Progress

Doesn't it look great!?! It has been a lot of work for Mike to put down the flooring alone, but he is doing a great job. The living room/playroom is done, the entryway is done, and the dining room is almost done. Then he just has to do the family room and the wood will be complete.

I hope his poor body holds out for the next couple of weeks. He is at the chiropractor right now, and is drinking a daily herbal concoction designed to help alleviate pain and the interal swelling of his tendinitis. It helps a lot, but he really needs to rest his arm to heal it. The pain often keeps him awake at night.

Pray for him, that his pain will be manageable and his efforts will be blessed.

Spring Recital

The girls had their Spring Piano Recital on May 17. They did wonderfully.

It has been so nice to hear them fill the house with music. They both enjoy it very much and work diligently on thier pieces. This year they played 2 duets in the recital. They really like to do duets, even though it can be a lot of work to get the timing right. It was a lot of fun for them to be able to play duets with Nana when she was here.

Happy Birthday Eli!!

May 23rd was Eli's 5th birthday. Although the fact that it was his 5th birthday took some convincing. It seems that since Ethan was already 5, Eli thought he should just skip on to 6...or maybe 7!

It is my year to take the children for their birthday activity and Eli chose the zoo. He went to the zoo last year with daddy and there was never a doubt that he would do it again this year. He acted surprised that I would even ask :)

He proclaimed the animals cool, but not as cool as Roy Rogers.

This is him, reluctantly posing for me. Pictures really cramped his style.

The birds, Lori's I think, or something like that anyway, were fascinated by my keys. They were in a big enclosure and you could buy nectar to feed them. Which we didn't do. Because, while I was willing to enter for Eli's sake, I just wanted to look at them. But NO, they were on my head, in my lap, and finally obsessed with the keys. I am sitting about 8 inches from them.

This is how Eli wanted to pose.

On the Komodo Dragon.

The picture above was taken on the train that goes around the park outside of the zoo. He LOVED the train.

Below is Eli receiving his birthday blessing from daddy. I love this tradition.

All set to open presents

He received the cowboy regalia he was asking for. You may think he is dressed up like a cowboy, he just thinks he's dressed. Happy birthday Eli, we love you!

What We've Been Doing

The men have been hard at work here. I don't have any before shots, since being constrained to using actual film made me feel I didn't have a camera :0 Although judging from the length of time it seems to take me to get film developed, I was really better off waiting.

So, those of you who have been here know what the "before" was, and the rest of you will just have to appreciate the current beauty :)

First we have the upstairs bathroom. This project was much bigger than we anticipated. We were originally going to leave the tub and tile in intact, and just replace the floor (it was yucky carpet) and the vanity, countertop, and toilet. But we noticed a tile in the corner by the tub was cracked all the way around, and on further investigation discovered that there had been water leaking behind the tile, across the back of the tub and into the floor. Soggy flooring, soggy drywall and lots of black mold. Long story short, we gutted the entire bathroom.

We are on a very tight time schedule and an even tighter budget, so this was REALLY not good news.

But the new bathroom is much nicer than the old one was. And "they" say bathrooms (and kitchens) sell houses. Hopefully it will help.

Here is the new tile, it goes all the way to the ceiling. Previously it was white 4" squares that stopped just above the showerhead. The tub is shiny and new, and the deepest one I could find. Not the $99 builder special that was there.


This shot shows the tub a little better and some of the flooring. I mentioned it was carpet before right!?! Nasty, beige carpet. It is beyond me why anyone would carpet a bathroom.

New toilet, too.

The vanity that was here before was the standard, plain jane oak that you often see in tract homes.

We got this one at Home Depot. We just put a basic white countertop on it. I would have looked nicer with a more expensive countertop, but there are so many things we need to spend money on that we decided the vanity would have to carry the day.

This is the downstairs bathroom. It had a white pedastal sink, grayish-white floor tile and purple walls.

This shot is to show you the floor tile. It is the first tile we bought and we decided to go with a slightly different tile for the rest of the house. It's pretty though.

Here is the vanity. We got this at Costco and it was a deal, plus it came with the pretty countertop and sink. It REALLY helps the bathroom.

The light fixture and a little bit of the mirror.


On Thursday our friend John Elliott came over to help. Here are he and Mike breaking out the kitchen tile. Right now it is the same as what was in the downstairs bathroom, soon it will be the same as what is in the upstairs bathroom.

I don't know if you have ever broken out floor tile, but it is serious work. And days later I still feel like I am choking on dust.

So, that's is what has been going on here. Mike has about 3 weeks left if things go according to schedule at work. Hopefully the airplane will slide and we will have a bit more time. There is A LOT to do!

And no, nothing is decorated yet :)

Fun Times

Nana is here visiting and the kids are having a great time. The girls have spent a lot of time playing duets on the piano with her and that has been a lot of fun to listen to. They are much improved since her last visit, and our piano has been tuned, so it's really much nicer all the way around :) Many games of "Sorry" have also been played, highlighting areas of character training that need a bit more focus for my precious daughters.

Nana taught Sierra to knit, which I especially appreciate. Sierra bought herself one of those begining knitter kits and we managed to get her cast on, but we were kind of stuck. With Nana's help she has almost finished her scarf and is very proud of her efforts.

Yesterday we went to Boerne for lunch and to look around in some antique shops. Sometimes I feel like I spend all of my time repeating the same instructions to my children. But I am always grateful when I can take them somewhere that many people won't bring children and their behavior is noteworthy. In a good way :)

Here are a few pictures of our day.


Eli has a lot of trouble with the sun hurting his eyes :)

Eli opted out of this picture, due to the aforementioned sun
Here they are in the old fashioned ice cream parlor. We all had ice cream soda's and they were soooo yummy!

Abundant Blessings

I had a visit with my midwives yesterday. It was my first real appointment, the last one was really just a "meet & greet". They are very fun ladies, very exhuberant. I really like that they completely support the idea of "your birth, your way". I really love homebirth.

So anyway, I have felt the baby moving for about 8 weeks, but yesterday was the first time I got to hear the heartbeat. It sounded great, loud and strong. But the midwives thought they heard 2 different heartbeats. And I am only 24 (almost) weeks and I measured 28. "Hmmm," they said. "Twins?" Now that would be fun :) So, they pulled the trusty sonogram machine out of the closet to take a peak. Nope, just one baby. Well, that 3 minutes of the possibility of twins was exciting, but we are thrilled that God has sustained this pregnancy and there is a baby coming to greet us soon. Seems to be a big one, so they say. I knew I felt fat :)

We couldn't tell what the gender of said baby is, but we are sure it is a baby. He/she/it was lying with the head down, spine curved over the top of my belly and legs on the right side. The ankles were crossed and the hands were on the knees. It is so amazing to think of the life inside me, of a little person just hanging out and growing. It is such a miracle, such a gift that God allows us this intimate participation in creating life.