Battle Cry

Following is Evan's battle cry as he prepared for a showdown with his brother. To help you set the scene, I'll tell you that he was shirtless (unless a super hero cape counts). The battle was delayed because Evan had to go poop. Here is what he cried a split-second before flying out of the bathroom to meet his adversary:

"Prepare to see your eyes amazed!"

This sticker was on the bathroom door.
It pretty much says it all.
I would show you the picture of the bird feathers and skeleton that we found under the bathtub, but that's just too much.

Workday

Yea for friends! We had wonderful helpers on Saturday at the new house. We were so thankful for them and the work we got done together. They hauled everything out of the basement. It was so dirty- tons of dust flying around.

Here the boys enjoy our lovely problem in the hole.

This is when I really started getting excited. Seeing the paneling come off and the studs showing, made it start feeling like the real thing. Once I could see the studs, it felt like a construction project rather than a dirty house that we have to live in.


Hooray!

Anyone for a bonfire?

Roadblock #1

Not good. What you see in this photo of our newly-excavated basement is a Canadian specialty: Bedrock. And lots of it.

There is a perfectly good basement under the existing house and no exposed bedrock nearby. So we never even considered the possibility here. We tested for bedrock at the other property we looked at, but for some reason didn't even really think about it here.

The basement of the house we're in now has exposed bedrock making up part of the floor. Other than the inconvenience of making part of the basement only 4 feet high, it lets water in. Water runs over the rock and on into the basement. So that's not an option.

We're looking at Plan B. Only, we didn't have a Plan B, so we're improvising as we go. We thought about making the new basement mostly crawl space and putting the family room under the existing house. (Along with the apartment.) But there were definite downsides to that. Right now we're leaning toward hiring someone to bring a chipper to work on it. It's rather expensive and we really have no idea if it will be a 4-hour job or a 2-day job. And the chipper isn't available until mid-week. So cancel concrete for today and pause everything 1 week. Boo.

Oh well. What can you do. I guess we'll learn to expect roadblocks and do our best to navigate them.

Here we are on Wednesday. After we picked up the boys at school, we all donned our work gloves and got ready to work. You can hardly see it in the picture, but it was snowing pretty heavily. sigh.

October 20!

It's official! We are the owners of a new key. And the house and land that go with it.

And now....For the Grand Unveiling....

Ta-daa!

Did I just hear a collective gasp? Was it in awe of the beautiful new home we've just purchased? Or was it shock?

I've been rather reluctant to post photos. (Except for that one from-a-distance photo I released.) But there's no denying it now. For better or worse, we own this house. I'm wondering if we're crazy, but please don't tell me if we are- I need encouragement, if anything.

Yes, the orange van was included in the purchase price! Isn't that spectacular?! Can't wait to get that thing up and running. And behind where I stand to take the picture is another vehicle. The excavator will soon haul them away to wherever you take junk cars.

Hopefully he'll take this...thing and the random tower behind the house too.
This is where our addition will go. Tomorrow there will be a big hole here. Yea!


And to my shock, when I walked behind the house to get this photo soon after arriving this afternoon, I saw a cat sitting in the window watching me. They were supposed to be gone! Apparently the vet is coming this evening to take care of them. And the poor woman who is the executor of Jake's (the former owner's) will. Kendall said she was in tears this afternoon about the 2 cats. I do feel sorry for her and even for the cats. But I was hoping they would be gone and done with and I wouldn't have to see them.
(Oops, in reading over this, I see that it sounds like the vet is also going to take care of the executor of the will. That's not right- I was just saying I felt sorry for her.)


Here's the inside- from the front of the house. Kitty is watching me.
The living room will eventually be the master bedroom. We'll change the (cat-hairy) carpeting.

And here is a photo from the picture window in the back of the house. Isn't that a cool green light? Jodi, you will be getting a close-up photo of it, so you can start thinking about how I can use it. :) The new kitchen will be in the addition, so this kitchen will be mostly entryway.

So anyway. There it is in all it's glory. The two bedrooms and bathroom aren't nearly as beautiful as the rest of the house, so I'm not bothering to put in pictures. Actually, they're about equal in beauty, just boring. They're off to the right in the last photo.

Hope you enjoyed the official "Before" pictures. As my friend, Jenni, said, "Too bad they can't be scratch 'n sniff!" That's actually lucky for you as a reader, by the way.

I'll try to put photo updates on the blog. Who would have ever thought that Kendall and I would buy a house worthy of 'Flip This House'... Here goes nothin'!

2 Teeth

Eli's 2 front teeth have not wanted to come out. His adult teeth were there pushing them out of the way. For a couple weeks I noticed that his teeth were getting all pushed around. Finally one afternoon as we were sitting on the couch, I said, "Why don't you just pull those things out?" He reached up and pulled one out. A few minutes later, he pulled the second one out.

