Simply Put

Things are going well.

So... This Happened

So... this happened.

 

And so did this...

We are officially expecting again and Z-Dad got to working on my office for my birthday (a week from now). Hopefully, we'll soon attack bathrooms, flooring, and the nursery. More soon!

Thinking About Trees

We would like a smaller flowering tree for the front yard. We are inclined towards...

Sand Cherry Tree

Arbor Day

Mr. Jack's Farm

Jane Magnolia



Arbor Day

Moon Nurseries

These look like tulips, which are my favorite flower!



Royal Star Magnolia

Thuja Gardens

Thuja Gardens



Pee Gee Hydrangea Tree

Hydrangeas! Hydrandeas!

Apparently these are a little less sensitive than their shrub counterparts. I love the huge blooms!

We like many other trees, such as weeping willows, but are hoping to keep this tree small and simple.



Wall of Text Summer Update

My apologies for not posting for weeks! We came to the end of our 'play money' for the house. From here on out, it's back to the snail's pace of working as we can. As we're in a more livable state, this isn't hard on us, but it does make blogging a little less exciting. And you know how I'm all about keeping up an exciting and rich blog. *ahem*
For a while there, I was also a little indirectly grumpy towards the house and neighborhood as Z-Dad and I had our cars broken into. Now, they were unlocked, and nothing expensive and irreplaceable was stolen. But it just irked me. Welcome to your new home. I lived downtown for a year and never had problems, but I was also much more vigilant back then. So, back to locking up. I would also like to get a motion sensor light. It makes me glad we got the house alarm system. Which also makes me sad.

We also had R-Boy over for a week, which was fun. They got lots of outdoor time, something he doesn't get at home. Between riding bikes to the park and going to the zoo, I think we aided his need for that! This weekend, Z-Dad is planning on taking him and F-Girl to his sister's to camp out. He's been asking to go for ages. Apparently his maternal grandparents are also taking him camping via a pop-up camper, but Z-Dad and I only view tent and sleeping bag camping as real camping. I'm looking forward to having the house to myself to get some quiet sleep time in after working nights.

Between one co-worker's vacation and another suddenly quitting, I'm working some extra shifts lately. Z-Dad recently started his new job. Instead of working in a doctor's office (for eye care), he's gone back to his roots with a glasses manufacturing company. He's been in the industry for over ten years, so he's been a real aid to them lately. What with the back to school season, he's also been pulling in a lot of overtime. So, while we haven't been seeing as much of each other as we'd like, it is for money to buy more bookcases and plants a good cause.

Believe it or not, but we have still not done anything about the snapped tree in the front yard. I've been very edgy about it, convinced that the HOA is going to send me a curt note or something. We've gone back and forth about digging it up and planting something else (as we are required to have a deciduous tree out front) vs cutting down the trunk and letting the little baby that separated from it grow up. The issue is that this is a maple. While very nice, in a white bread kind of way, Z-Dad and I are suckers for flowering trees and shrubs. So, at the moment, my plan is to dig the sucker up and move him to the back yard. Our yard is almost 100% sun except for the front near the house in the mornings. Due to the intense heat and drought, I haven't planted or done much with the yards. Except for recently, we haven't even needed to mow the grass! I've been browsing the websites of my local nurseries, planning what I'd like to get. Expect an update on that soon!

Staycation

Between the baby shower and R-Boy's birthday on Saturday and the festivities on Sunday, I had asked work to take those two nights off as PTO. They also gave me Sunday, so I've been off work this whole week. Doing... just about nothing, which has been lovely. While we probably should be using this time to get projects done on the house, there has also been a serious need for recuperation. Rest, relax, and physically heal from some of these projects. Not to mention just spending time together. You know, little things. Sadly, I go back to work tonight.
The party was a great success. One of my brothers and one of Z-Dad's sisters couldn't make it, but all who attended enjoyed themselves. We grilled out, showed off the house, and let the children run around.

