home sweet home (some of the time anyway)...

Almost 4 months? Really? It's been that long? Well, now, that's just plain ridiculous. This is long overdue, I know.

In advance, I do feel badly for fast-forwarding you through the last very fun and exciting and crazy and busy and story-filled months in our lives...sorry!...Let's see...since April 29...our top two events were ::

• Packing our good ol' (newer) house
• Moving into our good ol' (old) new house (pictured below!)

we also trained for and ran in another 25K race, celebrated Lauren's 8th Birthday!!! (deserves far more pomp and circumstance than a tiny little italicized item), started renovating the new house a bit (wallpaper removal and new carpet on the second floor...and removing carpet from bathrooms...ewwwww....), and then a lot bit of renovating...(more on the "lot bit" later), said goodbye to pre-school for Sarah and second grade for Lauren, left for a week to Maryland, cleaned up from that trip, unpacked a few more boxes in the house, then packed and left for a week to the cottage,cleaned up from that trip, celebrated Julia's 3rd birthday!!! (we are blessed with such a sweet little lady with a mind of her very own!), unpacked a few more boxes in the house, then packed and left for a week to Grand Haven ("camping"), cleaned up from that trip, unpacked more, enjoyed the new neighborhood and began planning for a small scale kitchen remodel when....

The "lot bit" of renovating (mentioned above) began a week ago.

All we wanted to do was pull down some very annoying overhead cabinets that blocked our view of pretty much anything outside the kitchen. We also wanted to pull down some wallpaper. (see the "before" shot below...from when we walked through house)

So, this fun tale of mayhem begins as I'm ever so innocently meandering about the kitchen area one evening a little over a week ago, when I look up and see our ceiling looking droopy in the sad, got-water-in-me, kinda way. A few curse words began swirling about my head that I won't repeat here, but get creative and you'll think of a few.

That evening unfolded a week of insurance company hulabaloo and the superman-like swooping in of a building contractor. We discovered two things at fault for our saggy ceiling : master shower leak AND air conditioning condensate pump leak ('cause that device belonged in the attic above the dining room table...how brilliant of you, former homeowner!...).

Happily (but not so much for the contractor...who threw up three times when pulling down our wet ceiling and all the wet insulation), we also discovered the source of the "why-does-the-house-have-a-funny-smell?" issue, when it was obvious the pump perhaps had a slow leak for the entire five years it resided in the attic and made the insulation and drywall not only wet...but also rotten.

Picture below is of insulation mound in dining room...Yes, yummy... And the stuff in the air is a very lovely fine dust that seeps into every last corner of the house, even behind cabinets and inside drawers...

We also had to demolish our master shower, which had a tile that was apparently adheared to the wall and floor with some sort of 1945-era monster glue that desired to make it next to impossible for anyone to ever disagree with anyone's design choice. The strong-will and sharp chisel of our contractor removed all of it, but also created a very fine and oppressive dust.

Which brings our little unscheduled reno tale to today...when we came home to this :

In the picture above, the opening on the upper left next to the white brick is our demolished master shower, which happened last week. With the tear-down of a wall or two, we now have a fine view of our bed from the kitchen sink. Below, the girls are standing in our shower and I'm in the dining room, looking up...

Because we never want to be without dinner conversation at our table in the future, we obliged letting the girls jump out of the shower into the dining room. So that in the years to come, we can sit and look at the wall and smile when we think of this pain in the blip on our life-radar. Enjoy the video of their fun :

But, hey!...at least we got rid of those pesky upper cabinets along the way :

Bear with me and I'll do my best to wipe the dust off the computer and update a little more frequently on the this project and the other goings-on in our little lives.

up to speed...

Well, the sky in Michigan isn't battleship gray anymore (on a regular basis anyway). So, I'm thinking it's time to get this blog up to speed.

The picture below will both present the only reasonable excuse I have for keeping blog in the dark and also catch ya'll up with the goings-on in our corner of the world.

That little piece of lawn art has left us a little pre-occupied in the last few weeks.

You see, for the last three years, nearly every car trip of 4 hours or more has brought up the "do we or don't we" conversation when it comes to selling our house and moving. Our talks included the idea of changing schools too, so it was a decision we didn't take lightly. As the girls got more rooted, we knew it was one we couldn't delay forever. But...apparently our max trip of 17 hours still wasn't long enough to give us a clear answer.

