House

O looks around the bare living room yesterday. We still have concrete floors and insulation for walls. "Mommy, are the workers going to be back to finish?"

It has been two weeks since demolition day. The girls and the cat, I'm sure, think this will be how our house will now look. When you are working on fixing a leak, instead of just remodeling it seems to take longer. There is the insurance to deal with, not just getting all the estimates. What a pain. The most important thing is to get the leaks fixed correctly so I don't have to revisit this again next year. It's been a fight with  the insurance. Patients is a virtue. I just keep telling myself it will all be so beautiful when it's done.

I'll let you know when something else happens. Since the water testing it has just been estimates on repair.

A Morning Walk with My Beloved

After the bills were paid and the cat let out there was still 45 minutes before I needed to pick up O. C and I decided to take a morning walk. It was wonderful. Just the two of us on the bike/walking trail behind our house. We even saw several turkeys and many squirrels.

Just what we both needed. We really need to make this a weekly event.

"Meow"

The house is quiet. The girls are both at school. C is in bed with a bad back and I'm in the office doing email and paying bills. Then I hear the cat meowing downstairs. Every few minutes "meow."

If it's not "mommy?" it's "meow." I can't catch a break.

A Special Post...

for our friends who are sailing around the world. The A family, G, K and their two daughters (One in middle school and one in high school-I think.) left the San Francisco Bay in September 2006. They will be gone for 3 years. What an experience.

G and K's girls, C and A, have a teddy bear, they have named Adventure Bear. Adventure Bear is traveling with them and is pictured doing and seeing so many wonderful things on their trip. CK and O love seeing what Adventure Bear has been doing. We all look forward to update emails and pictures and stories on the website.

Adventure Bear has a sailor outfit on and O decided one day, looking at all the pictures, that she wanted an outfit for her bear (Doga). Many of you may know Doga. She is a very loved bear!

After looking around I found an outfit for Doga at the Dollar Store, of all places. Great price! Pictured here, just for C and A (who are leaving Spain right now) is a picture of O with Doga in her new princess outfit. I couldn't leave CK out, so she is pictured with her doll, which she has named Miley.

We wish the A family all the best in their travels and look forward to seeing them when they return from their trip.

A Funny Tell

My husband found this joke on the web. My father would have loved it--totally his kind of humor.

A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question and tapped him on the shoulder.

The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from a large plateglass window.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab, and then the still shaking driver said, 'I'm sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me.'

The frightened passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much.

The driver replied, 'No, no, I'm sorry, it's entirely my fault. Today is my first day driving a cab -- I've been driving a hearse for the last 25 years.

Water Testing

Yesterday was water testing day. Sorry, no pics for this post. I totally forgot. Go figure.

Our contractor came over and spent the day water testing the front window and the roof (front and back of the house). He was able to find all the leaks. Which, I guess, is a good thing. Although, every time he started explaining something to me I heard "cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching."

It will  be nice to get everything fixed the right way the first time. All the leaks fixed and water damage repaired. I just hope it's done soon. It's only been four days and I'm already tired of concrete floors, no front and back wall, and no furniture. It's very hard to relax watching TV in the evening with a cup of tea after, the girls go to bed, with no furniture and concrete floors. We're spending a lot of time in the bedroom. That probably doesn't sound how I meant it.

Demolition Day

8am our wonderful contractor was at our door with his worker guy ready to demolish some walls. Plastic went up to cover the kitchen, carpet was removed, and walls were torn up. By 1pm our contractor had the flooring guy here measuring. At 2:30pm the painter was here to get measurements for his quote. Amazing. 

Last night I started thinking about what might be inside our walls. You hear those stories of weird things people find when their walls are opened up. Guess what they found in our walls?
SNAILS! Snails inside our living room wall. Can you believe that? Now we will need to remove the bush outside the front window so the contractor can patch where the snails were getting in. Crazy, but could have been worse things inside our wall.

They cleaned up everything and took down the plastic. Everything is ready for the next step. It's weird to have concrete floors, no walls, and no furniture.

CK has to practice her piano smooshed in the dinning room. She doesn't seem to mind. The girls and the cat are all doing pretty good with all this, of course, it's only been two days.

Next thing is the water testing of the roof on Wednesday. We are very anxious to see how that goes. Hopefully the leaks have been fixed.

Our Busy Weekend

Saturday - Making a New Friend

My brother M, sister-in-law, Ang, their son and my sister's daughter all came down from Sacramento this weekend to meet a new friend. It's a little complicated, but A is the daughter of Ang's sister's friend. Got it? Anyway, A is new to the area (a first year teacher).

