House crap.

Yes folks, today it is house CRAP. I'm so ready for it all to be done. I'm posting the pictures as promised, but they don't come with happy feelings. Today they come with dread, stress, and a whole crap load of other emotions. We've finally hit the wall where its really starting to effect our family, and our relationship. And I will tell you that that is a really hard thing to admit. Todd and I have always been relatively argument free. We've been told by many many people that we make them sick, because 99% of the time we're a lovey dovey, and happy. When we do argue, its over in 10 minutes and we're past it. Last night was rough. Todd's stressed, I'm stressed, and its just piling up. We're entering month number TWO of double bills, and things just aren't looking good for actually moving THIS month either. And that is really discouraging.

Its actually taken me all day to write this, because house stuff just brings the stress back right now, and I so don't want to deal with it.

My apologies for the downer post. I can't promise that tomorrow will be any better. I Have a mil vent that I NEED to get off my chest.

Anyway, on to the pictures

We had dinner at the new house again last Saturday A picnic in all the mess. It wasn't much fun this time though, because the house is SO dangerous for the kids to be at right now.

Todd showing how high the pile of insulation WAS before he cleaned up over half of it. This all came down when they tore the ceiling down on what will be the bathroom. Can you say YUCK?

An interesting trap door that was discovered when they pulled the carpet up in an old closet. It goes to a place that was previously walled off. It was made to fit the exact size of the tile. We're not sure if we're going to close it up, or leave it there, since we're removing the wall where it goes to, and it would be a great pass through, or shout hole for the kids!!!

Three of the garbage bags that were in the room at the time I took the picture of the insulation just up a picture. There were 6 filled, this is three of them, and there was still that whole pile. Again, can you say YUCK?

This is how bare the entire back of the house is right now, where a majority of the work is getting done.

Amazing. . . many amazing things.

There have been things going on here lately that just amaze me. I think maybe because its been just me one on one with my kids, I haven't been distracted with anything else. But the kids have all been amazing me!!!! So I thought I'd share a little bit from each of their amazingness!!!

Dallas:

We're only 1 week into the school year, and already Dallas is amazing me. He said that his teacher gives them the math work, and then tells them to work on it. He ALWAYS finishes early, so he has to ask her what to do next. She replies with "go ahead and color on the back of your papers." So he does. Wouldn't you know he came home EVERY day with drawings on the back of his papers! And then at the end of the week, he came home with "level 2" math papers! He said that he's really enjoying his math this year, and that EVERYTHING in second grade is easier than first grade! I'm thinking it has a lot to do with his meds, and knowing that they're working much better for him, and he's able to THINK clearly this year! The stress is off of him to try to FOCUS so much, and he can just do what he knows how to do. . .be an awesome student!!! I'm so proud of him! He's such an amazing little man! He's got a great personality, and he's a real people person!


Gabriel:

(pardon the goofy look. Hes in that geeky age of not knowing how to keep his eyes open in a picture!!!)

I think of all the amazing, unexpected things that have happened lately, Gabriel amazes me the most! This kid has some AWESOME whit hid inside that little body! And it always comes peeking out when you least expect it. We've seen peaks from time to time, when he says things like what happened a few months ago while he was playing WII with Dallas. They were playing Playground and doing the track races. He went over a jump, and out of the blue starts singing "I believe I can fly". Todd and I lost it! Where it came from we have no clue! But gosh this kids got some funny hiding under all that shy! Yesterday he got me again. Sunday night is always Funny Video night for our family. We all get in our jammies early in the day, and then we hang out on the couch watching America's Funnies Home Videos. We watched one that had someone in a big wipe out. And from Gabriel's corner of the couch comes "THAT'S gonna hurt in the morning!" And he says it completely straight face!! This kid is awesome! He keeps us on our toes!!!! And it is very much seeing his daddy shine through!!!

Kaleb:


Well, if the goofy look in the picture doesn't give away whats amazing about Kaleb, I don't know what more I can tell you. He's SUCH a little ham! He's got this deep dimple when he smiles, or makes a goofy face (you can see it on the side there!) And he's ALWAYS laughing!!! He's everyone's buddy, and he's more than happy to help out. He has a new favorite toy. Its his tools. He LOVES to help fix things. He gets SO excited if Daddy is working on something that will allow for him to help! He just puffs out his chest and dives right in, and when the job is done he's SO thrilled!!! He brags that HE helped daddy! And I think Todd loves the fact that he has a little buddy! All the other kids have been Mama's babies, so for daddy to have a buddy is nice!! But like I said, Kaleb is an equal opportunities guy! He loves his mommy too!!!!


