I am have my wireless internet hooked up and am a HAPPY mom again. Back to my email, online shopping, and blogging.
It's been a while, here's a quick recap:
Aug. 14, closed on the house, moved in with only our suitcases we'd been traveling with and some air mattresses, a porta-crib, and a few blankets from a very nice family we met at church. Thank goodness for a few church friends, I swear I'd have no friends this move if it weren't for church. Every other move I've always had insta-friends....Arkansas, I had other law school-wifes waiting for me, Japan, I already knew a few people and living on base it was totally easy, but this move I can tell is going to be a little trickier.....living on a country road with neighbors not so close (which totally has it's benefits).....but since I'm COMPLETELY engrossed in DIYing this house, I've been fine so far with out many friends, no time. I have however met 3 neighbors, one single woman across the street who doesn't help the skunk problem because she feeds them!! She's very nice though and tells great stories. The other two however were not as pleasant. One stopped by after we'd been in the house only 2 hours and had not gotten the boundaries down yet, and Jakey had ventured out into the road. She stopped by to yell at me. The other was a mother of a girl the girls met and played with.....long story short, she wasn't all that friendly either after she found out I'd mentioned to my "nice neighbor" that her daughter was disrespectuful to Adam and I, and rude to Isaac. She is was quite sure it was just that Adam is very "militant". Yeah, that was it lady. It couldn't have been your daughter.
So, 1 out of 3, not too bad, right? Can't win them all.

The yard has been very enjoyable. The kids have been having a great time running wild with no one but the horses behind to bother. The dog was LOVING the yard and horses behind, til a week and a half ago when we got the invisable fence hooked up and collar on, and she got zapped a few times. I thought we were going to have to get doggy couseling to get her through it. It would take her hours to quit shaking. She wouldn't go outside for anything. Not even to go to the bathroom. She wouldn't touch a ball. It was so sad! So then we watched the video to see what we'd done wrong. Pretty much everything...we didn't realize all the training that should have been involved first before she actually got shocked...so now we're trying to backtrack and redo it all...
So life wasn't quite chaotic enough remodeling a house with 5 kids and a big dog, so we decided to let Sarah get the kitten she's been begging for for years. 8 week old "Fiona" is running around amidst it all now too. She's very cute, grey with a white nose and white socks, and a little yellow and green paint on her paws as well.

Back to the remodeling....I took a ton of before pics of the house, and have been taking pics every step of the way... knocking out walls, adding support posts in the basement, removing and then re-tiling the bathroom, sheet rocking, adding lights, texturing walls, and painting walls. After 11 years of and watching DIY and H&G tv, but never being able to paint a single wall because we were renters, we are FINALLY putting all those useful skills we aquired to work. As soon as we get our other computer hooked up, I can post some pics. Only 2 weeks and it's already come a long way. This weekend's project is going to be leveling the kitchen floor, then retiling it. (Yikes, that means taking out cupboards and everything. )Then finally on to refinishing the downstairs hardwoods after that. THEN, we can move on the to upstairs. I don't know how long I can keep this up, hopefully a little longer though, because I don't see an end in sight for at least a month!!