The gift (actually, another diy)

soon after we discovered i was pregnant with our third baby, Phil offered to send me away on a trip, a gift before i'd be tied down again. after some thinking, i declined (i know! can you believe it?) and instead requested he build me a play structure for the girls in our basement. my reasoning? it will keep me sane when i have to put the baby down for a nap or when i need some minutes to "escape" - i'll send the girls down there and they can make as much noise as they want.

my vision for the play structure began last summer, when i started dreaming of a tree house for the girls to play in. unfortunately, our backyard doesn't have an appropriate sized tree. and then, the girls complain so much about the mosquitoes, i wondered if building them a tree house in the backyard would be worthwhile. i still envision a tree house and perhaps we will still build it one day, but for now, i am happy to have our play structure in the basement. with such long winters here, we'll be sure to use it.

building the structure was a major test of my communication skills. Phil is SO not a visual person! i drew a sketch and he could not visualize it!! in the end, i ended up having to draw out where every plank and screw went. and in the end, Phil did a great job of putting the structure together, don't you think? :)

my sketch of the structure:


the structure starts to go up!




this is what it looks like now

Before/After 3

i FINALLY finished reupholstering our 2 chairs. during the long process, i wondered why on earth i decided to do this project - it was certainly a challenge! but now that they are finished, i love them! the fabric is so beautiful, it just makes me want to sit in these chairs. i guess that's the whole point, right? :)

Valentine's day?

what is that?? our day was lost in the endless list of activities i had inadvertently packed into the day. first, a special brunch at Marigolds. then, i had promised to pick up my neighbour's kids for part of the day - they have a day old baby in their house, so i thought i'd be neighbourly and take the older kids. Phil and i took turns taking the kids out to various outings. the one i ended up taking them to was Skye's school's winter carnival. crazy. there were so many people and kids running around, i barely had my wits together to keep track of my kids. finally dropped off the neighbours' kids back at their house and then it was off to dinner at a friend's house, but of course, i'd volunteered to make dessert... i'm just thankful the day didn't end in tears. i should be overcome with exhaustion and conked out in my bed, but my mind is going a mile a minute and so i'm sitting here writing.

i'd love to catch you up on my weekend getaway, but the minute i stepped out of the car after i drove back home, it's been crazy. for those of you who are wondering where i've been, i went to this place last weekend to take some personal time to work on my novel. it was great but also really bizarre. it felt so strange not to have my time dictated by my children's schedule/needs. i did get some good work in, but of course, felt i didn't have enough time to do everything i wanted to do. i also had a great time talking, over meals in the dining hall, to some of the other people who were there. it was really beautiful and peaceful. great place for writing, as many other writers have noticed as well.

but the best news is, my kitchen ceiling is finally all fixed!! yay!!!! on friday, the painter came and finished the painting. it is so great to no longer look up into these big gaping holes above us blowing in cold drafts!!

Bat catching, burping and other important matters

i had the most horrible experience today of catching a bat by hitting it with a broom. fortunately, Phil cleaned up the "mess", but ugh! i get all freaked out still thinking about it! we tried to get the bat to go out through the open windows in the attic, but of course, it just wouldn't go. poor Skye and Claire locked themselves in the bathroom while their crazy parents made a racket in the attic with the broomsticks and all the screaming! but i'm so glad it is out of the house. what with all the holes all over our ceiling that still need fixing, who knows where the bat would end up if we let it stay!!

on a more lighter side, burping. yes, families with girls have to deal with this too. i made the mistake of burping really loud the other day after a meal and the girls thought it was hilarious. well, now, they think they can burp as loud as they want whenever they want! and yes, they think they are SO funny!

my neighbour told me they could hear us through their monitor. i'm afraid my first reaction was panic. oh my gosh, what did they overhear? me screaming my head off and cursing at Phil? me saying something completely inappropriate to my children? "we heard you say, Skye, if you don't get dressed, you can't go with us." phew! nothing terrible, right? this should teach me to turn off our monitor when not in use.

well, tonight, i'm sure all my neighbours heard us screaming at the bat, regardless of monitors. my girls were certainly excited about it and talked about it constantly as they got ready for bed! Claire kept asking, "what you doing up in attic?"

