SQUID NIGHT....
Last night I got to go with Sarah to "Squid Night" . It is a tradition at their school for the 3rd graders and one parent to learn about squid and disect one. A real one. Sarah was excited for weeks. And she insisted that I come, not her dad. I guess she thought it would gross me out more. It stunk and was slimy, but not as bad as cleaning a fish. The worst part was after removing the eyeball we had to squish it and rub it between our fingers and find a little clear bead inside of it, to place in the ziplock bag of items to take home. We found the ink sack, rubbed it on Sarah's hand, then removed the "quill", under a bunch of guts, like a clear plastic feather, then used the quill and ink to write our names. It was so much fun!! Sarah wrote hers in Japanese.

Sarah and her friend Kyla standing by Sarah's paper squid she made earlier this week.

The Tinker Toy Tree....
Isaac and Jacob, in their spare time today, constructed tinker-toy ornaments for our tree. Isaac's such a little builder. It was all his idea. It kept them busy for quite a while. I kind of like them, thinking of selling his idea to Halmark. As you can see, the tree was already kind of sad, no ornaments on the bottom 1/3 because of Luke, anything good it did have going for it the boys have rearranged. I give up. Luke is completely facinated with the tree, and says, "eee, eee" while pointing at it all day. There are a few non-breakable ornaments down lower which he likes to take off and bring to me, then I tell him to go put it back on the tree, and he does. He seems to be understanding A LOT of what we're saying these days, it so fun. He even took a towel back to the bathroom yesterday and hung it over the side of the tub after I asked him too, it was a proud moment for me. (Yes, I know, my son is BRILLIANT!)

Yes, if you look closely, you can see the painters tape on the window behind the tree!!! One day it will all come off. Hopefully while I live here to see it.

This week's gone pretty smoothly...
The worst that went wrong was a dead battery in the Suburban on Wednesday (kids left the car door open all night). I had a friend willing to jump my car, but I couldn't find the cables anywhere, but she has the same car insurance as me and informed me that I have roadside service, VALUABLE INFO! So I called, and within 5 minutes they were at my door. Amazing.
Emma has been dying to start swimming again. I have been hesitant since the best option for a team is on base, about 15 minutes away, she'd be working out 3x a week from 6-7:30. Could there be a worse time? What happened to afterschool? So I decided to self-induse pain and let her start this week while Adam was gone. Which ment I'd be driving both directions, so just staying during practice, getting everyone home about 8:00 and to bed late. Still not sure why we started THIS week, I guess just because she'd been dying to start. She's been so antzy since we've been here, and it'll be a good chance for her to make more friends as well. She's always my last one to bed too, so hopefully this'll wear her out. I thought she should eat dinner before we left the first night, so I fed everyone plenty early, 5:15, and then we left. Poor girl, that burger and fries didn't sit so well with her initial full speed swimming trying to impress her new coaches and friends. After about 20 minutes she had to run to the bathroom and almost puked, but was able to hold it down and resume, slowing down some the rest of the night. And no more dinner before practice, maybe a pbj.
Oh, back to driving her, I think it will really work out in my favor though, I have a plan, I'll have Adam meet me at the gym at 6 on swim nights, swap me cars, let him take the rest of the kids home, clean up from dinner and put them to bed, while I stay and work out and read during practice. It'll be a little "my time"!! So excited about that. I have been having a hard time working running into my new life here, I think it may be the missing link in my life! At first w/the crazy 24hr renovations, I omitted running because of lack of time. But now I've been ready to get going....a few weeks ago I told Adam I was either buying a tread mill or a triple jogger, that night I found a triple in Boston for $75, so I drove up the next day and picked it up. The rain canopy I ordered online just came this week. It should keep the wind off them and keep them warm, like a little greenhouse. We tried it out a few times this week, it worked well, I just have no where to take it!! No great running routes around here. W/a jogger that wide, I really need a paved biking trail or something. The roads don't have much of a shoulder and are too busy. There's a great route around base, but then I've got to pack up and drive there first. Anyway, my newfound night workout should work out GREAT! Yeah!
Adam gets home tomorrow night. No more solo for a little while. I had decided this past week would be a trial run for me for if Adam goes to Iraq....I've concluded that I would probably (??) survive, but that it would completely suck!!! I'm sure we would find a groove, but it would be really hard!! My good friend, Ellen, (who just gave birth to her 4th baby a week and a half ago) is going to be in that situation in January for 7 months. It's so amazing the sacrifices people all around us are making. It's humbling to watch.

Mmmmm....turkey....

