Jane Eyre: Masterpiece Theatre 2006

I stumbled upon this Masterpiece Theater movie last night on PBS and was instantly enthralled. THE BEST adaptation of Jane Eyre out there. I can't believe I hadn't heard of it earlier. I love what this Amazon review says about it:

You may think the world doesn't need another adaptation of Jane Eyre--but you're wrong. This new and wonderfully lush Masterpiece Theatre version, directed by Susanna White (who directed the equally sumptuous miniseries of Bleak House starring Gillian Anderson), contrasts Jane Eyre's vivid inner life with the harshness of her outer life; both Georgie Henley (The Chronicles of Narnia) as the young Jane and newcomer Ruth Wilson express the inner vitality of the outcast orphan girl whose spirit captures the heart of the rough, charismatic landowner Mr. Rochester (Toby Stephens, Die Another Day). Stephens, it must be said, is far too conventionally handsome for the part, but he makes up for it by capturing Rochester's abrasive and mercurial temperament. (Wilson's looks are perfect; at one moment she seems awkward and homely, at another utterly luminous.) Jane Eyre is so often remade because the story is so potent; this production brings all of the novel's juice and passion to the fore, emphasizing the characters' sensual experience while staying true to the restrictions and mores of the period. All in all, exceptional. --Bret Fetzer

But don't order it from Amazon, try Overstock.com first. Right now the two DVD set is $18.73 with only $2.95 shipping. I love a good deal. : )

Anyway, I actually haven't seen the second half yet. I was sorely disappointed when the climax was nearing and bam, stay tuned for next week. But I'm sure it will be as excellent as the first part.

Painting Henry's Room

Now that Christmas is over I'm itching to do all the aesthetic changes to the house that we've talked about. It's the same old domino affect though.

Before I can paint I need to rearrange the kids' beds since the only time to paint is while Henry is sleeping.

Before we can install new flooring we need to have a handyman replace our cooktop and ancient oven with a range so the flooring will go under the new range as well.

Before we can have our single paned windows replaced with new double paned vinyl ones we need to wait til the holidays are over. Hey! We can do that now.

Anyway, this past week I finally bit the bullet and moved Henry's bed into the girls room and moved Linnea's bassinet into our room and started fixing the crazy paint job.

Here's before pics:

The text is my own addition : )

During:

After:

Do you think the blue works? I was going for something lighter blue but I think it matches the denim and red gingham look. Now I'm just stuck on the trim. White makes the most sense I suppose, any other ideas?

Also for the closet door (and bedroom door) I was going to paint it white/trim color. Or maybe replace the bifolds with some white louvered once that are less dated.

Our First "Wild" Christmas Tree

This year we cut ourselves a "wild" Christmas tree from our nation's wilderness lands. It was quite the adventure. With all the loose ends around the house, I was almost inclined to buy one from the grocery store for $30 bucks, but Matt was insistent that we go together and cut one down from the nearby hillsides to herald in a new family tradition.



So the first Saturday in December, Matt got our fluorescent orange permit from the local Forest Service office for $10, some maps and directions and we set off in our becoming-less-trusty MPV (which was still with us...). Our destination was about 40 minutes away due east across the Shasta Valley to the Shasta National Forests lands. By the time we actually left the house and got to our turnoff, we realized that while we had packed bottles for Linnea and plenty of warm clothes for everyone, we had no food for the kids (or us)and it was way past feeding time! Rather than turning around at that point we figured we'd just continue northeast along Hwy 97 until we came to the next town and we'd get some snacks at a gas station or something. We left Matt's truck at the View Point where we'd stopped to conference about our poor planning.

We drove through some gorgeous scenery but didn't find a gas station until another 40 minutes later, the not-so-booming metropolis of Macdoel where we gassed up, ate some chicken strips and chocolate milk then went back another 40 minutes. It was simply stunning though driving south west straight at Mount Shasta on a clear winter's day. We got back to Matt's truck and turned onto the road that heads to the snowmobile park where the good tree cutting is. We drove a short way up and pulled off, geared up and started wandering around in search of the perfect tree.

I was a little hesitant at this moment whereas Matt was full of excitement and enthusiasm for our family adventure. My reservations were: I only saw scraggly junipers and pines that were in the size and location requirements (100' from road and less than 6" diam at ground), and no pretty firs or spruces; There were no trails and I didn't want to hike too far from the car and get turned around and lost or injured with our three very small kids. (A friend and I got lost in the woods for most of the day one time when we wandered off the marked trail: scary, and that was by the beach in the summertime!) Plus I kept seeing trucks and SUVs coming down the road loaded with beautiful trees.

We spent some time in pines and junipers with me dragging my feet and feeling bad about putting a damper on things while my gut kept saying just get back in the car and drive up the road some more. My thinking was if we couldn't see the kind of trees we wanted from the car then it was too far to go with tiny ones in tow.

So that's what we did. Evalyn was such a fun little hiker just plunging along and chattering away, it was simply delightful to watch her enjoying herself. Henry was in the carrier on Matt's back for the first part and Linnea was snoozing away on my back in the Ergo.

Another five minutes up the road the snow got deeper and the trees changed to the Christmas tree kind and we were in heaven! We pulled over and found a great tree in about 10 minutes time. It was so peaceful in the quiet snow covered forest with stunning firs clustered around. Matt used our now traditional Christmas tree saw that we found at an antique store in Maryland and cut our tree last year near Mt. Airy.

Twelve feet of tree was much more than we needed so Matt trimmed it down when we got home. He'd gone in and out of the house about 5 different times and the second to the last time it was almost perfect, but we still needed another 6 inches for a star. Something got miscalculated on that last cut so we'll just say it was a bit shorter than we envisioned but it was still beautiful with white and blue lights and filled the house with that lovely pine scent.

We had a good time squeezing the tree cutting into the busy days before Matt went on a 4-day whirlwind tour of the field offices he's working with and the kids and I drove to my parents. I need to get him to write a post on that, quite the adventure indeed. Yreka to Arcata and back again. Then Yreka to Klamath Falls then back again before driving to Salem for the family reunion.

We're already looking forward to next year's tree cutting adventure. Only next time we'll be a bit more prepared with a campfire for hot dogs and cocoa perhaps. This post was much longer and much later than I intended, so here's some pictures if you've stuck it out to the very end. Enjoy the slideshow!

New Ride in the Garage

After quite an ordeal and several back and forths, we decided to trade our much loved 2001 Mazda MPV in for a 2007 Toyota Sienna. In hindsight, we should've bought a new car in Maryland before we moved and saved ourselves almost $1,000 dollars in two different repair jobs after arriving here. Plus when the Toyota dealership pulled the Carfax it had a previous collision (which we knew about but it wasn't a serious one) and so they could only give us auction price of $2,800 instead of the $4,200 blue book price. :( Even as we compared Town and Countrys, Grand Caravans, Siennas and the Hyundai Entourage there were still several small things with our little '01 MPV that weren't in these newer cars and at the last moment I almost chickened out.


But our pretty light blue 8-seater Sienna is great. It is much roomier than our MPV and has a lot of newer features: 40-60 split back seat that folds flat, 5 latch seats (3 middle 2 back), power sliding door, garage door opener, Aux port for my iPod, tons of cupholders, tinted windows, etc. But the main reason we went with the Sienna was because Toyota has the certified preowned warranty so after adding on the bumper to bumper to the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty, if anything major goes wrong we only have to pay a $50 deductible. That is peace of mind.

