My Day

Pro’s

• Went running with my sister
• Mopped my floors this morning
• Was called a scallawag idiot by Xander (okay so technically this should be a con as Xander was really mad and ment it as the meanest name he could think of. But I love it when he calls me a scallawag. It makes me laugh, but only when I turn my head or am around the corner of coarse. Do you think it is a mean trick to teach your kids that outdated and funny insults are normal. What is going to happen to them at school?
• Soren prepared and ate his own snack - this also might technically be a con as I was watering our grass seeds (definitely a con) he went inside and without telling me got a pear, the biggest butcher knife we have and cut it up, put it in a bag and grabbed a cheese stick. When he came out and I saw what he had, I asked, “did you cut that pear yourself? (horrified and amazed). Soren said, “Yeah, I did. But I didn’t got blood. “ and then promptly went on his way. I then began day dreaming of the day he gets all his snacks for himself. Sigh, unfortunately the consequences would be too great if that day was today. So we went over the knife rules......again.
• Eating salad as a snack with my boys. We all love salad.
• Soren drawing an anatomically correct sidewalk chalk person. It was the first time I ever gave him sidewalk chalk (we have never had a concrete driveway before) and I was in the house cleaning when after 10 minutes he runs in and excitedly beckons me to come see his drawing. And this is what I found. I immediately could tell it was an esophagus, heart, and intestines. I just assumed the blob lower was a stomach. I asked him and he just said it was a stomach. He has only seen the innards drawing in the Barnstein Bear book “no more junk food”. You think he isn’t absorbing anything sometimes and then he comes out with this out of nowhere.
• Watching dancing with the stars with my boys. The whole time we watch it Soren is telling me how I should buy those dresses. I think it is so funny and cute. Then they request to dance with me.
• Boys rediscovering our backyard after a 6 month absence. They played well together outside for some time.

Con’s

• I had to water 11,000 sq feet of grass seed - again. A daunting task that doesn’t seem to ever end. The only time I want it to rain and it doesn’t.
• Xander peed his pants.......again. Being called a baby, changing his own clothes, threatening no preschool if he isn’t potty trianed by the fall and sticker charts don’t work on him. My new plan = hosing him down with the outside hose every time he poops, and maybe pees. We will see. how desperate I get. Anyway, maybe that will be a encouragement or discouragement enough to procure change. He is perfect everywhere else which his potty training - church, when out and about at stores, grandma’s ect.
• My floors not looking like they had been mopped in weeks by then end of the day. Sigh, I have forces working against me that are unnatural.
• The piles of laundry that are washed and not folded.

Overall a pretty good day.

• Minimal - moderate amount of tantrums.
• Moderate mess making
• Minimal possession destruction.

.

See? The heart and esophagus and intestines are really good on the top half. now we just need to go over the lungs,liver, kidneys, bladder and he will have all the major organ down.

I am not sure what is with the 4 arms

We've Moved In!!!!!

We did it! We move into our new house. (That is why I have 3 new post in one day). On Wednesday we passed our final inspection and got the go ahead to move in. This was a surprise as I was told no one passes their first final inspection. Usually you get a list of to do's and then after you complete them you can move in. Well, we had already been delayed due to some subcontractors, so we had extra time to perfect things and we passed the first time. Well, 30 seconds after we passed, Ryan informed me we were moving in that day. Yikes! We had nothing packed at that moment. But when Ryan is properly motivated he is a race horse and can accomplish the impossible. And so we moved about 80% of our stuff that day and finished it off the next day. It is so awesome being in this home. Waiting for it and seeing every part of it being constructed has made getting it so great. So far, every day I love it more. My favorite part is the kitchen. The island is AWESOME! I also love the bathrooms. The 2 full size bathrooms have double sinks and enclosed toilets and bath tub. I have a small walk in closet which I also love. The laundry room is a decent size and we have 5 bedrooms with a study. The house is pretty much huge. We have ginormous bonus room upstairs. My nieces spent the night last night and they loved playing hide and go seek. It took us forever to find Sadie. Kids just love doing laps and running in the open space. I am in heaven and it doesn't seem real. I can't wait to have family and friends over. I built it big so I could have lots of people over - I sort of adore people. They make me happy. Everyone come to my house!!

