Drowning in Home Repairs

So you know all those little things you let slide when you live in a house? Well, they all have to get fixed if you want to try to sell it. Our list of things include:

• Find a longer tub spout (the one we had was too short and water would run down the side of the tub... we've had it off and just the pipe sticking out of the wall for years)
• Screw in busted off deck rails... and buy a couple of replacements for the ones that are missing
• Replace weather stripping on doors (where the cat scratched to get in)
• Take off screens (many of them have holes and replacing them is too expensive)
• Fix the kid's closet door
• Repair some of the bathroom and kitchen counters... the laminate is coming off in places... one option is to just replace the ones in the kitchen.
  

Then there are the things that I need to do just because it will look better:

• Paint the darker blue kid's bedroom
• Paint trim in kitchen (possibly repaint kitchen)
• Replace carpet (okay... I'll hire this out, but I've still got a lot of work to do to get ready)
• Tile Kitchen
• Major yard work

So... anyway. I'm on a bit of overload right now. I'm in the middle of the kid's bedroom this weekend. I'm trying to decide if I should repaint the entire room or if I can get away with just repainting the trim... Not sure. The blue is a bit too blue... I don't know how well it will show... but then I think, "Whatever." So... I'm definitely painting the trim today, but I don't know what else right now. I have a box of things packed up that we don't really need from that bedroom. Hopefully it will help with some of the clutter.

Okay... enough complaining. I gotta go paint.

Time with Zach

Today Zach and I had a date planned. I was going to get him out of school around 2pm (school lets out at 3:45) and we were going to go do something fun. We discussed it a lot and finally last night decided to go to the bowling alley. I had a couple of coupons and have my own bowling shoes, so the cost would be minimal. They have an arcade there, so he could play some arcade games. So off we went today and bowled our two games. He did it without the bumpers, so he did pretty bad, but started getting the hang of it. I'm not real fond of my bowling shoes, but figure I better get used to them, so I did worse than usual. But we both had fun. Zach got a slushie and a pretzel from the snack counter. And the "old people" (as Zach called them) were doing their league bowling, so Zach thought it was funny that they were doing something that was a stereotyped behavior for old people. Of course, the "congratulations for Blah Blah on a 300 game" going over the microphone over and over again made me think that they weren't as old as Zach thought. :)

So... we finish up our snack and bowling and head over to the arcade. Zach has 5 dollars to spend... a great luxury in our family. He chose to spend 2 dollars on a Deal or No Deal game that gambles with the number of tickets instead of money like on the show... good idea, but he walked away with 8 tickets... not so great. We then headed over to ski ball. I don't know what magic button Zach hit, but he did really good on his score (he got 2 10,000s and a 5,000) and somehow ended up with a Bonus light going off and he got about 500 tickets from that ski ball machine. I wish you all could have seen his reaction as tickets are pouring out of this machine. He was bouncing all over the arcade with his mouth and eyes wide open. :) It was funny. So we ended up with 554 tickets to spend. He got a beanie baby rabbit, a weird squishy thing, a big popper thing (Good descriptions, huh?), and I dared him to get a Fireball. He did and kept it in his mouth for about 30 seconds before spitting it out.

Fun day for us. :)

Toad Suicide

When I got back from Texas, I noticed that a toad seemed to be missing. They can hide in small spots, so I didn't think too much about it then. The next day I looked for him again, but didn't see him. I called Mike in (I don't really want to discover a yucky, dead toad) and he searched, but couldn't find him. That night Mike found him in some packing paper that I keep under their tank stand (for the worm composting). He was all dried out and dead. In the past few months we've lost our kitty (most importantly, and the only sad loss), Kane, the three millipedes, and now a toad. I guess the animals are making room for the baby. I hope to find a new home for the rest of the toads before long... 3 years is long enough to have them around. Kory can be our sole pet for a while. He likes the attention. :)

Breaking Through

So, yesterday was a super productive day. We finally finished up our bathroom. We got all the baseboards attached and painted and we got the toilet installed. We got the counters all cleaned up and it just looks so beautiful now. I'll send pictures soon. We still have to re-install the doors. The kid's bathroom door didn't have to be trimmed, but ours are going to need about a 1/4 inch taken off the bottom. Good thing our neighbor Derrick has a bunch of woodworking tools. :) (We're bums and we're proud of it!)

Mike cleaned out the garage and fixed two bicycles. That was no small feat. Our garage can get really, really bad, so I'm all impressed with him on that.

I went to Shareware and got a few baby things. They didn't have a whole lot that wasn't stained pretty badly, not my style, or just enough of what I was looking for. Still... I came home with a small bag of clothes and that will help.

And I ordered a onesie that I had seen before. I think Kristin sent me the link to this site called wrybaby.com. They have some really funny "snapsuits" (as they call them). Here's the one I bought (they're having a sale through 6/1).


It's probably designed more for people who have daughters with no hair and people keep asking them if she's a he... however... I like the fact that my girl is "not a boy", so I'll share that with the world when she wears this shirt. Oh... and if she's like her brothers, she'll be bald for a long time, so it will work that way, too. :)

Stumbling Block

So. I'm having a girl! That is about the most exciting thing that I can think of. I truly am on cloud nine. I had so much fun calling family to tell them. Everyone's responses were great. If you ever watch the sonogram DVD, you'll see where after we saw the "money shot" as you might call it, my tummy was shaking because the sonogram tech asked me if my tears were happy tears. Uh...yeah! :)

So what's the stumbling block? Girl stuff! :) I have always only bought a girl outfit here or there out of hopefulness or dreaming. I've always thought, "I'll just give it to someone else if it doesn't work out." And now I'm having to think realistically about dressing this baby girl and my mind doesn't quite know how to go about it.

