Painting Painting Painting

It's not so bad, except that I've got "helpers". We let Maddie help us prime, but Ryan is a paint Nazi (to put it nicely. He gets it from his mom) and he doesn't want to take the time to teach, he just wants them out.

Maddie's not bad, but Ben is another story. He grabbed a tiny roller and left the room being primed. Then he "helped" in the just-painted kids room and on the bathroom door, which was not being painted. I was in another room, So I cannot be blamed. Everything is fixable. The door washed off (thanks, Jim). Just adds more steps.

Then, I'm not sure about the colors I picked. I picked a bright green called "asparagus" for the kids to go along with some green in both of their blankets. I feel like I'm on the inside of a lime. I hope, with the blue carpet removed and the wood floor exposed, the furniture put back and stuff on the walls, it won't be so heinous. It's pretty bad right now.

The other color is called "burnt almond". It's kind of like a coffee with a lot of cream. I think it's too dark. I'm always second guessing myself. i just hope it's ok once we're done and our furniture is in place.

Everything has been going pretty smoothly. We borrowed some things from Ryan's mom for painting and she even gave us a few colors so we didn't have to buy as much. HUGE help. We're working really hard, but agreeing on everything, so it seems to be without the usual husband/wife (or is it just Ryan and Marie) stress and fighting. We're all so excited to move it, especially the kids. They don't want to go back to the condo each night, they want to stay there. Ben tells me thank you each time I tell him we're going to the "new house". Makes moving a whole lot easier when we're all in it together!

Working.

Both houses need work, Ryan has Meca, work, Solid Rock practices, People want my time and energy (and money) and I don't have any or it right now!

We're priming the walls in the new house, so we can get the hardwood refinished before we move in. We'll start painting soon. It already looks so much fresher. Hopefully, we'll be done by the end of the week and the floor guy can come beginning of next. I cleaned up all of the outside- leaves, sticks, stuff. Then it stormed and I have to do it all over again. I have two giant blisters and I'm waiting for them to heal before I can start again. Next time: gloves.

Plus, we're all sick. Sinus-y sneezy, couch type sick. We didn't go to our nephew/godson's birthday because we didn't want to share, but we did end up doing some work that day. Today I feel like I hit a wall. I am supposed to be packing, but I've decided not to do anything until later. I did the kitchen, bathed the kids...made a some phone calls. I've been productive!

I hate to complain becaause I asked for this. I didn't ask to be sick on top of it.

So much to do, so little time.

This past weekend we went with some friends to Boyne to hang out and go to the water park, Avalanche Bay. This is our second year, but this year we added a couple and their daughter. There were 8 adults and 5 kids, so the big people still outnumbered the little ones. We hung out on Friday, waiting for the Muellers to come, and Ben didn't feel good all day. He was feverish and lethargic. The he threw up in the evening after he had gone to sleep. Yuck. Lucky me, I woke up on water park day feeling crappy. I went for a while, but pretty much felt like crap, so I stayed in bed for round two. I'm so bummed I missed all the fun. Maddie went down all the big slides with Ryan and even the medium ones by herself! She went underwater, I watched her freak out a little, then realize it wasn't so bad, and she did it again! Ben was a little strange at first, he didn't even want to go in the water, but he loosened up and by the second round, they couldn't get him to come out! Last year he was a funny little fish who got mad at me when I went around the waterfall. I laid in bed, trying not to puke. Eh. We did have fun though, losta of Mario cart, a few card games, playing at the park, the flat tire on the way home. Yes, I said flat tire. Last year it was Jamie and Laura, who blew a tire near Saginaw and this year we're the big winners! Jamie and Laura were actually behind us, so they helped us out a little and had lunch with us while we waited for a new tire.