We had my dad and Kim here for Thanksgiving!! It was so great to see them!! The boys had a great time getting to know them. (It had been a while since we'd seen them!)

I assigned everyone a part of the thanksgiving feast...Jacob was on rolls, his FAVORITE. He loves to help me roll them out. He looks so much like my little brother Eric, and this reminds me of him so much too...he was my mom's little roll making helper as well.

Everyone's hard work paid off, the feast was a hit!!

We toured "the Breakers", a mansion in Newport, with my Dad and Kim. The boys got a little wild, so I took them outside for snacks and pix....

Here is a pic of the mansion, one of many in Newport. It was a summer home built by one of the Vanderbilt families. They spent about 6-8 weeks a year living here. It sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Seventy-something rooms and 23 bathrooms. Gold and glitter everywhere. These people seriously had WAY more money than they knew what to do with.

Of course the girls' favorite part was the gift shop.

Isaac and his grandpa...just before our thanksgiving dinner.

Church got a little wild today. I was solo. Adam left this morning for the airport the San Diego. It is so stinkin cold here right now. I'm not jealous at all. He'll be there all week, then catching a BYU game on Saturday, and flying home next Sunday. Yes, 8 days by myself. I'm hoping for smooth sailing...no leaking pipes, no escaping pets, no ER visits...none of that!

I LOVE LESBIANS!
Explanation on the title later...
Our dresser would not fit up the stairs to the "Master Suite", so the movers came back a few days later to put it in through a window. I thought they would be coming w/a crane to lift it in, but they decided to take the task on themselves, and heave-ho it in. So with no padding except in window seal and a bunch of straps, they pulled and pulled. There was a lot of yelling, very loud yelling at one point as dresser slipped down several feet and almost got dropped to the ground. They took out Emma and Sarah's window with the bottom feet of the dresser at this point. GLASS EVERYWHERE.

And it finally made it in. The crane would have been nice, but the banging up the side of the house and crashing through windows made for an exciting morning.

If only they would have cleaned up the glass. As soon as they left, I had to rush off to the commecary, then home unload food, then off to airport to pick up Jeannie. Adam's mom came to visit for Isaac's birthday. It was such a great time. Anyway, back to the glass story....I didn't have time to clean it up that day, or the next--too busy partying it up w/grandma here (I was making sure to keep the boys out of it, but forgot about Duch), anyways, you can see where this is going.....Saturday afternoon I noticed a trail of blood on the floor, and before it could figure out where it had come from I heard screaming upstairs, Duchess had gone outside and cut herself on the glass, come in, and run around the house a few times w/blood spraying everywhere, and all over Sarah's bed. Luckily the new carpet in their room wasn't in yet!! It was hard to assess the damage on her leg, so much blood, but I thought some neosporin and pad and tight wrap would be ok. But, by Monday I could finally assess it good and was a little freaked out by how deep and long it was, so I took her in. Since it had been a few days, they now had to put her to sleep, cut the edges of the wound, and stitches inside and then staples on the outer layer. So much for trying to save a buck on a vet bill. $307 later! Adam called the moving company though and the boss had no idea about the broken window, and says they'll pay for her bill, and was very apologetic that they hadn't cleaned up. I was surprised, I thought we'd have to put up way more of a fight for that one. Sweet.

Isaac turned FIVE last Tuesday, Nov. 6. He is such an enjoyable boy. He's so sweet, he's always trying to make my life easier. Like with the cake, all he wanted was a Lego cake, and he built the stuff to go on it for me. He said several times, "It'll be easy, right Mom?" He's at such a fun age, such a sponge, wants to learn everything. During church yesterday he announced to Adam and I "If you have 7 and you take away 4 it's 3, right?" He's totally self taught, I didn't teach him that. Love it.

Happy 232 Birthday Marine Corps! The ball was Saturday. It was really nice. Best food and program yet, great speaker and bag pipers!! They were awsome. It's always fun to dress up. And I actually had all the paint scrubbed off my hands and legs, yes, I went ALL OUT.

Back to my title, Adam found this riding mower on Craig's list earlier last week, advertised for $200. It was a lesbian couple selling it. When he got there to look at it, they told him they had forgotten it had a few other problems, and gave it to him for FREE!!! He bought a new battery for it and straightened out the blade, and mowed our whole yard w/it today!! (1st time in 3 months, it NEEDED IT). It worked great! And looks hardly used at all. Love it!! Our other mower you had to push and had no bag....great for those small Iwakuni yards, but wouldn't have worked so well here. Thanks ladies!!

We bought our Suburban from a lesbian couple too, and they were super nice as well. Hence the title.

Duch and Fiona...

