Ox in the Mire

This was all on July 18, which was a Sunday. Well, unfortunately, as the phrase goes, we could not NOT work today. Not only could we not 'rest', but Brad had to have his new tractor mower delivered that day, so others did not get to rest on our account as well. But he's sure excited. He's always wanted a tractor, but we could never justify the expense. Now with 1/2 acre, we can!



He took it for a little spin without the blades running.



Miriam 7/18/10: This is how our big bouncing baby is filling out her carseat these days. It's slightly depressing that we/I will have to cart her around in this seat for almost 7 more months.

Because church is at 11-2 here, and we are new in a ward, so stayed chatting, Mac did not get a nap. She was pretty grouchy by late afternoon, but I managed to get her attention when I told her she had a rainbow on her face from the light coming through our front door.

And this is POTD 7/18/10: Really, the piece de resistance. I was doing some unpacking after we had dinner at a kind family in our ward's house. I got my step stool out to put some stuff above the refrigerator, and this is what I found. Tons of alcohol. There was a little of everything in there. What seemed to be an inordinate amount of vodka, and there was gin, schnapps, vermouth, whisky, bourbon, absinthe, tequila, brandy, and an assortment of flavored liqueurs. Wow. We finally came to the conclusion that they couldn't bring the bottles with them, as they were driving to their next destination across the country, so they probably thought they were being super nice and generous to leave their stash.

Unfortunately, their stash went right down the sink. Vodka, by the way, literally smells like rubbing alcohol. I would so much rather drink a cream soda. No question. Of course a cream soda isn't going to get me buzzed. You win some, you lose some.

At any rate, it was an exciting day, and the carpet is due to go in tomorrow!

Moving Day

Breakfast on the balcony--Moving Day, July 17! I had left out, literally, two bowls, two spoons, and the box of cereal. No choices today, girls!



Mac loves this bowl--her piggy bowl, which has a little pink pig on the bottom.



Both girls were intent on helping in any way they could. Leiden's version:



Mac's version:



The giant disaster that awaited when we finally got to the house. But, it can only get better from here.



None of the bed stuff went up in the rooms, as we didn't have carpet in until the next week.




POTD 7/17/10:



Yes, the room is purple. Literally purple. And lo and behold, Brad likes it.



We're finally moved in! And of course there are millions of pictures since then, but we'll bite off only what we can chew.

Final Pre-Completely-Moved-Out-of-the-Apartment Week

POTD 7/11/10: On our last Sunday in the Plymouth ward, Leiden was assigned to do a little spotlight in Primary. She had to include the bullet points on this sheet:

**Favorite food: Pizza
**Something she's good at: drawing (she really is--Brad and my grandmother came through for that talent.)
**Something they didn't know about her: she visited the Netherlands with her dad this past spring
**She's trying to be like Jesus by: not swimming on Sundays, even though her apartment has a really nice pool.


She did a great job presenting, and seems to have no problem at all getting up in front of people. Gotta love Primary!



Miriam 7/11/10: We think Mimi is teething again, as EVERYTHING goes into her mouth. Poor dolly--and poor dolly!

She slobbered all over this little doll!

Look at all that wetness!

Miriam 7/12/10: We went to the doctor today, for a very late 4 month checkup. Mimi is huge. I mean BIG. She is the size of an average 9 month old. A whopping 17 lbs. 12 oz. and 27 inches long. That's the 95th and 97th percentiles respectively. Big baby. And she likes her thumb.

POTD 7/12/10: The two older kids were at a friends' house playing today--for the whole day, so I got some painting done, and it's all over my hands! Every time Mac sees them, she says, "You have paint on you!"

POTD 7/13/10: In my last post's rant, I neglected to discuss Brad's and my room. It was wallpapered. So dear Brad took off all the wallpaper (which actually came off much easier than we had expected), prepped the walls, and got the room's first coat done.

Miriam 7/14/10: Since we're spending so much time at Home Depot these days, I had to get a picture of her in the cart.

POTD 7/14/10: And the girls love the 'car-carts' there. We couldn't find them for the longest time (the HD in our old neighborhood had them), but then found them by a different entrance. Now they are a must for any excursion there.

Miriam 7/15/10:

Mac came into the girls' room ready for bed. Complete with sunglasses.

POTD 7/15/10: Brad hauled our big flat screen over to the house tonight. He used the stroller to get it down to the car.

Took a trip to Dairy Queen today. There's nothing wrong with bribing your kids with ice cream to behave themselves so you can get some last minute painting done. And it was super hot outside. Mac is currently incapable of eating without making a mess. With ice cream she didn't stand a chance. These were taken with my phone, so excuse the poor quality!

