It's Starting to Look Like a HOUSE

Not a HOME yet (no furniture or decor), but a HOUSE. That is a HUGE improvement over looking like a construction zone or, at times, a demolition zone. ~Aaaaahhh~ Life is grand. :-)

We had a great Sunday. My Sunday School class involved paper chain caterpillars ("old things are passed away") and ink blot butterflies ("behold, all things are become new"). FUN. :-) Brother Hopkins preached a fantastic message that day; possibly the best I've ever heard him preach. Or perhaps it just spoke to MY heart. I felt some definite conviction and refocusing going on in my heart and was so thankful for the opportunity to talk to the Lord about it in the altar. I love those times and need them regularly.

After service we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, then back to the church to do our cooking for the Mission Pot-Luck to be held after service that night. James had opted to cook up the last of his frozen green chilies from Hatch to make some enchiladas. Since our oven STILL isn't up and running (lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong story) we had to go to the church to make them. Brother Washburn showed up to take care of some BTI stuff and Katie helped him address envelopes while Sam commandeered his phone and played games on it. Brother Washburn was also so kind as to help Joe bust open the coconut James had agreed to buy for him. It was quite an endeavor and I really wish I'd taken a few pictures of it.

We were able to get a little bit of rest before returning for the evening service and dinner. We had a great meal--always do here--and enjoyed the fellowship. We sat with the Booths and the Carpenters and had a good time. We stayed around and visited with the Coxes and the Hopkins after everybody had left and ended up standing in the parking lot and visiting with the Coxes until nearly 11:00, I think!

On Monday I helped kids with school for most of the morning, then I painted yet one last coat of blue in the foyer. That's a long story I'll spare you from. In the end, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I LOVE having a dark blue foyer with white trim and doors. It looks fantastic.

Monday was also a red letter day for the kids. They moved out and into their own apartment. Not exactly, but that's what it feels like! We had intended to move them upstairs to camp out in the chapel room, but they all begged and pleaded to move to the basement instead. The more I thought about it, the more benefits I saw to the idea. James agreed and the kids were thrilled. We cut the carpet out of our bedroom into three big squares, one for each kid, and hauled them to the basement. Once they finished school the kids spent the rest of the afternoon moving their bedding and all of their belongings out of the living room and down onto their squares in the basement. They still seem to be loving the arrangement and for the most part so do I. But there is much less supervision when they're down there (thus the feeling that they've moved out!) and that scares me. HA! They spend most of their time up here with us anyway and when they ARE in the basement we're able to hear pretty much everything that goes on through the vents in the floor, so I guess it should be okay. :-)

We moved everything out of the living room, foyer, hallway (James' favorite place to keep that obnoxious compressor of his--ha!) and our bedroom and closet--in anticipation of NEW CARPET the next day. :-) That night the Ridlespurges came by to see our progress and see the joint one last time before it got its new carpet. We had to FORCE them to stay and eat dinner with us. Probably because "dinner" consisted of sandwiches and left-over enchilada from the pot-luck. HA! We had a good time with them, as always.

Tuesday morning was thrilling. The carpet guy came! On time!!! EARLY, even! And he had carpet. Lots and lots of carpet. ~sigh~ Oh, happy day. :-) James had some appointments and errands to take care of that day, but the kids and I enjoyed a nice, quiet day at the house, mostly just hanging out and playing some games while Larry worked away on the floors. At the end of the day the slate floor in the foyer had been prepped, and we had carpet--new, fluffy, cushy, pretty carpet--in the living room, our bedroom, and James' office. Wa-Hooooo!!!

That night James went to the auction while I stayed home and finished wallpapering our bedroom. :-) James came home with a game table for the kids to keep in the basement. They were bouncing off the walls with excitement and have been having a blast with it ever since.

Wednesday was a grand and glorious day because Larry FINISHED our carpet!!! It looks so WEIRD in the foyer and the hall because I've never seen carpet there before, but I LOVE it. It's the carpet that made all the difference in things looking like a HOUSE instead of a work zone here.

I spent a good portion of my day trying to teach Joe how to work with fractions. It will surely be the death of me. As I was ever so patiently ~ahem~ reminding him for the umpteenth time that the fractions must have common denominators before they can be added, I couldn’t help but hear my mother’s voice screaming at me from 20+ years ago, “’OF’ IS A PREPOSITION!!!!!!!” Prepositions were my weakness. Apparently fractions are Joe’s. I actually called a teacher recess that day for about an hour. I NEEDED it. Ha!

Once Larry was finished with the carpet and gone, I moved everything out of the utility room (lots of things had been crammed in there since it wasn't being carpeted) and back into the closet, cleaned it up, ran some laundry, and moved ALL of the kid's clothes down to their apartment. ;-) Though we now have carpet, we are still on the air mattress for right now—got to finish this house up so we can MOVE IN to this floor!!! Soon. Please… soon. :-)

Last night was CPMA service, then Bojangles with the Washburns. We had a great time with them and stayed out way later that we had planned. It was fun and we learned some things we didn't know before about them. DID YOU KNOW THAT TAMMY WASHBURN WAS HOMECOMING QUEEN????? I love it! ;-)

Today has been a real bust as far as progress on the house goes. But still a success, really. I've been spending more time with the kids and their schooling this week and it just feels so nice. It's so much better for them AND for me! Katie and I have been playing a game of Phase 10 Dice over lunch each day and tonight the whole family played I Buy. (It did occur to me that we must be OLD; all of our kids are old enough to play I Buy with us now?!) The only thing we really got done on the house was shaving down four doors that were scraping too tightly across the new carpet. We've got some work to do on the front door yet, but we'll get it figured out one of these days. I did managed to put a coat of polyurethane on the countertops tonight, as well as the dining table (it was in need of a fresh coat or two) and the bead board. Did I mention that we ran out of beadboard for the backsplash about four feet shy of completing it?! James bought a small pack and I stained the boards a couple of days ago and finally got some poly on them tonight. One more coat and they'll be good to go.

And now--at long last--some pictures!

Joe was all weird about me posting pictures and video of the Skate Show he and Katie put on for us the other day, so I thought I'd just put this one shot--the one that's so far away you can't possibly see that his skates have pink wheels. ;-) Mostly, it just shows the fantastic area they have to skate in. So fun!

