Projects

I should be working on my lengthy to do list, but I'm going to blog instead. We have been working on the back yard and I've been trying to get the twins' rooms put together so it's been busy. One of these days I will learn to take a before picture (and post after pictures...). We destroyed our yard earlier in the year in a fit of enthusiasm. The patio against the west wall was torn out and we removed the dog kennel fencing. We also quit watering the grass. Then we left for the summer. Let's just say that it was a MESS. It wasn't that awesome before our "improvements" this spring, but it was yikes-worthy by last month. I guess once I start spending money, I just can't stop. It's weird. So after buying a second home and working on improving it all summer, we hired a somewhat sketchy team of guys to put in new patios and brick edging plus a new outdoor kitchen. Ooooh, ritzy, yes? We also walled off the mechanical section of the yard with the A/Cs and pool equipment. And we removed all of the dark red ugly rock. I've ordered grass from Costco and it should arrive at the end of the week or so (I'm so done with watering, overseeding, and mowing). Hopefully we'll get it installed without any problems this weekend. Then we'll install new plants all over the yard and paint the new stucco walls. I'm going to buy new pots too. So, hopefully, by my birthday we'll have a nice pretty back yard. We spent Labor Day weekend painting our fencing. We went darker and painted it the house color. I really like it. It's a lot warmer and has less glare (which probably means that the color will absorb more heat, but hey).
The twins have their own rooms now and I've been buying furniture for them. Cheap furniture because I'm broke now. Griffin's room has blue furniture and a dinosaur theme. I got his bedding at Marshals and found the quilt at Homegoods. score! I need to find bedding for Kenna now. Her walls are yellow so I've been trying to find something that I like. The thing about kids bedding is that it's often made of really cheap material that looks bad in about a nanosecond. I'm on the hunt. But I did find both of them headboards, side tables, and toy boxes on clearance at Target. I need to buy a dresser for Griffin still.
The kids are doing just fine. They have been sort of wild lately. Must need to run around more or something. The twins are potty training. Kenna is doing amazingly well. She didn't wear a pull up last night. I have been fighting with her because I want her to use the potty since I don't trust her yet and she REFUSES. It turns into a scream fest. I just need to let her do her own thing and realize that she goes when she needs to. G is working on the potty thing but he doesn't seem to have as much awareness of his need to go. But he's been wearing his big boy underpants more frequently. Laney started school and is going through this "you're not the boss of me stage". I'm quite ready to rip her arms off. She's just so big and independent now.
I went to the rheumatoid arthritis doctor last week and it was a good visit. I really like the doctor. I got sick over the summer and my arthritis really flared again. Turns out I probably had Parvo. The human form of Parvo is Fifth disease and it can cause viral arthritis. Who knew? The upshot of the visit is that I'm renewing my dedication to taking my meds and hopefully I'll start feeling better again. I'm really tired of being tired. The fatigue of RA is really something.

Runnin' in the Rain

What a busy day! While at breakfast the rumbles of thunder could be heard. A big slow monsoon storm descended on Tucson by late morning and stayed and rained most of the day. It smells wonderful out. That creosote smell is just so clean and fresh. The downside? No pool at the pool party. But we had a great time seeing everyone. It was a long haul out to Talia's house. She lives closer to the Sonoran Desert museum than she does to Oro Valley. It was hard to get the kids all geared up to leave in time to get to school. I booked it across the valley, but we were still a little late to class (and I carried the twins in most of the way). The church has a moms group and I must have made an impact carting two toddlers and leading a third across the commons. They gave me an extra pack of tissues. All my kids were really great today (even when occasionally they were really tired or really 2). Griffin is just the sweetest little guy. And Kenna is becoming such a ham bone. We went to a school function tonight as a family and left the kids in the daycare while we went to the presentation. Griffin freaked out that I was going, but when we came back we found them all having a great time. The ladies all seemed to be very entertained by Kenna. She was just a pistol tonight. Must have been the fishy crackers or something.
Delaney carefully wrapped a fake rose in tissue paper and gave me a special "present" today. It was just sweet. On the way out of school, she ran up to a new friend "just to give her a hug goodbye". All in all (disregarding the occasional freak out), she has been really sweet and helpful lately. Just in time for the twins to get their toddler on. I guess God knew that if they all three were awful at once, I'd have to rip someone's arms off.
So, even though we had a few "moments", it was a really good day. Kenna told me "goodnight mommy, I love you" too. I've had lots of little kisses and hugs, special conversations while we practiced pooping on the potty (both twins! whoo hoo!), received various things wrapped in crumpled tissue, and marveled at all the bugs that surround a light at night in Tucson. Mommy bliss.

