This Old House- Part II

We didn't take that many pictures of the "during" process. This entire project is a tribute to my husband's amazing work ethic and his unwavering diligence once he starts a project. I know of people who have remodeled houses for years, sometimes never finishing. A lot of people say they've remodeled their houses when all they've done is switch out the carpet and repaint the walls, maybe replace a sink. We didn't remodel this house. We gutted it and rebuilt it completely. It was amazing how much wood and concrete we hauled out of this house. We completed the entire remodel (trim included) in fifteen months. There is nothing left undone except the unfinished basement, which Nathan is chomping at the bit to finish.

This was the living room after we took out the shag carpet. This wood floor is the only original floor left in the whole house. We managed to save it and refinish it. This is the kitchen at the beginning of the demolition.

And this is the kitchen a few weeks later. Nathan is standing in the same corner pictured above. See the log exterior walls behind him. This house is solid. I am no longer afraid of tornadoes (not that we get them here.)

Good-bye nasty bathroom.

This was the green bedroom.

This is my living room. That is the front door behind Ethan. The corner bedroom (the green one) we sacrificed to make and office and an opening for both sets of stairs. This was taken right before Lynn cut out the floor in the old hallway and put in a new set of stairs. Taking out the old basement stairs added three feet to our kitchen.

Upstairs we were already rebuilding. We removed the hidden rooms to make closets, and this storage cubby, which goes the length of the house. This was where the built-in dresser used to be.

The old kitchen gone, we moved this wall back and added three feet to our master bedroom. It does have a sloped ceiling, but I actually like it that way.

Obviously with this much destruction in the house, we had to move out. We'd originally planned to live on one level and remodel the other, but when we realized we'd have to redo all the plumbing and electrical, it meant doing it all at once. We rented the cheapest apartment we could find. It was a tiny one bedroom, and-- I'm not exaggerating about this-- our current master bedroom is bigger than the entire apartment. We put the bunk beds and our queen bed in the bedroom, and there was only about 12 inches in between them. There wasn't room for Mazie's bed, so the boys had to sleep in one bunk and she slept in the other or sometimes on the floor.

This Old House, Part I

This weekend I was thinking about our house.  I decided to take you back in time to see where we were, how far we've come and where we are now with this house.

So, imagine it's October 28, 2005. That is the day we closed on our first home and got the keys. Before doing anything else, we went to visit the house, walk through it and take pictures. Prepare yourself. It wasn't pretty. We bought the house from the estate of a 90 year old woman. Her husband had died a decade earlier, and the house had basically no maintenance since. This was the best picture I could get of the front, because the bushes were so overgrown, you couldn't see the house from the street. The front door.


This is the view standing in the front door. That little gas stove in the corner was all the heat it had on the ground level. It got well below zero that December, and we had sleeping bags piled over our kids while they slept. We also had space heaters in the bedrooms, but they didn't seem to do enough. The same room, looking back toward the front door.
Now, for the kitchen. Like many old houses, the kitchen was separated from the living/dining room by a doorway. The door had been removed. I was standing in the doorway for this first picture. Notice the mismatched cabinets, the nasty old tile flooring. There was no counter space in the cooking area. It had a single sink that was only about eight inches deep, but I loved those tall white cabinets on the side. I managed to put all my quart jars in those cabinets. It was incredible. Still, the kitchen was gross. We lived in the house for three months as is.
This is the downstairs bath. Nice floor, huh? It was tiny, too. See how the tub touches both walls. The window was nice, too. No chance of showering without flashing the neighbors. Actually, there was no shower, just a tub. The curtain was disgusting plastic, so I took it down and lined the window with the privacy film, so we could get in and out of the tub without scaring the neighbors. I took only baths for three months.
There were two bedrooms downstairs. This was one. It at least had nice wood floors, but they were really trashed. This was the other. It had 50-year-old linoleum floors, wide metal blinds that looked like they hadn't been cleaned in twenty years, and my favorite, they nasty green paint. The walls were all lath and plaster, so they were cracked and stained and uneven in places.
These were the stair to the basement. They opened to the back door and another doorway to the kitchen.
This is the back porch. Here you can see the logs. The house is log construction with stucco added over it later. They didn't stucco inside the porch.
This is the back of the house. The back porch, and what would later become my master bedroom window. At the time it was....
A kitchen, complete with a 1940's refrigerator and.... Gas cook stove.The upstairs was an apartment with a separate outside entrance. It was connected to the downstairs by a small hallway. The four rooms upstairs were a tiny bedroom, a larger room, which they would have used as a living room, the kitchen and a bathroom. This was of the "living room". That is a built-in dresser, and there was no way to save it since we moved that wall back four feet.