At the other end of the basement was Sam's concession stand. He had cookies and granola bars and juice and water--and even pellet guns for rent. He is his father's son. Ha! He had everything all written up on his sign and ready to go.
Joe has had big plans for the Horne Gazette this past week, though I can't recall the last time he actually wrote a new edition...
I found these pictures that James took out back a few days ago. They really don't begin to show how pretty everything is. That bush in the left of the picture is COVERED with pink/white flowers now. It's amazing.
We have several dogwood trees on our property and they have white blooms all over them now. I love it when the wind blows and hundreds of them float through the air to the ground. It's the Alabama way of snowing. ;-) They are beautiful.
Ah, yes. The kids' apartment. ;-) This is Sam's square. That huge pile is the cave he created. He sleeps there and stores most of his junk there, too.
Looks like Joe is just hoping somebody dares to trespass on his square. ;-)
I didn't get any pictures of Katie's square because she was still arranging all of her stuff and didn't wasn't ready. I finally gave up and went back upstairs before she finished.

Katie and Sam were sooooooo excited about the new carpet. It wasn't even installed yet--just rolled out in the living room--but they rolled all over it like a couple of wet dogs trying to dry themselves. Oh, happy day!

And I thought I'd post these since Mom is so anxious to see how things are looking. I almost hesitate to do it because the color looks so funky. This is our bedroom. The upper part of the walls is a nice brown color--nothing mustardy like in the pictures. And the green wall doesn't clash with the wallpaper nearly so bad in person as it does here. HA!

Since those pictures were taken James has installed our ceiling fan. ~Aaaaaahhhh~ I LOVE IT. I am a very strong advocate of ceiling fans in bedrooms. I have a hard time sleeping without one, even in the winter when James won't let me run it. Ha! I like to be bundled up under plenty of covers in a nice cool room with the fan blowing the chilly air around. He has no appreciation for that at all. But this time of year I'm allowed to use it and I love it! I'm so thankful to have it.

When we were getting ready to leave for church on Wedensday I went into the utility room and walked around the corner to find this...

A strange place to curl up for a nap I thought, but he was out cold and snoring happily.

And one last picture--of my fantastic blue and white foyer :-) and into the hallway--these are floors that have never seen carpet before. ~Aaaaaaahhhh~ It just feels so nice and cozy and homey this way. And soooooooo much cleaner than the nasty floors that we've been living with all this time! It's a grand and glorious thing--new carpet. :-)

Staying on top of things...

Not in real life; only on my blog. :-) I thought I should write a little something tonight so I don't fall behind and write a WHOPPER of a post to catch up again.

You're welcome. ;-)

Yesterday morning we STILL hadn't heard back from Home Depot. They don't want our business and I'm tired of trying to force it upon them. ;-) So I made a phone call to the carpet outlet in northern Birmingham that Sister Washburn had told us about. The very nice, very informative and knowledgeable lady who answered the phone had some very promising sounding possibilities. After several questions she described a carpet that sounded very much like what we're looking for and it was within our price range. So all of our plans for the day got tossed aside and we all piled into the fan--Charlie too--for a drive up north. (We've seen more and more nasty little creepy crawlies the past week or two so we took Charlie with us so he wouldn't die when James set off TONS of bug bombs all over the house.) Indeed, we liked the carpet, we liked the price, we liked the people, we liked the terms--and they actually LET US BUY IT; something Home Depot had serious qualms with, apparently. ;-) Soooooo, the new carpet plan (as if...) is that our carpet dude will go pick up the carpet on Tuesday morning, bring it down to our house, and get to work then. WOW!!! It's sooooo exciting to be to this point! Even though we are still not ready for it. Ha!

The rest of my afternoon was spent in preparation for Band Meeting that night. I decided to give the kids the temperament test. :-) I always loved studying stuff like that and it's helped me sooooo much to understand other people and appreciate their quirks instead of being annoyed at them. Well... sometimes. HA! I'm only kidding, of course. :-) Anyway, we had a very small group last night--only four of the kids could make it--but we had a really good time. I gave them all the 80 question test and graded them and told them what they were and what it meant, then shared several verses about not rejecting the way God made us (like the vessel complaining to the potter, "Why did you make me like this?!"), but rather realizing that our differences and personalities are a specially picked GIFT from God to each of us (fearfully and wonderfully made--curiously wrought in the mind of God before time began). We had cookies and milk and a good time in discussion. Afterward we played Quelf, the game that I had bought earlier in the day in case we had time and wanted to play a game. Jacob and Philip had told me how much fun it was so I thought we'd give it a try. It is CRAZY and the kids seemed to have a blast. It would take too long to describe and I would have to say it's not for every crowd, but for young people (or wacked out ladies at a Ladies' Retreat?!) it's perfect. And our little group will be hollering "PIZZA PARTY!!!" every time a doorbell or phone rings for a very long time. :-)

When I got home just after 10:00 last night James was playing I Buy with the kids. Some day we'll get back to normal bedtimes for them (when they get bedrooms again?), but I'm so glad they had a chance to sit and play a game with their Dad. :-) I cleaned up the kitchen and put coat #2 of poly on the countertops. I seem to be on an every-other-night routine with that.

Today James and I spent the morning framing in the box around the ceiling in the kitchen (I won't try to describe it--I'll just post pictures some day) and he also finished out some trim work and installed quarter-round around the edges of the wood floor. It looks sooooo good! We went to Lowes in search of a few things and came home with nothing (when does that ever happen?!) and then I finally got busy doing some painting in the foyer. One thing can be said for these dark, beautiful colors I like to paint with... they are not very forgiving! I LOVE the blue, but we've got some issues with getting a good, clean coat in there. Not sure whether to try once more or just call it quits and hang lots of decor in there and hope nobody notices. Ha! I'm running out of time to make that decision because the carpet comes Tuesday--if I'm painting blue any more I've got to do it before then!

