What we've been up to
So it's been awhile since I last blogged. I got two phone calls today -- one from each side of the family -- wondering if we were alive. I thought perhaps I should sit down and write something.
A few major things have conspired to keep me away. I list them in order of decreasing lameness.
1) I discovered Facebook. I am becoming a bit addicted to it. All my buds, in town and from high school, are on it. I even got in contact with my maid-of-honor again, after not having spoken to her for 4 years. I fart around on Facebook and my internet community needs feel artificially fulfilled for the day. Thus I do not blog.
2) I have been reading for fun a LOT in the past 3 weeks. A preschool friend recommended Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which was a good book but perhaps bad for me and my gardening/yard-work kick. It makes me wonder why we don't own chickens.
Then, when I was done with that book, my library wish list hit the jackpot after a month of waiting. The last three books of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer took their rightful place on my bookshelf. I stayed up till 2 in the morning most nights of the last two weeks with those ridiculous things, and I am glad to finally be rid of them so I can sleep again. Though if somebody wants to buy me copies for Christmas, I wouldn't mind. Perhaps my kids and husband might.
3) I started taking a Spanish class through Daddy's University on Thursday nights. It is very low-key, mostly conversational, only for employees and spouses (read: old people), not for credit. It is 2-1/2 hours and it is lots of fun. I wouldn't say I'm learning, so much as refreshing, right now, though I get the feeling the learning part will be kicking in in the next few weeks. I'm almost as excited to come home and speak it with the boys as I am to get away from the house on my own.
4) Last and the very least lame of them all is that we reroofed our house. When I say "we reroofed our house" I mean "we used our money to pay a contractor and half of Costa Rica to reroof our house". Our house is 43 years old; it was time for the original roof to be replaced. Our old roof was fine for the moment but saggy in places. The shingles were stained and slowly disintegrating.
So we paid all the money in the world for a wealth of dudes to tear the whole thing off, down to the decking, and replace it all with fresh plywood and dark green shingles. They did this all in one day, in less than 10 hours. Burns Brothers Roofing, they are the bomb. We also paid them to remove the original asbestos siding on the sides of the house, leaving that bare. Daddy has spent every spare minute of the last week residing that part with cedar, by himself. Note that he is not residing it with cedar-look vinyl siding, to the unforeseen confusion of every home improvement store within a 10-mile radius. All Home Depot/Lowe's/84 Lumber employees looked at our Daddy like he must be smokin' some serious crack to want to put actual wood on the outside of his house.
Hassling aside, now the west side of our house is sided, primed, and painted, and it looks like something out of a catalog. He just finished today, so I have no picture just yet. The east side, where there is less work to be done, will likely get Tyveked over and wait till the spring, when time and money allows its completion.
That has been stealing the bulk of my time -- baby wrangling when Daddy is outside busting his butt, and then more baby wrangling when Daddy is passed out from exhaustion on the couch. Daddy actually fell asleep sitting up one day, poor dude. But everyone agrees it is all worth it, because the finished product is everything we've ever dreamed of. Honestly, the whole project has filled me with respect and pride for my husband, that he can spearhead and accomplish such amazing things while simultaneously amazing people at work on a daily basis. He's a special guy, and not only do we love him so, but we count ourselves lucky to have him.
During the day, the boys and I have been going to school, to the library, or just hanging out at home. The weather has been so stellar that we spend as much time as possible at the park...
...or at the orchard, bless them and their plentiful apple harvest:
Once a week, we are accompanied by this lovely young lady:
Our homegirl Ella, she and Isaac are thick as thieves. I try to tell her mommy this every time I get a chance -- because their family's definition of "busy" puts ours to shame -- but I am SO GLAD we can hang with Ella on a regular basis. Ella and Isaac are like the same person. They run around holding hands together, everywhere. They boss each other around, each insisting that the other conform to the role-playing scenario du jour ("Ella, you be a stegosaurus." "Isaac, you be baby jaguar.") Ella is the only friend we play with around whom Isaac acts like himself, and for that I hope she hangs around for another 30 years so they can get married and have a million babies. And that those babies subsequently torture Isaac with endless requests that he should pretend to be a dinosaur.
As for Jacob, HE IS POOPING ON THE POTTY. One day he decided it was time to start setting the poop free on a regular basis. For the past two weeks, he's pooped on his own at least once a day without fussing or complaining. It is beyond delightful.
A few major things have conspired to keep me away. I list them in order of decreasing lameness.
