Goodbye Sunset Lane

I can't believe I have missed the entire month of June and most of July! But I have a good excuse. We are moving to a new house. Well, new to us, but over fifty years old. I love old houses though, just like the one we currently have. We have done a lot of work to our current house, and I've wanted to make a collection of "before and after" photos. The reason I've never done it is because I don't feel like I have finished our house here. But guess what? It's too late. I'm walking away. It is what it is.

Today I took pictures of our current house to use on a "for rent" advertisement. We are hoping to get it rented as soon as possible. I decluttered, defurnitured, dekidded, and got a little depressed. I love our house. I hate to say goodbye. But our new house is bigger. And it has more space. And it's bigger.

And it has more space.

Here are some pictures to try and show the before and after. And I want to make sure I say thank you to everyone who has helped us make Sunset Lane look this good. Some of you will see yourselves later in the renovation pics.

These first three pictures I took to show a friend our new house back in 2005. I had painted the kitchen purple. Not my best color choice, but not too terrible.

Before:
This is the best I can do of the kitchen "before" because my husband took a sledge hammer to the wall before I could get my head and find my camera.

After:
The living and dining rooms were floor to ceiling real pine paneling. Not attractive, but I appreciate real wood. So it took me until 2008 to take the step of dealing with it. And I wanted the kitchen open to everything. I needed to be able to see Penelope in the high chair while I was cooking. So we took it out, knowing my dad would rescue us of course. And he did. Of course. The before pictures are from Libby's first and fourth birthdays. We began right after her fourth birthday, in June of 2008.

Before:

My mom is holding Libby in the above picture.

After:




So after we took out the walls into the kitchen we lived with only the dining room done with the paneling in the new way. For like a year. Then we tackled the living room in the same way.

Before:

After:


The bathroom looked like this when we moved in. We painted, updated the fixtures, and took out the tiny medicine cabinet. My dad built me a cool shelf. I couldn't have done any of my home renovations without my dad. Thank you Slim Jim!

Before:


After:

We did other work in the house. Like adding a wall and making a great room into two. But I don't have pictures at the ready about that. But that was pretty darn cool too. Here are some pictures from all the work. We have worked on this house. I love this house. I had three babies while living here. I walked around the circle with heartburn that could make me breathe fire. I labored in the shower. I have nursed approximately 5,376 times all over this house. I have cooked terrible and wonderful things here. I have yelled. A lot. I have cried. Walked the hill around the block numerous times. Sometimes pushing three kids. I love it here.

But our new house is bigger. And it has more space.

And it's bigger.

So here are some pics from all the work. I am willing to work. Work is good.

Brian Janek. Always willing to destroy your house at no charge.

Can you see Andrea's face in this? It says "What are these crazy people doing?"

I guess we took out the wall and then lived with exposed wires from the ceiling and patched up countertops through the next Christmas. It's all kind of a blur. We were under construction a lot.Then came cutting the paneling one third of the way down and drywalling where it used to be.

Slim Jim made and laid the beam. It is now my favorite part of the house. I like to look at it just as much as I like to look at the television. Can I say thank you to my dad again?

Yes, here are the exposed wires. So safe.

Andrea may have thought we were crazy but she came to help turn the crazy into something cool.


Here is my friend Sandra helping with the million and one coats of primer and paint it took to cover the pine. See my patch of blue where she is working? I was trying it out. I labored over the paint color choice.

Here I am, committing to the blue. It was such a payoff after working so hard on the white. I picked well. I still love it.

Here is my awesome husband Jimmy who is always up for a home improvement project. At first he wasn't sure about my vision, but he totally trusted me and after the dining area was done, he pushed me to move into the living room. He was very encouraging.

Are you wondering what in the world my four children were doing during this whole process? Me too. We were crazy. They were running around and getting yelled at, basically.


