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.

On the Sea of Pee

I am inundated in excrement. Potty training has officially begun and it was not my idea AT ALL. But this is what they are wanting to do, so I'm going with it. Griffin has greeted me twice this week with a crappy diaper in his hand when I go to get them in the morning. Both twins strip their diapers and clothes off at every single opportunity. Griffin pees in the pool--like those fountains with the boy peeing. Yeah. He runs up to the edge of the pool and pees into it. He also pees on the floors. And he took a crap on the kool-dek today. I'm not kidding. Kenna mostly does little tinkles every once in a while, but she's got a lot more control and we go to the potty regularly. She insists on going to the potty. A lot. But mostly doesn't do anything there. I think she just likes my undivided attention. To add to the excitement, Laney is working on not wearing a pull up to bed anymore. Occasionally that has been resulting in laundry.
But enough about body functions, right? We're working on all the logistics of moving. Like lighting a fire under the butts of the mortgage people and figuring out how to find a notary. We're doing something new--both houses will be closing via mail. So I sign everything and mail it off. Weird. I've got lots and lots of ideas for the new house. I think Charles is starting to get freaked out. But I did set a budget and plan to stick to it. It's actually sort of fun to figure out how to do everything I want to do within that boundary. Hello Craigslist! And family basements. I'm feeling really creative. Hopefully my energy level stays up with my plans. I realized today that we have a lot of parties this summer. The twins birthday, Brianna's graduation, Lynda and Curt's anniversary/birthday party, Dana's birthday party and family reunion. And Charles' birthday too, but he refuses to celebrate it. Fun fun fun!

The Shackteau

I'm returned from the frozen north and I've seen our new house. We decided to call it the Shackteau. Let's just say that when you say "I'm going to my second home for the summer" or something like it, it conjures an idea that is in no way in keeping with the reality of our humble house. The house was in sort of poor condition, but then again it is almost 20 years old. It has lots of potential to be really cute one day. The current owners wouldn't leave and I felt weird taking pictures of them and their stuff, so I don't really have many pictures. I am really excited to see the house empty. I'm sure it will seem really different. It is certainly packed to the gills right now. The current owner has two room mates. And a shizhzou (?) dog. That isn't potty trained yet. I'll be plenty busy for the next few summers with home improvements. Which is actually kind of cool with me. I think it will be fun.
Hmm. What else to say? We have fruit trees and raspberry and strawberry bushes. And a two story building in the backyard that looks a little like a grain silo from the end.
The weather in Idaho was (and still is) nasty. Cold and wet. In general, it was so nice to have a few days off. I did my own thing and went shopping at thrift stores, had coffee, that sort of thing. We also went out to dinner at the White House on Friday night and that was great. We went to Enoteca for a wine tasting first. It will be nice to get up there for the summer.

Kenna on the Mend

Kenna is officially on the mend. We started antibiotics yesterday and she's much better this morning. Our trip to Target was a nightmare. I had two kids running away from me up and down the aisles and a sick one clinging to me. It was Laney's turn to be a troublemaker on that trip. On the up side, they have all been much better about playing together and sharing lately. We haven't had a major biting incident in a while. This may be because K has been to sick to be feisty. I'm not sure.
I'm heading out tomorrow for Idaho. Charles comes home tonight. I think we're going to have tag team parenting for the next week or so. Once I get back, we'll really need to start rockin' and rollin' on the preparation to go to Idaho at the end of the month.
Time to get my kiddos dressed and head to dance class. No swimming today. I think we still need to arrange to finish Kenna's lessons and do another couple days with the G-man. I wish my camera took little videos too. It's pretty cool to see them swim.

Mondays

What a Monday. Charles left at 4ish this morning. Kenna woke up screaming at 5. She and I "slept" in my bed for a few hours. She's had a fever for about 4 days. We were supposed to do their clothed swim tests today and since K had a fever she had to skip it. Griffin still won't roll. Little bugger. We all went to Costco after swimming and had lunch afterwards. Griffin has been feeling his two-ness coming on lately, so he was cute and sweet until he wasn't. He stuffed his mouth with pizza and chewed it in to a glutinous mass then drank some pink lemonade to make a slurry and started spitting it out. I was not amused. I took away his drink. So he spit everything in his mouth all over me. So I took away the pizza and he had a massive hissy hissy fit in the middle of the Costco cafeteria wherein he tried to fish his pizza plate out of the garbage can and snagged a finger and a lady came and freed him. I carried him bodily to the car since he refused to walk. He fought getting in to the car seat and screamed for the first 10 minutes of the trip home. Then he passed out. They all took a nice long nap, but when I got the twins up Kenna was burning up. I took her temp and my thermometer read 104. So I freaked out. Then we all went to the dr in a frenzy and Kenna of course was about 100 by then. They hooked this weird bag to her to catch her pee. Their initial testing indicated that there might be a urinary tract infection but they are sending the specimin out to the lab tomorrow. So we may or may not make a trip to the pharmacy tomorrow. I'm going to go have a glass of wine now.