The builder of this house was German, and in 1935 when he built it, the Nazis were rising in power. He believed there would come a day when his neighbors would come for him because of his nationality. When he built the house, he built hidden rooms behind the walls, so there would be somewhere for him to hide. (The Hiding Place, but in reverse.) Behind the built-in dresser was a hidden room.

Here's Ethan in the crawl spaces. See the log wall behind him. That is the back of the house.

This is the small bedroom. It's now Mazie's room, and it is the only room in the house that didn't change much. After we gutted it, we put the sheet rock right back where the lath had been. It retained the sloped shape on the corner and everything.
And finally, the upstairs bathroom. Again, a window right in the shower.
The broken toilet and sink. The upstairs plumbing was turned off when we bought the house because none of it worked.
So, that was the beginning. The start of our big adventure. How's that for a first home? Next time I'll show you what we did to it.

What do I do all day?

He's given me a complex. Here I am documenting my accomplishments again, in a vain attempt to prove my worth. Here's what I did today:


Made scrambled eggs, sausage (the pre-cooked patties) and toast for breakfast.


Washed the dishes


Swept the kitchen and dining room floors


Made salt play-dough for Mazie


Filled my flour bucket with the 25 lbs I bought at Costco the other day.



Vacuumed the living room carpet


Hauled a mountain of laundry to the basement to be washed. (I usually try to do a little everyday, but this week it just didn't get done. I am amazed at how much laundry we accumulate in a week!)


Put a load of laundry into the washer.

Worked on an embroidery project that is for a Christmas gift.

Talked to my sister on the phone about the family cookbook that I'm supposed to be compiling.



Put a roast in the oven for dinner


Took Dylan's forgotten homework and student planner to the school


Mailed the costume that I sold on eBay


Went to the dump and recycled our aluminum cans


Stopped by the car wash and vacuumed out my car, only to realize it needed much more than vacuuming.


Came home and scrubbed clean the seats in the car, then wiped them down with a leather conditioner.


Pulled all the mats out of the car, scrubbed them twice (they were nasty), rinsed, dried and put them back into the car (before anyone got a muddy footprint where they should have been).


Picked a bouquet of flowers from our garden for Mazie. (She's always picking flowers, but she only picks off the bud, so they can't really be put in water. Today she was excited to see the trees really turning yellow, then she turned to me seriously and said, "I know what that means. It means all the flowers are going to wilt!" She was really upset, so I picked flowers for her to enjoy while they last.)


Sent Mazie off to a birthday party



Fed the boys dinner



Washed another load of laundry



Folded and put away three or four loads of piled-up laundry in my room

Picked Mazie up from the party

Mediated who-knows-how-many fights over the birthday candy

Got the kids ready for bed

Sat down to relax and wait for the highlight of my day-- Nathan coming home!


(This was from Wednesday, and I forgot to post it.)

We Have a Winner!!!

Kristin, the amazing mommy, proves once again that she is truly amazing. Not only is her room make-over very cute(will you come decorate my house?), she scored a perfect eleven on the movie quiz.

1. “I’m telling you, that car just winked at me.”

2. “I swear, tractors is so dumb. I’ll tell you what buddy, it don’t get much better than this… I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.”