I guess I'm at the end. But the end of the work on this house is only the beginning of the work on the next. It's already begun. I am thankful for an able body and family and friends who help us with all our crazy ideas. I hope you think they've paid off as I do!

I love you Sunset Lane!

Life Sucking Goldilocks

Tonight we took a family trip to the home improvement store. Myself, Jimmy, and our five offspring. There was purchasing of paint, the use of the public restroom, people taking off their shoes, and the regular behavioral issues involved with shopping carts and merchandise you don't want to have to purchase. I never thought we'd make it back to the terribly hot van. It was, in three very sarcastic words, lots of fun.

As we were navigating our way to the checkout, Jimmy turned to me and said, "Do you sometimes feel like the kids suck the life out of you?" He wasn't angry. Just contemplative. And, thinking of my breastfeeding infant, I understood (dare I say more than him) what he was saying. And then I thought of pregnancy. Even more life sucking going on. In the car he referenced Indiana Jones. And what happened when that guy looked at the Ark of the Covenant. As if the children cause our true selves to completely melt off our skeleton. And while the kids add numerous blessings and complete bliss to our life, it can still feel like that at times.

This afternoon Libby brought me a story she and Cash had worked on together. It was called "Goldilocks and the seven Alley's." It involves the Alley's going off to Publix and a girl named Goldilocks coming to their house while they are gone. I will quote from page four:

"Then, inside, Goldilocks saw sandwiches. They looked very yummy. And there was milk from mom's breasts." (drawing of a bottle)

She then proceeds to eat four peanut and butter jelly sandwiches which are "too yucky." Then, she tries two ham and cheese which are "too gross." Then, a picture of Goldilocks drinking from the bottle... "'this milk is just right...' Goldilocks said not knowing that she was drinking from mom's breasts."

The Alleys' come home and are happy to see Goldilocks, and ask her to join them to eat. But "Goldilocks ran away as fast as she could feeling very, very, very sick."

And the last page says...

"When Goldilocks was gone for good, all of the Alley's, EVEN JULIET, was scratching their head."

After family outings Jimmy and I may feel like we've been sucked dry. Meanwhile, our kids are so full of life and creativity it makes us scratch our heads in wonder for real.

A Beginning for the Bennages

Today some of our very good friends moved from one corner of America to the other. The Bennages have relocated to Redmond, Washington. The J Train among others in Tallahassee have been sad to see them go, but are excited for this new venture for them.


We have known Christopher and Sandra for over 15 years and count them as family. Our kids love each other and even tend to argue like siblings at times. Christopher played bass in our college band, the flying j's. Sandra and I are most definitely kindred spirits. (And I am posting this partly because she is among the handful of people who read this blog!)


Here are some pictures from the last few weeks trying to party and hang out with them before they left. In junior high when someone would move away we'd all get in a big hug circle and cry to "Friends are Friends Forever." It wasn't quite like that, but it was the adult version. We love you and will miss you!

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again"
Ecclesiastes 11:1

The Middles

If play is a child's work, these kids need a raise. Or maybe time and a half. Heck, they should be CEO of the whole company. At least they deserve a promotion. If play is a child's work, these kids live at the office.

I used to refer to Cash and Libby as "The Preschoolers." But when Libby hit kindergarten, that no longer applied. So I started calling them "The Middles" because they were (duh) the middle children, and because they play and pretend together constantly. They need to be grouped together. When I was pregnant with Juliet, Penelope began anticipating her transition to becoming a "middle." She has joined in without the smallest bit of difficulty.



Since Cash is truly in the very middle, we call him King of the Middles. Libby is the queen, and Penelope is the princess. I love these three. They are together all the time. I cannot make it clear enough how often I would easily be able to catch them in the same frame with my camera. They are as close as siblings can be. They really love each other.


And then there are the fights.

Because of their close proximity in age and physical space, they are really good at fighting. They scream and yell at each other. They push each other. They snatch things from each other. They wrestle. They spew ugly words when they have been wronged. And I get to deal with it day in and day out.

