Roof Dinner

Last Sunday I made roast and mashed potatoes and carrots and gravy.

You know how the house smelled when we walked in the door after church. 

Bonafasio was in the addition painting trim. He would have been staring at us while we ate, which is awkward right?

So I hollered at the kids to put some blankets on the roof and grab a pot, and here we are. 

It's a little bit my favorite thing. 

But also what a weird time of life we are in right now. I swear we are so so close to moving in. 

They are in the middle of creating the shower, the carpet is coming tomorrow. 

Maybe one more week? I'm a big dummy for thinking that optimistically. 

Please please one more week. 

Last week Jim installed a new door. 

It looks awesome. We are going to add frost to the clear windows, don't worry. 

There are just so many projects going on all over this house. 

Beyond house construction, we are in the very thick of soccer season. 

Team dinner at the mall.

The other day Avery had a break away, but no goal.

She also has a mild concussion. blah blah blah, hope that is done tomorrow when she revisits the trainer to see if her brain is good to go. 

I am coaching Andrew's team. 

This is my third year with these kids, and wowee wow do you remember the first year? We lost all games by large amounts of goals.

This year we are winners. Not undefeated, but we have won half the games and almost won the other half. 

They have improved so so much. Also we are one giant team - all the talent pooled into one great whole. But then on Saturdays we split into two teams and I coach two games. It is tiring and so fun. 

This is my women's league team from the summer: Purple Reign. 

This was our last game, and I am so bummed I missed the team picture. 

I got hit directly in the face with a ball, then had to hurry off the field to pick up Andrew from something. 

We are good. Second place.

Let's see...what else. 

Mushrooms, forests. 

Avery drives herself and the kids around to things and I LOVE IT. I didn't realize how much it would up my parenting game. 

Here's the new mural painted in downtown Blaine. 

I love our little town, it is the best. The other day between activities I was walking up and down the street and it was just beautiful. It has come such a long way from when we first moved here. It used to be clap board shut and deserted. Now it is beautified and has so many great places to eat. Come visit. 

OH MY GOSH THIS! 

This is the top best thing of this fall: Evan playing in the band at home games. 

Remember he was for sure going to go to the councilor tomorrow and drop out of band? And then he didn't, and admitted "band is ok"?

Then our football team is actually winning this year, and every time they make a touchdown the band strikes up with On Wisconsin?

Me and Jim went to the last home game (first time!) and it was SUCH A BLAST. Watching Avery and Evan do their high school thing...I just had the biggest smile on my face. 

Evan is on cymbals and he's such a stud over there clashing them together right on beat and right at the correct crescendo. 

I can't believe he almost opted out of this. 

There are a few things as parents we have not allowed our children to quit. 

Avery soccer, Evan band. Both they begged us to quit. 

There was an intuition about it - our adult brains knew the benefit/consequence of letting something go - It would have changed their whole teenage experience. They would have missed out on so many opportunities and lessons. 

Also did you know Avery is a junior and she is almost done with this whole scene. Ugg. I cannot even.

Also, if they don't finish our new house soon she won't even get to enjoy her new upgraded room for very long. That keeps me up at night. lol

And lastly, this is us every night reading scriptures on my bed. 

We set a timer for 10 minutes and they read on their own. It's also my favorite. 

Remember all the ways we have tried to read scriptures together? I've read to them in the early morning, in the evening. Now we have evolved to this level. 

Koda is always smack in the middle of it all, in everyone's way and we love her.

Floor

Once Jim started on the flooring, the house became chaos. 

The doors separating us from construction had to come down, and then our living space blended with the Pardon Our Dust space. 

This part where the two slabs meet had to be blended, which involved a lot of concrete dust. 

One night it involved him sanding while vaccuuming the dust while I blasted a leaf blower at it. 

But there was still so much dust. Construction is so dusty. 

He worked so hard for days. Sometimes he would stand up and you could tell his back hurt...you know that posture?

And then our dishwasher broke for a while and he had to pause and work on that massive project. 

Chaos!

For a few days me and the kids had to hand wash dishes. 

They all admitted it was kind of fun:

Kelli on washing

Andrew on rinsing

Avery on drying

Evan on putting away. 

Then they installed lighting right around the time he finished the new tv area.

Lighting changes the vibe so much! It feels livable. 

Livable with dust. 

*That yellow triangle is called a square. 

It was right aboooouuuut now that he water heater broke and he had to stop this project and fix that situation. 

Look how close!

Tools, scraps, stuff everywhere. Piano in the middle of the room. 

This was about the time when he smashed his finger and had a blood gusher and had to stop the project to stop the bleeding. 

Here he is laying the last piece. He wrote my name on the back of it with a heart. 

Because I told him to. 

Because back near the piano area he wrote a plank with Koda's name, and then Avery came in the room and he wrote her name on one. 

So I got the last piece. 

This is what our bathroom looks like.

That's the closet and the pooper. 

This picture summarizes the whole project - So pretty! So much debris everywhere. So close to being finished. 

Mount Washington Real Quick

Saturday morning, bright and early,

Jim and I went to the Langley airport to wait for Joe to pick us up in his airplane and take us to the island for a day at Mount Washington. 

I didn't have a sunrise to sunset day this summer, and here we are - watching the sun rise from the air. 

There was fog on the rivers, 

and the prettiest light on the mountain range. It was like someone painted the layers in light blue to darker blue. 

We met up at Mount Washington.

I love this vibe - gear spread about, everyone suiting up for an adventure. 

They all went mountain biking all day, 

us three moms went hiking around Lake Helen Mckenzie. 

At this bridge a ton of whiskey jack birds came swarming at us to get fed. They have been domesticated. 

At the lake we debated getting all the way in - but a quick foot dip was refreshing enough. 

Lunch meet up, 

then we rode up the chairlift. 

For one minute we thought about climbing the mountain, but it was way more better to sit and enjoy the view from our comfy lift. 

At one point I had to look on google maps to orient myself to where I was. 

How was I just suddenly on the island? Real quick? 

Every single time I ride up the chair lift while at Silver Star, one of the Black children talk about the bra tree here at Mount Washington. And here I am, seeing it in real life! So exciting. haha

And then we hustled back. 

With the sun setting, we drove down the mountain, 

to the airport,

up and over from the island back to the city. 

The light changing again as we came in for a landing. 

It was the coolest day. 

Home by bed time.