3. “It’s just like riding a bike, only you’re crapping on it.” 4. “I just consider myself royally flushed.”

5. “Everyone will get a grip, or so help me, I will ground you for a month!”

6. (Singing) “Here on my island the heat says hello. Dolphins are waiting wherever I go…”

7. “Ratted out by the old lady. Harsh.”

8. “Me fire king. Why kill fire king? A thousand years of bad juju for killing the fire king.”

9. When asked if he will attend a ball, Mr. K replies, “I’d rather fetch that stick…. Try not to kill my dogs.”

10. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll say, David has a short attention span. He’s just jerking your chain. Can I say that to a woman, ‘jerking your chain’?”

Bonus: I don’t know if this is actually in the movie or just in the trailer, but it gets quoted around our house all the time: “Son, in about two seconds, I’m going to scream like a little girl.”

Congratulations, Kristin. I hope you like the bracelet. I'll send you an extension chain. You can wear it as a necklace, too.

Hint, Hint

I'm feeling sort of bad. Only one person tried my movie quiz. I think (sniff, sniff) that no one likes my prize. Or maybe, the quiz is just too hard, but come on people-- I Googled these quotes and found nine of them. So, it must be the prize. I guess most people aren't into bracelets, even though I love them. I'd rather wear a bracelet than a necklace, but that's just me. Well, if there is some other bracelet lover out there who found the quiz too hard, here are some hints:

1. a modern remake of an old classic, staring a lovable bug

2. Like, Ta- Mater, without the Ta.

3. I've never really been a fan of Ashton Kutcher, until he made this animated film. He was the perfect voice for this scrawny little deer, and it was him who delivered that line.

4. The hint is the in quote here, royally. My nieces said the movie was better than the books.

5. Parents in spandex. Yeah, I'd wear a mask, too.

6. She's blond. She's beautiful, even in a shipwreck-toga.

7. Time travel makes possible a father-son duo of thirteen-year-old boys.

8. One instance where I think the second movie was better than the first. Also stars a very funny squirrel-thingy chasing an acorn.

9. Based on a Jane Austen novel. The star won an Academy award for another film in which she fell in love with the Bard.

10. This is my favorite Harrison Ford film, even though it was probably his worst box-office flop. I LOVE this movie. I like it much better than the original.

Bonus: The sky is falling.

So, NOW does anyone want to play?

Email your answers to poopiebrowneyes@yahoo.com.

Yes, for all of you "strangers" out there, I will explain the email address. Though every other guy I dated said I had pretty eyes, the one guy I married always teases me that they would be pretty if they weren't poopie brown. He has nice green-gray eyes. It's a family joke. Me and my not-so-pretty poopie brown eyes. And, anyway, it was one email address that wasn't taken when I signed up at Yahoo, and no one ever forgets it, so I guess it was a good pick.

This Weekend's Accomplishments

In light of my husband's recent accusation that I do nothing, I've decided to document a few things that I accomplished. I understand now why I craft so much. I have to have at least a few things in a week that don't get immediately undone.

I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, then swept the living room floor, only to have to sweep it again twice because Mazie decided to have dry Ramen noodles for a snack and Josie dumped Trix all over then proceeded to squish them with her fat little hands.

I attempted to involve my children in folding the laundry, but threw them out of my bedroom when they wouldn't stop bickering. I cleaned out Mazie's dresser of all the outgrown/out of season clothes. Dylan's I did last week, so I only have Ethan's left to do.

My neighbor gave me crab apples, so I made jelly. It was a two-day process since you have to let the juice drip out of the cloth. It turned out pretty and is pretty tasty, too.

Finally, I finished this quilt that I started a year ago. I had the top finished, and it was tied to the back, but I never got around to finishing the binding. I did that today, and I'm so happy that it's finally done. It's supposed to be my "car quilt"-- the one you leave in the back of the car for trips to the park, soccer games, etc.

