Basement Remodel III

So I went downstairs to do laundry this morning, and I realized that there is still painter's tape around some of the woodwork downstairs. I peeled a little bit but determined that I needed a step stool which would've required me to go back upstairs and come back downstairs...so I left it.

Anyway, Colby has been asking me to post some photos of the new paint, colors I call "chocolate" and "coffee with extra cream."


The new chocolate wall with my new 'do.

This is the view from the new walk-in closet into the bedroom.

This is a view of the new linen/cat litter box closet that will eventually have bi-fold doors.

This is the new light Colby put in the bedroom closet all by himself without getting electrocuted (to badly, anyway).


The floor is in complete disrepair, but the new wood laminate flooring is waiting patiently in the garage to replace the old stick down tiles.

Bowling Lake

After telling the kids we would go fishing yesterday, the day got away from us and we never made it. I promised them I would take them this morning, and I followed through. The morning was hot and muggy already. I packed bug repellents and water bottles while Dade packed the fishing gear, and off we went, me and six kids.


The little kids checked out grasshoppers.


Brody found a snail shell (and actually let me take his photo).


Evelyn had to do her Top Model pose, of course. We can't just have a regular photo, heaven forbid.



There was fishing fun to be had by all thanks to Dade. He made sure we had worms (from his very own worm farm,) rods, and tackle. He put on all the bait and took off all the fish.



The geese and ducks were swimming, the frogs were croaking, and the thistles were blooming. Dade was disappointed that we didn't catch more fish, but I guess not catching fish is part of being a fisherman.

Piles

Have you ever noticed how many piles there are in life? Piles of mail, piles of unread magazines, piles of sand in the sandbox (hopefully).

There are some really enjoyable piles, like piles of fresh summer fruit waiting to be eaten.


And then there are piles that we'd rather never see, like piles of laundry ready to be folded and put away (side note: there is another load in the dryer and one in the washer).


There are so many piles in life to either love or hate. Part of being a mom is being able to handle all sorts of piles, especially when you have a big pile of kids.

And, hey, now that the new desk is here it can be the new home for that pile of mail and unread magazines.

Healthy Body Challenge Update

I haven't done a post about my healthy body challenge in quite some time. With all of summer's activities and our home remodel, I barely have time to work out. I'm now lucky to go once a week when before I was going 4 or 5 times. I stepped on the scale this morning very warily. With dwindling gym visits, I thought for sure I was doomed. 155.5 read the scale. I haven't gained any weight. *Insert big smiley face*

I get comments all the time from friends and neighbors. When I told My friend Keri that I saw her son at school last week she said, "Oh, I thought I saw you, but I didn't recognize the shrinking woman I saw. I knew it was you after I saw all the little kids you had along with you." Ja yelled from across the street yesterday, "Getting skinny aren't you?" *Insert big smiley face*

I honestly don't remember the last time I weight 155 lbs. Of course, I never weighed myself in high school. I never felt like I needed to. I felt good about myself, I guess, and didn't care to see what the scale thought. I know that after Dade was born my weight hovered at 190 lbs thanks to poor food choices and inactivity. I hope that soon I can stop counting on the scale to either make me feel good or make me feel really bad. Maybe soon I'll be back to those days when I just felt good about myself.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my favorite dad. No, I don't mean my dad, although he is fantastic and I love, love, love him. I'm talking about my hubby. He's the best dad I know, but I may be a little biased. Because I appreciate all he does for our family, I found Colby the perfect gift: the Nook. It is a little computer thingy that holds like 1,500 eBooks on it that Colby can read anywhere at anytime. We have such little space for Colby's vast and ever-expanding book collection. This way, he can have tons of books in a very small space. It's a win-win for us both. He's like a kid in a candy store with this thing.


We went for lunch at Old Chicago in the pouring rain. Of course, we had to go to the hardware store as the basement remodel required a few more goodies. I tried to take some photos of Colby and the kids, but as usual Brody wouldn't cooperate. I can see his wedding photos now: Brody with a scowl on his face (which is, of course, turned away from the camera) and absolutely NO photos of kissing.


Happy Father's Day to all the dads who read this!

The Basement Remodel II

The lack of space around here is slowly (quickly) driving me insane. All day the boys fight, talk smack, and generally have annoying things to say. I really don't need to hear every episode of Chowder repeated word for word. It isn't all their fault though because their rooms are currently community space being used as multipurpose rooms. I can't just send them off to their rooms for some alone time. This remodel needs. to. be. done. Like, yesterday.

Colby has been working on the basement closet area today, finishing the drywall and getting ready to put a light in the master closet which, as you can see from the photo with Dade across the floor, is pretty big. Dade and I scraped off the wallpaper border, which turned out to be oh so very easy. THANK GOODNESS.



Colby also put Dade to work sanding and holding stuff. Colby has been so nervous about the drywalling because he's never done it before. He's nitpicking every detail, and my response is generally, "Babe, it's a closet. Who cares?" He cares. So, he's been on the phone a bunch of times with his dad asking for pointers. Thank goodness for dads. Speaking of which, tomorrow is Father's Day. I'm sure Colby has lots of things he wants to squeeze in between basement work and baseball.


Oh, and Evelyn was finally able to cut her hair today since dance recital (and it's hair-in-a-bun requirements) is over. She looks awesome!

The New Refrigerator. . . YES!!

WHIRRRRR. CLUNK. WHIRRRR. Oh snap. . . the door isn't sealed. Although our old fridge served its purpose, a new one was needed. The old one was missing numerous shelves, made horrible noises sometimes, didn't seal properly, and gave off a lot of heat.

