Life

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Little Big Family

This picture slideshow customized with Smilebox So as it turns out I think I can do this. Not that this is a huge accomplishment that many others have not already done before me but now I know. To date list of why I think I can do this: * Came home from hospital with new baby. Check * Stayed in house or on perimeter of a fore mentioned house until Saturday. Check * Kept housework and laundry relatively up to date. Check * Went on walk around Neighborhood with 3 children alone. Check * Went to Walmart with 3 children, Not alone. Check * Went 3 houses down the street to friend's house for dinner. Check * Went to Church with 3 children. Not alone. Check * Got 3 children in and out of car seats in relatively small car for first Dr.s appt. and one small store. alone(didn't do the visit alone I confess. Double Check. Conclusion? If I can get 3 children in and out of a small car with out a mental breakdown. I will have no problem with my new norm. So far so good. Jasper is about as perfect as babies come. For some reason (I know its crazy) he keeps reminding me of a well made butter-cream frosting. So so sweet and beautiful, smooth and buttery. I think we may even be slipping into a sleep routine. A darn good one too if you ask me. To bed at 10pm up for snack at 2ish down to sleep up for snack at 5:30am down for nap until Mommy wakes him up. I couldn't be more pleased with it. During the day he sleeps till its time to eat then watches me for a few minutes if I'm lucky or if he is very tired goes right back to sleep. He smiles a lot and is in general a very sweet child. James loves Jasper and loves to help. He can't wait for him to grow so he can share his bed with him. :) Ellie likes to help with diaper changes and the rest just kind of slips by her. So now I'm off to vacuum, and write in Jasper's baby book.