So even though our car payment is $60 more a month, we have a much more comfortable and safer ride. The 8 seater has some great flexibility. The best being we don't have to climb in the back to buckle kids in since all 3 car seats fit across the middle. Still though, now that I have ONE power door, I see the slots for power tailgate and the driver side power door and start to wish we'd waited another weekend and shopped around more for a used XLE with ALL the features, even if it was a 7 seater instead of an 8. What's that joke about a woman shopping for the perfect man and never being satisfied? That's me with a minivan!!

This car will definitely suit our needs for the next 5 years at least and who knows, by then we may own one of those quad cab trucks and be towing a camping trailer across the country for fun in the summer.....

(regarding the photos, we were showing Matt's uncle around on Christmas Eve and drove up the Klamath River canyon and while we were stopped taking in the view, the van was just beckoning for a photo shoot!)

Oh and we actually unpacked our garage enough that we can park it in there. Only problem is I keep forgetting to close the door when I back out because I'm used to parking in a carport!

We're still here

I keep trying to catch my breath and squeeze in some blogging time, but it is a hard thing for me! Now that Christmas and all its fun and crazy prep work and our family reunion earlier in the month are passed, perhaps I can. I've started composing some posts that I've saved, so when I do post them they'll show up as a past date, but hopefully you'll all enjoy them still. And if you've been following our blog but never commented, please do! It's super easy and you don't even have to login to do it. Just click on the Comments link at the bottom of the post, type your comment, click Nickname and type your name in. I love knowing who's reading and (hopefully) enjoying what we're sharing.

I think about everyone back in Maryland often, though I rarely get the chance to email or call with my thoughts. At the moment, everyone in the house is sleeping and it's only 8:15! Henry has been climbing out of his crib again so that has added to the bedtime craziness. My sister was borrowing our crib tent, since we thought we didn't need it anymore. We should just tough it out and train him for a toddler bed since Linnea is almost too big/heavy for her bassinet and we gave our 2nd crib away because we figured we could make do without, etc etc. But the freedom of safely containing our very active almost 2 year old is very nice, too. He'll be in a big boy bed the rest of his life, no need to rush into it.

Linnea is in her cute burbling cooing smiley talky stage without moving around or sitting independently yet. She's having fun reaching out and grabbing things, chewing on cloth, chewing her hands, and eating a ton! She just turned 3 months and went from taking 4 oz to nearly 6 oz within a two week period of time. It's amazing how fast they grow!

Henry is starting to talk a little more and show more interest in boy toys (cars, trains). He got some new PJs recently with cars and trucks on them and was very insistent on wearing them over anything else in his drawer. One of his most endearing habits of late is that he gives me his dishes or takes them to the kitchen when he's all done eating. Already cleaning up after himself in one way at least!

Evalyn has taken to insisting on wearing the same purple dress with flowers on it everyday if she's able too. It gets washed 2-3 times a week because as soon as she can get it washed she's wearing it again until it gets too dirty!! She's also very into containerizing her special toys/playthings and keeping them with her at all times. Lately her crayons have been the special things and the containers have ranged from a green lidded box, a blue sparkly crayon box, a latex painting glove, a cloth princess dress-up glove, and most recently her new pink Dora purse she got from Grammum for Christmas. She has always loved bags and containers, my kind of girl. I guess some things really are genetic!! :D

As for Matt and I, his job is shaping up to be pretty intense for the next few months as he gets himself established with each of the field offices he's working for. I'm just trying to keep my sanity as everywhere I look there's something that needs doing, changing, cleaning, organizing, etc. and yet finding or making the time with my very needy little ones is difficult to say the least. I finally went out and bought paint at Wal-Mart yesterday and tackled Henry's room, putting the first coat of primer over the crazy flowery paint job in there, more on that later.

So, keep checking in. We're still here.

My New Favorite Place

I think I just found heaven. Well, it feels that way at the moment. After a week full of injuries and a still not put together house, I had to get out. Evalyn bashed her cheek/eye on the only hard part of the couch, Henry pulled the dresser down on him but emerged with only a bang/scratch on his cheek, and this morning Evalyn hurt her pinky toe and Henry shoved the plastic end of a 1 inch round dusting wand in his mouth and then tripped, causing painful scrapes inside his mouth. It's 38 degrees out (but sunny!) and I called all 4 moms I've met plus one I met at the mall play area in Medford and no one answered. That was after trying the library, but it doesn't open til noon on Wednesdays. So I googled "Ashland" clicked on a link for family activities and found Inner Child Cafe. It took 40 minutes to drive here, but I think I'll stay all day.

It's basically the perfect way to spend a day that's too cold for the park when you need to get out. There's a child friendly menu, free wifi, a pirate ship structure, a castle, a house, comfy sofas, a train table, and more. Oh it's just perfect. For $20 I bought lunch and the admission (4$ 1st kid, 2$ ea for addl).

Anyway, I'm going to finish my breakfast burrito and surf the web before Linnea wakes up and needs to eat too!

The Morning After Turkey Day

I have to add this last little bit. In putting away all the turkey from our huge bird consumed by a small family, Matt mentioned making turkey and rice soup. I figured I'd look the recipe up in the morning. We got all the dishes done and the trash out to the curb for our morning pickup. This morning while eating my cereal I got online to the Cook's Illustrated website (gotta get the most of our paid subscription!) and saw that we needed the turkey carcass for the soup stock.

Hmmm, it's been in the 30's all night. I shout to the back room, "Hey Matt, is that turkey carcass in it's own bag or did you throw it in with the rest of the trash?" "It's own bag."

Peek out the window. The trash hasn't gone yet. Hmm, should I? Is it worth it? What would our new neighbors think? Not exactly a good impression. Get up, pace around a bit. "Hey honey, do you think I should get the carcass out of the trash for the recipe?"

"NO!" Okay then. We'll just use canned broth. Take my bowl to the sink. Change the baby's diaper. Peek out the window again.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! It's not worth it!" About 20 minutes later I heard the garbage truck and sighed that I'd almost had the perfect broth.

Our First Solo Thanksgiving

The dust has settled a bit as we're getting adjusted to our new home. I've composed at least a dozen blog posts in my mind about various things but unfortunately Google has yet to invent a wireless brain download device to get it from there to by computer. So rather than waiting for time to play catch up with the last 3 very full busy weeks, I'll just jump right in (with just a quick re-cap).

Our flight out and arrival went pretty smoothly. We walked through our empty house that Friday night and then crashed at the Best Western down the road. My parents arrived later that night and stayed for a week helping us get settled in. The kids love all the space, they now have three runways instead of one. I'm glad it's all one level without stairs to worry about!

Even though we are within reasonable driving distance to Matt's uncles south of us and my family to the north, we opted to lay low and have a small Thanksgiving since things have been so crazy lately. This is the first year we haven't had Thanksgiving at Grammum's and Pappy's. We definitely missed that. Betsy always cooks fabulous food never forgets to add the dough balls to the pumpkin pie.

As for our feast, I didn't get around to shopping for it until Wednesday. Since Matt's truck hasn't made it out here yet, we're down to one car so we all pile in and drop him off in the morning. It's only 7 minutes there driving down one of the main arteries of this little town, so not a big deal. Since we were down to the wire with food prep and also needed bread and milk, we stopped at Ray's Price Less Foods on the way to work so I could run in and grab the essentials, plus a turkey if they had one. With just 5 minutes, I dashed in and beelined to the meats and was pleased to find a case full of fresh birds. I was clueless about how to choose the best one, and since I was barely 30 minutes out of bed and thus not quite functioning I simply grabbed the first one I saw, figuring 1.29/lb was reasonable and 18 dollars sounded fine to me.

