Time is Flying

This blog has been awfully silent this last month.  Life has been busy.  Jut was gone the last 3 weeks of January.  He left on January 13th on a mission trip to India.  He returned home at 2 AM on Saturday, February 1st.  He had a great trip and came home with many stories to share.

One thing he brought home was some spiderman costumes for the boys.  Aren't they cute?!  He brought E and I home some Indian apparel.  It isn't nearly as fun as spiderman, but it is much prettier.

We survived the absence.  The last week of being stuck inside due to snow storms and frigid weather made us a little crazy, but it went well overall.  If we hadn't been in the middle of deconstructing a house, it would have been fairly stress-free.

This is a picture of the house about half way through his absence (Jan 25th)...and it got so much worse before getting better.  If we ever figure out how to get the pics off of the i*Phone, I'll upload some pics of it at its worst.  Today, there are first floor walls and ceilings above two-thirds of the lower floor.  Hopefully, they can get a ceiling up before the next storm hits this weekend but the weather isn't looking conducive for much work getting done.  This frigid weather is crazy!

E lost her 3rd tooth while Jut was away on Saturday, Jan 25th...and lost the fourth last Friday night... February 21st.  If you look closely...she hasn't lost it yet in one picture.  It is dangling. I was talking to Jut on the phone late Friday night and she came downstairs with it hanging like this.  She managed to get it 'back' into place while we were chatting.  But, it was very apparent that the tooth fairy needed to be put on notice that it was coming out SOON!

Her fourth one came out while Jut was away too.  He was just at an elder's retreat, but he wasn't home.  Her fourth was the first tooth that she pulled all by herself.  Previously, I had pulled 2 and Jut had pulled 1.  She was very proud of herself for pulling it.

X isn't being picture cooperative...so he doesn't have a single shot.  He's doing well.  He scared us with a trip to the ER on Feb 3rd.  C gave him something to eat, which ended up being a remnant of a cashew from Jut's India snacks.  So, he got a quick trip to the ER and an IV.  But, thankfully, it was a mild reaction that really just made him feel nauseous.  He loves doing school and has 'knocked out' all his capital letters.  He can recognize all the words for his colors.  He's doing great.

C is his crazy little self.  He stopped saying 'bensing' this week for the word 'basement'.  He always was wanting to go to the bensing to get toys and all of a sudden, it became basement.  It was like how X called windmills 'windmiddles' for so long and then just switched.  Some milestones are so bittersweet.  I am sad to see my baby growing up.  Caleb says all the time, 'I'm not a baby/bubby/sweetie/etc, I am CALEB!"  He is too cute and too funny for my peace of mind.  But, he still LOVES trains and loves to cuddle.  So, he does have his sweet moments when he's not finding mischief.

On Valentine's Day, we finally got outside to play in all the snow.  I dug out some 'snow forts' for the kids.  They had a ton of fun playing in the snow.  The boys played in the biggest one for a long time with their construction and digging vehicles.  It was like a huge sandbox for them.  They made E mad because they kept knocking snow back into the 'fort'...so I just dug her another one.  It was a good time as we just enjoyed being outside for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Extreme Home Makeover--"Oh my!"

Our contractor kept telling us that when he got a break in the weather, he was going to go 'gang-busters' on the house.  My mom called this afternoon and said I needed to come see the house.  So, this is what we found upon arriving.

A closer view...gives a bit better view of what happened today...the wall of windows is gone.  I'm not sure how I feel about my house being wall-less.  I'm hoping they can do something about that quickly.  I don't want anything getting too curious and creating havoc in there.  The front window is gone...the roof is gone over the attic/kitchen.  Jut leaves the country and my house disappears.  We'll see what he finds upon his return.

The kids thought that it was pretty neat.  Makes me question our decisions...But, it will all be fine.  I just hope they put the walls back up quickly!  And, I hope our insurance adjuster already arrived and inspected the property and doesn't show up tomorrow.  Somehow, this house doesn't appear to be too insurable in its present state.

G'pa and His Boys

Not the greatest picture of G'pa with his boys...but they love him an awful lot.  They'll even tolerate watching playoff football with him, even though they'd rather be watching 'PBS kids'.  After getting tossed around, they love their cuddle time with G'pa.