This is going to be the project area and computer area.

Big bonus room

Hatching Chicks

I have always wanted to hatch chicks in an incubator. It just sounds so cool. So, last year, when we decided to sell all our animals and build a house I thought the following spring just might be the perfect year to do it.......and it was. My 8 and 9 year old nieces live in my same appt complex. They have been having a rough couple of years moving often and this was no exception being in the new appt. Sadie (the older one) in particular loves animals and so I thought it would be great to hatch some chicks with them. They could read up on how to do it, have the incubator at their house and turn them 3 times a day for 3 weeks and after they hatch take care of them until their mom was tired of chicks in their appt. So 4 weeks ago we started the project. They did a great job monitoring the temperature and humidity and turning them. Well Last monday they hatched! It was sooooo cool! we had 29 eggs and we got 18 chicks. The ones who didn't make it were basically just egg yokes, with the exception of 2 who died while trying to hatch. You see, it was about 24 hrs between when the first egg hatched to the last and the already hatched chicks were running around in the incubator rolling the eggs that were trying to hatch all around. I think that might have been why 2 did make it, but I don't really know. The sad thing was the day they hatched I had to work a 12 hr shift. I kept calling my sister to see how many had hatched like every other hour. I wasn't jealous that I was missing it all until the 8th one hatched. There had been streams of family and friends who had been able to come over to see these chicks hatch and there I was working. I started to feel grumpy when my patients alarm when off. I went in to see the problem and then I realized the contrast almost immediately. Here I was grumpy I didn't get to see chicks hatch, while I was taking care of this 30 yr old woman who contracted H1N1 in October and throughout her horrible case of this, received brain injuries such that she will never walk or talk or eat by her mouth again. I hate immediate guilt trips.

The last chick hatching. I will post better hatching chick pics with a video later.

Soren is kissing the chick, but instead it looks like a hick mustache!

Building projects

I built this little landing with stairs so we could actually use out sliding glass door. This was a delight because we installed a slidding glass door where a window use to be on our old manufactured house and I never built the deck because we decided to build a new house instead so I was delighted to actually get to start using this door. The deck wasn't too bad but it was the first time for me to build this long of stairs and to do the railings which turned out to be trickier then I thought it would be. This deck is designed to be temporary as we would like to build a big deck in a year or so (when we have some more money again). So, this deck was made out of left over wood from building the house. I can totally see us having to replace a car or two in the next year and this deck lasting a lot longer.....so I was sure to make it of non-pressure treated wood so at least one day it will rot and then we have to replace it. ;)
I finally finished putting in my hardwood floors. It was about 600 sq ft. of nail down strand woven bambo. This stuff is awesome! It is gorgeous, and super hard and dense. You can take a hammer to it (not full force) and it won't even dent. The finish can scratch with sharp edges of things, but it is really amazing for wood. Anyway, I installed it almost complely by myself. It took me FOREVER! I did it in 4 days......but not 4 normal days. These are the hours I logged on it. 16hrs + 20hrs + 13hr + 14 hrs + 63 hrs. The last day I called some friends to help because I had to finish that day and it wasn't looking good. I love my friends. They came to my rescue and we got a lot done and pretty much finish that day. I am very happy with the results.


After the first day of being in this position and knealing and getting up a million times, my quads, and back were soooooo sore. Not hurt just muscle sore. The next few days were rough, but by the last day, I could do hours of labor like this without even feeling much. It was awesome. Thank you Thompson genes for quick muscle building.

Blog and house

Okay, so I just recently entered the world of blog viewing and blog writing. I feel compelled to only write if I have pictures because I like pictures. I have been super busy of late and have lots to share, but no pictures, which means no blog entry. However, other people have pictures and entries all the time. So my question is, do you take pictures just for your blog or is everyone really good at taking pictures all the time?

