Reflections and Anticipation

Am I ever glad that May is over! Granted, a lot of really good things did happen last month, like the renovations on our house being finished and H1 and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It was busy though! H1's baseball season finished, the previously mentioned renovations on the house, and then the cleanup from that took up a lot of the month. June is looking equally busy, but in a different way. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, backtrack to the anniversary. Since our special day was on a Thursday, I made a nice dinner of steak, shrimp, mashed potatoes, and baby brussel sprouts. H2 had to work that day, so we made plans to go out over the weekend instead. On Saturday morning, we dropped H3 off with some friends and hit the town! After a nice lunch at Applebees, we went to see a movie. It's been over a year since we've gone to a theater, so it was kinda fun to see something new, before it makes its way to Redbox! After the movie, H1 and I enjoyed walking around for a bit before going back to pick up H3 and get her home by her bedtime. It was a fun day just hanging out.

We've rarely gotten to do that since H3 was born--a grand total of 3 times, partially because we live in the middle of nowhere and mostly because H1's schedule. Teaching + coaching 3 sports = no time at home, especially once you add in worship team at church and the church softball league this spring! God has blessed us though. We are so grateful that I am able to stay home with H3. Back when I was pregnant, we weren't even sure that was an option.

When H1's dad visited back in April, we got our season tickets to Busch Gardens. Since then, we've taken advantage of them twice. Below are some of the most recent pics. H3 had a blast and is becoming quite the adrenaline junkie when it comes to the little roller coasters. She's pretty tall (around 36"), so she can ride a lot of things. Most people think she's close to 3 years old when they first meet her because of her height, until she starts talking!






Now, back to June. As I said, this month is getting to be pretty packed. We've got something on the calendar everyday for the next 2 weeks, whether it's a doctor appt, birthday party, rescue squad activity, etc. On the fun note, we're hoping to go to a couple concerts. Busch Gardens hosts Christian concerts on Sunday nights throughout this month, and we are hoping to at least make it to see Steven Curtic Chapman. My parents are coming to visit Father's Day weekend, and then we leave for the Adirondacks on the 23rd!

Once we leave, I probably won't be able to post much until August. The camp only has dial-up in the main office, so more than a quick update will be hard to do, unless I take my laptop into town. We'll see. I'm really looking forward to going. H1 is the assistant camp director this year, so it will be a new experience for him. He'll also get to hang out with H3 a bit more, since his previous job had him down on the lake, and H3 couldn't be down there during the day. I'll be at my usual spot in the health lodge, patching up all the hurt/sick scouts and staff who come in. Again, this place has been a blessing to us. It provides a little extra money and has the huge bonus of getting to be in a place we love, enjoying the sports we love! I'm totally getting ahead of myself, but I'm just so excited about going!

Tonight H1 is at a church softball game. The games starts at 7:30, which is too close to H3's bedtime. We had pancakes and pineapple for dinner before he left though. What a dinner, right? That's what sounded good! Time to get the munchkin headed for bed....

~H2

Putting the house back together

Except for one more little metal plate to tack down the carpet in a closet, everything is done!!!!! They came in and finished yesterday at 2:30. We're slowly getting everything back in place. I'm throwing out a lot of stuff too, since there's a lot of clutter that we don't need and is getting in the way now. I'm really looking forward to having everything put away. Last night I made pizza dough, and it was the first time I'd done any real cooking/baking in my kitchen in several weeks. Hopefully I'll get to do a lot more of that in the next few weeks, before we leave for the summer.


The master bedroom when we started pulling up the original carpet--you can see the old stuff in the corner, and the damaged hardwood.


The bedding piled in the living room


The kitchen area turned to storage for a day


As did my laundry room


Pretty new carpet!


Most of the master bedroom


There was a small bedroom that got carpet in it too, which is going to be my craft room/storage area, but that room is so small it's impossible to get a good picture of it. It's a weird "T"-shape too!

I'm so glad it's finished. Over half of our house has new flooring right now, so it almost feels like a brand new house. The process was a bit painful, but it feels very worth it, not to mention that it's safe now without all that mold!

~H2

What a Difference

I have a floor!!!!!!!!!!!! They completed the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen yesterday. Hurray! Below is the kitchen area before furniture, and with furniture (obviously facing away from the cabinets, stove, sink, and fridge!). We're still moving some things around, but it will at least give you an idea of the space.





I'm so relieved. I love having my kitchen back! This morning a plumber came by and changed the connection for the dishwasher, so hopefully we won't have any more issues with that either.

Now I'm just counting down the hours until my house changes again. Tomorrow morning the master bedroom and the small bedroom are getting torn up and new carpet put in, so tonight H1 and I will be moving all the furniture out of those rooms. I'm babysitting today, so we want to wait until the little guy goes home before we start moving things. Since there is a regular hardwood floor underneath the current carpet, there's not much concern for running into the same issues that we had in the kitchen, or at least there isn't at this point. We're praying things will go smoothly!

This weekend we'll concentrate on trying to get everything back in place. I'm looking forward to it!