Extreme Home Make-Over Update: Gutted

So, the house is gutted...well, nearly all the house is gutted.  There are two walls in the parlor with plaster remaining and the kitchen and bathroom are still fairly intact.  We are heating the kitchen and bathroom to keep the pipes and well in good working condition...so they are blocked off from the rest of the house and we aren't doing much with them yet.

This weekend, Jut and I had the fun of cleaning out the old coal bin that was under the current living room.  That was an adventure.  We found lots of neat things...mason jar chicken waterers, a hockey stick, a cow bell, sleigh bell for a horse, a wooden barrel, an old harness and a few other random objects.  There were wooden slats for the floor and extra trim from the house.  Interesting treasures.  We also found a lot of junk.  It was intriguing to play the 'what will we find next' game.

This picture was the kids for the first time at 'our' house.  We had just experienced a fairly severe ice storm and things were slippery but they were excited to see what the house was looking like.

We lost several branches from the big tree in front of the house and there are several more that are loose but are caught up in the tree and need some 'help' in coming down safety.

E is standing in the former living room.  We wish we didn't need 4 bedroom upstairs and could leave this room with the vaulted ceilings...if we could extend the field-stone fireplace up, wouldn't it be pretty?!  But, we need the space upstairs...so no vaulted ceilings for us.

This picture is taken from a 'trap door' in the attic.  It is looking down into the former living room.  The stone fireplace would be directly at the bottom of the picture.  We are still hoping we'll be able to keep the wood flooring.  It is in great condition, but the floor joists aren't up to code...I think 'code' will be a major headache throughout this process because everything has to be brought up to 'code' since we are doing such extensive remodeling.

The wall of windows are going soon.  It is such a character trait of the house that we hate to see them leave but the lack of energy-effectiveness of them has them looking for a new home.  But they did give the house fun character.  People comment to us about them all the time now that the cedars are gone because you couldn't see them for so long that no one knew that they were there.

The stone pillar on the north side has had bird nest residue coming into the house for awhile...well, we can see daylight from the top of it...easy to see why the debris was coming in now that everything is torn apart.

This is taken from the west wall of the dining room.  The white fireplace is no more.  The china cabinet is sitting in the middle of the floor because we don't know how we are going to get it out of the house...That thing is a beast.  So, it keeps getting gently shifted around out of 'danger' areas.  The electrical was a crazy mess.  Our contractor laughed at the crazy roundabout ways that things were wired. There were bare wires around the fireplace.  We're lucky that the house didn't burn to the ground.

My grandparents' bedroom and staircase is this next picture.  This area will change greatly.  The staircase is going to run perpendicular to the current passage, and the wall separating the bedroom from the dining room will disappear once a few new beams are place across the house.  I'm interested to see how all these ideas are going to look in reality because despite all the time we've spent talking and discussing all of this, I still can't quite visualize all the changes.

The picture below is standing at the top of the staircase looking south.  The wall to the little bedroom is gone...and it is shows how truly small that little room was!

This area will be completely different from this design.  We will have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the laundry room in this space.  I believe that the room will begin coming off this week (in completely frigid temps, I'm glad I'm not doing it!) and re-framing the upstairs will commence.


Our contractor continues to marvel at the structural integrity of this house.  The foundation could not be any more level.  It is perfect.  He was leery at first of trying to build up but with the wonderful condition of the house, he no longer has those concerns.  We are praying all goes well as construction finally begins.

Below is another view from the upstairs standing at the attic wall and looking toward the stairs.

The thing I found funny was that in the little closet at the top of the stairs, the beautiful hardwood floors continued all the way to the roof line.  I remember asking G'ma once if I could crawl into the part that was blocked off and she said that I'd fall through the ceiling into the parlor.  I laugh now knowing that it is a completely solid (and beautiful) hardwood floor.

Christmas Card 2013...and Bike Riding

So, our Christmas card doesn't have anything to do with bike riding...other than the fact that he got it for Christmas...but I just lumped both events into 1 post.

