Pictures of my house in progress.

Kitchen - we haven't figured out what to do about the floor yet (thus no baseboards) - replace just the floor if possible or redo the entire kitchen. The trim on the window needs painted white and the window treatment needs rehung. Normally the table sits perpendicular to the window with the chairs around it for mealtimes, but this was before Thanksgiving and we used it as a buffet table. You can't see it, but the light fixture in the kitchen needs switched out, too. Entryway - now all painted, just need the white trim done and a decision to be made on the stairs. The entry light needs switched out, too. But it is functional now! Yahhh!

Our lovely living room from the stairs. Again we need to finish trim in white and hang the blinds on the windows.

Dining table set for Thanksgiving. Thanks, Mom for the beautiful tablecloth!!! I LOVE it!

We have so many projects to finish that I feel very overwhelmed, but the baseboards being done goes a long, long way! Thanks, Dad, for helping with that!

Family

We had a full house this weekend, and it was lovely to have everyone here. This picture just happened - I looked over and all I had to do was ask Andrew to move over a little and a couple kids sit on laps. This was Thanksgiving morning - Andrew and Greg had just gotten home from playing football, and it was before my meltdown about the toy mess in the family room that happened while I was too busy cooking in the kitchen to keep it from happening (it was not my finest moment!) Mostly I just spent time with people this weekend and didn't take too many pictures.

Guess who is calling?

Seth handing me the play phone: It's for you, Mom! It's the Queen of England.
(Can you tell we have been watching too much PBS?)

I have floorboards!!!!

Here is Pookie maching the color scheme in my living room: Andrew and Papa Buzz have been working hard. The main floor has new baseboards - just in time for Thanksgiving! THANK YOU!!!

Music Night

Seth learns how to play some guitar with Papa Buzz: He is learning about frets and how they change the pitch:

Gavin joins in on the fun...till his pick falls into the guitar! :o)!

Gavin was also playing with the "potato" rock - a rock I have had since I was about 6 or 7 living in Wyoming. We had been talking to him about not throwing the rock. Instead he took it over to share with Pookie and accidentally dropped it. It hit her foot, rolled across the floor, under the desk, and down the vent that has no cover on it yet, and rattled under the floor! All the adults in the room started laughing - I tried really hard not to, but couldn't help it. When Gavin saw us laughing he started crying. Then Andrew comes running in because of hearing the rock in the ductwork. I insist that I need it back and move the desk, reach in, and pull out a matchbox car! I could feel the edge of the rock, so Seth with his smaller arms reached in and rescued it! He wins the 'hero of the day' award!

Guess who came to visit!

I looked him up on davesgarden.com in their bug files. This is what I found:
I had one of these in the apartment I was living in located in Paxtonville, PA. I treated it as a pet and named it Herman. Herman was quite large, 5-6 inches long and over 2 inches wide from leg tip to leg tip. One big plus was that Herman was the only bug in that apartment, he ate everything else. I used to bring insects inside so he would have something to eat. Herman was never very popular with the ladies. A bunch of us were watching videos one night and Herman ran across one of the girl's bare leg in the dark. Can you say pandemonium? I was very busy trying to get the lights turned on and yelling at everybody not to step on him. Herman managed to escape unharmed. For the rest of the night nobody sat on the floor and all the girls kept their legs curled up on the chairs. And they insisted that the lights stay on.When I moved I caught Herman and took him to a friends house who was having trouble with earwigs. A few months later his house was bug free. They make a great natural pest control in the home if you can stand to have them around. Give it a try. I double dog dare you.

The boys and I took a good look at him, and took his picture... and left him alone. (Mostly because I am too scared of him and he disappeared. But Pookies says she saw him around today.) Maybe we have a new pet we need to name! Any suggestions?

Saturday

We went to friend Luke's birthday party. Took a few pics of the boys. (note: Seth doesn't have a ballhat of his own, so he has confiscated Daddy's. I am amazed that he can wear it with his big ol noggin!)

We also painted our entryway and did blue trim work on Saturday night after the boys went to bed. We are trying to finish painting before all the baseboards go in on Tues/Wed. Pictures of our home will be coming soon...