Feeding the Birds and a Little Circus Thrown In!

Today I tortured myself for 3 hours straight. 

In order to get my taxes done I had to go to the public library in Hermiston where my accountant was volunteering her time. I had to wait and wait and wait and finally once I got to see her, I then had to wait and wait some more in order to have a second person review it. I asked if I could option out of the second reviewing and was told no. 

Dang it anyway!

After my bottom stopped tingling from all the sitting I did, I gathered up the boys and Grandma and we headed out to Hat Rock State Park.

I have so many fond memories of this park and even some pictures of me feeding the ducks when I was the boy's age. Our bread store in town will sell old bread - 6 loaves for 1 dollar. 

I picked some up the other day hoping we would have time for this today.

It was a wee bit windy and sprinkling off and on while we were there but the boys had a blast (and so did Grandma) so it was worth it!

Grandma had her own little following up on the bank.

The boys preferred to throw it in the water and then watch the birds fight over it. 

Once our 6 loaves were gone, we loaded up in the wagon and flew back to Pendleton. This week the boys have been going to The Children's Museum to participate in their Spring Break Circus. They have had magician's come teach them tricks, learned how to make pinatas (Caleb calls them "pinchachas) , decorated ice cream cones, and created their own circus costumes and acts. Today was the performance.

Here is Owen the Lion. He is fierce, fast, and if you rub his tummy, he purrs.

Owen was in an act that featured a lion tamer and a fellow big cat - a tiger. The lion tamer used her whip to persuade the two animals to perform tricks like jumping through flaming hoops.

Sometimes the animals didn't do what they were told to so the lion tamer would have to use her whip.

That always got them back into line. 

The lion tamer also taught the lion how to stand on chairs and rear up while roaring. Pretty amazing I have to tell ya.

The next act was The Strong Man! I have always liked strong men!

He came out and quickly hopped onto a chair where he proceeded to wow us with his feats of strength. All of his tricks were done with a 1,000 pound barbell and weights. The audience oohed and aahed.

When the children were done with their performances, they were told to get one of their family members to participate in the next part of the circus. Since Mark was in uniform (what an excuse I tell you!) I was the first made to volunteer. The parent in charge told me to put on an overcoat and then led me to a chair which had special paper underneath it. I was then informed that the boys would ask me a series of questions and if I got any wrong, I would get a pie in the face. 

What!?

Owen grilled me first.

"Mom, what color is your car?"  (Phew!) "Blue!"

"Mommmy, how old am I?"     (another easy one!) "6!"

Caleb's turn.

"Mom, what are my five favorite colors?"   "What! 5? Hmm... Camouflage. Black. umm....Red....Blue...."

"That's pretty good mom. Now, how high was the tallest tight rope ever?" (He asked me this question with the biggest smirk on his face - as if I wouldn't know the answer!)

"100 feet" - I totally know my circus facts.

They both start howling with laughter. 

"What!? I was wrong? Impossible!" (apparently I don't know all my circus facts).

They threw the whip cream pie together but my sweet Caleb made sure it only hit me in the stomach. Owen was totally aiming for my face but luckily Caleb overpowered him. 

Some parents weren't quite as lucky as me.

It was yet another awesome Spring Break day!

Spring Break House Edition!

I am loving this Spring Break.

It has been filled with friends - both old and new.

Scavenger Hunts and eating french toast in our pajamas all together as a family.

Working at the property.

Sleeping in and staying up late.

Circus events and movies.

I LOVE spring break and the time it allows me to spend with my family. 

I always wake up that first morning so happy and excited about all the unplanned hours.

They seem to stretch out indefinitely with only my imagination to fill them up. No time schedules and no rules. 

I've been thinking about blog posts each day but just haven't made myself sit down in front of a computer to get it done! I am a wee bit behind now (of course - the story of my blogging life!)

Spring Break Weekend #1

My great friend Sarah came by with her adorable children and after feeding them lunch (it's tradition!) we went down to the property to check things out. We talked and we walked and we watched the children play in the dirt and rocks. It was perfect. We both hated to see it end but they still had a long drive ahead of them so we said our good-byes and then I started to take some pictures. (I had left my camera at home when Sarah was there so I didn't get any of her kiddos playing with mine - stink!)

