Birthdays

I've completely forgotten to write about the 2 recent birthdays at our house: Amberlee (turns 1) and Ethan (turns 7).

Amberlee's birthday was postponed almost 2 weeks due to our swine flu outbreak. Ethan's was postponed almost a week due to... well... I cant remember. Probably just us trying to recover from Amberlee's birthday a week earlier.

If we keep up these trends, we'll be celebrating birthdays the following year.

Amberlee had her own cake, and she was able to dive into it on her own as well. Fun! We thought she'd really get into it, but we learned that the frosting on the fingers was a bit more of an annoyance for her than we had anticipated. And, she only ate the frosting... big surprise.

Ethan's birthday went equally well. He designed and prepared his own cake-- an odd combination of snowmen and transformers.

Ironically, we cannot seem to have a birthday party without someone ending up crying. Amberlee cried because Preston stole her present, and Preston cried when he didn't get a gift like Ethan's. Michelle cried when the kids started crying, and I cried when the batteries in the camcorder went dead.

More photos to the right...

Painting Crazy

Of the many, many things our house needs, paint is at or near the top of the list. As you may have read in prior articles in this blog, the paint selection by the home's prior owners was something to behold-- a disgusting shade of pink/brown that can only be described as either "Caucasian" or "the color of Silly Puddy we used to get in the plastic egg". I'm certain there can be no other name for it.

To make matters worse-- far worse-- the people didn't stop at the walls. NO. They had to paint the walls, moldings (including base molding) and the door the same color. Taping off doorknobs, switches, hinges, and window sills was also too much trouble, apparently, as each received their share of the Silly Puddy paint as well.

Looking each wall individually, there was no break in the Silly Puddy-- floor to ceiling.

As bad as it was, we figured painting was going to be an easy fix. Ha! First mistake: never assume things will be easy. We ordered "Butter Cream" from Sherwin Williams-- a nice, cheery shade of yellow. And we got a cream color for the door and moldings.

The paint didn't cover it up the first coat, so we proceeded with the second coat-- when we ran out. Back to Sherwin Williams we go.

Another batch is mixed up, brought home, and Michelle goes to town on the rest of the room. But as things dry, she notices that the new paint does not match the older paint. Instead of "Butter Cream", we get "Butter Cream with a touch of silver". Not quite the same, and definitely noticeable.

In the mean time, our entire bedroom set is piled in the middle of the room. If I roll over, I mash my face into my dresser. Next to the dresser is our electric fireplace. Next to that are the two nightstands. Our bed is sitting on the floor amongst the furniture.

We have only gotten 2 kids in the paint so far, and one spill on the carpet. Not bad for this family.

And so, we thank Gus (the prior owner's name) for his wonderful choice in paint colors, his care for the environment by not buying masking tape, and for ensuring that we replace every plug, plug cover, switch, knob, and hinge in this house.

Christmas Preparations

I'm not sure we'll ever have a "normal" Christmas. Somehow, I envy the Griswolds Christmas. Seriously. Despite their troubles, at least they had their decorations out.

As for us, we're still searching. We managed to find the tree, only to find one band of lights doesn't work. So we have this black belt about 2/3 the way up that doesn't light up, sparkle, etc. We also found most of the tree ornaments. Still looking for those stupid stockings.

We've given up on the nativity, some of the wreaths, lights, and garland. I guess when the choice needs to be made, stockings always trump.

I hold out no hope that we'll find the rest of our Christmas stuff before the holiday. I have a general idea where things are at-- the garage. Other than that, its a crap-shoot. I'm guessing we have about 75 boxes, and due to the movers apparent intelligence (or lack thereof), most are not labeled correctly.

So, another Christmas will come and go with most of our Christmas stuff packed away somewhere. I'm sure we'll eventually find them.

I'm half tempted to wrap up all these boxes and put names on them. At least they'll be opened up finally and we can all peek inside. Since they've been boxed up for over a year, it will probably feel like Christmas seeing our things again!