Cabin Demolition

So this weekend we spent Friday night and all day on Saturday working on tearing the house apart. We were working Friday night until 11:30 and had all of the wood panels off. Phil went down to work at 9:30 when I left to take the kids to the Easter party at the church. We got home around 11:30 and I tried to feed the kids some lunch after all the treats they had eaten earlier and then put Lyla down for a nap. I went down to work with Phil (mostly I just moved the pile of garbage from Friday night to the truck to take to the dump). After said dump run Phil had made many more piles of flooring for me to move and load. He was working so hard at getting the multiple layers of flooring up.

So then the kids were fantastic and played outside (hooray for the sunshine on Saturday) in their swim suits in the sand and a little in the freezing water for the rest of the afternoon with me coming in and out of the house loading stuff into the truck. Seriously things really lined up for us on Saturday with the weather and the kids being wonderful.

Around 6:00 I took the kids up to feed them (corn dogs) put them in a bath and tuck them into bed. Phil came up for a brief dinner and to give his back a little break and then we headed back down to work. I think it was around 9:30 when I asked Phil if he thought we were really going to get the whole floor up that day, and he laughed and said yes. My arms were totally wasted by this time and I had to take boards out one at a time, with my arms shaking. He just kept cranking the boards up and moving right along. We have an understanding after working together on houses for the past 10 years that I really can't keep up with him, he is a maniac. In the past I have had excuses like being pregnant or needing to take the kids home and put them to bed while he still worked. Neither of those excuses work now because home is here and I am not pregnant. I figured if he still was working I should still be working. Well at 9:30 when I asked him if we would finish I took this picture.

We had about 1/4 of the floor left, but he said we could do it. Just an hour and 1/2 later we had all of the floor up. Half of the floor didn't have insulation under it and the other half had triple the insulation, not really sure what they were thinking with that one. It felt so great to have everything torn out and now we are drying out the floor beams with the dehumidifiers this week and will get ready to do the plumbing and electrical this weekend and the next. I was super tired on Sunday and laughed about teaching the lesson in Relief Society about work. I swear most days I feel like I am totally lazy, but Saturday was not one of those days.

Obsession

So Lyla is totally obsessed with going potty and knowing too much personal information about perfect strangers and their bathroom experiences. Yesterday in the grocery story she told four people, "I went poop in the potty yesterday." She measures all time in yesterdays so she really meant she had gone that morning, but not a single person knew how to respond to her statement. One little old lady just laughed, but the others gave me an interesting look to make sure I knew I was responsible for teaching my daughter better.
She followed up with asking two other lucky shoppers if they had gone poop "yesterday". It really makes me feel awesome when she connects with people on such a personal level. On the way home we had a talk about what things we shouldn't be saying and asking people, but I am guessing none of it sunk in because last night at math night she asked a handful of teachers the same question.

Love Letters

Cannon,

Mrs. Jones called yesterday after church. We were scheduled to have Parent/Teacher Conference with her last week, but with her chemotherapy treatment she was to sick to be at school. She is battling breast cancer right now and wants more than anything to be at school with her students, but she has had some bad days. She talked to daddy about you and all that you are doing at school right now.

After dad got off the phone he told me all the amazing things you are doing at school. Tears came to my eyes as I heard him talk about what a good helper and friend you are. Mrs. Jones said that you are always willing to help other and because of this kids always want to be your partner on projects. You are great at explaining what you are doing and always try really hard to help them understand. I have been able to come help in your class this year every Monday afternoon and I have seen how the other students love to be around you. You became the official "shoe tier" for the class when you learned to tie your own shoes a few months ago. You love being able to help, but you are very humble and quiet as you serve others.

Daddy talked yesterday at Stake Conference about the purpose of families. He said that the Plan of Salvation is the plan of the family. We were created to create families, the Fall allows us to have families and then the Atonement allows us to make those families Eternal families. I feel so blessed that I get to have you as part of our little family we have created.