Leiden's room is coming along--just trim left to paint. I can't wait until the ghastly charcoal color is gone. It will look so much better for a little girl.

Miriam 7/16/10: All the carpet has been pulled up so we could paint the baseboards. Mimi has been sleeping on just the port-a-crib mattress on the floor, but just recently has started rolling over and over. This means she moves. I put a sheet on the carpet padding, and she started out her nap in the middle of the 'mattress'. This is where I found her after I heard her making noise about an hour later. This was the end of just the mattress, as there are the tacking strips around the edge of the room that she almost rolled onto.

But she looks so pleased with herself.

POTD 7/16/10: We've got to get this trim painted before the carpet comes in a couple days. I'm thinking that we're probably going to have to be painting on Sunday.

This was the final push before we said bye-bye to the apartment! Woohoo!

And So It Begins

We were incredibly naive, and thought that we could knock out the painting--AND CARPET--in one weekend. It's a wonder, really, that no one told us we were idiots when we told them our plan. Because we were. Painting is never just painting. It's removing nails, filling holes and imperfections, waiting for the putty to dry, removing outlet and switch plates, sanding, wiping walls and baseboards, taping, pulling up old carpet so as to paint the baseboards correctly, vacuuming all the junk out of the crevices, removing doors and hardware, and then you get to paint. The first coat. Then you wait for about 4 hours before you can do it again. And that's for every single room to be painted. Then you have to remove the doors and take off the hardware so you can paint them. Needless to say, it was not done in two days. Here are the before pictures: Leiden's room was painted in gray, darker gray, even darker gray, and charcoal. Super. The charcoal was the color used for the trim, closet doors, and door. It takes about 4 coats of high gloss bright white to cover it up, and some spots could have used a 5th. The walls took 3 coats of paint. Seriously.



Mimi's room was also an exercise in patience. Remember the long laundry list of things you have to do before you can paint? In Mimi's room, someone thought it would be a good idea to add silica sand to the paint so as to give the walls texture. They had texture all right! The kind that removes your skin. So, add to the list scraping the ENTIRE room with a putty knife. Luckily the color was fairly light, so much easier to cover up than Leiden's room. It still looks unevenly textured, but it's not going to scratch you anymore.



Mac's room was a dark cream color, and nothing weird in the paint. A breath of fresh air in comparison.



Here's the open hallway on the top level. See the walls? They were seafoam. See the little patch of carpet in the room? Carpets were a darker turquoise color. This is actually what prompted the whole makeover. Seafoam has got to go. The light fixture is also going to go, someday, when we have money again after doubling Home Depot's revenue for the quarter. They asked for Leiden, but we've already signed her off to Wells Fargo.



But this. This paint. Beautiful. It was one of those times when you pick the perfect color and it looks just like you wanted. So pink it looks like white until you get the trim done. POTD 7/10/10:



Leiden helped us paint in both her room and Mac's. See the wall behind her? Barely pink.



Miriam 7/10/10: Mimi hung out while we painted. Translation: I painted when she would let me, generally for 30 minute stretches. Guaranteed as soon as I poured more paint into the tray, she'd start crying. Her little life has been very willy-nilly.



This is Mac's contribution to the first day's work. Not even sure where the scissors came from, but luckily they are kid ones.



A good first full day of work, and not nearly all of it!

The First Big Day

We are the proud owners of a new (to us) house! Here are the girls on the porch. This will also serve as Miriam 7/9/10:

We seem to be initially attracted by blue homes, although it's not necessarily the color I would pick for my house. Not, however, sold on the front door color. Any ideas?



POTD 7/9/10: Tried to get both the girls and the 'SOLD' sign.

Slowest Day in History

I'm totally behind, but my excuse is that we moved, so cut me some slack!

This truly seemed like the slowest moving day in the history of my life. Our home closing was scheduled for July 9, so I felt like I was just twiddling my thumbs all day. But Mimi sure looked cute! I felt like these pictures finally captured her eyes how they really look. So I took a bunch. Of course.

This one is Miriam 7/8/10: If you haven't noticed, I really like the close ups. They aren't doing a whole lot yet, so when you back off, you lose all the...intensity? Something like that. But Brad keeps reminding me to back up a bit more.

We seem to get this look a lot. I think she wonders who these clowns are.

We took a walk to the park, even though it was hot, and the girls sure love the swing.

This is POTD 7/8/10: The picture, while capturing a great expression, is not composed very carefully, but Leiden was swinging with her arm straight out yelling, "Super Leiden!"

The day did eventually end, although it seemed like 3 days in one.