This evening--completely on a whim--I went to our bedroom and started wallpapering. Whoa! "I'm just as surprised as you are!" There are still so many odds and ends to be done around here and I don't know how that one suddenly ended up in the mix, but I was able to get about half of it done tonight. And I so thoroughly enjoyed it. I really like wallpapering. It's just a nice, clean job that is instantly rewarding. I love how it's looking in there. It's going to be so nice. :-)

The highlight of the day today is when the kids sold us tickets to "The Katie & Joe Skating Show" in the basement. :-) The basement is the perfect place to roller skate and the kids have been making good use of it this week. Katie picked up some o-o-o-o-o-old skates at the thrift store a few days ago and she's loving them. The boys use her old pink skates. :-) Anyway, Katie and Joe did lots of amazing tricks and we laughed a lot. Sam sat at the other end of the room behind the makeshift concession stand he had put together--he sold refreshments to us during the show. It was so great. The kids said they'll put on a show of some kind for us every Saturday. I hope they do--it was by far the best part of the day. :-)

How Many Laughed?

No, really--I want to know how many people laughed when I posted last night about my stove being fixed today and costing so little and all that. And WHY didn't you take the time to leave an itty-bitty comment warning me--reminding me--that things don't always (read: EVER) turn out the way I blindly expect them to turn out?!

So the repair guy came this morning... and my beautiful double oven doesn't need a new ignitor. Well, it MIGHT, but we don't know that yet. What we do know is that it needs new brains. The computer is all scrambled. When you plug it in it begins beeping and speaking French (no, really--lots of French words scroll across the screen) and it doesn't respond to any of the buttons. It's a strange thing, hope. What is that verse in Proverbs... "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." I hadn't thought of that verse until right now, but it's definitely what happened here today. HA! Before we bought this stove I called up a repair guy, told him I was going to look at a used double oven and wanted to know what the worst case scenario would be if it had major problems and needed fixed. He told me, asked how much we would be paying for the stove, and he and I both agreed that it would still be a worthy investment considering the value of the stove--it's a higher end model and it is, after all, a double oven. Well, I was all prepared for "the worst case scenario" and perfectly mentally prepared to be happy paying that much, knowing we'd still be getting a good deal all in all. But then yesterday I talked to the repair guy on the phone and he felt convinced all we needed was a new ignitor and it would be a cheap fix. Then we plugged the stove in today and it began speaking French and beeping sporadically and refusing to respond to any efforts to communicate with it. This was "the worst case scenario." So how come it was soooooo sad today--such a bummer--when I found out we'd have to pay what I was perfectly prepared to pay up until yesterday when my heart was filled with hope?! Because hope deferred maketh the heart sick, that's why! ~sigh~ Anyway...

I will have a functioning stove next week, Lord willing. The new brains will arrive on Monday or Tuesday and the guy will come and get us all hooked up and ready to cook--assuming we don't encounter any more unexpected kinks in the road between here and there. You know, the kind we've encountered with the carpet...

Home Depot is NOT performing very well in the customer service department, just so you know. All I want to do is give them a very large sum of money in return for their giving me a simple "stock carpet," the kind they're supposed to have available there at the store all the time. You'd think they'd be happy to facilitate such and arrangement, but they seem to have very little interest in it. I had my carpet guy all ready to start working tomorrow but it's tough to do much without carpet. I'll call again in the morning and hope to avoid slipping into the black hole of elevator music intermingled with the "Your call is very important to us... Please hold for the next available associate..." mumbo-jumbo. HA! At this point we're hoping to start working on the floors next Tuesday. I should back my expectations up to at least Thursday or Friday then, right??? ;-)

In other news, I began moving all of the junk out of the foyer today. That's where we've been keeping EVERYTHING--all of the paint and paint supplies and tools and ladders and shop-vac and all of the other equipment we are in need of during this project. I hauled most of it upstairs for the day we resume work up there, leaving only the items that we'll be needing in the remainder of our main level projects down here. I'm not finished yet, but I've got most everything cleared out and it feels great. :-)

That project led into another unexpected one: cleaning out the cabinets in the utility room. Those pretty red cabinets in there have been the catch-all for all sorts of miscellaneous items and it was driving me crazy. So Katie and I went and sorted through all of the mess, finally making sense of everything and finding the proper place for each item. ~aaaaahhh~ I love it when things have a proper place. :-)

This evening James and I were going to work on the kitchen ceiling (still needing to trim things out in there!), but he wasn't feeling all that great and suggested we take the evening and have a nice family night instead. We changed out of our grubbies and headed to Hoover. James had two Olive Garden gift cards so we made use of them and it was soooooo good. :-) Then we took the kids to the giant library down there and they had a fantastic time picking out new books. A stop at Krispy Kreme topped the evening off just right. :-) We enjoyed the rest of our evening too and didn't get home until nearly 10:00. Since then I've been finishing up on the utility room sort-through project (it's finally FINISHED and feels a thousand times better!) and pondering on the topic for my Band Meeting tomorrow night. I think I've got it down. :-) I love Band Meetings. I really should have them more often. ;-)

The Monstrosity, Day 487

Or something like that. ;-) I used to have a perfect record of just how many days' work we had put into this joint but that program fell apart quite some time ago. Things are looking better around here all the time and I think the next week or two is going to be really exciting... but only on the main floor. Then we'll have to start going upstairs again. As it is, I never go there. In fact, I quit going upstairs a couple of months ago. Someday I'll have to start going there again. Bummer. Ha!

I'm way behind on the blog again. I was going to try to upload pictures tonight, but if I do I know it'll take FOREVER and I really need to get to bed at a decent hour for a change. So I'll just tell you what we've been up to, then some other time perhaps I'll be able to show you.

So backing up two and a half weeks to Friday, March 2nd... According to my notes it was a very low-performance day. The whole family had been through whatever sickness has been going around and were just feeling pretty ~bleagh~ all day. I would work for about 20 minutes, then take a break for about an hour. Ha! Pitiful.

James and Sam left for Phenix City that night while I stayed home with sick-o Joe who was deemed too unhealthy to attend the District Convention down there. That means he and I stayed home "alone" that night. (Katie was still staying with my Mom & Dad in Cleveland.)

