Updated "Dirty House"

Updated pictures of the "Dirty House" Plumbing is in! HVAC is close. Electric should be done this week. 1st floor ceiling is dropped. New windows go in on Thursday, all 17 of them.

Basement - where the furnace was and will go again

First Floor - from kitchen through dining room to living room
(lowered ceiling here)

First Floor - from living room through dining room to kitchen and back door

(lowered ceiling here)

Second Floor - from second bedroom into bath with master bath beyond, then closet then master bedroom

Second Floor - from master bath, then second bath into second bedroom

Date night

Last night Mark and I went on a real, live date.

I can hear the gasps of shock. :) :)

Mark had a drawing at work for some Cardinals tickets. He didn't win, but the girl who did gave him her tickets and insisted that we go on a date. We found a babysitter and went to the ballgame last night.

It was great!

The weather was perfect--the storms they were predicting never appeared and it was a perfect temperature. We were just to the left of home plate and only a few rows off of the field. I had fun getting to actually sit and talk to Mark instead of spending time fielding questions from the kids. Instead, I asked him lots of questions. I know baseball, but there's all of these little rules that make no sense to me whatsoever. Why should you have to wait to run if someone hits the ball? That's just silly. And why can't baseball players run fast?

Anyway...the Cardinals were down 9 to 5 at the top of the eighth (which was a great improvement over the 9 to 1 after the top of the sixth!), so I leaned over and suggested we sneak out and go get some ice cream. However, they did a quick up and down in the bottom of the eighth and then managed to pull in one more run in the bottom of the ninth so we stuck it out to the end (they still lost, obviously, but it was entertaining).

Then we went to Ted Drewes (on Grand, mind you). :) I had a hot fudge sundae with marshmallow creme. I'm sure you're very interested but it was absolutely delicious. ;)

Easter morning (I'm only a month late ;))

Playing at the playground over the weekend

A little bit tired on the drive home...

Mother's Day weekend

I had a post to write last week (about Alex specifically) but after some thought on my part I've decided I'm not ready to put it out there yet, which is why you haven't seen anything from me. :)

This weekend we split the kids and had a girls' weekend and a boys' weekend! I had a family baby shower to go to for a cousin and Mark had base ball so couldn't watch all of the kids, so we thought this would be a fun way to do the weekend. The girls and I drove down to my mom's house for the baby shower--which never happened. As it turned out, the mom-to-be had a car accident the morning of the shower. She and the baby are both fine, but they were in the hospital for the day for monitoring. So instead of a baby shower we had something more like a family reunion--with lots of girls. LOL

I did some special things with the girls this weekend that they hadn't yet experienced--their first blow-dry, their first happy meals, and their second nail-paintings. They loved getting to spend lots of time with me without having to compete with their brothers. In addition, they LOVED spending time with my youngest sister Brianna who is 13.

Mark and the boys...well, let's see if I can list it. Over to a base ball park to repair some holes--involved dirt, digging, and jumping on the newly placed dirt. To a second base ball park for the actual game--lots of playing with trucks, reading to friends, and all-around hanging out. To Cici's Pizza for dinner--chosen (by the boys) over White Castle because "it has more food and dessert." To Lowes and Home Depot for all kinds of building supplies for both houses. Sams--grocery shopping for the family. Church--where I didn't hear any reports of bad behavior, but they might have all been sleeping in the balcony. ;) I think they also added in some trips to the dirty house as well as doing some things around our house. Saturday night the boys were so excited because they got to stay up until 8pm. "Mama, it was past 8 o'clock!"

And Sunday we put everyone to bed at 6:30 and Mark had to wake them up at 7 the next morning. :) :)

Some highlights from my weekend: Sharing a morning snack with my girls at McDs--yogurt parfait for them and a Mocha Frappe for me. Emily headbanging to AM country-western music on the drive. Danielle falling in love with a little mirror she got in her Happy Meal, and trying to show it to every person in the restaurant before we left because she was so proud (we really did only stop at McDs twice). Talking to my mom for hours without interruption while Brianna and the girls played. Coming home to all of my boys (big and little) and the beautiful roses they got me for Mother's Day...

...realizing I've only been a mom for not even two and a half years. How incredibly blessed I am to celebrate this third Mother's Day when for many years I doubted I would celebrate one. I don't always feel like I'm meeting everyone's needs, but I'm trying and trusting God that He will keep molding me into the wife and mother He wants me to be! :)

Alex

Alex had to write a story tonight about ladybugs. He came up with four sentences all by himself and I only had to do ONE grammar correction. For him that's HUGE!! Between the speech apraxia and being an ELL, English grammar is really hard for him. It's great to see his progress!

Here is his story:

"The Ladybugs"
"The ladybugs are living in the leaves. Ladybugs are crawling on the ground. Ladybugs have twenty-two spots. Ladybugs can fly." (My grammar correction was for "on the ground"--he said "in ground.")

***************

At dinner we were talking about playing soccer next fall. Alex frowned when I asked if he wanted to play soccer. Shaking his head, he said no. I was so puzzled because Alex LOVES soccer, and I couldn't imagine what would make him not want to play.

He then paused and said, "I want to coach."

When we told him he couldn't coach, that that job was for grownups, he smiled and said, "Okay, I'll play."

I love being at home

Yesterday, due to forces out of my control, I had a day off of work. All of the big kids went to school and I went ahead and sent Emily to preschool as I knew she'd be very bored at home by herself. She loves her preschool classroom and is a friend to all. :)

Consequently, I got lots done. :) :) I painted the bathroom, went to Sams, painted the front fence (well, half of it), did laundry, went to the bank...and lots of little things that take about 10 times longer with "small" interruptions. ;)

It was very refreshing to be at home and we had a good evening at home, too. During dinner we were talking about Ukraine (actually a common topic for us--the boys never talked about it before we brought the girls home, but now they seem to understand that it's okay to talk about it) and Tim was asking me if I'd always live with him. In the middle of our discussion about how old he was going to be (and still living with me), Alex pipes up with "I'm going to get a pickup truck. A big one." Then proceeded to keep eating. I was giggling as I said "Oh, really?" "Yep, for $18." "Oh, you'll definitely still be living with me then!"

Today I'll be back at work. I still need to get the other half of the fence painted--I'm hopeful that can happen this evening!

We tried

We had today all mapped out...

Church in the morning. Back home for lunch and various tasks (playing for the kids, house stuff for Mark and I). Band concert at 3pm, after which (about 5pm) we would go to Sams to pick up a few things and eat dinner. Then home and bed for the kids.

Wouldn't you know? The band concert lasted until 5:30. Sams closes at 6pm so when we got there at 5:45 there was only one slice of pizza left and the woman would not put a whole one in the oven for us (we wanted to just buy the whole pizza). So we left, hit Little Caesars on the way home, ate pizza, and then put the kids to bed.

It all worked out but it was a little crazier than we would have liked. However, the band concert was GREAT and the kids loved it!