handsful

Everyday, I squeeze in time for either unpacking and/or organizing. I’ve been crazy busy lately, and not home much, but the next few days are fairly open so I plan on getting a LOT done. I’ve focused mainly on the kitchen and family room, followed by our bedroom. The big kids are working on their rooms, and the little kids are waiting patiently (ahem) for me to spend a good chunk of time in there.

Family room, looking into the kitchen. The red chair won’t stay forever, it’s on it’s last leg. The couch we purchased from the owners for a crazy good price, and the recliner is new. I want to incorporate some COLOR in here, still trying to decide on color schemes, window treatments (just want panels), etc.

Kitchen. This is one room we painted…it’s a warmer tone than it looks in the picture. I’m loving this kitchen, there’s so much space. Ahhh…

Ahhh!! This greeted Randy the other morning. You never know what you’re gonna find around here…or where.

View from the front door. I just missed the sunset, it’s gorgeous. Love the red barn across the street. Oh, and ignore the horrible yard…weeds that need cutting. We’ll work on the yard at some point.

View from the back deck. The dirt road winds down to our “shop”, as we’re calling it. It’s a large building that the previous owners used for a workshop. We’re considering making it into a hang-out for our kids and their friends. Not sure yet. To the left of the fir trees, you see what looks like stubby sticks? It’s an overgrown garden, that I hope to get our hands into soon!

Payton is always ready with a pose…

First plants, that I actually potted today. The tomato is meant to be a small, container type. Not sure how we’ll do with the strawberries, never tried them before. I’m hopeful, though :)

Next up, bedrooms…but, I’ve gotta have some time to make them blog-ready!

Taken in “their tree” when we drove down to FL a couple weeks ago.

Sorry for the blog drought, we’ve been a little busy around here.

Tomorrow will be 1 week since moving into our new house…in some ways it’s flown by, and in others it seems like we’ve been unpacking for weeks already. Sometimes I feel like we’re making huge progress in settling in, and then I look around and see boxes and things out of place. And, I inhale…exhale…and realize it’s going to take some time. Clutter has a tendency to “wig me out”, so it’s a challenge!

Re-cap of last weekend, without pictures (taking pics was the last thing on my mind, but I wish I had!). We were up early, with Randy picking up the 26ft truck and me going for doughnuts (hey, we had to eat breakfast, right?). Friends started showing up to help, some we weren’t even expecting. Some of those brought friends. We were silly with helpers and it was such a blessing! We also hired a group of guys with a Christian moving company, and they were work horses and did a great job. Truck loaded, Randy drove it over to the new house, and the unload began. Repeat the whole process over again, and the day was done. Well, not done exactly. We’re renting another smaller truck tomorrow to unload the rest of the garage.

Re-cap of this past week…took Payton to the doctor on Monday, he now has Mono AND Strep. Funny thing is his throat doesn’t hurt very much, but he’s been very tired and napping a lot. We did let him go to the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games (tickets ordered weeks ago), and he did fine. (a few pics to come…) Most of the other big kids are knee-deep in allergy issues, with red eyes, lots of sneezing, and tissues ankle deep. (Abbey is currently beside me on the couch, feeling rather miserable)

We’ve done a lot of unpacking, sprinkled in a little school here and there, and I’ve even cooked a few meals. Not bad for a first week. Again, though, no pictures to speak of. I just can’t document clutter, it’s against everything I believe in!

I did pull the camera out last night for a few minutes. Like I mentioned, the big kids ordered their movie premiere tickets weeks ago, and were EXTREMELY excited about going to the theater at midnight. We had 6 extra teens here, hanging out until Randy piled them into the van to drop them off. Abbey and her friends Jaiden and Kayla dressed up as some of the characters. Yes, they are HG fanatics.

Taken from the family room…kids everywhere.

Abbey as Katniss

Abbey and Jaiden (dressed as Peeta) laugh ALL the time. Seriously, they do.

The trio, Katniss, Kayla as Effie, and Peeta…they worked on these costumes forever.

All the kids, ready to head out. Randy handled the late shift, dropping them off and then staying up till 2am to pick them up. I love that about him. They all crashed at our house for the night.

This morning, Marley, Payton, and Ethan had an EARLY orthodontist appt, which means they had about 3-4 hours of sleep. But, they all agreed the movie was worth it.

Tonight, we sat down for our first “all of us at the table” dinner. We’re beginning to feel at home here, and how thankful we are.

it’s easy to tell that something’s up around here…

Names on cups are a must

empty turns into…

full (no, this isn’t all…they’re spread out all over the house)

Aren’t you jealous of my pricey “silverware”?

