What we did over Labor Day Weekend.

Some updated pictures of our remodeling project:

The family room:

The office/computer nook behind the family room:

Kitchen eating area:

And....the kitchen whose counters are a mess but this is so you can see what the cabinets look like with the new floors......

These are how we framed around the doors. We put new trim on the right and left sides and put a header on the top.

This is the living room. We still need to frame the window. We're making faux pillars to frame in our arches going into the living room and dining room as well as an arch in the family room.

So what we have accomplished the last few weeks?

Put in the new floors thanks to a friend of ours. Tiled the bathrooms. Framed a window. Framed around the doors. Painted. Started faux pillars. Set up bookcases and desk for computer area. Put on new baseboards.

Is that ALL? It is nice to see it all come together.

Flip Flops

No, this will not be a post about the upcoming Presidential election.



Instead, it will be about my daughter's 7th birthday. She said she wanted a cake that looked like a pair of flip flops.

I, on the other hand, had no idea the "flip flop" concept would end up meaning so much more.

About a week before her birthday, she informed me that she wanted a HUGE birthday party with all of her friends. Now for one thing, she hasn't figured out that I'm WAY too uptight and get myself far too stressed out over something like throwing a big birthday party.....in under a week.....for 20 kids. There's themes, party favors, games and creativity involved. Not to mention, there wouldn't be enough time to get a refill of valium. So, I talked to her a few times about how it would be better to wait until next year so we would have more time to think about it and plan. I even used it as a teaching opportunity by introducing her to words like "ettiquite" and "neurotic".


On Monday, she mentioned to me that she told her friend that it was her birthday on Wednesday. Her friend told her she HAD to have a party. They decided that each of them would go home and make 10 invitations to be handed out the next day.

Again I explained to her the proper ettiquite of party invitations and that one day's notice was simply not enough. She was still intent on making her own invitations and sat herself down at the table for the rest of the evening busy at work making her own invites. She had my husband write on the inside "Come to my party at 7 pm." He thought he was just humoring her. Surely she wasn't REALLY going to hand them out. She was so very proud of her finished product. I remember making a mental note that I needed to make sure to check her backpack so that they didn't end up at school the next day. Of course, that thought disappeared as fast as it came.



She came home from school and said that one of her friends said that she couldn't come unless she got a "real" invitation. Lauren, of course, got upset with me for not telling her about making "real" invitations in the first place. ( I am now banging my head against that same wall that I must have been talking to during my hundred conversations about this very thing ).



I had two moms call and inquire about "the party". That's when I think I realized this was not going to end well. No, there is no party. Yes, I would have sent out a "real" invitation that would say more than just "come to my party" and crayon pictures of flowers and hearts written on a torn out piece of spiral notebook paper. Those of you reading this who received one, maybe you could loan yours to me so that I can post a picture.



So Wednesday night came and so did this:

You should have seen my husband and I run into our bedroom wandering aimlessly saying things like, "Freak!/What the freak?/What are we supposed to do NOW?/What the heck?" How could we come up with a few extra kids on such short notice? I started thinking of the families I knew who had a bunch of kids. "Call the Seeleys. They have four. Then the Booths. They are just down the street and have a good 4-5 that I'm sure they would loan me for an hour or so. That would be enough to make it look legit, right?" I finally had to face the reality that it was just too late. The next door neighbor friend mentioned she even wore a shirt with flip flops on it. Somehow that just made it all even worse.

Lauren was all grins that someone showed up to her party and Jack said something like "I wonder who else is coming to our party?"


Great. I was already starting to take inventory to make sure I had enough clean forks in case some more unexpected guests showed up.

So, she got to hang out with us and a few grandparents. I sure know how to put the "flop" in flip flop. Thank heavens I don't have to do another birthday until next March.

What lesson did I learn? To never underestimate the determination of a child.