Later that evening, we returned him to his mother's and I got to see A-Girl for the first time in months. She's doing fine and only getting taller. Her mother couldn't understand why I would want to see her. I'm working on a photo album to give her to show her how much we miss her. It was so hard not to say "We'll see you soon" or "When your mom lets you come over again." I wish she could understand that just because she's remarried, doesn't erase the ten years her step-father raised her as his own. It doesn't erase my time with her, or how both of our families accepted her in as well. I wish I had remembered the camera.

Monday, I took the kittens back to the vet. They soon passed their drippy/upper respiratory thing over to the big cats. They, and the dog, got to meet the vet on Wednesday. Tuesday, F-Girl and I went to the Children's Museum with my parents. We all had lots of fun and wore the little one out. She took a short nap in the car on the way to lunch afterwards.

Thursday, F-Girl and I met up with Z-Dad's sister-in-law and her son to go to a play group. We went to the show room of a company that sells outdoor play equipment. It was nice that it was inside as we've finally been getting a lot of rain storms. Last night, our little front tree snapped in half and the neighbor on one side lost some siding! Luckily, everyone is safe. Overall, it's been a good week.

Getting to It (Part Two)

Thursday: I woke up insanely early. After Z-Dad left for the day and F-Girl was up, we went back to the store to return the extra light. We bought two kitchen lights, 3 toilet seats (which I only mention because they include kid-sized potty seats), paint rollers, more clearance perennials, and a butterfly garden decoration. When Z-Dad got home that night, he worked more in the kids' bath. After F-Girl went to bed, we set up the kitchen lights and dug out the back flower bed. Back there we have two kinds of day lilies, some cone flowers (a couple echinacea magnus and echinacea pururea), shasta daisies, blanket flower sunrita scarlet halo, and a mystery plant that I'm not sure will come back next year. I intend on taking over either a side yard or another space in the front yard for tulips and more day lilies (the standard yellow that my mother will separate out from her garden). I had a collection of bulbs from the old house and also picked up some clearance bulbs at the store on Sunday.

Before: 2 sets of these. Why do some houses have ball lights
and some houses have book lights? What's with that?

After: 2 of these

"Don't look at our beds! We're naked!"
*ahem* I ran out of mulch on the front beds.
The back beds were left as-is.

Friday: We moved the playroom stuff from the front room downstairs to the loft area upstairs. The front room is slowly becoming F-Girl's home school room, where we'll have a lot of her books, art supplies, and such. We also intend on putting a corner cabinet from my dad and Z-Dad's roll top desk in there. Right now, it's pretty bare.
R-Boy came over for our weekend with him. I took a nap before going to work. When I got out of work it was....

Saturday: I took a nap before going to my sister in law's baby shower. While I was sleeping, Z-Dad took the kids out to pick up a few last minute things. R-Boy managed to convince him into a couple more birthday presents too: a heavy-duty sleeping bag and a lamp shaped like a little Lego man. I can't believe he's seven! By the time I came home, it was time to put the kids to bed.
Z-Dad went to the store while I attacked the front flower beds. I transplanted a hosta and put in an astilbe and foxglove. We've been watering all of our new plants, and I mulched the new front bed. When he returned, he set up a garage organizer and a bookcase for our DVDs that have been camping out in the living room all this time.

Sunday: When the kids woke us up, I rolled out of bed and went back to the store for two more book cases (another for DVDs and one for her home school room. We'll probably add one or two more for her!) and four bags of mulch. This was also when I picked up some clearance bulbs. I quickly separated and transplanted the other hosta and mulched the other front bed. Z-Dad ran the weed eater over the few buggers in the yard that are flourishing in this drought, vacuumed inside, and started the cupcakes. We got cleaned up, I finished the cupcakes, he started cooking, and then it was party time!

Getting to It (Part One)

Tuesday: For Z-Dad's birthday, he received an iHome dock and a new Sony Cybershot camera. The former he'd been looking at for ages, and the latter I waited to purchase until the day of to prevent F-Girl from ruining the surprise. After opening his gifts, we ushered him and a friend of his into the kids' bathroom to start laying tile. We released them after they made significant progress.

