The Big Reveal

Now.... the moment you all have been waiting for....














Ta-Da!

OK, just kidding - here is our bathroom! Please tell me you were not expecting the kitchen.
I love my little bench in the shower. It is so great for shaving legs. I really like the double towel rack and the little nook for shampoo, soap, razor, etc.
Our favorite feature of the newly remodeled bathroom is the glass block window in the shower. Jason designed it. We love it! It is so nice to shower in the morning and to have that natural light. We have always had a skylight in the bathroom but Jason says the window makes him feel like he is outside.
The mirror was what was holding up the photos. The bathroom has been done since last year we just were waiting on getting the mirror framed. The cabinets are a deep rich brown with a hint of red (this fish eye lens always makes the colors come out weird). We have a vessel sink as well.
I really like the floor- pebbles! Jason liked them too until we installed them. He decided they bug his tender feet. So now he wears flip flops in the shower. Or just uses the kids shower.
In this shot you can see how I decided to use the previously unused space that was just wall before. I made a little skinny built in shelf. Let me repeat that- I JOY made with my own hands a little built in shelf. I love it! You will never have to worry about running out of toilet paper when you visit us and use our bathroom. No sirree. It becomes obvious the toilet paper is running low before you ever make that unfortunate discovery. Clean towels are always right there and I have a place to hide my fingernail polish and other little things. I love it! Now when you come, just don't look too closely at the craftsmanship. I am new at this.

In case you wanted a closer look at the floor.... thank you Luke. I have decided he either cannot hear me, doesn't understand, or really doesn't care.
It did come out. We are buying stock in Magic Eraser by the way.

The Exorcism

Luke does not like to have his hair cut. Let me say that again- Luke does not like to have his hair cut. He says it hurts.
However, from this side view you can see that it was time.

And from the top view, you can see that there has never been a time when his style was the style. So Joy held the poor kid down and he screamed bloody murder continuously for 10 minutes while I gave him a finger cut to the best of my ability. We did this in our barber shop / bathroom / kitchen / storage unit / bath. Hair with your quiche?

The poor kid survived, here he was after church in the back yard. You can see he might need a touch-up while he is sleeping.
For the record, here is Wesley the same day plowing the construction mess with his tractor. Also for the record, Wesley has not had a haircut- yet.

Fathers and Sons Outing

Luke and I have been looking forward to our Father's and Sons outing for quite a while. What a difference a year makes. Here he was last year:

The campout this year was at the Odd Fellows campground near Manzano, NM about an hour away from town. We stopped by some lady's hot dog stand on the side of the road. She had only made $15 that day, and we only had a dollar more to give her. I think my hot dog was swimming around in her stand for quite a few days judging by the way I felt after eating it. Luke didn't have any trouble working his way through his.

So you are wondering about Wesley? Well, he stayed home with mom- maybe next year. I was the only dad there with a boy in diapers. They all told me they would not bring their boys until they were potty trained. So far as I am concerned, I would rather have diapers than accidents, but that is just me.

"Lukie" was most excited about sleeping in "sleeking bags." This whole week I asked him what we should bring and that was his first answer. We set up our tent and put the sleeking bags inside about 6PM or so. He was a little put off when I told him it wasn't time for bed yet.
He ran around and played quite a bit more than last year; then again it was so much warmer this time. We had cobbler after the Bishop spoke then finally hit the hay around 9:30. We played finger puppets on the roof of the tent with a flashlight until I finally fell asleep. Who knows when he did. I have to say, it was one of the best and longest nights sleep I have had in quite a while.

Allie remembers camping at this same campsite with me before turning three, so hopefully Luke will remember this trip. (I asked her about it this week and she told me we didn't have a truck then, but drove in a car). She freaks me out sometimes, I can't remember my own birthday.

Sorry no more pictures, Luke got tired of the camera very quickly so I just put it away and got to focus on camping with my little boy.

O How Beautiful Upon the Mountain Are the Feet

I love my Chacos. I first heard about them while hiking in the middle of the Arizona nowhere with Anasazi. We were supposed to wear hiking boots but a fellow trail walker just hiked in her Chacos. She said they were so much more comfortable. Our neighbor, the police officer SWAT guy told us how he got called out one day while wearing shorts and Chacos. His upper body was covered in the vests and guns and bullets and helmet and gear etc. as they hunted down the bad guys. It was a hot summer day with all of that heavy gear but his feet were happy. If I recall correctly I know a certain someone who wore her black pair of Chacos to a certain somone's wedding. Aaahhh- Chacos.