Saturday, the 3rd -- I painted the dining room red… AGAIN. Joe was feeling pretty well and helped me stain the 100+ pieces of bead board for the dining room, then I also stained the counter tops and the bead board for the backsplash as well as all of the trim that we had. It was the first day in over a week that I had felt back to full energy and I just worked and worked and worked, thinking all day long of how proud my husband would be of me and how excited he would be to see a-a-a-a-a-a-all of the work that had been accomplished. He walked in that night and asked, "Did you stain all of the wood???" I happily replied, "Yes, I did!!!," beaming with pride in anticipation of his surprise and appreciation. He then said, "Even the extra piece we got, but could've taken back if we didn't need it??? That's $28, Bec!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It wasn't very funny at the time, but we've had some good laughs over it since then. There are times when I think we could really use some marriage counseling--me with my silly expectations and him with his complete unawareness of my feelings. ;-)

Sunday, March 4th -- A regular Sunday, it looks like. Except that I spent all afternoon working on Katie's schoolwork. She's really been struggling in school lately, but I didn't know it. I've not stayed on top of checking her work like I should since being all tied up with house stuff, and she didn't tell me she was having a hard time. So I had to go through several weeks of work and find exactly what she's struggling with, reassign tons of stuff, and I even took several pages of notes of things for her to study that will hopefully help her out. It took HOURS, but it really needed done. And I've learned my lesson (I hope!) about not making time--no matter how busy we get--to stay on top of their school stuff. It makes lots more work for them AND for me! In fact, when we got home from church that night I was up until after 1:00am still sorting through it all to get us back to where we needed to be.

Monday, March 5th – It was house cleaning day because I had company coming! Ha! It's crazy to "clean" a house that's in the throes of remodeling, but it still had to be done. Mom got in that evening and had asked if the Ridlespurges could come over because she needed Brother Ridlespurge's help with the slide presentation she'd be giving at church on Wednesday. When they were finished getting all of that stuff worked out she pulled up the clip of Dad reading his “book” from Couples' Retreat this year. I'd already seen it, but it's sooooo great. :-) Later that night we wrote down our agenda for the week. It’s fun to do that. It’s the first step to the thrilling little game of seeing just how differently your week can pan out from what you planned. Late, late that night, just before bed, James found a double oven on Craigslist for $300. Whoa!

Tuesday, March 6th -- First thing that morning I called on the oven and set an appointment to go look at it at 1:00. In the next few hours I managed to accomplish nothing. I talked to a repairman about the possibilities with the used stove (worse case scenario questions), I helped children with school, and I gave a tour of the house to Brother Hawkins who had shown up to return our week whacker. The only thing I actually accomplished at the house was getting the foyer (also the room where we store—meaning DUMP—aaaaaaaaall of the tools and paint supplies and vacuum attachments and stain, etc., cleaned up a little bit.

James and I left the kids at the house with Mom and went to check out the oven. It's only about three years old and seemed to be in good shape over-all. Going with what the repair guy told me, we deemed that it would definitely be worth the money to take a shot on it. ~scary~ We stopped by HHGregg on the way home and found a little fridge that I loved. The set up was GREAT, but it was only 18.2 cubic feet instead of 21 or whatever the slightly bigger ones are. It needed some thought. By the time we got home from those stops (along with a few others including Schlotzky's for lunch--after all, we were within 10 miles of it... HA!) Mom had accomplished lots at the house. She had stained the ceiling boards for the kitchen, fixed a spot in the bedroom (paint touch-up), primed foyer spots and the door, polyed kitchen cabinets—one or two coats, I can't remember which--did the blue paint trim in the foyer, coated the dining room with red… AGAIN. Has anybody been counting how many coats of red paint have been applied in there?

When we got home I put yet ANOTHER coat of red in the dining room (do we have a full inch of paint on the walls in there yet?) and then I started painting the foyer blue. Dark, dark blue. I LOOOOOOOOOVE IT!!! :-)

We also spent a considerable about of time trying to THINK. There were still some big decisions to be made, particularly in the dining room. None of the options seemed good at ALL until very late that night. We finally came up with one that was better than the rest, so we settled on it. Then at the last minute James pitched in an additional thought that fixed the problem entirely and now I LOVE what we’ve come up with! (We hadn’t actually done anything yet, but I loved what we were going to do.) So the evening ended with Mom and I prying all of the baseboard trim loose from the walls in there. That was a little tougher than expected and resulted in multiple holes in the wall. Each time the crowbar plunged through the sheetrock it caused us to laugh a little harder than the last. I love working with my Mom. Things never go right, but it’s okay. Everything can be worked through, and we just enjoy the ride. That’s the way work should be. :-)

That wasn’t really the end of the evening. We then sat with our computers and visited until nearly 1:00. That was dumb. Then we went into the kitchen to look at one more thing, got all excited about the handles and knobs that had arrived that day and had to screw the knobs into the five big drawers in there. It's sooooo cute!

Wednesday, March 7th -- I put the second coat of poly on the planks for the kitchen ceiling before we got into the BIG job of the day. We hadn't gotten all of the things done that "needed" to be done first but it was time to forsake all and start laying floor!!! Mom taught me how to install the laminate flooring and we managed to get about ¾ of the dining room done before we stopped to get ready for church. Except for being extremely painful for people with bony knees (!), I really enjoy that job. It's fun to do and is very rewarding. Mom calls it "instant gratification." Whatever it is, I like it a whole lot. And James is thrilled that I have acquired this new skill so he'll never have to pay anybody to do it again. Ha!

That night Mom gave her slide presentation about their trip to Israel, Turkey, and India. I think everybody really enjoyed it. I did, and I'd already seen most of it before. :-) We visited after church for a while, then the crowd ended up at Zaxby’s--a chicken place kind of like Chick-Fil-A that my family just sort of discovered and decided they like.

It was fun to come home that night and ooh and ahh over the new floor. As much of it as was there at that point, that is.