Another Halloween down...
A few pics from carving last night, and trick-or-treating tonight. This year we had 2 witches, on dragon, one monkey, and one very cute skunk. I couldn't pass up the skunk costume at Old Navy, seeing that we live in the SKUNK CAPITAL of the world. Adam has been in Charolottesville, VA since Sunday, and missed halloween again this year (last year he was on business in Tokyo). I felt bad, as crazy as it was, it was also a lot of fun, and Luke was way too cute. They made a haul, way more candy than any person should ever eat. I'll have to be a good mom and help them out by eating anything w/chocolate. Just doing what any good mom would do.

The girls' room...
was probably the most intimidating room to tackle. The walls were cracked, nasty carpet, awful ceiling, no lights.

We started w/carpet removal, in hopes that there would be hardwoods we could refinish underneath. NO such luck. The floor had been all cut up and patched when plumbing was installed for the bathroom on the other side of this wall. There was this cardboard stuff that was put down with about 50 billion nails that had to be removed. Then we re-patched the floor. Wow...not fun so far. Totally hating this room.

Maybe ripping down walls w/a prybar will be more fun.

Yep, it was. But messy!

Wow, we thought all those cracks were in the plaster, but the plaster actually wasn't that bad off. Ok, there were some huge holes. But, there was this cardboard stuff on top of the plaster that needed to be removed though.

This is a huge job. Got to hit Sam's for a bigger bag of pretzels and juice boxes for the kids.

Mmm, my detective work is telling me that the original door used to be on the left. That's ok, we'll just leave this one the way it is. Closer route to the bathroom.

Got 3/4 of the room sheetrocked over the plaster, and smoothed the plaster on the remaining 1/4. Adam wired in lights, and we sheetrocked over the awsome 70's (?) grid ceiling. Now lots and lots of joint compound, tape, dry time, sanding, and over and over. Don't know how anyone could do that for a living, bless their hearts.

Painted walls, started out w/stripes on the bottom, but hated it and went to solid. Painted doors, closet doors, window trim, radiator, and ceiling.
Got new carpet coming on Wednesday this week. When the guy came to measure it, he asked, "Is this Barbie's room?" I was surpirsed I could get Emma to go along w/it. Sarah's always liked pink, but Emma's more my blue girl. But she's happy.

Ceiling molding will go up later, and molding between colors (thanks Emma). Adam wants to replace the windows, so didn't touch those.

Sarah's already been sleeping in the window seat. (can't be the warmest spot in the house). Lid lifts up for storage, hoping to fill it w/cushion and pillows.

YEAH!!!! I'm done!!!!! For now.

We got our shipment Thursday. Where does all this stuff come from??? I think I lived a little too close to the thrift store for the past 3 years, and did a little too much Bizarre shopping. But we do have 5 kids, and along w/5 kids comes a TON of stuff. As usual, it was like pulling teeth to get the movers to unpack boxes, but we did get some out of them, and they tried real hard to hide the YELLOW BOX W/RED "SMALL PARTS" WRITTEN ON THE OUTSIDE, but Adam found it before they left. The box contained ALL of the parts for assembly, and they were whistling Dixie, till Adam found it. They couldn't get my dresser up into my "attic suite", so tomorrow someone w/a scissor lift is going to put it through my window. That should make for an exciting day!! I'll have to post pics of my "attic suite" soon. It's pretty sweet. (90% unfinished) That will be another project for LATER, for now I'm fine w/sleeping w/an electric blanket. I love it though, my log bedroom furniture has always looked huge and made my room look small, and our new room makes them look tiny!! So nice to have a place a little further away from the kids. They've got Duchess keeping them safe.

Just like Mommy...
Cell phone in one hand, sander in the other....
I thought it was so cute when he was trying to sand the walls w/my sander, so I grabbed the camera and took a few pix, that was the last I saw of the sander for the next 1 1/2 weeks! And I needed it a lot! Babies playing w/mommies tools is not so cute anymore. Just after I finished up all the drywall sanding, I found it out that window you see in the left top corner of the pic, in some bushes. Along w/Adam's hammer. Glad no one got hit w/the hammer. The hammer must have been Jacob though, I don't think Luke could have even picked it up, I barely can. So here's the only before pic I have of my computer nook....you can see the beautiful wall paper.

Lots of wall paper removal, wall smoothing, and paint and we have a place for the computer! yes, still need some baseboard patching where door was.

I show this pic because the paint color looks much better against the newly painted door and trim to the girls room....eventually all the trim in the house will be the white instead of canvas color.

