Monday, November 22, 2010

Brrrr!


It's a winter wonderland in Seattle.  Snow has been falling all day and its butt-cold.  Presently 27 degrees here at our house.  I'm not a fan of the cold and this house doesn't do real cold well.  I'm pretty sure it's not at all insulated, from what we saw when we did our kitchen remodel a couple years ago, which was just a wall you could peek through behind the old drywall.  We have radiant heat as well, which is a lovely heat when its 45 degrees out but a weak, weenie, pathetic heat when it's 25.  I've been a terror about making sure we are hermetically sealed, every exterior door has a towel jammed in the thresh hold, curtains are all closed as soon as the sun isn't shining into the window.  We are burning logs, using space heaters, and bundling up under blankets on the couch. 

The great news is that I'm picking Liv up at the airport tomorrow for Thanksgiving break and she was just talking about how much she missed the seasons...ta da, have some winter.  It's not supposed to get much warmer than the mid twenties tomorrow with "bitter wind chills" so all of this will be one giant sheet of that famous Seattle ice.  Viva La Nina!   I'm not sure how I'll actually get to the airport, but I'm gonna do my best cuz I can't wait to see my girl.  Her room turned out so cute and cozy. 
Thanksgiving is at our house again this year and I still haven't got my turkey, I've been busy!  Mom and Steve are coming over and I can't wait to have all my kids together for dinner again.  I also can't wait for a heaping helping of my amazingly delicious stuffing, if I don't say so myself. 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Wine Cellar?

Spent the day painting the downstairs basement bedroom.  I'll post before and after pictures when it's done.  Liv will be down there for at least three months and then...it's mine.  I've had an extra bedroom at my disposal before.  Way back when Samantha was a baby and we lived in a three bedroom house.  I used it as my sewing and ironing room, back in the day when I made sofa pillows covered with geese-adorned and gingham fabric and always made all of Sam's dresses.  Now, I'll use it as an extra room for when Darcy or Olivia comes home and a place to sleep when Mike's snoring drives me out...which is getting more frequent as he gets older and I get grouchier.  A place to read in peace, I'll put my sewing machine down there to taunt me into making more bunting and maybe some geese-free pillows.  I'm going to get to that slipcover for that ottoman soon, probably not.  I'm imagining myself sneaking down there to hide from the noise when another migraine lurks.  It's gonna be sahweet. 

But, I'm thinking it will be a short lived slice of heaven as my always sweet Jack is on the verge of being a typical, sulking, sighing, eye-rolling, annoying teenager and won't want to live upstairs with Grace for much longer.  Sad.  I can't even think about it.  He's entertaining himself by making Grace scream, even as I write.  Maybe I'll turn that extra room into a wine cellar?

Friday, November 12, 2010

Busy, busy, busy...

I haven't added a post for a long time, not because nothing is happening but for the opposite reason.  We got up on that roof at our first sunny opportunity and got 'er done.  Almost.  The outside is patched and a new roof is protecting us from the northwest elements.  We haven't got to the new sheetrocking on the inside yet as that's going to be a little more invasive.  It will involve covering everything up so that the insidious drywall dust doesn't permeate our living space.  We were so proud of ourselves that we promptly took off for Cannon Beach for the weekend.

It was mostly lovely, only one afternoon was too stormy to enjoy the beach.  The kids and Elke love the beach more than anything in the world and I love to watch them have that much fun without the help of any technological devices.  Just sand, shells, and surf.  It's amazing how long that can be entertaining.


Unmitigated Joy
Mike likes the beach too, as long as he can bring his coffee and Blackberry.  He can't do without the technology as long as the kids can...
Argh, nice pirate boots
Other big news this week.  Olivia is calling it quits.  No more ASU after this semester.  She isn't going back.  She's been so miserable and so unhappy.  It's just a little more than a northwest girl can take to be out in that hot, dusty dirt.  She did her best and I'm just happy to have her back.  She and Taylor are applying to Western for the spring quarter and will be attending Shoreline C.C. for the winter quarter.  The downstairs basement room that Sam just vacated will be quickly taken over by Liv and that's what I'm doing this weekend.  Cleaning and painting and preparing.  Liv was worried that we would be put out my having her move back in.  Silly girl.  She's only 18, she's still a baby and I am thrilled to be able to cook for someone who I know appreciates it.  If she were 30 it would be a different story.

Halloween was a success.  Thank Gawd the candy is finally gone.  I picked a bad time to start the Atkins Diet again, it took all my strength.

Monday, November 1, 2010

A milestone and a couple crappy things...

My oldest has flown the nest...again.  We moved Samantha out on Sunday and we only broke one window in the process.  Mike was trying to strap Sam's boxspring onto the top of the Yukon and the bungee snapped and hit the rear window like a gunshot.  Shattered.  Oh well, it's already back to good and Sam is out.  I'm excited for her, she is doing a great job decorating on a dime.  I'm going to start working on turning that basement into a cute Liv's/guest/video game/t.v. room when I have an extra second.  Which I won't anytime soon on account of the third paragraph.

We also scrubbed the front steps so that the little trick or treaters wouldn't slide off our previously treacherously slippery stairs.  We had about four groups of kids, mostly under 6.  Which also means I'm about to gain another 5 pounds finishing off the Halloween candy, why am I not smart enough to buy the gross stuff, like black licorice.  Ack.  Hey, maybe I should keep a pictorial blog of my growing ass...you wish.

Lastly, I woke up this morning to the depressing sound of water dripping.  Extra depressing as it was dripping inside my house.  The roof over my bedroom is done doing what it's supposed to do and we are now going to be doing a major tear down of most of the drywall in my room.  We will also be re-roofing as soon as it stops raining.  We live in Seattle so that may be a while.  Oh, and we don't really know how to re-roof, so yeah.  It's grandpa Steve to the rescue, again.  We are trying to figure out if homeowner's insurance will cover this, but I'm not an optimistic person.  *heavy sigh*  I would now like to officially request to the universe that I win the lotto cuz I need it more than ANYONE else in the world.  Seriously.  Sometimes life is a real bitchosaurus rex.