1) I discovered Facebook. I am becoming a bit addicted to it. All my buds, in town and from high school, are on it. I even got in contact with my maid-of-honor again, after not having spoken to her for 4 years. I fart around on Facebook and my internet community needs feel artificially fulfilled for the day. Thus I do not blog.
2) I have been reading for fun a LOT in the past 3 weeks. A preschool friend recommended Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which was a good book but perhaps bad for me and my gardening/yard-work kick. It makes me wonder why we don't own chickens.
Then, when I was done with that book, my library wish list hit the jackpot after a month of waiting. The last three books of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer took their rightful place on my bookshelf. I stayed up till 2 in the morning most nights of the last two weeks with those ridiculous things, and I am glad to finally be rid of them so I can sleep again. Though if somebody wants to buy me copies for Christmas, I wouldn't mind. Perhaps my kids and husband might.
3) I started taking a Spanish class through Daddy's University on Thursday nights. It is very low-key, mostly conversational, only for employees and spouses (read: old people), not for credit. It is 2-1/2 hours and it is lots of fun. I wouldn't say I'm learning, so much as refreshing, right now, though I get the feeling the learning part will be kicking in in the next few weeks. I'm almost as excited to come home and speak it with the boys as I am to get away from the house on my own.
4) Last and the very least lame of them all is that we reroofed our house. When I say "we reroofed our house" I mean "we used our money to pay a contractor and half of Costa Rica to reroof our house". Our house is 43 years old; it was time for the original roof to be replaced. Our old roof was fine for the moment but saggy in places. The shingles were stained and slowly disintegrating.
So we paid all the money in the world for a wealth of dudes to tear the whole thing off, down to the decking, and replace it all with fresh plywood and dark green shingles. They did this all in one day, in less than 10 hours. Burns Brothers Roofing, they are the bomb. We also paid them to remove the original asbestos siding on the sides of the house, leaving that bare. Daddy has spent every spare minute of the last week residing that part with cedar, by himself. Note that he is not residing it with cedar-look vinyl siding, to the unforeseen confusion of every home improvement store within a 10-mile radius. All Home Depot/Lowe's/84 Lumber employees looked at our Daddy like he must be smokin' some serious crack to want to put actual wood on the outside of his house.
Hassling aside, now the west side of our house is sided, primed, and painted, and it looks like something out of a catalog. He just finished today, so I have no picture just yet. The east side, where there is less work to be done, will likely get Tyveked over and wait till the spring, when time and money allows its completion.
That has been stealing the bulk of my time -- baby wrangling when Daddy is outside busting his butt, and then more baby wrangling when Daddy is passed out from exhaustion on the couch. Daddy actually fell asleep sitting up one day, poor dude. But everyone agrees it is all worth it, because the finished product is everything we've ever dreamed of. Honestly, the whole project has filled me with respect and pride for my husband, that he can spearhead and accomplish such amazing things while simultaneously amazing people at work on a daily basis. He's a special guy, and not only do we love him so, but we count ourselves lucky to have him.
During the day, the boys and I have been going to school, to the library, or just hanging out at home. The weather has been so stellar that we spend as much time as possible at the park...
...or at the orchard, bless them and their plentiful apple harvest:
Once a week, we are accompanied by this lovely young lady:
Our homegirl Ella, she and Isaac are thick as thieves. I try to tell her mommy this every time I get a chance -- because their family's definition of "busy" puts ours to shame -- but I am SO GLAD we can hang with Ella on a regular basis. Ella and Isaac are like the same person. They run around holding hands together, everywhere. They boss each other around, each insisting that the other conform to the role-playing scenario du jour ("Ella, you be a stegosaurus." "Isaac, you be baby jaguar.") Ella is the only friend we play with around whom Isaac acts like himself, and for that I hope she hangs around for another 30 years so they can get married and have a million babies. And that those babies subsequently torture Isaac with endless requests that he should pretend to be a dinosaur.
As for Jacob, HE IS POOPING ON THE POTTY. One day he decided it was time to start setting the poop free on a regular basis. For the past two weeks, he's pooped on his own at least once a day without fussing or complaining. It is beyond delightful.
posted by Claire at 10:01 PM
3 Comments:
Welcome back- I knew you were alive and well,albeit distracted by fanciful reading,from your Facebook postings. But I was missing the adventures of Isaac and Jacob- thanks for the update.
O Claire our boys are so beautiful. Isaac has grown and changed so much in such a short time. LUV, MOM C
lots going on! I like the haircuts and from reading your status on facebook i'm kind of interested in these stephanie meyer books...although alittle scared of becoming so engrossed.
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