Write or Wrong

I can't sleep. Sometimes writing helps me dump my thoughts and then I can rest. We heard back from the appraisal. It was not the news we expected or hoped for. She valued our house at the same sales price as our neighbors'. Last year they bought the home, a former rental, and spent three months fixing the interior--walls, flooring, light fixtures--and the exterior--retaining wall, drainage, a place where water was threatening the foundation, just to make it "liveable." They also have water pour through their electric sockets when it rains hard, one less bedroom, fewer square footage, and less land. Yet, our house--with its new roof, new garage door, new deck, etc. etc. appraised exactly the same as theirs (the previous owner did not fix the hail damage for the renters, so their roof is not great either).

What does that mean? Well, it means that instead of being able to cash out equity to cover our home improvements--we have no equity to cash out. Not a dime. In fact, we may actually lose up to $3,000 for even trying. The appraiser of course didn't know any of the specifics on the neighbor's house (and our hamster did bite her). Our real estate agent said she could sell the house in a day for $20,000 higher than the appraiser came back with. The lender says it all seems unfair. We're hoping we can stop the refinance process tomorrow and save ourselves some of this money loss. I'm feeling very sad and disappointed. But I'm sure there is some purpose in this that I can't yet see, much like the accident with the van that we now probably for sure will not repair.

And wouldn't you know it . . . as I'm trying to check my tears, a hail storm moved in. Remember that deck we just painted for the fourth time in four years? Yep, covered in hail. It has hailed on the deck every single time we've just finished painting it. And that new van, stuck out in the driveway because the bedroom furniture is all in the garage awaiting carpet installation that our refinance will no longer cover? Hailed on that too.

We did get the van moved in after a frantic rearrangement of garage space, anticipating the second round of storms as noted by the news (which thankfully missed us). There doesn't seem to be any damage to it or the deck that we can see by night. Other cities and neighborhoods around us got much larger (up to egg sized!) hail . . . ours was pea-sized. We could be looking at another contractor summer with a new roof and windows and all the rest--but we're not. I'm really trying to look on the bright side, really I am!

Please pray for wisdom. I thought, we thought, we were making wise decisions, but the results seem to indicate otherwise. It's been a rough day, emotionally. It's been a rough month of highs and lows. Writing makes me feel better, so thank you for "listening." :)

My flower rug is cute though, right?! A little mix of spring, summer, and winter . . .

Camp Day 3 & 4

Now that I'm up from my two hour nap . . . I was angry tired. Do you ever get angry tired? When you need sleep so badly that your temper is on the verge of boiling over at the slightest inconvenience? I ate a bowl of cereal on the floor in my room, because there was nowhere else to sit. That's when I decided I needed a nap, badly. Anyway, here I am--awake (I wouldn't classify it as "wide" awake, but for all technical purposes *awake* will do . . .) ready to blog a bit.

Yesterday was tie dye day at karate camp. The kids' shirts are currently in the dryer--and the washing machine is currently undergoing its 4 hour self-clean cycle :) The kids' karate instructor's wife and I (along with several other helpers) got 25 kiddos through the tie dye process. Today, Amy and I removed the rubber bands and rinsed those 25 t-shirts. My kids are so excited to see how theirs turned out! And don't tell, it's a surprise, but Gabby made one for Buck who was bummed he helped with tie dye last year, but didn't get his own shirt as a result :)

Wow, I'm so sleepy still . . . no editing happening here . . . ugh, Chauncey just came inside and smells like hot, summer dog . . . glad he likes to lay right by me when I type . . . whew . . . :/

After karate yesterday, I got myself in gear--not karate gear, but, like, a car in gear? We dropped off the twin bed that used to be our guest bed for Mrs. K's baby when she grows a bit :) It's been in the old van for more than a week and has been moved in and out of it as we've needed the old van for other moving purposes. Gabby went with me and we dropped off dozens of library books--I'd like them all back to the library before the carpet comes, because putting said books in a box in the garage seems a little bit risky when we finish clearing the bookshelves.

