Family Fun Day

I know I have written about how great my family is, but... I am going to talk about it again. So brace yourselves for some family envy…

We have finally wrapped up the painting in the living spaces (Thank you, Mama) and are getting some final touches done for Saturday to be the big moving day (Thank you, Daddy -- more on what he is up to further down).

Yesterday, we tackled a good scrubbing of the kitchen. I say 'we', but I really mean my mom and grandmother spent six hours cleaning brown gunk out of there. I had never seen cabinets so dirty that after wiping them several times your rag would still come away brown. It was all very educational. This was also true of the pantry shelves. Which I had been very nervous to put my packaged food on, but now could probably eat directly off them (Thanks Granny!!). Here is a shot of her in action…

While they were both hard at work inside, my grandfather pressure washed the outside.

They were both super helpful, and it was nice that I got to spend the day with them. They probably would just as soon have me come over to there house and spend the day with them :).

But wait… THERE'S MORE!!

Let there be light! The foyer no longer feels dark and closed off, and now it has a pretty view of the trees outside. 

Yesterday, was a very productive day at the house. Prior to now, the house has mostly stressed me out because of the work that needed to be done before we moved with time ticking away towards Frances Harper's arrival. Now though, thanks in large part to my family and the work they have put in, I am excited. The house is looking more complete, and we are going to be in it on Saturday!! Tune in for pictures of a sparsely furnished home on Monday.

What!? Okay, I will go hide now.

We have all done it. Well, we have all at least heard the horror of someone else doing it. Ewww NO!, not that 'it'.  I am talking about uttering those words, "Oh, when is your baby due?" Only to be told in response, "What? I'm not pregnant." Then, you're engulfed by the feeling of wanting to die.

My friend Megan, asked her son's teacher when her baby was due. The teacher wasn't pregnant, and Megan had to see her pretty regularly when she dropped her son off at school. Their conversations were strictly school related after that. Could have been worse. Well, no not really… but, who doesn't lie to comfort a friend?

I made this dreaded  mistake when I worked at Patagonia. I asked a customer (who was moving to New Zealand), if she was moving before or after her baby was due. This comment was followed by "What?! I 'm not pregnant." This is probably the MOST embarrassing moment of my life. Keep in mind, I perspired so much in math class once in high school that it appeared I had wet my pants; bad, not just a slight damp spot. The teacher commented. That was HIGH SCHOOL, the most embarrassing time of life, and I had to walk around in the pants until they dried.

The pregnancy moment tops that. After I made this verbal fumble, I hid in the bathroom until the customer had left the store.

In light of this defining moment, I have been waiting for someone to ask me when my baby is due so that I can reply, "What? Oh, I am not pregnant." Mean? Probably, but I also think it would be really funny. I am sure my victim would laugh about it afterwards. Alas, I am running out of time. It would would be funny though.

Crunch Week

So, Saturday is the big day. WE ARE MOVING!!! This means we are only about a month behind schedule on everything. If you don't know anything about do-it-yourself home repair, that is pretty good! Here are some of the completed rooms that Mama and I have been working on.

Dinning Room… check. Let's all just take a moment to admire that wainscoting. Ohhh. Ahhh. The really special part about wainscoting is that it hides all of the wall-paper damage.

Here is the living room… 

And, the hall. Nothing too exciting about this room, but let me tell you all those doors add up. This area seemed never ending. Similar to this movie I went and saw with Michael recently. Did any of you see The Grand Budapest Hotel? If not, save yourself the money and just paint your trim. 

We hope to finish up the painting in the kitchen today, work on the master bedroom on Wednesday, and give the house a good scrubbing Thursday and Friday. This may all be slightly over ambitious, but we like to aim high (How do you think we got a month behind schedule?).

Many small and big things will still need to be done once we move in, but that will slowly be checked off the list as time and money permit. These include projects such as: painting the cabinets, purchasing/installing light fixtures, re-doing the bathrooms, furnishing the living room... this goes on and on. Now that the whole place is looking much more habitable than it did originally, this list makes me excited for all of the improvements to come. I am amazed at the transformation that has taken place over the past few months. Just imagine how it will look after a year!

My Magnolia

This is my magnolia tree. I received this tree for Christmas from my grandparents when I was about 7 years old. I am sure as you read this, you are thinking that is a nice gift. Keep in mind I was not some super Earth-conscious kid. Now, imagine your cousins got a trampoline that year, and you got a tree. In my grandparents' defense, my mother told them that my sister and I wanted trees. I think we all know that really it was my mother who wanted two trees. My sister's was a weeping willow. It died.

At the age of 26, I really like my tree.

In honor of all of this, we thought it would be nice if Frances Harper had a tree. But, I wanted to spare her the disappointment of receiving it as a Christmas gift. 

