Orders recieved

Rod got his orders today.

He will be going to Bahrain.

He will be leaving in July for a year.

It's going to be a long year.

It could be worse.

Will upload Halloween pics tomorrow.

"Growing Up"

Makkiah and Rod had one of those "deep" heart to heart conversations last night after dinner.

Makkiah:When I grow up I want to be just like Dad

Rod(feeling rather proud):Oh yeah

Makkiah:I want to wear work clothes just like you (Rod wears Cammi's to work)

Rod (smiling):yeah

Makkiah(lifting up his arm and pointing to his armpit)and I want have hair under my armpits just like you!!

Rod(trying hard not to laugh at this serious moment):Hmmm

She's not just spoiled!

Taniyah had a shot on Friday that they were out of at her 6 month appt. Since they had it in when we went to Jaleel's appt on Friday they gave it to her before his appt.
Friday night we went to pizza and bingo at the church and she was really fussy. She didn't want anyone to touch her leg and she would cry anytime it was moved. We came home and put a warm compress in it although we couldn't see anything on her leg.
Saturday I was at the condo painting (story of my life right now!!!-painting that is) and Mom called. She said that Taniyah might just be a bit spoiled. I say that she is "well loved" but she has been awfully fussy after this last shot. She didn't want to stand on it or move it.
This morning I looked at her leg and it looked like a large bruise under the skin but still not really noticable. Well this evening I checked it out again and she has this large red "patch" on her leg. I took a picture of it so that I can show the doctor as well as Ahma. I think her leg really was bothering her- even if she is well loved!!!

Happy 14th Birthday Ladaria!!

Ladaria turned 14 today. She stayed the night at a friends house last night to help her babysit and then she had a presentation so I didn't see her until around 3. With her came a whole group of teenage girls. She decided that she wanted to have a sleep over so several of the girls from the ACTION team came over. She also had a friend from school who came over. They ate lots of candy, drank lots of soda, ate pizza, watched movies, played BUNCO, and stayed up WAY to late.
Rod made breakfast burritos with eggs, suasage and cheese. All the girls except one liked them. Always has to be one, right! Luckily it was daylight savings time and we gained an extra hour.
Ladaria and all her friends walked to church. We met them there. After church we all came home, ate more pizza and dispersed girls back to their rightful owners!!
I think Ladaria enjoyed her birthday!

Perpetual motion

I don't think that the child ever stops. I wonder if he stops when he sleeps?

I took Jaleel to the doctor for a physical. All was well for the first 10 minutes. Now anybody who has ever been to the pediatrician knows that it takes much more than 10 minutes to even be seen.

The first 10 minutes were spent in the waiting room. The next 10 minutes in the exam room waiting for the doctor. WHY do they put a parent in that little tiny room to WAIT for the doctor AND they close the door?

He spun on the stool, he did jumping jacks, he sat, he stood, he jumped, and then he repeated. I think he used more energy than I do all day!

I went out to make an appt to bring in the paperwork from the school to evaluate him for ADHD (suprise) and they were able to squeeze Taniyah in for her 9 month well baby appt (thanks to whoever decided not to show up for their appt, one less time that I have to make the trip:-).

We had to wait another 10 minutes in the waiting room before we were called back the second time. I feel sorry for the poor lady in the waiting room who choose to talk to him about how many teeth Taniyah had.

He counted how many teeth he had in his mouth for her AND he did push ups for her AND he talked about this and that. Then they called us back to another small room. I really think that it's a test to see if us parents are sane or not! If you don't last then they know that you need help as well!!!

During Taniyah's wait he did the can-can, and washed his hands, and did the robot and flew the butterfly.

Took him to the lab to frop off his urine sample, went and picked up the other 3 little ones from the sitter and then took Jaleel back to school. There was only an hour left but I needed a BREAK!

Porch swing woes

I got my new porch swing in the mail. Well not exactly in the mailbox but it was delivered and I couldn't wait to get it hung. First though I had to get stuff at the condo done so my swing had to wait. Today after church we were able to hang the swing.

Rod got up and drilled the holes and installed the eye bolts to hang the swing.

I had the swing all put together and we were able to hang it once the eye bolts were in. It looked pretty good. Just a little crooked.

We used the chains that came with the swing. You really don't have any choice as they are attached to the bolts that hold the swing together. It doesn't look to bad until you look at the whole picture!

We decided that maybe we needed lo lower the swing just bit! So off on yet another trip to Home Depot to get some more chains. After some minor chain tweeking the final project outcome.

I can tell that it's going to be one of my favorite places to be. Especially when it rains. I can sit out on the porch, swing and listen to the rain. One of my favorite sounds!

What a FUN Saturday I had!

Let me just start off this post saying that my hubby and kids went to a pancake breakfast at the park. The church was holding it and the ACTION team was working at the games. So they spent the morning doing fun things like this

So while they were at the park eating pancakes with choclate chips and whipped cream and playing games, what do think I was doing?

Maybe out for a leasurely time to myself?