Kendyl:


Ahhhh, my princessy pie. She's surprised us with her GIRL-ness lately!!!! That may sound weird, but we're not used to the swings of a little girl! We're used to happy go lucky little boys!!! Kendyl can swing from really happy to mad at the world in the bat of an eye, and she can swing right back again! I didn't expect to see this so young! But wow. . .girls really are just born this way! She's an AMAZING helper around the house, and she LOVES to learn how to do all the things mommy is doing! She so into her baby dolls, her clothes, and hair things, which of course I just LOVE! And as always its nice to have some purple in the sea of blue! And yes, I say purple! She shares her mommies love of purple, not pink!!! I can't wait to put her room together so she has a place that's truly hers, and truly girl!!!



The Minnesota Weather:

That's another thing that never fails to amaze me! Last Monday we were at almost 90. Do you know what we're at today??? Yeah, that would be 54 for a HIGH!! Yikes!!! We'll swing somewhere near 75 for the weekend, and everywhere in between! this time of year in Minnesota is SOOOOO strange!!! The kids almost need a heavy jacket for going to school, yet when they come home they're ready for shorts!!!! But I have to say, I'll take it for now. I'm SO not ready to see any of the white stuff any time soon!!!


Coming tomorrow, the update on the house.

Awards!!!!!

The love has once again been bestowed upon me!!!!! I have two awards to share today!!! One I've sorely neglected putting up because life has been crazy, and another I just got today!!!!!!



Now, I'm going to break the norm here. I know you're usually supposed to give rules about how many more to pass it on to, but I'm going to break that. I'm going to pass it along. If you're receiving it, please feel no pressure to pass it on! I'm just awarding you because I want to!!!



The first one comes compliments of Christi over at Blah Blah blog. Christi is an amazing woman, mother, and teacher!! I value her friendship, and am very glad that the world wide web of parenting sites brought us the opportunity to become friends!!!!



1. Misty over at A day in my Life, Jaiden and Mason's mom. Misty and I were introduced via a mutual friend. I'd been hearing of her and her little man Mason from our friend, and was introduced to her blog. I love reading her blog, and seeing her strength and courage as she walks down the path of learning how to raise her special little man!!!! You're an amazing woman Misty!!!!


2. Crystal at Oh-Frog-it . Crystal and I have been friends since meeting on a June mommies board when we were both pregnant with our first kiddos!!! The people on the board were nasty, but I got a friendship that will last a lifetime out of it!!! I'm so very thankful to call her my friend!!!!



3. Brenda at The Myers Family. I happened upon Brenda's blog while stumbling through the world of mommy of multiples blogs out there! I love how she blogs, and talks about her kids! It makes you feel like you're right there with her experiencing it all with her!!!! She has adorable little girls, and all in all I just love reading her blog!!!


4. Brianne at The Gibson Twins. Again, I met Brianne through the blogging world. She's a young mama like me, and she also has the cutest boy girl twins! She's a mom who's super on top of everything, and something I would love to strive for!!! I love reading her blog and watching her cute kiddos grow!!!


5. Heather at Outnumbered by the brood. She's funny, she's Witty, and she's one of my great friends!!!! I love reading her blog!!!!


6. Barbara at A tale of two twinkies. Another mommy blogger friend who I love following along with! She too is a mommy to boy girl twins, and I love reading her blog!






The next award I was given came from Amy, at Georumination. I met her through the parenting boards too. She's got more talent in so many areas than I could ever hope to have!! she never fails to amaze me with all she's got going, and how well she handles it all!!!!





These ones are all self explanatory. They're all wonderful bloggers, and I enjoy them very much!!!


Twinfatuation


Our Aussie Half Dozen


Who says 8 is enough






You all have wonderful blogs!!!! Thank you for letting me share in them with you!!!

The plumbing inspector has been through. .

