Mitsuketa

Our cat was already full-grown when she started hanging around our doorstep and adopted us. That was 10.5 years ago. Every morning when she meows at me I'm surprised she's still around. She won't catch mice and doesn't particularly like children, but she likes our front porch well enough I suppose.

The crazy things we do

If I'm silent on my blogs, I'm probably working my butt off away from the computer. (A house project is the only thing that keeps me away from the computer, alas!) We've finally begun remodeling our bathrooms, which was our intent in the first place before we got waylaid by the kitchen (squee!) and compelled by the mortgage company to paint the exterior. Now, four months hence, we're back on track.

We're starting with the basement bathroom, which is brand new. Never had a bathroom there before. And I'm insanely excited about it. :)


This is the before shot. It was built as a family room I think, but we need bedrooms more than we need family rooms so it is the place where the little boys dwell.


That corner with the chair and the desk is where we're going to tuck a 3/4 bath.


Here it is, as excavated by our plumber.


Our lovely sewer main. *admires*


Filled back in with dirt when the plumbing is complete.


View from across the room at what will be the bathroom.


Patching the hole with concrete.


Framed walls!


Electrical wire pulled through to the right spots


Light fixtures in place.



Light! Ta-da! Pretty big triumph for us.


Beginning sheetrock.


Triumph #2, successfully measuring and cutting holes in the ceiling sheet.


Tape and mud


Everything patched, pretty, and smooth—ready for paint.

Did the first coat of paint last night—a lovely light blue, can't wait to post that picture so you can ooh and aah with me—but I need to go back and apply a little more joint compound to a few seams to make them smoother, and then let that dry, before I can move on to the second coat. Off I go!

Words cannot contain my SQUEE

Ordered the new Muse album (release date next Tuesday, 9/15) directly from Warner Brothers so I could get a limited CD/DVD version.

It just arrived. Three days early. *scream*

The entire album is online, I've been listening to it for days; but given the debacle of last time when I had to wait extra days and days to get my Muse HAARP DVD, I do feel just a bit fabulous to be the first to have my copy in my hands. Pwned.

Last week of summer. Where did it go?

We've had a great summer, a fantastic summer. I hate to see it go, but at least it wasn't wasted.

Last May, the last day of the school year at about 3:00 p.m. when I figured we were more or less done, we started removing the doors from the kitchen cupboards to begin our kitchen facelift. It was supposed to be a short (week or two) diversion, the first little thing in a summer of construction.

Nothing ever turns out as it should, does it? It took us most of the summer to refinance, so we still haven't started the three bathrooms that we thought would be the centerpiece of the summertime. But we did get the exterior painted (I love it! even if I did have to sacrifice my shinbones) and the kitchen is so improved.

The last two weekends we've been working on installing the bargain kitchen flooring. It's so beautiful. Our kitchen table is in the piano room which is a minor temporary inconvenience, but will be so worth it. We're just about a half hour from done, but we had to stop early on Saturday because when we pulled up the old flooring in front of the back door to prepare it for the new flooring, we saw the subfloor had quite a bit of water damage. So Emma and I hopped into the Suburban and drove an hour to Home Depot while Blaine and Christian took out the back door and cut out a section of subfloor. When we got home they patched and replaced the subfloor, but all we could do was set the new door (with a window! natural light in my laundry room! oh squee, I love it) in the hole. B had to install that yesterday.




The door is the sort that has a miniblind right in the window, so I never have to dust it and it doesn't bang against the door when the kids slam it. I hope we'll finish the last remaining bit of the floor in spurts in the evenings after Blaine gets home from work this week. The kitchen still isn't done—needs trim around the base, around the windows and doors, but I love it anyway. :)

We're working with a plumber, I believe we'll begin the bathrooms in the next couple of weeks. Lots to do there, and we're doing the bulk of it ourselves—but that was going to be the case even during the summer, if we'd gotten the start we'd wanted to.

We're all beginning school next week. I imagine the swimming pool will have to come down sometime this week—nighttime temps are falling, the water is getting pretty cool, and after school starts the kids won't swim anyway. Oh, I hate to see another summer pass! I love summertime. I love the warmth, and I love the ease in my schedule. But I love teaching the kids, too; Kyrie is crazy excited to get started with kindergarten this year, and of course I need to make the most of the school year with Christian as it's the last year before he follows Emma to the Academy.

We took a trip to Priest Lake for a week, we went camping with my extended family in May, we took a number of day trips up to SLC. The McManii came and stayed with us, and I saw my high school/college friend Janae and her family. Christian was able to take over the job of tugging hoses, setting sprinklers, and keeping the lawn green. Emma and Christian were responsible for all the mowing. The kids kept their bedrooms clean (mostly) and stayed up on their housework jobs (mostly). We've had great vacations and done a lot of hard physical labor this summer. Seriously, it was one of the best. The kids were active, busy, and helpful, and so much got done. I'm happy. I do sort of wish it could continue another three months at least, but there's a sort of magic to autumn and learning and rearranging the schedule to fit in what's most important, as well.

Summer of 2009, you were a great one.

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Now playing: Muse - Uprising
via FoxyTunes

Priest Lake

August 8-16 we went to Priest Lake in northern Idaho with my sister Joan's family. It's the same cabin where we went for Christmas, and it's a pretty darn long drive. The first few days were sunny, gorgeous, and warm, and the cousins had a great time together in the sand and water.

(This is me, showing my sister my back diving technique.)

We rented a boat one day—a day it was cloudy and rainy with brief rays of sun.

Water skiing! I love it so.

The kids loved tubing.
And Libby learned to ski. That's my girl!

The rest of the week was cloudy and cooler.

But it didn't keep the kids out of the water, and every time the sun peeked out from behind the clouds we rushed down to take advantage of it.

Blaine taking Jackson and Macklin out in the kayak.

The swimming dock

The floating island

We had a totally fantastic trip—so relaxing. The kids all got along together so well, and so did the grown ups. What's not to love?