Later that morning in between visits by estimators for new floors, windows and roof, I finally had time to assess the turkey and realized I'd purchased a 14 pounder to feed our very small family of 2 1/2 diners, Henry and Evalyn together making a half a dinner serving. What was I thinking?? I guess we'll have lots of leftovers!

Next task was brining the bird. That same morning I'd also had a fun iChat ssession with Kellie (made my day!) and she suggested using an ice chest. Brilliant. Since it was a bit icky from storage even after washing it out, I kinda tried to line it with a kitchen bag. Evalyn was very excited about helping me with the turkey so I let her "measure" the salt. When I finally pulled the huge rubbery thing out of the sink and into the ice chest, her pleasant chit chat of "We're gonna cook a turkey" was silent as she watched me lower it into the water. Obviously she didn't expect THAT to be a turkey. I quickly closed the lid before she could take in too much more and have second thoughts about eating it.

Later that evening Matt and I finalized our menu (with the help of Cook's Illustrated online--love that site!) and I ran out to Raley's for the first time since moving here. (One of my brain-only composed posts is comparing my first impressions of these two grocery stores) I strolled the aisles with my kid-free cart and well-thought out shopping list, simply enjoying being a pre-Thanksgiving day shopper and loving the idea of all the yummy food we'd eat tomorrow. I had to keep pushing thoughts of our loved ones we wouldn't be spending it with out of my mind and just focus on the food.

By the time I got home, put the groceries away, helped get the kids in bed and got the kitchen cleaned (I hate cooking unless the counters are all clutter free and wiped down and the dishwasher and sink are empty. No, that doesn't happen every night in my house at this stage of life!) I was too tired to make the pie. Matt got his stuffing ready though and I took the turkey out of the brine and let it air out in the fridge per the CI "Roast Crisp-Skin Turkey" recipe.

In the morning it was crucnh time. Evalyn helped me with the pie while Matt made major progress in decluttering/unpacking the garage while watching the kids and stopping to feed Linnea as needed. I love the big production meal cooking, but it is slightly anti-climatic when it's just our small group. I did get a little impatient with Evalyn's "help" and felt like a bad mommy trying to figure out how she could measure and pour without ruining the recipe. In the end she decided the garage was more interesting and I was relieved but sad at the same time.

Our timing was tight but we miraculously got our 14 lbs turkey cooked in our 1960 era wall oven and all the sides warmed and on the table at the same time. The only mishaps being the warm potatoes rather than hot and the turkey broth rather than gravy. I was especially sad about the gravy because I'd followed the recipe for using the giblets and other parts to making the broth and had a lovely thick flavorful gravy, until I added the pan drippings that hadn't evaporated enough and so my perfect gravy was ruined with one rash pour of the cup and not listening to the little voice that said leave well enough alone even if the recipe says otherwise.

So before we got all the food put away, I did the corn starch and cold water trick to thicken what was left on the stove so our leftovers would at least have thick gravy. And they did.

Swap My Ride: That's a Taurus??

The car we rented for two weeks while our Mazda MPV was being moved out to California caught us by surprise. We'd planned on renting a minivan from Thrifty for a discount price of $600 for two weeks, but when I arrived to rent it I was told it wasn't a Grand Caravan and didn't have room for a lot of luggage, stroller etc. I'd have to upgrade and pay $400 more. Very disgruntled I went to the next company and was told the same thing.

Then I arrived at the Budget counter and lucky for me the manager stepped forward and gave me some options when I explained my needs: 3 carseats, luggage for 5, two strollers, and under $700. "Let me show you some cars. I have a Ford Taurus that I think will work." Okay, but a Taurus? I don't think he heard me right. So we went out to the garage and he introduced me to the latest in the "crossover SUV". Very impressive. The size was right and so was the price. He even plugged in some random discounts for me after querying if I had AAA, Sam's Club, etc.



While it wasn't as spacious as a Honda Odyssey, we were quite pleased with how the "Taurus X" accommodated 3 kids and all our gear for 2 weeks. The gas mileage wasn't great, but it does have all-wheel drive. And a new car with all it's features is always fun to drive. We were quite sad to give it back. Thanks to everyone who helped with all the babysitting and driving logistics for us!

The Moving Begins....

Monday they took our car (which we found out a few days before that it needs some engine work done to the tune of $2,000)

Wednesday and Thursday the packers came and boxed everything up but the kitchen sink, literally.

Friday the big truck came and loaded everything in. And emptied out our storage unit.


Now we are living out of suitcases in our very empty house. For one week.

It's really happening.

Bobbing for Apples

Evalyn is at such a fun age right now. Her independence and creativity are both blossoming. This can lead to some unpleasant showdowns when her ideas aren't so safe or good, but it can also mean some fun moments like bobbing for apples.

I don't remember which book the idea was introduced, but she read about bobbing for apples and apparently loved the idea. One rainy afternoon she and Henry were outside playing and she saw the full buckets of water in the yard. She came barrelling back in the house and took apples from the fridge to put in the buckets so she could bob for them. It was quite the funny thing. Even moreso when Matt and I compared notes and realized it was her original idea, ie neither of us had ever introduced the concept to her before.

More evidence of Henry the Pooh Bear: he's climbing the Honey Tree!!

the picture says it all

I did add some photos w out captions to picasaweb album. enjoy!

I'm still here....

jsut a quick note to say that life with 3 young kids is pretty crazy now that daddy is back at work. before, mommy time sort of existed at some point during the day. now it ceases to exist. : ) I just managed to catch up reading everyone's blogs from the past two weeks that I frequent, but no time to leave my usual comments. sigh.

I've taken pictures and composed many a blog post in my mind while feeding the baby or making PB sandwiches. but getting them from camera and brain into a post is about as likely as every room in my house being clean at the same time for longer than 5 minutes!

stay tuned for more intersting posts and me leaving comments for ya'll at some point soon!

Crying in the Carseat

The inevitable comparisons between children are kind of fun. Here's a good one. We did stage the one of Linnea a bit. Evalyn wanted to dress her up in the crocheted outfit that Grandma Moore made, so we just took it a step further and took a picture in the car seat.

Henry and the Hunny Pot

Henry loves yogurt. Whether in a bowl or out of the individual Dora/Diego cups that I get suckered into buying every now and then (they were on sale last week). So when Henry gets one in front of him, he does pretty good at using his spoon for the top half, until he can't scoop as easily. Then his whole hand gets in there and he tries scooping it in that way. Matt thought it resembled a certain willy-nilly bear we all know so well.

What do you think?

Linnea: 5 Days Old

Linnea's Birth Story

Monday morning I woke up to some intense contractions around 4AM or so. After showering and things were still going strong I called the midwife and she said to go ahead and get checked at the hospital before going to our 8 AM bio-physical profile appointment. It was still dark outside and I actually stood on the front porch while talking because there was a huge HEPA air cleaner blowing in the front room so I couldn't hear on the phone. While waiting for the page to go through I stood gazing at the early morning stars, Saturn was rising and Orion and Sagittarius were hanging in the eastern sky. I marked that moment in my mind: this is the day our daughter would be born.