Repairs

the industrial size fans and dehumidifiers in the kitchen are really loud. it's hard to think, let alone talk, in the house. six men came tramping through the house yesterday, ripping up carpet, cutting big holes in the kitchen ceiling, spraying disinfectant, and bringing in big fans and dehumidifiers that will dry out the house. i was thankful they arrived--i couldn't mop up any more water--but they are rather impressive and LOUD. for some kids, this would be great, but my children don't like anything that makes big noise, so this has been hard for them to adjust to. but, tomorrow brings the plumber and i hope we will have our bathtub back. it hasn't been fun carrying buckets of water back and forth between the tub and the sink so that we can wash up. i will be thankful to have a shower again. :)

with so much noise in the house, i drove to a friend's house to watch the inauguration. it ended up being much more fun than trying to watch it at my own place. the kids played while the adults watched. Skye came home from school saying even she got to watch the inauguration on TV. :)

Beginning of 2009

i've had such a horrendous start to the new year, i'm going to rant a bit here before moving on to fairer topics. the last 2 weeks have been so full of...emergencies...it's been like boot camp. first of all, Phil leaves for 2 wks to bask in the lovely warmth of Vietnam. and most of the people who should be perhaps concerned for my well-being, showed only concern for Phil's safety. ahem! from the moment he takes off, i've been bombarded with illnesses from both children. first, a run to the ER for the first time ever in my life. fortunately, it was a popped elbow for Claire and they fixed it immediately. phew! next, Skye and i were up most of the night due to an ear infection. another run to urgent care and a day off from school for Skye. then, i breathed a sigh of relief - everyone seemed back to normal. then it was frantic packing for our trip to LA. sound crazy with 2 kids on my own? THAT was a breeze compared to everything else. so i'll talk about the trip and put up photos later. we returned to the oh-so-cold Madison. our kind neighbours had shovelled our sidewalk and driveway, i was so thankful, not realizing how much i'd be relying on them the next day. i was slightly worried when i saw that our bathtub drain was frozen. i had dripped the tap in the tub to PREVENT the freezing. the taps were frozen too. i probably should have called a plumber right away, but it was late and i had a girl throwing up all over the house on my hands. i fell asleep exhausted, hoping the worst was over. i woke up the next morning to the screams of Claire downstairs and what sounded like a pressure cooker going off. i ran downstairs to see water shooting out of a hole in the kitchen ceiling, all over the kitchen. i immediately grabbed a bucket and put in under the hole, only to have the bucket fill up in a matter of seconds. i ran down to the basement--water was up to my ankles. i had no idea what to turn to turn off the water supply. i ran, drenched in my PJs, to my neighbour's house. fortunately, he was walking out the door for work. he ran over and after several minutes of figuring out which handle to turn, he shut off everything in the house. thanks to Skype, i called Phil who was by now in Singapore and he managed to talk to our handyman and get a plumber out to the house. my phone was under the blast of the water and was completely useless. my kind neighbour took Skye and Claire in for the morning (her own children were home due to snow day) and i set about mopping up the water. once the plumber came, he located the source of the explosion and returned the heat and water supply to the house. we can't bathe for the next several days until the home insurance people come and inspect the damages, but at least we have heat and running water again.

i was so so exhausted i couldn't even cry. but, on the brighter side, i'm glad it happened after we got home rather than when we were away. and i'm glad Phil is coming home tomorrow. i'm saving the basement for him to clean up! we are very fortunate all the water drained out. i was really quite surprised. i was thinking i needed a sump pump or something, but no. it's just damp and cold downstairs. of course, the cold outside doesn't help.

it has snowed some more, so i need to shovel outside. what, with all the mopping and the shovelling, i'm really getting sick of this cold. instead of doing either, i'm blogging instead. i'll return to better topics another day.

Construction & recuperation

the past week has been full. we returned to our dear home in madison late in the evening, so we went right to bed, only to be woken up early in the morning by this!




yes, they're bulldozing and tearing up our street to replace sewer pipes. the construction began back in july, but they were working on a different block. now, they're on ours. i'm glad to say we missed some of it while we were away, but i realize the work has only just begun. it is fun though to watch the diggers, but we do have to leave the house to escape the noise. the workers are very kind, even giving us a huge boulder for our garden that they dug up while digging the street!!

and then Phil went and had all four of his wisdom teeth pulled. his brother Mike came up to take Phil to and from the surgery - i was really grateful for that. when Mike brought Phil back, he and i had to walk Phil from the main street to our house since we can't park in our driveway anymore (due to construction). one of the workers turned off his digger and offered to help us carry Phil in, but by then, we were almost home.

and it has been raining every day.

i'm afraid i've become this witch, storming around our house. i've felt like i have 3 babies to take care of and only today have i felt semi-normal. tempers have been flaring. there's been an unusual amount of crying and whining. today, though, was a good day and we can all laugh about the past few days. my kids drive me insane.

i was reading an article about this couple that have created this new diaper bag. they are parents of one child and the mother says: "when you're a mom, you're overwhelmed. but when you have things in order, when you can open your bag and see everything you need without desperately rooting around, you can think, i'm not a bad mom, because i am organized."

i think we all learn to cope with our insanity in different ways! i'm guessing this mum might be a freak about organization?