Project

The most recent project that I’ve been working on is to clean out the basement. We had 8 cats downstairs and they were just destroying things. So we decided to move them to the garage, and move the stuff from the garage downstairs (after cleaning the basement). So I’ve been getting rid of stuff and sweeping up fuzz, and vacuuming the fuzz that floated away from the broom then going over and mopping TWICE just to make sure I got everything. I did the bedrooms and the storage room, but I still have the hallway, laundry room and family room to do.

So now that the cats are out of the basement, Kyle wanted to move all of our food storage to the storage room. I’m so sad to be moving it down there. I only moved it from the basement (a couple of years ago) so that we could finish the basement. But we have been working on paying off debt, and this spring we were working on the backyard. And we have decided that a fence will be the next home improvement project that we are saving up for. So with all that and whatever medical bills are coming our way we aren’t going to be able to finish any more of the basement for awhile. And the food storage all over the house has really been adding to the chaos we’ve been feeling (the house is just covered in clutter, clutter everywhere). So to reduce the chaos, and to be able to see the clutter better (to make it easier to get rid of) I have been working on taking our food storage from all corners of the house to the storage room.

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This isn’t even all of our food storage, I haven’t cleared out from under my bed yet, and there is more in the garage. And this picture doesn’t show everything that is in the storage room (it’s just the best picture I could get). We really need some racks for those cans that are on the floor in the middle of the room (someday when the basement is finished and we have money…..). The room is pretty full as it is, and we don’t have much water storage, so I’m kind of wondering where that’s going to go as we get more….. It’s nice to see the food storage all in one spot, but it’s depressing to think I need to move it at least two more times (once to move it out to finish the room, then we’ll need to move it back in). It’s been a big project.

Pictures

Towards the end of my pregnancies Kyle and I go to have pictures taken of us with my big belly. So this time we went when I was 38 weeks along. I love this shirt. My mom wore it when she was pregnant with me. The copyright on the shirt says 1982 (the year that I was born). And I’ve worn it for all of my pregnancy pictures except for Tyra’s (I wore a different shirt) and Jeremy (he came so early we didn’t get a chance to go in for pictures).

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Karen has a dress that she had pictures of Laurel and Liesl done in, when they were about 1 year old. And she thought it would nice to have pictures of all her granddaughters in it too. Well Dinah’s a bit older than 1, she’s almost 2 but we thought since we were going in we’d better get the pictures done before she outgrows the dress.

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And since we were in having pictures done anyway, we decided to have family pictures taken. I really like this one the best:

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Funny story about those almost matching pink gingham dresses. My mom actually bought the one Dinah is wearing when Tyra was that size. And a couple of years later Kyle was shopping for an Easter dress for Tyra and picked out the one that Tyra is wearing. Then later he saw a picture of Tyra wearing the one Dinah is wearing and totally thought that Tyra had been wearing the same dress a couple of years later. I had to tell him they were two different dresses. 😉 But it’s cool how similar they are and that my two girls could wear them at the same time. 😀

Scary!

Ok I have decided that I want a railing around our front porch with a child proof gate! While I was downstairs rebooting the laundry this morning, Dinah decided to use the step stool to unlock the storm door and go out front all by herself. After starting another load of laundry I came upstairs and made up a bottle to feed Chloe and then went to the bedroom, all the kids were there….except Dinah. I asked the others where Dinah was, and they said they didn’t know, and while I was looking around the house for her, Tyra said “she’s outside” WHAT???? Yup there was the step stool right next to the door, and the door was unlocked, so I ran outside and called her name. She was three houses down and across the street! Yup we definitely need a railing around the porch with a child proof gate. (Maybe we could just put a lock on the gate and keep solicitors out too. 😉 )

The fun begins!

Well Kyle went back to work today, so life is changing yet again, and now I need to get back into my routines and get life back to ‘normal’. But it’s going to be a new kind of ‘normal’ now that Chloe has joined the family. So now I have 5 kids to take care of in addition to the house and yard and pets, while Kyle is off working the two jobs. So……..we’ll see how things go. 😉

Chloe’s 2 week check-up

Chloe had her 2 week well child check up today. She’s not quite back up to her birth weight yet, but after the appointment we stopped by the hospital to find out what her discharge weight was and she has actually gained some weight back so that’s good. They want us to come back later this week for a weight check, but other than that she is looking good and healthy, which makes me happy.