We drove east along Route 50 to Annapolis and Anne Arundel Medical Center as they sky was lightening. My contractions slowed down a bit, but were still strong. When they checked me around 7:30, I was still 2cm but 80% effaced. So not exactly active labor. We went across the complex to the OB's office and did the non-stress test first. Matt read and I knitted while we waited out the 20-30 minutes of heart rate and contraction readings. The ultrasound looked good too, we could even see some wisps of hair in the images! The doctor measured her at 10lbs 11 oz, but acknowledged that that was probably way off since it's so hard to get an accurate reading late in pregnancy. Little did we realize that it wasn't that far off!

We went across the hall to consult with the midwives and come up with an induction plan. Shortly after that the hospital called and said they'd be ready at 10:30 for us. So Matt and I walked around a bit, grabbed a bite of food and sat in the sunlit patio area before heading upstairs. It all seemed so surreal to me that we'd actually have our baby that day even though my labor wasn't very active at that moment.

Finally around noon we were checked in (hospitals are so slow!!), my antibiotic IV was going and Dona our midwife had arrived. We decided to simply start with breaking my water and see how that went before trying pitocin. Contractions had stayed constant, but they were still 10 minutes apart!

At 2:15PM they broke my water, and boy was there alot of it! We all laughed at how much there was. No wonder it was hard to find her heartbeat! After about 20-30 minutes some pretty strong contractions started and we were in business. We'd talked about getting an epidural if I really felt I needed one, but I could tell things were progressing quickly enough and transition was looming so the epidural wouldn't do much and would take too long to get going anyway. But I sure wanted some pain-relief!

Matt did a great job coaching me through the contractions, using our little phrases and techniques from our "Birthing From Within" class. Mostly just chanting, breathing and focusing on the center of the pain, etc. When the midwife checked me I said I didn't want to know how dilated I was if it wasn't close to an 8. Sure enough I was a 7 that could be stretched to an 8, thank goodness! Shortly after that I heard all the room prep (my eyes being mostly closed) and knew it would all be over soon. Plus I was starting to feel the urge to push which is a fabulous feeling after wading through all the contractions.

As I started to push Dona was coaching me on holding my legs back in case the baby's shoulders got stuck (knowing she was a big baby). I wasn't worried, but then I was the one pushing not catching! I asked them to remind me to open my eyes so I could watch my belly go down. She came out just fine and was even a compound presentation: her left hand was crooked under her chin and against her right cheek! She came down so fast that she was purple all over: she looked like a chubby blueberry as they lifted her onto my belly. They gave her a little oxygen and as she cried and we rubbed her skin she pinked right up. After a little bit Matt cut her cord.

That is the best feeling in the world: having my baby lay on my body after just pushing her out. At that point I didn't care what they did to me as long as I could hold onto my little baby girl that I'd just worked so hard to get out. Pushing out the afterbirth and getting stitched up (I tore a little) was nothing as long as I could hold my baby. This was most apparent when they took her across the room to weigh and measure her briefly before handing her back. I just wanted to hold my little "reward". I couldn't believe she was 10 lbs 6 oz. She didn't seem as big to me as Henry was (he being 10lbs 4 oz) but I guess it's all about perception. And I just knew she would have dark newborn hair like her brother.

At some point before I was actually pushing I heard a woman come in the room and demand in a loud voice. "What's going on in here?" Apparently I was being rather loud during my contractions. She had come to visit someone and was confused as to which room they were in. To me it was just background noise and barely registered. To Matt and the other nurses in the room it was a total Seinfeld moment.

Another light moment was my midwife confusing my name. At some point in between contractions she gently said, "You're doing great Megan, you're almost there." I of course didn't respond but thought, she must be really busy today and forgot which patient is which. Afterwards she apologized and explained that I reminded her of a Megan she knew at church or something. I thought it was kind of funny.

So that is the story of Linnea Betsy's birth. A little later that evening Grammum and Pappy arrived with Evalyn and Henry to meet their new little sister. Evalyn came right in and hopped up on the bed to see her. Henry could care less what Mommy was doing and was much more into his french fries and drink from his Happy Meal. It was neat being all together as a growing family of five for the first time. The next 2 days in the hospital was just what we needed. Rest, food brought to us and time to recuperate. It was good to be home though when we were finally discharged. And to not have those stupid vital checks every 4 hours!

Baby Linnea Is Here!

Linnea Betsy Baun was finally born Monday Sept 24th at 4:47PM. She weighed a whopping 10 lbs 6 oz and measured 21 inches long. I really didn't think she'd be that big! She is very sweet and easy going so far.

Here are some pictures and I'll post more when I write up her whole birth story. Thank you for all your prayers and well-wishes. We definitely felt them. We are so happy she arrived healthy and with out any complications. It was a very fast labor once they broke my water. 2 1/2 hours and she was out! So we were able to labor naturally at the hospital with our midwife and have 2 days to rest while Henry and Evalyn kept Grammum and Pappy very busy at home. All while having a new roof put on, mold inspectors tromp through, concrete repaired, closet doors installed and even finding time to bake cookies and fill our fridge with homemade chicken soup. Thank you Grammum and Pappy!!

Baby Linnea Album

Just Listed!

We finally listed our house this past week! It feels weird to see the actual sign and have the lockbox on the door. Plus seeing the online listing. It is definitely more real that our house won't be "ours" for that much longer. No showings yet, but it's been good practice the last few days to try and keep counters cleared and clutter off the floors. The kids rooms seem a little hopeless, but we do our best!

However, the excitement to list the house will be cut a little short with the arrival of our baby. My due date was the 19th. Still no baby as of right now. After consulting with the midwife and considering all our options, we've decided to try inducing on Monday. This means we won't be giving birth in the Birth Center with the midwives but checking into the hospital across from the birth center. Seems a little silly to have made the decision to have our care with Bay Area Midwifery and drive the 40 minutes one way to Annapolis for all our appts just so we could have a natural birth outside of the hospital ONLY to decide at the last minute to forgo all that and have a hospital birth afterall.

We go in tomorrow morning at 8AM for our BPP (Bio-Physical Profile) where they do an ultrasound to check out the amniotic fluid, placenta health, and the baby's non-stress test to see how she responds to her own movements, oh and a weight estimate. This has become standard for my pregnancies since I always go post-date. :) This will also tell us whether she's decided to turn her head to an anterior position yet rather than hanging about transverse. (She is head down at least!!) At some point tonight we'll get a call from the hospital telling us what time our induction will be. We're pretty low on the list so we may end up hanging out in Annapolis for most of the day only to come home and try again on Tuesday.

So that is the plan. I'm relieved to know that I won't be pregnant past Wednesday at least!! Matt's mom is coming down tonight in preparation. I'm still hoping to go into real labor on my own and avoid the pitocin, but at the same time I'm just eager to have the baby. It kind of goes against my underlying philosophy of childbirth to go the hospital route, but you do the best you can in whatever situation. And despite what I've said in the past, I AM looking a little forward to 2 days postpartum in the hospital where I might be able to rest more than at home! We'll see....

First Fall Firebowl

Saturday evening was crying out for a family campfire in our seldom used firebowl. The air was crisp and the kids actually needed sweatpants on their little legs. Evalyn and I had been out running a few errands and picked up the requisite marshmallows and chocolate (graham crackers being a household staple). Matt got the fire going and what a lovely marshmallow roasting event it was!

