Christmas!!

Christmas is finally over for the year.  It was long and spread out, but full of fun, family, and lots of presents!  Here is how Christmas played out for us . . . Christmas Eve day was spent at Ash and Mike's place with the Loken side of the family.  Christmas Day was spent with just the five of us at our house (good thing we didn't go anywhere because Lauren got round 2 of the stomach flu that night).  And our final Christmas just wrapped this weekend with a couple of days at "The Quast Resort" (aka Grandpa and Grandma Quast's newly improved and enlarged cabin).  All of the celebrations were fun and full of food (not a good thing considering Mexico is happening in less than a month!), and most importantly, all were filled with FAMILY!  Until next year . . .

Santa or school?

On Friday Grandma Donna, Auntie, and I had big plans to take Lauren, Ellie, and Colton to the Macy's Holiday display.  But, after thinking about it and realizing that missing one day of 1st grade wouldn't ruin Ryan's whole future, I asked him if he would like to join us.  So the question was, Santa or school?  Anyone with kids will know the answer to that . . . Santa!  With Ryan set to join us, we also had another last minute addition, Ann!  So there we were, just the 8 of us ready to see the ""big guy" and check out the Elf display - not a bad little Friday by any standards.  The kids did great (well, Ryan and Lauren did great, Colton just seemed overwhelmed by all the sights, and Ellie was terrified - she stuck to whoever was holding her like glue).  There was lots to see, but in the eyes of an 18 month old, some of the stuff could have been a bit frightening . . . singing and dancing Christmas trees, animals standing up dressed in clothes, clearly these were not "normal" things.  After the display, we jumped in line for the main event  . . .  visiting with Santa.  Ryan helped himself to a knee right away, Lauren took a little longer to warm up, and Ellie once again was terrified!  Her bright red face matched Santa's suit, and not because her cheeks were rosy red from being outside.  Here are a couple of pictures.  I clearly didn't dress to be in the picture, but when Ellie wouldn't release me from her death grip, I had no choice.

And here are some other random shots from the day . . . everything from sending letters to Santa, to checking out the display, to Colt just being Colt with his crazy face!

In addition to our fun Friday, there was also more progress made on the remodel.  The tile is now complete in the bathroom and the walls have all been mud and taped - yay!!!  As of Friday night, there is no more contractor, no more help, just us (I say "us", but really mean mostly Travis) left to get the job done.  And work "we" (again, mostly Trav) did.  Over the weekend Travis grouted the tub/shower surround area and also finished up the electrical work in the bathroom while I pitched in by sanding the closet area and doing my usual . . . cleaning!  I can almost see the finish line . . . is it a couple of days away or a couple of weeks?  To be continued . . .

Day 5 and 6

The remodel continues and I couldn't be happier with the progress!!  Joey and Mike have been crazy busy doing their thing and getting stuff done so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.  And as of the end of day 6, I can easily say that I would recommend these guys to anyone.  So if anyone out there is looking for a good contractor, call me and we'll get you set up.

Day 5 . . . tile is cut and set around the tub (the last part at the top will be finished once the tapping and mudding of the walls and ceiling is done on Thursday).

Day 6 . . .  the floor tile is cut and set in place along with finishing the rest of the sheet rock, moving the closet vanity up about 4 inches, and officially closing the doorway from the bedroom to the closet (see picture below).

Tomorrow another guy is coming to tape and mud the sheet rock and then Joey and Mike will come back on Friday to finish a few things up before Travis is left to wrap the project up on his own (hopefully this weekend, but it will more than likely be done in parts while he is on vacation through the end of the year).  This has by far been the easiest (meaning we, and by "we", I mean Trav and his dad, didn't have to become "weekend warriors" for an entire month because we opted to pay someone instead) project we have done to the house.  Trav even commented tonight that at the beginning he had plans to do a lot of this by himself, but the more progress he sees and the less he is involved, the more he is okay with it - funny how that works!  I don't want him to get too comfortable though, Momma still needs a free handyman at her disposal!

Excited to see how the next few days come together!

You can't make this sh** up!

As some of you may or may not know, we have officially started the remodel of our bathroom and master closet!!  Now, this sounds fun and exciting (and it is), but it has also been crazy, tiring, and humorous.  So let's get started . . .

The beginning took place last Friday.  Our contractor, Joey and his buddy Mike arrived bright and early ready to get started - the plan for the day . . . demo!  And demo they did.  They managed to get the ugly bathroom from this . . .

to this  . . .

And the master closet (with the ugly arch) from this . . .

to this in just 1 short day!  Now that is progress!

