersaucer I picked him up. I held him on one side and tried to eat from my plate half-way across the table. Nothing is safe from King H when he gets that look in his eye. Sure enough, he grabbed a fistful of broccoli. He was so pleased with himself. I figured, "Why not?", and fed him a smidge of broccoli. He loved it. He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough. (Of course, he's not quite coordinated to get it in himself, so I helped.) Now he opened his mouth wide and eagerly ate.

Apparently I've been trying with the wrong thing.

Broccoli trumps pears.

(I'm just not looking forward to the "aftermath" of this new stage....)

Saving Water

I was having one of those days.

Mine began with rotten dreams and sleep deprivation from getting up with the baby 3 (or was it 4?) times during the night. Not good. Things didn't progress from there, and I'll spare you the gory details (although mountains of laundry were involved.) Not my best day or proudest moments. My husband got a brief heads-up on the situation when he called about our date plans for that evening. So, when he finally came home, he found me attempting to tame the wild piles of dirty dishes. He came up to me, held me in his arms and gave me a kiss. (Now, he always gives me a kiss when he comes home, but it's usually an old married couple "hello" kiss...you know the kind.) Not today. This was the perfect kiss for the moment, and exactly what I needed (who knew?) to diffuse the powder-keg of emotions I'd been storing all day and keep from completely losing it for the rest of the night. While we were thus sharing a moment, our 4 yr-old interrupts.

"Uhm, guys, you shouldn't be wasting so much water."

I'm pretty sure he ment the sink faucet...

Need a Laugh?

I have moments of creative genious...and moments of utter failure. Because of that, I thoroughly enjoyed finding this blog: Craft Fail.

Check it out for some not-so-martha moments in the world of creative endeavors.

Summer Favorite

If you've seen me in the last two years during fair weather, you've probably seen me wearing these:

They are my ULTIMATE favorite flip flops. Of course, I love cheap flip flops, because seriously, after wearing them with bare feet all summer, I'm not sure it's hygenically sound to keep them for multiple years. (At least not too many.) But with cheap flip flops there is rarely much support or cushion. (anyone for 2 for $5?)

While I wouldn't exactly categorize these as cheap, they are fabulous. Super thick and comfy. And sassy. And great conversation starters. And I have to get new ones. I've had mine for two years, and it's time to retire them. I just wanted to share where to find them. Here. And if the thought of running around with dragonflies, orchids and pineapples on your toes isn't appealing, they have plain ones. I think I need a few pairs. (I think I like them better than my croc-flops.)

Happy Flopping!!