Hurricane Sandy

I live on the East Coast, and Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on everyone.  Luckily, where I live, we have not taken a direct hit, nor have we had much really bad damage.  Flooding in low-lying areas, a few short-lived power outages for some people, but nothing major.  We have been very lucky.  However, people farther north may not be so lucky, so please, keep them in your thoughts and/or prayers as you so choose, and let's hope no one gets hurt.

Take care everyone!

Playhouse

I think I have mentioned my dad is building a playhouse in the backyard for the girls.  It's coming along really nicely now and looks like a real building now!  So I have decided to give you a treat and show off some pictures.  Enjoy!

Here is my dad carrying some of the wood into our (large) backyard.  He has had to carry all the materials back there almost all by himself, because Bill works and when I'm home, I have the girls, especially Elena, to watch.  I have helped when I can and I wish I could do more because I enjoy this type of thing.

 Below, here is the first of the floor/foundation/whateveryoucallit put in.

 Below, the actual floor has been laid and now we can walk on it.  Cool!

 My dad with some of his cool power tools.  He used to work in construction years ago.

 Below, here are some walls framed up and set aside for later.

 You can probably get a feel for how large this playhouse is.  It is meant to be used as a storage shed after the girls outgrow it, so it is very big.  I think it's 8'x10' or something like that.

 Stairs!  My dad never built stairs before but he worked it all out ahead and these turned out so great!

 Below, you can really see the decking on the porch area.  The tarp is for the rest of the floor so when it rains it won't get quite so saturated. 

 Roof trusses ready to go later.

 Now here's the most recent stuff:  Walls going up with the help of my brother David (in gray).  Bill was just out there talking to them on his lunch break from work.  See that orange cord?  That's for the awesome nail gun.  I AM going to use that thing.

 Here it is all closed off for overnight because it was supposed to rain.  David and my dad got all the walls up and laid the roof trusses upside down inside the building and covered them with the tarp.  It's been raining a lot the last week here.

 And here they are, my awesome dad and brother.

 After working on it some more today (my dad and David) here is what it looks like tonight!  Walls up, door cut out, porch pillars on!  My dad's coming back tomorrow and possibly my brother if he can.

Now, how cool is this thing?  I love it!  I want to play in it, too!!  When it's finished, it'll even have siding on it.  I am so lucky to have a dad who can do something like this.  It has far exceeded my expectations for a "playhouse".  When I asked him to build one for the girls, I had no idea he would make something this awesome!  Karina and I plan to paint the inside of it.  Probably purple since it's her favorite color!  And she wants a rainbow floor!

Three weeks

My house is a sick house.  As in, we've been sick with one thing or another for three straight weeks (heading into our fourth).  First, Elena got Roseola.  Then she gave it to Karina.  When Karina got better, she went to school for one day and ended up with a nasty, nasty stomach virus over the weekend.  While she was recovering from that, Elena got a cold, which she has joyfully passed on to me and Bill.  So on top of all the business and lack of time, there was that.  My house is now an official wreck, but we are, I think, mostly on the mend.  Bill just got the cold, so he'll probably be sick for a few days with that.  Hopefully he won't be as bad off as I have been, where today it was so bad that I had the girls at Target at 8:30am to buy cough medicine and Puffs Plus (my favorite tissue for cold season, and they did not pay me to say that, it's just my opinion, etc. etc).  After a few doses of cough medicine and a hot shower this evening, I am feeling better now.  We'll see how I am in the morning after everything settles back into my chest again.  Ugh. 

I am determined to have fun tomorrow though.  It's a big fall festival in town with hundreds--hundreds--of crafters, a bunch of vendors, stuff for kids to do, and food.  I love this event and I go every year now.  There is one lady who makes capodimonte jewelry, which is a type of porcelain I think. She makes them and paints them herself and they're so pretty.  I think I buy a pair of earrings or a necklace or something from her every year.  Her roses give me heart palpitations of the good kind.  (I love roses in case you didn't already know that).  Tomorrow, Bill is actually coming (different kind of heart palpitations, since he never comes to anything) and is going to take the girls to the kid stuff while I shop!  I was just going to take them with me but this is way better!

 Last weekend the youth group went to the state fair and we had so much fun.  I brought the girls and Bill was supposed to come but backed out at the last minute.  He said he didn't want to ride in the van.  Well, boy did he miss out, because we had the best time! 

 

 

 Karina is not crying, she is having so much fun and making a silly face.  

We saw animals (including some adorable baby ducks in a pond) and a watusi with horns that were bigger around than my arms and probably as long as my leg (each horn).

 We ate yucky state fair hot dogs that were actually okay, Karina rode a ton of rides including a slide that was so high I thought for sure she'd freak out at the top and end up in tears! But she didn't cry, and in fact she LOVED it and wanted to go again, but the line was really long.

 Okay, do you see how high up this thing is?  That's my kid climbing up the stairs in front of her two little friends.  The older boy is afraid of heights, too, and his mom didn't think he'd go up there but look!  They were all brave.

We even had a panic moment when I lost my wallet!  That's right, LOST, as in GONE!!  But thankfully one of the youth advisors, Erik, who is a police officer, knew what to do and we ended up finding it in the lost and found with everything still in it--a miracle, I thought for sure it'd be stripped of all but maybe my kids' pictures.  But everything was there, thank goodness!  Elena was a angel the whole time, didn't even really cry about anything until we were in the van going back home.  It was late, almost her bedtime, and she was tired and starting to get that cold.  She was tired of being in a stroller or her carseat, and wanted out.  I had already fed her and was waiting for her to fall asleep, but she started crying more and more until she got really worked up.  Then she started coughing and kind of choking.  She started choking enough that I was scared enough and couldn’t get her propped upright and I took her out of her carseat and she promptly vomited all over me.  ALL OVER me.  Three times.  But that’s okay, because she wasn’t choking.  I just put her back in the carseat, where she fell asleep immediately, and asked our pastor if I could borrow her extra shirt that had long sleeves that she didn’t wear.  I changed lickety-split in the back of the van no problem, and had no trouble the rest of the way home.  It was a good day though and Karina had a great time.  She loved riding in the van and was telling me stories about it today, going to the van store, and how the vans talk there.  She just makes up stuff and it’s so cute.  It’s always, “When I was a little girl…”  I love that!  

My dad is making progress on the playhouse.  Walls go up next!  Woohoo!  Should be getting some or all of that done on Monday.  My brother is coming over to help him do that.  It's going to be amazing!  

Well, there, now you have seen some pictures despite my lack of time, energy, motivation, and health.  But hopefully at least the being healthy part will get better this week!