Bob came down to do the finish work with the backhoe. Things like back filling the dirt around our foundation, getting the garage driveway ready to be poured, adding the parking out front, finishing up the gravel driveway to the house, adding dirt and rock all around. He was one busy guy!

But before I show some pictures of the outside let me quickly show you some of the inside. 

This week they put in some lights.

 The guys were excited and quickly set up a work area in the garage so they could start the trim work.

Doors and windows are starting to be framed in. Baseboard molding is being put in place and doors and closets are being hung. It's so awesome!

Here is one side of Caleb's room:

Here is the other side. Isn't the wood so pretty? I love it! 

This is the view from Caleb's doorway. The family room is on the right. A bathroom is on the left and Owen's room is straight.

Here is one side of the master bedroom:

And apparently I forgot to take a picture of the other side. Oops! Instead here is a picture of the front door:

Now on to the outside stuff! So, like I was saying, Bob was one busy guy but the kids decided to help him.

They helped prepare the area in front of the garage.

They helped pick up dirt, smooth it down and then move some rock.

During break time, they would run over to their "other" work area and move some more dirt around.

Then they would get busy again. They helped get the parking area in the front of the house smoothed, packed and looking good.

They even made sure to look busy when the police came by to check on the progress of things.

Coming up this week:

Heated flooring in our master bathroom is being installed.

Cabinets are being delivered and starting to be installed.

Doors, closets and trim will be finished.

Concrete will be getting poured for our front walkway, garage driveway and some for landscaping purposes.

Lighting will continue to be worked on.

Heating will be finished.

Begin to work on the master bathroom shower.

Things really are moving fast!

Painting 101 (or 101 hours of painting) whatever you want to call it...

Phew!

We are finally done!

Painting was ... a lot more work than I thought it would be.

After one Saturday of painting for 10 hours straight, I hurt that night in places I forgot I had.

Seriously.

I have a whole new appreciation for professional painters. After personally coming home covered in paint from head to toe (and that included inside my ears and I won't even go into detail about the things coming out of my nose for week!) I really understand now why their bid was so high - it's because if you can afford it - have them do it!

That first day my back hurt, my neck hurt, my shins hurt, my eyes hurt. I had mysterious bruises (my paint patches I have lovingly named them). But after enough time, my muscles quit being so wimpy (or at least not quite as wimpy) and I got my rear into gear. To motivate myself I would try several things. Blasting music with my now paint-covered radio, rearranging all the furniture in my head chanting to myself - this is saving me money, this is saving me money, this is saving me money.

Really the only thing that kept me motivated was the thought of being done.

Every day we painted we came home looking like this:

I even scared myself!

Anyone who came over and helped us ended up looking...umm...as good as us!

Our garage doors were put on this week after we painted the garage last weekend.

I will sound really spoiled by saying this, but I CAN'T WAIT TO PARK IN A GARAGE AGAIN!

That is the height of luxury to me.

That and having a dishwasher again. 

The colors that I chose for the house are pretty neutral. Cream on most of the walls, red in the kitchen and the boys have an accent wall each. Also, the family room has one wall that is a darker brown. 

Here are some of the rooms: Owen's room

The doors and wood trim were all delivered this week also. All our wood is Knotty Alder. (it's really pretty!)

A paint crew getting the primer in the kitchen going while Mark was spraying the wall in the family room:

Kitchen with the first coat of red on it:

Family room with the first coat of darker brown on one wall and the second coat of cream on the ceiling and other walls:

Caleb's room with a green accent wall to go with his camo. theme:

Owen's room, where he still wants to decorate it with dinosaurs, fishing, and his "famiwee".

Now that the painting is done, our builder has told us things are going to go really fast now. 

What!? I thought things were going really fast already! I can't imagine any faster!

Wednesday's Weekly Update #6

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Mark and I have been looking at things for months now and I almost feel like there are way too many choices out there!

This weekend we had to finalize our granite counter tops and we

chose to just look at one store's selection - Cost Less Carpet.

They have this many choices times two (I couldn't get the other half in the picture and since it was cold and very, very windy, I took this from the front seat of my car while Mark was outside with the sales guy).

Here's our selection: It's called Copper Canyon.

And another angle:

We also stopped by Pier One and I chose a picture for the dining room that has the exact same red color as the future kitchen walls:

(It even has Mark's stamp of approval since it has the trees in it - he's very picky!)