As I watch you build paper airplanes, play computer games or talk to yourself as you are walking around outside I have to laugh because I imagine your father doing those same things 30 years ago. Then as I watch your daddy I get so excited because I see you becoming him. I see you becoming that great Priesthood holder, obedient missionary, devoted husband and loving father. You are a great little boy with tons of potential and I am honored to be your mother. I love you!

Mom

Ramblings

So lately I have been in a body image funk. Yuck, I know. Not something I want to be stuck in and it hasn't helped that I have been trying on swimwear for the summer. This morning as I was out for a run I thought about all the things I love about my body so here it goes:
1. I am almost always healthy (seriously I hardly ever get sick)
2. This body has been capable of having three (very beautiful) babies
3. This body is now able to care for those three children
4. It can take my mind on a run every morning to keep me sane
5. It allows me to play sports that I love
6. I am able to help Phil do demolition on the house
7. It allows me to serve others
8. This body is almost always pain free

House Update

Well we got the bill from the water company and we had a really good laugh. It seems that we managed to waste just about 1 MILLION gallons of water. I thought the lake looked a little full this year. Seriously crazy, right? We decided with everything adding up that we would file a claim with insurance.
We thought the bill was funny until we called the water company and they said they would only adjust half of the bill. Paying for 500,000 gallons of water was not on my most favorite things to do list, but at least they will do half.
Last night Phil and I went down to the house and started talking about what we wanted to do with the house since we are starting with a blank canvas now and it was really fun. We have been trying really hard since we bought the place two years ago to NOT think about how we wanted to fix things up because we needed to wait until houses sold. Now we can't seem to stop thinking about all the cool things we could do. We looked online at outdoor showers and man there are some amazing ones. We were thinking more along the lines of rinsing off after a swim, but these were totally glamorous. I guess first things first we have to keep tearing things apart and getting all the floor up and open up the walls to get air circulating.
I am hoping to have things done over the next few months so we have a fun place for people to come and visit this summer.

Parents in Town

Well mom and dad arrived on Wednesday night and the sun arrived that day as well. We had 3 days of sunshine and playing around with grandma and grandpa. The kids played for a while in the water on Saturday until it registered in their brains that their feet were freezing. It was sunny, but only in the upper 50s lower 60s and the water is still really cold.
On Saturday afternoon we went down to the Tacoma waterfront so the kids could Rollerblade and we could have dinner. Lyla was attached to grandpa the entire time and this morning she asked why they couldn't live with us. They are off to Texas to work and see Robbi. I am excited for the trip to Driggs this summer to hang out with everyone again. We played farkle and mom won almost every game. I think Phil might have won one time, but the rest were mom's. I love these two so much and it is always a hard day when they go. Even the sun decided to hide behind the clouds when mom and dad left yesterday.

Cannon was to worried about his hurt finger to smile, but he really did love having them here.

Lyla

So Lyla has become one of those kids that every time you are experiencing a great silence you know that you better go check on things. She has put Vaseline on the walls, went through a large jar of Vick's covering her crib and wall during nap time. She found some dark gray eye shadow and I found her covered from head to toe one morning. We were in a hurry to get somewhere that morning, but I had to toss her in the bath and all the eyeshadow didn't come off. It was on everything.

She didn't want me to take pictures because she knew it meant she was in trouble. The problem with her is that she is old enough to know what things not to get into so she stashes them in places I wont find and then gets them out when I am busy. Yes I have found her painting her nails when I walked in the room after finishing the dishes. I later found the stash of three fingernail polishes under the couch. She emptied a full bottle of fingernail polish remover in the bathroom trying to get some paint off the toilet, while I was putting away laundry.

The next photo she didn't want to turn her head so I could get a picture of...

this! She used a whole jar of Phil's hair gel on her hair. Luckily it is much easier to get gel out than the Vaseline a few months ago.

I love this little girl, but she certainly has been a busy-body. I am currently busy finding all the secret stashes of sharpies, make-up, Vaseline, hair gel she has around the house. Just when I think I have it all she whips something else out.