~H2

What to say? Two days after the gross moldy flooring was revealed, my dear friends Dean and Robyn invited H3 and I to come stay with them until the new subfloor was put it. It took about a week before renovation resumed. During that time, I did come back to the house for a couple hours at a time to babysit Aubrey, the sweet granddaughter of my EMT testing partner, Selena. She and H3 get along quite well and had lots of fun playing in H3’s room, with the kitchen area closed off so the moldy fumes didn’t spread in the house.

H3 playing with plastic Easter eggs---cereal pieces were hidden underneath


H3 and Aubrey


Aubrey


Last Saturday morning, H1, Robyn, and I decided to take all the girls to Busche Gardens. We didn’t tell them where we were going until we arrived. Were they ever excited!
Even without knowing where they were going, Julie got into the spirit of things…maybe in response to Robyn’s driving? Just kidding Robyn!


Robyn with Julie and Natalia


H3 enjoying the water park portion in the Sesame Street Forrest area


H3 and Julie riding the little Clydesdale ride


To my delight, my friend Kristina came to visit from Florida on Friday—even though my house was a mess! I took her to Williamsburg and put her in the stocks. I’m a nice friend huh? Seriously though, we had a wonderful time catching up. I got to go to her wedding in July 2007, but other than that we haven’t had a chance to get together since college graduation.




And now for the fun part! Renovations have resumed! Last Wednesday (the 5th) the contractor came in to start on the subfloor. Between that day and Thursday morning, he got it done. So below is what my kitchen and laundry room look like now.



Today is May 10th. It’s been 2 weeks since the floor was torn up in my kitchen. We’ve been dealing with lots of clutter with everything relocated right now. I’m so thankful for Dean and Robyn opening their home to us. Thanks to them, H3 and I were able to avoid living in the mess for most of the time. H1 had to stay there except for weekends though, because of his job. Still, his exposure was very limited, and that was the goal. This morning, there is a guy laying down a layer on top of the subfloor. If all goes as planned, they will be putting down the rest of the floor tomorrow and the kitchen, laundry room, and one bathroom will be done. Later this week will start the master bedroom and one other room having the floor torn up and replaced with carpet. The end may be in sight! I’m just praying that it will go more smoothly from here. H3 has done really well with the major detours from her normal schedule, but she does seem out of sorts! I'm so looking forward to the end result of all of this!

On another happy note, the weather has been incredibly gorgeous here! We've been spending a lot of time outside enjoying it! For all weeks that this could have happened, at least God gave us sunshine!

Back to babysitting a six month old today, more updates to come this week!

~H2

April update

April showers bring May flowers, in theory. Well, we have the warm weather, the chia lawn, and lots of flowers, but little rain in comparison. Still, plenty of lawn mowing to do!

April started out with H1's Spring Break and a visit from his brother, sister-in-law, and their 3 boys from NY. It was so good to see them...it has been over a year! They stayed in Virginia Beach, so we spent our time down there, enjoying the ocean, the pool, and the Va Beach Aquarium. Their youngest got sick, so the poor little guy wasn't feeling so well the last couple days of the trip. It's always a bummer to get sick on vacation.

At the end of the break, we painted H3's new room and got her moved in! It's a light green with purple curtains, and various accents in pink and purple. She loves her new room. It's more central to the rest of the house, and she doesn't have to go through our bedrooom to access it. It's also 3x the size of her other room, so there's space to play--which helps out big time since I'm babysitting a few times a week now (one 6 month old and one 2 year old, not related).

This past week brought H1's dad and a foreign exchange student from Denmark, Mathias. He just turned 17 recently and has been staying with Dad Homer since August. When he arrived his English was ok, and you could certainly understand him, but now it's almost like he was born here, minus the accent. Since I was still babysitting during the week and H1 had to work, we all hung around the house for the most part, except for Friday. H1 was able to take a day off of work and we headed to Busche Gardens! It was a perfect day to go. The park had relatively few visitors and we were able to take Mathias on all the rides. Even H3 got to enjoy her first roller coaster and water ride. We'll be able to go on more later, since Va residents only have to pay for one ticket in order to go all season. One of the few perks to living in this state!

While they were visiting, I got a call from my landlord, letting me know that a company was ready to work on the flooring at our convenience. I called and set up a time for Monday morning (yesterday) and that was when they were planning to begin. The goal was to have all the flooring in the kitchen/den, laundry room, bathroom, and both bedrooms replaced by Wednesday evening. The bedrooms were getting carpet and everything else a laminate tile. They started pulling up the floor yesterday morning, and this is what they found.





At least that's part of what they found. There's more on the other side of the kitchen. Needless to say, it halted the project. The subfloor is rotted in multiple places and will have to be replaced. The dilemma now is, there is a specific person my landlord wants to have fix it, and since he's currently tied up with another project, it will be a couple days before he gets here. So in the meantime, I'm stuck with that floor, and all the furniture from the kitchen/den and laundry room in my bedroom and the small room that used to be Shannan's. Oh, and there's an extra futon and desk in the living room too, for lack of space! It's nuts in here! I'm not quite losing my mind yet, but thinking about it. I did spray bleach over that floor 7 time yesterday, and once already this morning. On the one plus note, at least I'm not paying for any of this and it will look better when it's done....

