Who am big?

(Katie, as we were going down the basement stairs last night)

"...And I am big. And Sammy am big. And Mama, you am big. We am all...BIG!!!)

Sick day

We stayed home from preschool today because Sammy had a fever all night. And hasn't really eaten much the last 36 hours. He has been drinking, though, and is pretty well-hydrated. Anyway, it's nice to have a down day. We've been too busy the last few weeks, and it has totally worn me out. I am back to my old can't wake up when my alarm clock goes off ways. Not good...

The ADT techs are coming some time this afternoon to replace the battery in my alarm system. (Did I mention I had a heck of a technology SNAFUs day yesterday? The PDA, the alarm system, & the DSL - so therefore the phone. It was very stressful for me.) I guess the sales rep lied when he told me they kept an eye on battery status remotely and would come replace it when it needed it. Also, why the heck didn't my keypad panel say give me any kind of error?

It makes me tired just thinking about it. Can I just go back to bed???

Frus-Frus, Frus-Frus-tru-a-tion!

(If you have not seen Leap Frog's Storybook Factory, or heard their "Punctuation" song, don't even bother trying to make sense of the title.)

Ugh! I just spent the last 6 hours with 3 different Palm tech support techs, first on the computer chat and then on the phone support, because a couple of weeks ago, some contacts randomly disappeared from my handheld (Palm Treo 755p) but not my computer. Like my Roomie. And the phone company. And who knows how many others. FINALLY, 6 hours, 1 soft & 2 hard resets, 1 Outlook "detect and repair" 1 palm user name, 1 new contacts folder (manipulated a dozen different ways), 1 almost-got-a-replacement-device except that my internet (and therefore Vonage/phone) crashed in the middle of the first support call, and 17 HotSyncs later, the stinking problem was that A SILLY SETTING UNDER "SECURITY" GOT SWITCHED FROM "SHOW" TO "HIDE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

(Why does Outlook randomly make some of my contacts private, anyway?)

I am going to bed now!

Basement - nearly done

We have passed all our inspections. Just some finishing touches left. A friend is going to paint our Dora-land mural (hopefully some time in the next week or two). Uncle Scott still needs to build our bookshelves and entertainment center so we can move stuff down there. There are a few painting projects that need done - stairs, shelves, etc. Another friend is helping out with those. (I was supposed to do all the painting, but I can't stand the fumes). Laminate needs to go on the stair treads (after my friend paints them with Kilz paint because the dog peed all over them).

The blinds will be installed on Tuesday. The spa guys are coming on Thursday to figure out why the mood light on the tub is not working. I need to get the electricians out to figure out why there's no power to the floor heat in the bathroom. Need to schedule the TV/internet/phone wiring trim-out. Get slipcovers for the love seat and chair, make a pad for the window seat. Tablecloth and chairs for the table...

And then the big thing. I need to figure out where everything goes. I still don't know where I can put my drumset. I don't know if I should get my grandmother's antique (full-sized) teester bed fixed for the bedroom (and buy a new mattress for it as my kids are now using it's mattress), or get a bigger (much less tall/won't scrape the ceiling) bed to put down there. I don't know where to put the blue lounge chair. I don't know if I want to buy a desk or just use tables I have for my craft area in the bedroom down there. Then there are the million boxes that I'll have to unpack and figure out if/what to keep and if so, where to put it. This job totally overwhelms me and makes me want to go play ostrich.

Meanwhile, here some pictures of what it looks like today:

The kids' area (right off the stairs). The white wall is where the mural is going. All but the 1 huge Dora wall stickers will then go on the mural wall. I plan to put a row of hanging hooks (maybe with a shallow shelf on top) below the huge Dora, for dress-up stuff.


I plan to do another row & column of these cube shelves after the mural gets painted. The top of them are currently the height of my head (5'). Since they are square, I supposed that is how wide they are, too.


These kids haven't touched Mr. Potato Head in ages, but when I brought him down to his own box/spot in the basement, suddenly he was the most interesting toy in there! (Well, except for the Legos.)


I don't know who hung the giraffes like this, but it looked pretty funny....

We instituted the new rule last night for the basement - only one toy (set) out at a time, and you have to put that away before you get a different toy out. Sammy has been really great about complying, when he remembers to, or is reminded. Katie needs to work on it a bit.

The "big kids' area" (entertainment center going on that left wall)


Bathroom. The grout messed up in one corner of the sink counter. (I hope I can get a small amount in the right color to fix it, and not have to buy another 25 lb bag!) I need to clean the grout off the purple walls. And Scott needs to put the medicine cabinet in. Other than that, it is pretty much done.


After I took these pics, I decided to hang the shower curtain. Also, Jeff hung robe/towel hooks on the door last night. One is even low enough for my short Mama to reach.


Bedroom. The 3 drawers for the built-in are done, but 1 needs a second coat of paint. And I need to find drawer pulls for them. I may move the papasan into the big room (will need to get a cover or different color pad) and put my drumset in that corner.

Happy Birthday "Uncle" David!

Very happy birthday wishes to Katie's godfather (Rachel's dad). I will be nice and not tell you how old he is. ;)

Katie's "Trampoline"

We got a hand-me-down love seat and chair for the basement from someone from the homeschooling group that moved (home to New Orleans, actually). I need to get some covers for them.

Katie thinks the love seat is hers. Nobody else can sit on it when she's down there. She runs around it and makes me sing "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain." She sits on the arm and makes me recite Humpty Dumpty so she can fall on it. She makes me open it up so it can be her trampoline. Although usually what she does on it is "figure eights." (Which look a lot more like "letter Ps").

Rave: Space Bags

I don't know what took me so long, but I finally decided to try out Space Bags. Let me just say, FABULOUS idea!

I was able to get all our XS diapers (12 Fuzzi Bunz (new style), 1 bumGenius! AIO, 4 Thirsties wrap covers, 2 Bummies Super Whisper Wraps) into a medium one with plenty of room to spare. Then I was able to get all our Small & Medium diapers (12 sm old-style FBs , 10 sm Thirsties hemp fitteds (discontinued), a dozen sm prefolds, 10 m old-style FBs, a WHAM fitted, 9 m Swaddlebees (pockets) with inserts and doublers, and various stuffers for the pocket diapers) into a Large bag. I may have overstuffed this one though as it isn't vacuumed as tightly as the Med. bag. But they are still taking up less than 1/4 the space they did in regular boxes.


THEN, the completely amazing part - I was able to get our entire wardrobe of baby girl clothes (sizes preemie - 12m) into one XL bag. This is a rather amazing feat, as we not only have all of Brooke/Katie's outgrown clothes, but new ones of Lilly's are thrown into the mix, too. I think this bag might have a small hole in the bottom as I could hear it leaking air as I was carrying it to the closet. But even so, these clothes still take up less than 1/4 space they did in the boxes they used to occupy!!!


They were super-easy to use, just stuff (being careful to stay below the fill line), zip zip, and vac.

I am definitely ordering some more. I am going to have to start saving boy clothes instead of giving them away, you know. And it will be nice to get all my non-maternity clothes tucked into a small corner of my closet. I wonder if my hubby will let me do all those uniforms he never wears, too?

Dear PawPaw

Just in case you were wondering, we still LOVE the playhouse.

Welcome Lochlan Reilly!

Congrats to Mommy to Ander and Wife to Box, Box, and Ander who just welcomed their newest family member into the world. Please keep him in your prayers, as he was having trouble breathing and was taken to the NICU.

Ice Skating

The kids talked about going ice skating with Rachel for weeks before she arrived. I thought Sammy would try it and be done the first time he fell, and Katie would be out there the whole time. It happened exactly the opposite.

Here is Sammy with Rachel's skating coach's daughter, Romilly. And there's Lauren in the background.


Rachel and Romilly helping Sammy skate.


Katie all laced up and ready to go out on the ice.


Rachel helping Katie skate.


The thing that made Katie decide she didn't like skating. "Da ice is code, Mama!"


Sammy going out for more. The girls were so nice to help him skate!

Post-hurricane

Thanks to everyone who asked about and/or prayed for my family. They had little property damage, other than lots of trees down in the yard. Power lines are down and tangled around each other and everything. They are expecting the power to be off for weeks or maybe even a month.

Roomie called yesterday. They are OK, too. They lost quite a few shingles, but the roof is still at least covered.

Please pray for everyone down there with no power in south LA humidity. I can only imagine how miserable it is.