This was the last of the projects that was finished up at 130am Wed. night, movers came next morning at 830am with our stuff. I barely made it. I felt like I was on one of those H&G tv shows where they are trying to get the house done by a deadline and they ALMOST don't make it, but barely do. I was totally living it.

Luke's room...
first thoughts were it just needed some wall paper removal, wall smoothing, remove half of the closet (way too much closet, it was almost more closet than bedroom!), and then paint. Pretty simple, compared to some of the other rooms.
hello, look at all that closet, and the chandelier?? yikes. So I started removing closet one afternoon during nap time, and my widow/grandma neighbor (Joanne) brought her mallet and came over to help. My intent was to remove only half, but after half was gone, we decided the other half REALLY had to go too. So we kept on prying and banging and got it all out, and the square footage in the room doubled! I figured Ikea has some great little closet compartments if I wanted a closet later.

After a ton of nasty painted wall paper removal, not just walls, but ceiling too!, I decided textured walls would be easier and look better in the end, so more joint compound, and I textured both ceiling and walls.

In removing the closets, and doing my detective work, I figured out that the door had originally been where Adam is standing in the pic, not to the left of him, where old door is. More detective work later told me that the door on the left used to be a closet door, but now used as an entrance to room door. It was smaller, and I got a great idea that if we moved the door back to the original spot, then on the other side of the walls, I would have a great little computer nook. I was a little nervous to ask Adam, didn't really think he would go along w/it, but he was a great sport, and I was able to convince him to get out the tiger tooth saw and switch the doors back.
It was a messy project, but fun.

Adam built a new door frame and we found an old door in the attic that fit. As you can see, the door needed a little sanding and painting.

Got the wall patched up, 2 layers of blue paint on walls, 3 layers of white on ceiling, then sanded the window seals and baseboards and repainted, cleaned up the floors and DONE! For now, still will need ceiling molding later, and molding around door.

Not shown in pic, but the door cleaned up nicely, and is back on and working! And light switch/outlet switch plates are back on and safe. Oh, and the beautiful chandelier is GONE too, new light fixture.

Thursday's the big day!!!
I can't wait!! We are finally really moving in on Thursday. Beds, chairs, couches, tables, clothes, toys, all those things we've always taken for granted, but have grown so much to appreciate....will be back!! We did buy a used secional off of craigslist near Boston last week that we have TOTALLY enjoyed....who knew it was so nice to recline for a few minutes at the end of the day instead of sit on the floor to watch TV? One of those simple little things that adds so much in life. We put it up in the playroom, and since it's already been "broken in", I don't have to freak out when the kids climb over it to play back in the corner behind it, do headstands on it, flip onto it, eat on it, etc. I have to back up...."we put it up in the playroom" sounded so easy and simple, but IT WASN'T!! Of course, Adam is a one man show, well, one man + ONE WOMAN!! I'm always telling him, call one of your buff marine buddies, but nope, he doesn't want to put anyone out. It did come apart in 2 parts, but they were still so HEAVY! Those dang recliners. We huffed and we puffed, and one stair at a time, we made it to the top, but then getting it through the doorway into the playroom was another story in itself. We totally messed up the door frame, I need to strip, putty, and repaint it now. And the railing going up the stairs...got it too, was planning on refininshing it later on down the road anyway though. I told him we should just advertise that it comes w/the house when we got to sell in 3 years....if they don't want it though, it'll definitely get the chainsaw before coming out.
Adam started teaching this last week. He'd been co-teaching, learning the ropes, but on his own this past week. So we didn't see a whole lot of him. This past weekend either...he'll finish this course Tues. though, and be able to help me w/the move.
The girls' room and Luke's room are coming along. Of course once again things got a little more involved w/Luke's room. I hated the 70's sliding door closets that took up half of his room, and couldn't figure out how I wanted to change it. So, I just started ripping them out, only planning on taking 1/2 of it out, but by the time I got done, they were all out and his room was 2x the size, and I was happy. Closets are over-rated. I'll just have to hang his clothes in the boys' room, or get him some cool thing from Ikea to take the place. So everything w/this house is like a mystery game, trying to figure out "how was it originally?", so many changes have been made over the years. After the closets were out though, I pulled out my magnifined glass and overcoat and figured out that his door had been sealed off, and what was being used as a door currently, used to be a closet door. Anyway, I much preferred the place the door used to be in, and talked Adam in to moving it back for me. I thought about putting the closet back to the original spot as well, but decided just to leave it, it will make a nice computer nook on the other side. Oh, and we found a great door in the attic that fit too! (I won't mention what a pain in the butt it was to strip the old paint off it though....it's already to paint tomorrow)
Yesterday a man from Home Depot came to measure the girls' room for carpet. As he approached it, he said, "This must be Barbie's room". Didn't realized it was quite that pink, but I guess it is. Sarah is in heaven, Emma would prefer blue, but I wasn't paining it half/half like they wanted. Just a few more minor things, and I'll be DONE with their too. Should be able to post before/after pics in a few days...
Got the final (I think) coat on the hardwoods last night. We kind of took a break from them because of all the dust we were stirring up upstairs, but I put a coat on last night and tonight, and we really need to be done now so it can cure by Thurs.
I feel like I am giving a travel log on the house, but it is so all consuming it is all I know to write about!! I am looking forward to being done and being a normal person/mom again.
One funny thing though that Isaac said a few days ago....he was looking all over for his Leapster. I told him, it us upstairs in the toy box (we have a few odds and ends in a plastic recycling bin...not doing too much recycling here not that I don't HAVE to). He came down a few minutes later and said, "You're smart Mom! You're really smart, like me."
This afternoon was beautiful weather....we tried to take advantage of it since I'm sure there are only a few of them left before the deathly cold RI weather will set in. We went to a grassy park and found a few apple trees...mmm, they made a great snack, threw balls to Duch, and found a trail that lead through the beautiful autumn trees to the ocean. Loved it, it was so nice. Such a nice break from the paint fumes. I have never looked so forward to keeping the "sabbath day holy" as I have these past 2 months.
My girls are eating my out of house and home. They must of both hit a growth spurt. I swear every night after dinner they finish off w/a bowl of cereal too. I guess I need to start doubling my recipes.
Sarah has decided her new love is gymnastics. She's only had 4 lessons so far (besided a few when she was 3 in Arkansas), and she is progressing so fast. She just keeps figuring things out on her own, and now that she can do a back walk-over, she's starting on a "team" next month. (yeah, now I get to take her 2x a week!) Her favorite spot to practice now that it's gotten colder and she's moved inside, is the playroom just above the kitchen. I keep thinking she's going to come right through the ceiling. Maybe mats would help?