This is the guy who wanted to meet with Todd today at 3:00 pm to let him know EXACTLY what he needs to see in there to pass code, and inspection. Todd got a call this morning from his mom that the meeting needed to be pushed up in the day to 12:15. Todd got off for an hour of work and met the man there. Turns out this inspector is AWESOME!! He went over everything with Todd, and then told him to call him if he had any questions. And to not feel like he was calling too much, he said "I don't care if you call me every two minutes, I'd rather have you ask and do it right, then have to have you re do it!" So that was good to hear. Then he said to call him back when they'd gotten everything to the point of gutted, and he'd come back and help them draw up the plumbing plans (so that they don't have to re submit to the city!!) and come up with a materials list! This guy is going WAY above and beyond, and we appreciate everything he's doing SO much!!!

It does turn out though that the basement bathroom will have to be COMPLETELY torn out. We were thinking only part of the floor so that we could get to the main drain line to tie into for the upstairs bathroom relocation. Nope, not so lucky. Not only will it have to all be gutted and the floor totally ripped up, but they'll have to rip into about half of the laundry room too. YIKES!!! Its turning into A LOT more work than we'd intended. And I'm sure this will only push the moving time frame out even more. But what can ya do? Right?

I'm so anxious to see what its going to all look like DONE! I'm so horrible about waiting for things! Just ask my husband! If I get him a birthday present or something I always wind up caving and giving it to him early because I just can't wait! I get that from my dad! He's the exact same way! So the wait is killing me, and each day that drags on just feels like sheer torture that way. I know the wait will all be worth it in the end, but COME ON PEOPLE!! I wanna SEE it!!

Sigh, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!! I just wanna open just ONE present, just one to get a peek and see whats in store!!!

Maybe soon.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that!!!!

In true fashion with my scattered life lately, I have a few things to update on!!!! Sorry if your head has been spinning reading along lately. Its what happens when you mix a busy life with a busy family of 6!!!!


Dallas and Gabe's first couple of days of school are now over. We still officially have today and tomorrow left of the week, but the first two days are done, and we've gotten a taste of how the year will go for the boys. Dallas came home his first day with a folder FULL of things. It looks like they really got a great fun kick off to the year. They had one of the traditional class mixers, where you have to go around asking people what they did during the summer, and you had to get them to sign their name. Dallas is such a family guy though, that for the "did something crazy" he wrote in his brothers name, and told them all the story of Gabriel swimming to the platform a few weeks ago at the camper. And how Gabriel wouldn't get off the platform until "Mr. Bee" scared him back into the water. He makes me so proud with how much his siblings mean to him. So many teachers tell us all about how much he shares about his siblings! Hopefully that's all good things he's sharing!!! And Gabriel came home TALKING. He talked NON STOP about how his day was! I think that what the teacher did on the orientation night may have shocked us, but it REALLY seems to have worked! He said he really likes his teacher, which is AWESOME! She even came up to me yesterday after school and told me that she thinks its going to be a lot of fun to have Gabriel in class. That he's talking, sharing his opinions, and seems to be a real joy. That was AMAZING for me to hear. Gabriel has been shy since the day he was born! Hearing that he's made such strides in just a couple of days is music to my ears! I think Gabriel may be in place to have an awesome year!!!! I'm very hopeful for both of the boys!!!


We got more news on the new house yesterday too. It turns out that the city is going to let us pull the plumbing permit after all, and not require us to have a licensed plumber do all the work. This is wonderful news! Its going to save us SO much money!!! The only thing the guy said was that in the state of Minnesota you're not required to be a licensed plumber to be an inspector, and that's why the law is in place. But that he IS a licensed plumber, as well as the inspector, so as long as Todd would meet with him for an hour at the house so he could go over everything he needed to see, he would issue the permit!!! That meeting will be taking place Friday at 3:00 pm. WOO HOO!!!! I'm so happy! One more step in the process of getting things done, and one more weight lifted off of Todd's shoulders! he was really stressing about having to hire a plumber. He called in all of his contacts at work, but no one was able to do it for him. And he didn't want to hire just some random plumber. Todd KNOWS what he's doing, and WANTS to do it himself. Heck, this is the kind of thing he does as part of his job. I'd trust him more than some stranger off the street. Either way, we're good to go! YAY!!!