Evalyn kept finding new sticks to use and discovered the fun of burning the 'mallow and blowing. Henry was content to just stuff his mouth with "raw" marshmallows straight from the bag. Matt and I took turns eating the marshmallows that Evalyn changed her mind on. Sticky fingers, a lovely chill to the air and some quiet time after Daddy took the kids in for bathtime made for a lovely end to day. I basked in the heat of the fire on my face as I watched the embers dance with light swirls.

Bells on Their Toes

So I never actually read that book, but this fabulous idea from a friend of mine made me think of it. She highly recommended this website, Parent Hacks, and the idea of having your kids wear bells to keep track of them outdoors. Our yard is big enough and with enough visual barriers from the windows in the summertime that I wish I'd heard of this idea ages ago! So here it is in case anyone with youngin's can benefit from it.

Fall is Approaching

I meant to post some happy thoughts on the change in the weather a couple of days ago, but it got away from me. On Wednesday we woke up to a cool crisp morning. I had a midwife appt first thing so it wasn't until later in the morning I fully took in the amazing weather. I actually stayed outside watching the kids play rather than retreating inside in front of the AC vent with the window cracked, glancing out now and again, which has been my standard late summer practice. Instead I swayed in the hammock while my kids climbed around me, swinging in the dappled morning light as the light breeze tossled hair and wafted up late summer flower scents.

What a welcome the cool dry air is! Leaving the windows open at night, not needing two fans blowing on me to sleep comfortably, walking around outside without sweating.... Ahhhhh! I love the fall!! I'm sure we have some warm humid days to get through still, but the change is in the air. Relief is here.

In other news, we just found out that we need to get some extra work done on the house before it's eligible to be purchased by our relocation company (which is our safety net if we don't find our own buyer). So it's been a stressful stream of estimators for roof, basement drainage and mold the last two days. Nothing too serious of course, just some general fixes. But it does get a little overwhelming with everything stacked against eachother like a house of cards. If one thing falls through than something else will fall. Everything is riding on something else. I'm sure it will all work out, but there are moments during the day where I wonder.

We do have our plane tickets though! Very weird to see all five of our names in a row with seats A,B,C,D and E. Plus our cat. This will be an adventure for sure!

Finger/Body Painting

This morning Evalyn wanted to finger paint. I mumbled something about maybe later and tried to distract her with getting ready for playgroup and such. It was a warm very rainy humid day. (Thank goodness for the much needed precip at least!) After naps and too much TV and another sweet entreaty to play with finger paints, I finally summoned enough energy to make it happen. (Plus Evalyn DID clean up all the scattered toys/games in her room as part of the deal so at that point I was really committed.)

Anyway, I changed them into grubby-it's-okay-if-they-get-stained clothes and we went outside utilizing a flattened cardboard box as canvas (since the easel was sold at the garage sale). I was only able to get a couple of shots before the battery died in the middle of a movie that didn't finish taking. so it goes.

The after picture of both kids would've been great. Henry discovered that finger paint was slippery if you stand in it and before long Evalyn was sliding on hands and knees and feet across the cardboard! At one point she even rested her forehead on the board while painting with her feet! Fortunately finger paint does wash up pretty easily, especially outside on wet surfaces. It was a great activity for all, the kids had fun and I felt good doing some constructive "mommy playtime" for a change.

Universal Remote Control

So I'm talking to my sister on the phone the other afternoon while the kids are playing outside. I can't remember what Evalyn had asked me to do, but I sure wish I had a Universal Remote Control in this late stage of pregnancy. Everything, especially standing up and sitting down countless times during the day, takes so much effort. And my very umh, perceptive 3 year old seems to sense this and tries my patience to the utmost degree.

"Mommy I want a snack please!" (Push Snack Retrieval Button)
"Mommy where's my blankie?" (Push Blankie Retrieval Button)
"Mommy Henry has a poopy diaper!" (Push Poop Vanishing Button)
"Mommy can I go outside and play?" (Push Unlock Back Door Button and Engage Extra Pair of Eyes Tool)

"Mommy I'm thirsty!" (Push Fill and Retrieve Sippy Cup Button)
"Mommy I need to go potty!" (Push Open Bathroom Door Button (currently child-proof doorknob to keep Henry from the toilet/sink disasters))
"Mommy push me in the swing please!" (Push Automatic Swing Pusher Button)
"Mommy Jadie wants in/out." (Push Open and Close Door With Childproof Forcefield Button)
"Mommy I don't want to take a nap/go to bed!!" (Push Sleep Mode Button and set timer for 3 hours hee hee hee in my dreams)


You get the idea. It's not like any of these tasks are especially difficult. It's more that they seem to be made the second I sit down from some other request. Call me lazy, but there's my wish of the day.

Fortunately when Daddy comes home, he does a pretty good job of filling in where the URC would otherwise, if it existed. : D

Good News!!

This afternoon we received a call from our realtor that the offer we made on the Yreka house was accepted! This was good news in many ways. For one, we made the offer on Friday and hadn't heard all weekend so were getting a little nervous. Second, we made our lowest offer fully expecting to have a counter offer and go up some more in price. Because this didn't happen, it basically means that our new mortgage will only be about $10k more than our current one!! This is truly a miracle for us.

A bigger house (yay!), smaller yard (1/2 acre lots really are hard to come by anywhere), higher interest rate (can't really be helped), and only a slightly higher monthly payment. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that all the details play out smoothly. What a relief though to have this decision made this early in the game. I'm so happy we decided to go out there now despite my greatly pregnant state and all that rigmarole. How much easier will our move be to have an address and place to move into rather than living in a hotel for several weeks with small children!! Our prayers of gratitude have been ascending all afternoon!

So that's the good news. The only bad news was letting go of the beautiful but more expensive house dreams in Lake Shastina and telling our fabulous realtor couple there that we decided for Yreka instead.

Now, if we could only have a crystal ball to see what the interest rates will do for the next 60 days to decide when we should lock in our rate..... any forecasters out there??

House Hunting Trip, Part II

So how'd the trip go? Which house are we going to buy? This is a tough decision. After mulling it over for a couple of days and going back and forth on it a few times, we're leaning more towards the Yreka house rather than Lake Shastina. It's never easy making a decision with so much at stake: money, comfort, safety, future housing market, day to day living, commute, etc. But this one is feeling more "right" the more we weigh the pros/cons.

I was hoping to have more to say on the issue, but my mind is still a little jumbled. Plus nap time just ended and I still need to find a dinner recipe for the chicken in the fridge. At least I got some pictures up!

House Hunting Trip Photos

Here's some photos from our trip. We were a little inconsistent and didn't take pictures of some things we intended to, but here's what we ended up with!

Yreka House Hunting

House Hunting Trip, Part I

We just got back from a very intense house hunting trip to Yreka, CA, our future home. A few things made this trip a little more involved than it would've been otherwise. For one, we weren't able to book it until a week before our planned departure. This made it cost prohibitive to pay out of pocket for Evalyn's ticket as well. Fortunately Grammum in PA was able to schedule time off to watch her while we were away. Another complication was being limited to only 3 airlines on which I could fly because of my late stage of pregnancy, 36 weeks. This prevented us from flying into Medford, OR, a 45 min drive from Yreka, and necessitated flying in and out of Sacramento, a 4 hour drive down I-5. But we persevered and this is what our itinerary looked like:

Weds 4PM: Leave for PA to drop Evalyn off at Grammum's (the same 3.5 hr drive we'd made 3 days earlier)
Weds 11:30 PM: Check into the Doubletree in Pittsburgh to sleep 5 hours and park our car before flying out the next morning.