X rode his new 16-inch bike that he got for Christmas today.  We went to the gym at church.  He rode for about 10 minutes in the morning.  He'd make a quarter of the length of the gym by himself before tipping.  He tried a second time this afternoon...and BAM!  He got it.  He rode circles round and round.  I don't think I followed him for more than a couple of laps in his second attempt.  Now, I just have to get him started and away he goes.  It was fun to watch.  His experience with his balance bike made all the difference in the world...E didn't learn to ride until this summer...she was almost 6.  X turned 4 in November.  Awesome.  Now, we do still have to work on steering. He hit a doorjam in the hallway on the way back to the back of the church.  Oops.  Slight scratch on the bike...door was fine.  :)

The Rush is Over...Merry Christmas!

It is 11:21 and I should be asleep but instead I'm enjoying the fact that the event of Christmas is over.  Sounds very 'bah humbug' doesn't it?!  But, Christmas is such a busy time...that I'm feeling relieved that it is over.  Expectations are met.  Life that has been counting down for the past 30+ days is done.  Kids are happy...everything got finished and what didn't get finished no longer matters.

The jedi robes that I spent hours making over at Mom and Dad's were a hit.  I finished them up on December 23rd at 10 PM.  As I was driving away from their house at 10:10, the neighborhood when completely dark.  Thankfully for them, they only lost power for 5 minutes or so (my grandpa was without power for 3 days).  But, I was so thankful that I was done sewing before the lights went out.  I then spent another 2 hours finishing attaching the frogs before going to bed.  Next year someone really needs to talk me out of making homemade gifts for the kids!  They cause too much stress.

My Christmas cards were sent out on December 23rd.  I had a great picture to send this year and I really wanted to send out the cards...but I didn't get around to it very quickly.  However, the USPS did a great job of making sure that many of the recipients received them on the 24th.  Go USPS!

Santa did most of his shopping via amazon.  Becoming a member of prime allowed everything to get here by Christmas.  Somehow there was never any time to shop this month.

This month was CRAZY!  I don't even really know why.  I'm not certain what made the time pass by so quickly and not leave room for anything else.  We didn't do many of the things that we would have loved to do...but we did get our gingerbread village completed.  The kids got to participate in the St. Louis Christmas parade.  We visited Santa at Cookies with Santa and then had an encore visit at our house a week later.  We got to see E preform as a 'We three king' in our church's Christmas pageant, and E and I had a date to The Very Best Christmas Pageant Ever at the local theatre.  So, we did a few 'Christmas' activities...but not too many for the craziness that I feel like occurred.

So, here I sit.  Thankful that it is over and that I'm sitting here with my feet up without the 'Christmas to-do list looming'.  Do you think the heavenly citizens 2,000 years ago breathed a sigh of relief when Jesus was successfully born and the 'gift' was given?  Did they think, 'Oh thank goodness...he's Mary and Joesph's problem for awhile now.'  Did the thoughts of, 'Yes, the heavenly hosts did a phenomenal job...never thought they'd be able to pull it together.' cross their minds?  What did they think about their big Christmas 'event'?  There had to be a bit of celestial planning for that event...and it had to give someone a headache!  :)

Anyway, I am glad the 'event' of Christmas is over.  Tomorrow, we'll clean up.  Tomorrow, we'll go back to a semblance of 'normal'.  Tomorrow, Jesus will still be discussed as a baby but the 'event' of Christmas will be over and we can just sit back and enjoy the baby and the reason that we go crazy for the first 25 days of the month.

Merry Christmas to all!

Hiding Upstairs is NOT a Good Idea

Yesterday, I was finishing reading an article and the boys happily romped downstairs after being sequestered in their room for a thirty-minute 'rest time'.  I think I may have left them unattended for 5 minutes.  I could hear happy noises and I thought all was well.  Upon inspection after coming down the stairs, I learned the happy noises that I was hearing was the gleeful sounds of undecorating the tree.  Thankfully only two ornaments were broken in their glee...there was a reason we didn't get a tree up until the week before Christmas and it will get taken down the week after Christmas.  I won't have any ornaments left by that time.  Crazy boys.

Today, I was folding laundry upstairs.  When I came downstairs, I found both boys with a spoon and the honey jar between them.  The honey jar looked much depleted.  Who knows how much honey they ate...but where do they come up with these ideas?

I guess hanging out upstairs is no longer a good idea.  Constant supervision is needed.  X and E never thought of these things...however, X is happy to engage in all the mischief that C can find.

I have my work cut out for me.  I'm glad I don't have a crystal ball to see all the craziness that they will invent in the next 20 years.  I'm sure I would go instantly crazy.