I am often getting up at 6 something in the morning because already they are fighting when they're supposed to be lying in bed quietly until 7:00.


The middles are often playing "family" which involves Penelope whining like a baby (fingernails on a chalkboard) and calling Libby "mommy."


Other middles activities include, but are not limited to:

swinging

taking baths
playing outside with bugs

playing games or doing puzzles
drawing
playing school

generally causing a racket

reading
taking care of Juliet
(sometimes reading and taking care of Juliet at the same time)

fighting with each other (just making sure I got that point across)
pretending with toys


dressing up
eating constantly

being cute while doing all of the above

I love the middles. As anyone who you adore, they make me crazy and fill me with joy and wonder every day of the week. And they are loud. Luckily I can get a bit of a break when I put them to bed every night. Yeah, so they can hang like sloths from their bunks and generally ransack the room with stuffed toys while they disobey, get out of their beds, and have a dance party. I don't want to know. After bedtime what happens in the bunk room stays in the bunk room. And I stay on the couch at least long enough to eat a snack. And if it gets really bad, Jimmy and I look at each other and say, "Let the beatings begin!"

Because every middle child needs a beating every once in a while. (I'm the baby of the family. Jimmy is a middle.)

Tooth Trauma

Last week was absolutely crazy. Things around here are always pretty wacky, but last week topped the charts. As my dad once said when we were packing up to leave his house after a visit, "This is like herding cats!" And that's how it is around here. Trying to make order out of chaos. And chaos always wins.

Anyways. A week ago today Penelope was running in a church fellowship hall where Libby takes ballet and she fell on her face. She busted her lip. Normal kid injury around here. As I was trying to stop the bleeding and assess the damage another mom said, "Her tooth is on the ground over there." And it was. The whole thing. All the way to the root. I couldn't look.

My poor sweet angel. I felt so bad. Of course this happened at 3:45 p.m. right before we were leaving, and I had an infant at home waiting to nurse at 4:00. I knew dentists stop answering their phones at the end of the day...all of this made for a stressful trip home. But I made it (after driving like a maniac) and spoke to a pediatric dentist at the eleventh hour (4:45 p.m.). There was nothing to do right away, just take care of her best I could. We went to the dentist the next day.

She slept with me in my bed that night and only cried out a few times. I awoke to her looking like this...
This look says, "Mom, why are you taking my picture instead of getting my breakfast?"


I thought she looked like she belonged on the Simpsons. Jimmy was calling her Angelina Jolie. So then of course we moved to Octo-mom.

This is how it looked on the inside. I've made it really tiny so you can't zoom in on the disgustingness of it all. Okay, I thought I made it small. Just don't click on it.

And here is the tooth.
I will not be like TPW and comment about my cuticles. But they are terrible. I am aware.

She is so little she didn't even ask about the tooth fairy. Being a photographer I immediately (as she was bleeding all over me) thought, "I wonder what the last picture I took of her with all her teeth was..." and then there I was photographing her tooth. It is very surreal. When a piece of your child is lying behind them on the floor, it's just weird.

I know what everyone is saying. It's just a baby tooth. She has another one. But when your fat lipped three year old sweetheart is asking you "When am I going to get a new tooth mom?" you don't want to have to say, "In about four years!" But kids are resilient. She is fine already. Here is a picture I took just a few minutes ago.Her lip is still a little swollen but obviously much better. She has breakfast on her face. This is life.
And showing the gap. She is still cute toothless. As if I ever doubted that. You are one tough cookie, Penelope!

The Bathroom Gecko

We have had a gecko living in our bathroom for over a year. I see him every once in a while, scurrying away as I move the stool or get a towel from the closet. He is like our family mascot or something. Why? He must be a fan of ours. Who else would stick around? And even more, who would want to live in a bathroom shared by 7 people, about half of which cannot bathe themselves?

