Insulation Done!

Or just about done. Ben and his Dad worked for a few hours this afternoon and got as far as they could, until they ran out of insulation. But it is 95% of the way complete. And hopefully the contractor will drop off more insulation tomorrow so that Ben can finish it tomorrow evening. Ben and Darrell also got the big leather couch and chair from the living room into the basement. We are using that furniture down there and the new stuff for the living room isn't here yet, but we needed to get the furniture moved before the drywall went up so that if anything got scratched it wouldn't matter. So we have a bean bag chair and pillow chair as the only seats in the living room for a few weeks, but I'm sure we'll survive.

Big thanks to Darrell for helping, and Rita for hanging out with the kids and I - we had a really good time. Next step - hopefully drywall will be started by the end of the week.

Beauty and the Beast

Mara auditioned for the high school musical Beauty and the Beast on Tuesday, but had to wait until this morning for the cast list to be posted. She was one of a handful of students below high school age asked to audition, and by far the biggest part for the younger kids was Chip, the teapot's son. She really wanted the part, but so did about 10 other students auditioning.

For the audition she had to sing two songs - Be Our Guest from the show and one other prepared piece. She chose a Camp Rock song that she had sung for her talent show at school last spring. And she had to act out a scene. She thought it went well, but was nervous about all of the competition. She has been impatient to see the cast list all week, and even got up at 6:15 this morning because she was too excited to sleep any longer. That got us to school early, which didn't matter in the end since the drama teacher wasn't here yet.

But she was able to see the cast list right before school, and thrilled to learn she got the part of Chip. She was also good at playing it low-key, so that others looking at the list who did not get the part would hopefully not feel any worse. (We had talked about both that and what if she didn't get the part at home.)

But we are all so happy - she loves to be a part of these productions and is pretty good at it too. And with Ben doing the orchestra this musical will be a part of our family for the next two months.

And show are Friday and Saturday evenings - April 9 and 10 - at Vets Memorial in Marysville.

Construction Update

Not much has been happening in the last week - I think that's a necessary evil as things progress and you have to wait for inspections, etc.

The electrician finished the wiring on Monday, and the electrical was inspected on Wednesday. Everything passed, so the next step is insulation. Ben is doing it to save us some money, so the contractor stopped by today to drop off some tools and go over some things. Ben has until Wednesday to get the insulation done, since the drywall will be dropped off on Wednesday. We're hoping that means the drywall will start soon after that. But they're finishing up another job, so everything is dependent on that. Ben will be doing the priming and painting as well, again to help save some money.

We also talked to the contractor about replacing our front door, which is peeling again despite being stripped and repainted a few years ago. We had talked to him about it a week ago and he gave us a book to look at options. We picked out what we hoped are very economical choices without looking cheap, because we (especially me) would really like to have this done now while they're here working anyway. So we hope to have an estimate on that next week.

Keller Top Picks

Here's what we've been reading, watching, and listening to lately.

WATCHING:
Ben and I still really like the sitcom Modern Family - it make us laugh out loud, and so few things on TV make us laugh anymore.

The kids love Phineas and Ferb, and I like watching it too. Very clever writing for a kids' cartoon.

We watched the movie The Hangover recently, and enjoyed that as well. I assumed Ben would really like it and I would be thinking, "How many drinks will make this movie funny?" But it was really very funny. We got it from Netflix and actually watched it twice.

And we caught most of the last week of Conan O'Brien last week (on the DVR for me) - we'll miss him.

READING
I love "Molokai," by Alan Brenert. It had a great story and lots of history about the Hawaiian leper colonies which I had no idea about.

Sam's been enjoying the Stink series - the most recent is "Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express," by Megan McDonald. It is silly and entertaining - he has to be entertained to keep interested in a book.

Maria likes "Mysteries Unraveled: Haunted USA," by Charles Wetzel, which was recommended by a friend at school.

Ben's been reading a lot about running races on the internet and setting up his racing schedule for spring and fall.

LISTENING:
Sam loves the 28 collection of Phineas and Ferb songs. We liked it at first too, but it grows old fast.

Maria likes Phineas and Ferb too, but has been listening to Beauty and the Beast music to get ready for her musical audition tomorrow, and she also likes some Beatles songs after playing Beatles Rock Band.

Ben has been listening "Contra" by Vampire Weekend. And the soundtrack from the movie "Nine."

I listen to whatever the person I happen to be with is listening to - it's easier that way!