Quote of the Day

Yesterday after school one of my kids said, "Mom, was George Washington a Republican or a Democrap?"

Test Your Knowledge...

Test your knowledge of our family movie library!

Awhile back I counted our family DVD collection. We had over eighty DVDs and by now, I’m pretty sure we’re pushing a hundred. I packed up a bunch of them when I put the house on the market, thinking (ha ha ha) that it would sell in a few months. Now my kids keep asking for their DVDs back. Most we’ve seen many times, and lines stick with me from various ones.

Today I walked over to the DVD shelf and scanned the titles, then put together this quote list from memory. (I checked a few because I wanted to get them right.) The first person who can correctly identify ten of the following movies will get this prize: Good Luck!

1. “I’m telling you, that car just winked at me.”

2. “I swear, tractors is so dumb. I’ll tell you what buddy, it don’t get much better than this… I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.”

3. “It’s just like riding a bike, only you’re crapping on it.” (Dylan quoted this at the dinner table out of the blue one night, and much as I tried to be stern and say it wasn’t appropriate dinner discussion, he had me snorting into my tacos.)

4. “I just consider myself royally flushed.”

5. “Everyone will get a grip, or so help me, I will ground you for a month!”

6. (Singing) “Here on my island the heat says hello. Dolphins are waiting wherever I go…”

7. “Ratted out by the old lady. Harsh.”

8. “Me fire king. Why kill fire king? A thousand years of bad juju for killing the fire king.”

9. When asked if he will attend a ball, Mr. K replies, “I’d rather fetch that stick…. Try not to kill my dogs.”

10. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll say, David has a short attention span. He’s just jerking your chain. Can I say that to a woman, ‘jerking your chain’?”

Bonus: I don’t know if this is actually in the movie or just in the trailer, but it gets quoted around our house all the time: “Son, in about two seconds, I’m going to scream like a little girl.”

Email your answers to poopiebrowneyes@yahoo.com. First one to correctly answer ten wins. (That means you can miss one if you get the bonus right.)

Slow on the Post

To anyone who's still reading regularly, I'm sorry I've been slow on posting lately. The sad thing is that I don't feel like there was anything special going on. Life just wore me out this week.

We finished smoothing out our basement walls and painted one with sealer. Two coats took all the sealer we'd bought, or we would have done more. The first wall was sort of an experiment to see how much we needed to buy. That project took most of Josie's nap times all week long, but that's not why I'm exhausted.

Josie is getting four molars at once. It's so strange. She skipped the eye teeth and went straight to molars. There's a gap where the eye teeth should be and three really swollen places where the molars are coming in. One already broke through. To compliment her teething, she always gets a runny nose and at night her ears hurt. So, she's been up a good deal of every night this week. Last night Nathan and I crashed around 8:30 as soon as we got the kids to bed. I fell right to sleep, only to have Josie wake me up around ten. Nathan had to get up at three AM to go to work, so I took Josie downstairs to the guest bedroom. She didn't go back to sleep until two in the morning. An hour later, I heard Nathan get up, so I went out to see him off. When I came back to the guest bedroom, Josie was awake again. I couldn't take anymore, so I took her up to her crib and I slept in my own bed. The boys woke her again around seven when they got up for school.

My house has deteriorated into chaos once again, and I was planning to get it all cleaned up while the kids were at school, but I am so exhausted, I can't seem to get myself moving on the mountain of dishes that need to be washed or clean laundry that needs to be folded. Instead, I'm here blogging about my exhaustion.

Today our prayers are with my step-dad, who is still recovering at home after a nineteen day hospital stay, and with my brother-in-law and his wife, whose identical twin boys were delivered yesterday in an emergency C-section. One is only two pounds, while the other is four pounds. They expect the babies to be in the hospital at least a month, and that is all I really know. When I talked to my mother-in-law, they said they were doing well, but it was too soon to tell if the little one will be developmentally delayed.