And in addition to getting all the demo done in one day, I walked in around 4:15pm Friday night to see Mike (yes people, Mike is a he) down on all fours vacuuming my carpet with his huge shop vac - I almost fell over.  Who knew a man could clean up after himself (please take notes Travis)!!  So all in all Friday was a huge success and everything went just the way (or better than expected) we had planned - off to a good start!  That is where the "good" and "easy" talk ends.  Fast forward to Friday night around 10:00pm.  Trav and I are laying in bed when I feel my stomach starting to get a little crampy (is that a word?) and bloated.  I jokingly roll over and say to Trav, "watch, now that we have no bathroom up here I'll probably get my period" - we laugh and go to bed.  And wouldn't you know it, about 3:00am, I wake up with some more cramps and instantly I know, it is "period time!"  Damn it, this wasn't supposed to happen for another week and a half, but of course, nothing every goes as planned.  So I whip on my bathrobe and head downstairs to take care of business - you never realize the "small" conveniences you have until they are gone (and just for the record, it's been 4 days/nights of this tramping up and down stairs - it's getting old!).  The whole period thing should have been a sign of things to come, but because I was hoping against all odds that everything would go perfectly, I put it out of my mind.  So Saturday rolls around.  Grandpa Doug is driving home from Chicago to help Trav with a few things that absolutely need to get done by Monday so Joey and Mike can come back and continue on with their stuff.  So what needs to get done you ask?  Well, plumbing, installing a huge tub, electrical, and a few other various things.  Now this would be hard on a full 2 day schedule, but because Doug is driving home from Chicago and then driving back on Sunday, the 2 days are actually more like 1 or 1and 1/2 - this could get hairy!  When Doug does finally arrive around 1:00pm Saturday, the guys get right to work.  Somewhere during their work, Trav thought it would be a great idea to add another light in the bar area downstairs because apparently, "it will be REALLY easy with the bathroom floor opened up."  For the record, anytime Trav says something is going to be easy or simple, we should just know that it won't be.  By the end of the day Saturday, it was close to 11:00pm before some of the "must haves" were crossed off the list.  The big item completed for the day . . . the plumbing and installation of the new tub.  Let's just say it's done, but it wasn't pretty.  I heard more "f-bombs", "god damn its", and a whole slew of other "choice" words while that thing was being put it.  Actually (and I know the guys probably wouldn't agree with this because after all, they were the ones working while I was just sitting around), it was almost comical listening as the guys told  the tub "f-you" or when I saw them sawing away at a piece of misplaced wood while screaming the words, "f-ing wood" - hey, whatever gets the job done!  And to Doug, thank you for all of your help - without you we would never be able to do half the "projects" we've done in our house.  And just so you know, every time I sit in my 6 foot, 17" soaker tub, I'll think of you and all you hard work, then I'll laugh as I remember how you were flailing that saw around trying blindly to cut the "f-ing wood" - ahh, the memories!!!  And here is a picture of that wonderful tub in it's new home at the end of day 2.

Day 3 was Sunday.  Doug and Trav got up early and started right in.  There was still a lot of electrical to do (remember that "easy" light that they were going to install downstairs - yeah, it was turing into a real headache!), and in addition to that, there was still some electric issues in the bathroom and master closet plus a few smaller plumbing projects to do.  Throw in the fact that this all had to be done by roughly 2:00pm (Doug still had a 7-8 hr drive back to Chicago that day), and the kids had their Christmas program at church which we all planned to attend, and things weren't looking so great.  And just to make matters worse, when I attempted to do some laundry that morning, the washing machine decided not to work - just great!  When this happened, I was a little hesitant to tell Trav or Doug especially based on their previous day and all the vulgarities I heard come out of their mouths, but in the end, I decided to throw it out there as I was getting ready to leave with the kids for church (I figured that way I miss out on all the "fun" stuff).  Well, 2 days later, the washing machine still doesn't work "all the way" (the warm/cold and cold/cold settings work, just not the hot/cold), but I am still able to wash clothes, so we're just going to go with it.  Like I've said in the past, it always feels like once you decide to do a major remodel and spend some money that you've been saving, something else always breaks or comes up and then all of our savings and planning just go out the door!  Here's hoping that "door" stays shut awhile because I am in no mood to purchase a new washing machine anytime soon!  By 2:00pm Sunday, Trav and Doug managed to get all the "major" stuff accomplished (along with attending the church Christmas program and shoveling a small amount of food into their mouths for lunch) so when Doug left, Trav still had a few things to wrap up, but they were all things he was capable of doing on his own - guess he's kind of turning into my very own handyman!  Thanks again Doug for everything you do and have done for us - hope you enjoyed your "sleepover" at our place for the weekend, we enjoyed having you.

