2-16-11 Stairway

Well so the carpet is indeed coming tomorrow, or so they (the carpet store) tell me. I’m expecting them at 8:30 a.m. and they say it will take two days. Then – ah, then – we can start putting our basement back together. It looks like a bad garage sale right now. I was going to take pictures but I forgot; if I remember I’ll have Kate take some tomorrow. So this week has been a rush to get the trim and doors stained and varnished (done), the north (old) bedroom closet emptied (done), cleaned (not done), and painted (not done), the stairway painted (done), and the carpet on the stairs removed (done). Which, by the way, was no easy task. Last night Dad and I did a really fast race to Menards to find something to dissolve the glue so we (interpret: he) could remove the remaining black rubber backing from the old carpet. Got it, and he and Jesse got a good start on the steps last night yet; he was up and at it again early this morning before work then too.  Then today, Tori and I whipped through the stairway, and I am very pleased with how it turned out. As you view the pictures (see below), PLEASE keep in mind that I am NOT gifted with the ability that some people (mostly ladies) have of interior decorating. It’s just not my thing, and as much as I tried to, I just really didn’t get a thrill out of doing this task. But I did manage to be cheerful about it, and it did go very well, which was (seriously) an answer to prayer. Really. I did pray that this job would go ok, because the only thing worse than doing a painting job is having to do it over because it looks awful. But it doesn’t. The kids like it, Dad likes it, and even a neighbor girl who came to get eggs complimented me on it. Which made my day (and I told her as much) because, like I said, it’s just not my thing, and I’m not that talented at it. Whew. Glad that’s done. :)

In other news – it’s been beautiful out, especially today. The kids have been enjoying being outside a lot, although Sarah had to come in and stay in when she was entirely soaked from her waist down. Tori told me she was making a dam in the gravel road and couldn’t stop the water so she just sat down in it. Umm. That’s a first, I have to say. She was so cold and was upset that no one would get her a winter coat – and when I say it was beautiful out, I mean it wasn’t like 60 degree beautiful – well, I think that was the high for today, but as the day wore on, the sun wasn’t out all the time, and it definitely got cooler. So she was soaking wet, and freezing cold, and it was maybe 45 out (?), and believe it or not, it IS still February. So I had her come in and take a hot shower. That and a few jobs and she was back to normal, thankfully. Joshua was loving it outside too, after I learned my lesson on Tuesday, which was that he can’t be out without an older sibling. I thought he would be ok and stay out of the water for Ben, because he and Sarah and Jewel weren’t in the water either (only playing by it and in it), but I really don’t know WHAT I was thinking with that, because he wasn’t out 30 seconds (literally) when he was walking in the water and fell. Oops, suddenly he was soaking wet from the waist down, very cold, and ready to come right back in, imagine that. I changed him and got him back out again, this time with Kate, and he did much better; he loved it. Today he was up from his nap at 4:00 and didn’t want to come in for supper at 6:00. It was still pretty cool, but definitely the springiest day so far, and he was loving it.  As adorable as he is, he’s still by far our fussiest little one, and being outside will definitely cure some of that, we’re thinking (hoping).

In other news – the boys have been taking Jacob to help them milk in the mornings, which means he’s been heading to bed pretty firmly by 8:00 so he can get up with them and leave early. Which is (partly) why we didn’t go to church tonight; we weren’t thrilled with leaving him home, and even racing out of church right at 8:30 wouldn’t get him to bed until 9:00, and he just doesn’t do well with lack of sleep – headaches and so on. It actually worked out pretty good though, because Dad and Jesse worked on the steps again before church; they are done and ready for the carpet.  Jacob was in bed at 8:00, but the rest of us listened to church over the speaker phone. We were online at first, but our slow internet kept cutting us off. Quite annoying (how spoiled are we?). Anyway, we appreciated Craig Martin’s (Princeville) exhortations on controlling our speech…something on which I know I can use quite a bit of improvement.

This is getting quite long enough. One more story, a funny suppertime story. Our little Josh is getting to be such a cute talker and understands even more than he can say. Dad knocked over the gravy at supper tonight, sending it right toward and under Joshua’s plate. He cocked his head quite quizzically and asked in that adorable way that only a two-year-old can, “What you doin’?”  Our little man is so PRECIOUS! I just realized last week that his baby book (and Jewel’s) stopped COLD when this blog started last January. I haven’t printed any pictures since then, and haven’t written any updates on their lives…so in the next month of cold (yes, I know it’s coming back), I hope to get those books caught up. I only do their baby scrapbooks up to age five, so Jewel’s will be finished in April, but I still want them both to have books like the other kids do.

So. A few pictures (and I do mean a few) and then I’m heading to bed. Tired, but a good tired.

Before. It’s kind of hard to tell, but the bottom right is block painted green. And it’s also hard to tell that all walls, white and green both, are very dirty. (Wonder why.)

After. Painted sky blue then sponged with white. Don’t know about you, but I like it a lot.

Levi was willing to help, but with Dad on the bottom of the remaining three and Jesse on the top of the three, they decided it wouldn’t work very well for him to do the middle of the three. As it was, Jesse didn’t have the easiest position. He did a good job regardless.

Listening to church in the family room. Last winter we spent many evenings in there, listening to Dad read and doing puzzles, coloring, playing Duplos, etc. This winter the ping pong table kind of usurped that custom, and we’ve spent many evenings in the basement instead. Oh well, not that it’s bad, but I really like our family room evenings too.

Sarah wanted to do a journal and diligently worked on that all evening.

 

Ben too wrote during church; he did a new Ted story which I will share after it’s finished. I love to see them writing in their free time!

That’s all folks; time to hit the sack.