Busy Bees

So rotten! The wood supporting

the deck is mush!

After discovering the deck was even more rotten than we expected, Buck spent the morning driving from lumber yard to lumber yard collecting all the support pieces we didn't know we needed. For this adventure, he took our air-conditionerless minivan. On the trip home from the second store--he turned our Kia into a jousting beast!! Sticking out the front passenger side window was at 20 foot run of timber! Attached to the front was a fluttering flag of red . . . our van looked sweet!! :)

We got the wood unloaded from both trips, and then had to head to karate. However ever since we've returned, Buck's been out there rebuilding and it's looking good! The boys are helping carry rocks, paint boards, and I did see an attempt with a saw that I thought was better not to be attempted :)

Here's what was left of the deck before the storm hit last night.

The girls have been taping and painting! It's pretty fancy around here now, I've gotta say ;)

Our room has never had a make-over . . . until today! I know the previous owner tried to find a paint color to match purple carpeting, and the sage green actually was a pretty good choice! The problem is, I don't have a drop of it left. So all the scuffs and scratches of former owners and ourselves have no way to be concealed. I know it is super hard to see the new color, but it's called "worn turquoise"  ... I think :) It's a pretty, happy shade of blue and the girls love it--even if it is not for them :)

So glad we let them paint their room and get the experience.They enjoy all this painting jazz, which is a huge help!

We're living like campers--sort of :) We need to get all the furniture and everything that touches the floor ready to move when the carpeting gets installed. We have no idea when this will be ,but expect sometime within the next three days to three weeks . . . you just never know, we are learning. I'm super digging the new color, even if I can't walk in my room! Matches our sheets :)

We're also repainting the kitchen--I know this looks black, but it's actually navy. The table will be refinished in the same color, but that project is farther down the road :)

The boys are getting a head start on painting all the sides of the deck boards. We learned from our three previous deck painting experiences that this is the hardest, most time-consuming part of the job. So, since the boards aren't attached yet, we thought this would be a faster way to accomplish the job :) Stack 'em up, roll 'em out!

Since the girls are getting a new, much smaller bed, Brennen helped detach their staircase for relocation to the guestroom/classroom.

Both boys helped me push it into the living room where all the boxes are filled as though we are moving. This is a HUGE project inside to go along with our HUGE project outside :) And the inside job depends on the timing of the outside job, because the painted wood planks are in the only open floor space not being carpeted that we can move the furniture from the girls' room to. Yes, the carpet installers will move furniture for us, but it's like those little handheld plastic puzzles . . . you have to have one open space so the rest of the pieces can slide around until you make the picture :)

And btw, heard from the accident girl and her dad thinks they should fix the (13 year old) truck, so we're waiting to hear what estimate they get back. Come on assessor guy! We've paid your huge fee, come look at our house, so we can get some refi cash flow for all this! :)

2R

It's been more than a year and the kids have earned their next rank . . . almost :) They're now recommended second degree black belts. They've earned an II patch for their belts. Now, they continue to test and earn points towards their decided second degree black belt--which should happen this fall. Amidst all the craziness of our recent weeks, it was nice to sit and watch them accomplish this next goal in their karate rank. (I missed Graysen's presentation because I was kind of slow on the camera phone uptake :)

VBS Pics

Okay, last two from VBS :)

VBS Day 4 and 5

Yesterday, didn't go so well. It was the gospel presentation day, and that meant that pretty much any stumbling block that could be thrown our way would be. First thing in the morning, my neighbor texted to say she'd been up vomiting, and her two youngest were vomiting, but she thought it was food poisoning, and the oldest was okay. She's also teaching VBS this week, so I stopped by for her bag and sort of made arrangements to bring the oldest home if parents were not feeling up to leaving the house. If you know me, vomit is like my ultimate foe. Stomach flu for us is misery upon misery--everyone tossing their cookies at once, the constant laundry, ughh. So even agreeing to be in the vicinity of such illness was enough to make me queasy :) Anyway, we were running a bit late, but arrived ahead of my crowd of kiddos.

It was our Compassion Experience day, so our schedule was a little off. My group tends to wander, so keeping them altogether to get to the experience, to go through the experience, and then to return from the experience was a bit daunting, but we got it done :) Of course there was restlessness and noise during the gospel portion, but I pray those words of truth touched their hearts in some way!

After closing, my girls asked if they could go through the Compassion Experience with the other skit crew/helpers/music team that hadn't been able to go during the day. I agreed, collected the boys, and we drove from the far parking lot to the near parking lot to wait for the girls to come out. They didn't know I'd moved the van, so I parked in one of the few not blocked off spaces where they could see me. Pretty much everyone had left by the time the girls were done. They hopped in the van, I started backing out of the space, and the van would not move, at all.

