Last of 2013

The day after Christmas, I resumed exercise.  I had taken nearly a 2-week break with the moving and chaos of illness.  I set up my laptop on our dusty printer and began to hit it. I LOVE my workout!  So much so, that I have signed up as a Beachbody coach--helping others get fit using Beachbody's fitness programs (like P90X, T-25, Chalean Extreme--my current weapon of choice).  Love it already!

My brother left the next day for a move to LA for an internship with Johnson and Johnson.  He'll be gone 6 months.  I can hardly believe it!  We went by to give him some hugs.  Love this kid.

Through the chaos of a renovation, I have gotten great use out of our Grand America hotel slippers from our stay a years ago.  They are cheap and falling apart and I figure I will wear these until our wood floors can be cleaned (and stay clean for longer than 10 minutes!).  You can catch a glimpse of the dust under my feet in the photo--it's this way every day.  I just vacuum and don't mop. Not worth it.

I made our bed with my Christmas present--a duvet and some pillows.  Need to find my king size pillows though.  I've seriously been wanting a bedding for 5 years!

After the kids went to bed Monday night, I hit the bathroom tile--hard.  It was really tough work!  I finally got it all up and began picking up the pieces to prep it for Doug to lay down tile.

New Year's Eve, Doug had to run a few errands to get materials to lay the tile.  He took E & S so I could get some cleaning done.  I died laughing when I found he had taken photos with his phone somehow while driving accidentally.  Hilarious.  

We are almost healthy around here.  It's close. We just know it!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning came quite late.  Doug, Ethan, and Sydney were all sick.  E&S climbed into our bed around 7:30 am and just fell asleep.  I layed there until almost 9 am and went downstairs to start a yummy breakfast.  I couldn't lay there awake any longer.  

Lyla woke up to open her presents--don't think I bought a single one. They were 'leftover' stuff I never used for Ethan and Sydney, or gifts I got when they were too old to enjoy them.  Nuk sent me several things for having twins--two rattles, cup sets, etc. when Ethan and Sydney were nearly two years old.  Now Lyla gets them!

This is an accurate depiction. Sydney coughing while eating on the one real sweet they got--Reece's pieces.  Everything else was from the health food store.  Panda licorice was a hit as well.

Opening presents took hours.  They were not really interested…or excited for that matter.  Ethan kept begging for a blanket because he had chills.  Poor kid.

Ethan had asked for a train set just a few weeks before Christmas…we frantically looked for one for a decent price.  When he opened it, he was less than excited and didn't seem to remember asking for this for several weeks…grr.

When we took them to the dollar store a few days before Christmas to get gifts for each other, Ethan picked silly string for Syd, Syd (shopping without Ethan) also picked silly string for Ethan.  They picked the same silly string as their present to dad.  They had a fight a few days later--outside in the snow (mean mom).  I, on the other hand, receive a pink and black tiger-striped hand mirror from the dollar store.  Uh…score!

Our cousins gave them great gifts--Camelbak backpacks!  They were thrilled!

That present opening wore them out and they slept much of the afternoon on and off.  :-(

It's almost Christmas!

We are in fast-and-furious mode.  Every night we get the kids in bed and work on the house.  Lyla hasn't been really agreeable with both of us helping, so I'm usually feeding her and soothing her while Doug works.  Hoping this flu passes soon!

Doug tiled the laundry room with his brother-in-law, Eric, today while I spent some time with my family.

We got together for dinner before Dave and Chelsea headed up to Rexburg for Christmas.  I told everyone that we were sick, but I really didn't know how sick we were until we got there and Syd spontaneously fell asleep on the couch.  I thought we had a cold…not a horrific flu.

We all watched Devin fly his UFO-looking space ship (drone) he bought online. It was pretty stunning!

We left and headed to a wedding reception for a girl we used to teach in Sunday School class when we were newlyweds.  It's amazing how fast time flies!  We forgot Ethan and Sydney's coats, so they wore my ski jacket together walking to the car after the reception.

 We stopped by Michelle's house and decided to pick up her Christmas tree she had told us we could have since she is spending Christmas in Minnesota with her fiancé, Ethan.  Ethan and Sydney were bothered at first, but soon were laughing and playing with the twine hanging over their heads.  Such cute kids!

I had joked with my family that day about Arctic Circle fast food restaurant being in our backyard.  While I changed Lyla's diaper, I couldn't help but laugh watching a car through the drive through.  I joked that I could yell, "can you pick me up some fries!" out the window.

Sunday we started decorating our Christmas tree and finished long after the kids went to bed.  We knew they would be so excited to have it feel like Christmas!

We got an early-Christmas present when we got a call from Lowes that our doors, sidelights, and window were in!  Chad picked them up and started installing the window today--Christmas Eve! So excited to schedule our carpet installation for that room!!!

Move-in day came and went

We moved all of our belongings to our house on Dec 14th and were pretty devastated when we realized that it was not livable. Our kitchen sink was not functioning, the house was filthy and just not quite ready for us. After working so hard for weeks--we decided to stay at my sister's house for a bit until we felt it was ready. 

The next day was the Marchant family Christmas party.  We were in charge of bringing a soup, so Doug hit the store Saturday night after we arrived at the Kellers. Early the next morning, we were awoken with Sydney throwing up.  She threw up several times, so Doug took Ethan to the party and I stayed with Syd and Lyla at the Kellers.  Ethan had a great time!