I would imagine

that the looptape of a two-year old's idea of a knock knock joke would go a little something like this:


2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "nana"
me: "nana who?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "nana"
me: "nana who?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "orange"
me: "orange who?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "nana"
me: "nana who?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "Boo"
me: "Boo who?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "nana"
me: "nana who?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "Who's there?"
2 year old: "knock knock"
me: "knock knock who?"
2 year old: "Who's there?"
me: "I don't know. Who's there?"
2 year old: "knock knock"

me: initiate distraction and redirection tactics

Funny for the day.....

I asked my little kindergartener if he has made any new friends yet at school. He said, "Yeah."

I said, "Well, what are their names?"

His reply? "I don't know. I can't read."

Ah.

But he can do super awesome cheer moves.

My current read....

Well "current" read is actually a little deceptive. That would imply that I get to read often and have a library of books at my disposal.

I honestly can't remember the last book I read. I used to read all of the time. Grisham, Clancy, Crichton, the newspaper.

And then I had kids.

I grew tired of reading and re-reading pages because I would go days in between chapters and forget what was going on. My short-term memory is shot. ( see my previous entry: http://lackrik.blogspot.com/2006/02/anyone-seen-brain-around-here.html#links )


My husband, on the other hand, has a book on his person at all times. Somehow he can tune out the chaos around him and read anything. And if it's not a book, it's the latest Popular Science or National Geographic magazine. He can disappear for 10-20 minutes at a time reading in you know where.......uninterrupted I might add.


So, I thought I'd try picking up a book again. I started to read a book that my dad gave my husband for father's day one year after we had boy #1 called "So you want to raise a boy?" by Cleon Skousen.

And of course, we continued the trend by having boy #2 and boy #3. I figured I could get some pearls of wisdom from the book myself. I grew up being the only girl with four brothers. You'd think I should know how to raise boys. I shouldn't be shocked to see them sit so quietly while their favorite tv show is on then instantly turn my family room into a WWF match when it goes to commercial. I should expect that I will be alternately used as a human rock wall or a trampoline. I shouldn't be at all surprised when I see rows and stacks of the most unlikely objects around my house. And I certainly shouldn't be alarmed at the constant state of the "boys" bathroom.

So I guess what I'm hoping to get out of this book is some reassurance that all boys are hyper, squirmy, rambunctious balls of energy. They are little experiments in the laws of physics. For example, I've learned a new meaning to the theory E=mc2. It really represents a child's energy level.
E (Energy) =m (mass) X c (curiosity) squared.

And I'm convinced that all boys contain the make up of both potential and kinetic energy. Potential energy in the form of "Look at me mom. I'm about to take your good dinner fork and go out to the sandbox and use it as a shovel".

Kinetic energy having to do with the mass and speed of an object ( the boy ) as they see how many times they can spin around before they get dizzy and smack each other on their way down to the ground. And of course there is spontaneous combustion. Not the literal bursting into flames kind of combustion, but the one minute I can sit still and the next minute I'm pretending to be a rocket ship kind of spontaneous combustion.....or think it's a good idea to wear milk boxes.

I'm only on chapter 5 where he talks about the two year old boy. And at my pace, I'll finish the book by the time they go on their missions.

More pictures as promised:

Here is the front.
We added black shutters on the 2 large windows and painted the popout on the right window black. Under that window is a wrought iron window box that looks like this:



It's hard to see but we put new light fixtures on the outside. There is a hanging wrought iron lantern on the porch and 2 wrought iron fixtures on the sides of the garage like these:



Just to the left of the front door is the formal dining room. I painted the top part of the walls the beige color. On the white parts will be wainscotting. We also put in a new chandelier. I really like it!







To the right of the front door is the living room. We'll put trim around the windows.

Straight ahead from the front door is the large family room. I still need to paint the red wall.......back behind that wall to the right of the french doors is a nook where we will put built in shelves and a corner desk.

This is looking into the family room and into the kitchen eating area from the hall. All of this space including the living room and dining room and down the hall will have the teak wood laminate floors.

House demo update:

We've taken out all of the tile and carpeting in the areas where we will be laying wood laminate floors. Tonight, I'll go over and start to paint.