This is Frances Harper's tree, a Newport Plum. While it looks pretty small in the picture, it is about 5 feet tall right now and will grow rapidly. My mom planted it up near the end of her driveway. As it gets bigger, my dad is going to build a bench to go under it, and Frances Harper can sit there while she waits on the bus. (Michael and I will eventually move over here, so this is where she will be catching the bus.)

Now, we just have to keep it alive.  

It's Official. She Is Arriving Early!

I am not ready for Frances Harper to arrive, but I am ready to not be pregnant anymore. We are hoping to move into the new house on June 28th, and she can arrive anytime after that. You hear me Frances Harper?! If she wanted to give me a couple of days to get settled, that would be great. So, it would be perfect if she came on July 4th. She would get a parade every year for her Birthday!!! Except... we don't really go to the parade (in Forsyth County steam engines are involved, and they are SUPER LOUD!!!). Also, who wants to stand outside in July? But, fireworks are cool.

I took a labor prediction quiz this morning though and here are my results.

A week early is better than nothing, but I am not sure how I feel about 13 hours of labor. 

The quiz was very scientific, and my results are based on when Michael and I were born. I was a planned c-section so… I figure that skewed my numbers some. Michael on the other hand, WAS NINE DAYS LATE!!! This explains some things about his personality -- he never goes anywhere in a hurry. If I was Monica, I would still hold this against him. 

Hopefully, Frances Harper is already learning to be her own person and is not going to follow either of our examples (especially Michael's).

Everyone keep their fingers crossed for July 4th!!!

We Have a Crib!!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great Father's Day.

We made some excellent progress on Frances Harper's room over the weekend (I was no part of this. It was all Michael and my mother-in-law, Monica). We now have her crib set up and her dresser, with most of her clothes, in place. My mind is some what eased by the fact that if she arrived today, we would at least have some where for her to sleep. Although, she better not come this early because Michael is in the midwest all week for work.

I had originally picked out this bedding for Frances's room, but...

After laying awake for a couple of nights worrying about it (literally), I decided to order some different bedding, and when I saw this next selection, it was love at first sight. 

This set is from a company called Cotton Tales. Isn't it pretty!? We did not get all of the pieces pictured above. I am not sure what a couple of those things are. Is the thing on the right a dress to match her bedding? Also, what is that in the upper left? Here is a picture of Frances Harper's crib. I think she will be extremely happy with her bedding. 

She will be here in five weeks!!! Hopefully, we will be living in the house by then. My energy level has hit an all time low in the last week, so… things have started moving even slower. Luckily, I was blessed with some amazing parents who are still plodding away at the list of things that need to be done. 

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!!

A Crowning Achievement (Too predictable?)

I shared before about the deal we were getting on crown moulding (it was discard from a job my dad worked on… so the deal we got was, IT'S FREE!!) This was excellent because setting up a new home is expensive and saving pennies is excellent. The only problem was that there was not quite enough crown mould to do all of the house. As I mentioned, saving pennies is excellent, so I decided we would not put crown moulding in the hallway. BUT, we would put it in the foyer, and we would just stop it where the foyer becomes the hallway. The picture below shows how the trim would look where the walls turn and become hallway.

I told my builder I wanted to do this. He was not a fan. He said this would look odd. So… we have crown moulding in our hallway. Now that it is up, I really like it. So… point for Daddy for being right. With the crown molding up, the rooms (and the hallway) all look much more finished than they did previously, which excites me with the notion that we will eventually be able to move in. I am consistently amazed that such a simple addition has such a large impact on a room. I also wonder though, would I miss it if I had never had it? Had we gone with my plan would I walk through my house and think, "This hallway should would look better with some crown moulding"?

Here is a progress picture to hold you over until I am able to show the complete set of finished rooms!

Have a great Thursday!!!

A Bacon Brainstorm

My mom buys lots of spinach, but she does not eat lots of spinach. She also hates to waste food and frequently says, "Pretend this is the depression" to get us to eat food we believe is past its prime. Today, she asked that I have spinach for lunch because it was beginning to go bad. I figured if I had to eat spinach, I might as well make it super tasty with some bacon. Voila, I had a BLT. 

The sandwich was SUPER tasty, but not so incredible that I felt the need to share it with y'all. What was incredible is that I cooked the bacon in the microwave. I know people do this, but it is has never occurred to me to try it. I have been wasting my time. I had six perfectly cooked slices of bacon in three and half minutes. THREE AND HALF MINUTES!!!! I usually cook it in the oven and spend 10-15 minutes looking at it through the window in the door waiting for it to be done. I am probably going to be on a bacon eating tirade now that I know how quick-cooking bacon an be (Michael will be very supportive of this).

Has anyone else belatedly stumbled upon a trick that blew their mind? I feel as though I just caught up to what millions have known all along. 

Bees a'Buzzing

First off, sorry there was no post yesterday. We are pushing to get all of the tedious painting done, which means my days have gotten a little hectic/exhausting. I just keep telling myself, it will all be over soon and Frances Harper will be here. YAY!!! (t-minus six weeks!!!)Then I will be able to focus on easy projects (wink, wink), such as redoing the kitchen cabinets and taking care of a baby -- one task I have no experience at.