Thursday, March 8th – James was gone most of the day shopping for dishwashers. We had to install the dishwasher before we reached that area of the kitchen with the new floor so he finally HAD to buy one. (We've looked at sooooooo many appliances, but never seem to buy any until we're forced into it!) I worked on school with the kids that day and discovered that I have a cheater child. It required some unpleasant consequences and extra schoolwork assigned. Sam had been cheating for several days but was pretty slick about it and I didn't catch him right off. Once confronted with it he confessed and broke down and started crying. He told me how sorry he was and said that he hadn't been able to sleep at night because he just felt so crummy. I hate it when the kids do bad things... but I love it when they learn the lessons and discover how conviction and repentance work. Sam came to me the next day and said he slept GREAT. :-) Anyway, while I was dealing with school and kid stuff, Mom stained wood. It was afternoon before we FINALLY started installing floor again! It took FOREVER to lay very little floor that day. We had lots of hokey little cuts to make and it slows things wa-a-a-a-ay down. We stopped at 8:00 to play a couple of games with kids, got them to bed, then worked another hour or so.

Friday, March 9th – Mom did lots of miscellaneous paint projects that day, James put up trim and bead board in the dining room, and I finished laying the floor in the kitchen!!! Wa-Hoo!!! Mom needed Brother Ridlespurge again (to transfer files or something?), so we called and asked them to bring us dinner! HA! How rude is that?! I was sooooo excited about having just finished the dining room/kitchen floor that I went out into the garage and did some pretty impressive maneuvering to get to our dining table. It would take too long to describe where the table was in the heap of belongings that is packed tightly into the garage, much less what was involved in getting it OUT, but the most important part is that I managed it! And we now have a TABLE!!! In my dining room!!! I even wrestled the rug out of the garage, so our table sits on it's rug in my dining room. I was soooooo excited. The guys put the legs on the table, rolled out the rug and positioned the table on top of it, I stood back and looked and thought, "...They look so TINY!" Ha! The big dining room really dwarfs what I always thought was a nice sized table. No matter--I love it and I'm soooo thankful to have a dining table! Though we could only get to one chair. Everything in it's time, I guess. Still, it was exciting to have company and be able to eat in our dining room on our dining table. :-)

Saturday, March 10th – Mom poly-ed trim, then I poly bead board while Mom put the first coat of red on the back door. She then packed up and we took her to Chow Town for lunch before sending her home to Cleveland with a thousand thanks for yet another week of hard labor at the Monstrosity. She is the best--and most talented--Mom EVER. Not to mention how amazing she is to put up with James through it all. HA! We had such a great time with her.

Once bidding Mom adiou, we drove up to Lewie’s Used Appliances, still in search of the perfect refrigerator. In the end we decided to go back and buy that little fridge I had really liked a few days before. It's smaller than I wanted, but has split shelves (more versatile—better use of space) and was MUCH cheaper than any of the others we were considering. I was hoping to talk James into buying a microwave too, but we didn't want to pay as much as we would have had to pay there at HHGregg. So we stopped at Target to look at microwaves there on our way home (it was one of the few places we hadn’t already looked), but the one we would have considered wasn’t in stock. Story of our lives. ;-)

That night I cleaned up the house a little after our week of wrecking it again. I even made the kids haul some of their junk down to the basement. There's just too much STUFF accumulating in the living room and it's always a mess because there's no place to keep it all. The only other news of the day is that Sam found two ticks while he was showering. ~Bleagh~ Here we go again.

Sunday, March 11th – I hate Daylight Savings. ;-) After morning service we came home and I put on my work clothes and extended the kitchen floor about four feet to make James happy (he hated where we had ended the laminate before) and I still had enough time to sleep for 2 hours! Then I got up and had a few minutes to “plot evil” as Katie kept saying. We came up with a couple of great ideas to have some folks do at “Talent Night” at church that night, but when we got there we found out that we were going to keep things a little more “churchy” and not goofy this time. That threw our plans right out the window—we didn’t have anything churchy planned! Ha! So it wasn’t quite as fun this time as last time, but it still raised over $200 for Missions and that was the purpose of it all.

Monday, March 12th -- I felt like being in bed all day long. Sooooooo tired. But things started off all happy and joyful because our refrigerator was delivered!!! The kids were ecstatic. James left directly to run some errands and when he returned he had ham and bologna and cheese and milk and several kinds of juice. The whole family helped unload it all into the shiny new fridge so we could get it back out immediately and have lunch. :-)

I helped James put the ceiling in the kitchen (it is soooooo pretty!), then took the kids to the library. Got home and found James putting the very last light in the kitchen. I LOVE MY KITCHEN!!! I can’t wait to have the countertops finished and be fully functional in there. It just gets prettier all the time. And now it’s BRIGHT and pretty. :-) James says it’s too bright, but he doesn’t know anything about such things. It’s PERFECT. We then hung the light over the dining room table. Oh, happy day! I love light. We’ve had a lone painter’s light dangling from wires in each room for months now and it’s so exciting to see real fixtures—and more light—in these rooms!

James went to get his hair cut that night while the kids and I had sandwiches again--from our very own refrigerator!!! :-) Somehow the weariness I’d been feeling throughout the day transformed into ~bleagh~ and I began feeling very sick while we were eating. I wasn’t even able to finish my sandwich—I told the kids to get everything cleaned up when they were done and I headed to the bedroom and went straight to bed, intending to just lay down until I got to feeling better. Next thing I knew it was morning and I had slept a full 13 hours!!! Whoa! Apparently Katie had started feeling rather sick, too, and was up most of the night making trips to the bathroom. I’m glad I was able to sleep my problems away—I woke up feeling GREAT the next day. Thank the Lord! I didn’t get any of the things done on Monday that I had planned on/needed to and had LOTS to do on Tuesday!

I didn’t get most of it done, of course.

Tuesday, March 13th -- I ran some laundry. Helped kids with school. And then assisted James with installing the countertops. Now they need lots and lots of love. It’s going to take some staining, lots and lots of sanding, maybe some waxing, and then several coats of sealant.

