Things I could Blog About....

• The rat, not mouse, that I saw, coming out of my pantry. I feel violated and now really paranoid. Every time I turn around, I think I'm going to see a rat.



• The smell permeating my house from something that died in the basement. I hope it was said rat.



• The refrigerator saga. I will, never, ever, in a million, trillion, zillion years buy anything from Best Buy AGAIN.



• That I am in a decorating rut. I have tons of ideas but am worried that none of them will turn out and feel that I lack the energy and the commitment.



• Shopping for a couch. I've never bought a large piece of furniture from a furniture store, ever. I am nervous.



• We bought TV for the first time. We officially have cable. When we were first married, we had rabbit ears and got one channel, NBC. We watched Olympics non stop.



• The best thing the kids got for Christmas...Meg got this huge plastic slide. It's currently the only piece of furniture in our living room. The kids love it.



• The worst thing the kids got for Christmas....Meg got this huge slide. The kids fight and cry over it. Why must parents be forced to make rules for new toys?

Katie

P.S. I am committing myself to have something decorated by Friday for the day's post. Maybe if I write it out loud, I'll actually do it.

Dear Bryce,

I hope that you enjoyed your last trip to Home Depot by yourself, because it will be your last.

Is this an insane attempt to control your life by playing the victim? Yes, yes it is.

I would just like to recap what happened the last time you went to Home Depot by yourself.

I stayed home with all three girls. They were all in bed. You, in your naivety, thought all was under control.

Minutes after you left the premises, I was summoned by that all too familiar Adeline-sobbing-hysterically-over-'itcouldbeanything' sound.

I bring her down stairs.

I manage to decipher between the hiccups and tears that she has some how managed to lodge a very small wad of toilet paper way, way up her nose.

Now, Bryce, have you ever had to deal with something like this?

Probably not, because you were at Home Depot.

Now onto the confession...I am not a rookie mother. I know perfectly well that you're not actually supposed to try and get the object out for fear of pushing foreign object even further up small tunnel of a nose, if that were possible in this case.

But those doctors have never met a hysterical Adeline.

And I did try other means. I tried having her blow out the toilet paper. Did you know that Adeline thinks sniffing is the same as blowing? At least that's what she believes at 8pm at night when you're gone to Home Depot.

I laid Adeline down, found some tweezers and I pulled that sucker out of there.

I know that you're probably thinking after just such a circumstance I can handle anything when you're gone to Home Depot, but I would rather not test my limits.

Your adoring wife,

Katie

What They Don't Tell You....

is that...

• those cute blogs about home remodeling, the wife cried three days before the before and after post.



• people working on your house, instead of taking their trash with them, will just leave it in the large pile of debris in front of your house for you to take care of.



• you'll miss a garage and a driveway, terribly.



• anyone and everyone will give their opinion about your house, whether or not they know what they're talking about.



• small town craigslists stink.



• you'll find a discount bread store, but it's not run by a loud and fun black lady that gives your kids free donuts.



• sometimes you really do wish Santa existed, just so you didn't have to actually do any Christmas shopping.



• wallpaper is surprisingly easy to take off, if it's glued to fabric that's been nailed to a wall over the original wall that already has bits of wallpaper and newspaper already on it.



• it will cost you the same to put in new hardwood floor in one room as it does to refinish the hardwood floors in the entire rest of the house.



• only having two TV channels that never come in is lame and will make you want to take the promotional offer for cable that's only $5 more a month.



• being a parent for Christmas is way more fun than being a kid, even though it's a.lot.more.work.



• there's something terribly satisfying about seeing full book shelves in your home again.



• not having a working shower is dumb and feels a lot like camping.



• not having a fridge or an oven in your kitchen feels a lot like camping also.



• not having an oven in your kitchen alleviates your guilt when buying a Pizza Hut pizza, or two.

Katie

Per Request, after request, after request...

The living room
The living room

The stair case show casing blue paint, not gray


Family Room

Dinning room and doors to sun room

Library, view from family room, dining room to the left, bathroom straight ahead

Black and yellow tiled bathroom with leaky shower and cracked pedastal sink
looking in from library to the door that leads to the pantry and laundry room or outside or downstairs or to the scary storage room which I don't have a picture of

Kitchen from dining room

Kitchen and kitchen floor in all it's glory, view of sun room doors

Upstairs

Hallway, with floors redone but ceiling unpainted, cupboards on right

Teeny, tiny bathroom

Elizabeth and Adeline's room. The walls are rough hewn wood that have three different kinds of wall paper and newspaper clippings dating back to 1885. Ceiling has since been painted white.