So I put the van in drive and tried to move forward a bit. There was a curb on the driver's side, so I figured our wheels were just hitting against that in a weird way, so that no reverse motion could occur. I tried again. Still couldn't really move, so tried pulling forward again a little, readjusting the wheel. I had been checking my little backing up camera and doing the glance around . . . apparently until the third try :( I thought, maybe the parking break somehow got on? New van, not 100% sure of its quirks--but no that was good. So I reversed again--this time we moved a bit, then stopped AGAIN. But when I looked in the rearview mirror, it was because we were backed into a truck. Ugh!!

I guess there was still a vehicle in the lot, they happened to drive by on my third attempt to reverse, and boom-smashy. I still haven't heard if they are going to repair the damage or if they think it's enough to get insurance involved? It's a teen driver, but she was very responsible. Our van is scratched and the far-passenger-side sensor got knocked inside the bumper (so it goes off plenty now, although it wasn't very helpful yesterday). However, I don't know if our damage is enough to do anything repair-wise, so I'm just waiting to hear from the other girls' parents to see what they want to do. Ahh, VBS week--so many unexpected moments.

And then top it all off, I totally lost track of which day it was. I got a message from the kids' karate instructor, "We're ready whenever!" meaning--"Okay, Gabby already dressed as a turtle and ready for your appearance that we've been hinting at all week on fb while our 50 plus Tiny Tigers eagerly awaiting a photo with you between testings, come on out!"

We were still at  home.

AT HOME!!!

If a scratched up mini van could fly, ours just about did. Ugh!! I left the other three kids at home, eating dinner, and we arrived as quickly as we could at the gym. For the first time in the history of ALL karate events--they got done early. Go figure! We held up the class that finished graduating and the class that was about to test next. I felt terrible!! I don't forget things like this; I'm a very dependable person. If I say I'll be there, I will . . . I guess unless I'm worried about vomit, trying to help children find Jesus, backing into teenagers, and forgetting what day of the week it is for turtle appearances. Sigh :(

But all the kids loved getting their picture with Michelangelo. And the kids' instructor (and especially his college-aged son, who was about to get called into back-up turtle duty) were thankful that Gabby was able to make it just in the nick of time.

When we arrived home, Buck was here--but no deck delivery. That was originally scheduled for Thursday (maybe another reason I thought it was Wednesday?). So, the kids and I continued pulling pictures off the walls, taking apart furniture, moving tubs of books to the garage, all in prep for paint and carpet. Buck asked the kids for help outside, so they all went out to tear apart the old deck until the sun went down. They are out there again right now!



This morning, for the last day of VBS, Buck came along to see the kids do their skits and songs and crafts and games. All together, the children brought nearly $3,000 in coins and bills to give to Compassion International!! This will buy playground equipment, bicycles, provide education, farm animals, and seeds . . . lots of goodness planted in foreign soil :) As their reward, the VBS organizers and the youth pastor got slimed on stage--bright green, all kinds of gooey. That was fun to see and the kids loved it!!

Next, we grabbed burritos at Qdoba and came home to rest a few minutes before jumping back into our renovations. And now I'm writing this, so I should go and help my family tear apart our house, because the lumber has arrived and we are ready to rebuild . . . soon :)

Please pray I hear from this other family about the vehicle soon!

We are Museum People

If you recall in the crazy mix of this blog chronology, we very well may NOT be amusement park people. So, when my brother mentioned a free art museum in the city, we were all over that!






We dig skyline pictures--some people's cameras take better versions of these than others' :)

Our next stop was lunch--C & L took us to a crazy restaurant called Betty Dangers--Caelan said it was like attending the Queen's tea party with Alice in Wonderland. Fun colors, bright trim, a put-put course, animal statues, even a Ferris wheel in the front yard! The food had a Mexican flare, and was really tasty. I think the kids enjoyed themselves in this indoor/outdoor eating establishment :)

And what is vacation without a little local ice cream? This stop at Izzy's was a treat!

After ice cream, we had a couple other options for activities, but we decided maybe the kids needed a rest . . . I guess we were right :) The boys crashed for HOURS!! Buck and I each snoozed for an hour or so, but they were sleeping champs. We woke them up for supper, and then again, considered going out to do activities. However, when Uncle C said he could make some popcorn, we decided that a movie night at home was just the thing! Buck and I had been wanting to see Hidden Figures and had heard it was family-friendly. Great movie! We started it at like 9 PM, the kids' normal bedtime at home :) But, they slept most of the day, so it seemed okay.

As it turns out, everyone enjoyed the movie, and an 11 PM bedtime was just as effective after a long day's napping. This was the best night of sleep they'd had yet, and we were thankful for that, too :) But seriously--look at all that medicine on the table in front of me, lol!

Pet Pick-Up

On the way home from our trip, we made a stop by Maga's house to meet the little friends she secured for us. The kids were pretty excited to meet the little pigs--only two though, not three :) At least we're hoping that's all we'll find in the cage in the coming months (we're just kind of trusting the former owners that they are indeed both boys).

