a conversation with Logan

Logan: Can I have another sandwich?

Me: No. You eat too much bread. Don't you get constipated?

Logan: No.

Pauses...

Logan: What's constipation?

Me: explaining what constipation is

Logan: oh. Is that where your poop scrapes your bum when it comes out? And it hurts?

Me: Yes.

Logan: Oh that happens to me all the time. I don't mind it. So can I have another sandwich?

Me: No! Have a piece of fruit!

Baby was up all night coughing and gagging and puking.

Finally at 9am he has fallen asleep.

We are all sick.

And yesterday, Carter was lethargic and had diarrhea at least 5 different times. I wish I knew what he ate to cause it. He has been walking like a cowboy who was on a horse too long because the diarrhea burned his bum so bad. Poor guy.

This morning Trevor took Logan to town to work on the house. I get to stay home and sleep. Maybe.

Good News

Trevor fixed my washer. I repeat, TREVOR FIXED MY WASHER!!!

I have been doing laundry like a crazy person. Loads are no longer taking all day and the washer is no longer stopping mid cycle!!!

Also, Will just slept through the night.

Things are looking up people!

help

Some of you know that for the past two months I've been in a losing battle with my washing machine. It really started when our well died. I think that sediment clogged filters or something, but I have no idea. I don't know how to fix my washer, and it has gotten worse and worse. It's so bad now, that I'm lucky if I get one load of laundry done every day. That's if I babysit the washer and start it each time it stops mid cycle. There are many days that I'm not able to get any laundry done since we are working at the house, and so I have just gotten more and more behind each day.

Please, help me. Do you know how to fix a washer? What should I do? I am feeling hopeless and I just want to beat it up. I've thought about going to the laundromat, but that would just be a fix for now and a big waste of money that we don't have. UGH.

HELP!

Sometimes You REALLY Feel Like Giving Up

Today, all the kids were out of school. After Trevor went to work, we got ready and went to work at the house in town. Today was painting day.

Yesterday, in preparation,  I drove to Twin Falls and purchased paper, tape, trim paint, door paint, and anything else we may need.

When we got to the house, I grabbed the 5 gallon bucket of donated house paint (long story. Thanks B & J!) and started Logan with the task of stirring while I taped and papered windows. Four windows taped later, I went to check on Logan. Looking in the bucket, something was wrong. The paint was not the right color. Weird. Why was the paint blue instead of brown? I took the stir stick and stirred making sure to SCRAPE the bottom of the bucket as I stirred over and over hoping to change the color back to brown.

What was going on here?

I made a quick phone call, and was assured it was the right color.
 
Confused, I went back to papering and taping the windows. We finished the windows just after noon and decided to get lunchables at the grocery store for lunch. Just before we left, I threw some paint up on the wall hoping it would dry brown.

Lol!

We got back from lunch and the color had not changed.

This. Was. Weird.

I looked at pictures of a house painted the same color we were supposedly painting ours, and it was not even close to the right color! The house in the picture was a nice toasty brown, and nowhere close to blue.

Agh!

I didn't know what to do, but decided to go forward. Meanwhile, Logan had prepared the paint pot and set everything up. We were ready to roll!

Then the phone rang. It was the paint donor. She remembered that the paint had been tampered with in the form of her sons dumping old cans of leftover paint into the bucket (I believe it was blue, green and red paint). Lol!

NOW IT MADE SENSE!

The only sad part about this revelation was that it meant that today was not a painting day. Also, tomorrow is not a painting day either. In fact, we won't be painting until Spring now. It's a hard pill to swallow. My hopes were really high.

But more important than paint, we need a bathroom and walls, electricity and also plumbing.

*sigh*

It's okay. Trevor thinks I get obsessive about stuff like this. Maybe I do. But all that time I spent killing myself working so hard at the end of this pregnancy, I was working towards this goal I made for myself. My goal was to get the outside of the house finished. And my treat for finishing the stucco was that I got to paint the house. When I was 10 months pregnant and hauling heavy cement (stucco) up and down the ladder, telling myself I could do this when I wanted to quit, it was the picture I had in my mind of getting to paint the house and make it pretty.

Oh well. Tonight I mourn.

Moving on tomorrow.

Sometimes You Feel Like Giving Up

My amazing dad found a paint pot at a garage sale.

Tonight I decided to try to figure out how it works/make sure everything is there...

...so I can paint tomorrow.

This was me:

"HUH?" as my eyes glaze over from having absolutely no clue what I'm looking at.

As we go along this journey of fixing up this house, I'm finding that the things I don't know how to do or don't want to do, Trevor steps in and takes care of. And vice versa.

Then there are the things that neither one of us know how to do, and we are just stubborn enough to figure them out.

My enthusiasm hasn't faded one ounce and in fact, if anything, it has grown.

I can't wait to see this house finished

Even if that doesn't happen for a few years, it's still exciting!

And to say we did it ourselves! How cool is that?!?

By the way, Trevor promised me (after laughing at me for telling him I had decided to paint the house with a paint brush since I couldn't figure out the pot) that he would set it up in the morning and get it ready to go.

Lol!

He's a very handy man.

Charging on

Today, despite being cold, we finished the final window and a little touch up with stucco.

NO

MORE

STUCCO!!!!!

Then the primer went up!!!!

All but one window and a few teenie touch up spots are ready for paint!!!

Real paint!!!

It's a momentous day!!

p.s. the house is really really cold. We need to figure something out asap.

Sleepy

Hello and Goodbye

I didn't get to write about this last week, and it deserves a post.

Our last and most beloved cat Roy passed away last week.

He didn't show up on Friday morning when I called him for breakfast. I called him a few more times, and then went looking for him. As I was calling for him and walking around the house, I heard a faint meow calling back to me. I kept calling and he kept meowing. I found him hiding under the spare Jeep hood. I lifted it up and grabbed him by the nape of the neck, all ready to scold him. That's when I noticed he was injured. I immediately started freaking out and crying and hyperventilating.

Luckily Sami was home that day, because she got everything ready for me while I was a total wreck trying to decide what to do with Roy. We ended up putting him in a box and driving to town to the vet clinic there.

At the vet clinic we tearfully left Roy in their hands and went to the house to get to work. Later we got a call that Roy had a broken leg, and probably a fractured back.

There was nothing they could do.

I asked them if we could wait just a little bit to put him down so that my kids could say goodbye.

We picked Logan and Phoebe up from school at the normal time and explained what had happened. Everyone was in tears. We went to the vet clinic and they left us in a room alone with Roy.

Roy was so sweet and meowed  softly as we pet him and cried and smooched all over him. It was really hard. Then we went back to the waiting room while Trevor stayed with Roy and the doctor. It was about 10 minutes. We could hear Roy meowing the whole time... I guess he was saying goodbye. I loved that cat so much.

Dang. I'm crying again.

So anyway, Trevor came out of the room holding Roy's body in a black garbage bag. So wrong. Why didn't they have a box.

He took me back to the town house to work, and took the kids back home to bury him. I asked Phoebe to put some kitty treats in his grave for me.

When they got back about an hour later, the kids told me that they put Roy's toy mouse in the grave, and a mouse that he had killed earlier that morning. They also put kitty treats and I think a few other things, but I can't remember. They buried him next to Puppy.

Agh, tears again.

We loved Roy. We loved Puppy. I don't think my heart can handle another animal for a while.

The vet said it looked like Roy had been attacked by a dog. The neighbor has recently aquired a huge dog who has been venturing into our yard from across the field a lot. Makes me feel angry for sure.