Taking a stroll shopping with Taniyah?

Checking out all the new home improvement items?

I guess that depends on how you look at it!

I went to Lowe's at 8am to get at the things that I would need to complete my day.

Taniyah and I ate breakfast at McDonald's and then off to the condo we headed.

Just the two of us.

I started pressure washing the balcony and FROZE my butt off. It was so cold and I was so wet.

Then I moved into the living room to finish ironing the wax out of the carpet before the carpet cleaners came.

Then I changed the light bulbs in the bathroom and painted the wall.

Then I painted the wall in the bedroom.

Then I got to clean the stuff out of the fridge.

Sometime in there my hubby showed up to help me.

We got most of the stuff done that needs to be done.

Still some painting left on the balcony but had to let stuff dry good first.

Hope you all had as much fun as I did!

Toilet troubles

I went this morning and got the toilet in the condo fixed. It took me 20 minutes after having the water turned off to change the compression fitting and put on the new hose. I'm getting pretty good at those fittings!

I also spent 2 hours ironing the wax out of the carpet. For the most part all of the wax came out. In one spot there is a yellow ring where the wax was. After I vacuum we will see if it is still noticable.

I also cleaned all the mirrors in the condo. My Mom sure does like mirrors!!

I came home to another of my toilets plugged so I got to play plumber at home as well. I'm getting REALLY tired of the plumbing issues in my house. I can't wait until we can fix it.

Mom's Condo

I FINALLY got Mom's tenant out of the condo. I say FINALLY because it took me since July to do it. The sheriff's deputies showed up a 8:30 am on Thursday the 13th and she was STILL moving stuff out. She didn't have any electricity for 2 months and didn't clean out the fridge. It STINKS. She moved out by candle light and dripped wax on the carpet, did I mention that it was new carpet. She painted some walls and started to paint them back but I guess that she ran out of time. She started a fire in December so that damage needs to be cleaned up. There was super glue in the locks. The thermostat needs replaced so that the heater can be turned on. Oh and did I mention that the toilet wasn't working. Well not exactly not working but it had a leak so instead of calling me to tell me that it was leaking she just turned off the water. Now that wouldn't be so bad if they had stopped using the toilet but that DIDN'T happen. YUCK!!! So tomorrow morning I will have the water to the entire building turned off so that I can replace the compression fitting and fix the toilet. Hopefully I don't need a plumber after that to unclog the pipe. OH that's right, I need a plumber at MY house to unclog the pipe for the umpteenth time this year. UGH!! So you see I have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. I'm trying to get it all done before the first as we are hoping to rent it or sell it.

Life is NOT fair!

I don't know if you can read the sign. It says "Keep out and stay away unless you are going to read to me". This would the sign that was posted on Brayana's door last night. To think that she couldn't get any person in this house to read to her! She asked her Dad to read to her and he wouldn't, she asked me and I told her it was bedtime (note the time that the picture was taken 10PM). She got upset because we wouldn't read the book that was 30 pages long at 10PM. Let me not fail to mention that Rod had just spent 2 HOURS playing with her in the living room, hence the REASON that she was going to bed so late. When I got up to go tell her goodnight this was the sign that I encountered. I thought it was cute that I took a picture of it. She wanted to know why I was taking a picture of her sign instead of reading to her!! Go figure!

Whose lap is this anyway?

Our new little kitten Coco seems to think that she owns my lap as well as my chair. If I am sitting in the chair then she is on my lap and if I get out of the chair then she guards my chair until I return. So taoday I was trying to nurse Taniyah and she decided that she did not want to get down. She got up and laid her head on Taniyah's shoulder. Taniyah was so cute as she was petting the kitten and Brayana took a picture of the three of us.

She laid there for quite a while before she must have decided that she just wasn't as comfortable as she wanted to be so she got all cuddled in with Taniyah. In this picture she is sleeping and happy as can be. And Taniyah is still petting her!

Happy 3rd Birthday Angie!

Today was Angie's 3rd birthday. All morning she was asking "Is it my birthday party now?" I told her it was her birthday but we were having her birthday party later in the evening. If you know Angie you know how much she LOVES birthdays!! We had a visit scheduled with her Mom from 10-11am. Her aunts were there when we got there but her Mom didn't show up until 10:25. She was going to bring lunch and a cake for her but that didn't happen either. She did bring her a desk and her aunts brought her some clothes. After we got home I wrapped the gifts from us and Ahma for her cake and ice cream. We had pizza for dinner, she had a Barbie cake and got to open her presents. She is really into princess stuff. Ahma got her a dress up kit with the pretty shoes in it. We got her a princess cell phone with case, a princess chair and a bunch of ponies.