Thurs AM: Fly 4.5 hours to Phoenix, wait an extra 2 hours for our delayed flight to Sacramento.
Thurs PM: Arrive around 1PM local time, get our rental car and start driving.
Thurs 7PM: After numerous bathroom stops for Holly and run around stops for Henry, we pull into the Best Western in Yreka. An hour later we had our reservations straightened out and settled into our 2 bedroom suite. Only we'd lost Matt's very essential Blackberry in the process and it took another hour to find it wedged between the seats where we'd both checked throughly at least 3 times! Panic over.
Thurs 10PM local time/1AM eastern: Finally fall asleep.

Friday 4:30 AM: Henry wakes up thoroughly refreshed and ready for the day. Matt wearily plugs him into the DVD player until I awake a couple of hours later to find a curious arrangement of kitchen utensils, kleenex and lamp shades.
Friday AM: After an omelet breakfast at Grandma's House, we drive around the hillside neighborhoods of Yreka enjoying the crisp morning air while awaiting our 9AM realtor appt.
Friday 9AM-4:30 PM: Teresa shows us 15 houses with a lunch break for sandwiches at the park. Henry becomes adept at helping us "find the door" as we exit the car. He also loves how prevalently people use rocks in their front landscapes. We narrow it down to 4 houses we'd like to walk-through again. Teresa is able to schedule 3 that evening and one the next morning.
Friday 4:30-6:30 PM: We take a much needed break and jump in the hotel swimming pool, which Henry loved of course.
Friday 6:30PM: Walk through 2 of the 3 houses while anxiously awaiting the arrival of my mom and sister who drove down from Salem, OR to stay the night and check things out with us. They make it in time to see the last house of the evening.
Friday almost 9PM: The town shuts down pretty early plus Henry is asleep, so Matt takes Henry to the hotel while the rest us bring back Round Table Pizza.
Friday close to midnight: After visiting and catching up, we finally turn out the lights (except for Heather who'd come down with a yucky cold virus and went to bed much earlier). Oh, I have to add that my wonderful mommy brought me flowers from her garden and even gave me a pedicure/foot massage for my poor unreachable feet!

Sat 6:30 AM: Henry wakes up for the day after only brief stirrings around 4:30 AM :)
Sat 8:30 AM: After a continental breakfast at the hotel we depart for the mornings house hunting in Lake Shastina, a planned golf course community 25 min southeast of Yreka. We meet Bruce and Sally who show us 5 houses, 2 of which we love love love. We then dashed back up to Yreka to meet Teresa at noon and see the 5th house from the day before. It was good to review it because we took it off our final list after seeing it again. We also snuck in the 3rd look at our first choice house in Yreka so my mom and sister could see it, too. Very patient owner. :)
Sat PM: Break for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, then a nap for Henry (all of us actually) and relaxed until Heather and Mom headed north around 4PM.
Sat 6:30PM: Dinner with Matt's future boss. Lovely brand new tapas style restaurant called The Silver Spoon. We sat in the patio area by the fountain and enjoyed the cool evening breeze and twinkling lights in the overhead tree. Only drawback was that Henry wanted to go to bed about 40 minutes after we got there, but we didn't leave until 2 hrs later. Delicious food though!
Sat 10PM: Sleep

Sun AM: Continental breakfast, hurried packing and checkout. We'd been debating whether to attend the Yreka Ward (3 mins up the hill) or Mt Shasta Ward (30-40 min down I-5) since they both met at 10AM. At the last minute we created Plan C and went to Yreka Ward first and slipped out as soon as Henry got restless, which wasn't very long after the Sacrament portion ended. We piled in the car and pulled up to "Mormon Way" in Mt. Shasta just in time to hear the strains of the closing hymn. We poked our heads in and talked with the bishop for a few minutes before taking off again to Lake Shastina for another walk through of our two favorite houses. Again, very helpful.
Sun PM: With heads full of decisions and numbers and kitchens and bedroom layouts, we drove south to Sacramento to spend the evening with Matt's Uncle Jack and his family. We hadn't seen them at Christmas so it was great catching up. Victoria is a few years younger than me and Allie is a senior in HS this year. Henry had a blast playing in a little wading pool and we all enjoyed a scrumptious farmers market fresh dinner of salad, corn on the cob and Chaka's Mmmm Sauce chicken, perfectly BBQd by Jack. After Matt and Uncle Jack returned from dropping off the rental car, we had vanilla ice cream topped with fresh O'Henry Peaches. There is definitely something to be said about living in the produce-basket of the country!

Mon AM: After a quick repack and stowage of Jack's gift of jam, we piled in Aunt Diane's car and headed to the airport. Our 1.5 hr flight to Las Vegas was a bit cramped as it was a "regional jet" with only 2 seats on either side of the aisle. Fortunately there were a couple of empty seats nearby so Henry scored his own, again (phew). The bad part was the 25 minute SCHEDULED layover and we came in 10 minutes late and in a B gate needing to depart from an A gate!! We barely barely made it after a strenuous walk/run/waddle and lucked out again to get a middle seat for Henry since the person occupying it was willing to move to another empty middle seat further up. (Amazing how the prospect of a squirming child, pregnant lady and broad-shouldered gentleman motivate people to flexibility.....)
Mon PM: Flying. 4.5 hours. Henry spilled half a waterbottle all over himself and seat within the first 20 min. He did watch some of the rented DVD player. After "reading" all his books and becoming bored of the two new toys Aunt Diane got him, he finally squirmed to sleep in Matt's arms for the last 1.5 of the flight. I finished knitting one arm of my baby girl sweater. (Though the bind off needs some help, Kellie.) Matt ran out of battery power watching the end of his Mission Impossible 3 DVD.
Mon 8PM eastern time: Arrive in Pittsburgh. Very last ones off the plane collecting Henry entertainment detritus. Gather luggage. Find taxi. Testily install Henry's carseat for the 5 min ride to the hotel parking lot to retrieve car (Okay so it was 10 minutes on a major hwy but the free hotel shuttle wouldn't have made us if we'd been willing to wait. I know, bad parents even contemplating not buckling our child.)
Mon 9PM: Buy gas and drive the 1.5 hrs along the PA Turnpike to Johnstown. One stop along Hwy 30 to buy pacis for Henry and contact lens solution for Holly.
Mon 11PM: Finally see our sleeping daughter's face again and get all teary eyed at how much we missed her.

Tues AM: Wake up to hugs and kisses from Evalyn. Throw her things in the car and reinstall carseat. Wave goodbye to Pappy and the dogs. Stop at Grammum's work to say goodbye. Get breakfast at Burger King. Drive home!!
Tues later AM: Follow the sign to "Lovely 6 mi" at the bottom of Babcock Mountain. We pass it every time we drive Hwy 56 and say we'll see where it goes but never do. It was lovely. And put us back on our way without getting lost. It was so pretty we'll have to do it again in the fall.
Tues 1:15 PM: Arrive home!! After 2 different rest stops and naps for everyone in shifts we finally made it back to our own home and beds. I napped while Matt entertained the kids outside. Our cat Jadie was happy to see us, but not nearly as desperate as previous absences thanks to the generous attentions of our neighbor Donna across the street.
Tues PM: Unpack, laundry, more naps, grocery store, late bedtime. Contemplate our future and how much house we can or can't afford.....