We've also added shutters and a window box to the front and painted the front door. I'll post some more pictures later................

1st Day of School!

Jack started Kindergarten this week. I feel like a bad mommy because I wasn't as nervous or anxious about it like I was when Lauren started school for the first time. It could be that I've clued in to the fact that fewer kids at home = I can get things done.

Jack gets to ride the bus to school. Let me tell ya....I'm loving the bus idea. Not only does Jack think it's cool, but it saves me from living in my car during the day with school pick-ups and drop-offs. Oh and it also adds an extra hour that he is gone in the mornings. It's a win-win situation all around.

Lauren started 2nd grade this year. Her teacher is about to have a baby so it should be interesting to see how this year pans out. At dinner after her first day, she said to me, "Mom? Did you ever have an embarrassment when you were my age?"

I had to think about it and just responded something flipant like "I think so."

I noticed she was scooting her food around on her plate as if she was deep in thought. I realized there was something behind her question so I decided to dig a little further. I said, "Well. I remember when I was about your age, I accidently went into the boys bathroom instead of the girls bathroom! Luckily there were no boys in the bathroom at the time but I really felt silly! Why? Did something happen to you today at school?"

She said quietly, "Well.......you have to promise not to laugh. But after I went to the bathroom you know down the hall from the classroom.....I accidently went to my 1st grade classroom instead of my new one."

DOH!

I said, "What happened? Did your old teacher see you?"

Lauren timidly replied, "Yeah. She said, 'OH! Hi Lauren!' "

I tried but I couldn't hold back the laughter. Which was good because it helped her laugh about it too. I could tell she was really embarrassed about it.

So....that was her first day of school. One I'm sure she will remember.

And some random pictures of the other cute kids hanging out at the bus stop:

I stand corrected....

I spoke too soon when I said playing hangman with my 6 year old wasn't much fun.

That is until I went to "Meet the teacher" night at my daughter's school. On the board in her classroom I noticed a cute little sun with sunbeams sticking out from the center. On each of the sunbeams, a soon-to-be second grader could write what it was they liked to do.

I want to remember never to play hangman with the child who wrote this little gem:

"I lick too rid my bick"

Those darn silent "e"s.

I seriously can't stop giggling.......

Speaking of my "What were you like in High School" post:

I realized my 20 year High School reunion will be coming up next year. Holy Cow! 20 years??? I have friends my age who have kids graduating from High School this year.



As I was doing some cleaning the other week, I came across some oldies but goodies. I thought I'd share my keen '80's fashion style with you. Big hair, mullets and all........


Oh yeah....and you aren't allowed to laugh out loud.



First, I'll start out with my Sophomore year. This is me. I learned to play the marimba in the Marching Band. Yes. I was a band geek for a season. I had actually never played a marimba before in my life and one day, my twin brother came home from marching band practice and mentioned they needed a marimba player. So, me being the type who loves a challenge, I took home the music and made myself a "marimba" using folded up napkins on the dining room floor. I practiced my "marimba" all weekend and when Monday came, I showed up to practice after school and played along. With 2 mallets in each hand no less. I remember the two girls who played the bells next to me being totally jealous when I told them I learned to play over the weekend.



And here's me at my Junior Prom. Would you believe the guy I went with was 14? I was only 16 and two years in the whole scheme of things really isn't a huge deal. But he was cute and played football and that's all that really mattered back then.




Then we have my Senior year. This is me in our Madrigal choir group. My guy friends all had competitions our senior year to see who could grow their hair the longest by the end of the year. This picture was taken in May so as you can see, the hair growth is quite impressive in this picture. My Senior year boyfriend is they guy sitting on the right. He was a total preppy boy and drove a black Saab with a moonroof. I thought it was cool.



And.......here we are at the Senior Prom. Me and my Madonna-esque gloves.




20 year reunion? Bring it on!

A little something something I learned today...

Playing hangman with a 6 year old is even less fun than playing Barbies.

That's because phrases like "I love you very much" is spelled like "I love you veary moch".

It just gets to be too confusing and frustrating and not very much fun on my part.