In the last six months, we haven't taken any car trips... instead... long conversations with each other on the subject gave way to shorter and more frequent conversations with God. Without going into a ridiculous amount of detail (although it's all pretty cool), we didn't necessarily find a burning bush in the yard telling us precisely what to do...but felt a strong pull to take a leap of faith.

We cleaned out the house of some excess stuff (that I don't think we ever needed in the first place) and got a realtor over to put the aforementioned art in the yard.

We broke the news to the kids and the easiest way to explain their initial reaction is to tell you that we found them kicking the sign and trying to pull it out of the grass the day after it went in.

Slowly, they warmed up to the idea and actually were oh so (wow) helpful getting the house cleaned up for showings. I was shocked they weren't as creaped out as I was about people milling about our house, dissecting it's contents.

In the six years we've lived here, I've found it a challenge to clean the house from top to bottom in one day...even one week! We started having two or three showings in a week...and I found myself turning into a not-so-merry-maid. I actually wondered if the kitchen floors would get water-damage from the amount of times I power-washed them in a week.

Getting ready for a showing became a science. Although, without fail, I would scrub the house to a sparkly, wonderful-smelling shine and in the last minutes before walking out the door, Julia would download a bit of not-so-fresh into her diaper and run a stream of ewwww around the house while I chased her with a creamy nutmeg room spray. Our house often smelled of a combination of things when we left...one time there was even a little smokey from a vacuum that exploded (from overuse, most likely).

Yet, within 27 days of putting the house on the market, we had an offer...that actually came from someone who never smelled saw the house in person. Strangely enough, they offered to buy the house the day before they saw it and after they flew in to see it, they were certain. Sold.

Two days later, we went to do some shopping ourselves. We saw six houses...and found that not everyone has creamy nutmeg room spray... We were a bit dismayed at first. It was tough to put ourselves in another house. It was kinda sad.

One house did stand out and we decided to bring the kids to see it the next day. They took to it immediately and within 15 minutes, they begged us to buy it. We don't usually buy them whatever they ask for, but when it came to that house...we obliged...and put an offer in that night. After being homeless for 62 hours, we found out the following morning, we were home owners once again.

That was last week and this week we are surrounded by brown boxes. We have until the end of May to stay in the house we brought two of our kiddos home to, celebrated birthdays, cried about things both happy and sad, took first steps, and made life decisions in. One of those decisions will bring us to a new house where we'll see many more years of memories unfold.

more to come on the new house....

making lemonade...

Battleship Gray.

That's what West Michiganders call the color of the sky here. Apparently that pretty little lake we've got (L. Michigan) and enjoy in the blue sky season of summer, is the reason we get the "lake-effect" drear of winter.

The color Gray doesn't generally lead to jolly moods all around, so many will flock to Florida for reprieve. We, on the other hand, simply allow activities such as this :
After tiring of cleaning our over-used indoor playland...we decided it was time to make use of the outdoors...

We took the kiddos downhill snow-tubing...

One look at the gigantic hill and tow-rope that pulls you and your tube to the top of the hill...and the girls knew this wasn't any ol' sledding trip.

Lauren even managed an chin injury when her tube ran into someone else's.
Julia didn't reach the 42" height requirement to tube the big hill, so Jeff and I took turns with her on the bunny hill. She was angry (understatement) that the meanies wouldn't let her on the big hill and almost tried hiking up "all by myfelfh!!!". She did manage to have fun making full-use of her snow gear just rolling around in the white stuff...

Jeff and the older girls joined Julia for one run down her bunny hill. I thought it was a good idea to get it on video. I did not think about where I was standing...

Sorry the video isn't better (and I do apologize for the sniffing). After diving out of the way...camera first...the camera survived (barely).

I was able to get this sweet little video of Julia too (who surprisingly stayed dry and warm)...

So I'm thinking that Battleship Gray isn't such a bad color...as long as your standing/playing under it instead of looking out your window at it. It's still not my favorite, though.

oh happy day(s)...

When the kiddos started making their entrance, Jeff and I didn't really think it was all that necessary for us to celebrate Valentines Day by ourselves.

We've instead made a tradition of staying home with the girls and making cheese fondue and dipping strawberries and anything else in the pantry in chocolate.

It's always fun and only when the sugar rush has made them loud, loopey ladies do we ever think "next year = date night".