In other Todd news, Todd came home last night saying that there may be a prospective new job out there for him. Its with the same company, and is something they've been trying to career path him towards for awhile. It would be making the jump from Maintenance to Manager. Right now he's doing the same job he's been doing for the last 6 years, and he's ok with that. His manager is VERY accommodating with family things, and time he may need, and just in general its a good set up. He loves where he works, and how its allowed him to help out others in the company, and make a name for himself. But in doing so, its now come to a point where his name is the one coming up for these promotions. And it sounds like he'll be trying for this one. It would be for a property a little closer to home, but with much DIFFERENT clientele. Right now he's got professionals, such as grad students, and professors at the U of M, as well as families. Going to this other property it would be a little more. ...thuggy. This is the property that my brother in law and sister in law used to live at. We've seen the people who live here, and it would be a total change for him. This worries me. He's dealt with this level of living in the past, where there's a lot of government aide, and it goes one of two ways. You get awesome people who have the help because they really need it, and appreciate it, and you get those who abuse the system and expect everything handed to them on a silver platter. This level of things stressed him out before. It isn't a laid back, I understand you have a life too, type of environment that he's used to now. So we'll see. He's said that he'd only do this if there was a written guarantee that if something didn't work out, or he didn't like it, that they'd have a maintenance opening for him somewhere. That way he has an out. A safety net if you will. I'm nervous and excited for him. If this is what he wants to do, I'll support him 100%. And after talking about it last night, it sounds like this is the step in heading towards the job he REALLY wants in the end. The overall maintenance supervisor at the corporate office. On the plus side, this would mean more money. And really, who couldn't use more money??? It would also mean getting rid of on call. Which would lift a HUGE weight from our family. We're restricted to doing things out of town to only 2 weekends of the month right now because he's on call. But on the down side, its a manager job. And the first one to go if there's a problem is usually the top person, and they work down. It would also be a salary job. Which would mean no matter the over time (and there's a lot in this job!) he wouldn't get paid for it. It's exciting, and nerve wracking all at the same time. I guess we'll just have to see where things go once he turns in his resume!!!!

And on that note, off I go to continue packing, cleaning, and wrangling kids!!!

(please pardon the spelling errors. For some reason spell check isn't working for me right now!)

Can I just say I'm SO sick of politics????

I'm so sick of all the fighting, arguing, and trash talking. And we're only in September. I'm so sick of how people can't seem to look at those around them with different opinions as people who just have a different thought on the matter. I'm so sick of seeing articles bashing this person or that, or worse yet, trying to dig into everyones PERSONAL lives. Really, we need to know about what you're going to do for the country. Come on. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. They'd be lying if they said they didn't. Why can't we just look at these people for who they are, what they have to offer, and what they believe?

I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of hearing opinions when asked who I'm voting for, and I reply with Obama. I'm sick of hearing people trash talk McCain too. Its a CHOICE people. Thats why we have a vote. We're all allowed to vote for who we feel will do the better job for our country. We're all allowed to form our own opinion, and and we're all allowed to check whatever box we so choose when it comes time.

I would love to see only 1 week of political stuff before a debate. One week for the people running to give their opinion, beliefs and goals. And I wish that things could kind of be how they were when I was growing up. When everyone didn't really come out and say who they were voting for until it was done, over with, and on paper. Until that vote was counted, and was actually REAL. Because who knows. Maybe your vote will change? Maybe it will stay the same? Either way, I'm sick of everyone being nasty.

I would never not speak to someone just because of how they vote. That would be as stupid in my opinion as not speaking to someone because of how they dress, how they wear their hair, or how many children they have. All things that are a CHOICE, and all things that we're lucky enough to have in this wonderful country, the land of the FREE!!!!

I'm ready to see some change in our country. Not only in some things that are happening in Washington, but all the way down to our street levels. I'm ready to see people treat people with RESPECT again.


Sorry for the little soap box. Just had to get that off my chest.

Where do I begin???

I'm sitting here slightly overwhelmed!!! There's been so much going on here lately and there are so many things I want to put here so that I can remember in the future! But where do I begin??? Hmmm. Maybe I'll start at last Thursday and go forward from there. It might just be the easiest way to remember it all!!!

Last Thursday wasn't supposed to be very warm, and the plan was to take the kids to the pool one last time before school started for the year. So we scrapped that plan and decided to take them to the local zoo. We figured the weather would be nice for that. Well, wouldn't you know by the time we got to the zoo it was HOT outside? It was really warm, but the kids still had a great time! I tried out the "baby leashes" with the twins, so I would know if they'd work for the state fair when we went. .. the answer to that was a great big NO!!!! They drove me BATTY with those on! They pulled mommy in all kinds of directions. I guess we'll be pushing the stroller for a while longer!!!!

