Cousins and Updates

We've been spending lots of time working on the house. So far, we've painted the laundry room, and painted and replaced all the little fixtures in one of the bathrooms. It still needs a new shower surround and sink, but we have to save up for that. We have the ugly faux marble fireplace surround torn off, but nothing up to replace it yet. We've purchased garage storage cupboards and a kitchen table and lots of organization bins. We've unpacked about 3/4th of our stuff, and driven to the middle of nowhere Northwest edition to find a recycling center for a carload of packing paper and boxes. I've planted two raspberry bushes, some strawberries, and a few flowers so far.

I have no pictures of any of this. I'll try to take some soon. In the meantime, I took a break from housework on Friday to watch Tommy and Sam all day while Lesa and Colin worked with their movers to get into their new house.  I had fun with the three boys, but I was sure tired by the end of the day. Then, the cousins saw each other again on Saturday when we all go together for a Dim Sum lunch and pie (his request over cake) for Mike's birthday. Here are some pictures of the cousins and the birthday boy:

I didn't have any birthday candles :)

Cousin hugs

Aspen let both boys walk her.

All the boys enjoyed playing in the dirt. I may not get that flowerbed back.

We spent some time at the park. Sam's favorite was the swings and Jack liked the merry-go-round.

Moving Day(s)

Just a quick update as I have too much to do...we finally made it to the house. The truck unloaded all our stuff on Monday. I spent the entire day standing at the curb with a clipboard checking off items as they came off the truck (everything had numbered stickers) while Jack stayed with Colin and Mike worked. Yesterday, the movers unpacked the house. Unpacking for them means taking things out of boxes and piling them on the nearest surface, so the entire house looks like this:

It will be awhile before we can make sense of it all. Many things even ended up in the wrong rooms because the boxes weren't labeled well, so well have to do lots of moving things around. They didn't unpack the garage at all, so we still have about 50 boxes in the garage to go through as well. And, we definitely will need to get rid of some things as we brought too much with us to this new house. Plus, we have some things that worked well in the other house that we can already tell will need to be changed out for something else here. I'm predicting a few months before we are really settled in, but at least we are in. 

I've already started making a few small changes. The pantry walls were so grubby that I quickly gave that small room a white paint job yesterday before starting to put things away. I've also changed out 39 kitchen knobs so far (with more to go in other rooms!). The one on the left is the before and the one on the right is after: 

This morning, we are getting the last of the things from the apartment, and then we will head up to another day of unpacking. Mike had to go in for a meeting this morning, but then he'll be home to help the rest of the day. 

"I got Mater shoes" and other updates

Just over a week ago, we flew to CO to move out and get things ready for the house to sell. It was a pain in the butt, with lots of last minute hassles and drama, but the house did close this past Wednesday, so it's officially sold.  The highlight of the trip was getting to see friends and my old class while we were there. Jack and I even rode Indiana Jones one more time before moving away…We originally only planned for Jack to ride, but then Jack decided mommy needed a turn with him handling the lead rope. 

On the trip, Jack told about a thousand people about his new shoes. Every person he rode an elevator or escalator with, stood in a line near, passed on the street, sat near on the train or airplane, or in any other way came in contact with hear about his new "Mater shoes." They are Cars shoes, and they actually have Lightning McQueen, not Mater, on them, but he loves them. He also liked riding on the trains and airplanes, and was especially excited when the Captain let me come checkout the cockpit before our flight. 

He did pretty good overall, although he didn't like seeing his toys packed up, but by the end he was pretty fed up with things. He's been away from the Colorado house long enough that the Seattle apartment feels more like home, so though he liked seeing his room and toys again, it was foreign to him and he had trouble sleeping. He did love being back with a dirt and yard! 

Right before we headed to Colorado, Jack and I went on a harbor tour here in Seattle. Jack loved eating  a picnic lunch while riding a boat. I had to hang on because he kept climbing right up to the rail! 

After we came back from Colorado, there were a couple of warmer, sunnier days so we spent some time at the park one day, and another we went to the zoo with Colin and the boys. Jack and Sam played lots of race and chase and picked up sticks. They didn't pay much attention to the animals at all, but it was a good place to get them some exercise anyway.

Over the weekend, it was cold and rainy. We went to Fall City to look at a chandelier, which we didn't end up buying, but we did stop at Snoqualmie Falls. It was really windy and cold, so we only looked for a second, but it was fun. Then Sunday, we went up to Snohomish and checked out some of the antique shops, which was fun too. 

We should be closing on our new house on Friday and starting to move in over the weekend! I hope!  I'm really ready. I have way too much time on my hands, so I've been thinking about and planning home stuff  A LOT! I'm ready to get started. I'm looking forward to visitors this spring/summer too…Come by and Jack will show you his mater shoes!