Sam's Latest Project: Big Rig

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Funny

In case anyone is not on Twitter and missed my funny story today - I told Sam he could have anything he wanted to drink with his lunch today since he was home sick (as opposed to the usual milk rule). He said "I can have wine?"

Um...no.

Report Cards

Some notes:

Sam has gone from an S to an S+ in math - you have to have a A+ in that subject to get an S+, and they have tests in math, so we are very proud of him for that grade. Also, his language grade was a 95%. Those are the only two subjects they take actual grade for - Reading is based on where they test at grade card time.

Maria doesn't have a lot of comments on hers, but Ben ran into her math teacher the other day who told him that she just loves Maria, and can't believe "she has so many talents packed into such a tiny package." We just never get tired of hearing compliments about our children!

Sick Boy

When Sam came home from school yesterday he was sick - apparently felt bad most of the day at school but didn't tell the teacher, but she noticed in the afternoon and sent him to the nurse. Since he had no fever, he was sent back to class, and ended up getting sick in the trash can right at the end of the day. His teacher sent a note with the above information, and when he got home he was sick again, and had left most of his packed lunch in his bag. He did have some toast last night, and even though he developed a low grade fever last night, he was tired but didn't feel too horrible.

So I called in sick for today and now this morning he seems pretty good - no fever and ate some breakfast. But his cold is a little worse, so it'll probably be good for him to have a day off and rest.

Staying home while the construction is going on is a little weird - we experienced Monday (MLK Day) as well. The contractors are in and out a lot - they have their own key - and you never know when their activities may interfere with yours. Getting cars out of the garage when you need to can be difficult, as there are sometimes up to three trucks in the driveway at a time. And when the plumber is here I never know if I can do laundry - Monday it interfered with some drain he needed to put in. So even though I'm home today, I won't be able to get caught up on laundry, like I normally might, which is a small price to pay, really.

The construction has slowed some this week, mainly since the electrician only comes every other day. I'm not sure why, and it's not my place to ask since he's really not working for me but the contractor. We were supposed to have the electrical inspected on Monday, but since the electrician isn't done and told me yesterday he wouldn't be back until Monday, I don't think it'll be able to be inspected on Monday. But we're not really surprised by any of this - having been through home remodeling with the addition several years ago. It's just hard not to get impatient!

New Staircase

And this completes the framing. The electrician and plumber will be working today. According to the contractor, insulation should be able to be put in the beginning of next week and dry-wall unloaded by the end of next week. We are thrilled things are moving along so well and are starting to finally make some decisions about how we're going to furnish the new area.

Tubing at Mad River Mountain

This afternoon we took the kids tubing at Mad River Mountain (which is very close - 25 minutes away). We've never been before, but this fall each of the kids got a free three hour pass for getting straight A's on their report cards, so we really had to make the trip. And the passes cost $20 each, so it was really a good deal. The kids have been asking to go since Christmas vacation, but it was really cold then, and since we have a three day weekend, we had planned to go this weekend. The 38 degree weather was a huge bonus.

Unfortunately, everyone else within a 50 mile radius also thought it would be a perfect day to go tubing as well. So the lines were long. Very long. We waited 45 minutes to buy our passes because they were so busy that they had no tubes for a while, and they won't sell passes with no tubes. Luckily it wasn't very cold and we were dressed for it, so waiting was not a huge pain. Ben and I considered leaving and coming back another day, but the kids were not happy at all about that idea.

So we finally got our passes - good from 3:25-6:25 - and headed to line to go down the hill. The really big hill. And the line moved pretty well, but it was just really really long. But the good news is that going down the hill was really very cool. So fast - the snow had melted some so it was a sheet of ice. We only stayed 2 hours - and made it down the hill 5 times. Sam was really beat by that time, and Ben and I were starting to get cold. Maria could have easily made it through the third hour. It was tiring standing in line all the time. We went down twice with all four of us together - the last time all in a line, with Ben in front, and we went so fast! We also each experienced the hill on our own, and each adult with each kid (I think). The kids weren't scared at all - I thought they might get worried standing at the top and looking all the way down the hill - I know I was a little scared!

It really was a lot of fun. We might even do it again sometime, maybe on a less perfect day so the crowd isn't quite as bad.