So we made it back home without having a baby. I followed my midwive's instructions to the T and drank so much water while flying and driving that taking breaks to move around wasn't a problem either! I still can't believe we did it. Two 6 hour flights sandwiched with 4 hour drives on either end, separated by 3 days. But I'm glad we did. Exhausted as we all are now that it's over, I'm glad we know the area and have some houses in mind. Much better this way than going out in October (with a newborn) back to back with moving a few weeks later or only going when we move in November and staying in temporary housing for a month or more while waiting to settle.

More thoughts on houses and the area in "Part II". Plus photos. Or for some great descriptions of the weekend from Heather's perspective, check out her blog entry.

"Did That Metal Part Fall Off Our Car?"

This weekend we enjoyed a nice vacation in western PA visiting family. The Chicago Baun's were also in town so we had 5 cousins under age 8 playing together and running around in the perfect weather. Saturday's high was 70 degrees with a lovely breeze and no humidity. It felt like heaven compared to the heat, drought and humidity of Washington. Not to mention the lush green grass and flowers everywhere you looked. It was shocking to realize that this is what our yard should look like this time of year, but didn't.

Other than keeping Henry from climbing through the neighbor's fence or running into the road at the end of the driveway or destroying rooms in the house that he shouldn't be playing it, it was quite a relaxing time. We also tested out Henry's new PeaPod Travel Tent that we bought after our miserable sleeping experiences in hotels on our last vacation. It works great. :) Saturday evening we enjoyed a BBQ chicken dinner including corn on the cob grown by a farmer down the road from where Matt grew up. Nothing like eating corn and tomatoes from a farm you drive past!

We took a short outing to a nearby park that has a duck pond. Grammum and the kids love to feed the ducks, and the ducks love to get fed! The nearby swing set and "sliding board" (as everyone in the family but me calls it) were also a big hit. Literally. Poor Henry was so excited he ran smack into Brett's head while he was swinging. It was one of those slow-motion moments where the second Henry ran away from me I could see the disaster about to strike but wasn't fast enough to avert it. Fortunately the tears didn't last long and there was no blood. Just a big bump on Henry's cheek and a sore spot on Brett's head. Before heading back we also stopped at a State Park up the road where the kids tried their hand at pumping an old-fashioned fountain.

Oh, so back to the title of this post. On our drive up Friday morning we stopped at the outlet stores in Hagerstown to pick up a couple of things. As we tried to leave the parking lot, there was a ginormous motorcyling event that was causing traffic to back up. All we could see were hundreds (literally) of bikers being led across our line of traffic while we sat there for what felt like 10 minutes. We realized a few things pretty quickly.

1) The guys directing traffic were motorcycle people and could care less how long the back-up of cars in the parking lot got.

2) Getting impatient and pulling out of line to go in the other lane of traffic after rolling down the window and yelling "Hey Buddy, what's going on here!" didn't accomplish much except learning that the road ahead that we wanted to turn on was indeed jammed with hundreds more bikers plus a firetruck.

3) The only way to escape the chaos was to either wait patiently or find our own way out.

Since it's obvious we weren't in a very patient mood (I'm blaming it on pregnancy hormones) we decided to find our own way out. After losing our spot in line, we circled back around and eyed up the grassy area between the parking lot and gas station. The 40 feet of dry grass looked smooth enough to get our trusty minivan across, we'd just have to be careful going over the curb on the other side. We thought about it for 20-30 seconds before I eased the car across and slowed down to go over the curb. Scrape! went the front end of the underside. Wham! went the back end of the car as the bumper came over the concrete.

We weren't quite sure if we'd damaged the car so we pulled over in the parking lot and looked back. There was a thin piece of metal something laying there, but another car (a real SUV mind you) had followed our lead and ran over whatever metal part it was. By this time our frenzied escape was seeming pretty foolish and all sorts of worst case scenarios of what I'd just done to the car were running through my head. Matt jumped out and checked under the car to see if anything was missing. (Not that you could really tell?!?) In the heat of the moment and the fact that a couple of police motorcycles had arrived in the parking lot we'd just left, Matt declared, "We're fine, let's go! We'll get it on the way back if we really need it!"

With that we sped off and moments later were zooming along I-70, feeling victorious that we'd outsmarted those annoying bikers. Until we hit some traffic and slowed down to a near stop. I was feeling pretty sheepish at this point. Good thing we'd saved all that time in the parking lot just to wade through more traffic not 5 minutes later! At least the car seems to have survived our impetuous maneuver without any lasting damage.

Progress by Photos

Here's some photos of some of our projects. I didn't have the camera out our charged for some of the more striking "before and after" shots, but here's a few. I'll post more and update this as we get more.

Sell This House

You know those HGTV shows where they walk through your house that needs to sell and point out all the things you need to fix and then a crew of highly competent, witty people come through and do 8 weekends worth or projects in 2 days? Well, as much as they tout it as reality TV, it sure ain't our reality!

We have had a steady stream of highly skilled and witty friends come to our house and help with numerous projects as well as child care. Thank you thank you! Our list has been shrinking steadily because of their generous sacrifice. We would still be mired in how to repair drywall books from the library otherwise. But the reality is there are not enough hours in the day or week to get our house "ready" by next week, which was our original goal.

So we're taking a step back, shooting for the first week of September and taking a slightly more sane approach to the rest of our list, mostly just paint and curb appeal at this point. And the curb appeal is the "funnest" part in my book. : )

Today I spent a marathon 1 hr and 15 min at Lowe's with my 2 children in one of those extra long 3-kid-seater carts. (This was after a 30 min Costco trip) My mission: match my pretty little gold-with-red-center 'mum blossoms to a red paint shade for the front door. Check. (Valspar 'Posh Red') Follow up on counter top side splash order. Check. (won't be in til tonight, so project pushed back) Make appt for storm door estimate. Check. (hopefully under $300 incl installation) Other than the shoe throwing and graham cracker dropping and high pitched scream sessions for their own amusement, my little dears behaved surprisingly well. We even managed a bathroom break (I had to ignore the "No Merchandise in Restroom" sign so I could keep Henry corralled). Evalyn LOVES the door and window display. She calls it her little house. She and Henry ran circles in and out of the doors for 10 minutes at least while the friendly "door man" was pulling up the info for me.

Let me just say how much I love Lowe's over Home Depot. Lowe's is clean, bright, easy to find what I need. 90% of the time I can find someone to help me. The checkout people are friendly and they give you free "paint keys" with each paint purchase. Their aisles are clearly labeled and contain helpful information for choosing products. Contrast this with Home Depot: crowded, tall metal stairs in the way, warehouse feel, labels and supplies not consistent, horrid check-out procedure (ie "self-checking"). Just yucky.

Of course I'm spoiled having both stores within easy driving distance. Although Lowe's is a bit further, my mood is always better when I finish a trip there rather than at Home Depot. Yes, Lowe's is marketed to women. And boy am I glad it is! If big box is the only option for some things, I'll choose Lowe's any day!!

[We've] Been Working Like A Dog....

(I apologize in advance for the travelogue nature of this post. It's the best I can do in my current state of fatigue!)

I'm almost too tired to post anything. It's been a marathon of a weekend in trying to get projects finished. Friday morning we drove to Annapolis for my 34 week midwife appt. It was the first one we'd been to as a family since the "tour" at the beginning. Baby is head down, so that is a nice thing to know.

While the kids napped we packed and loaded a bunch of stuff to take over to the storage unit. When naps were over we made a big family trip out of it, the kids even helping a bit. Every time we drive past ezStorage Evalyn says "Is that where my toys are?" Now she knows what's on the inside, too. They both had fun riding on the empty carts after unloading and looking out the 5th floor window at the view below.