Taking each day one step at a time right now and just focusing on breathing and trusting God on the frustrating details of the rest of life right now...it would take waaaaay too long to blog about those now!

I'll post more pics of the fun parts of our month later. Those pics are on our other computer, which is not hooked up and being stored in the little room for the moment. Ugh! I'll be happy to have my house back in order!

~H2

Spring is coming!

This past month has been beautiful! Mid February ushered in temperatures in the 60s and 70s, so H1, H3, and I have been spending every possible free moment outside enjoying it! Other than late September, this is my favorite time in VA....it's not cold and rainy and not blazing hot either. Almost every morning H3 and I take a walk to the Post Office. Along the way, H3 has to investigate every rock, stick, leaf, and dandilion! Though the Post Office is less than 1/4 of a mile away, it typically takes us 20 minutes or so round trip with all of her detours! She's so cute though, and I just can't deny her the pleasure of investigating everything. She has such a curious mind--very detail oriented.

At the end of February I took a quick trip with her to Lynchburg to see some friends. Our first stop was the university I used to work at to see some of my former coworkers, most of whom I've kept in contact with. They usually ask me to stop in when I come to the area so they can say hello and see how much H3 has grown. She loves wandering around the office and saying "hi" to everyone. From there, we met my friend Cate for lunch. Cate is also a former coworker and dear friend. I was blessed to be in her wedding a few years ago. Then, we stopped by another friend's house to help her unpack. She and her husband had just moved in the weekend before and I figured she could probably use a little help getting organized. They have the sweetest little 2 month old (now 3 months, I guess) boy! After spending the night with another friend and letting H3 play with their 2 year old son, we met Cate again at 10 the next morning and I watched her 1 year old, Natalie, while she was in a meeting before we had lunch. H3 and Natalie got along so well! They were playing in an empty conference room and had the best time (see pic below of both girls).




As I mentioned, H3 and I have been spending a lot of time outside! She loves playing the backyard and seems to also enjoy running laps around our house! For the first time, I'm now wishing we had a fenced in backyard, since I'm running those laps with her. She'd pretty fast for having such short legs, or at least I think so.



Last Sunday, we joined another family after church for a picnic lunch in a local park. It's the same park where we had H3's birthday last year, and they have a huge wooden playground called Fort Fun. The other family, whose house we meet at for small group, has a 16 year old, a 5 year old, and twin two year olds, all boys, and little girl due in July. H3 loves playing with the three younger boys. They have as much energy as she does! By the end of the afternoon all the little ones were tuckered out. H3 fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and slept the whole way home, plus another couple hours at the house!

H3 sitting in H1's lap at the picnic table.


Slide!



This weekend has been a bit more mellow. It's a bit cooler (in the 50s) and I picked up a sinus infection or something this past Thursday. Since then, I've been pretty much exhausted and stuffy-nosed. H1 had to work on Saturday (a make-up day from the snow days earlier this year), and when he got home he went to work refinishing the last two dining room chairs. They now have the stain on them, and just a coat of poly-eurthane left before they will be done. That project has been going on in what will be H3's new room, so all of that has to get cleaned up before we start painting. I did purchase the paint on Saturday night, so it's ready to go as soon as those chairs are finished. Hurray!

~H2

Cookies!

I've been doing a little baking over the last couple days. Tuesday I made some fudge and mailed it to my parents and my father-in-law for Valentine's Day. It was the simplest recipe I had ever seen and I had to try it, seeing as there seemed to be a fudge recipe in existence that is "H2-proof". In the past, my attempts at fudge have come to ruin. The candy thermometer and I are at war and last year I finally declared "no more" and shoved the thing back into the gloom of my junk drawer. This new recipe I found requires no thermometer! You just need a can of sweetened condensed milk, 18oz semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, and a dash of salt! After melting the chips in a saucepan with the condensed milk and salt, add the vanilla and spread into a wax paper lined 8x8 pan. Two hours later and presto! It's as good as any I've bought before, and H1 really liked it--he wants me to try it with peanut butter chips next! Even H3 joined in, complete with apron and my grandmother's purse that she's taken to carrying around lately.



Since November, H1, H3, and I have been attending a small group that meets in a nearby couple's home. We didn't know Kenny and Joanna before the group began, but have really been enjoying their friendship. At the moment, they have 4 children (all boys), but a fifth will be joining the family in July. I think we get to find out in March whether #5 is a boy or girl! The youngest children in the family are twin boys, and they are about 8 months older than H3. Since she sees them in the nursery at church too, Joanna and I had talked about having a playdate, but never really got that setup until this morning. I went over to their house around 10 and we baked sugar cookies. The twins and H3 ran around the house and played, and the 5 year old helped us roll and cut out the cookies. He's a sweetie too. I have him in my Sunday school class at church. Below is a sample of our efforts.




It's been a long week and I've had migraines since Monday evening, but there's also been so many fun moments that make me smile. I love to see my little girl smile and hear her laughter. H1 should be home from work soon, and it's supposed to start snowing again tonight. Hmmmm...maybe I should start a fire in the fireplace and break out the marshmallows!

~H2