Special Day!

Betsy's First Communion Friends: Sam Huff (he's always surrounded by girls at our church), Marcie Pilcher, Betsy, Sarah Carico and Grace Northwood They were a little punchy by the time we took this picture.

This is my body....Betsy was so nervous about doing it "right" that Fr. Rob got out "Betsy, this is..." and Betsy responded loudly with, "Amen!"

Since she had to stand up to reach the cup, Fr. Joel had time to get all the words out for that before she said, "Amen!"

Betsy in her pretty dress and in her pretty dress with her Knight in Shining Armor.

Kid Vocabulary

goggie - the large furry thing that eats all David's food

hotgoggie - a long skinny thing that often gets fed to the goggie

uppeas - a polite appeal to be moved in an upward direction

peas - often referred to as "the magic word"

tank too - the polite response to getting what you want

no! - this means whatever you need it to mean in response to whatever was just said

holyholy king - the man on the altar wearing the cool robes, also often referred to as a king of holyholy

gangtee - largish piece of quilted fabric used to keep warm in bed, not to be confused with GeeTee, brother to the owner of the gangtee

RoarRoar - small, plastic dagger so named by the noise the wielder of said weapon makes when wielding the weapon

BoomBoom - also known as a shield (but often resembling a cowboy pillow), also named for the noise it makes when in use

sideside - the opposite of inside

Eyeclops - mythical one-eyed giant

wetter - appliance whose job culminates in the need for a dryer


As part of our study of Ancient Greece, I had the children watch a documentary film on the subject. The two older boys were complaining that the film showed too many naked statues for their comfort. I tried to explain to them that the statues are art and that God created our bodies as something wonderful, not shameful. Ben responded quickly, "Well, Mom, I prefer to put clothes on my artwork!"

More House Pics

The siding is completely finished now. The sheetrock was brought in through the front window into Steve's room. That window was installed and the siding completed the beginning of the week.





This is in the kitchen addition. I was trying to get a picture of the little tiny gas hook-up in the middle of the floor. This is where the cooktop will go. Underneath the window in the bottom picture you can see the plumbing established for the sink. As far as I know, we plan to keep the same sink but hopefully with a new faucet. I'd like a taller, goosneck faucet so I can fit my rather large pots under it.

This is an alcove they have roughed in (standing on its side - sorry). This is located in between the kitchen and the dining room. The wall on the right runs along the line of the original outside wall. I plan to make this into the "command center". I have a piece of closet orgnizer furniture picked out to go in there. It will have cubbies for incoming mail, a place for the telephone and possibly a flat-screen computer and drawers for telephone books, scissors, etc. This is my attempt at eliminating some of the clutter that always seems to collect in spite of our best efforts to the contrary.

This is a picture of the wall going up the steps. I just wanted to point out that the doorbell hardware will be HISTORY! No more will the doorbell come crashing to the floor everytime someone goes up or down the stairs and no more will anyone ever ring a doorbell while I have 2 sleeping children and 4 times as many in quiet time. We could never hear it from most of the house anyway but the dog could!

Sweet Suite!

I got some pictures today of the rough-in for our bedroom suite. Those who once lived there will probably appreciate these finer details...We are creating a master bedroom suite out of the front and back bedrooms on the top floor and the "boys'" bathroom (which fortunately will have lost all traces of ever having been a boys' bathroom by the time these guys are done with it!!). The door to Steve's room will be walled across and the door to Tad's room will be moved down the hall to the other side of the bathroom. Tad's closet has been removed to make a large archway between the two rooms, leaving the other closet intact. This will create a suite with a bedroom, library and bathroom area for own private use - SWEET! Here's the pictures. If you look closely hopefully you can see the rough-ins for all the changes.


If you lay on your side and look at the new wood (the parts that aren't white) you can see the rough-in for the new door frame. This would have been the door to Tad's room and has been moved down the hall past the door to Steve's room and past the bathroom door. To the right of the picture you can see the doorway to the girls' bathroom which should give you some perspective. There must be some way to turn this picture around but I haven't found it yet - sorry!



