Arrivals and departures, nesting instincts, and the weather...
I realized that I have not taken many pictures lately...very strange feeling for this 'you can never take too many pictures of anything especially life events' person. Gracious, I was so unprepared for my brother's graduation that I was stuck taking pictures on my cell phone. That's gotta change!
Life has been happening though, even if I don't have the pictures to 'prove' it. I really wish I did though, because then you can understand what a huge accomplishment this last week has been. I can't believe it's over, really. I can't believe "THE LIST" doesn't exist anymore. It had sort of become this running joke and a burden around the neck at the same time...
There is this sort of random 'to-do' list that has been hanging out in some form for at least two years or so. Some would call it a 'honey do' list. It was like this "all this stuff that needs to be done but never gets done because we never have the time or the right weather" list that kept getting longer and longer and longer. House maintenance stuff. Sanity stuff (you know, being able to find what you're looking for type of things). Kid stuff long since sorted to be donated but never taken to the donation center. The black hole otherwise known as the garage. You know, that kind of stuff.
Four pick up truck loads later....
It was like everything finally came together. A stretch of sunny, temperate days in the low seventies. No obligations or appointments (probably half the battle right there). The chance to borrow a truck from a friend, and a gift card from Father's Day for the materials needed.
I swear I have a new house.
In no particular order-
- the front garden got weeded and new perennials put in. (Hasn't been done in a year- the last time it had been done, my mother and the boys did it as a treat while I was recovering from the miscarriage last year.)
- the vegetable garden finally became a garden and not a collection of above ground boxes- mulched, with paths! No more stubborn prickly weeds to poke at me when I go to harvest veggies. Really wondering what's up with my tomatoes though. The squash and zucchini, on the other hand, are doing just fine. More than fine. More like monsters taking over every available inch of soil fine. But I'm down with that- that's why I made sure they had their very own boxes!
- the deck got stained and sealed. *ahem* We've been trying to get this done since the first spring we moved in the house. Four years ago. It never happened- either it rained, the deck was too wet, the weather was too cold or too hot (stain is notoriously finicky) or we didn't have a long enough stretch of days for the crazy thing to dry. Or if we did, neither James nor I could do it because of work or school or some other such thing. It's hard not to laugh about it now.
- in similar vein, the deck got repaired. All the pickets the boys had kicked out or broken, the nails that had worked their way out (seriously, who builds a deck with nails? The top deck was built by the contractor that built the house- which sort of makes me nervous. The bottom two were built by a family friend who used the proper supplies and actually anchored it to the house, like you should.) I am so glad this is done...it was getting to the point that I was downright nervous about letting the boys go out back because of all the broken parts and random sharp edges.
- which leads me to the 'junk wood' pile under the deck, left over from building the deck. Finally gone, and haven to spiders no more. No more chicken wire (from our first attempt at raised-box gardening), no more broken equipment.
- The trim on our house got painted. A bad hail storm, what maybe two years ago now, really did a number on all the painted trim on our house. The siding was fine (it's some sort of composite) but all the wood took quite a beating. Our front door still looks awful, but we're going to have to wait a while longer to replace it. But the paint was starting to chip off of everything in chunks. It was again, one of those things. Never quite having the right weather or when we did, not having enough time! I was so nervous about the babies finding the chips and putting them in their mouth.
(What's awful about all this is that this house is 'brand new'- only four years old. A lot of this 'to-do' list, with the exception of staining the deck, was repairing damage from that hail storm that just hadn't happened because of time or financial constraints.)
It sort of snowballed.
All this outside work made us realize that the bullet had to be bitten and we had to finally face the black hole otherwise known as the garage. Now, I've talked about this before...we had this sort of clutter pile collected from the last move that really hadn't been dealt with that was finally slain in January. But the remains of the day, all the bags of things to donate, somehow never got out of the garage. And the stuff we still needed to store hadn't quite been organized or stored properly. It was sort of piled in the corner. No more! I now know exactly what is stored now and where. Made life so much easier as I was accessing what I needed to 'find' for Bean's arrival. James can't get over the fact that there really is a Mustang under there somewhere and that there really is that much space in the garage. His 'toys' are now accessible. *laughter*
Which leads me to my mudroom/laundry room/small corner of the garage. Which I finally arranged to suit my needs. After four years. *ahem* Do you sense a theme here?
I'm telling you, a whole new house.
Some of you are laughing hysterically by now, I'm sure, especially if you know me offline and have actually seen said house and know what I am talking about...and some of you are laughing because you know it's all just nesting....and maybe I am making some of you feel better for not getting through your own honey-do lists for years and years...
So I have my OB appointment yesterday, and the running joke between my husband, my mother, and I was now that all the nesting stuff had been accomplished, I certainly was going to have something going on in the baby department. NOT. A. THING. Bean is just baking away and not the least bit interested in saying hello. That was yesterday.
Today? We began to wonder. Lots of contractions (that did absolutely nothing but make me miserable). So now the bets are on...when do you think Bean will arrive? My due date is the 31st, but I've never made it past 37 weeks...
Don't let me forget to tell you all about Lorelei's adventures with Bendadryl cream....that's a whole 'nother story. And a whole 'nother cleaning adventure.
