:-)

Seems to be the story of my life lately. Work, work, work! But somehow I seem to be coping pretty well. The thrill of getting things DONE is part of it. It just feels sooooo good to accomplish some of these things! And the thought of finishing this house up so we can enjoy it instead of work on it all the time--well, that thought is just downright glorious. And I have fully considered what Sister Tammy said on my last post--you finish a house up just in time for God to move you 1,000 miles away. I know. It just seems to be the way things go. We finally finished the Texas house... in time to move here! It took us 4 and a half years on that house. We're whizzin' through the remodeling job on this one hoping to enjoy it a bit before we have to vacate. Ha! Time will tell!

Anyway, this has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was an interesting picture.

Hershey had been outside for FOREVER the other day and I couldn't figure out why he hadn't come back inside. He finally started scratching at the front door and whining! I thought I'd go check out his dog door to see why he hadn't just used it instead and this is what I found. He loves that dumb monkey. Apparently he tried to take it outside with him but didn't make it all the way through! It's mechanical and weighs a ton, so he couldn't push it back through the door to come inside, I guess! Dumb dog.

Okay! What have we been up to... School! 6 days this week! We're still trying to make up for all the time we took off while Mom was here. Kids are doing great, school has been pretty good this week, and they've been helping out a lot with whatever James and I have been working on.

Yesterday was the day to side James' office. Remember that cute little building we put in the back yard and them promptly filled with all of the STUFF that used to be in the garage??? We went out yesterday afternoon and used up the left-over siding from the garage and put it on the front of the building. We'll stain it to match the house. Won't that be cute???

We finished up just as the sun was setting...

And here's a picture of James' cute little log sided office in the glow of that great sunset. :-)

We came inside and worked the rest of the night on getting Katie's room all cleaned out. We took all the beds apart and got them moved to the garage, moved the boys' dresser into our room and Kate's around the corner into the living room, and got all the JUNK out. James got the baseboards up and I got the floor vacuumed. I was all ready to get to work in there, but I knew I had a VLB service coming up and wanted to spend some time working on that last night.

Today was one of those days where I feel really, really crummy. The kind where only a nap or a hot bath is going to make things better. I was able to get some plastic taped to the floor in Katie's room and tape off some of the door trim before we started school, so that was good. We worked until about 2:00, then MOM needed nap time, so everybody headed to the bedroom. The one and only bedroom for the time being. Ah yes, Mom--you asked where the kids are sleeping. Our room, of course! Five people and a dog isn't too many for one room, is it??? Ha! I'm soooooo thankful for such a nice sized room, that's all I can say! The kids sack out all over the floor with their sleeping bags and the dog goes and finds one of them to sleep on top of. Tonight is our third night, I think. So far, so good! I'm just afraid James is going to step on somebody when he gets up in the night and break a bone or something!

ANYWAY, the kids were GREAT for naptime today. Just read their books and didn't make a peep. I let them up after an hour, but I slept another 30 or 40 minutes! When I finally got up I was feeling much, much better. We got a few more things done around the house, then I headed into Katie's room and got busy priming the walls. You know, THE walls. The crazy pink and blue walls with the diagonal lines and huge circle and all that weirdness. It took THREE COATS of primer to cover it. I think. I won't know if it's truly covered until morning. I used both gallons of primer and there's just a little bit left in the paint tray, covered and waiting until the daylight will reveal if it needs yet another. I fear it will at least need some touch-up here and there. Crazy.

James took Katie and Joe with him to run a few errands, so I let Sam come in and help me paint. (I can handle one kid and paint, but three wanting to help is just way over my head--I always end up telling' em ALL no!) He had a BLAST.

And I only had minimal clean up to do when he was done. :-)

James brought home a rotiserrie chicken from Charlie's, then made all the fixin's to go with it while Sam and I were still priming Kate's room. He made Rice-a-Roni (a big hit around here, though we rarely have it), corn, and green beans with bacon. Yum!!! What a guy! Dinner was delicious and then (GET THIS!!!) James and Katie did all the dishes so I could get back to painting!!! WHOA!!! I LOVE JAMES SOOOOOO MUCH!!! He's become very, very helpful over the years, especially if I'm tied up with some project. (Particularly if it's a project he has commissioned! Ha!) He frequently gets lunch or dinner together, sometimes "just because." But in our 8 and a half years of marriage I have NEVER known him to wash a dish, or even put one in the dishwasher. He declares he has, but I can't recall it. But tonight he did the WHOLE THING! I put the left-overs away, but he and Katie washed everything!!! He even came back later and emptied the dishwasher!!! Did I mention that I LOVE MY HUSBAND?! I was soooooo dreading having to come and take over the big mess, but I didn't have to worry about ANY of it--it was all DONE!!! :-) :-) :-)

So, I got back to my paint roller! Like I said, three coats. So far. We'll see how it looks in the morning. Surely it will be good enough! I'll be wallpapering the bottom half of the room, and the painting technique I'm going to use on the top typically hides a multitude of sins... but I'd really hate to go to all that work and still be able to see that giant circle on the wall! Better safe than sorry, I say. I want that thing GONE! ;-)

I quit decently early tonight so I'd have time to finish up on my VLB stuff. It all came together pretty well, I think, and I was so blessed preparing it. I hope and pray everybody else will be blessed tomorrow night! I started with some bones I pulled out of Brother Ammon's message in the November Evening Light and built from there--about seeing our children saved.

Anyway, I hope everybody has a great Sunday! I'm planning on it. :-) Then it's back to WORK, WORK, WORK! :-) It's going to be a busy week around here, full of painting, wallpapering, staining and, yes, more polyurethaning--all in Katie's room. My goal is to have it all done by the end of the week. There's no way of telling if that's reasonable or not. I try not to think about a time frame because it's only frustrating when it doesn't work out--and it NEVER works out. "Two weeks!!!" ;-)