Day 4 - Monday.  Joey and Mike were back at it.  Pleased with the progress over the weekend, they picked right back up and installed all the sheetrock and durock, and finished off some of the minor plumbing that still needed to be corrected.  With that they called it a day and left one bit of homework for Trav . . . Red Guard the shower/tub area so that's what he did.  Here is the end of day 4.  Tile will start being set tomorrow!!

And here is where we have another "unexpected" pop up.  By the end of day 4 (Monday night), I was downstairs getting the kids ready for bed when I noticed a few ants. I thought this was weird considering I've never seen ants in the middle of winter, some I grabbed a tissue and picked up the 4 or 5 ants I saw and left it at that.  Well, once the kids were down, I decided to go back to the same area and see if anymore ants were crawling around and to my utter dismay, there were another 4 or 5 scurrying across the tile.  By now I was annoyed so I jumped in the car and headed out to buy some ants traps.  When I got home, I put out 4 or 5 "baits" in the area and went back upstairs to watch some tv before going to bed.  But because I can never leave things alone, I went back downstairs about 20 minutes later to find dozens of ants in my "baits" - what the hell!  So now I'm crazy mad about these ants so I put out another 10 or so baits and wait to see what happens.  During this time, Trav is finishing the Red Guard and I'm starting to notice the house stinks (think really bad fumes).  So I decide to put towels in front of the girls' bedroom doors and in front of the bathroom.  This is when Trav and I decide that it is best not to sleep in our bedroom (which is completely open to the bathroom at this point) so we decide he'll sleep down in Ryan's bed while I'll crash on the couch just to make sure no one is breathing in toxic fumes all night.  So off we head to bed, but not before I check on the ants once again.  By now, there is an ant village in our basement - the little suckers are everywhere (and I am completely disgusted)!  Knowing there is nothing I can do about it other then wait, I finally make myself go to sleep on the couch.  And I'll tell you right now, it's not easy falling asleep when all you can think about is a million little ants crawling everywhere, but I managed.  Then 3:00 am rolled around and as usual when I have my "time of the month", I woke up and headed downstairs to take care of business and check on the ants.  I almost didn't want to look because I knew it wouldn't be good, but I did, and of course, it was worse!  There were ants as far as the eye could see (okay, maybe that's a stretch, but you get the idea, there were a LOT of ants).  So I put out some more baits (by now there had to be close to 20) and made myself go back to sleep.  The sleep was short lived because it took forever to fall back asleep (think crawling ants again), and the morning came too soon.  The first thing I did was the "ant inventory", then I started making some calls.  Twenty minutes later I had the Orkin man scheduled to get out here and kill these ants!  As it turns out, these ants are usually dormant during the winter (but they are still in your house - gross), but because of the remodel, the poor little ants might have been "aggravated" by all the disturbances - like I care, I just want them gone.  So now I'm on the Orkin quarterly plan to keep this house ant free - wasn't planning on paying someone money to spray my house for ants (especially not in the winter), but desperate times call for desperate measures!  Game on ants - this is our house, time for you to leave (and yes, Queen Ant, I mean you!).

That's all for now.  Updates on days 5 - whenever coming soon (let's hope for a small number).  And hopefully no more updates on ants - they just need to go away forever!

Dear famule,

Ryan's class has been writing letters all year long, here is one he wrote the other day at school . . .

If you can't decipher his writing, here is what the letter says:

Dear family,

Is Lauren better so anyways we made a elf you are the best family.

 

From 

Ryan

I absolutely love it!  Simple, short, and sweet.  I just love seeing how his little mind works.  He shows his concern for his sister (who was sick in bed at the time), tells a little about his day, then let's us know we are the best - how could it get any better than that!  I hope someday when he's older that he'll enjoy reading his letters as much as I do - this one is going in the "keepsake" box for sure.