That evening a friend from church (David who also helped the previous Saturday) came by with drywall tools to patch several holes and rough spots in our upstairs. He brought two of his kids along and even though they're a few years older (6 and 8) they all had a great time playing and getting muddy. It was almost like having cousins over! We all ate pizza a bit later and the kids watched a movie while the Dad's finished upstairs. It was a late bedtime!

Saturday was Yard Sale Day. My neighbor had suggested doing a multi-family moving sale/yard sale along with one of her friends a few weeks ago. It was good motivation to get rid of extra stuff, but as it turned out, my neighbor had the most things to sell! It was fun to make the signs and put them up, and then people actually came. I was sad to sell my stereo that I bought from my work earnings in college, but the CD player had stopped working reliably and it was just taking up space. $15 was all I got for it though. sigh. David and family also came back to finish up the drywall repair and to frame in the A/C wall unit.

After the garage sale was officially over and packed up, I was so tired I could hardly move. The new carpet was supposed to be installed that day too, but they had to reschedule for Monday. Matt had already moved all the furniture outside and into the front room so the house was in a crazy state. The good news was that Matt was able to get the trim painted that night while I turned in early.

Sunday was a well deserved day of rest. After church we ALL napped until 4PM! That never happens. The evening finished with a farewell party for some dear friends who are moving to Utah. We'll sure miss the Lambert's!! It was a weird feeling, too knowing that "we'll be next" to leave our little ward family/social group at church.

Today Matt called off work so we could knock a few more projects out. I left for Lowe's at 7:30AM to buy a dishwasher and a few supplies. While I was gone, the carpet guys arrived and were finishing up by the time I returned. We installed our window boxes (sort of, needs some adjustment). Matt mowed/cut the grass and replaced the kitchen ceiling tiles while I packed some more boxes/decluttered and readied the playroom to be turned back into a bedroom so we could work on the upstairs tonight and tomorrow. Oh, we also moved all the furniture back into the newly carpeted back room.

This evening, our longtime friend Frank came over and helped install the new dishwasher. It looks fabulous! Can't wait to run a load of dished in it, there are certainly plenty that've piled up while we've been working away! It's a Maytag, white finish. I would've preferred black or stainless steel, but the black ones in stock just didn't have the features I liked. So white it is.

After a marathon crib disassembly, move, and reassembly, the kids finally went to bed just after 9:30. Their schedule is so off!! Matt is sanding/spackling upstairs in preparation for painting and I should be upstairs, too, packing some more boxes to make room for tomorrow's project and more friends (the Graff's) who are coming to help paint again.

Whew! Just a one more week (we hope) and we'll finally be ready to list the house. I don't think we can handle much more of this marathon anyway! We are so so grateful for all the help and babysitting that our wonderful friends are providing for us. We couldn't do it otherwise!!

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Not very well lately. We planted a small garden this year, one Early Girl tomato (nice and meaty), one cherry tomato (100 Something...), two cucumbers, two zucchinis (wish I'd done one yellow summer squash as well), two cantaloupes (shriveled up after awhile) a row of corn (needed more nutrients and water(!!) to flourish) and a hill of watermelons. The peas and carrots never really came up from the seeds we planted.

Despite fencing-in the garden to keep cat, kids and the occasional bunny at bay, my dear children managed to pull the only largish watermelon off the vine prematurely, pick most of the large green tomatoes and snap a couple ends off the climbing cukes. Sigh. The cherry tomatoes are doing well though. Our corn stalks will make great Halloween decor, crispy and yellow although it's not even September!

We've had a rather dry summer and since most gardeners/farmers out here don't irrigate and I've been lazy at watering, the garden hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. But it's been good to eat the few harvests and Evalyn and Henry have sure enjoyed it!! There's a neat feeling to eat food that you grew yourself, or rather that the dirt and sun and rain grew in our case. I feel like the parable of the unwise steward or something where they plant the seeds but don't watch over the crops very well. Maybe I just combined two parables in that analogy.... I don't think any thieves would want to break in and steal our crops though.

(I forgot to post this last Monday when I wrote it!)

The Work Day

This past Saturday we scheduled a work day and invited friends from church and nearby to come over and help with painting and various tasks. We're hoping to list our house by the 3rd of 4th week of August, but there is a lot to do! It's a little awkward asking for help, but fortunately our friends were willing. : )

In the morning, Matt, Ryan and David fixed the carport soffit, sanded and painted the carport railings and posts, and painted the exposed foundation brick a nice shade of gray that matches the siding almost perfectly. The kids played inside and out while I readied the front room for taping and painting.

Mid-day after the kids were down for naps, another Ryan stopped by and helped with room prep. When the outside team finished and David left, Matt and Ryan came in and helped tape and move furniture around. Both Ryan's left at that point and we started the paint rolling. Then Bro. Schmoldt showed up just in time to do the edge painting up high where the roller didn't reach. Earlier in the week we had more help from our Home Teacher and his wife and another couple in painting the back room and kitchen trim. It was quite efficient indeed and we felt grateful to have so much help getting things accomplished in half the time!

Our list is still long but it feels good to be crossing things off. As always there are things we're finally getting around to doing that we intended to do when we first moved it. Like installing a new dishwasher. Painting the bathroom. Powerwashing the siding. At least we'll get to enjoy the new dishwasher for a couple of months! It feels weird to have all the family pics off the walls and books packed away. Slowly the house will be less ours and more someone elses as we get ready to list it.

Henry v. The Cabinet

The other day I walked into the family room to check on Henry. This is what I found:

Notice the right hand side of the door is missing part of it's frame. Yes, it's on the left side of the door now! (I removed the precariously balanced glass before grabbing the camera.) Normally these doors are kept locked. That's why we bought this particular model from IKEA, to keep our electronics in working condition. : ) The key lock he broke a week or so ago from pulling too hard. So I put another type of child lock on the handles. The child lock held, but not the wood frame!

Henry was shoving small objects into the VCR compartment as fast as he could, like a chipmunk in the fall or something.... Fortunately I was able to extract the toys without too much trouble.

My only option after this incident (that I could see) was to remove the broken door, detach the VCR/DVD combo, and stick it high on the shelf to keep it out of reach. It just baffled me that his drive to play with the VCR slot would be so strong as to pull and pull until the door broke!

Later that day Daddy came home and saw the aftermath. He turned to Henry with a smiling scowl and said "Henry, how am I supposed to watch Spiderman now?" (Note: This is the original Spidey series from the 70's that he bought on DVD off of eBay. Live Action, not animated.) Evalyn thought this was pretty funny. The last couple of nights she'll be sitting on the couch and see the banished player on the shelf. Then she turns to Matt and says in the same tone he used with Henry "Matt, how are you supposed to watch Spiderman?" (She has this thing about calling her daddy "Matt" about as frequently as she says Daddy or Dad). Talk about a precocious child!

So we still have Tivo to keep the kids occupied when needed. No slots in that machine that Henry's discovered yet. Someone suggested getting a broken VCR at a thrift store for him to play with. That would certainly occupy the busy fellow for awhile!

I've been very lax with TV watching lately. From being just plain tired to trying to get various decluttering and "house for sale prep" tasks, plus having toys packed away and headed for the storage unit, the TV has been on a lot more. I should come up with better ways of occupying them I suppose...