2 more down....
No before pics on these, sorry.
This past week I worked on the play room , or "bonus room" (below), attic room above kitchen. Look closely at the smooth walls!! Just a few days ago they were paneling with the vertical grooves...Adam didn't want to replace them, so I filled all the grooves with joint compound and sanded, then filled again and sanded again. Used an entire tube of caulking as well. It was a lot of work, but I like the results, they look like normal sheetrocked walls now. You can't really tell from the pic, but the ceiling is painted as well, a few shades lighter than the walls. Adam added 4 recessed lights along the middle as well. Just need to get the baseboards on now.

The boys room (below)...once again, please look closely at the pretty smooth walls. I used thinned down joint compound and a long trowel and a lot of sanding, a little trick thanks to DIY. Then a ton of joint compound on the closets, they are hole free now. Then paint. Their room is going to be a camping themed, thanks Target.

Only 2 more rooms left...baby's room and girls room. I think a little in over our heads on the girls room...YIKES!

A tribute to "Little Barstool"....

"Little Barstool" was such a sweet little bunny for the past 2 weeks. So good to let the kids pet and play w/him. So soft. He really was a good little bunny. This is the only pic we got of him. He and Fiona were playing under the sink, it was too cute.

Got the 1st coat of polyurethane on today!!!

Now only about 10 more to go, before it'll hold up to the rollerblades, scooters, dog claws, and toys that are about to beat at it.

Here are some pics of the progress....

first off, we chiseled off a ton of faux brick and morter, where the pot-belly stove was sitting. Such a TEDIOUS job, I sat for hours, slammed my thumb who know how many times...and after I finished I totally had my doubts to whether it would sand down ok....the wood was totally cupped at the seams from the moisture of the morter, a lot of large knicks from my chiseling....but I figured worst case senario, we'd put the couch there. As you can see, it was in pretty bad shape. The fam room, living rm, and hallway all had this 50's hardwood on top of an older hardwood underneath.
I was TOTALLY amazed how well it sanded down. We took off a good 1/8 of an inch. Adam emptied the bag on the sander several times. Finally, ready for staining.

I left the stain on a little longer than I should have, in hopes that it would be darker, but didn't realize it would be a TOTAL pain to rub off the excess once it starts drying....WAY more work that it should have been. Oh well, rookie mistake.

Today I got the first of many coats of polyurethane on. It was pretty painless, and I actually kept all pets and kids off it till it dried!! I just checked it out a few minutes ago, it dried hard, I'm HAPPY. I have had my doubts about this, every step of the way, but it really worked! Yeah!!