Last week the house was insulated all the way and then sheet rocked, and taped. When I went down today to take pictures they were working on the last part of the texturing. It was hard to take pictures since everything was so wet but things do look very different!

Owen's desk and closet area:

Part of Mark's den:

Family room:

Dining Room:

Other side of dining room leading into the family room:

Garage:

Once all this texturing is dry it's Mark and I's turn to get busy. We are doing all of the painting ourselves. Yup - that's right. Both inside and outside we will be doing. The bid for professional painters was over 13,000 dollars and we quickly decided that if there was one thing we knew how to do, it was paint (and the total cost for us to do it was 2,200 dollars. I got the paint at 40% off during a Sherwin-Williams paint sale and we have been happily storing 85 gallons of paint in our bedroom since November). So...we will be very busy for the next week or so working on the inside! First primer and then color! Now that the walls are in place, I can really get a feel for each room - it's so cool! 

Caleb's Chalazion

Last spring I noticed that Caleb had a sty on his right eyelid and I began to treat it with warm compresses. Then, when those didn't take care of it, I started to use some sty medicine. Spring turned into summer which turned into fall and he still had this sty. 

It wasn't bothering him, it wasn't getting any bigger, and I (finally!) started to figure out that it wasn't a sty. 

I asked my friend, who is an eye doctor, what she thought it was and she looked him over. She then told me that she thought it was most likely a Chalazion and that we would need to see more of a specialist to treat it.

I of course googled it as soon as I got home. It turns out that a Chalazion is a cyst in the eyelid caused by inflammation of a blocked gland. 

Mark and I took Caleb to a specialist in Hermiston who gave us our options. We decided to have the doctor remove it through a small  procedure that takes about 10 minutes. Because of Caleb's age though, he would have to be put under with anesthesia. We scheduled the appointment and prepared Caleb for his big day.

The big day arrived and since his appointment wasn't until around 1:00 in the afternoon we met with our plumber, our flooring guy and our cabinet guy as well. Caleb wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything and we watched him like a hawk and had planned on going to lunch after his procedure. 

Here's how it went down:

We were called to take him to the room where he would change out of his clothes, meet the anesthesiologist, and then be wheeled back for his procedure. Well... we did the changing of the clothes thing and then when the anesthesiologist came in the first thing he asked Caleb was when he ate and drank last. He informed the man that he hadn't eaten since 5:30 that morning but then he said 

"I just got a small drink in the waiting room".

The anesthesiologist asked Mark and I if Caleb was kidding. Mark said no and then we were told that we had to reshedule the whole thing. (Apparently they are very strict about not eating or drinking before being put under! As they should be!)

Awesome right?

This was back in January and we couldn't get in again until today.

I told Caleb to stay far, far away from this thing today:

Here he is bright and early this morning. He hadn't had anything to eat or drink since last night and was so scared to swallow water that he didn't brush his teeth.

You can see his Chalazion right above the center of his right eye (or the eye on the left in this picture).

We did the whole changing of the clothes thing and meeting the anesthesiologist thing (much better this time - we had all the right answers!) The people were great and even showed Caleb some magic tricks while we were waiting. 

He was a little nervous but not too bad. We prayed and I read to him and then he visited with the different staff members.

They mark the eye that they are doing the procedure on - really big so the doctor can see it from across the room (I guess). 

Then before we knew it, it was time for him to be wheeled back. Without us. 

I didn't like that part but I was brave and before I even finished one chapter in my book, they wheeled him back.

Pirate Caleb:

He was so excited to have an eye patch! That is, until he learned it was white and not black like pirates wear. He then asked for a parrot and a peg leg. The nurses got a big kick out of him. I was just glad that he was feeling good enough to make jokes!

We stayed for just a little while to make sure he was doing well and then he was wheel chaired out (he liked that of course!) and simply told to use warm compresses through out the day.

He did great all day and felt fine. The main focus for him was eating once we left the surgery center and then after that we just relaxed at the house watching movies and playing games. 

Here he is after dinner while we were all playing Uno:

Very little bruising and swelling, which is great! Also, we were told the redness will go away quickly and that the eyelid won't even really show a scar. He didn't need any pain medicine and was a champ about the whole thing. 

I'm just glad the procedure is done! I didn't like watching him be wheeled out of the room without me. Hopefully that will be the last time!