Well, even though I don't have pictures yet, I just have to give you a house update since it has been consuming most free moments of mine. We are suppose to be done with it on April 19th! Yahoo!! They finished the sheetrock last wednesday and I painting all the interior walls with a spray gun in a day - that was over 6000 sq feet of wall. It was awesome and totally fulfilling. It was like mopping a really dirty floor sort of fulfilling. It was great. It was totally toxic though but I was ready with my biohazard looking mask and a head to to toe covering. Then with some help of family and a friend we rolled the ceiling - it took 2 straight days but I am glad I am done. My head is permanently stuck looking up though. I would take a picture but it is just white and off white so I am not so sure it will be that impressive. We are going to do some more fun decorative colors on the walls after we move in and I can actually think about decorating. Since the house is finishing up so fast I am on a bit of a marathon with back to back big projects. Actually back to back to back projects. The interior painting was preluded with 5ft x 6ft deck landing and stairs and railing out the back sliding glass door which I had never built before. The railing post gave me a bit of trouble. It was built with 85% left over wood from the house and is suppose to be only temporary for about a year until we save up some more money to build a nicer deck. (Although I have a sneaky suspicion it will be there a lot longer if cars start dieing - a threat that is always luming.). Anyway, My next big project starts on Saturday. I am installing 600ft of nail down strand woven bamboo floor in the house. I have been looking forward to this project for months. However now that it is here and I have done so many other big projects, I feel tired and wish I could put it off - but that isn't an option so I must push onward! Today is Wednesday and I just now have time to figure out how to actually install it. Due to the unique flooring material you need a very special nail gun and I am not exactly sure where to get it or which one it is for that matter. I am sure once I figure out in my head how to install this stuff and find all the materials I will be more excited for Saturday. I am guessing this project is going to take several very long days. Anyways, the exterior paint is still not done and I am a bit worried that the city of Renton will require us to put in the driveway before we can move it. We are planning on putting out own driveway in due to price. We recieved quotes it would be 7,000$ to pay someone to put it in!!! Now I have learn how to work with concrete. On a easier and exciting note OTHER people are going to be putting in our cabinets and doors and trim staring tomorrow! for the next 10 days it will be like the best Christmas ever - everyday!!

Pictures to come soon!

Progress and Progress

This last Saturday had awesome weather! It was delightfully sunny and warm in the mid 60's. So, trying to capitalize on the weather my bother Zaron and his family went on a hike with us. (Ryan was working). We ended up going off on a little side trail that turned out quite steep. My kids did AWESOME!! Parts of this trail were really steep and even Xander with his 12 inch legs did the whole thing on his own smiling!! I am psyched! I have this goal of brain washing my kids to love high adventure activities and be real hardy in the outdoors. I now know they are old enough to let the brain washing to begin.

Here is a pic with the cousins. Corbin is a year older then Soren but 3 years older in maturity. This is not to dogg Soren but to say Corbin is quite mature for his age. Soren was way out in front of the pack the whole time and I assigned Corbin to hang out with him because even though he is 5 I knew he would keep Soren on the right path and not let him get lost too bad or let us know asap if Soren was not doing something unconventional. He was awesome. I want one.

There was this log we crossed to get over the stream and on the way back Soren and Corbin were out in front and I thought, "Hmmm, I better hustle because I am not sure if Soren will wait for me." I turn the bend and see this.
Nope, didn't wait for me. He had no qualms at doing this by himself with no adults around. It is this sort of confidence and attitude that doesn't allow me to stay in bed while my kids are awake at 5:30am.
Soren's confidence boosted my nephews who are naturally much more cautions. Surprisingly everyone ended up dry!! I didn't let Xander do this although he was already to go.

Ahhhh, a successful day trip.