Jasper Mathias

Friday, July 16, 2010 Jasper Mathias This photo album personalized with Smilebox Tuesday, March 16, 2010 I didn't make it Well, the whole gang showed up at about 5:00 this evening and I wasn't quite done. I was still struggling with the crown molding, which still isn't up. But I did make a significant amount of progress today and should finish tomorrow. Lanette was a little overwhelmed coming home to this... For some strange reason, she thought that the bathroom remodel project would be contained to the bathroom. But she was somewhat appeased by the progress made. Hopefully tomorrow I will post completed pictures with the tub and sink installed. My list is substantially smaller for tomorrow than it was today. I just need to install the tub, sink, connect water to the toilet, install crown molding, paint door and window trim, and touch up trim. I can then start on the upstairs remodel which has a July 21 deadline. Good night all. Just one more day!!! Lanette and the kids will be back tomorrow night. Will I be done? Probably not quite. Will the house be cleaned? Definitely not. In addition to working 40 hours last week and battling some kind of sinus/lymph node infection, I have the tile down, grout in, bead board installed, floor trim installed, walls and ceiling mudded and all the trim painted, but I still have to finish sanding, paint the walls and ceiling, install, caulk and touch up the trim where needed, paint the trim existing door trim, medicine cabinet, and window trim, seal the grout, install the light and fan cover, and install outlet and switch covers. Then I will be ready to install the toilet, sink and tub, as well as the ring for the shower curtain. I'd like to do all that tomorrow between 7AM and 2PM before I have to go to work. I am hoping I'll have a little help in the morning from some friends but there's no guarantee. Here are a few pics of the progress over the last week. The tile nearly all installed The tub back from the sand blaster. The side that shows was very pitted from rust so I had to bondo and sand it which took nearly 1/2 a day. It's finally all painted and ready to install. I think it looks like a dead animal. First coat of mud. Since nothing in this room was square, I've been using a lot of mud. Tile complete, bead board and trim installed. The plumber came today so technically I could install all the fixtures now, but then I'd have to clean them after I was done sanding. Hopefully the mud will be dry when I wake up in the AM. Now I'm off to bed. Friday, March 05, 2010 Day Five and Counting Today I finished laying the Hardi-backer cement board for the tile and began dry-walling. I also capped off the water pipes from the shower and sink so I could start the dishwasher and have water to rinse my tools after spreading the thin-set. I also had the leak in the roof fixed today. Apparently there were several holes right around the sewer vent that needed to be patched. Now I can comfortably hang new drywall without fear of the same thing happening. Apart from the loneliness and eerie quiet around the house, I am enjoying the project. It's not going as fast as I had hoped, but I suppose that's to be expected. I am quite impressed how level the floor turned out considering it would be the only thing in the house that is. An old house that's been settling for 75+ years makes for interesting dry-walling. I guess it's a good thing I have a 5 gallon pail of mud. I semi-cleaned the house today (at least the mess from construction) because I'll be working this weekend and won't be able to get back at it until Monday. The tub should be ready Monday or Tuesday and hopefully the plumber will be as well so we can get it set in place. I'll keep you posted. Wednesday, March 03, 2010 When the Cat's Away... Lanette, the kids and Grandma left for Ontario to visit Auntie K and Uncle B this week so I decided it would be a good time to remodel the bathroom. It's a lot easier to go 36...72...96(aaaaaahhhhhh) hours without water/shower/toilet when it's just me around. Luckily, there is an open apartment right up the road (thanks Mom and Dad). We had been planning this for some time and the project kept getting bigger. It started with replacing the toilet, then adding a claw-foot tub, and well, while we're at it why not a pedestal sink to make it look bigger. And if we're going to tear all that out, might as well replace the floor and walls too. Not knowing exactly what I was going to find, but knowing that there had been water damage in the past, I set to work on Monday with the help of some friends from work. We removed everything but the toilet on Monday. Then we started on the walls. It sure looks a lot bigger without the shower enclosure. Hopefully with the new tub it will stay that way. Tuesday afternoon, I tore out the rest of the drywall and took the toilet out. This is the wallpaper I found under the drywall. As I pulled it down I discovered that there were at least 2-3 more layers of different wallpaper underneath this one. Anyone have any idea what time period this is from? This is the water damage I found. The sewer vent goes up the wall to the roof here and apparently the boot on the roof has rotted away. On Wednesday we removed the linoleum and two layers of sub-floor to reveal more water damage where the toilet was. It appears to have been repaired once already in the past, which is why we haven't ended up falling through the floor. I'll only need to replace two of the boards to the right of the door. Here is the claw-foot tub all ready to be sand blasted. That will happen tomorrow and then I can paint it. I'll try to keep the updates coming as I am able. I plan to lay the new sub-floor and hardi-backer tomorrow and hang most of the drywall then tile the floor on Friday. Maybe I'll have the toilet back in on Saturday afternoon. Better go now, the plumber is supposed to be here any minute. Wednesday, January 20, 2010 After Months Young Mother Posts Again...Read all About it Here Today is so beautiful, it sounds and feels like spring. It is actually 69* right now. I can't believe it after the weather we have had the last while. I dressed up the kids and herded them into our forgotten back yard for much needed play time. We (or should I say they) played non-stop for 2-2 1/2 hrs until I forced them back inside for nourishment and naps. Now they are both napping and I believe will be for some time. While I was sitting watching the kids this morning I decided that I could part with many of the trees in the second half of our yard in order to have a garden. I hate cutting down trees but most of them were badly damaged in the ice storm last year anyway. If we cut down maybe 6 or more trees and plant smack in the middle of our lesser used back yard it may have a chance. I'm about as excited as I could be. I think I will start a bunch of my own plants ahead of time too. I don't always have a lot of luck planting seed directly in the garden and I love messing with that sort of thing so I think I'll start searching for the perfect varieties. I'll have lots of herbs too. They are my favorite. They are so happy I think. Anyways it will be good for all of us involved. I know James and Ellie will love it. I'd also love to start a strawberry patch so if any of you out there happen to be thinning out your strawberry patches this year I'd love to buy or trade for some. I make mean cupcakes. :) I've been potty-training Ellie for the last 4 days. Today we seem to be making real progress. So far no wet training pants since she got up. #2 is a different story, so for that has not happened in the potty yet. I think it may be a long road yet but as long as she is headed in the right direction I won't get too frustrated. I think I may not be the best trainer in the world so we will take this into account. We also transitioned Ellie into her toddler bed last week. She is doing great. Actually sleeping a lot better in it than she had been in the crib. I have to say this is a huge relief because she is extremely stubborn and never has been a good sleeper. I love how the room looks now and we were able to squeeze another dresser into the room so now I have a place for her stuff. Before the room was so crowded that I had all of her clothes in totes under the crib. I'm loving the dresser! So that's a little update on us, I must run and fold some laundry now. 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