This picture is Kaleb and Kendyl at the end of their "rope" while walking around the zoo!!

Then Friday during the day we left for my parents camper. The weather for the weekend couldn't have been more beautiful!!! The kids were able to spend a lot of time at the beach fishing, and swimming. The water was a bit cold though, so they also did a lot of playing on the beach! Saturday I was lucky enough to get a visit from my best friend since 8th grade, Karina. It was so nice to get to catch up with her! I don't get to see her nearly enough!!!! The kids and I came home from that trip on Sunday. I took a TON of pictures though!!!

All my kiddos up at the camper. I LOVE this picture!

Gabriel, 6 years old

Kendyl, 3 years old

Kaleb, 3 years old

Dallas, 7 years old

Braving the chilly water

Doesn't he just look so cool???

Kendyl pouting because Kaleb was using the goggles, and she wanted them.

Kendyl got hit in the ear, and asked for an ice pack. They didn't have any, only a pack of burgers. So she used the burger ice pack to feel better. IT gave her the giggles, and worked rather quickly!!!

Kaleb and his big catch for the weekend! He was SO proud!

Karina!! I miss seeing her!

Eating breakfast with Grandma Marian (my grandma)

mmmmm, french toast and bacon

Kendyl and papa found a butterfly! She was SOOOO proud!

Kaleb's turn to hold it

Can you just imagine how COLD that water was with his face???

My mom

We did a lot of fishing, as I mentioned before. Mostly just bobber fishing right off the dock, because that's what the kids like. Usually they catch sunfish, crappies, and perch. We'd not had much luck, and all of the sudden Gabriels bobber went down in a hurry, and his reel started spinning and clicking. IT freaked him out because it happened so quickly. My dad hopped up to go help him out, and I got the other kids out of the way. Gabriel reeled up his fish, and we were FLOORED with what he'd caught. He caught a 22 inch northern on his little tiny batman pole, while BOBBER fishing!!!!! Look at this thing!!! It was a big fish for that pole!!!! And notice the pride on Gabe's face!!!!

That thing was pretty big. Skinny, but big.

Dallas pulling in a little sunny, after hoping for a northern to keep up with his brother!

Round two with Gabe. Not even five minutes later he caught a SECOND norther off the dock! All totaled that day we caught 4 northers, 10 crappies, and 5 sunfish, just off the dock with bobbers!!! The kids LOVED it!!!

Gabriel and my dad. This one was a bit smaller than the first one.

Yesterday we went to the state fair. Todd was playing in the chapel at the fair. We hung out and listened to him, and then we went out and about in the fair. The kids got to ride the Merry-go-Round for the first time, and had a blast!!! We got some wonderful treasures, like a hand stitched north woods quilt for our new bedroom in the new house, as well as some bear and moose stuff. (I collect bear and moose things!) We were all BEAT by the time we made it to the car. We were able to eat some awesome food that you can only get at the fair, and had a good day as a family!!!

Today was the first day of school for the boys! We were able to meet their teachers last week like I'd previously mentioned. the boys and I got up today, and got them ready, and headed to the new house. I have this tradition of taking the boys' picture by the door on the first day, and the last day so that at the end of the year you can see the difference in growth. Its fun to see. We headed to the new house to take the pictures there, since that's where we'll be by the end of the year. We got their pictures and headed to school. Gabe's teacher was awesome and friendly this morning, and Gabe didn't play the shy card ONCE! I was impressed! Gabe was happy to see some of the boys from his class last year there, and I think that helped some with his anxiety over starting a new school year. Dallas was a little nervous going in. There was so much activity going on in his class that he didn't know what to think!!!!! I'll be curious to know how their days went!!!

First day of school 2008-2009 school year

Dallas, first day of second grade

Gabriel, first day of first grad

There they go! heading for the car to leave for school!

I'm beat! I have so much cleaning to do, and yet I've not done ANY of it yet. I've been sitting here uploading pictures all morning!!!! I suppose, I better get to it!! I only have 2 hours before going to pick up the boys again!!!