Jack turned 5!

I wasn't sure he would actually live to see the day.

My oldest two kids have spent the last week tag teaming who would be the one to either throw a tantrum or give me attitude. I have fought more battles over the most rediculous things this week than I can remember. And I actually had the words, "You keep it up and I'll GIVE you something to cry about" fall out of my mouth.

This was our morning:

My mom was going to take him to the movies with his sister but he said, "I don't WANT to go." So, not wanting to fight that battle, I said, "Then you don't GET to go." My mom took Lauren and Erik instead. I wasn't sure who was being punished more though. Jack for being stubborn or my mom for having to take a 2 year old who had never even been to the movies before. The trick, by the way, to get a 2 year old to sit still for 2 hours......Skittles.

Then I told the kids I'd take them to Wendy's for lunch. I heard they had Junie B. Jones book CD's in the kid's meals. He wanted to go to Burger King. The closest Burger King is probably 5 miles further away. I went to Wendys. He didn't eat his kid's meal. And now it's only 1:00 PM and I desperately needed a diet Coke but I drank the last one at 9:00.....AM. Right after the movie battle. Momma no happy.

He told me he wanted a Power Rangers cake for his birthday. I really do try my best to accomodate their requests. I draw the line though with anything Bratz related or involving lasers and needing an engineering degree.

Here's the cake I came up with:

He thought it was cool. My mom thought it was a sunflower. I thought it was funny that the name of the color on the Wilton frosting gel package said, "Pooh yellow or Pooh". It definately looked like Poo(h). He got a couple of transformer toys. I felt it was time he upgraded from the big legos that he would use as he ran around the house making assorted noises to something a little more five-year-oldish. He also got a bunch of new clothes and a backpack for when he starts kindergarten in THREE WEEKS! ( see my sad face? )

All day kindergarten is starting to sound VERY tempting.

This is the house that "we" built

This is my spin off of the old Mother Goose Nursery rhyme which sums up my life right now:

This is the house that we built.

This is the house

That we couldn't sell before because the market was so bad

That we turned into a rental house

That is the house that we built.

This is the floor

That we have to take out and put down wood laminate instead

That was the rental

That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.

This is the wall

That we have to paint a neutral color to attract more buyers

That will then match the floors

That was the rental

That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.

This is the outside

That we have to give "curb appeal"

That will match the walls

That go with the floors

That was the rental

That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.

This is the kitchen

That needs all appliances replaced to match the new countertops

That will match the walls

That will go with the floors

That was the rental

That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.
This is the space

That we need to add built-ins so people will get what the space is for

That will match the replaced appliances

That will match the walls

That will go with the floors

That was the rental

That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.

This is the bathroom that needs to be tiled

That will update the room

That will go with the built-ins

That will match the replaced appliances

That will match the walls

That will go with the floors

That was the rental

That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.

This is the mom that is stressed and worn

That there will be two mortage payments to make

That will get new tile in the bathroom

That has to replace the appliances

That will match the walls

That will go with the floors

That was the rental
That we couldn't sell before

That lay in the house that we built.
Anyone want to buy a rare custom, seven year old cute house in sunny Mesa, AZ? I'll post some after pictures when we get done.

What were you like in High School?

Take the test to find out:

This was me:

All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain. You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

Who Were You In High School?

Happy 4th of July

I love the 4th of July. Each year it gives me an opportunity to reflect on our great nation and the sacrifices that were made to allow us the freedoms we have today. I also love the 4th because I love early American History. I grew up in Pennsylvania surrounded by historical sites and the home of the highly acclaimed Cheesesteak and Birch beer. A place where an "old" building was something built in the early 1700's as opposed to where I live now where "old" is something built in the 1970's. We lived just 20 minutes from where George Washington crossed the Delaware River and an hour or so from Valley Forge. A few hours west was Gettysburg which has such an amazing, solemn, spiritual feeling to it. A few hours drive south was Washington DC where the Museum of American History is, which is my favorite museum. I loved seeing the flag being unveiled that Francis Scott Key saw flying over the Chesapeake Bay which inspired the words to our National Anthem.

