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: