Silk Purse?

When it comes to our house, I didn’t think it would be possible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It’s beginning to look as though I might be wrong. We have almost made more improvements in the last few weeks than in the last 5 1/2 years of owning this house. It’s so nice now, that I almost feel bad selling it, just because I want to enjoy it for awhile.
Not really.
Rachel and I brought our boys shopping on Friday to find some pictures for the house as well as some bathroom decor.The boys were all very well behaved. Except for that little incident at Culver’s where Jackson traumatized a little girl. He kept yelling, “Hey girl! I’m gonna fart!” Even her mom looked shocked.
The day before, Seth installed the vanity on his lunch break with a little assistance from his two helpers.
The look on his face tells me that Seth was doubtful of how much help they would reallyprovide.


On Sunday, Dale and Collette came over and helped us get some things done. Collette watched the boys while I touched up the trim on the house and garage and the guys switched refrigerators, put more boards on the deck steps, and installed a new front door. They did a lot more than that, but I can’t remember everything!

There will be many more pictures of our recent home improvements, but for now here’s a blurry picture of our little spread. I just realized that you can’t even see the new front door, which wasthe whole reason for me taking this picture in the first place. Oh well!

 

Because You’re Dying to Know

What? Did you think I was going to tell you where we’re moving? Not until you read this entire post (or scroll to the end).
I’m sure you’re just dying to know how our family spent Memorial Day weekend. Even if you aren’t, I’m going to tell you anyway!
We started off with a Park Lane jewelry party at Krista’s house put on by my mother-in-law, Collette who sells Park Lane. Afterwards, Collette watched the boys while I packed our suitcase and Seth and Dale installed a new sink and faucet in the basement bathroom to replace the old rust colored sink and leaky faucet. When they were done, we loaded everyone up and headed to Dale and Collette’s so that Seth could get up bright and early to work at the dealership before we drove back to my parents’ house for Eddy’s high school graduation party. Tucker had a great time. I don’t think the smile left his face all day.The boys did some exploring in the shelterbelt.
Jackson shot the “bear”.

I got attacked by the “bear”. It’shard to believe that my baby brother is so big!

Me with my mom and my older sister, Tina. Rachel had to leave before we were able to get one of the four of us. Notice, how I angled myself in the picture and tried vainly to suck in my stomach in an attempt to look skinny next to my pregnant stick of a sister and my tiny mother who has given birth to 7 children. I think that Mother’s Day candy may have started to catch up with me. Hmmm. That reminds me…I still have some in the cupboard…Grrrrandpa and Tucker getting some hugs and kisses in before the party was over.

On Sunday, we drove back to Dale and Collette’s so that we could use their equipment at the dealership to put new tires on the Trailblazer. In case you didn’t know, I was a level 2 tech (um, yeah: my claim to fame?) when I worked as a service writer at Fleet Farm before moving to the audit department, so I’ve changed my share of tires. I guess Fleet was good for something because so far it looks like I balanced the tires right. I was a little rusty, though. The first wheel weight I tried to take off was on pretty tight and my hand slipped giving me these lovely souvenirs on my thumb.On Monday, we met Rachel, R, Molly and Ryan at DQ for some ice cream.

I absolutely love R’s little helmet! He came over yesterday without it on and I had to do a double take. Of course, he’s still just as adorable without it, but I’m goingto be kind of sad when he doesn’t have to wear it anymore.

Tucker had his “CREAMS!”

Jackson pretty much spent the entire time running around the restaurant getting into mischief and asking other diners, “Don’t you wish I came with a user manual?”

Molly and I tried to get a picture together, but my pop fell over and we were laughing so hard, this is what we got.

Then, we went home to finish painting the walls in the upstairs bathroom and scrape the old linoleum off the floor. I realized that the underside of our toilet tank was a little dirty (a lot dirty) so I sprayed some cleaner on it and started wiping it with a rag. The very edge of the rag brushed a bolt under the tank and, of course, the rusted bolt fell out and water started to leak everywhere. To say Iwas peeved is an understatement.

We ended up going to Fargo with Dale and Collette that night to pick out some new linoleum and a new toilet to go along with the new vanity we were installing. Seth and Dale stayed up past midnight getting the linoleum and toilet in.
Someone else stayed up also.
I guess he must have been determined to be the first to use the new “turd slinger” as Seth titled it.

The guys had just finished hooking up the toilet when I heard Jackson yelling for me through the door to his room. I opened the door and there he was standing. Pants down, diaper on the floor behind him, and he was holding half of a childproof door handle cover. He had pooed and then used the half of the cover to scoop it up. Down the hall he went to dump it in the toilet. Now if I could just figure out how to get him to skip the diaper and handle cover part. Judging from the brown spot that the toilet came with, Jackson might not have been the first to use it after all.
So, now that we have a practically new bathroom, some new paint, and a stained deck why would we want to move?


Because we don’t want to live here.

When Seth and I were engaged (the whole 6 months) we both agreed that we never wanted to stay in this town. Somehow, 6 years later, we’re still here. We decided to put an end to this nonsense and quit wasting our lives away in a place that neither of us like. Besides, there aren’t many job opportunities around here once I graduate.
So:
We’re pulling up stakes and moving to Colorado.