More About the First Day

When I was a kid I used to shave my legs behind my mom’s back. I don’t even remember how old I was. She said I was too young and wouldn’t let me. So, I took matters into my own hands, filled a drinking glass with water, and commenced to DRY shave my legs. I learned how to shave my legs the hard way. You’d thought I would have given up after having to go to school with pieces of toilet paper stuck to the cuts. But I didn’t.

So, months ago when I found out that Aspen had shaved her legs without telling me I decided that, regardless of their age, I would rather the girls have some instruction on how to do it rather than sneak around behind my back and cut themselves all the time. I told her not to do it again until I could sit down and show her how. Well, they insisted that this needed to happen before they started school on Wednesday.

So, Tuesday night after their showers we all sat on the edge of the tub with it slightly filled with water and I showed them how to shave using conditioner. It went wonderfully. They were happy and I was glad to be a part of it.

Now, I realize that once the my girls share their little secret with their 5th and 3rd grade friends I may have some parents that won’t really care for me. But… it was worth it.

Ainsley on the first day sitting with her 3rd grade class outside getting ready to go in.Aspen doing the same with her 5th grade class only not nearly as pleased that I was snapping a photo. I could embarrass her or something.

Lessons Learned From The First Day of School

Lesson #1:

Under NO circumstances should you let your 5 year old stay up till 9:30 PM the night before the first day of school. Even if it is for a Father’s Blessing and the daddy is getting home late from work. If you do, THIS might happen:

He was the only Kindergartener freaking out. Full on wall-eyed fit. The other parents probably thought I was a terrible mother for actually snapping photos of this.

 

Lesson #2:

When making special First Day of School cookies for the kids. Do not triple the batch. It will not fit in the biggest bowl you own and will really screw up your diet.

Brought to you by the numbers 7 (Asher’s new bedtime) and 50 (the lbs I gained yesterday).

Current Status

I realized this morning that I’ve posted on Facebook about our current living situation but have yet to blog about it.

(Note: most of these photos are blurry… I apologize in advance. They were taken with Geoff’s iPhone which does not take good pictures in low light.)

We finally, after months of agony, closed on our house in Durant. That is a part of my life I wish never to repeat. However, the good news is that we closed on a new house in New City on the 3rd of August…. What a glorious day!!

 

Proof. The keys and garage door opener. Until the moment we signed the papers we did not get our hopes up. Months of disappointment prepped us for yet another house falling through. But, this time it was for real!

Welcome to Andover! That’s right, Geoff, Steph, Aspen, Ainsley, Asher, Andyn, and AJ live on Andover now!! Well, technically we still live in a small 2 bedroom apartment but there is light at the end of the tunnel. It seems fitting that we should live on a street that starts with the letter A. Don’t you think?

 

The kids did carpet angels in our new house as part of the celebration! (Ainsley is cut out because she had a skirt on.) I LOVE Asher’s face in this picture. He is completely and utterly happy. Aspen on the other hand looks dead.

After moving MANY times in our married life and experiencing all the stress that comes with that, we decided this time that we would pay rent for another month and use that time to clean, paint, and pack. Yes. I said pack. Because I had yet to pack a single box…. we didn’t really think it was going to happen, remember?

First on the list was to CLEAN the carpets. Check. We ripped them out. They were heavy smokers and had animals so the carpet was unsalvageable. We decided to just replace it. The carpet guy is coming tomorrow to put carpet in the bedrooms. And then we will be laying laminate in the living room ourselves.

Next on the list was to REPAIR the ceiling beams in the living room. Check. We ripped them out. This is what they looked like (once again, sorry for the quality of the photo). We decided that it was actually going to be more difficult to repair them (they were bowed in several places) than to actually remove them so we removed them.

This is what the ceiling looked like after pulling them out.

This is what it looks like now.

Which brings me to our next project. The fireplace.

This is what it looked like before. Notice the beams at the top of the brick wall? We knew that if we pulled the beams down then we would have 2 big gapping holes in the fireplace. So… we ripped out the brick. Nice, huh? Truthfully, I was SOOO happy to do it!!! I thought this wall was hideous.

This is what it looked like when we were done pulling out all the brick.

As a side note: the POA (Property Owners Association) President just happens to live RIGHT behind us. He poked his head over his fence Wilson style to make sure we understood what we could and couldn’t do according to the POA covenants. He was really nice about it, though.

Back to the fireplace:

This is what it looks like now. Definitely a work in progress. But I am certain that it will look 5000 times better than what was there!

Do you see that door to the right of the fireplace? That goes to the wet bar that connects to the master bedroom. We ripped it out. (:

Technically, I ripped it out.

This guy, Garon, dry walled it for me! I like this guy… a lot. Goodbye, wet bar!! Hello 2nd closet for the master bedroom!

I like this guy, too. Asher has been super helpful!

Oh and this girl…. she is my sister and she loves me.

I can’t forget her husband. His job is harder. He loves me, too. 

But the person who takes the cake is her…. Amber Dahle. This lady drove from St. Louis (7 hours one way) TWICE in one week to be with me in my hour of need. I love her. And I’m betting she loves me, too.

We have been blessed with help from several people. Thank you all. 

Back To School

I spent $60 on school supplies today. SIXTY DOLLARS!!! What a racket.

Aspen is in 5th grade. Ainsley is in 3rd grade. And Asher, my little boy, will be starting kindergarten. Heaven help me.

An Obvious Resemblence