I'm about as Patriotic as they get. I got 90% on a citizenship test. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19552808/


Along with the usual 4th traditions of fireworks, corn on the cob and watermelon, there is also a tradition that has taken place in our great nation for the last 92 years on Coney Island. You guessed it. The annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating competition. It's the smack down of all smack downs if you follow the "how much food can one person eat" circuit. I still can't decide which was funnier. Seeing the food categories the competitors have won titles in or the commentators remarks.

Here's what I mean.

There was a big dude who was the pork and bean eating champion. There was another 62 year old man who was the spam AND birthday cake eating champion. ( How completely random and unrelated could those two food items be from each other? ). There was a "meat on the bone" competitor who only competed in....you guessed it....competitions dealing with meat on the bones. There was another guy who I believe was the strawberry shortcake eating champion. Which leads me to funny commentator remark #1.

"Well he ate 46 to qualify. That's 2 hot dogs for every day Paris Hilton was in jail. He's dedicating this contest to Nikki Hilton."

Who would have guessed that Paris's name would be mentioned at a hot dog eating contest?

Evidently, he was trying to channel his inner Nikki because like Nikki who is in the shadow of her sister, Paris, he too, feels he is in the shadow of Joey Chestnut. If you don't know who Joey "Jaws" Chestnut is, I'll talk about him later.

Another guy holds the record for eating 23 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. He and the pork and bean guy should get together. They'd have a rip roaring time I'm sure.

Then there was the "Black Widow". They really do have cute little nicknames much like the WWF. Only this girl was seriously 105 pounds soaking wet.

This was her title:

"Cheesecake eating, fried okra eating, minced pie eating, soft taco eating, turducken eating, sweet potato eating, vienna sausage eating, fruitcake eating, quesadilla eating, ham biscuit eating, pulled pork eating, ravioli eating, oyster eating, crabcake eating, jambalaya eating" champion.

I kept having to pause and rewind the recording to make sure I got it all in there. They say she ate 10 pounds of cheesecake in 10 minutes. How do you train for something like that? SHE'S 105 POUNDS!!! My left thigh alone weighs that much! I put on 10 pounds just eating ONE slice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I gain five pounds just smelling the cheesecake. Two pounds if I think about cheesecake. If I ate 10 pounds of cheesecake all at once, I'd be an elephant.....and not even a soaking wet one! How fair is THAT?

Then there was Joey Chestnut who was represent'n for our country. The "deep fried asparagus" eating champion. Our hero. The main man about to take on the 6 time champion Takeru Kobayashi. This year though, was a little different. It seems Kobayashi was suffering from arthritis of the jaw and had some wisdom teeth taken out. What are the odds? That's pretty unfortunate seeing that his livelihood is cramming 50+ hot dogs down his throat in 12 minutes once a year.

This leads me to funny commentator remark #2:

"I don't know if you've ever had your wisdom teeth taken out but it's a pain like a Peyton Manning commerical."

So the competition began. Three minutes into the 12 minute competition, I had to look away. My gag reflex has exacerbated since I had kids. The world record was something like 60 hot dogs. Both Chestnut and Kobayashi surpassed that number. A couple of seconds before the time ran out, Kobayashi "lost it" so to speak which leads me to funny commentator remark #3.

"That's a Kobayashi reversal." and "Yeah. A reversal of fortune."

In the end, Chestnut won 66 -63. How would you like to be the guy that comes in second place, having beaten the previous world record as well, but falling short and all you have to show for it are 63 hot dogs in your stomach and really bad heart burn? It was the upset of the century. Which leads me to my last and final funny commentator remark #4:

"If you google "hero" tomorrow, you'll get Abe Lincoln, Neil Armstrong, Taylor Hicks and this guy....Joey Chestnut."


Oh come on now. That's just crazy talk. Taylor Hicks? I mean seriously.


For your viewing pleasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZPCAsPWl4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r56uLxEllLM