2011 Week 4

Currently my life runs on one long, never-ending To Do List.
-pick paint color for kitchen, living room, etc...check! We hit it with test color #3 - phew!

-schedule and take Kaitlyn on playdate with a new friend from her class...check! We met them at McDonald's and had a great couple of hours at the indoor play place.
-paint the kitchen...check!
-paint the kids' bathroom...check!
-schedule time for Kaitlyn to play with neighbor girls...check! this one was spur of the moment, though we had been talking about it for a while now. The kids played really well together, but I found that they interrupted me (wanting things) quite a bit. Hopefully that isn't what happens every time they play together.
-paint and install drying rack in laundry room...check!
-paint and install shelf/towel hooks in kids' bathroom...check!
-family fun time...check! See, the list isn't all work! We took the kids bowling on Saturday and had a lot of fun. Both of them are better bowlers than I would have thought - I only barely beat their scores. Sam, of course, did better than all of us but then again he bowls weekly now so that's not exactly a fair match.
The first part of the time we were bowling the kids had to do it without the help of those little ramps you roll the ball down. Tyler liked it so much that he didn't want to use the ramp even when we did get one - though one of his inaccurate throws did end up in the no man's land between lanes and had to be fished out. Kaitlyn on the other hand liked the ramp and her score took an significant up-turn when she was able to more accurately aim the ball with it.

-cut Sam's hair and Tyler's hair...check! Ok this one wasn't actualy on the list. But Sam was getting shaggy so he asked me to trim it up. And when Tyler saw Sam was getting a haircut he asked if I would cut his too. I hadn't actually intended to cut his hair, just run the clippers through the bottom a bit but once I got going I got brave. I can't believe I did it either - I have NO experience cutting hair with anything other than Sam's easy military, do it all with the clippers cut. But thankfully I did ok. What do you think?

-make the time to take some photos for some home dec projects I have in the works...check!

This is us trying to get photos of just the feet. It's a lot harder than you'd think! (especially with the self-timer)

-try story time at the library...check! I'm very impressed with it they do everything from reading the book, to games, songs, and crafts. This will probably become of the weekly activities for Tyler and myself
-clean the house, do the laundry, figure out dinner, blah blah blah...check check check! Life is rolling right along here.

2011 Week 3

Only a few noteworthy things this week. The kids have been having fun playing in the sawdust and Kaitlyn's been "building" things with scrap wood. What's causing the sawdust this week? The laundry room! We put in a bench and coat hooks, painted the whole room, and installed a cupboard above the washing machine.

Sam turned 31 on Wednesday. We kept the celebrating low key with dinner out (Texas Roadhouse mmmmm) and dessert and gifts at home.

Look how much they love their dad :)

2011 Week 2

It's been quite the week. Sam had to work over the weekend so the kids and I were on our own. Saturday I drug them out shopping with me so I could get ready for all of our January birthdays. And Sunday we recovered, with only a trip out to the grocery store. Then Monday we got another dose of NC winter weather - in which I mean they cancelled school and work over the chance of a snowstorm (that didn't really amount to much). No problem. Sam went to the Home Depot and then we worked on this. (that's the garage)

Tuesday we woke up to this. Yeah nasty. You could practically ice skate on the lawn. Of course no school, no work. We were happy to spend the day in the garage putting up more shelves, getting rid of stuff (we filled the entire back of the truck for Good Will), and putting things away. By the end of the day we could easily park both vehicles inside - for the first time since the movers showed up with all our stuff.

Wednesday everything started to melt. The base got a couple hour delay and school was still cancelled but it did start warming up. We were all ready for life to get back to some semblance of a normal schedule, but I have to say, the kids did a pretty good job of keeping themselves entertained and not fighting during the extra long weekend.

Thursday it was finally back to business as usual. Sam went to work, Kaitlyn went to school, Tyler played with his cars, and I painted our bedroom.

I bet you're starting to think all we ever do around here is work on the house. You'd be right. Sometimes I'm completely worn out by it and don't want to face another big project. But the urge to get the house looking good as soon as possible is stronger than the urge to sit around and relax - at least until all the really big projects and painting are done (which I'm hoping will be by the end of January).

2011 Week 1

Love that photo!
The first week of the new year finds us valiantly trying to get back to normal life. The problem is, we haven't quite figured out what "normal" is for us in our new life here. But the holidays are over and Sam is back to work, Kaitlyn is back to school, and Tyler and I are trying to get things in order at home.
Sometimes that involves organizing. (*sigh* and boy do we still need more of that in certain areas)

Sometimes that involves home improvement projects - I painted both the dining room and powder bathroom this week. Both are red. Love the red. It's my "happy color."

And sometimes that involves errands and phone calls and overall just figuring things out. We had to go in search of a dentist this week because Kaitlyn spotted her top 2 teeth coming in and the the baby teeth in their place showed no signs of coming out any time soon. Of course, not only have we not bothered to find a dentist yet, but we weren't even sure how it all works with the insurance now. So Sam had to do some research first thing Monday morning and then I was lucky enough to get a same-day appointment for that afternoon. The dentist pulled the top 2 teeth (I was happy to know we hadn't rushed to the dentist for no reason) and Kate is now happily sporting a big toothless grin. The tooth fairy brought her $2 that night and she promply shared a dollar with her brother first thing the next morning (I love my little sweet heart!).