Allie's Chacos... Allie's Chacos are very very special. One year ago Molly bought them for Lucy. They were too big for her little feet but she would grow into them. She was supposed to grow into them. The day after Molly bought these for Lucy she choked on the apple. She never wore them but we always think of them as Lucy's Chacos. I think of her everytime Allie puts them on. I think of little Lucy feet jumping and dancing and spining. I like to imagine her roaming around on their favorite hiking trails and playing at the park wearing those Chacos. Maybe her toes would be painted pink like Allie and mine.

Allie asked one day about the resurrection and when Lucy would be resurrected. Someday those little feet will be walking around again. I told Allie I didn't know when that would be but asked her what she thought. She said "Right before I am a grandma. When I am 49". That is only 44 more years.

I think I will hold on to these Chacos for Lucy. We will give them back then.

Creative Outlet

With patience and love kids will learn appropriate behavior. Do not write on the walls, couches, chairs, cars, bills and other mail, toys and the like. It makes your parents very unhappy. But how do channel such creative talent so you don't burst?! Well there are things like paper, coloring books, sidewalks with sidewalk chalk for starters. There is also the bottom/underneath side of your favorite little table. Apparently this is a work of art that has gone on for a long time, many many months at the very least. We may never know.
We are still working at not coloring on our skin (although that is slightly easier to clean).
And speaking of art, here is more of Allie's work. One of my favorites is the merman swimming with his arms behind him. How clever is that? It's my blog and I can brag if I want to. Again you have half the mer-people on the edges of the page.
And how is the house? Well, it looks the same basically. We are stuck in the muck and mire of permits and inspections. We have opened several cans of worms. If anyone wants to come over for left-overs we have plenty. I will even wash you a fresh bowl straight from the bathtub.

The electrical inspector came yesterday (they will come between 8am and 4pm and if you miss them.... oooh, you do not miss. This guy came at 3pm) he looked around at the work, said everything looked great and then went to put the green for go sticker on the the panel box. And that was where the trouble began. We need a bigger panel box. But you can't just change the smaller one for a bigger one. You have change the grounding wires connecting them. Those go through the meter which of course then you have to change that. Well the meter and the wires go to a shared box which is in the neighbors yard which means the city comes out and shuts the power down to at least 3 homes. We have to dig a trench to pull out the old and put in the new which means we will now be breaking up the side walk that runs along the side of our house as well as the red bud tree. The sprinklers are in the way as well but they haven't been working properly and the flag stone is breaking up as it is so we might as well pull up the rest of that. The flagstone lines the yard which is oddly sloped anyway and the apricot tree is so old it doesn't produce anymore. We will be digging under the back wall that we share with the neighbor that I have always wished was higher. So maybe we will just get the back hoe in here and go at it. Which of course that would only fit around the west side of the house which means through the front yard. I have always wished they had put in a drip system out front too and since it might get damaged under the weight of the back hoe....

I haven't even mentioned the plumbing issues. So we have decided to bulldoze the entire house.

And all we wanted was to take out one little wall!

Construction Update and TMI

Well, things are not all that different. So I am including a few shots (that you really did not want to see) of how we are living. Everything in our life is in upheaval. It is so hard to not have a routine with little ones. Trying to have a routine with life right now is not working so well. But... we keep trying.

The piles of clean (on the bed) and dirty laundry. It is so hard to wash clothes while trying to walk through dirty plastic doorways and over children barriers. We had not hot water for a couple of days too. The kids got to take a bath at the neighbors house a couple of nights ago. I hate to have clean laundry when everything feels so dirty and grimmy. Ugh.

This is the storage room. You want to borrow a measuring cup you say? Hmmm... give me just one second here...Dishes in the bathtub... YUCK. This is why no one is invited over to eat right now.
Everything crammed into the living room.
Our make shift kitchen.
The real family room and kitchen area are down to the studs... still. The news is we passed the inspection for the structural changes, but not without a little drama. We should be done with the electrical by Saturday and then that can be inspected (that was part of the drama- the electrical is supposed to be inspected first). The gas and water are almost completely done. We just need to run the line over for the dishwasher. So hopefully by next weekish we can be sheet rocking. Hooray. The dust and dirt and danger (nails, saws, electrical lines) and small kids don't mix well. I keep thinking about Erin. She said she had a few freak out moments during their remodel. Jenny, I suppose you had some as well. Kristyn, what about you? And mom, yes, I remember your stress. Let me think... who else has lived in a construction site? Well... my moments have been pretty ugly. But aside from the madness of it all, we are enjoying the journey. We feel very thankful and blessed to be able to do this for our next home buyer (no, we have no plans to move ever but wouldn't it be perfectly ironic if we did).