And another thing I think about our gecko friend. What must he eat to survive? I keep thinking he'll starve but still he appears now and again. There is a lot of stuff in the bathroom. A lot happens in there. But there is absolutely nothing edible in there. Does he drink drops of water from the floor? Eat flecks of poop? Strawberry toothpaste for dessert maybe? One has to wonder.

After I saw him tonight I began compiling a list in my head of things he overhears in the bathroom.

"I went poo-poo!"
"Mom!............Mom!...........Can somebody wipe me?"
"I need privacy!"
"I told you not to follow me in here!"
"I'm taking a shower, I'll be out in a minute."
"I need toilet paper!"
"It says to wait three to five minutes." (that's a joke)
"Middles in the tub!"
"I get the front!"
"Okay, stand up, it's time to wash your bodies."
"You're getting me wet!"
"Do washing machine!" (a washing game we play)
"Do you're my baby boy (or girl)!" (a post bathtime song we sing)
"Wash your hands!"
"Wash your face!"
"Brush your teeth!"
"Hurry up!"
"What are you doing in here?"
"Mom, don't put that wipe in the toilet or you'll have to call the plumber again."

Nakey Baby

It is hard for me to capture my babies smiling and be behind the camera at the same time. I figured I could get a bunch of Juliet if I tried when she was naked because she loves being naked. She flaps her arms and does her legs like she's on a bicycle. So here she is in all her glory, cuteness, and squishy baby-ness. What am I going to do when I don't have a cute little baby to put on my blog? It's going to be sad! But I am enjoying the now if it all. Here's to precious baby smiles!

Monsterisms

A couple of things...

Today I realized there is a monster living in my house. It has three heads, seven arms, and poopy drawers. It's name is Laundry. This monster is never defeated. I try to slay him with my determination, organization, and soap. But still I am overtaken by his sheer force. He is darks, lights, whites, towels, sheets...socks that hide under the couch. He fills up my baskets and overflows onto the floor. He is a growing mound of dirty underwear, sweaty t-shirts, poopy baby sleepers. No matter what I do, he is winning all the time. And just when I think I've got him by the throat, I head to bed to find a mound to be folded that I forgot I put back there earlier in the day. Even clean the monster rears it's ugly head.

Time is passing and my children are growing up. I try to make it go just a bit slower but a day is a day and a minute is a minute and time is passing at the same rate it's always been. This is an "ism" I've been telling myself when I think things are going by too fast. I tell myself that time has always gone at the exact same pace. There's nothing I can do to slow it down. It just seems like it's speeding by. It's not.

My mom also gave me a good "ism" a few days ago. She said, "It's not so much what you've got as what you do with what you've got." This has encouraged me in quite a few ways.

And I'll end with this quote I came across...it speaks of the wonderful mess that raising a family is. I'm so glad we're together.

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn; good and ill together." -William Shakespeare

Now Hiring

Personal Assistant

Seeking intelligent, effective, and agreeable individual to help with personal needs, household needs, and business needs. Hard working individuals not afraid to get dirty or raise their voice need only apply. Not looking for people who are above performing any simple task such as bottom wiping, nose blowing, or toilet scouring.

Other skills, duties, and traits I am seeking in applicants:

-able to do laundry
-in shape, able to lift 40+ pounds
-washing dishes
-grading papers
-singing songs, knows at least 50 children's tunes
-library skills/book reading
-excellent communication skills
-chauffeur
-data entry/sorter
-organized
-tickle monster
-standard phone etiquette
-extremely patient
-personal chef
-tech support
-photography assistant
-changing diapers
-party planner
-good listener
-able to tune out crying
-occasional wet nurse
-100% available all hours, all days, with ability to travel on short notice

This is an excellent full time, long term position and a great opportunity for someone who thinks they want to have a bunch of children.

Salary: you can keep whatever you sweep up in the dust pan or find in the washing machine.