Then I REALLY got motivated and came up with a trip to the big city with the kids! I don't do that. I wait for Buck to drive us. But, he was up super early for work, so he was off at 4, so he could meet us. I took the kids to pick up the futon (yay!) and we met Buck at the hardware store. The kids and I had already ordered all the paint and were checking out cabinets and countertops for the bathrooms. We've already received most of the rebates from our other purchases (while, yes, still not receiving those purchases themselves :), so our shopping was free. Oh, and I found out that we can return our broken deck umbrella because it has been less than 90 days and we only got to use it for about 10 minutes, and I can get a new one. Yeah!

We picked out toppers for the deck posts, more heat blocking film for the windows (not that we've put up the first round yet, but if my brother C says it will work, then we're going to give it a go! :) We also bought new blinds to replace the mint green ones I painted brown--on the front--with splashes of brown on the back--because I got really tired of painting blinds--but they don't look very nice . . . they will look nice soon!

Oh, and I checked with the mortgage company--still no appraisal . . . ugh, the waiting, so much of the waiting!! The van repair place called and said they now have openings at the end of July for a weeklong fix. I said I'd call them back. I'd like to know the refi results before we start throwing any more money around. They can polish the bumper in August :)

Today at camp, the kids did sidewalk chalk and science! Hee hee, Amy joked about her elaborate science experiment where her husband dropped Mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke and then we all went back inside the gym :) Good times! I did get some more school planning done. I have just one box left out in the garage, and I don't know if I can reach it given our current configuration . . .

Buck has tomorrow off. He's going back to the store to get the countertops and a few other things we were just too *done* to deal with yesterday (oh, and we didn't measure before we left--my bad--that makes buying size-specific things challenging--I counted how many blinds we needed to buy by zooming in on a picture with the kitchen in the background on my phone :) I think the kids are doing a version of an Escape Room at karate, and then we have a going-away party for our previous neighbors who finally found a way to move home to the east coast. AND now that we have all the supplies for our projects, it should be a pretty busy weekend.

Good thing I took a nap . . . ;)

Park It

This guy showed a lot of kindness on the playground. He gave up

the bouncy horse thingy for a little brunette girl, and when he

went racing toward a recently abandoned swing, he noticed a

little blonde girl heading the same way, and announced, "You can

have it." Nice boy :)

Well, today was day two of karate camp. There were some other classes going on at the gym, so we toted our 24 (today) charges to a park about 3/4 of a mile away. They basically played all morning in the sunshine and then we stopped back at karate to make bracelets. My crew stayed for class--but *we* forgot to bring *our* uniforms. Oopsie!


Caelan in charge of "Sabato" Says (I think that's Japanese for Simon?)

Relay race . . . squad captains took the first run! I never have to worry about

all the school field day games they might have missed. Eventually they experience just about everything fun that happens in public school in one

way or another :)

When we arrived home, we ate lunch . . . and I fell asleep. These early mornings do catch up with me. When I awoke, I decided I should try to accomplish something, so the boys helped me get the deck furniture back where it belongs. Then we pulled out our first ever, pretty deck umbrella!!

Before!

About ten minutes later . . . a gust of wind picked it up, carried over the house ("like Mary Poppins!" I'm told), and smashed it into the lawn on the other side. I guess we didn't have it fastened in as tightly as we should have--I didn't know, I've never had one before. I figured if it started to move one of the kids (who were sitting at the table reading while I was in making dinner) might notice and halt the progress. But, I guess, that didn't work out. I was glad it didn't hit the DirectTV dealie. One small bump and our signal is gone-zos. So, I checked the reception after dinner and found it unchanged; that's nice, anyway.

After . . . with a broken wing . . . :(

I saw a t-shirt at The Children's Place that said, "I'm the reason we can't have nice things." I should have grabbed one for myself :)

Karate Kamp (okay, Camp :)

Once again we are back to waking up at the early bird hours of the morning, packing ourselves into the van, and whisking away to a morning filled with active children :) This round is a bit easier for me . . . I'm just sitting in a chair, watching the action, and prepping for our next school year. I figure 17 hours should give me a good head start.