And I started ironing!!! Wa-hoo!!! First time I've done that (other than a solo piece here and there) in weeks and weeks. Of course, I didn't put much of a dent in the pile that night and I haven't done it again since then so... ;-)

Wednesday, March 14th -- I spent most all of the day working with Katie on her school. She's starting to get things rolling the right direction now, so we're both much happier. :-) I painted blue in the foyer again. Not done yet. We had the Body of Christ, chapter 6, at church that night. The kids had been in Children's Church for quite a while when Sam returned to the sanctuary sporting a sign that said “Sam is NOT in trouble! We just finished up back here” or something like that. Ha! Sister Washburn wanted to make sure Sam wouldn't have to sit under condemnation for the rest of the service from parents who would never believe that he wasn't sent out of Children's Church for being bad. :-)

Thursday, March 15th -- Sister Bishop called bright at early that morning and said she was putting her work clothes on and heading to Bessemer. Surprise!!! :-) She knows we know NOTHING abut what to do with all of the incredibly overgrown vegetation we inherited with this house and she had offered to come help us with it--she's so good at things like that and amazingly knowledgeable. We quickly got everybody ready and ran some necessary errands, then got home about an hour before Sister Bishop showed up. For the rest of the afternoon she had James and all of the gang outside working with her, hacking down shrubbery right and left. I managed to stay indoors, staining countertops again to darken them, staining some other boards, then poly the beadboard for the backsplash. Sister Fender showed up after a while, then Sister Bishop ran to pick up some dinner for everybody. She brought home some rotisserie chickens and all sorts of fixin's to go with them. It was a wonderful dinner. I fixed my plate and sat down, then asked James what time it was. "6:50," he said. We had Ladies' Bible Study/Prayer Meeting at 7:00! Ha! So I scarfed down my chicken and fixins, then grabbed my bowl of salad and ate it as I drove to the church. Sister Ridlespurge had put sooooo much into fixing up a room nice and cozy like for our meeting. It was really nice and I'm really looking forward to these meetings--it's going to be such a blessing. I loved visiting with the ladies that night and we're looking forward to perhaps going through a book together or something like that. I just wish we could have these meetings twice a month instead of just once. ;-) I got home after 10:00 that night sooooo tired, but it was time to proof the Evening Light. I did my best. I'm afraid it wasn't very good! Ha!

Friday, March 16th – We worked outside all day that day. I enjoyed driving James' new tractor/mower thingie, hauling branches and debris down to the edge of the property and dumping it in a big pile--and the kids loved taking turns driving it, too. With Sister Bishop as our coach we got the whole front yard all cleaned up and squared away. Things look soooooo much better than they did. Not to say things look good... In fact, they look pretty bad right now--but it's still so much better than before! This place had been so neglected and all of the trees and bushes were completely out of control. After being trimed back to proper size there is now no green left on anything--just bare branches and trunks. I can't help but imagine that all of our shrubbery is embarrased and feeling rather naked right now. Ha! Still, it just looks soooooo much cleaner than it did before and Sister Bishop assures us that things will grow back and start filling in, but be in proper dimensions and the right size for a change.

The Rickers showed up that afternoon and visited with us while we worked, then we cleaned up and went to Cracker Barrel to celebrate Sister Ricker's birthday, Sister Bishop's birthday, and the Rickers' anniversary, all of which had taken place in the past two weeks.

Saturday, March 17th – We had District Convention in Bessemer and it was excellent. It was all excellent, but James’ message especially good, I thought. I enjoyed the fellowship after Convention, but was sooooooo tired. We came home and I worked some more on my VLB service for the next night.

Sunday, March 18th – I didn't teach Sunday School. I had asked Sister Dudley if she'd fill in for me because I knew I wouldn't be able to spend as much time prepping for it as I needed to. She was happy to help out (which makes it so much easier to ask her!) and I was so blessed to be in the big people class. :-) The Powells' daughter and her husband were at church and we really enjoyed having them in class with us. They had lots of input and it was great. After service we went out for Chinese with the crowd, including Richard Barnes who had joined us for service that morning. We came home and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up on my notes and slide show for service that night. I felt like it went okay that night, but it was too long. The last 10 or 15 minutes were pushing it. I should've skipped some of the stuff in the middle. I hate it when you realize it too late! Anyway, I didn't realize it was a downer of a lesson, but I had two guys approach me after service with some interesting remarks. The first said, "Is this sort of what Ladies' Retreat is like? Because I feel like dirt!" (That won't make sense to most of you--one of our ladies this last year wanted to know why she paid good money to go to Retreat so she could be made to "feel like dirt," though I think she just meant convicted ;-) -- HA!) The other guy came and said he didn't feel like dirt. He felt like stubble. I had talked about the quality of building materials and what we contribute to The Church of God: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. I couldn't figure out why everybody seemed to only hear the bad stuff (James said some people looked kind of stone faced after service, too), but the next day I was talking to Mom about what all I addressed in the lesson and hearing it all in list fashion made me realize that perhaps it was a little much. Maybe I did give ‘em both barrels! HA! I had no idea. I hope it was all received well. :-)

Monday, March 19th -- We had a carpet measurer guy come out (that's so exciting!), I helped kids with school, sanded my countertops (a new step--wa-hoo!), then stained them one more time.

Tuesday, March 20th – Helped kids with school, helped James with bathroom fan (what a relief to finally have THAT in!), sanded and polyed bead board for backsplash again, then sanded and polyed all of the beadboard in the dining room a second time. That took a while. I had some Fiddler on the Roof songs stuck in my head, so I had Katie look it up on YouTube. The kids had never seen it before and actually showed interest in it so I told them they could watch it. You learn so much about Jewish culture and it really is interesting. But then you spend the next several days suddenly throwing your arms in the air, snapping your fingers, stomping as you walk and singing, "If I were a rich man...!" :-) I enjoyed listening to it as I worked.

That night we all loaded up and stoped by the auction, but there was nothing much of interest. We walked next door to the Foundry and I found a jean skirt for $1.25 as well as a black dress skirt and a dressy top that fit better than most things do nowadays. ;-) We went to Wal-Mart for paint thinner, only to come home and discover that I hadn't been out like I thought--we still had some paint thinner here. Oh well. Can't have too much paint thinner. :-) I put the first coat of Poly on the countertops before bed and they already look GORGEOUS!!! I just love’ em. This is going to be the bestest kitchen ever. :-) And so cheaply remodeled. I love that, too. :-)

Wedensday, March 21st – That's today. This mean's I'm caught up again! Wa-hoo!