So this picture was actually taken a few days later on Friday. You get the idea. I'm excited about the progress!

Meanwhile, F-Girl and I FINALLY finished painting her closet. Note to self: textured walls are bad enough; don't make more work for yourself! I was asked recently why it was such an undertaking. Bearing in mind that everything around here takes a long time to be done due to our weird schedules (he works days during the week and I work nights over the weekend), it was my fault for unthinkingly brushing a test patch in there after trying out some swatches in her room. Then, once started, it had to be finished. The room is also 4'10"x10'4". Yes, seriously..

Ignore the pile of too small clothes, the weird box of A-Girl's old clothes (sigh), and the crib mattress.
LOOK AT HOW HUGE MY THREE-YEAR-OLD'S CLOSET IS.

Wednesday (Yesterday): F-Girl and I were disappointed with the farmer's market (I'm betting the weekend market's offerings will be better), so we went to the hardware store. There, we picked up a couple MDF boards, a magnetization paint kit, a chalk board paint kit, some clearance perennials, and a light for the home school room.

I'm working on DIY'ing a couple magnet boards for F-Girl and I. I'll let you know how it went!

Count Down

Tomorrow is Z-Dad's birthday; he'll be 31. Saturday is R-Boy's birthday; he'll be 7. As Saturday is also my sister-in-law's baby shower, we're having a birthday/housewarming/new kittens party on Sunday.

This is Dexter.

The plan is to tile the kid's bathroom (where we temporarily put some scrap carpet after we ripped up the disgusting old carpet), move the play set my sister is giving us, and finish painting.

Oh, yeah, and clean like mad! I've already put away all the boxes that were in the spare bedroom (which has become the kitten haven after I put up the baby gate to keep the dog from their food bowl).

Ignore the painfully ugly carpet.

We received the new washer, dryer, and chest freezer on Thursday. I couldn't organize them quite as I liked, but it's great to have them! F-Girl loves that she can watch since they're front-loading machines. Now I just need to better organize my pantry to be and I'll be in heaven!

Plotting

After being inspired by these...

From The Cats' House

And these....

Left from Plus-Nyan House in Japan. Right from Katwallks.

I've been thinking that Dinah and Dexter need some catwalks. And how are we a four cat household with only one cat tree? This needs to be changed pronto! Hey, if I can only have fur babies, we're going to go all out!

Then, While I Was Awake...

First, on Saturday morning, this happened:

I bought an electric cat litter box THAT LOOKS LIKE THE DEATH STAR!

Well, technically I bought it during the week, but our new Litter Robot arrived super fast! I hate scooping out the litter box more than anything for our two girls and have been looking at self-cleaning options for a while now. I knew for sure that I didn't want anything that required special liners or chemicals that would need to be bought regularly. I'm always afraid them being discontinued. Otherwise, I would have purchased a CatGenie that liquifies the waste and hooks up to a toilet or washing machine waste line. For the Litter Robot, I liked that even the refurbished models still came with the same 90 day trial period and 18 month warranty. It had great reviews, so I'll let you know how to works out!

Then, Saturday afternoon, this happened:

We adopted two kittens. You see, the Humane Society was having a special event: $25 for kittens, $15 for cats aged 1-5, and $5 for cats older than 5 or FIV+. How could I resist that? This is our new, as-yet-unnamed little girl. The little boy I, stupidly, did not take a picture of. He had to stay behind as he has to be neutered before going home. We'll pick him up on Monday! So she is separated from our girls and the dog until we can introduce everyone together.

Oh, wait, you haven't seen the girls either. Well, here you go:

Eve is on the left and Autumn is on the right. Eve is the silent, patient, super sweet cuddler. She is the kind of cat that allows a toddler to pull on her fur and attempt to carry her around without complaint. When F-Girl cries, she is the first one there to comfort her. She is AMAZING. Autumn is the talkative (think Siamese-level chattiness), scampering wild child. Our new tortoishell girl is like Autumn but the new tabby boy is a little more chill (at least, so I hope).

We're still thinking of names, but we'll keep you updated how they, and the big girls' new accessory, work out!