In the meantime, the girls are helping lead the camp . . . and to some extent Brennen is as well. Even Graysen was made a "squad" leader, however B feels responsible for the behaviors of the kids in his line. This year, numbers are double what they were last year . . . 25, which is a big group! Here are a couple pics of Day 1 . . .






Updates to everything else . . . the carpet is STILL not in, however, it is now supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I have installation (hooray!) scheduled for just after the 4th of July. The futon mattress is in *on time*! We don't have to wait til the end of July--as long as they reserve the one we've already purchased until we have time to go pick it up. The van--not covered under manufacturer's warranty, so we will wait to see what the refi says (hopefully in the next few days) as to our timing on fixing or not fixing that situation. Still haven't restocked our paint supply. Still waiting for the deck paint to *cure* before putting furniture on it. Oh and the tick guy--have I mentioned the tick guy?? We decided to have the yard sprayed for ticks (first the lawn care company came to spray for mosquitoes and I sent them away, because that is NOT what we ordered--and never have I noticed the mosquitoes so much as since I refused this wrong service :). They came back and sprayed half the lawn, then I told them they were supposed to spray to the fence line, and he said, "I don't have enough spray." And I said, "That's what we paid for." And he said, "Well, then I'll see how much I can reach."

So, he sprayed half of the second hill . . . two weeks, NO ticks, yesssss!!! Then this weekend . . . tick crawling on the back of Gabby's neck (shudder). I called today, and they say treatment is guaranteed for 30 days, so they'll send someone out to respray in the next three days for free. The original guy was shocked at the low introductory rate we received . . . like less than a tenth of what the price to spray an acre should be, and now they're coming back to try again (for free). Hopefully they bring a bigger truck with more spray, and hopefully it will work, and if it does I will gladly invite them back for the next three treatments (which are not 10x the price, just double :)

Still Painting

Yesterday we spent quite a bit of time painting . . . today, not so much, because we mostly ran out of paint :)

The kids decided they like this bookshelf arrangement better than the previous one. They can walk all the way around it and feel like they're in a library :)

Stretch! There are a few places we can't quite reach with the ladder in this room. We'll have to get the big guy out on Buck's next day off.

Pose? My child? Why, yes of course she did :)

I hope the white ends up looking nice! It's called "Nebulous" . . . it's kind of a family thing ;)

The gray/blue is creeping up the wall--but we can't reach any more and our paint can is dry, so it will remain thus until another trip to the paint shop :)

Fireworks in June

Fireworks in June are NOT a dog's best friend. Chauncey is pretty low key; thunderstorms don't bother him much, the vacuum isn't his favorite (but mostly because he has to move from wherever he's laying down, so I can clean beneath him :), but this fireworks thing is not his jam! He squeezed into the tiny, narrow space between the couch and the foot rest, between Buck's and my legs. And there he sat. Shedding a dog-sized pile of fur, so when he left . . . it was almost as if he were still there :)

What's Behind Door Number ONE?!!

It's game show time . . . can you guess what's behind door number one?

















If you guessed two growing boys listening to Adventures in Odyssey, you were correct!! They found the one little nook in the house I cleared out for carpeting installation (still TBD) and made it a hiding place . . . but not a super great hiding place, because when they get hot or stuffy they have to pound on the door because they're too squished to comfortably reach the inside handle :)




Funny boys :)

Pondering Paint

Thinking about painting the big wall this color--IDK,

I'm scared, ha! I've already used it on the wall behind the

couch and the accent mirror on the wall next to the guitars.

But the big wall . . . dare I be so bold?!