Here's the movie version of one of our tubing runs:

Maria's Basketball

Maria is playing basketball for the second year this winter. This year they don't have specific teams - each girl gets a reversible jersey and then they mix up into teams and play with different girls each week. Coaching is handled by the high school coaches and players. The 5th and 6th grade girls play together, so it's a tougher crowd this year, but Maria is hanging in there. She does well and is tired at the end of each game - they have no subs on the teams and so there is no rest time.

Sam is playing basketball too but we have no pictures yet - look for a future post about his basketball experience.

70's Day

Friday the kids had "70's Day" at school. We had a hard time coming up with ideas - the closest thing that the kids already had in their closets were tie-dye shirts, which are more 60's then 70's. But we had no bell bottoms, not crazy big collars, no fringe hanging off our shirts, etc. Lisa S. came through with star shaped sunglasses and peace sign tattoos, which helped a lot. Maria also added a 70's type print shirt that she already had and we blow-dried her hair in an up-flip, which wasn't nearly as big as we wanted and managed to fall during the day anyway.

Sam's class and their "Book Buddy" third grade class (which Mason is a part of) had a 70"s party Friday afternoon. Activities consisted of a fashion show and a dance party. Sam apparently did a disco walk (picture John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever) down the aisle in the fashion show. I have a hard time picturing him doing this in front of his and another class - usually he really tries to blend into the crowd. But Mrs. Dulle posted pictures on her blog, and I've posted it here for you to see. Sam's in the first two pictures, and Mason is later in the show - he's wearing sunglasses and a rainbow tie-dyed shirt.

Maybe a Runner After All

Ben and I have both been exercising regularly for over a year now - since the beginning of 2009. We both started out walking (mainly treadmill), with Ben moving on to running soon after. Ben loves to run, has been in several races, including a half-marathon in August, and is sad if he has to go more than two days without running. Me, not so much. I walked for several months, then moved onto jogging, with walking several minutes in the middle of my "run." But I never really enjoyed it. I did it to lose weight, and then to keep the weight off. And I liked to feel good about being healthy. And I like to eat, so exercising allowed me to eat (within reason) without feeling guilty or gaining much weight. So I continued to run four days a week, but never really enjoyed it.

But lately that has changed. I finally took Ben's advice and started running at a slower pace. Until a couple of weeks ago, I would run myself hard for 8-10 minutes, then be out of breath and have to walk 4-5 minutes to be able to run again. I always thought if I did it long enough, my body would get used to it and I would be able to run the whole time. But that never happened. Ben has been telling me for several weeks that maybe I should slow down my pace. I don't take advice well, and always thought if I slowed my pace I would be giving in, and that eventually my body would get stronger.

Finally, at the beginning of January, I decided to give slowing down a try. And within 2 weeks I am able to jog almost the entire 30 minutes, without completely losing my breath. I only went from 5.0 miles per hour to 4.5 miles per hour, so I didn't give in by much, but it has made all the difference. And since I'm not killing myself, I don't hate to work out quite as much. I really think this is a turning point for me.

Which is good, because I am going to have to make good on a promise. Months ago I told Ben I would run the 5K Race for the Cure in May. But in the back of my head, I was thinking I might not. Not only because I didn't want to run a race, but also because it is a Saturday in mid-May, the same day as Maria's recital, Maria's probable family birthday party, and Sam will have a soccer game that morning. So it would be much easier for me to stay home a get the kids where they belong rather than ask someone else (grandparents) to do that.

But now the Smiths are getting a treadmill. And Lisa has pledged to do Race for the Cure with Andy, Ben, and me. Which means I am not going to be able to get out of this. But my new goal is not just to finish it, it's to run the entire time, rather than have to walk some of it. Will I break any speed records? No way. But I will reach a personal goal I never thought possible, and that will be quite an accomplishment for me - someone who has never been athletic in her entire first 38 years of life.

Moving Right Along

This is the bathroom.

Here's current pictures of the basement. Two guys have been working 8-9 hour days to get the framing done by Friday - Monday and Tuesday we're promised to see the electrician and the plumber, so we couldn't be happier with the speed of the project. It's amazing to see the progress each day.

We have had a few unexpected small complications. First, there is a lot of pounding down there. A LOT. Thank goodness we have not had any snow days this week because they work for about an hour after we get home and it is noisy! That pounding caused some cables to be knocked a little loose causing some poor TV reception on Monday night, till we figured out why. Time Warner came out Wednesday anyway to move some cables and so they were able to fix that. Our fireplace has also had a very weird smell to it since they started. We talked to the contractor about it today and he didn't know but had a "fireplace guy" he was going to check with. In the meantime, we're not using the fireplace. Luckily, it's been warmer and we haven't needed it as much as we did the last couple of weeks.

