Last day with our old kitchen. I like seeing (almost) all of the counters cleared off.
Demolition day. Bye-bye lowered ceiling and absolutely everything else.
They are putting dry wall up this week (Mon-Wed) and then I get to paint while we work through a few flooring snags. Well, one REALLY big flooring snag: the possibility of asbestos present on the original vinyl flooring and/or adhesive. After thinking through several alternatives and possible actions, we've decided to have the flooring in question officially tested for asbestos.
It will take some time to get the results back, so I am forced to chill. It's been rough on my "inner planner obsessions" to depend on other people and their schedules to finish something that means so much to ME. If the plumber decides not to come on his appointed day, or the electrical inspector ignores your persistent requests for a visit, then the work gets delayed...both situations happened last week.
Now, though, the ball is in my court until we figure out what to do about flooring. I don't like delays, but I don't want to botch this thing by rushing forward uninformed.
We want ceramic tile. That requires we 1) finish the floor before the cabinets go in and 2) we get rid of all the layers of flooring to get to the sub floor. The new mud room has 5 layers. The kitchen has only 3, as far as I can tell. If asbestos is present, then we'll need to decide whether and how to remove it :(
Bobby was out of town this week (ugh) on a very last-minute, kinda
emergency, trip to Yahoo! headquarters in sunny California. He wasn't
physically here for Robert's 6th birthday, so I tried to make it a
bigger deal than usual.
See, here's the thing about
Robert. He doesn't count down the days to his bday and talk about it
constantly. Neither does he ask to throw elaborate parties with guest
lists and scheduled events. No, this guy is the one who asks (on his
birthday), "What's for dinner?" as if he hadn't selected it just two
days ago. But, also unlike Alice, Robert has a very specific idea of how
the things he does choose need to turn out. And he can be
disappointed easily. So, often it's better not to ask his opinion and
just do something extra as a pleasant surprise.
So here's how it went:
The
night before, I put up all the bday decorations in the dining room,
setting the table with his gifts and fresh, homemade cinnamon rolls.
When he came into the dining room the next morning, all the other kids
and I were there and shouted, "Happy Birthday!" He was pleased...a smile
creeped across his face in a sort of embarrassed, but happy, way. He
loved the gigantic mylar balloon. Loved the cinnamon rolls. The only way
I knew that, however, was the ever-present grin on his face and how
much attention he paid to both of those items.
After
breakfast, he opened presents in his typical fashion: open one, play
with it. Open another, play with it. I can't tell you how much I LOVE
that about this boy. Alice was pulling out her hair, begging him to just
open all of them at once. He's been very careful with his birthday
presents this year...careful not to waste or neglect them...careful to
put them away when he's done with them.
He had to go to school as usual, unfortunately, but he put everything away and left as a happy dude.
When
he got home, we Skyped with Bobby. It turns out Bobby had contracted
some food poisoning the day before, so he wasn't feeling very well. The
chat was brief, but Robert had fun. Matthew REALLY had fun seeing Bobby
on the computer screen.
After Skyping, we had a dinner
of chicken strips, BBQ chips, and raw veggies. Followed by chocolate
tapioca pudding. I think RObert chose that last year, too:
To
make it special, I had purchased the candles that burn with a colored
flame (blue, green, yellow, orange, or red, depending on the candle). We
were all impressed. Then the kids threw on PJs and performed this
spontaneous dance show with lots of yelling and noise :) The first
minute is my favorite because you get to see Robert at his happy,
engaged best. When James assigns him to dance, he does a funky little
groove on the spot. You also see a lot of that fingers-on-face action
he's famous for. When the song "Window" is over, feel free to stop
watching. The remaining 5 minutes of the video can get a little
tiresome...lots more shouting, singing, and dancing. Maybe I'll be able
to sit through the whole thing in 10 years...
Happy Birthday, Bud!
This post does not come close to capturing all the things I love about you, but here are a few more:
You
just can't sit still while reading scriptures. It blows my mind how you
can read the words on the page while hopping on and off the couch
constantly. Pure genius :)
You adore younger kids.
You get right in their faces and coo at them. You try to lift them up.
You bring toys and try to make them laugh.
You ask us
about everything and we get to have the coolest conversations. Today
alone, we talked about plant defense mechanisms, electrical circuits,
feeling the Holy Ghost, and world economics. You share your observations
about the world and theorize how and why it's like that.
I
love watching you figure out life and who you are. You say you are shy,
but I've seen you initiating play with other kids. I've seen you move
right up close to adults just to get a better look at something
interesting they're doing. You look at people straight in the eye and
smile at them. Maybe you're only shy when it comes to words...I'll have
to watch a little closer about that...
Anyway, I'm delighted to have had you as part of our family for another year. Happy Birthday!
The kid insists on silverware, an open cup, and sometimes even a real seat at the table. A baby no more. He's digging in to Robert's birthday dessert of choice: chocolate tapioca pudding.