Finally, I probably shouldn't vent about this publicly, but I came home from church last Sunday and began to wonder if the Lord would understand if I went inactive simply because I'm tired. My calling has me physically, spiritually and emotionally tapped out. We moved into this little branch three and a half years ago, and almost immediately they put me into the primary. This was sort of funny since I'd never had a primary calling before. In fact, my husband had had three separate primary callings, but I had never been in primary. (Convert, you know.) I have been in primary ever since. They paroled me to Young Women's for six months, but sent me back when they changed the presidency. I've served under four different primary presidents. Everyone one else that was in there when I started has long since moved on, and I'm still stuck there. Once a great sister in our branch was released from her Sunday school calling and we asked to have her in primary. We were told that calling her into primary "would be a waste of her talents." So, what does that make me?

My sister and her husband are going to be home visiting my mom this weekend. I so much want to pack up the kids and go, but I can't. Why? Because we have to practice the primary program and other sisters in primary are already scheduled to be gone. I decided a long time ago that I've reached the point in my life where it's no longer about what I need from the church, but what the church needs from me. I accept that. But sometimes, it would be nice to get a little oil in my own lamp on Sunday. Top this off with the fact that the primary president said in her testimony last fast Sunday something about me having a stubborn streak and that we butt heads on occasion. I smiled at her, but inside I was thinking, "I've done EVERYTHING she's asked me to do in this calling. What makes me so hard to get along with?" None of the other primary presidents had a problem with me. If she doesn't like my, why not RELEASE me! I'd be happy to go.

Seriously, inactivity looks good about now.

Today My Husband Actually Said...

"What are you going to do today? Sit around and do nothing just like yesterday?"

These are the days when I have to remind myself that I said yes across the alter of my own free will and choice, and that I vowed to love him eternally, because I'd really like to strangle him because:

a) he said this after I spent all morning helping him paint the basement.

b) yesterday was the SABBATH

c) notwithstanding that yesterday was the Sabbath, I still cooked dinner, made cookies (at my family's request) and washed the dishes from breakfast, Sunday dinner and baking cookies.

d) this morning was the only time in my entire week when I get a break from my four-year-old chatterbox, and instead of sewing, beading or working on Primary stuff, I painted the basement

I will admit that today I have not cleaned bathrooms or done one bit of laundry. The washer and dryer are moved so that we can paint in the basement. I did, however, spend a good deal of my day entertaining Josie. Somehow I thought raising a child counted as something. I must have been mistaken. ;)

Be Grateful

I've been pondering this post for a few days, and I'm worried that I'm ungrateful, because it was sort of stressing me out. It's not that I don't think I'm blessed. I do. I think I'm abundantly blessed. It's just that the things I'm most grateful for (my family, my health, healthy children and the gospel) might seem like vain repetitions. So, I decided to post ten things I'm grateful for TODAY. Forgive me if they sound mundane or shallow. I count small blessings as well as large ones.


10. I'm grateful that I found my favorite shirt after two weeks of searching. It was in a Rubbermaid bin of Josie's winter clothes. (I have a theory about how it got there. I fold clothes on my bed, and when Josie needed a jacket two weeks ago, I pulled stuff out of the bin and set it on the bed, found the jacket and dumped the clothes back in, accidentally taking my favorite shirt with it.) I'm celebrating tomorrow and wearing it to church.


9. I'm grateful to have a husband who can pull me out of my emotional slumps.


8. I'm grateful that tonight I get to sleep beside him, and that I can ease almost any stress by simply laying my head on his shoulder.


7. I'm grateful that my house is clean. Nathan gets credit for this. I helped him work in the basement this morning, so he got everyone moving this afternoon to help with the house. The kids rooms are clean. The laundry is done. The floors are swept and mopped. It feels great!