School Days

We're back in the swing of things again and every day is full of activities. Yesterday, all of the kids went to the dentist. Laney looked like such a big girl in her chair and she did the full cleaning this time. Griffin and Kenna wowed them with their complete willingness to sit in the chair, wear the sunglasses (are you kidding me? of course they would!), and be generally poked and prodded. The results of our visit? Dental health excellent, keep up the good work. And oh yeah, they will all need orthodontia for their various bite problems. The girls both have signs of a cross bite and all have narrow palettes. I guess I should start an orthodontia fund now.
Today we went back to dance class and gymnastics. Kenna went to dance, G was supposed to do gymnastics at the same time and then Laney started a gymnastics class. Kenna LOVED dance class and I could tell she was paying attention really well. She's so cute and tiny in her little outfit. Griffin outright refused to be left in the gymnastics class. No freakin' way. So we'll see. He might not start an activity until later in life... And Laney of course jumped right to it, though I was sort of wishing she was still in dance when I saw the TAP SHOES. OMG. Very few things are as cute as toddlers in tap shoes. I took picts of Kenna dancing but then my camera ran out of juice, so. Bad mom. After dance we high tailed it home, shoved some food in everyone and got back in the car to go to school.
Laney walked in to her room and quite literally did not spare me a second look or even tell me good bye. We walked past a little girl and her mother who were having a major showdown over whether she would enter the building. The little girl won. I felt bad for her mom.
I took the twins home and put them to bed (eventually), then went to the grocery store and picked Laney up again. She returned to me a little grouchy about not going out on the playground today (it was hot and they were busy). She made an enormous princess hat and a robin hood hat. The princess hat is quite literally as big as Kenna. If I ever get my camera charged, I'll take a picture!!
Both of our outings started with massive drama. Kenna is having a big 2 moment and decided to fight with me at the most inopportune times. She doesn't want to pee on the potty when asked (say, right before we go somewhere in the car) and has a shrieking hissy if I suggest a pull up. She's actually doing quite well with the potty training though. Most days. I have days when I think, well she's got it! And then she pees on the lego table or something.
Laney told me tonight that she wanted Aunt Diane to be her mother. She thought it would be a lot better than having me. I'm too bossy. Tomorrow is our first play group since we've been back--and it's a pool party in Avra valley, which we must attend with a potluck treat and then leave on time to take Laney to school. Not sure if this is going to work well. Anyway, must go shave my bikini line and pass out now.