We BBQ'd at S and G's house. All the cousins played we visited and got to know our new friend (and her friend).  It was very nice. I look forward to seeing A again. I hope her and her friend had as as much fun meeting all of us.

CK and E taking the dog (Jessie) for a ride. I can't believe the dog puts up with all this:

Crazy cousins have a great time:

I couldn't leave out M:

Sunday - Getting Ready for Demolition

Tomorrow is the big day. Demolition starts! We're so excited.

Thank goodness M and Ang spent the night at our house! C has a bad back strain and can't move furniture. It's been a very long week. Everything happens at once.

As you may remember from my previous post, the entire living room and family room needs to be emptied. There is no way I could do that all on my own. Talk about stressed. M and Ang to the rescue! They ROCK! They are truly the BEST. I owe them BIG!

THANK YOU SO MUCH M AND ANG!

Without a second of hesitation they jumped right in this morning (after I made them a pancake breakfast) and got the job done. As I hoped Ang helped me find a place for everything; my plants in the kitchen and we still have the dinning room table for meals. By 1pm everything was cleared out and they were on their way home. Amazing! My brother even started vacuuming for me.

Here are some images after our day of moving two rooms into the garage. I'll post another update tomorrow, after demolition of the walls.

Living Room - with Genie checking it all out.

Dinning Room - We can still play the piano and eat, all at the same time.

Family Room:

Kitchen with plants under the window:

Early Wake Up Call

Last week, when it was near 100˚, the girls room was way too hot for them to sleep in. We had them sleep on the office floor on their roll up trundle beds. With the window open, it was nice and cool. They loved it.

O came and woke me up at 6am one of those mornings (CK was still asleep). "Mommy, come and take a picture of me and Genie."

Are you kidding me?! It's 6am! "In a minute" I told her.

Well, about 30 minutes later O came crying to me that the cat was gone and I missed it. Oh, boy, I was in big trouble now. I told O that the cat would go back and I would get the picture. I promised.

I kept my promise. Here is O and Genie at 7am that morning.

Fabulous and Functional Recipe Friday

Two friends (MM and HC) have started posting recipes on their blogs on Fridays. I thought I would join in, however, I will be posting mine on my BMCC blog. Check it out.

A Tribute

...to Tim Johnson. Please read.

Water Damage

Most of you know, we have water damage from all the bad storms this past winter. It has taken me until now to get a contractor (spoke to three different guys-lost one because of the insurance company), get money from the insurance and get things started. It's been a nightmare! This is the very short version.

My patients and persistence has paid off. I have a wonderful contractor and after being in our home for 11 years we will finally get some work done. This water damage is truly a blessing in disguise.

The leak - the water came from the roof so we have water damage to the front of the house and the back of the house. Damage - the bottom of our front living room wall. The carpet is also damaged, so we have to replace that. We also have damage at our back family room wall. Now, keep in mind, that is only what we can see from the outside. Once the walls are opened up-who knows what kind of damage is in there.

Demolition starts on Monday. (YEAH-finally!) I will post pictures to my blog throughout this wonderful project to keep you all updated. Once the walls are all opened up my contractor will do a water test to the roof to make sure the leak has been fixed. I don't want to go through all this again!

We are thinking of upgrading to a hard surface flooring instead of carpet for the first floor. I can't wait to paint. I'm excited to get some color on the walls.

In the mean time, between now and Monday morning at 8am, we will need to completely pack up the family room. The entire room needs to be empty. The entire living room also needs to be empty, but the dinning room is okay. We will be rearranging the furniture, putting things in the garage. Thank goodness we cleaned that out 1-1/2 years ago! We'll probably put the piano in the dinning room. CK and C need to be able to practice.

It will be a mess for three or four weeks, but will be beautiful when it's finished. The leak fixed, the damage fixed, new flooring, painted walls. I'm so excited!

Each Daughter So Different

This is how our morning drop off went today at school:

O: running toward her Kinder line-up. Every other parent standing in line with their little 5 year old waiting for the teacher to arrive.

Mommy: "O, are you going to stand in line by yourself? I'm going to bring CK to her line?"

O: "Oh yeah, okay, bye!"

Mommy: "Well, why don't you come and say good-bye and give me a hug in case you go in before I get back."

O: "Oh, (hug) bye mommy, don't forget to pick me up." (like I'm going to ever forget her.)

Mommy: "I'll come back after bringing CK to her line."

CK: "You're going to come back to my line after O, right?"

I get back to O's class and the teacher had already let the class in. O could care less if I was there or not. 