It appeared that Sydney had eaten something that hadn't settled well in her tummy.  I am starting to wonder if she has an MSG allergy or something similar.  This is the second time this has happened.  Wednesday, Sydney woke up with pink eye and within 24 hours, had the flu.  This move has been hard on her.

Lyla took days to warm up, but she finally allowed her cousins to hold her.  

Ethan and Grace had a great time together.

Syd would start to feel better before taking a turn for the worse.  She had a reprieve from sickness and went out in the snow and rode on the 4 wheeler while uncle Chris pulled kids on sleds behind him in their yard.  They were in heaven.

Sarah spent time reading stories and working on her art program.  She's taken on developing an art program for the elementary school and has worked SO hard.  She's amazing.

We stayed with them for an entire week and then we felt like we could stay at our new house.  It was so fun staying with them!

Move-in

What NOT to do:

1. Move in December

2. Live in unfinished space

3. Live in construction dust

4. Move in just days before Christmas

5. Move with 4 of the 5 family members sick with the flu

6. Delay unpacking because you're waiting for paint to cure

7. Live without blinds because the windows need cleaning and it's just "something else to do"

and many more.

Although not the ideal situation, we did our best to make it livable. Ethan, Sydney, and Lyla were sick. Doug caught it and had to still go to work.  We were a miserable bunch.  Syd had conquered pink eye, but had passed it to Ethan and Lyla--they looked terrible.

I sat on the kitchen floor (table was in the garage) on the day we moved in.  Doug was busy getting things done and I was trying to come up with something to feed the kids.  I sat on the ground in construction dust and had Syd sit on my lap--she sobbed saying she missed our old house.  It was heart breaking.  

I tried to feed her leftover hash browns.

Rough time.

Countdown to move-in

Chad has been working around the clock.  Carpet installation was supposed to happen Thursday, but they said they could get it installed in one day--so they're coming Friday.  Appliances arrive Friday.  Chad is staying late getting the house ready for us to move in.  It will not be completely ready as the doors, sidelights, and window (where we found the mold) are ordered and not arriving until late December. We are holding off installing the carpet in that room so we don't have to clean up the mess later.  We also are leaving the master bathroom unfinished until we know what our annual taxes look like in a few months.  So, we're living with some unfinished space.

Our lighting is in and it makes such a big difference! Doug took this photo at the house at 10 pm trying to make a decision on how low the pendants should hang.

I've been working to remove the ice from the driveway (it was about 2 inches thick) and salt just wasn't helping. When the carpet install guys were here today, they handed me a carpet pad scraper and told me to try it out.  The driveway was clear in a matter of 5 minutes!  I'm going to need one of these.

Expensive 24 hours...

The painters had arrived and the carpet installation was scheduled. It was a rough morning when we discovered MORE MOLD.  Ugh.

The dome-shaped window appeared to have lost its seal, but we didn't want to pay the $1,200+ to replace it.  When Chad (our contractor) removed the trim (in bad condition) to replace it, there was a small patch of mold.  I asked him to just cut it open to make sure there were no surprises behind it.  Boy!  There were a lot of surprises!

The dome-shaped window had not been properly flashed, well--there was NO flashing.  It was snowing in our family room without the drywall in place!

The previous day, Chad had sent me this photo in a text message.  They had removed a very cheap, ugly vanity from the half bath on the main floor so we could install a new one we had purchased.  This way the painters could paint behind it.  Well, we thought so.  There was mold behind the vanity and in the studs.  We discovered it was coming from the master bath.

Here's the floor of the master bathroom.

So, we told them to gut the bathroom (just days before we were supposed to move in).  It was discouraging, but we were glad to have discovered it before we moved into the house.

On a bright note, the basement closet had been framed and drywalled and shelves were installed!

The master bedroom closet was taking shape.  We knocked out a wall to add another 18 inches and it was well worth it.  When we looked through this house, the only real resale issue I saw that was not easily remedied, was the master closet and pantry size.  We knocked out walls to help with both of those.

The painters had started work on our "picture frames" we added (with the help of Doug's brother-in-law, Eric) in the entry way.  It is so exciting to see things taking shape!

Let the packing begin!

I am not looking forward to packing up the house.  Our landlord has already promised someone the house we're in for several weeks.  When we told them we'd be out around the end of November, they told the new tenant and her family told her she could not stay with them anymore. She's been staying in a hotel and trying to make things work.  We felt bad, but were surprised she had no where to stay. Ethan and Sydney will miss our house.  

Ethan has been playing hard and finding or creating every girly accessory he can think of.  He took a hair rubber band and made it an earring.  He was so proud of his creativity.

I finally packed my first box on my own!

My mom has been a lifesaver helping us pack.  She paused and read a book to E&S after packing their books--mostly to distract them from all their books being in boxes!

Another work day

We wanted to make progress on the house today and my mom offered to come help us.  We loaded up and took a trip to the dump.  My bro-in-law, Chris, has been so great in letting us use his trailer several times.  I camped out inside with the kids and they played on the iPod and were pretty good at staying out of trouble.  There are a lot of places they can hurt themselves, so I hovered and tried to get things done.  

Painters were there prepping the upstairs.  They found 2 black widows in the basement.  Eek!

We expanded the pantry and shelving is going in this coming week.  So excited.

After finding mold under the kitchen cabinets, we had to remove all the boxes under the cabinets and make new ones.  We found a pile of animal poop (to match the poop we've found in other areas of the house) that was about 6 inches high.

Doug discovered this 'cart' in the backyard and made good use of it hauling cinder block to the trailer in the front yard.  It was quite the effort!  Thanks mom for the help.