Erin and Tom's Wedding

I've been meaning to post these two collages that I made of pictures taken at Tom and Erin's wedding but I forgot about it and then didn't seem to have the time. The wedding ceremony was wonderful and included Erin's brother Brian suprising them. He flew all the way from Iraq and niether Erin nor her Mom knew that he was there until she was ready to walk down the isle. All we heard was screaming from the back. Then he went down the side of the church and suprised Erin's Mom which was followed by more screaming. He only got to stay a few days but I know that Erin was so excited to have him there. After the ceremony we all went to the reception. The theme was Mardi Gras. There were tons of beads, masks, hats, candy, and assorted items decorating the table. Everybody had a blast dancing and eating. All the kids enjoyed themselves. People kept bringing us more and more beads. Ellie and decided that we should model some of them and somebody took a picture of it. We stayed for several hours before deciding that we should take the kids home to bed. A few of the kids were walking zombies by that point. We got everybody loaded up and headed for home and Ellie decided that it was the perfect time to have a party hangover and started throwing up. Really it was the start to a bug that went around and hit most of the family. YUCK! Glad she waited until AFTER the wedding.

House updated

We have started to paint. Here is what the house looked like at the end of painting Day #2. It almost doesn't look like the same house. There are more pics on Flickr for those interested in seeing them. For those interested in all the specifics. The color of the house is called Dapper Tan and we are doing all the trim in white. THe front door will also be painted - most likely a red color although not positive which one yet. Will post more pics as we progress.

New Kitten

Last week one of our three cats was hit by a car. Most likely it was the neighbor who drives down our driveway to fast. She was only 6 months old. The next day our second kitten disappeared. We don't know if he went looking for her or if something else happened to him. That left us with one kitten - Carmel - out of the 4 that we started with (one was really sick and died shortly after we found them in our storage shed). Poor Carmel was beside himself as he didn't have the other two to keep him company so he has spent the week following me around like a "lost puppy". I felt so bad for him. So our neighbor brought us a new kitten. She is about 8 weeks old and mostly black. She has some white hairs interspered in the black but not many. She loves to play and do cute kitten things. I thought I would post a picture of her for everyone to see. She doesn't hold still for long so I couldn't get a very good picture but here she is- In the pic she is trying to get a drink our of my glass. She kept getting water in her nose though. When I get a better pic of her I will put it on Flickr.

My house!

My Mom sent me one of the first pictures that she took of our house. The lattice enclosed the front porches both upstairs and downstairs. Behind the lattice downstairs are stained glass windows. The security doors let you onto the porch and then there were also security doors on the doors INSIDE the porches. You had to go through two security doors to get into the house. ALL the doors on the house had security doors and if that wasn't bad enough, they actually had security doors on some of the doors INSIDE.

Our first project was to take down the lattice. Rod and I thought it was REALLY ugly and personally I like light. So down it came and we put up the porch railings.
We had to put up a new support post for the porch in order to take down the lattice and plywood to the right of the screen door. Amah and Poppa came during this project so Rod and Poppa enclosed the storage area in the front of the house and finished the porch rails.
This isn't a very good picture but the porch is complete, the front window and door have been replaced and the storage area has been enclosed. The big thing is NO MORE LATTICE!!

The house has now been primered and looks like this.

And they're off!!

The novice RVers have taken off for their next destinations. They were here for about 3.5 weeks and it was great. Always nice to have extra hands around to help me out. While they were here we went sailing, pressure washed the house, cleaned out the storage area, "steam cleaned" all the tile in the house, replaced the plumbing and faucet in the guest bathroom, installed the sink in my bathroom, installed a closet orgainzer in bedroom, cleaned out my bedroom (that's where things tended to migrate if they didn't have a place), put up the blinds/poster/coat hooks in the little girls room, hung up blankets in the girls room, primered the house, cleaned out the yard, cleaned off the front porch, and cleaned out a flower bed. We stayed busy and got a lot done even though Mom wasn't feeling well for part of the stay. When she was feeling well we got busy. When they left I think that she was feeling better and her knee was doing better. It wasn't great but she could drive! Not sure when they will be coming back but we are already looking forward to their next visit.

Painting the house

We are FINALLY getting things in gear to paint the house. I suppose it helped that Mom and I pressure washed half of the paint off the house. Can't rightly leave it half painted and half not. OK, maybe it wasn't HALF of the paint but enough to give me an excuse to paint it.

Mom and I started out by pressure washing the house twice. The first time we were washing it to wash it. The second time we were washing it to paint it. We even got the pressure washer up on the roof and pressure washed the upstairs.

This is what the house looked like when we started out. The front porch is done and the storage area at the front was enclosed. We had 4 or 5 different shades of brownish colored paint on the house.
After the first day this is what it looked like. We primered the upstairs and we were DONE. It was SO hot and it took 3 coats of primer before the wood was done sucking it in. When Rod got home we did one last coat of primer upstairs and called it a day. This isn't going to be as easy as I think it is!

On Saturday Rod, Ladaria, Tyreque and I went out and finished the primer. Amah and Poppa watched the 4 little kids while we worked. At the end of the day we had a house that looked like a huge ghost ship. It's all primered and ready to be painted. That should start sometime in the next week. Sure does look BIG!! I have promised the neighbors that it won't be BROWN and I won't leave it white. They say the primer still looks better than the previous paint job.