Doesn't he look great?! And if you think he looks good, you should hear him talk without his teeth. It's awesome!

October 11

Evan is 5!

Evan is developing his own sense of humor. I'm amazed and amused by the jokes he comes up with. He enjoys being the life of the party and is quite dramatic. He likes to sit on my lap every morning and it's very important to him that I am wearing my fuzzy robe during that time. He folds laundry and is learning to wash dishes. He's very obedient at school- He says it's because he doesn't want to get in trouble. Hmm. Maybe I should start writing names on the board at home or whatever his teacher does that's so threatening. Evan can be quite the pokey little puppy. It's not uncommon for me to give him his clothes in the morning and to find him 10 minutes later lounging on his bed, still in his pajamas. He'll tell me that he forgot to get dressed and "Where are my pants?!" Well, right where I put them when I showed them to you and specifically said, "Here are your pants and your shirt. Put them on." I'll call that carefree, though when I feel frustrated, other descriptive words come to mind.

He's such an affectionate little guy. He's all over Eli, hardly even noticing what he's doing. Recently in music class Evan and Eli were standing and listening to the teacher with their arms all around each other. Eventually there was a little fist bopping the brother's head along with the beat of the song. So the teacher stopped and corrected them, telling them to keep their hands to themselves. I watched from behind. Hands now forbidden, their bodies became glued together. Pretty soon I saw Evan's little hand sneak up behind and rest on Eli's back. I'm not sure if he was even aware of what he was doing. (Of course, then Eli- fully aware of what he was doing- sneaked his arm around the other side to meet Evan's behind their backs, out of sight of the teacher.)

The photo is of Evan on his birthday. He chose Bunny Pancakes for lunch and he also chose to pose like that for the photo.

October 7

Today is my boy's 7th birthday. I cannot believe it. Especially when I think that he'll be getting ready to fly the coop in 10 short years.

I am so proud of Eli. His sense of humor is really developing. (And it's beginning to look a lot like his old man's.) He enjoys a good pun. He's such a good big brother. They may do their share of fighting, but Eli is very protective and giving toward Evan. Eli is a deep thinker. He sees the deeper meaning behind stories. With a little coaching, Eli can talk about his emotions and attitudes. He tries really hard. He can decide he wants to change something and then do it. He stopped biting his nails when he decided to. In the past few days he has been deliberate about being grateful after a...pep talk from Mom and Dad. He appreciates nature. He's really picking up on reading. He wants to be like Dad. He likes sewing machines and guns. He likes candlelight and wrestling matches. He likes Little House on the Prairie and Star Wars.

By the way, in just the past few weeks Eli has taken off with reading. Before, he just wasn't all that interested. I've always loved reading, so I've been looking forward to this for a long time. But now I am reminded of the downside. There's always a page to finish before he can come help with chores. He wants to try to read while talking on the phone. He wants to read before he's ready for school in the mornings. Oh well, it's so fun to see.

Language

It's so fun to watch/hear language developing. I can't believe how many words and phrases Evan knows...but not quite. On one hand, I hate to tell him what the real phrase is- this innocence lasts only so long. On the other hand, I almost feel sorry for him not knowing what is really being said. I still remember finding out that 'bolleyball' was actually 'volleyball.' There's something sad about realizing that you've had it wrong all this time.

Here are a few:

We were out in the bush and Evan's sense of right and wrong kicked in. Indignant and slightly shocked, he exclaimed, "Eli! Someone glittered a pop can!"

On that same trip, we searched for mushrooms. When I found a bunch of them together, I said, "We hit the jackpot!" For the rest of the hunt, Evan ran around exclaiming, "It's the crackpot!" and "The crackpot trophy!"

Evan and I walked into a store. Some weird song was playing. He said, "I think I renicuz this song!" (recognize)

We were in the van listening to a CD. Evan was quite confused and asked for clarification on a line in the song. "Why are they saying 'lie to your cat'?" After a moment or two of my own confusion, I explained that the line was 'a light unto my path.'

And one last quote from Mr. Ev-
Kendall: "Why are you eating glue?"
Mr. Ev: (caught in the act) "Sowwy." (That would be 'sorry.')

Smelling

Eli is really into smells. If he finds something new, it's not uncommon for him to put it to his nose and sniff. He'll tell me something smells like So-and-so's house (often someone from faraway Indiana) or that it smells like Iowa outside. One day he brought home a card he made at school. He seemed especially fond of it because it smelled like Isaac's house. One day he walked into a freshly-painted room. He walked right up to the wall and took an up-close sniff. One of my favorite descriptions of the way it smelled on the way to school one day was "like an open coconut." Interesting. We'll have to see how this develops.