We are closing on our house tomorrow...I'm so nervous! We have everything set up and ready to go. I hope there isn't another setback. I've been calling everyone for quotes on carpet, floor refinishing, chimney cleaning, tree removal, cable, garbage...the list goes on and that's only what I did yesterday! I have to sit at the house from 12-4 on Friday to wait for the gas to be turned on. At least it's supposed to be 75! We can play in the yard! We have boxes all around us here, and I'm desperate just to get a few out of the way. A lady named Heather that works with Scott our realtor is coming Saturday to help us stage the condo, or at least tell us what to do when we're ready in a few weeks. I'm nervous about that, too, but hopefully we'll have some of this clutter out of the way!

Sweetness

Isn't it the best when your children do unexpected things? Like for instance this morning when Ben got up, he sat groggily on the couch rubbing his ears. I asked him if he wanted to snuggle, and he said no. A few minutes later I got up and went to the bathroom and when I came back, he was laying in my "spot", but right on the edge so I could fit on the inside. When we saw me, he grinned and said, "You go there mamma". Then he turned around and showered me with kisses.

Maddie is less obvious, but after scolding her this morning for trying to be sneaky, she squeezed me very tight and whispered "I'm so sorry mommy". Yes, I know it was a ploy to melt my heart, but it worked.

This is Maddie's current cuteness, which I discovered on a pad of paper. It is the first line to "our" song, that I wrote about a few weeks ago.

Hoo nows how lon I (heart) you

you now I (heart)

Who knows how long I've loved you

you know I love you still...

Easter

Something exciting just happened. This won't be exciting to any of you, but for me, it's super cool. I have the realtor website for our house bookmarked and I look at it every so often, just to see it, and to remember the measurements of the rooms. I just clicked on it and it says

"No Property with that ID"

Whoa. It's not on the website anymore. I know we haven't closed, but AWESOME!

We had the usual busy day with family and church. It was fun and we all ate too much. Eh. I do not have any pictures because my camera is at the shop being fixed :( Sure, buy a new house, holiday, vacation? Broken camera. Bummer. My kidlets were very cute in their matching outfits. Not too matchy but enough. Maddie had her hair in ringlets :) Ben wore a little pink tie. They ran around like crazies, but that's what they're supposed to do on Easter.

Inspection day

Our friend from church is an inspector and he's going today to look at the house. ! So we're getting closer. They (the bank) says they want to close on or before the 23rd! WOW! Even with all the waiting, this is happening really fast. Really I was just complaining about getting a house, and here we are. The house didn't even go into foreclosure until February, so if we had started looking earlier, it wouldn't have been there. I'm so excited.

Ben has a doctors appointment Thursday for a follow up on his blood work and stuff. I'm anxious to know what they found. On a good note, Ben peed on the potty 2 and a half times yesterday! The "half" come from he realized he was peeing, peed a little on the floor and sat on the potty, but with his underroo's on. He did get a bunch in the potty, bet we have to get the "get your roo's off first" thing down.

Today is Maddie's pretend birthday. She's got a July birthday so we're celebrating it at school today. In fact, I should be making cookies now :)

messing around

I've had this blog for a while now and never really tried to spruce it up. I did and I hated it. Then I couldn't figure out how to UNDO what I had done! It was exasperating! I finally figured it out and got it right.

I love this picture of Bennett, it conveys my life story. "Huh?"

Scott, our friend/realtor, got some word on the house, but it is neither good nor bad. They came back and said, "Sure, lets close!" but they did not ok any of our fixes to the purchase agreement! So. What does that mean? I'm glad Scott is working so diligently with us, or we'd sure be up a creek by now!

Past days.

I was supposed to write this post a few days ago, but I forgot and just remembered. I do that a lot!
One year ago yesterday was Maddie's First Flower Girl Experience. Otherwise known as Kristi and Andrew's wedding. It was a lot of planning and practicing and trying on the dress a hundred times, but it was so cute and so much fun. Liam (who by the way was born 7 months before Maddie, so I was wrong) was the flower boy (in Maddie's words) and we had a ton of fun. Especially the fire alarm at 7 am at the hotel :)

Two years ago March 27th was the date of my car accident that broke my arm. I remember thinking I would never feel normal again. That this time in my life was going to last forever and I would be in pain the rest of my life. It's amazing how those feeling fade away, isn't it? Now my only reminders are a zig-zag scar on my wrist and some weakness.

