A crutch or a....?

 I am supposed to be on crutches right now.  Admittedly I am not very good at using them.  Everyone else in the family is though-but not for their intended use.

They have been used as:

guns

 guitars

 horses, pole jumper, sling shot, tomahawk, baton, and limbo stick.  Maybe I should start using the crutch the way it is supposed to be used.  If I don't, I am afraid it's going to have an identity crisis.

 In other news the boy got a new bike last week.  He was in dire need of it. His last one was just too small. Now he can jump curbs, stand on his seat, and ride like a crazy man with everyone else in the hood.

House stuff today

 Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth all day long.  That was today's story.  The morning started with the little thought of "oh I think I will go through all of Ansen's stuff and get it ready to move over to the new place" to actually going through everything, donating a ton, throwing even more away and then moving over his whole room-minus his dresser, pillow and comforter. 

 I donated everything at Goodwill and as I was loading everything into their cart I realized all the little kid toys were leaving our house for good.  THEN the Goodwill worker says, "Looks like someone doesn't have a 'little' boy anymore." Thanks Goodwill worker.  Thanks for the punch to the heartstrings.  Would you like to say anything about my muffin top or saddle bags while I am standing here?  I got in the car and adequately teared up all the way home.

 Since little man's room went so well I decided to descend upon the girls room and see what we could get done today too.  Good news!  Everything got done.  Whoopee:)  Beds are up, fresh sheets are on, bookcases and closets moved over and, again, a ton of stuff got tossed and I have a bunch of bags waiting to go to Goodwill.  I just have to find the emotional stamina.

 Can you guess which bookcase belongs to which girl?

Jason is over at the house right now knocking out a wall or two and I am sitting at home on my bum and icing my silly foot.   I have not been taking it easy as per doctors orders and tonight I am feeling it.  

Getting tired of house stuff yet?

Quick peek

 There isn't a whole lot to see yet since we aren't in but here are some quick pics.  The person we bought the house from redid the fireplace, windows, roof, floors, gutters, carpets, bathrooms, all counters (kitchen and baths) and kitchen cabinets (painted and spruced up).  We feel pretty  grateful that this house isn't a fixer upper.  We are able to focus on the family room getting completed.  Whew.

Living Room and fireplace

(above and below)

 Dining room:

 Kitchen:

 Go down the hall and the kids rooms are on the left and the main bathroom and our room is on the right.

More to come...

Day 1: Demo the garage and more

 Our new house is much smaller than our current residence so in order to create extra space we are converting the garage into a large family room.  Today was the day to tear down all the old (and I mean o.l.d.) shelving/workbenches/pegboards and prep the garage.  Jason, Ansen, Bob and Bruce did the demo work and everything was down pretty quick.

 When you put these 3 together there are always a lot of conversations that start with "Well, if we did it this way..."

The finished gutted garage:

 This is about 20 minutes into the project. We also emptied out everything in the attic above the garage.  Most everything in there was from 1984. I would say it was time for a cleaning.  Eventually the dump saw us 3 times today.

 Here's the back yard in it's overgrown glory.  The seller did not mow or care for the cherry, pear or apple trees or look after the grapevines.  We have our work cut out for us.

 The neighbor kid came over and offered to mow both the front and the back yards for a minimal fee.  Actually it wasn't very minimal but it was worth it.  So both yards got mowed...and not by me.  Very nice.

 The front yard was a bit of a disaster too.  The maple was super overgrown, the rose bushes were attacking the front yard and the there were these odd large bushes full of bees and spiders on the side of the house.  The maple is now cut wayyyyy back, the roses are trimmed up and waiting for my mother-in-law to come and claim them as hers (I don't do bushes with thorns), the the insect bushes are gone-zo.  And again, the lawn was mowed by someone other than myself.

 Our 3 monkey's.  Can you see them?

 There is still quite a bit of yard work to go but I feel like we got a decent start.

 Before we left Jason sealed the garage floor with it's 1st coat of concrete sealant.

 We also met the neighbors directly across the street and the ones across the street and to the right.  The guy across the street told us he is the unofficial neighborhood watch guard (perfect!) and the couple who live to his right seem really nice.  He works for the fire department and she's expecting.  They have a cat named Shanequa so I know we will get along just fine.

The best part is our new neighbors to our right the kids already know from school.  What a blessing.

And of course this day was brought to you by Coke.  Jason and his dad can't work without a Coke close at hand.  So the fridge is stocked up for him and I have a gallon of skim milk just for me and the kidlets.  Today was productive and we are excited to continue our projects.

oh yea....

This is how we celebrated our new purchase by going big at Devine Yogurt.  Such a good day.

Sold!

Today we bought our first house.  Yes we know we've been married a long time but, for us, the time was never right.  We knew that when we bought we didn't want to get trapped in a mortgage and we wanted to have something that was super manageable.

For the past 5 (or so) years we have been on the verge of a possible move with Jason's company.  There was just always the possibliity so we rented.  For the past 3 years we have been in a 5 bedroom brand new large home.  It  has been wonderful.  We have enjoyed our time here but we learned a few things about ourselves.

1.  We don't need 5 bedrooms.

2.  I don't need 2.5 baths (to clean)

3. We aren't "bedroom" people.  No one hangs out in thier rooms so we are just paying for uninhabited space.

4.  We would like more living space. We like having people over and so the more group space, the better.

5.  New houses are built cheap.

So the hunt began.  In June when my ma was visiting we found this little gem.  3bedroom, 1.5 bath, remodeled home built in 1969.  We are super excited about our new home and we have lots of pictures to share soon.

Yesterday-

 When we woke up yesterday there sun was shining!  I said "Quick kids!  Put on your bathing suits and we are playing outside today."  It is amazing how fast those three can be ready when they *want* to be.

 The sun has been awfully shy this summer and to be honest we are all going a tab bit stir crazy inside all the time because it's raining and too cold to be outside.  I am serious.  It's been too cold.  So crazy.   It is the end of July am I right?

 So we were very grateful for the beautiful day outside and also that we ran into friends to play with while we were tanning *ahem* playing.

Come on Mr. Sun please come and stay a while!