For posterity, I'll have to tell the story of how these two little fellows joined our zoo. In April, my mom texted and said, "I found you two hamsters and they'll be here waiting for you when you visit." Pictures followed--one of the "dad" of the hamsters--he was as long as the lap he was sitting on. I texted back, "That's the biggest hamster I've ever seen!! Are you sure it's not a guinea pig?"

"Oh wait, let me check . . ." and later, "Yes, guinea pigs."

I said, "We would love to have a guinea pig, but we don't have room in this house. They need like 7 foot long cages and we don't have room for 7 foot long cages. No pigs for us, please."

A week or so goes by, and I get a texted picture, "Got your guinea pig--his name is Pickle. The lady was so nice I couldn't say no."

Well, we decided Pickle would just have to live indefinitely at Maga's house, since we still had the same size constraints as before, here at The Manor. However, as the kids saw pictures of him and we heard more good things about guinea pig ownership . . . we caved and set a pick-up date. Fast forward a week or two:

"Your brother-in-law found more free guinea pigs . . . they are herd animals you know . . ." This was while Buck was doing building check on a holiday weekend. As we drove home, I mentioned this new development to him, and his response was, "Sure--why, not?"

So our animal kingdom expanded for Pickle--who became Glorfindel Pickle--who became Nutterbutter, and for Legolas who became and stayed Oreo. They are pretty fun little pets, and get along well. They are very messy babies though!! Graysen built them a cardboard "Pigloo." When they run they kick up all the stuff in the bottom of their container and it flies all over the laundry room! So, today Graysen designed a cardboard wall on the back of the tub to see if we can contain their excitement in that way :)



They make so many different noises and mostly sound like Wookies or little Ewoks when they're rumbling around. They also sit very still when they're held, so that makes them nice to hang out with. They don't really poop on us as much as other people said theirs do, but it has happened--and Buck got peed on. That was at the very beginning though, so I think we're cool now :)

Oh, and when we returned home from our trip we had exactly enough time to unload the little guys and our van before hopping in the other (hot) van and catching the kids' hockey game. It was blazing out there! We decided this was another poor parenting choice, though they wanted to go. Graysen made it through half a period as goalie, then requested to sit out the rest of the game. None of the kids played with much energy, and this ended up being their only loss of the season. We were all ready for cool air and comfy beds when we returned home to try to get everyone on the mend!

VBS Day 3

Last night, Buck and I were able to go on a date . . . kind of a work date :) We used up our remaining Christmas gift cards and met for supper at the Bonefish. Afterwards we took a *quick* trip to Lowe's . . . oh wait . . . it was like three hours! And it was extended when the cashier asked her supervisor to come over and help complete our order . . . he DELETED the order. We literally had all the merchandise--two carts full--bagged up and ready to roll. And.we.had.to.start.over.

This was at 9 PM; the kids were home chilling, we had two cars, loads of road construction between us . . . VBS was earlier and again today. Wow, what an exhausting trip! But it was fun to hang out together (we were the most dressed up people in the store, since he came from work and I met him for dinner :) And it was easier to make decisions on paint colors, etc. without the kids in tow, and I'm sure they were happier not having to stand there and wait for us to do so!

Around midnight, a gnarly storm rolled through. Thunder shaking the house . . . clear through til this morning. Apparently the storm did more than just shake windows--it also took out the power at the church! I'm not sure how many hundreds of kids and volunteers are at VBS this week, but we arrived to a dark building, with no microphones, no video screens, no music or speakers, the classroom doors weren't even unlocked . . . sitting in the gym waiting for light was the closest my group has stayed to me all week!

Praise God, just a few minutes after our scheduled *go time,* the power came back on and things were able to proceed almost as normal!

Gabby and even Caelan had minor roles in today's skit--they were sheep :) Yesterday (yes, yesterday!) the girls made/modified a whole bunch of knit hats into little sheep headgear (so cute!) Graysen lent his wooden snake, and the Moses and the Burning Bush scene came alive! :)

As you can perhaps tell by the following pictures, VBS can be a bit emotionally wearing on us--it is loud, chaotic, rushed, tons of people, and constant motion. We're not as used to this as most families--and the complaining! Whoa baby, can kids complain! I wish they could understand that we're not there for them to boss around or to be their entertainment, we're there to help them have fun learning about God . . . not to wrangle a herd of cats.

Our kids aren't complaining, but the attitudes of others do begin to affect them. I'm just glad that despite my impressions of the other kids' attention spans, they really are learning stuff--this chaos is their normal, so when I think nothing is getting through, they're actually latching on to important things. I blew a Percy Jackson fan's mind when I told him Jesus descended into Hades and took the keys to hell's gates after He was crucified. Yes, our God is cooler than all those fake Greek and Roman gods . . . because He's real, and those other guys are not :)