housing update

This is what came home with me today after a day of texturing ceilings..

here is a shot of the kitchen since we painted, but that is getting covered, more on that later....

















here is the dining room, I have to repaint it and get the border up....
















Here is the living room and the start of the sofet (SP?) that mike is building to house some resessed lighting...




















And this is my own Mike the builder....






















THis is the bathroom that Deanne and Michelle bravely conquered....

2008

Let's review, shall we? Cold, cold, cold, wet, wet, HOT, HOT, HOT, wet, warm, cold, cold. Yep that pretty much sums it up. On a personal level, it was a decent year. Well, except for the $4.09 a gallon gas. And the dramatic exit of our foster daughter. And having our little brother go off to play in the desert. And G'ma battling cancer, again. Yep, other then those blemishes, everyone is still alive, healthy, mouthy as ever. So that counts. I am hoping for a smooth move and lots of good times in 2009. I wish the same for all of you too!

Christmas break

The kids weren't supposed to start their break till today (Tuesday) but due to the weather, they got out early Thursday then had Friday and Monday off too. SO I can realistically say we are at day five. It has been ok, I thought I was losing my mind earlier then Mr decided to take a nap so I am ok. Last weekend Chick was sick, yesterday 411 was ill and Mike and Mr have been really fatigued with headaches. Me and Bubba are the last hold outs. I am hoping it skips us cuz we have way too much to do.
My mom is coming down for a couple of hours tomorrow then going up to my brothers on Christmas day. My sister emailed me to get a vacation to Canada planned for next summer. My aunt is spending the holiday season with her daughter in Alabama (or Georgia, I forget where she lives). That is the extent of my side of the family's involvement with each other. It never has been a close knit one. I am really thankful that my kids are growing up with a sense of family. They just don't know how lucky they are, I just hope the closeness continues as they get older and get their own families.
I got to talk to Zach the other day. I knew he was really down cuz he just doesn't chat with me usually. I am not good at small talk so that really limits who I talk to, you have to know me to love me kind of thing. Anyway, he is having a rough time this go round. I feel so bad for him, he has always had this attitude about it. Maybe that is what he needed to get through I don't know but it is gone now. He just wants to come home. And the really cool part is he will be trying to come here when he says home. I think I am going to try to put together some cookies or something when we get this moving thing out of the way. Pesky details ;)

Keni Thomas

As most of you know, my 10 year old is a military freak. He loves anything to do with the military. I had known about Keni Thomas for awhile, he has a couple of songs that just grab you. "Not Me" and "Band of Brothers" are two of the most velcro-ish. I don't know how to embed video's into my blog but here is the link if you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TAGG0-HHSs

I looked him up on wikipedia because I just think he is really really cool.


Thomas enlisted in the Army in 1991. Prior to joining the Army he attended the University of Florida.[1] He served as a Ranger in the 75th Ranger Regiment, eventually attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant. Thomas was a member of Task Force Ranger as a part of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. A main objective of the Task Force was to capture the elusive Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The most well known of their combat missions occurred October 3, 1993, when Thomas and fellow Task Force members were involved in the Battle of Mogadishu that was later immortalized in the book and movie Black Hawk Down, for which he was a consultant. He also served as a consultant for the Mel Gibson film We Were Soldiers. After Somalia, Thomas went on to serve as an assistant team leader on Ranger recon teams. His military decorations and achievements include the Bronze Star for Valor and the Combat Infantryman Badge, as well as successful completion of the Special Forces Combat Diver course and the Belgian Commando course.
Upon leaving active duty service, Thomas worked as a youth counselor. He also became a speaker, giving presentations to various audiences across the United States
Thomas soon formed the band Cornbread and began his career in music by performing with the band in and around Columbus, Georgia. After several album releases, Thomas and Cornbread released the album Flags of Our Fathers, with the artist listed as Keni Thomas. Thomas donates some of the proceeds to the Hero Fund, which directs those funds to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, an organization created to provide college scholarships and financial aid to the children of fallen Special Operations soldiers.
He has a new album that came out in 2008, "Gunslinger" and you can bet as soon as I find it, I am buying it.

another week

Last Friday I got to babysit my great nephew and niece. He played hard!!















Here one of my fave's of lil miss















and look, I won! We tore down the false ceilings and even Mikey likes the way it makes the rooms feel bigger.



















Now, we just have to drywall, texture, paint, sand, stain, replace, clean and MOVE! We are shooting for the first week in January being done and moving in. I have got to get organized!

Double trouble doing their rock star impersonations

Bubba all decked out for the holiday program at school.

Mr. on his way to the program.

411 was so proud!

One year, with all the family at the school program we had at least one kid in each grade, k-6. It is so much fun to watch them perform, they enjoy it. Some more then others (i.e. 411, she really gets into the groove). Fortunately, Whimp had her super camera last night so she got some really cute shots. My gimping camera wasn't going to take that good of pictures so I was happy she did her photographer thing. I totally plan on lifting the pix when she posts them ;)

Monday night stuff

Here is 411 before her recital, I told her to smile and this is what I get!












