Miss Millie

Here's a few pictures of our little honey in a quick shoot I did a
few weeks ago after a bath. She's changed so much even from then,
it's unbelievable.

The flood

I can't believe that I only posted once in April. Yes, we were busy,
but it's just shameful.
Here's some pics of an early morning jaunt on a four wheeler when it
was flooded.
The river's gone down now, and to give you some perspective, the
bridge that's flooded here, now has a 15-20 foot drop to the river
below.

Kids Club

Tuesday nights are the highlight of my week. We go to a kids club at
the local presbyterian church in town, where a group of moms bring
their kiddos for storytime/crafts/dinner, and pretty much pre-school
with the beloved, very patient, Miss Dana. Dana goes over the sounds
that letters make, counting, and always reads a fun story too. Today
everyone was having melt-downs, us included, and I almost asked Miss
Dana to just skip crafts, sing a song and let us all go home for
baths and bed. But one song turned into three, and before you know
it, an hour and a half had passed and we were happy we stayed for the
whole thing.

I've met a few really great moms to connect with through kids club,
and I'm very thankful that it's now part of our weekly routine.
Millie has fun tooting around while the other kids sit quietly. She's
a little young for it, but a great distraction for the rest of the
kids...

Photos of our new house

Yes, we've been promising and not delivering. Here's some photos of
our new house. The kitchen is going to be coming together in big ways
over the next two days. They finished the electric today, drywall and
taping are happening tonight, and cabinets are going in later this
week. The rest of it is in great shape. They finished the replacement
windows in the livingroom and bathroom today, and the livingroom will
be trimmed/painted by tomorrow. The goal is to get out of that room
so the hardwood can be finished along with the rest of the house. The
upstairs is final sanded, the downstairs is rough sanded, and they're
going to be tinting/poly-ing it next week while I'm in chi-land, and
Sam's on a "Staycation" with the girls.

Here's a quick recap of the house for you, room by room.

Upstairs - pink room is Lydia/Amelia's room. There's a linen closet
and a bathroom in the hallway; we're ignoring the bathroom for now
and will deal with it another day once we're moved in!
The green room is our playroom/craft room/multi-purpose room
(including guest room) until the office is finished downstairs (off
of the kitchen), and the current office can be turned into a guest room.

Downstairs - (don't you love the staircase? I think it's beautiful.
Livingroom is right off of the staircase, with an opening into the
kitchen/diningroom, and to the hallway where the bedrooms live.
The blue room is our bedroom
The very light green room is the current office until the one off the
kitchen is completed.
The bathroom is in really rough shape right now, but will all start
coming together when we put the beadboard up and get the tile
grouted. The vanity is a stand-alone, currently in our upstairs
"storage bathroom", so we just need to pull it out and hook it up.

The windows throughout the house are metal and in pretty bad shape,
but we're replacing them as we can - we started with the worst ones,
and any walls that we'd be re-drywalling before we moved in. The rest
will be a few a season until they're done. At least they open and
have screens!

The future office you can slightly see off of the kitchen. It's an
old porch that was converted into an inside room, which we then
proceeded to tear apart since it was done incorrectly and had a bunch
of water damage. The good news is that there's beautiful rafters
(think 2/3 inch wide planks) and a cathedral ceiling in it. We're
going to paint it all white, and finish it up to be a loft-like
little oasis, in a perfect location right off the kitchen so I can
take breaks in the afternoon and throw dinner together.

Enjoy the pics!