Here are today's updates: Buck and G$ took the van to the nearby insurance check point. Our estimate for a total fix is around $1,200. We are checking to see if we can just get the sensor fixed under our warranty for free. Apparently, our coverage only charges us the $500 deductible if we get our own vehicle fixed. The other vehicle's damage is already covered by our liability insurance. Buck said the guy at the repair shop asked if the mileage was right . . . yup, 2,000 miles. It's brand stinkin' new. Oh well :) I gave my insurance testimony via telephone. We called about our carpet--which was supposed to be delivered to the warehouse today. The truck driver doing the toting was over hours and had to stop enroute, so now the carpet gets to the warehouse Monday, and they will call us then to set up installation (I think). Buck fixed the toilet that was running incessantly, tried to rewire us into a fully functioning thermostat (ours just shuts off/goes dead at random and we don't notice until it's like 85 degrees in the house), but discovered there is some funky wiring with the old one that makes the new one impossible to power. He is deciding whether to return it or alert an electrician to our woes. The fridge/freezer is still working in the garage, but is currently pulled into an almost unusable position (as far as door opening goes) so we can access the electrical panel behind it. The boys did a final touch up on the deck (we didn't have enough paint left to do a full second coat). Oh and we found out the mattress for Caelan's new bed is now delayed a month longer than it has already been delayed. I feel like there should be a discount in this purchase we are already making payments on, but will not possess until late July . . . hmmm . . . Oh, in good news, we had our yard sprayed for ticks a couple of weeks ago and haven't seen a single one of those pesky critters since, woohoo!

The weather was beautiful today! We fully planned to go do something fun, but we didn't. We're just a little worn out it seems. Buck and I both took a quick after dinner nap on the couch. Now I'm writing to stay awake :) Oooh, heard this joke today from Google . . . What do you call a fake noodle? An im-pasta!! Hahahahaha!

Well, I think that's all for today folks :)

Thursday Mystery

I thought perhaps you'd like to be involved in the latest mystery here at the Manor! I shall start by telling you that the appraiser came today, and was a very nice lady. I do hope that all went and looked well, because we scrubbed this house from top to bottom for like four hours to get it ready for her visit and photos. We'll find out what she thought middle of next week. (She liked our hedgehog--has always wanted one, but never got to touch one before; our gerbil bit her; she thought the guinea pigs were cute, and Chauncey reminded her of the big dog they just had to put down three months ago. I'm afraid she may accidently write on the report that she was appraising a zoo! Ha! Oh, and she was very interested in homeschooling and asked if she could call me in a couple of weeks to ask me more questions about it. She's never had someone to talk to about homeschooling before; I thought that was so neat!)

As she was leaving, I received a text from my VBS fender bender buddy . . . prepare to be shocked . . . her fix-it bill is nearly $3,000!!!! Her Blue Book value  . . . maybe $2,000. Sigh. So anyway, I got to feel really special and popular with all the insurance people I got to talk to this afternoon. They really seem efficient and ready to help us . . . I, of course, am curious what this will mean out-of-pocket in the months to come, but it is nice to have it handed over to people who deal with this every day. And, we may even go ahead and get our van fixed, if we're paying the deductible anyway.

While dealing with these two big events, I decided I should feed my family. Oh wait, this is where the mystery starts! See if you can follow the trail and guess where the extension cord is leading before you get to the end . . .

Here's the start . . . a working electrical outlet, always a plus!

Scooting out the door . . . serpentine, serpentine (we just watched the first Cars DVD so that phrase is in my head :)

Getting warmer! Both literally and figuratively . . . does the bed frame confuse you? Aha, an unexpected diversion from your mystery trail. It just so happens more than half of us do not currently sleep in beds with frames . . . tomorrow the carpet installer calls, and hopefully this will be a short term experience :)

No ... not the vacuum . . .

Ooh! That's a give away . . . although not the full picture . . .

Here is the solution to your mystery! BOTH the refrigerator and deep freeze were without power when I went to get bread from the freezer. Due to the not-frozenness of the bread, I realized they had been powerless for not a short time :( For whatever reason, all the outlets in the garage were dead even though the lights worked normally and the garage would open and close. So then my mystery included . . .