Here she is looking all cute and stuff. I have to give her the credit, she took this and I LOVE this picture of her. She is going through another phase of 'I am soo neglected' so I thought I would share a couple shots of just her. See, she is getting more attention then the others. That counts right?!? J/K

So there is really nothing new, just kinda waiting for the countdown to Christmas. SO not in the spirit this year, I think all the work to the house and knowing we are moving so soon after is really cramping our mood. I am really grumpy today, fighting with a hormonal teen first thing in the morning tends to do that to me. I finally hit my limit on how much nastiness I was gonna take off of her. I am so not looking forward to the other three going through it.

We got the dining room in the new house painted an interesting shade of red and the living room a warm shade of sage. Right now I am fighting for drywalling the ceiling (over the existing lathe and plaster) and getting rid of the existing false ceiling. I HATE false ceilings. Really really hate them, they look cheap to me. I understand what Mike is saying though, we are running out of time; we wanna get moved the week after Christmas. Still have to rip out the upstairs bathroom vanity, toilet, shower doors and surround. Then replace all that stuff, finish painting the downstairs bathroom, sand the floors, varnish them, finish the plumbing in the kitchen and get the sink base set back up as well as a vanity for the downstairs bathroom. We moved the washer and dryer hookup out of the kitchen and onto the back porch/mudroom, that is why there is plumbing issues in the kitchen. Mike's got a friend who is a plumber that is helping him. Now if he could just befriend an electrician and a carpenter we would be set. LOL

I wrapped all the gifts I had so far today. Boy, knowing what I spent, it sure doesn't seem like much. I am hearing that from a lot of people this year, though, it is a tight one. They keep saying that the economy is just going to get worse, scary times indeed.

I started another stocking, this one is for the newest edition, Aubree. I had made one for her older brother, so her mom came and asked me to make one for her. That made me feel good. I always worry when I make something, that people are just being polite when they say they like it. There's that low self esteem again, ssiiigghhh. It irritates me cuz like when my mom said "it's so beautiful" I hear in my head her telling me "even if it is the most horrendous gift ever, you tell the person you love it so you don't hurt their feelings". Which I understand the lesson she was trying to teach, and it is a good one, BUT now I always wonder.

There are officially 17 days left till Christmas. For me, it is only 11 days till the family grab bag. That is the most fun of the season for me. Mike is one of eight kids (for the one or two of you that don't know and aren't a member of the family) and each of those 8 is married. Most of them have kids, some even have grand kids and kids-in-law. It makes for a HUGE get together. So we reserve the Saturday before Christmas to have our get together. We all bring way too much food, a grab bag gift for each adult and gifts for our kids to open if we have kids. Then, when our bellies are screaming because we ate entirely too much, we play bingo for the gifts. Then we play another round for stealing. There always is a way cool gift that everyone is envious of, and of course, a gift that no one wants. I always shoot for something in the middle. I am chicken, I don't want to give the gift that everyone goes, 'gee, you really shouldn't have. really.' When I was married to my first husband, they did something similar, and my sister in law took a package of Depends as her gift and thought it was hilarious. The recipient didn't but it wasn't me so I didn't care. Anyway, the point to this is, I am more excited for that then I am for the actual Christmas day. Mike and I rarely get each other anything and that is a little disappointing but at least that day I get to enjoy the holiday for me and not just the kids.

I had a friend leave me a message on my myspace a couple a days ago. I hadn't heard from her for quite awhile and out of the blue, she left me a message saying that she misses me and thinks I am a cool person. ( so totally paraphrasing but you get the warm fuzzy intent) That was really nice. I wish I was thoughtful enough to leave random notes of kindness for people. I actually tried it once. Michelle is always giving me compliments for random things completely outta the blue. I was sitting there thinking one day, 'I wish I could do that, just tell someone atta girl kinda thing' so I texted Michelle I thought she was a good person and that I was happy I got to be part of her world. She immediately called me and asked if I was suicidal cuz that text just didn't sound like me.

Odds and ends

my little pilgrim!




















This is what we discovered when we pulled the paneling off a wall in the kitchen, a through to the built in hutch (I am sure there is a name for it, I just don't know it) and some built in cabinets. They got a little dinged with "demo" and I have to find some cool hinges but I think they will be soo cool.




















THe top of the stairs after we pulled all the carpet up

















THe bottom of the stairs before I went through and got all the staples, nails and tack strips pulled up. The entryway floor is in the roughest shape. I am anxioous to get it sanded, stained and sealed.























Danny's stocking I finally got done. It turned out bigger then Riley's but I don't think Whimp cared! She insisted she had to have them before Christmas for some reason ;)