6. I'm grateful for nice weather after rain.


5. I'm grateful to live in a town where people know my name.


4. I'm grateful that my husband has a job-- for now, at least.


3. I'm grateful for the quiet after the kids go to sleep.

2. I'm grateful for extended families who love us and pray for us.

1. I'm grateful that today I hugged and kissed each of the five most important people in my life.


On a side note-- I'm happy to announce that my little loafers sold-- for 99 cents to the only person who bid on them. I don't think I'm cut out for eBay!

Small Talk

I was trying to follow tharker's example and think of all the things I'm grateful for, but I'm sort of grumpy today, and I was having a hard time coming up with a good list that wasn't copycatting. So, I'll post my gratefuls tomorrow and just chat today.

My favorite shirt is still missing. This has been distressing me for a week now. I know I saw it here in the house. It went into the laundry (I think) and the washing machine ate it. Must have eaten it, but I can't be sure because Nathan was home the last time I saw my favorite shirt, and he does laundry. (Yeah, you can hate me because I have a husband who does laundry. He'd tell you it's because is wife is so lazy!) Anyway, Nate does laundry like a man, so who knows where it ended up?

I have no blog followers. So far. It's okay. I didn't start blogging to be popular. And, personally I am following blogs because their updates show on my dashboard, so I don't have to view the blog to know who's been blogging. I like that feature. Forgive me if I become a groupy. Mostly I just want to know if you've updated with one less click!

My husband thinks I'm silly for opening an etsy store. I was so proud that I showed it to him. He said, "Has anyone bought anything?" Well, no. To which he just nodded his head. Need he say more? So, now I'm feeling a little silly about it, too. But today I was telling another mom how it's the process that relaxes me, and all my relatives have already received jewelry I've made. So have most of my friends. I like making it, and it would be nice to recoup some of the cost, thus selling seems reasonable. It's not like I expect to make a wad of cash. I can't keep making jewelry for myself. I already have more that I can wear. (Especially with a one-year-old, who likes to pull on my earrings. Ouch!)

Lastly, my husband's job is very uncertain right now, so I've been trying stash away some savings in case he ends up unemployed in a few months. Just this week our Maxima rolled over 200,00 miles, and immediately started having this knocking sound in the motor. Nathan wasn't sure if he'd even make it home, so I met him just over halfway, dropped the car at the shop and had them look at it. Guess how much the repairs cost? Yep, almost exactly what I'd stashed away. It was hard not to be depressed today.

Our road these days seems to be all bumps and grooves. I meant that figuratively, but in case you're local, our city is making it literal, too. I guess I'll do what I always do-- just grip the wheel a little tighter and keep moving forward.

Yeah!

Today my site counter broke 1000! Thanks to all of you who have been reading. I'm happy to have people with whom to share my joys and woes.

Plotting

I've been trying to get going on a new book-- series actually. Anyway, this series idea has been kicking around in my head for the better part of ten years, and I'm finally ready to write it. Initially, it was going to be a single novel, but after studying successful books and looking really hard at this idea, I came to two conclusions.

First, most really successful books are a series, short or long-- it doesn't seem to matter, but publishers don't spend a whole lot of money marketing single books. If they are going to spend the cash marketing a book, they want more payoff, which comes from the rest of the series.

Secondly, I can't put this whole idea into a single novel.

So, I decided on a three-book series (and no, I'm not going to add a fourth later to make more money, like certain dragon and vampire books have done). Anyway, I've always been concerned that I'd never be able to come up with enough plot conflicts to fill three whole books. So, yesterday I started mapping out the first book. I had a great time developing the character flaws for one guy. He'll be fun to write. Anyway, I could see how the whole book would shape up, and it was completely different from how I'd originally planned. Then lying in bed last night, I started thinking about other characters, who were supposed to star in book one, but sort of got ousted. I'm drifting off to sleep, and scenes are running through my head. So, this morning I wake up and I realize-- OH MY GOSH, I have the whole plot for book two, and actually, most of book three because book three is the original story I planned years ago.