Now, segueing into what I had originally been going to talk about… 

Did it rain last night at your house? The weather has been really strange this summer. We get a good rain every few days here. Usually by this point, we are having to break out the watering wands and turn a blind eye to water restrictions in order to keep the flowers alive. Not this summer though, and I would like to tell you why that is. 

All of this rain, which is so good for the flowers, is a result of me buying a house with a possible foundation problem. According to the inspector and the specialists that were called out, our house has settled slightly more than usual because the dirt around the foundation is so damp. Damp dirt compacts more than dry dirt, and the dirt is damp because the yard is not draining properly. Their opinions were -- it took it thirty years to develop the two current cracks in the cinder blocks, and it could be done settling or it could take thirty more years for it to become a real issue… OR we need to have four piers put in to stabilize it. We just have to wait and see. (We knew all of this before we sealed the deal.)

I of course am hoping the cracks have stabilized. But while I wait and see, I want the dirt to remain dry just in case it has not stabilized. Instead though, it is raining every other night. Argh!!

There is a lesson here, that I am working hard to keep sight of. There are always going to be problems that I can do nothing about, and sometimes you just have to wait and see and know that it will all be okay. 

So, for now, I am just going to look at the flowers that are going gangbusters and watch the bees buzzing around. BUT, if you want to send up a prayer for some slightly drier weather, who am I to stop you.

Have a great Tuesday!!

Coopie Cone Head

Cooper's mojo has really taken a beating the last couple of weeks. He got his haircut last week, and this week, he got a cone to wear. He is falling less into the handsome and more into the cutie patootie category now. Macy needed some competition.

He is reading over my shoulder and wanted it known that he is still just as ferocious (or should I say fuurrocious) as ever.

Cooper is having to wear a cone because he likes to snuffle. This is where he licks and bites at one spot until it bleeds (it is really common amount German shepherds). He always is inclined to this, but with the shorter hair he was making several spots on himself. Also, he was keeping me awake at night doing this. So… now he is a cone head. 

Now he can not snuffle, and I get the added amusement of watching him try and navigate with a cone on his head. He runs into a lot of things!

Hope everyone is having a better week than Coopie. Happy Thursday!!

Knobs and Globs

Because we are moving into the new house later than planned and are getting close to Frances Harper's arrival, I am trying to have everything for her nursery ready to go. That way, when we do finally get in the house, we just have to set her stuff up and then wait for her to arrive.

With this in mind, I am painting her changing table/dresser this week. She will be using the same dresser that I had when I was little. This is also the dresser my sister used in college, and she felt the need to paint it turquoise. I think she would have second guessed this had she been responsible for repainting it when she was done using it.

I am restoring the dresser to its original color of white. If you are wondering how many coats of white paint it takes to cover up turquoise, the answer is three. I am putting the coats on pretty thin though, so as to avoid globs and runs.

After the first coat, I decided it would be easier to remove the knobs than to paint around them. I also was having trouble getting the underside of the knob painted while it was still on the drawer. After the second coat, I decided to break out the roller. 

Now that I have removed the knobs, I am thinking of painting them a color besides white. I could paint them purple to match her closet door, or I could paint them some other color. White seems nice and classic though. 

Here We Come A Caulking Among The Leaves So Green...

Happy Monday! I know that a lot of people do not like Mondays, but when I worked in an office, Mondays were my favorite day of the work week. I was well rested, and I had forgotten all the stresses of last week. By Wednesday, I was ready for the week to be over. Monday was good though.

Moving on, I mentioned last week that I am working on some tedious tasks over at the new house. I am caulking trim. Caulking can be, and often is, messy and frustrating. The end result though makes the aggravations worth it. I spent an entire summer caulking one of my parent's rental properties. The house is over a hundred years old and instead of sheet rock the walls are individual boards. Each board had to be caulked. Just another example of fun times at the Thornton house. I comfort my self with
reassurances that this will not be that bad.

Here is a small tidbit of my work…

And here is a bit of what is left to be done…

There is more than just that bit yet to be done, but why focus on the negative? Doesn't the caulked trim look more finished than the un-caulked?

To keep morale high, I break my work up into hour long segments. I work for an hour, and then I go home. This helps me from becoming completely depressed about all of the caulking, and it gives the pregnant body a break from constantly being bent over -- most of what I am caulking is baseboards. For hoots and giggles, you can try bending over with a basketball in your shirt and give yourself heart burn. So, the work gets done one hour at a time. Slow? Yes, but it works for us. 

I am not going to include a tutorial about caulking because you basically just squeeze caulk onto a crack and smooth it out. Sounds easy. The reality of the the job is only revealed in the actual execution of these seemingly simple steps. So if the unknown appeals to you, feel free to go buy some caulk and give it a go. 

Have a great Monday!!!!