Walk-thru today
Closing on Friday (same day we leave for Florida to pick up our storage room contents!)
Big move happens in 10 days :)

We took Dylan to Shriner’s in Greenville, SC for the first fitting of his new leg…new and improved leg, actually. This one has a working knee. It works like a regular knee. When you step down on the heel, the knee is locked. When you roll the foot and put pressure on the toes, the knee bends. It’ll take him some getting used to, but I think he’ll love it!

I attempted a couple of videos…click to see :)

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The appointment went long! It alternated between his “test drives” and Crissy and India tweaking, tightening, making sharpie marks on it, trimming it in the back, etc.

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Like last time, the leg will be finished (and covered in Dylan’s choice of Disney Cars design…) and sent via UPS in about 3 weeks. We’ll be in contact with them to let them know which address to send it to! We don’t want his LEG forwarded!!

Yes, the knee does bend when you step on the toes! He’ll figure it out or do a lot of falling. Probably both.

Forgive the fuzzy photos, we only had my iphone. Amazingly, I don’t look as dead as I felt here…bad cold is going on for-ev-er!

Can’t believe he needs a new leg after only 6 months. But, his little leg had thinned out so much, that it was basically knocking around in the now-too-large socket. And, we are excited about the knee. :)

(Taken as we drove by…again. I’m sure the current owners think we’re stalking at this point.)

Have I mentioned we’re moving? To be exact, the new house will be OURS in 13 days. And, we’ll officially move in our house in 22 days. To say I’m excited seems so completely inadequate. I’m incredibly thankful that we found this house, and that we get to make it our home. I’ll never take owning a home for granted again.

I’m also very grateful that we’ve been able to rent this house. We’ve SO enjoyed living on the lake, being able to swim or jump in the boat for a spin whenever we wanted. But, as nice as that’s been, this house has never really felt like home…it’s just where we’ve lived.

Will we miss living here? Yes, but mainly because of the water. We tried to find a home that would 1) fit us and 2) was on the water. However, people with houses that fit those criteria are VERY proud of them and aren’t exactly giving them away.  And, we’ve grown accustomed to frivolous things like eating.  So, we found a house that fits us well, and has the bonus of being on some acreage. I’m beyond grateful…and, did I mention I’m excited?

What will I not miss about living here? Silly things like not being able to open the pots/pans cabinet if the dishwasher is open. Bumping the freezer door into the pantry, and the coat closet door into the bathroom door. Not having a garbage disposal. The boys extremely tiny room – and the fact that they’re in the basement which means all their “stuff” flows out of said tiny room. The fancy (i.e. irritating) light/fan switch in our bedroom, and the fact that the door sticks and makes a huge thud when opened at 3am by a child who needs to potty. Silly, little things, I know.

What am I looking forward to? Space. Inside and out. I can yell (ahem) at my kids and not a soul will hear.  Walking out the back door could turn into an all day nature walk.   A family room with enough seats for ALL of us at one time. Having all the kids bedrooms on the same level. Being able to decorate (since this is a rental, we’ve hung a total of 2 things on these walls), pick curtains, paint rooms if we want (and we do want!). Getting our grill and other things back (we currently have 2 rooms of storage in Florida…we travel to get those prior to our move).  Room for a garden!  A separate school room (our first!)…and, so much more.

Slowly but surely, we’re becoming over-run by packed boxes around here.  It’s a beautiful thing – and we’re grateful.

2/19/2012

2/24/2012

They look ready for this, right?

Maybe not.

Too bad, kids, the time has come to help our orthodontist put his own kids through college.

Braces for all 3 – at one time. Honestly, we’re getting a great deal. Having triplets has had it’s perks. Free diapers when they were little…discounts on braces now. Plus, they were having a February promotion of a big chunk of money off EACH set of braces. EACH! So, we jumped in.

We invaded the place bright and early. Since it was going to take HOURS of waiting in a boring waiting room, my friend Kelley graciously agreed to take Lainey and Dylan to the mall across the street.

I was equipped with my iphone, bible app, and journal. And, my kindle. Ocassionally, I glanced up at an incredibly old re-run of Rosanne. Did we ever really think that was funny?

The first patient finally showed up…

And, the second…

Finally, Ethan…

Total time at the orthodontist? 3+ hours. Total time they’ll be in braces? 22-26 months. Each.

Today is Day 2, and they’re definitely feeling better than they did Day 1. Ibuprofen is still their friend, and the food is still soft. (though, they did wrestle with pizza today at co-op, since the teacher surprised them with it!) The first week is the hardest.

A friend reminded me of something the other day…when Marley, Payton, and Ethan were little, I decided I’d get myself braces. I knew, down the road, that we’d be faced with putting braces on their sweet, tiny faces, so I figured I’d go ahead and take care of myself. Looks like “down the road” has arrived!