Two electrical panels where NOTHING seemed to be *popped* . . . hence my back-up plan, of just plug the appliances into the working outlet :) Buck came home from work early, messed around with the panel I didn't flip through and got the power back on . . . actually, I should probably go check again . . .

The *funny* thing is, just a few days ago, I helped my neighbor through the "Oh, no, my freezer didn't get closed!" emergency. She had hers packed with meat :( I lent her a crock pot and said she had a lot of cooking ahead of her, but could save most of it. Ours has swung open before, with the pressure from the fridge door popping open the freezer. However . . . I didn't realize I had TWO freezers and a fridge (full of nine gallons of milk from yesterday's grocery shopping trip!) defrosting unbeknownst to me. Seriously, what a day! I just have to laugh. I am so out of control when it comes to all of these things--roll with the punches, isn't that what they say? :)

So it was incredibly sweet my baby picked me a bunch of wild flowers from the hills in the backyard. Awww, little day brightener :)

Weekend Wonders

Somehow . . . putting in loooooooong days . . . Buck and the kids managed to finish building the deck over the weekend! And then Caelan and Brennen even started slapping paint on it! Yesterday we spent painting even more, but I'll wait until we're finished to give a final reveal. I have to tell you though . . . completely repainting a deck for the fourth time in four years . . . I can think of more fun things to do :) So, so many spindles . . .

The paint is now creeping into

the living room. It is very white :)

Where my kitchen colors meet. I think

I need to always have white flowers on

the table. They make the colors look so

nice :) 

Lighter, brighter hallway! The carpet looks gross, but hopefully that will be fixed in the next few weeks.

 Good work, team!!

Father's Day *Fun*

When you're sitting at the computer and suddenly your

family is talking to you through a hole in the wall :)

Peek-a-boo!! (Buck was fixing the dryer vent;

it's no longer blowing moist air under the deck!!)

It was a busy day, indeed! We awoke to a quick breakfast before heading to church. The kids were due to sing on stage for their VBS performance. It so happened, we were running late . . . but so were the church people, so Graysen got to sneak in to sing with the crowd for two of the three services. Brennen decided he was ready to just go to the middle/high school group and that way he could skip the whole singing on stage thing, lol! He said, "I'm not doing the actions. It will look weird when I'm the only one just standing there." Ha, okay, okay, no stage singing and dancing for you :)

During church, a young man from Africa who had grown up a Compassion kid, shared his life story. Buck and I were in tears. That stuff hits us right in the gut!! We were scheduled for our family Compassion experience tour right after church. Since the girls and Brennen had already seen one story, and Graysen and I saw the other, we decided to split up and see the story we hadn't. We met in the end with the room full of sponsor-ready kiddos' pictures on the walls.

Buck and the other three got a little head start on us, and Buck zoned in on a little bitty thing from Africa. She's just four years old and he said, "She's little. She needs food." So, that's the wee child we sponsored. I wanted to sponsor 10 :) I've always been interested, like my whole life, in child sponsorship. This is the first time we've ever actually done it. I know it will be different than the older children who can write letters back, she's so small she won't really understand what's happening, but I don't mind. We can still pray for her!

After church, Buck needed a couple of things for deck building at the hardware store. And, because we're fancy, we drove through Jimmy John's for sandwiches . . . oh yeah, fancy us! :) We ate lunch at home, and then Buck opened gifts. He got a coffee

grinder, so he can finally use that whole bean coffee we gave him for his birthday :) Other than that, most unwrapped items were accessories for his gun. Gabby got him a LivePD t-shirt. It's his favorite show!

After that, it was all deck, all day! Well, for me and for Caelan it was paint, paint, paint inside the house. I'm glad she likes to paint . . . I'm kind of over it, hee hee :)

So, we're working on the hall, the kitchen, and the main living room. My "racing the rain" gray turned out to be "rocking the baby" blue . . . but it's growing on me. I'll like it better when we get the picture wall back up . . . but I don't think this color is going to make the BIG WALL as it was originally intended.

But enough about paint . . . look at the progress on that deck! Wowza!