Today we got the vent hood installed for above the oven, James started installing the beadboard backsplash, we had a different carpet guy out to look things over and have now decided to buy the carpet from Home Depot but have this guy install it, called Home Depot several times and spent a considerable amount of time on hold before finally speaking with somebody competent--but he didn't call back tonight like he said he would. ~sigh~ In happier news, for lunch today we had pizza bites and frozen buritos--heated in our NEW MICROWAVE! I failed to mention that when we went to buy paint thinner last night we came home with a microwave. It was super cheap so we decided it must be the one. ;-) We had already bought frozen foods in anticipation of one day having a microwave (ha!) so we enjoyed christening it for lunch today. Right now the microwave sits on the floor in the kitchen because the countertops aren't finished, but soon it will be in it's rightful place. I also called an appliance repair guy and made arrangements for him to come and install my "new" double oven and fix the ignitor tomorrow. I then spent an hour or two scrubbing the oven inside and out and getting it looking nice and clean and shiny and ready to go into my very own kitchen. We brought it in the house and slid it into it's rightful place even though it will have to come out in the morning when the guy gets here to work on it. I just wanted to see it there. And it makes me sooooooo happy!!! I have squealed all afternoon over it! I'm just overwhelmed that God actually answered that prayer. Double ovens are soooooo expensive and James told me early on that if I wanted one I'd better really pray because we just couldn't afford it. Well, I didn't spend lots of time on it (!), but I did mention it to the Lord a time or two. And He DID it! It just AMAZES me that God loves us sooooo much and answers soooooo many prayers--even for things that are unimportant in the big scheme of things, and things that are more "wants" than "needs." I feel overwhelmed. The stove cleaned up so nice (looks almost brand new!) and even after paying the repair guy we will have about the same amount (or less?) invested in this stove than we would have paid for a single oven. ~sigh~ I'm sooooo excited!!!

Okay that's about it. Got to get to bed. But I made it. CAUGHT UP. ~aaaahhhhh~

Cute Again

Katie was all worried about my reputation so I thought I should take the time to fix my blog. HA! Actually, I just started Googling like a mad woman tonight, trying to figure it out and got all obsessive and couldn't pull myself away until I got it done. Truthfully, what's going on right now is way too PINK for me, but it's bright and cheery and that's what I was looking for, so this will have to do for a few weeks anyway. It's officially spring now and there's no sense holding on to a snowman template any longer. We didn't exactly have winter around here (at all) the past three months and the wintery template helps me pretend and stay happy. ;-) Of course, it's been in the 80's this week and not feeling wintery (or even springy or fally, unfortunately!) and my imagination isn't THAT good even with the help of a snowy template. Ha!

Too tired to really blog now, but the big news is that I just restained our countertops for the last time (got them all sanded today) and they are now ready to start polyurethaning! Wa-Hooooo! It's only been a mildly productive day around here, but I'm hoping for more tomorrow. (Hahahahahahaha! Will I never learn?!) Either way, my counters are already gorgeous and they'll be better yet when they are finished and usable. Soon. Very, very soon.

Maybe. ;-)

As a Side Note...

I have NO IDEA what I've done to my blog, how I did it, or how to fix it. I'm also way too tired to keep trying to figure it out. I also shouldn't be devoting time to such things at this point in my life. I thought it would be a quick, easy switcheroo. Nu-uh. Someday I'll have time to get it cute again--assuming that's possible. Until then, I'll just be very, very happy that all of my pictures and blog links and info are still available. It was all GONE for a few very scary moments. I'm glad it's back. Even though there are only about three people who ever blog and most of my links say things like "posted 2 years ago," somehow it still feels relieving to have them over there. ;-)

Sinking Again

... in the vast abyss of bloglessness, that is. It's not nearly as dismal as it sounds. It's probably only dismal to my mother. She doesn't like it when I fail to blog. I really don't have time to blog tonight. I'm, ohhhhhh... a month behind on the ironing. Around the house we wear work clothes that don't need ironed, but our going out/church clothes are ALL in a huge mound in my beautiful (though cluttered at the moment) utility room. I have GOT to start getting caught up on some of the ironing and tonight is the night. I picked up a couple of movies from the library yesterday, so I'm planning on putting one on and grabbing the iron here shortly. Like, real shortly--or I'm going to be asleep! Ha!

But before I go, I'll post a couple of pictures of the ceiling in the kitchen. Mom's been wanting to see it. I LOVE IT. :-) We got it up yesterday and today we got the countertops all cut and secured in place. Now they need LOTS of TLC. Staining, sanding, sanding, some more sanding, waxing (maybe? --Do I wax them even if I'm using Poly afterward, Mom? To get the same color as the other wood that will be waxed? They look way too "light" to me right now--and I haven't even started sanding yet!), and then several coats of sealant. Anyway, here we go...

When the kids and I got home from the library yesterday James was putting up the last of my kitchen lights. I LOVE THEM!!! I was so concerned about the kitchen being DARK when we took out all of the horribly ugly fluorescent lights. You know, the ugly things that give really great light. Ha! So I requested lights above the cabinets and I now have GREAT light in there again--and it's sooooo pretty instead of sooooo ugly! :-)



Ta-da!!!!!

I can't wait until James (we) get(s) the box all framed in up above. And finish the countertops. And get the stove cleaned up and hooked up. But look--A REFRIGERATOR!!! That came yesterday. The kids are ecstatic. Maybe a little beyond ecstatic. We celebrated by filling it up with ham, bologna, cheese, and several jugs of milk and various juices. Today we added pudding and applesauce. HA! It's still kind of a sad way to live, but soooooo much better than before. One day soon we'll get a microwave and then we can start filling the freezer with things like Little Juan's Burito's and Totino's Pizza Bites. Then one day we'll get the stove hooked up and... still not be able to cook anything because ALL of my pots and pans and dishes and utensils are packed away in boxes on the back wall of the garage behind loads of other boxes and at least 12' of furniture. Good planning, hu? We're working on a solution to that one. Until then, we're sooooo thankful and happy to be eating ham sandwiches for lunch and cereal (with milk instead of dry--that's what the kids have been doing for weeks now!) for breakfast and we have no complaints at all. Life is good around here and getting better all the time. :-)

Does it Still Count?