This is standing in the bathroom and looking into the what-was-once-the-door-to-Steve's-room. You can see two 2x4's have been put in to wall this door off. This will create a little alcove in the library which Tad has some sort of plans for setting up a computer command station. (You can also see the sheetrock piled up waiting for the completion of the electrical and plumbing work.)
This is standing in Tad's room and looking out the front of the house into Steve's room. You can see that Tad's closet has been removed while Steve's remains. This will create an archway between the two rooms. I would like to make the quieter back bedroom our bedroom space and the front room the library space but that means our closet will be in the library...I'll just have to decide if it's worth it. The back bedroom would also put us in direct line to the bathroom which is important as a pregnant woman but I'm not so sure how important that will be when I'm *not* pregnant. We had originally planned to take out Steve's closet and leave Tad's which would have naturally made Tad's room our bedroom area but there was too much electrical wiring in that wall to mess with it. This is the place I daydream about when the walls in Riverside come closing in.

Oh Boy!

I went to Target today and got to park Clifford in the space reserved for Pregnant Customers. I love this spot. It's the only time I can park that big honking van anywhere remotely near a store which is nice, not because I'm pregnant, but because of all the other little ones I need to haul across parking lots. Anyway, I always get a kick out of this sign. I was pregnant with someone else (can't remember who) when they first posted these signs there and had Fr. Joel in the van with us. The kids remarked about the sign and asked "What does that mean?" To which my husband replied, "Oh Boy! That's a Large Customer!"

SNOW! (yuck)

Well, in spite of my hopes that the weathermen had once again miscalculated we've been dumped upon. I'd say at least a foot if not more. I had a wonderful dream that it all melted within the afternoon but then I woke up....and it was still there - in all its white glory. How many times will I now have to dress and undress little people, locate hats and matching gloves, pull snowpants out of the dryer...and put them back in. Snow is a lot of WORK! yuck

Life Goes On Attempt II...

Fortunately our lives aren't stymied by the construction. We may have one delay after another on the house, but the life in my womb continues to grow and have its being right on schedule. I had my sonogram this morning. I'm measuring at about 15 weeks with an estimated due date of August 2nd (give or take a week). It was great fun to see the new little one swimming around in there!

It's Electric!

Our current house project is the electric. This is a photo of the electricians installing outlets into the floor - very exciting. Unfortunately they also got down to the basement and began to fear for our lives. The whole thing will need to be rewired. They are working on juggling upstairs work w/basement work so hopefully that change order will come out to a zero balance. Considering in the past two months we've paid out almost $10,000 in change orders, I kissed our construction foreman....on the cheek...he does try...

They are continuing the siding now that we've had dry weather again but this time it is COLD dry weather. They finished the gable on one side of the house and were moving around to the front of the house when I left this morning. UPDATE 2/12/06: Actually, they moved to the gable on the other side and then quit before the snow came. All that's left for siding is the front of the house. Notice all the antennae are gone.

Sheetrock should be delivered this afternoon. They've left a window out of the front of the house just for that purpose - all the sheetrock will be delivered right through the upstairs window. So after today we should have the last of the windows installed as well. The sheetrock can't actually go up until all the plumbing and electric is finished, tho, so that it can all be inspected at once but at least we'll have a few nice piles looking like they're ready for some business....

It's coming along but the electric snafu in the basement may cost us up to another month...so it'll be really close to a year by the time we're back in....sigh....

Here's the heating ductwork disappearing into the brand new crawlspace underneath the addition. This was once the window over the basement sink. I wonder if the toads will still
collect here in the summer. I'm going to miss them hopping about and banging into the glass while I fold laundry...


Here's another picture of the kitchen from another angle. I was trying to get a shot of the rough-in of the little pantry closet in the corner. That's a 2' by 3' closet with a pocket door. No more sending the children up and down the steps to the green cabinet - yay! This was one addition to the kitchen which I gained from living in Riverside and got spoiled by the small kitchen pantry here. The refrigerator will be on the side of the pantry and then the double wall oven next to that. The sink and counter space with wall cabinets will flank the other side of the pantry. You can see the existing plumbing sticking up out of the middle of the floor. That's next week's project...

Kid Pics

This is JT standing on a horse with Philip kneeling in front of him. I don't know what took more practice - for the boys to learn this vault or me to stop worrying about it! At least the horse wasn't moving...this time.



And this is David demonstrating his best skill - not doing whatever it is anybody wants him to be doing.


Here is Betsy in costume for today's show. Fortunately (Oops! Did I say that?!) the show never happened and I was just blessed with the costume parade.





Here is John Michael dressed for the show that never happened. Who can resist that face?!



And..one more of John Michael. All the bigs were going outside and JM wanted to join them. I told him he needed to take off his jammies and get his coat on first. So...he took off his jammies and put on his coat (upside down I might add).