Hello, Blog, it's been awhile

My last post left us with soggy weather in June. I can't believe that I didn't post the rest of the summer! It's been a busy summer and doing techie stuff just didn't figure highly on my to do list I guess. Here's a short summary of the summer:
We went cruising on the river in Post Falls right before the 4th and then did dinner and dancing to celebrate is one Lynda and Curtiss' 25th wedding anniversary and Curt's 50th birthday. We had a great time and I danced all night to the groove beats of PJ Destiny and his one man band--which was composed of two people since his son Fred came along as backup. The sun finally came out (as per usual) immediately after the 4th of July. We spent the 4th in Sandpoint. I went to the Forrell (no, I don't know how to spell it)/Smith picnic. It had been quite a few years since I went last. The place was just swimming with the Brickers and similar clans. I think there were very few people I recognized in the crowd. Isn't it funny how the older people still look the same after 20 years? I guess the major differences between 50 and 70 aren't as huge as between say 5 and 25! The twins had a great time playing there with the other kids. Laney didn't come with me. I went with Mom and Dad (because I'm the good daughter ;-). After that reunion picnic we continued on to Joyce and John's for another picnic. Then we went home and passed out so the kids didn't do any fireworks this year.
Once the sun came out, things got rockin' and rollin' for summer. We worked on the house and the yard. I collected yardsale furniture and did my magic spray painting. Our little house has the brightest colored furniture ever. Our dining table is apple green and our bedroom furniture is a dark aqua.
After the 4th, we went camping at Sam Owen's on Pend Oreille lake outside of Sandpoint. We originally intended to stay at Springy Point, but it was full. It all turned out pretty well with the exception of extremely predatory deer that ransacked our camp and ate a bunch of stuff. Andy and Jenny visited with us several times and swam. They brought their boat over one of the days and Laney went for her first boat ride and went tubing. Of all the kids that went, which included all of the older boys who are about 6, only Laney was brave enough to do it and just loved it. The best part of camping for the kids was riding bikes on the road. Kenna can't reach the pedals on a trike so she does it Flintstone style. She looks just like those lizards that run on their hind legs. She's completely fearless and took off down the hill once. She must have hit about 20 mph before she steered into the bank. I almost had a heart attack when I saw her start down. I started running and expected to find her broken at the bottom. And there she was, smiling away on the side. Griffin can pedal--the pink and purple trike. He 4x4'd through the forest, he rode on the road, he would not stop. All the kids went for a long bike ride and Laney and Griffin just pedaled away. Kenna walked instead of trying to push that distance.
The weekend after camping, we went up to Priest Lake to visit Dana and Jeff at their vacation rental. They had also rented a boat for the weekend and we went all the way up to the upper lake. I haven't been boating in about a decade. It was fun even though Griffin peed on the boat a couple times.
At the end of July, we had Art on the Green and my 20 year high school reunion. It was awesome to see my old high school friends, less awesome to see the people who annoyed me then and still annoy me. I guess a typical reunion. Art of the Green was a little too brief for me. Charles and I took the kids and he was done before we made half of the loop. Next year we'll do things a little different...
After that we got the house ready for the big party. We had a big birthday bash for my sister's 40th birthday. Charles even made a dance floor and we hung lanterns made of glass jars from the trees. I'd say that we had about 50 people or so. I think there were 21 kids there. I warned the neighbors ahead of time thank goodness.
After a very busy summer we headed home to Arizona. We got back on Wednesday it's been go go go ever since. We bought new beds for the twins on Thursday. No more baby beds. Sigh. Friday we went to school to meet Laney's new preschool teacher. Who is AWESOME. I was so excited by her description of the year she plans that I was almost ready to go to preschool myself. Friday night Laney went to Leah's on an official sleep over and I went to sorority. It was so good to see my sorority sisters after such a long time. I'm going to miss those who will be leaving this fall. Today we cleaned up the old office and broke down the crib and pack-n-play before the beds were delivered. I must say that it is so strange to see the beds in those rooms. Sigh. A new era starts and we leave babyhood behind. Unless we have another baby that is... ;-)