If no actual work occurs but the day is full of errands and decision making, can it still count as a work day? Or at least a productive day? I would love to think of it that way, but it sure doesn't feel that way!

Yesterday didn't score very highly on the accomplishment chart either, though I didn't know it at the time. I did sort of run from one project to the next and then on to another, so it's hard to feel like you really accomplish anything. I know I painted the dining room with the first coat of red paint--after having primed it the day before. I also started staining the bead board for the bottom half of the wall--with a stain other than Special Walnut! I don't think I've ever stained anything with another finish before. It's the stain that Grandmother and Granddad used on all of their wood and it's what I've used on all of my wood since working with them. I can't ever smell it or work with it without thinking of them. I always smile and sometimes cry. Anyway, we are using Special Walnut in several places but for the bead board I wanted something really light and golden looking instead of dark and rich. I can't ever remember the name of the stain, but it rhymes with dip stick of nitwit--one of the two. No, really--that's all I ever remember about it. Anyway, I got started staining the bead board nitwit :-) but there's still a ton of it to be done. I think I stained two out of ten or eleven packs! I can't remember what else I did--except laundry! I did some laundry just because I could. Oh, happy day!

The part I DO remember about yesterday is what James did to my freshly painted red walls in the dining room. This is the room that used to be covered top to bottom with glass mirror squares. We ripped them down (Sam did, actually) and then Brother Hopkins came and fixed the drywall for us. He told us over and over again to be sure and call him after we put on the first coat of paint so he can come and look things over and fix whatever got missed. You just can't see the flaws until you put paint on it. (Who rigged up that law?!) Well, the red paint did show the flaws--enough of them that James couldn't stand it. I was perfectly willing to live with them and be happy (you can always hang a picture over the really bad spots--ha!) knowing that even imperfect, things are soooooo much better than they were before! I insisted that James NOT call Brother Hopkins for multiple reasons. First of all, he has done sooooo much for us already and I wouldn't think of asking for more. He would be upset if he knew I said that so Bessemer people, DON'T BLAB! ;-) Secondly, I can't bear the thought of going back to step one: sheetrock. I am so ready to proceed and am in no state of mind to start over. Thirdly, if Brother Hopkins comes over he's not just going to see the dining room, he's also going to go look at all of the other walls and--being the perfectionist that he is--will find lots of other, lesser flaws that he will also want to fix. Flaws that I can only find if I'm searching diligently for them--the kind that nobody will ever notice in a thousand years and I am perfectly content to live with. But he'll want to fix him and that means, again, back to square one. I'm not going back! (I say that as if I actually have any authoritative power to make that decision. HA!) In my opinion, Brother Hopkins isn't even allowed at our house until everything is finished and we're moved in and have things hanging all over the walls, perfect and imperfect. Again, Bessemer people--DON'T BLAB! ;-) Ha!!!

This morning I painted just part of a wall in there, wanting to see how the paint would cover the putty marks. Not very well, so after it dried I went over one spot again to see if that would do the trick. Almost, but not quite. So tonight (after our day of decision making rather than working) I put on yet another coat to see if THAT will cover the marks completely. I'll let it dry overnight then see what it looks like in the morning. If it's good, then I'll know that I need to put two more full coats of red over what's already there. (I already touched up the hundreds of putty marks with red, so they've got one coat on them to start with.) If it DOESN'T look good in the morning then it means I have to start over completely from scratch as if I'd never painted anything in that room: prime it top to bottom, then put two coats of paint on. So here we are riding the same old train--doing and undoing and redoing. It's our favorite ride. :-)

We did some deep thinking and serious math for a while this morning, then went to Home Depot and Lowes on a mission. We had been deciding on light fixtures for the kitchen, dining room, foyer and half bath, as well as adding up how much bead board we'll need for the back splash in the kitchen and how much wood and which cuts we would need for the counter tops--along with creating our plan for installing them. At the end of the day we came home with no lights, but a sink and a medicine cabinet! Ha! ALL of the lights we wanted were sold out, so that will have to wait for another day. --Still, we did finalize a lot of decisions and now have a plan. It feels good to know what you need to buy instead of still wondering. We made some decisions concerning the faucet and sconces for the half bath (mainly the decision was, "Oh, whatever you want to get, James--I'll be happy with either!") and we were able to buy the bead board for the back splash and the wood for the counter tops. Right now all of the pieces are laid out on top of the existing counter tops in the places where they will be installed--and I already love it!!! They're still in the plastic and unstained and uncut and unroutered, but just seeing kind-of-sort-of what it's going to look like makes me so happy! It's going to be great. :-)

What other news is there around here? Joe took way too long to do school today. Sam, on the other hand, jumped right into his school and had it all finished up without asking for help a sing time! That's a first. I checked all of his work and he did excellent. He did that this morning because James had told him last night that he really needed him to be in a good working mood today so he could get all of the tools gathered and organized for us. He didn't disappoint. He got up, did school, and got straight to work on the tools. We can finally find things again! Wa-hoo. :-)

That was the good part of the day for the kids. It went downhill from there! HA! We've been having some little attitude issues here lately; some rolling of the eyes or talking back (not in an offensive way, but talking back nonetheless--questioning commands or just having something to say about it--frequently) as well as having to be told multiple times to do something instead of just doing it the first time. It all sort of came to a head tonight and we worked through a whole lot of things. We ended up sitting down together and trying to work through the reasons WHY we've been having these problems and what we can do about it. We talked about each of our failures and some of the things we all could work on. We were having a good, deep, heartfelt discussion and started asking the kids some questions like, "What changes could we make that would help our family or make things better around here?" Joe answered without hesitation: A REFRIGERATOR. Ha! So much for our deep and heartfelt talk! Well, at least the deep part--his input was heartfelt, I'm sure! ;-) We told him we'd do our very best to remedy that one in the near future. ;-)

Too bad Katie missed the big family powwow. We'll have more in the future, I'm sure. :-) I heard she just completed a dress for her doll, Esther. She feels all grown up and accomplished to have sewn a whole dress! It makes me very proud. She'll be able to sew better than me by the time she's 13. Or maybe 11--that's how old she is right now! HA!

That's all the news from around here. I'll try to start taking pictures of things around here to spice up my next posts. :-)