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Ah, yes. The boy has officially surpassed me in height. I think his feet and hands were bigger than mine in 5th grade so I knew it was a matter of time before he passed me vertically. The other twin engine has a tiny scoosh to go before he passes me. With the way he powers food that will be like next week.

I'm intrigued....

Anyone tried any of these yet?
Yay, Nay?

Reno update

I guess you could call this progress since the last time I posted. We should be further along than we are, but due to Ms. Dickwhipper (me), I had one crew taken off the job due to their lack of showing up and had our Contractor hire a crew that actually wanted to work and since he would like to get paid he decided to put a crew on the job that is actually motivated to work. The new crew is awesome and the foreman actually had some better ideas on how to tackle the Great Ceiling Debacle (you don't want to know, UGH.). Plus he understands when I call stuff, plug thingy's, lightling doo-whoppy's, and chinga's. He gets me.

My BFF's husband is an amazing finish carpenter and we had him replace all of the interior doors, closet doors, all door casings, crown and base mouldings in the entire house. Can I just say how much doing this makes everything look brand new?? I love the look of these new doors.

This is the home of the new fireplace, it will be flush with the wall and supposedly is able to heat the entire house with only a few logs or these post consumer material pellets. Cost effective and environmentally friendly. I'm down with that.

This is the new archway going into the new dining room. My hubby doesn't like it and he says it's a waste of 12 inches. Geez, does he think this is HIS house too or something. The arch is staying. I like it, actually I love it, it will give the space a more formal, intimate feel. Those doors in the corner will house my "office" or built-in desk area. It is a pretty large closet so it will serve a purpose. Finish carpenter is on the job and I know it will look stunning when he is finished.

The new french doors in the dining room that were installed the wrong way. Moving the table and all of the chairs when opening up the doors is out of the question. Foreman on the first crew thought that it would be an okay way to open the doors. I said "Umm, yeah...NO". They will be switched next week. What the EFF was he thinking? Even I with no construction experience knows that they would need to swing out.

I found an old newspaper in the wall dated January 28, 1966. It is interesting to see what was going on at that time. The photos and the cartoons were hilarious.

18 and south o' the border

I forgot about our LIDaversary on the 18th.
So here's to 18 months kicked to the curb.

This is where I spent the last week, sitting in a lounger, drink in my hand and basking in the sun. I didn't realize how much I really needed some R&R, until our plane landed and all my stress and worries dripped off of me like rain on a tin roof. We had a fun time with our friends, the guys fished their booty's off while the girls got massaged, mani'd and pedi'd (booked without us knowing it by our guys!). We were able to take a boat out to a private island and do some of the best snorkeling ever. It was amazing. It was so good to get away.

Making some progress on the remodel. My garage is packed to the gills with the new appliances. The delivery dude dropped them right in front of my washer and dryer. I have no access to do laundry. My prayers have been answered.
Update photos coming soon.

Dads and Grads

I am officially a mother of 2 high schoolers. I am not sure whether I want to jump for joy or cry like a baby. Anyway, here are my three favorite boys in my world.

(And yes, apparently it WOULD kill two incoming freshman to smile)

Got Golf?

You know you are a mother of a golfer when you are watching the live feed of the US open on your computer at work and texting your golfer kid at school who's in the lead.

Tiger won, by the way.

Underwhelmed

Went and saw the Sex @ the City movie this weekend and I was totally unimpressed. I guess it was one of those movies where you hear all the hype and think it is going to be phenomenal. I mean I liked it, but I kept waiting for something big to happen. I packed tissues in my pocket because from what I heard it was a tear jerker. I never choked up once. Yes, there was some pretty funny parts, but I found it almost boring at times. At least I got to have brunch and some much needed girlfriend time before the movie, so that was fun. We all walked away with the same impression, so it wasn't just me.

Progress

Demo on the kitchen went down this week. FINALLY some progress in this ongoing remodel mess. It is so cool to come home from work and see my old delapatated kitchen (or the "cooking closet" that I called it) being ripped down to the studs.

This is a before demo photo. Notice the amazing amount of counter space I have had to work with. Goodbye 1950's.

This is what I came home to. HELLS YEAH! Cabinets, gone. Counters, gone. Brick cooktop, gone. I am assuming that in the 1950's they didn't think to put water and electrical BEHIND the walls (or the builder who built this house didn't). Its a joke. The plumber laughed his ass off and I think I saw dollar signs in his eyes.

Buh-bye brick. The funny thing about this brick is when I first looked at this house I LOVED the brick. I loved how the oven was built into the brick and how it was old and rustic looking. Well, if I would have looked closer I would have noticed that the size of the oven was only fit to cook for Hobbits. This is the smallest oven I have ever seen. I had to buy special small cookie sheets to use in it. The other side of the brick is/was our fireplace. When using it you had to pick whether you wanted to be warm or you wanted smoke inhalation. No bueno.

All brick, GONE. Wood floors, soon to be beautiful bamboo flooring, GONE. Look at the dinky hot water heater, soon to be replaced with energy efficient tankless water heaters

That small window will be replaced with an eight foot window to maximize our view and let in tons of light.

As much as I am excited to see stuff happening, living in a construction zone blows. We have a makeshift kitchen with a Rubbermaid container of food and a microwave. The fridge is all the way across the house so eating here takes stamina and a travel guide. We have been eating out since Sunday. I am already sick of eating out of styrofoam container on my lap while sitting in a beach chair.

Help a mama out

Fellow adoptive mom, Lisa is raising money to offset some of her adoption expenses. She needs our help. If you are interested in getting a blog makeover and can spare 10 bucks this is right up your alley. See, it's a win win.

One Eyed Jack Shih-T(zu)

It's foxtail season again. This time instead of getting one up his nose, Hank was lucky enough to get one in his eye. My poor little guy. On Saturday night Mark (I was out of town at my nieces graduation) noticed him acting funny and was walking wonky so he checked him out and noticed that he had a goopy eye. He cleaned the eye up he seemed fine. The next morning his eye was all goopy again and uber irritated. He called our vet, but of course it was Sunday and they were closed. I took him to the vet first thing on Monday morning. Dr. L looked at the eye and said there was a foxtail lodged in it. My brave little boy had to have the foxtail removed and sutures to repair his scratched cornea, there was also a pretty serious infection as well. Who knows how long it was trapped in there. Anyway, he had his surgery yesterday and I was able to pick him up today.

On the way to the vet. His right eye is completly swollen shut

Ole' One Eye

His 'sheild' (to protect his eye) and The Cone

"Mom, foxtails suck"

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