Yes, CK is my clingy one. I'm waiting for O to want me to do drive-up drop off. She'll need to bring CK to her line, however, because CK gets turned around like her Nonna.

My Crochet and Embroidery Projects

I thought I would share what I've been doing. I have been crocheting and doing hand embroidery since I was about 7 years old. (NO machine embroidery for this family) I got away from it for a long time. I learned how to cross stitch when I was about 26 or so and have been doing that instead of embroidery.

I got back into embroidery in the spring when I did an embroidery project with the Brownie troop. It's so pretty and no one does it anymore. My mom and I want to bring it back. She does beautiful embroidery!

In March I pulled this old denim jacket out of my closet. I hadn't worn it in years. I thought I would try sprucing it up before tossing it out. Now, I can't wait to wear it. It's a pretty detailed embroidery project, so it will take me a while. The flower pattern will be on both sides of the front zipper and in each bottom front corner. I'll post an image when I'm all finished.

I've always crocheted baby blankets, doll blankets, granny square doilies, that kind of thing. I've never been able to follow a pattern and make something I could wear. Until now!

My mom found this cell phone bag pattern online. It is so easy and fast. I love it. I made one each for the girls and two for me. I even made 10 for each of the Brownies in our troop. They are "Dues Bags." The girls will keep their dues money in there until it's time to collect it. The Brownie uniform doesn't have any pockets, it's driving me nuts. Anyway...they go really fast. I can make one in about 2 hours.

I needed a break from the cell phone bags. Since I just finished making 14 in the past few weeks. I have the Klutz Crochet book and thought I would try this Bath Bag. It was even faster than the cell phone bag. I made this last night in about 45 minutes! It's so cute. You put your favorite bar of soap inside and use it in the bath or shower. Hang to dry. When the soap is finished wash the bag and let dry before adding a new bar of soap. They would make great gifts!

My goal is to work my way up to make a sweater. I found some beautiful crocheted sweater patterns. Guess I can now follow a pattern! Yeah!

Our Visit To The Dentist

Saturday the girls and I headed up to the dentist. As many of you probably know, we go to my uncle and cousins. They are all in practice together. We have to drive 45 minutes, but that's all I know. I've never gone to anyone else. Going to the dentist is just another family visit. Sometimes a painful visit, but a visit at that. I enjoy seeing everyone. Usually it's a family reunion in the waiting room, but not this visit.

For some reason I schedule my cleaning at the same time as the girls. I don't know how this happened or why I did that. Usually I stagger them. When the very nice office ladies called to remind me of our appointments I asked them about it. I wasn't worried about CK at all. She has always been great at the dentist and has never shed one tear. O, on the other hand was great her first check up, but cried the second time when the dental hygienist tried to do x-rays. O didn't like that and has been nervous ever since.

Six months ago, at our last appointment, the girls saw my cousin, Dr. N, for the first time. He had just finished school and was now officially a pediatric dentist. His office is beautiful! He is wonderful with kids. CK was fine....O cried. Dr. N was not able to really examine her too much, let alone clean her teeth. He was patient and calm and said we would just try again next time.

Yesterday was next time. I checked the girls and I in, filled out our health update forms and waited. Dr. N came out to talk to me before he saw the girls. Normal questions; any problems, how are they doing, etc. I told him about O sucking her thumb, but she is finally starting to not want anyone else to know she still sucks her thumb. (nice of me to post it on my blog) Dr. N was going to use this information to his advantage to try to get her to stop. (good luck)

I told Dr. N I was nervous about O getting upset and that I was going to be getting my teeth cleaned at the same time. He wasn't worried about it at all. He said they would take it slow, if they need to stop and wait, it's not a problem. He was so calm and matter of fact I wasn't nervous any longer. He took the girls in. They have a big TV in the cleaning room and the girls got to watch Cars while they were getting their teeth cleaned. (Lucky! Heck with the grown-up side....I'm going to Dr. N next time.)

As I waited my turn I thought I would peek in at the girls. O was just starting to get upset and cry. I didn't like that. Poor thing. My heart was telling me to rush in and hold my baby and tell her everything would be okay. My brain was telling me to leave her along. Dr. N was there, CK was there. She would be better if I didn't rush in. I was so strong and listened to my brain.

I had my cleaning and when I was almost finished the girls came in, finished with their cleaning the office ladies helped them find me. Big smiles, prizes, new tooth brushes, travel toothpaste, and brushing timers in hands. They were happy. Good sign.