Meg's room/guest room before

Another before with blue laminate and acoustic cardboard facing something or other on ceiling.

After

On the ceiling is tongue and groove one inch thick boards which have since been painted white.

The adult bedroom, after

Another after

Before with plum colored walls

Some more dark purple wall images

My pregnant self

Backyard

The storage room without the stolen brick

It was upright at one time. The laundry room. I really like it, except for the fact that the doors open into each other, not the other way around

Another of the kitchen

Where the stove will go

House with large pile of debris that encourages a lot of handy men to stop by and ask for work

Christmas

Built ins in dining room, sewing/craft things

Just Wanted You All....

to be the first to know:

• that we are moved in.....well, all of our boxes are now in one location.


• the camera is fixed.


• I have pictures just waiting to put up on my blog.


• you can buy a super cheap Christmas tree around here.


• Adeline chewed out the flooring guy because he stepped on one of her toys and broke it.


• I cried a lot today, especially after I got a package in the mail from a friend.


• I am borrowing my other friend's Internet to write this, hopefully ours will be up and running by tomorrow.


• Adeline broke three Christmas tree ornaments.


• buying an old house may not be all it's cracked up to be, at least not today. Ask me again tomorrow.


• the girls love the new house.


• have I already mentioned that Elizabeth goes to school all.day.long?


• does anyone know why the word 'internet' needs to be capitalized?

Katie

Parenting Tip #468

Elizabeth and her cousin had been bickering all.morning.long. and all.afternoon.long. Needless to say, with five girls under one roof at grandma's house, it became a bit tiresome.

So, I warned them. If you bicker again, you'll be outside for twenty minutes. Bare in mind that this takes place in Eugene, OR in December and everything is pretty much wet and soggy all of the time.

As you can probably guess, they bickered again. I gave them the low down. It went something like this, with lots of exclamation marks:

"Get your shoes, sweaters, and gloves on. Don't you dare come knocking on that door asking if you can come in. It's not that cold, you'll be fine. I'm setting the timer for 20 minutes and when it goes off, then, and only then, make you come indoors. I will come and get you. Do not leave the premises. I repeat, do not come knocking on the door."

And out they went.

Time was up and they came traipsing indoors, nicer and wetter.

Over time it comes out that they were not wet because they were outside playing, but because they had peed....in grandma's yard. They pulled panties and pants down, but decided that the ground was too soggy for their precious little bums, so they peed standing up.

They got in trouble, a lot of trouble. However, I feel like a successful parent because even though I'm cruel and heartless, at least Elizabeth knows that I mean what I say.

Don't worry, I also explained to her that next time this occurs, she can come in and go to the bathroom, no matter how mean I sound.

Katie

To Tide You Over....

Dear Friends, Followers, and Stalkers:

I would like to take a brief moment to apologize for my sporadic posting. This week we are in the throws of finishing up our house with the anticipation of being moved in by Saturday. I realize I have left many of you in the dark in regards to the efforts on the house. I will mention quickly what has been consuming our time:

Painting our walls blue, meant to be gray.

Taking down some sort of card board facing that had been nailed/stapled to ceilings and floors throughout the house.

Refinishing original hardwood floors which includes pulling up linoleum and other types of flooring from all rooms in the house.

Putting on a new roof. Not done specifically by us, but you get the idea.

Cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning. It is beyond me how a vacant house can be so dirty.

The news that I'm most sorry about....no pictures. As I've mentioned before, our camera has not been working. When I went to turn on the camera to try and troubleshoot the situation, the battery was dead. Where is the battery charger? I have no idea. I hope to uncover it in the next year or so. When I went to buy a new one, I couldn't find a charger, any.where. However, our friends have taken some pictures so hopefully I can get those and get them posted, in the next week or two?

I promise to post on Wednesday with an original potty story.

Stay tuned,

Katie

P.S. I just signed Elizabeth up at her new school....it's all day kindergarten!!!!