I realize that this probably makes no sense to most of you, but trust me, it was exciting. So exciting that I told Mazie she absolutely had to watch a movie so I could scribble all my notes before I lost the ideas.

Like everything else I've written, this may never be published, but I love this idea and I have to write it. I simply cannot explain the writing need in me. Off I go, and my house will be a wreck for the next six months for sure!

An Author's Irritation

So, I've been surfing around Etsy, and I came across several shops that offer Twilight inspired jewelry. This irritates the author in me. Unless these shop owners have specifically purchased merchandising rights, which I'm sure they haven't, I would think it's an infringement on Stephenie Meyer's copyright. And really, why should they be making money off characters that she created? It should be her right to produce a jewelry line inspired by the series and bearing the names of her characters. The same is true for Harry Potter. There is a lot of Harry Potter inspired merchandise on Etsy, some of it bearing charms and words that J.K. Rowling invented.

So, I want to know how far the merchandising copyrights go. Once I'm agented, this is going to be question number two. (Right after, How much can you sell the book for?) Because, personally, I would retain my merchandising rights and put out of business anyone who infringed on them. But that's just me. I suppose Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling are much nicer. :)

About the Etsy store

Obviously my name isn't Jane. You all got that it was a play on words, right? You know like, Jack-of-all-Trades. In case the photo link isn't working, you can find my Etsy store at:

http://janeofallcrafts.etsy.com

Now, most of you who are related to me or have been around me for the past few years have seen some of these items before, but I wanted to make them more widely available. I'll take requests, too, if you have them. Yet another adventure I'm embarking on. I'm thinking this is a bad sign. I must be restless. Need to get going on that next book, so my mind is occupied.

Happy shopping!

Oh, and by the way. So far there are no bids on the cute little loafers. Maybe my eBay adventure will end as quietly as it began. :)

A Week In Photos

Yahoo! News always features "The Week in Photos" on their news pages. I like these short twelve or thirteen photo slide shows of things going on in the world. You can it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/week-in-photos

This week (September 5) it features a photo of Senator John McCain greeting a young man with a smiling couple in the background. I wish I could include it, but it's copyrighted, so that would be stealing. Anyway, the caption reads, "Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain greets Levi Johnson, boyfriend of Sarah Palin's oldest daughter Bristol Palin..."



That poor kid. The caption should have read something like this:


Old Man: Hey, kid. Thanks to me, the entire world knows you got your girlfriend pregnant. What do you have to say for yourself?


Levi: Er, nice to meet you Senator.


Future Mother-in-Law: Don't worry, sweetheart. If we get elected, all this humiliation will be worth it.


Levi: (Aside) Yeah, tell that to my mom.

Taking the Plunge

Well, I did it. I listed an item on eBay. I feel so adventurous. (I know, most of you have done this already, so it doesn't seem that exciting.) I didn't list a costume. I listed these:

Aren't they adorable? I bought them when I was pregnant with Dylan, and both of my boys' feet were too fat to wear them. Such a bummer. I sent them to my sister for her one little boy, but he outgrew them quickly and she sent them back. I figured I could handle the shipping on them, so we'll see how it goes.

Guess what else I did? I opened an Etsy store. I haven't listed anything yet, but I'm planning to photograph a few things this evening if Josie ever goes to sleep.

My back is still aching from last night. Josie wouldn't go to sleep, then finally fell asleep for about 45 minutes and woke absolutely screaming. I finally got her calmed down and she fell asleep in my bed. I didn't dare move her because I didn't want to hear her scream again. (She's a very light sleeper.) So, I ended up sleeping with little feet and a little head and a little back rolling up against me all night. When I finally rolled her off me at seven this morning, it woke her. She was all bright eyed and bushy tailed, and I was a total zombie.