Not Good

This was Sam's free-writing assignment he brought home today and did Monday or Tuesday at school. In case you're not used to reading "write it how it sounds" first grade prose, this is what it says:

"Once my Dad gave me a wedgie. It really hurt. It reached up to my belly. And it really! Really! really! hurt!"

You can imagine my reaction when I took this out of his backpack this afternoon. I would only me more mortified if it said "My Mom gave me a wedgie."

Unfortunately, the wedgie part is true. The "really really hurt" part is not, unless Sam has developed an unbelievable threshold for pain in the last few days, since he is usually quite dramatic when suffering any type of injury.

Here's what happened. Sam has been very interested in wedgies since seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel. So Saturday night the Smiths were over and Sam was talking about wedgies and asked Ben to give him one. This of course led to conversations about wedgies in college, making Sam want one even more. So Ben agreed to give him a wedgie, and Ben gave him a very gentle wedgie, and he said "Ow, that hurt." And that was really the end of it.

I'm clinging to the fact that at least there were witnesses here if Childrens' Services pay us a visit in the near future.

Framing Day 1

This shows where the half-bath will be (dictated by where the existing plumbing is located).

Musical?

Fairbanks will be presenting Beauty and the Beast this spring, and Ben agreed to conduct the orchestra back in the fall. It's quite a favor, as there's no monetary compensation for the huge amount of hours it takes to do this. But he did enjoy Seussical four years ago, so he agreed to do it again.

Today Maria was approached by the director. They are asking 12 students younger than 9th-12th grades to fill in some smaller parts - Chip (the teacup) being the biggest part. Maria is excited, and will audition in two weeks. She will have to sing and act, but has experience at both. We're pretty sure that each younger child that was asked to audition will get a part of some type. Between that and her DI practices that are Monday and Thursday after school (and may conflict with a few musical rehearsals), on top of dance and piano, she will be a very busy girl!

She is also preparing for the Explore test, which is an 8th grade test but was suggested she take it by her gifted and talented coordinator. It's on Saturday January 23, and she has a study guide for it. But since it's an 8th grade test, I am helping her learn some of the math. Tonight was 2-step Algebraic equations. I like Algebra, so it's kind of fun for me. And she picks things up quickly, so its going pretty well.

The Beginning

Tomorrow our basement finishing project will begin. Today the lumber was dropped off, and they're ready to start first thing in the morning. I've included pictures of the completely empty and ready to finish part, one of the stacks of lumber, and my Mickey Mouse paining on the wall that I did 8 years ago but has been covered by the play house for most of that time.

Snow Day

Today was the first snow day of the season. Only 4-5 inches, but with blowing and drifting which causes the back roads to be pretty bad. We left school early yesterday, and by 1:00 the roads weren't really very good. Then they called a 2-hour delay for today last night, so we let the kids each stay up a half hour later. This morning I got up at 6:00, and watched to see if we were going to cancel or not. We did, but not until 7:30, and Maria was already up with me. But Ben and Sam both slept till after 9:00. The kids also got to play with the Smiths today - usually they go to Day Care on snow days but Lisa was able to work from home today. So they played outside together and then spent the afternoon first at our house for a couple of hours, then at their house. Ben was able to take a long run (to the library and back) in the snow, which he enjoyed, and I got some quiet time and a nap. So all in all, a good day for everyone.

Some other news around here this week:

Our contractor confirmed they will start on the basement Monday or Tuesday. Permit is in place, and so are the subcontractors, so we're pretty optimistic about the whole thing. Ben is replacing the sump pumps tomorrow. We still have to bring up all the pieces of the old entertainment center, and pull up the carpet, but other than that I think it's ready to go. I brought up 9 trash bags the other night.

Sam is having a difficult time adjusting to going back to school. He tends to have trouble with transitions, where Maria has been more of a go-with-the-flow kind of kid. The weird schedule this week didn't help much either. He had to pull his card one day at school, and drove us crazy here in the evenings. But the last couple of days he has been working on building K'Nex and Lego sets from Christmas, and that keeps him busy and out of trouble. I also think he misses having the basement the way it was. I don't think he really understands the whole finishing project. He just wants space to run in!