So, I finally got to build my porch!! It was so fun and I am so pleased with it. The sewer and water enter the house under where the porch now is so I had to wait for all that to get inspected and pass and then fill in the ditches. Can I just tell you how much I hate moving dirt. It takes way too long. Anyway, after a day of preping an putting up my ledger boards on the house and getting the 4 x 12 x 16 beams up - a trick due to the weight - I was able to start the fun framing and putting up my decking. Wanting to capitalize on the last day Ryan was home before he went back to work, I started at 7am and didn't end until 12:30am. I am getting better at estimating how much time it will take me to do things. I first decide how long I think it will take. Then I times it by 4. Then I times that by 6. I choose strand woven bamboo. This is a fairly new product as decking and I am in love with it. I am going to put about 600 sq ft of this in the inside of my house (it is not the exterior decking but ment for interior.) I went to work one day with samples and told all my co-workers about why it is so great and they all agreed I should sell this stuff because I am such a believer. Here's hoping it will preform and withstand the Harris'.

I still need to build the stairs.

Isn't it pretty? It is suppose to be very low maintenance like composite decking.

It has been difficult for the older male neighbors around me (which is most of my neighbors), to understand why Ryan isn't the one doing this sort of work. They would say, "oh he must be working?" or "is he sick?" or my favorite, "I am sure he would like to be out here but someone has to watch the kids." I keep telling them that I am the one who likes to do these things more then Ryan but they just seem to look at me confused. It is now only after 5 years that one finally said, "Wow, Ryan is a lucky man." - okay so that was a female old neighbor, but her husband was with her so maybe she can explain it to him that it is okay.

Olympic adventure

This last Sunday Dawn, a friend from church was telling Kacey and I (another friend) about how she went to Vancouver for 3 days with some of her kids and how fun it was. They had bought tickets and planned the visit 18 months ago. Her Vancouver visit sounded so fun and since Vancouver is just 2.5 hrs away both Kacey and I thought, "maybe we should go down and check out Vancouver". Since the weather was good, the next day we loaded our kids up and drove to Vancouver. You need to realize I love hanging out with Kacey because our kids are equally matched. They are the same age and the same level of crazy. So when my kids are being crazy it isn't a problem for her because she is used to it and when her kids are being crazy it isn't a problem because I am use to it and we are just so glad we are with someone else that we don't have to keep apologizing to. The kids did really well in my opinion. There was a lot of traveling. We drove for 2.5 hrs, then took a train for about 50 min and some bus rides while in the city. There were tons of people everywhere. We almost lost Soren on several occasions, one really sketchy one, and there were a couple of tantrums, but that is to be expected when you have 4 kids 5 and under for an extended day trip right? There were quite a few free things to do but the lines were 8 hrs long and our threshold was 15 minutes so they were a no go. The place was really crowded. Canadians have some serious Canadian pride. About 70% of the people of the street were decked out in Canadian gear. Shirts, jackets, hats, gloves, pants - all of it. Whole families were matching. They must have spent a pretty penny showing their enthusiasm.
Here we are at the flame. My kids of course had no clue about the Olympics until I was telling about it that day. They had no idea why the flame is special or important but it doesn't matter. Despite their lack of understanding they seem to always be excited and love going to new places.
There was a bunch of Olympic art in the streets. Here is Soren posing in one of them. They also had street performers and and human zip lines going down the streets and other outdoor entertainment. There were several bands playing in the streets. We stopped at one and the kids had a good time dancing.
Xander showing his American pride! Go USA!!
Lastly here is some sketchy dude with a baby boa. Soren wasn't so sure about this guy but Kacey's kids were surprisingly happy to pose. I think I was suppose to drop in some money in his hat for the picture but we had zero canadian money on us the whole trip. In fact this little faux pa haunted us we tried to go ice skating but you could only play with cash. This blunder caused us to swear on our life to our children that they would get to go ice skating in the near future in some country to try to squelch the tears. That is what happens when you plan a trip 16 hrs before you leave the country. It was a long day. We didn't get back until 11pm but it was fun and I am glad we did it. I have never done anything with the Olympics so it was fun to get as close as I could and feel the Olympic excitement and country pride people had.

Super fast house update - we painted about 85% of the house. It is a dark green. I really like it. We still need to do the trim and contrast color that you can see on the front view of the house. It is a tan on the shakes. We are weather dependent so the house may look sort of silly for weeks while we wait for a weather break. Oh well. They are finishing up the utilities and stuff and hopefully in a week or so they can begin dry-walling - that will be an exciting step.