All things fade with time, be it a memory, a scar, grief. Some are slower than others, and some you are amazed you even forgot. In the day-to-day it seems so important, so relevant. But looking back, though the larger scope, that major event is hardly a blip.

I can sit here, close my eyes and lock this time into my memory. I've done it before...I remember one afternoon when I was 13, reading "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" outside in the sun. I never wanted it end, it was so perfect. Another time, floating in a little boat with my dad fishing. Laying in my bed the night before my wedding, with my brothers on the floor, our last sleepover. Can I keep myself 13 that way? 22? Can I keep my kids 2 and 4? I can try!

A few funny things...

For those of you who care about funny kids stories, these are for you.

Many mornings I go downstairs to check my email and whatnot, and I shut the door so the munchkids don't follow me. The main reason is because Elijah is sleeping, but really I'd just like to think quietly for a few moments without being begged to play Oobie or Princesses. So I am sitting at the computer near the bottom of the step and I hear Maddie shout "Ben's got a knife!" Oh crap. I bolt up the stairs thinking,"Where'd he get a knife? I know I closed the gate to the kitchen!" I hear the clang of metal against carpet as I open the door. "BEN!" I see him sitting sheepishly on the floor, like, 'I didn't do anything'. "Why do you have a knife?!?"
"I want to cut sister's hair," he replies with a shrug. !!!

Next is Maddie who bowled for the very first time today and got a respectable 73. She did actually get higher, but the 2 spares she got didn't get recorded :(
Aunt Becca came over last night to pick up her phone charger that she had left the night before. Maddie says to me, "I want to make her a card!" So she starts working on it and Becca comes in.
Becca asks, "Whatcha making, Maddie?"
At this point, I know Maddie is thinking up something in her head. I was darn curious to see what she came up with. After a beat, Maddie says, "A Card"
"For who?"
A beat passes again. "Grammy."
I have just witnessed Maddie's first "tell a lie for the sake of a surprise". I was impressed at how smoothly she played it off! And a little scared! :)

These days

Now, as if I wasn't far enough behind, I have double to do. Not really surprised, getting a new house is time consuming, and a lot of work, and we had a bunch of work to do here as it was. But we'll deal with it when the time comes. First we need to close :). Then paint and flooring, which we discovered the other night the front room and bedrooms have hardwood. Bonus! For less than the cost of carpet, we can have it refinished and raise the value of the house. Now I have to figure out the other two rooms. Same with paint...what to do, what to do! Then we can move in pretty much. Here, at the condo, we need to patch some small dings, finish the bathrooms, maybe new floor in the kitchen.

My worries have gone into overdrive, I call Ryan every half hour about some what-if, and he talks me down. We talked to the neighbor the other night when we went and walked through again and he said it was an old lady who lived there for 35 years. New roof, water heater, septic within the last four years. Whew! That was a huge load off of our minds! Those are big things, and if we have a few years before we have to think of them, then great! One less worry for me! I do like it more having walked through a second time. I had a few things about it mixed up with some other houses we looked at, and it was better than what was in my head.

I've already started packing the things we don't use on a regular basis. Slow and steady keeps you sane, right?

For those keeping track, I've just been given the news of number 8 for the pregnant tally. Funny, Ryan had asked me if it was me plus two others that made "three" as in things happen in three's. HAHAHAHA! I was first and it brings the total to nine pregnancies, if only 8 babies. When I was pregnant with Maddie, there was NO ONE pregnant that I knew. With Ben, there were a few, Scarlet, Michael, but this is INSANE!