When the new fridge arrived, the kids and I were so excited. . . until I heard the delvery man say, "Dude, this isn't gonna fit." Sure enough, it was too tall to fit under the cupboards.


Good thing I have a handsome, hard-working handyman for a husband. He moved the cupboards up, and the problem is solved. We are the proud new owners of a new (and fully stocked) fridge.

I Guess We're Having Eggs for Supper?

When I went to use the grill earlier this week, I discovered a little surprise: a robin's nest complete with eggs. Okay, well that's what we get for going out to eat every night while the kids were gone.

My lovely husband had just returned home from work, so he graciously relocated the nest (not sure if Mama Bird will come back) so that we could have something besides tamale husks and little blue eggs for supper.

So Far the Basement is. . . The Same

With Colby is Kansas City since Sunday night, not much has gotten done around here. Wait, scratch that. Lots of things have gotten done: laundry, meal preparation, cleaning up, etc.

Yesterday I took the kids to Bowling Lake, and Dade caught fish while the little kids and I poked sticks in the water and watched frogs. After lunch and a short nap time for Reese, we all (me and 6 kids) headed to the YMCA to swim for an hour. Dade proceeded to lose his glasses while we were there (the lifeguard found them for us), and I proceeded to lose my sanity (the lifeguard didn't find it and neither did I). After Runza for supper (hell no, I wasn't going to cook), we came home and went for a long bike ride/tricycle push with the dogs. Of course, my plans to put everyone to bed early (remember, no naps) were thwarted by the neighbor kids who wanted to play. The kids were in bed by 9:30 pm, the Lakers beat the Celtics (holla!), and I ate half a pan of cherry crisp.

Today was story time, and everyone was really good (until Reese got mad and kicked me.) I am typing this as four kids nap and two fight over who gets to be player one on the Indiana Jones game. Apparantly, Brody wins because Dade is a "super stupid idiot." Is there some other kind of idiot?? Side note: generally mouths are vinegared for such smack talk, but the boys are presently taking advantage of my huge case of the fuck its.

Tomorrow. . . new fridge, baby! Desk is on back order and will be here next week.

The Basement Remodel I

Oh, how I wish Colby wasn't leaving tonight for two days in Missouri. There are 6 - 8 people trying to sleep, play, and stay sane in 1100 square feet of space because our basement is officially an off-limits remodeling zone. My living room is a toy room. My bedroom is a toy room. My hallway is a dressing room. My garage is a storage unit. My basement is a mess.




Colby has the doorway for the new master bedroom walk-in closet cut. He has the drywall to build the new storage/cat litter box closet. We have picked out flooring, a dark-toned laminate. We still have sticky times to peel up, wall paper to strip, painting to do. If only we had the time to get it done. Anyone up for a little construction work?

And will someone PLEASE tell Colby that the baby blue shirt does not match the orange shorts? Better yet, will someone please just light those shorts on fire and blame it on some wild teenagers or something?? He doesn't just wear them during home improvement projects. He wears them in public. Frankly, it's embarrassing.

Evelyn's First Dance Recital

"Look how she lights up the sky!" So begins the song Evangeline, the song my little ballerina danced to at her recital today. As soon as I saw Evie on stage in her little tutu and heard those lyrics, my eyes began to tear and a huge smile appeared on my face. I didn't take photos during the recital, so these photos are from rehearsal. It doesn't matter. She was stunning during both.


While waiting for their turn to take the stage at both rehearsal and recital, all the little dancers from Evie's class played with Evie's Littlest Pet Shop toys and another girl's My Little Pony toys. It was all pure girlishness at its finest.

For tap dance, Evie and her class danced to Teacher's Pet while holding apples. I don't know if Evie is the teacher's pet, but she sure is Mommy's.


Colby's family joined us for the recital, as did my mom and step dad, despite the flooded roads. Thanks to Connie for yummy lunch and to JR for the awesome supper at Lazlo's. Brody also had a baseball game, so we had a pretty busy Sunday. I will bid my husband farewell tomorrow night as he is headed to business meetings in Kansas City until Wednesday.

Evelyn's First T-Ball Game

We have a busy weekend complete with t-ball, baseball, dance recital rehearsal, dance recital, and remodeling. Evie's first t-ball game was a scorcher! It had to have been 97 degrees with 97% humidity. She was so sweaty under her baseball cap, poor thing.

Evelyn did a great job hustling from the outfield to get the ball. She did awesome when it came to batting but not so good when it came to running to the base after she hit the ball. It took three or four lines of, "Run, Evelyn, run!!" before she would actually start running to the base. We'll have to work on that.




She played in the outfield, waved to me, and messed with her sweaty hat.


The other kids had Ring Pops thanks to a trip to the concession stand. Thank goodness for Daddy and his pocket full of change.

Dade's New Room

Dade's room is also about 99% complete. He still needs a desk for his computer, but other than that he's good to go. He chose a fishing theme, of course. He is quite pleased with the results. One thing not present in the boys' rooms: television. Since they will each have a computer, we told them that they would have to buy a new t.v. if they want one in their rooms.

Brody's New Bedroom

Brody's room is about 99% finished. There is still a bunch of my stuff on this bookcase, and my computer is still on his desk until his "new" computer and our new desk arrive.

We decided on an outer space theme, complete with light-up moon, glowing stars, and solar system stickers. He really wanted a ninja theme, but, alas, it was nearly impossible to find things to meet his desire. The solar system will just have to do.