It's possible that it's just been 14 years since I really had to buy baby clothes, so that could be the problem. Or maybe it's because I'm still so early in the pregnancy, so buying clothes doesn't make sense now. But I look at all the clothes online and guess I go into sensory overload and just shut down.

We are having a Shareware this weekend at church, so there will be clothes there that are free for the taking. I think that might help me get through this block if I can go pick up some free things. Then maybe I'll start to be able to sink my teeth into the reality of dressing a baby girl.

And again, I'm just so thrilled. I've always told the Lord that I would be willing to take a daughter any time he wanted to send her to me. When I heard the whispering of The Spirit to try again to get pregnant, I listened and feel completely rewarded.

Luke 8:48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good ^acomfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

I feel whole. Completely and utterly whole.

Texas Stories

I got to Texas Friday afternoon, May 9th. Darlene and I ran lots of errands, ate out for dinner, and had fun getting ready for Saturday's surprise party. On Saturday, my dad came back from his camping trip and was greeted by lots of people there to surprise him for his 60th birthday. I was hanging out in the hallway listening to the hubbub of the moment and Darlene came around the corner and told me to come out in just a second so she could get set up for a good picture of my dad when he saw me. She gave me the word and I came out. It was great because he had his back to me and when he turned around, he was shocked. :) Darlene got the good picture she wanted and my dad and I hugged. Many teary eyes were in that room.

It was nice to be there for the party to see people there who truly appreciate my dad. It was really nice. James (my step-brother), his wife Kim, and I stayed up way too late talking. It was nice to catch up with them and talk about how cool my dad is. :)

The next day was the day I had planned to tell them I was pregnant. I was planning on doing it during breakfast, so we all sat down and were chatting for a while. Then I finally said, "So... can I dominate the conversation for a minute?" :) They were shocked (it was my dad, Darlene, James and Kim) and happy.

Later we headed over to Shelley's (my step-sister) for a Mother's Day lunch. Everyone there was happy to hear the news.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. I spent time on Monday and Tuesday visiting Kristin and Libby. I went to lunch and a movie with Darlene and Kim (my step-sister... different than Jame's wife) on Thursday and to dinner and a movie with Dad and Darlene that night. We saw Baby Mama in the afternoon and Leatherheads that night. Both were good. Leatherheads was better. :) On Friday, I spent a couple of hours with Kristin before heading over to have lunch with my Dad. We ate at an awesome store called Central Market. They have this cafe section of their store that is amazing! We ordered a sandwich to share that had: toasted sourdough, smoked ham, turkey breast, prosuitto, chipotle mayonaise, mashed avacado, carmelized onions, sprouts, tomatoes, grilled poblano peppers, and roasted red peppers. Yum! Dad and I enjoyed talking to each other and had a great time. On Saturday, we went to a family reunion of Darlene's family. I met a lady there who was the youngest of 5 children and the only girl. :) The youngest boy was 7 when she was born. She said her brothers used to hide her when her mom was going to give her a spanking. :) My little one was kicking up a storm while she was telling her story. I told her that I hoped that my little one would be telling stories like that of her four brothers one day. After we left the reunion, we went to visit my Aunt Addean. She's my Grandma Jo's sister. You all probably know that I'm named after Jo. Her name was Joyce and she had 5 boys. My dad was the oldest and she died when he was 13. My Aunt Addean has been like my grandma all my life. She loved Jo a lot and all of Jo's boys became like sons to her. And thus their children like grandchildren. She was very excited to hear that I am pregnant and told me she would pray for me to have a girl. :) I appreciated that!

I then went to John and Kristin's house to hang out that night figuring that that would be the last time I saw them on this trip. I was leaving for the airport at 5:30 Monday morning and it didn't look like Kristin was going to have the baby before I left, so we stayed up chatting until around midnight, said our goodbyes and then I drove home.

I got up early on Sunday and after a trip to Lowe's for a tool to fix the riding lawn mower, my dad and I sat on the porch and watched while Darlene mowed the lawn. :) Poor Darlene! We should have helped her, but I guess we were enjoying sitting there together. We did eventually go get some wires plugged into the right places for his new TV and the new HD-DVR box they got from their satellite company. We had a nice dinner of steaks and baked potatoes and watched a couple of movies. It's a good thing I had most things packed when I checked my mail at 9:15pm to find out that Kristin thought she was really in labor. I called her at 9:22pm and decided I would try to go down to her house. I finished up my packing and Darlene drove me down. It's nice to have them only live about 20 minutes away from each other. It's was also nice of Darlene to drive me that late. John and Kristin were very appreciative. Kristin's story of the birth is great and on her blog. My dad picked me up at 6am and took me to the airport. After little sleep on Saturday night and no sleep on Sunday, I was a wreck! I slept a little here and there during flights/layovers. I napped Monday late afternoon for a couple of hours, slept last night for 10 hours and then napped this morning for about 1.5 hours. I think I'm all caught up now.

So, a successful trip. It's the first time I've been out to Texas since Darlene retired and it was really nice to spend so much time with her. She and my dad will be married for 25 years this September! I've known her since I was 6, I think. I remember when Reid was born, we went out to see them when he was a couple of weeks old. I had no idea how to help this baby stop crying and would try to nurse him and he would continue to scream bloody murder. She could take him and just calm him down. It's nice to have her in my life.

I'm still working on pictures from today's sonogram... hopefully I'll get it figured out pretty soon. There are a couple that are great!

It's A Girl!