I don't want to freak you out or anything, but I have been waiting for a lefty. Not really longing for one, but secretly, patiently watching for one. Any one. You're asking me why. Well, I'm kinda left-handed. I notice left-handedness. I've always wanted at least one of my kids to be left-handed. The kids look so much like Bobby's side of the family. Pick any facial feature and I'll show you which Evans relation gave it to him/her. But the lefty thing would be completely from my side. My own.
I had given up hope after I decided James was our last kid.
I had completely forgotten about it until Matthew started using tools and utensils, turning pages, stacking blocks, and playing with cars predominantly with his left hand. A thrill of hope sprung anew.
Matthew's brain and body still has time to work this out on its own, of course, but now you know which side I'm rooting for. The left one.
1. I evicted the "chicks" from the guest room/office
Advance apologies to my backyard neighbors for the eye sore...only a few weeks, I promise. The birds seem to enjoy their new digs. They peek out of the grate. Once the weather warms up a little more, I will take off the towels and heat lamp.
2. The new kitchen cabinets arrived
This is the 1/3 of them that fit down the narrow hall into our newly
chick-free office/guest room. The other 2/3 are in the garage. The
delivery guy had me check off each of the 30 boxes as he brought them
off the truck. I got to review the contents of a few of them and I'm
starting to get a little excited...just a little...lots of unknowns yet,
but this wish appears to be coming true for really reals...a pantry...an integrated trash can and recycle bin...a place for cookie sheets...oh my.
When Robert came home from school and saw the big boxes, he asked if we could keep them all. Not all, dear boy, but perhaps a few of the biggest ones. Oh yes.
3. One little stinker stole my orange
I guess that's not a good thing. I'm going soft in my old age. He's so CUTE, though! And his petite size doesn't help, either. Sheesh.
4. I finally took pictures of all the work my kids have brought home from school, church, and camp over the last year or so. It was a big pile. My purpose is to preserve some form of it digitally before select items end up in the kids' memory boxes. I'll share this little gem with you:
Robert drew a hand drawing a self-portrait of the person the hand was attached to.
Did I tell you his teacher exclaimed, "He's got this whole art thing going on!"? He finishes his worksheet or whatnot and has extra time so he flips the sheet over and creates this colorful mass of shapes. He's bringing stuff home like this every day:
FRONT SIDE: "Sheep are flofy. Sheep are whit. Sheep are worm."
BACK SIDE: Fill every inch with color.
And this one made me laugh because he created a reverse image of the front side onto the back...mostly. He didn't turn the "at" at the top around. He probably loosely traced the cat itself through the paper, but the rest looks free-hand:
Seriously?! This is where I try to draw some sort of conclusion about Robert based on these examples, but the kid is just plain himself. Not exactly predictable. It's not like he has much to say when I ask him about his work/art pieces, either. I would love to observe him 5 or 10 or 20 years down the line. Is this kind of stuff just fun for now, or something that will persist into adulthood? Maybe both :)
(This post is in parenthesis because I just want to write down some frustrations to figure out why their bothering me so much. I want you to know about them, but I also DON'T want you to know about them because they're really not that bad and hardly worth complaining about.)
(Feel free to ignore the rest.)
(Our kitchen cabinets are going to be delivered next week. Yay, right? Well, sorta. I thought Home Depot would be kind enough to hold on to them for us, but it turns out they're getting delivered to MY HOUSE! A whole WEEK before the guys can even begin demolition! Where the heck am I going to put them?! I'm already emptying out my kitchen and half the guest room into the front room. What more do they want from me?!)
(Then demolition will take a week, starting 11 April. Three days of demo before I can even ask the flooring people to come measure. Then after the measure, it's 3 more business days for electrical, plumbing, and drywall to go in. That's a whole week to transform my kitchen from functional to a barren hole with four walls. Didn't think it would take that long to render the heart of my home useless.)
(Then nothing more can be done until the flooring is installed...which could take weeks to get the materials AFTER the measure (28 April?). Then at least a week to install the floor.)
(Then the cabinets go in (5 May?), but no counter tops or running water for another 3 WEEKS!! That's Memorial Day, folks. I sense an upcoming spike in our "eating out" budget.)
(I'm dying out here! But I have no room to complain because I'm paying them to do this really big transformation for me.)
(I guess it boils down to my preparation level. I kinda knew it would cost a lot of money, but I was ill prepared for the time and inconvenience costs. I should have done more homework before signing on.)
(Eureka!)
(And that's why I write these things out. My outrage has now tamed into watchful patience: it was my poor preparation, not the process itself, that has caused this frustration. Now I can deal with it.)
(Therefore, my priorities this weekend include prepping a space in the house to store all the new cabinets, then prepping another space in the house to act as our transitional, sink-free, stove-free, oven-free, counter-free kitchen space for the next 6-8 weeks.)
It's a butterfly. She got this at the school's "Academic Carnival" last night.
He told me to tell the face painter, "Surprise me!"
Our current "mudroom" area, crammed between three doorways. I even tidied it up for you :) This space will be transformed during the kitchen remodel to give us more space for putting on coats, shoes, backpacks, and such.
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