Living the Soggy Life

Oh the rain. It rains rains rains. I looked out at the grey sky and the pooling backyard and thought "oh yeah, I remember now why I didn't like the weather here". On the other hand, you really really appreciate sunshine when it does make an appearance. In all fairness, even the normal Idahoans are starting to get really annoyed with the weather. Sun broke through today and we were outside. Griffin figured out how to climb the tree with Laney. I'm sure that Kenna isn't far behind. He had a couple mad dangling episodes, but all in all a successful first tree climb. They all woke up at 5:30 this morning because K woke up and started yelling. We moved the twins into their big kid beds on Father's day. Kenna's is so tall that she has no hope of climbing into it on her own. Griffin got a captain's bed and he was soooo excited about it all. He loves going to bed in his big boy bed. I think his excitement at getting a bed totally made Charles father's day (which up to that point had been quite literally crappy). He just beamed.
Father's day was wet and cold. We went to the hardware store together in the morning to pick up the BBQ we bought for Dad. Charles was grouchy. Then he drove the BBQ home in the truck and I stayed at Lowes so that I could drink some coffee (since I still don't have a coffee pot!!) and the kids could ride the lawnmowers in the exit foyer. Griffin gets really excited now when he sees we're at Lowes, since his newest love is pretending to drive lawn tractors. The girls get in on it too. Charles dumped the bbq over on the ride home and it's a little tweaked but ok. Then he got home and decided to fix a very majorly blocked toilet (a plunger was on the shopping list). The toilet overflowed and made a massive gross mess and he paniced and tried to clean up --which led to a massive quantity of filthy towels in the bathtub, a toilet brush in the sink (no I don't understand why), tracked excrement water all over and of course, a filthy toilet. I came home with the kids and immediately started cleaning. It was just that kind of day.
We got the trim completed in the kids rooms and part of the doors in the hall. So we were able to get their furniture into their rooms and that was nice. That evening we had dinner at Mom and Dad's and I grilled the burgers. I haven't grilled burgers in a long time and we got the less lean burger. It was the towering inferno, but they were tasty.
My furniture refinishing is coming right along. I've got the dresser for Charles almost finished, the dining table almost finished, a chair almost done (including recovering the seat), a table for the girls' room done, and a few other things started. All in very bright colors. I don't know what it is, but I'm tired of brown. Anything brown. So I have a lime green dining table and a dark aqua chair and dresser for the bedroom. And a hot pink table for the girls room. I guess I'm treating this house as a play house and coloring things appropriately. It's really fun. I wish I'd done the before pictures. Darn it. Oh well. I'll get picts posted eventually.

The Shack is Shakin'

Ok, finally back in business with internet access again. I can't ever connect to my parents wireless. It's been busy busy. We moved in to the house on Sunday, though it's still in a work in progress state. I have a feeling that it will be that way for a while. I went on a furniture buying spree and need to start refinishing things, but it was raining and cold all week. We had to turn the heat on and guess what? That smell got worse. So we live in a stinky house and it bugs the crap out of me, but I guess eventually it will improve.
The kids are loving it here (mostly--except the rain thing). Laney biked over to my parents house earlier in the week and was super proud of herself. All three blocks. They've been biking and running around in the yard. Or they did anyway until the weather went crappy and we filled the garage with furniture. They were mad about that one. G thinks we should bring his trike in and he could ride inside (technically true). He hauled it in himself this evening and was furious when we sent it back outside.
I pruned the trees out front this afternoon since we had a break in the weather. The branches were so low over the sidewalks that you had to duck and still got wet every time you went down the walk.
Tomorrow we paint and install trim. And take back a blind to have it recut so that we can finally stop living in a fish bowl. I didn't realize how bad it was until I came home later on Wednesday night. You can see everything in the house from the street.
I need to get some sort of furniture (like a table or something!) that allows me to sit more comfortably while I use the computer. My back is killing me. So I'll go now and try to post more this weekend.

Laying Seige to the Shackteau

We had a pretty good trip up to Idaho. The weather was decent and the kids were good. It was tiring of course, but all in all not too bad. It was crazy getting things ready to go and honestly, our packing job was such a mess I have no idea where anything is.
But the real news happened when we were about an hour outside of Missoula. I called our agent because she hadn't dropped of the key the day before. Turns out that was because the woman was still in our house. We did a rent back to her for a couple days because she said that she needed some extra time. I guess she decided she needed more. We tried everything to get her removed, but the cops couldn't do it because they said it was a "paperwork issue" and not trespass and since she had been our renter, technically rental law would apply. It was amazingly irritating. Eventually, after lots of aggravation she had to pay us an extra $60 and be out by noon today. Whoopee. The house was a complete sty and the yard hadn't been weeded or mowed since we did the contract. She took our curtains but left her junk. And she padlocked both back gates and did not leave keys. We're behind on our renovation schedule and Charles leaves tomorrow. When we finally got possession, we went at it. Changed the locks, started prepping to paint, and took down the awful curtains. We made an extremely spendy trip to Lowe's, got the Uhaul unloaded, took down one giant ceiling fan and ripped up the carpet. All of it in the entire house. It was DISGUSTING. Like one of the grossest jobs ever. Both her dog and cat have continuously peed all over it, some of it very very recently. Like today. Huge wet stains in the subfloor. Dana, Jeff, and Dad helped unload the Lowe's booty and we all toasted the new house with champagne. I'm taking picts, just didn't download today.