Outside, inside, out

Today was a fun filled, action packed day.  Why?  I don't really know other than to say the sun was shining and I was motivated - those two always make for a good combo.  We started out the morning with a walk around the neighborhood while Lauren and Ryan were at school.  The huge, fluffy snowflakes that were falling from the sky were enough to keep the babies entertained for the entire walk so instead of taking my shortcut, we made the entire 1 mile walk (I know this doesn't sound like a lot, but when your pushing two bundled up babies and walking a dog at the same time, getting to go the whole route is a HUGE deal).  And after finishing the walk and pulling out the five pounds of blankets and forty pounds of kids in the stroller, I'm starting to realize that this might be the last winter I can bundle both Ellie and Colt up and still manage to squeeze them in the stroller - we'll see.  With the walk done, the babies went down for their morning naps and I caught up on a few last details before our big remodel starts (the madness begins this Friday - I'm hoping for a quick and easy job that takes less than 5 days, but am envisioning a long, drawn out process that wraps up right before the New Year - either way, I'm excited to get going).  By the time I finished up, Lauren was just getting home from school.  And when she gets home, everyone knows it!  So within 5 minutes of her entering the house, the babies were up and at 'em (she still doesn't know how to use her "inside" voice, in fact, I'm started to think she might have been born without an "inside" voice) and we were off to our next adventure . . . the pet store.  I needed to get some more dog food so I figured today was a great day to go and make a "field trip" out of it.  Nothing makes the kids happier than seeing a store filled with playful puppies so every time we go there, they think of it as a "special treat" (visiting the puppies at the pet store also used to be my way of justifying never having to have dog of our own - clearly that plan did not work out).  Anyway, as usual, the pet store was a hit.  I had my camera along, but between trying to contain the three kids and trying to keep the puppy from nipping or peeing on any of them, taking pictures became less of a priority.  So you'll just have to take my word on it, the kids loved it, and so did the puppies!  When we finished up with the puppies, Lauren went over to the "small animal" area and met a new friend, Wesley.  Wesley and his mom were at the pet store doing the same thing we were . . . visiting the animals and killing time - nice to know I'm not the only one who does this!  After playing (by the end, the kids were getting kind of crazy rolling cat balls to each other down the aisle) and chatting (always nice to have another adult to talk with), we decided it was time for everyone to leave so Wesley and his mom headed out, and so did we (field trip time: 1 hour and 15 minutes - not to shabby for three kids who were all stating to get hungry).  When we got home, we had an early lunch courtesy of the Dairy Queen and then headed out for out last adventure of the morning . . . playing in the snow!  I wasn't too sure how this would end up, but with about an hour left before nap time and bellies full, I figured we'd give it a shot.  And after fifteen minutes of bundling everyone up, we finally got to the snow.  Lauren loved it as usual, Ellie was beyond amazed and didn't stop walking or running the whole time we were out there, and then there's Colt (or should I say, "Colie" - that was his girl name we gave him for the day considering he was dressed in some of Ellie's extra snow gear from head to toe).  He was two steps into the fun when he lost his footing and went face first into the snow - not a great start, but once I got the snow off his face and warmed him up a bit, he seemed to enjoy himself.  After 20 minutes or so of running, throwing, and falling, everyone was ready to get inside and warm up.  And after another 20 minutes and some warm milk for the babies and one warm cocoa for Lauren, all three are sound asleep - the ultimate reward for me after a morning full of fun!

My wish for this winter . . . that everyday could be just like today - we'll see if my wish comes true!  I'll leave with a couple of pictures of the kids playing in the snow.

Piss . . .

I've learned over the past month or so that the kids REALLY do listen to everything we say, and not always in a good way.  The dog (I refuse to call him by name until he straightens out) has had a few accidents in the house lately and when that happens, "Mad Mommy" really comes out.  Words like "god damn it", "stupid dog", and my favorite (judging how many times the kids have repeated this word) . . . "piss."  This is how things usually play out . . . the dog pees, I inevitably step in it, and all hell breaks lose.  I grab the dog, rub his face in the pee (a tactic that is supposed to deter him from more peeing but clearly isn't working), and throw him outside all while saying, "god damn dog pissed on my floor again!"  Well, the other day while we were visiting my parents, the topic of the dog not being with us was brought up.  Ryan calmly replied, "Scrappy pissed on the floor and Mom wasn't happy so he had to stay home."  Funny yes, but not great language for a 6 year old.  Then today while we were sitting downstairs (the dog's favorite peeing spot), Ryan says, "it smells like pee."  Lauren (while playing with her dolls does not stop or even turn towards Ryan), replies, "yeah, Scrappy pissed there."  I couldn't help but laugh especially at how "normal" that replied seemed for her.  A six year old saying piss - not good.  A four year old saying piss, even worse!  Clearly I need to work on some language skills or people are going to start to think I'm raising some trash-talking kids from the hood and once that happens, we can kiss play dates goodbye for sure!

On a side note . . . I dare say that the sickness that has consumed our house for what seems like an eternity (having sick kids and being sick yourself makes things seem like forever) might have finally left.  Lauren was laid up in bed for four days with everything from vomiting, diarrhea, and a temp while Ryan got off "easy" with just one terrible night of diarrhea followed by a day of taking it easy.  Ellie and Trav have somehow managed to escape relatively unscathed.  Yes, they both have bad coughs and some runny noses, but nothing has projected out of their mouths (or other areas) so we'll take it.  Wishful thinking has me hoping that this is our one and only bout with the stomach flu this winter, but the realistic side of me tells me that this is probably just the first of a winter dotted with colds and flus - oh what fun that will be!