Sam and I got our H1N1 flu shots today - his booster and my first and only. He cracks me up talking with the nurses - when they were doing my shot he asked her why she squirts some liquid out of the syringe before starting, and then had all kinds of questions about her "Sharps" container for the used needles. He even told her it smelled funny. I just never see him exhibit quite this much curiosity in other situations (he was like this when he got his first shot too) - and he is never afraid to ask them questions!

Maria and I (and sometimes Sam) have been working on some Disney puzzles I got her for Christmas. We've done two 300 piece ones and one 150 piece one, and today started a 500 piece one. I think this one may take a long time!

Ben was sick earlier this week - had to leave work early Monday and miss Tuesday. He returned to work Wednesday but didn't feel better until mid-day Wednesday. It was weird because he really didn't have many symptoms, other then weakness and fatigue. No stomach or respiratory issues. But he's better now and so far none of us have caught it!

Basement BEFORE Pictures

So we've been working and working to get the basement cleared out now that we have an official start date for the finishing project - January 11. If you can't remember, here's a couple of pictures of what the kids area looked like before we started.
In November we got rid of a ton of toys. Here's one of the piles before we went to Goodwill:

We've been pleased that a lot of our stuff went to new owners - we have had lots of stuff picked up from the end of the driveway, and we've had local people come pick up the playhouse, and plan to have another person come pick up the old china cabinet. We put a lot of stuff in the crawl space for longer term storage, but we just plain got rid of a lot of stuff. And we vowed to think carefully before we just take stuff to the basement to get it out of sight in the future!

We have it almost completely ready for the carpenters to get started, but wanted to leave it useable for the kids to play during this next week - as much as we could. So the carpet is still down, and the TV is still hooked up in the corner, but other than that, it is mostly empty space.

This is all of the stuff we're keeping to put in the new space. This part of the basement will not be finished and will be sealed in plastic to try to minimize the drywall dust.
This area will be finished. Notice my Mickey Mouse paintings that I did when Maria was 2 years old, but have been covered with the playhouse for the last several years!
Our new and improved storage space:
Piles of trash that will go out on Wednesday night. This is the other side of the stairs that will be finished space as well.
This pile of wood used to be the old entertainment center that has been quite warped after getting wet twice during it's time down there. We plan to use most of it for firewood this summer.

Happy New Year!

Thursday night was New Year's Eve and we spent the day and evening participating in our usual traditions - ice skating in the afternoon, followed by some "quiet-time" at home (at least for the adults), and then ringing in the new year next door with the Smiths.

Ice skating went pretty well. We realized that we haven't been skating since New Year's Eve 2008, and Sam spent some time remembering how to stay on his feet. He did well, though, and skated for an hour before he and Ben had an accident that resulted in Ben falling on top of Sam. It looked worse then it was, however, but after Sam took a break to recover, he realized he was tired and wanted to quit. I had quit after about 20 minutes of skating, since someone had to put shoes on to get different gloves for Sam and the cold was bothering my sinuses anyway. So he and I had a snack while we waited for Maria and Ben to finish skating. Maria, by the way, had a blast skating fast and even trying some tricks like spinning.

Skating was followed by naps at home - for Ben and I. The kids played as they don't seem to need a nap anymore to be able to stay awake until midnight and after. After dinner we headed to the Smiths, where we exchanged our Christmas gifts with them finally. The kids played well together, and the four of us played euchre (which Lisa and I won). At midnight we watched the ball drop and the kids love to countdown, throw confetti, and blow their noise-makers. We got home about 12:30 and the kids went straight to bed. Maria slept in until 10:30 and Sam until after 11 the next morning.

We spent yesterday taking down the Christmas decorations and getting the house put back together. Both Maria and Sam had a sleepover last night with the Wilsons, so Ben and I went out to dinner and a movie. Usually New Year's Day is kind of depressing here - we don't really care about any of the football, and taking down the decorations is a reminder that vacation and the holidays are really over. But since we all had something fun to do last night, we were in a much better mood. I think we may always go out to a movie or something on New Year's Day in future years to combat the end-of-vacation blues.

Today is get-the-basement-ready-for-finishing day. We had some acquaintances come pick up the playhouse yesterday - Ben posted the picture with "free" on Facebook and we had takers within an hour. Hoping the same is true with our old china cabinet that we need to get rid of today. Look for "before" pictures of the empty basement soon as we are going to keep a photo journal of the finishing project.