But, sharing our Valentine's Day goings on wasn't the purpose of this post.

(some quick back-details before I continue...Jeff = borderline pack rat....Me = toss it all).

So...Lauren and Sarah came home with bags of Valentines from school friends. Incidentally, when we went through them, Lauren made sure to tell me that one boy in particular made sure to tell her that just because his Harley Davidson Valentine said, "We go together like chrome and leather", it didn't mean he meant it. I'm not so sure if she was disappointed or relieved. I felt like his explanation was unnecessary...but that's just momma bear talking.

They've been plowing through the candy attached to them in the days since.

This morning, Sarah had her Valentines spread all over the table making sure they'd been picked clean.

When she found that they were, she stated (in almost a decree-type fashion), "I've eaten all the candy from these."

I said, "Well put them back in your bag and clean up." (I thought she'd want to keep them for sentimental value)

She said, "But the candy is gone."

I said, "So...what do you want to do with them?"

"They are trash, mom."

Lauren was appalled. "You're going to throw them away? I'm going to keep mine!"

Sarah was equally appalled, "You're going to keep your trash???"

It wasn't right for me to take sides on the subject, so I walked away. But...Oh....it is soooo fun to see how many crazy things are genetic, isn't it?

diagnosis :: too much tv...

Julia was going about her business of throwing food she didn't want to eat on the floor. We've been trying to crack down on this sort of thing lately.

When she did it today, I gave her a "look", which she read correctly.

She beamed from ear to ear and said : "Don't get mad. Get Glad!"

Forgiven. I'll go get the broom.

not the education I was looking for...

Call PETA. Go ahead. Because I'm sure the thoughts I'm having are violating at least 9 of their major rules.

We went out today to finally let the kids choose the fish we planned to add to the new tank. We headed back to PetSmart (I guess they are Pet Smart and not Pets Mart...I found out why today).

After pining after the cats again and (oh no) they had a dog adoption going on too, the kids trudged over to the fish tanks for their "I guess...if that's all we can get" pets.

They carefully deliberated over which ones they wanted, considering names along the way. Once the choices were made, we flagged down the wrong a nice lady (who was incidentally in need of a whopper of a tic tac).

She asked about our tank and I rattled off the stats of the tank like and ol' pro. She asked how old the tank was and I told her.

At which point...she told me.

She informed us that we "could" take home two fish, and not five or six like we were hoping to do. I must've looked annoyed (she was very perceptive) because she proceeded to give me an education on the readiness of the fishtank bathroom. Yes, the bathroom.

Apparently, somewhere in our tank, there is a magical invisible bathroom that the frogs have designed and constructed. And...their construction may still be in the drywall stage, so it's not entirely ready for a houseful of visitors.

She was willing to sell me two fish only...because more would "pollute" the water without a proper bathroom and fish would die. Huh? What?

You mean once the frogs have the paint and trim up on the bathroom walls that all the "oopsies" in the water are no longer going to pollute it? I bet it's as pure as Evian water in there after that world-class bathroom is ready for business.

I listened, nodded and smiled and tried not to scream "Anybody got a tic tac???!!!"

After she finished, I said, "I see...Ok...well, I have three kids here for fish today. Two will not do. We'll need three or I will have one of them demanding a cat."

Surprisingly, I did not have to sign some sort of "I-was-not-smart-at-PetSmart" waiver and she gave me the three fish and we were on our merry little way.

Here are the three new members of the family...

Here's everyone watching them get adjusted to the tank (plastic bag sticking out of the tank).

painting pictures with words...

Lauren and Sarah have been asking a lot of hard questions about Haiti lately. It took Sarah a few days at first to figure out that the pictures on the tv were real and not make believe, which is her normal television fare.

That can often happen with the grown ups too. We see so many images on the tv and get de-sensitized to it all. There aren't a lot of actual "stories" coming through to make it feel like real-life.

So, I just wanted to take a minute to share this blog with you ::

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/

This is a blog of a niece of a boss of a husband of a friend of mine (did you follow that?). She, along with her husband, is doing mission work in Haiti. After the quake, her work has taken a turn...as they set up a makeshift hospital for the injured.

Her daily reports really paint a picture of life after the quake in Haiti. And, if you read far enough back, you also get a glimpse of life before the quake.

Her husband is a mighty good photographer too. He's posted pictures on Flikr at ::

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livesay/

Thanks for letting me share!