Life has been happening though, even if I don't have the pictures to 'prove' it. I really wish I did though, because then you can understand what a huge accomplishment this last week has been. I can't believe it's over, really. I can't believe "THE LIST" doesn't exist anymore. It had sort of become this running joke and a burden around the neck at the same time...
There is this sort of random 'to-do' list that has been hanging out in some form for at least two years or so. Some would call it a 'honey do' list. It was like this "all this stuff that needs to be done but never gets done because we never have the time or the right weather" list that kept getting longer and longer and longer. House maintenance stuff. Sanity stuff (you know, being able to find what you're looking for type of things). Kid stuff long since sorted to be donated but never taken to the donation center. The black hole otherwise known as the garage. You know, that kind of stuff.
Four pick up truck loads later....
It was like everything finally came together. A stretch of sunny, temperate days in the low seventies. No obligations or appointments (probably half the battle right there). The chance to borrow a truck from a friend, and a gift card from Father's Day for the materials needed.
I swear I have a new house.
In no particular order-
- the front garden got weeded and new perennials put in. (Hasn't been done in a year- the last time it had been done, my mother and the boys did it as a treat while I was recovering from the miscarriage last year.)
- the vegetable garden finally became a garden and not a collection of above ground boxes- mulched, with paths! No more stubborn prickly weeds to poke at me when I go to harvest veggies. Really wondering what's up with my tomatoes though. The squash and zucchini, on the other hand, are doing just fine. More than fine. More like monsters taking over every available inch of soil fine. But I'm down with that- that's why I made sure they had their very own boxes!
- the deck got stained and sealed. *ahem* We've been trying to get this done since the first spring we moved in the house. Four years ago. It never happened- either it rained, the deck was too wet, the weather was too cold or too hot (stain is notoriously finicky) or we didn't have a long enough stretch of days for the crazy thing to dry. Or if we did, neither James nor I could do it because of work or school or some other such thing. It's hard not to laugh about it now.
- in similar vein, the deck got repaired. All the pickets the boys had kicked out or broken, the nails that had worked their way out (seriously, who builds a deck with nails? The top deck was built by the contractor that built the house- which sort of makes me nervous. The bottom two were built by a family friend who used the proper supplies and actually anchored it to the house, like you should.) I am so glad this is done...it was getting to the point that I was downright nervous about letting the boys go out back because of all the broken parts and random sharp edges.
- which leads me to the 'junk wood' pile under the deck, left over from building the deck. Finally gone, and haven to spiders no more. No more chicken wire (from our first attempt at raised-box gardening), no more broken equipment.
- The trim on our house got painted. A bad hail storm, what maybe two years ago now, really did a number on all the painted trim on our house. The siding was fine (it's some sort of composite) but all the wood took quite a beating. Our front door still looks awful, but we're going to have to wait a while longer to replace it. But the paint was starting to chip off of everything in chunks. It was again, one of those things. Never quite having the right weather or when we did, not having enough time! I was so nervous about the babies finding the chips and putting them in their mouth.
(What's awful about all this is that this house is 'brand new'- only four years old. A lot of this 'to-do' list, with the exception of staining the deck, was repairing damage from that hail storm that just hadn't happened because of time or financial constraints.)
It sort of snowballed.
All this outside work made us realize that the bullet had to be bitten and we had to finally face the black hole otherwise known as the garage. Now, I've talked about this before...we had this sort of clutter pile collected from the last move that really hadn't been dealt with that was finally slain in January. But the remains of the day, all the bags of things to donate, somehow never got out of the garage. And the stuff we still needed to store hadn't quite been organized or stored properly. It was sort of piled in the corner. No more! I now know exactly what is stored now and where. Made life so much easier as I was accessing what I needed to 'find' for Bean's arrival. James can't get over the fact that there really is a Mustang under there somewhere and that there really is that much space in the garage. His 'toys' are now accessible. *laughter*
Which leads me to my mudroom/laundry room/small corner of the garage. Which I finally arranged to suit my needs. After four years. *ahem* Do you sense a theme here?
I'm telling you, a whole new house.
Some of you are laughing hysterically by now, I'm sure, especially if you know me offline and have actually seen said house and know what I am talking about...and some of you are laughing because you know it's all just nesting....and maybe I am making some of you feel better for not getting through your own honey-do lists for years and years...
So I have my OB appointment yesterday, and the running joke between my husband, my mother, and I was now that all the nesting stuff had been accomplished, I certainly was going to have something going on in the baby department. NOT. A. THING. Bean is just baking away and not the least bit interested in saying hello. That was yesterday.
Today? We began to wonder. Lots of contractions (that did absolutely nothing but make me miserable). So now the bets are on...when do you think Bean will arrive? My due date is the 31st, but I've never made it past 37 weeks...
Don't let me forget to tell you all about Lorelei's adventures with Bendadryl cream....that's a whole 'nother story. And a whole 'nother cleaning adventure.
Like I said my bags can be packed anytime now because even my "nesting" project got done yesterday. I am finalizing G's transcript today and we will do TCC early next week. I have another big "blue" tub empty to bring to you if you like. SMILE!!! Can't wait to see the fruits of your labor............so where is the "mommy" list?? Joy usually keeps one for me that needs a "women's" touch.
Posted by: Grandma Kathy | July 10, 2009 at 07:30 AM