And a little note for ShaRee, if you're reading... About the Mom-of-the-Year award. I'm right there with you. Ethan crashed his bike, came in crying and showed me a scrape on his leg about the size of a nickle. I put a little antibiotic ointment on, slapped a bandage over it and said, "You're fine. Go play." So, today he's getting in the shower, and he still has that nickle-sized scrape, but all around it is a baseball-sized purple bruise. I felt really bad. He got zero compassion from me, and he was really hurt. So, if you thought you were dropping out of the running, we're tied!

eBay Newbie

Blogging wasn't the only thing I've been reluctant to try. While I have bought things on eBay, I've never sold anything on eBay. So, it's September, and I have a whole Rubbermaid tub full of old costumes that my kids aren't going to use again. Some are very nice, and I figure they would be the perfect start to my eBay selling. I don't really care if I make money on them because we've used them and are done with them now.

Did I list them? No. I'm too stressed about figuring the shipping. I don't have a mail scale at home, and I feel sort of stupid going to the post office and asking them to weigh all these dumb costumes so I can figure the shipping. What worries me most is that I'll figure the shipping wrong, sell the costume for 99 cents and then it will actually cost me money to get rid of it, when I could have just dropped it off at Goodwill. Anyone out there an eBay pro who can help me through my sell-crippling self-doubt?

Whatever Will Be

I can't really think of what to say in this post. The past few days we've been dealing with bad news regarding my husband's job. Our future seems to be completely up in the air. We still have no offers on our house. I have no idea what we're going to do. And, here's the funny thing, I have this completely calm feeling.

For the past several months I have been praying and praying and studying and begging and feeling like no one is listening. Then, suddenly we get terrible news, and I'm totally calm. I know now that the Lord has been listening. I have no idea what His plan is for us, but I just know we're going to be okay. Nathan is very stressed, and I keep trying to calm him. I can't explain it. I can't tell him what will happen, but I know it will work out. You can call it blind faith if you want, but this is an answer that has been months in coming. I think back on all those heart-felt prayers that went unanswered, and I think maybe they were just drops in my bucket that needed to fill before this crisis hit.


All day Doris Day's hit song has been running through my head, "Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be will be. The future's not ours to see...."

All we can do is wait and see.

Quote of the Day

Mom: You'd better watch your mouth, or you're going to get yourself in trouble.

Mazie: I can't see my mouth.

Happy Hula

I couldn't help the urge to brag. In all my fourteen years of marriage, I've never been able to beat my husband at anything.

Running? Not a chance.
Biking? I just eat his dust.
Chess? Never.
Cards? I won't even play with him unless he's on my team, because I get tired of losing.
Mario Kart? Well, some of us get tired of placing last.
Any sport involving a racket? No, none of those either.

I remember when we used to play Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64, and he would put his health all the way down to negative ten, and mine was clear up to positive ten, so I could knock him off with one shot, and he'd still beat me.

So, finally, I reign supreme at one thing-- Wii Fit Hula Hoop. He tried for an hour to break my record, came away sweating but still under my score. I have to say, it feels kind of nice to win for once, although, I'm sure it won't last. He'll keep trying until he breaks that record. In the meantime, I'm smiling. I took this really cute picture of him doing the hula, but he threatened me with certain death if I posted it on my blog, so suffice it to say that watching your husband hula for an hour is quite entertaining. I highly recommend it.

All Messed Up

My youngest's developmental stages are seriously askew. She can stand in the middle of the room, wiggle and dance, but she won't take a step. Today, Nathan was doing lunges with the Wii Fit, and Josie stood with her feet apart, bent her knees, nearly touched her diapered bum on the ground, then stood back up. But she won't walk. Then I'm getting her a bottle and she gives me an open-mouthed grin, and I see, to my shock, a molar poking through her little gums. A molar? At fourteen months? On a baby who still can't walk. I'm telling you, something is seriously wrong here. This little stubborn spirit just won't be rushed.

Nathan stood her up, backed away and tried to get her to walk to him. She stood there, looked at him, held out her arms and motioned him forward with her little hands, as if to say, "No, Dad, walking is your job. Just come get me!"

What can we do? She's just so darn cute!