I checked with Dr. N after I was finished. No cavities! Yeah! O did cry a little, but CK got up to hold her hand and tell her everything was okay. (what a great big sister!) Dr. N took it slow with O, taking breaks and talking with her. He was able to examine her mouth and clean her teeth. No fluoride treatment this time, but that is a huge improvement over the past several appointments. Yeah!

Both girls did great. I think O will be much better next time. BTW, love the brushing timer!

Chores

If you have read my Busy Moms Culinary Club blog (link to the right) you know I've started a new chore planner system. I love that someone else has made my chore list for me. I try to complete all my chores every day. It doesn't always happen, but my house is already cleaner and I feel better, even after just one week on this planner. I just need to take 15 - 20 minutes a day and do my chores. Doesn't seem that hard in theory.

The other day C was working and after dinner I told the girls I would like them to help me with the chores. I showed them my list and I started assigning chores. They were very excited. (go figure-lets roll with this while they're excited!)

Sweep kitchen floor = O

Wipe out bathroom sinks = Mommy, CK and O

Feed cat = O

Vacuum 1st floor = CK

Clean toilets = Mommy and CK

Clean bathroom mirrors = Mommy

Replenish stock of toilet paper in bathrooms = CK and O

Both girls wanted to learn how to clean out the bathroom sinks and CK wanted to clean the toilets. Really? Fine by me! Although, before being married and having kids, I liked to clean too.

I showed both girls the disinfectant wipes and how to clean out the sink and counter. Telling them to wash their hands really good after, of course. I showed CK how to put the toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet and scrub the toilet with the brush. She was excited to learn how to clean the toilet. Great! She can have that job! After cleaning the bathrooms, CK vacuumed the entire 1st floor. 

It wasn't all done perfect, but we had fun doing it all together and it even went pretty fast. We were done in no time and still had time to play before bedtime! Chores and cleaning is so much fun with my daughters!

First Day of School

Anxious, a little nervous, joy, excitement, meeting new friends, and catching up with old ones. Our big 2nd Grader and Kindergartner both had great first days.

CK was a little nervous. She didn't know her teacher, but she had a class filled with kids she knew. She has a great teacher. Great class. All very well behaved kids. This is going to be a great year, I can tell.

O was so excited she couldn't wait to get to school. We got there about 25 minutes early. Lots of time for Mommy to take pictures in front of the door, and in front of the school sign.

O went right into her classroom, picked out her name tag and knew to go straight to find her cubby. She was sitting on the rug in 2 minutes flat. Didn't need to be told what to do.

I was so proud of myself, I didn't even have one tear, UNTIL I saw another Kinder mom sobbing. Her husband had his arm around her consoling her. I saw her and lost it! Darn it!

C took me out to breakfast to celebrate. Both children in school. I have five mornings a week with no children. Wow. This will take some adjustment. I need to get into a new routine.

O came running out of her classroom after school with a huge smile on her face. She is so excited to be in Kindergarten AND at the same school as her big sister. 

I stopped to see CK at lunch (right before picking up O). She was eating with her friends and was having a great day. No more nerves. When we picked her up after school I asked how her first day was she said, "Fantastic."

School Starts Tomorrow!

Need I say more?

Inspiration from our Olympic Athletes

We have been watching the Olympics. Gymnastics, swimming, diving, volleyball, basketball, fencing....etc. This week will be equestrian.

Our American athletes are so inspiring. Dara Torres, Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, Nastia Luikin, and Shawn Johnson are among our favorites.

In an interview Michael Phelps was asked about reaching his goal of 8 Olympic Gold Medals in these games. His response was he worked hard and in his dreams he had done it. Dara Torres will tell her daughter "I guess I'll tell her don't put an age limit on your dreams."

We can learn so much from these athletes.

Michael Phelps: always believe you can reach your goals and dreams. It's a done deal.

Dara Torres: never think you are too old or it's too late to reach your dreams.

I'm so glad we have been watching the Olympics as a family. The girls see how hard these athletes work to reach there goals and because of their hard work have received Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals at the Olympics.

They now, of course, want to swim, dive, do gymnastics and play volleyball. They already want to ride horses. They will for sure after watching equestrian events on Thursday.

Getting Ready for Back to School

Last week my sister-in-law, G, and I went back to school shopping with all our kids (5 all together-WOW). The four girls are typical. CK wanted to match E, then had to match M. O had to match E. No...don't like that....but love this. It took forever.

Baby Blues describes how my nephew did his back to school shopping to a T!

This is how I'm feeling today:

Don't forget you can click on each image to enlarge them. They might be a little hard to read here.

Baby Blues is great. Look for one more on Monday. 

Want to check out some Baby Blues for yourself? Check out the Baby Blues Archives.