Sliding Glass Door to Window

In what was Libby's room now the part that is Henry's room there was a sliding glass door. Basically like the one you see on the top right. They removed that and put in the window. The window is smaller than the door so some changes had to be made. As you can see in the bottom right. They added the brick, the ledge and the stucco. It isn't perfect as they just did a straight line but this window is hidden under our deck so it really isn't a big deal. The brick was all originally on the house somewhere, just removed from various other changes. So it all matches really well.

I LOVE IT!!

Little Helper

The electricians were working in the laudnry/bathroom yesterday. Syd was sitting there watching them intently. They asked if she wanted to help, she was so excited. They told her that she needed shoes. I think they thought it might deter her. Nope. She ran and put on her coat and the one shoe that she could fine. I found the other and went to put it on her, she wouldn't let me. SHE had to do it.

They were totally awesome with her. They had her get her little broom and dust pan and had her "help" clean up. She was still cleaning after they left.

(see that tile, it is slippery and ugly. Can't wait to rip it out and put in the new stuff.)

On Masons and Miscellaneous

Mike here this time around. I spent the day finishing up the installation of the network, cable, and phone wiring since well, I sortof enjoy that sort of thing. I should probably let a pro do it, but... Anyway, so the masons came back and refinished the brick around the new windows. It looks great! It also seems warmer in that area too. I think the old window just leaked air like a sieve.

Starting from top left and going clockwise is the finished product, then how it looked before the new windows, then before the new windows with the teeny-tiny window, then the masons taking out the old brick and finally, the scaffolding they put up to get the done.

Great story of the day

Yesterday we were supposed to get the ceiling insulation in so that they could frame the walls in the guest room.  They were trying to work around each other.  Apparently it was difficult so the framer just left and came back today.  I thought that was the whole story.

Apparently the framer had to leave for a bit.  When he came back the insulation guy had decided to use one of the framers $200 tools and had broken it.  He had come back to find the insulation guy trying to fix it.  yay :(

Pictures to come!

The Last Holiday Concert

Libby got some more books about a week ago from the school book order.  I had to take them away that night as she chose to read instead of taking her shower.  So I got to read this:

I like his books, but at the same time I cringe to think of kids reading it.  The kids in the book always do something just awful.  In this book Hart shoots rubber bands in class.  As a teacher that just makes me want to cry.  But it is a good story and he ends up learning a really good lesson and was truly sorry that he had shot those rubber bands.  I really did like it and I recommend it, it still makes me cringe though!

Halloween 2011

I figured, stay at home mom, I can do more than just buy my kids costumes.  Not sure if it worked out and I probably spent more money than I would have, but I think I probably ended up with better costumes for the most part.  Anyway, I think my kids are cute.

MJ was just the flower that we had from Sidney from 2 yrs ago.  She is so drooley that we called her the "Self Watering Flower"

Next is Syd.  She has turned into a MAJOR Mickey Mouse fan.  When we go-go in the morning about the only way I can make her happy about going back home is to see if Mickey Mouse is on.  So I convinced her that it would be ok to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween.  I looked at one in a magazine that I got in the mail, almost bought it until I saw what came with it.  For the money it would have been I didn't think it was worth it.  So I decided that I could just make her a skirt and find most the other stuff.

I got her some black leggings, a Star Wars shirt that had black sleeves, and some super cute hot pink shoes.  I was just going to go to the fabric store and get some polka-dotted material to make the skirt.  I was at Ross, I think, trying to find a shirt for Libby's costume when I came across the perfect skirt for cheaper than I could probably have made it myself.  My mom happened to have gloves and a headband so we were now set.  Libby also had a hat from when we went to Disneyland so we also had a back up.

I think it turned out great, and she wanted to wear it which can be really hard with a 2 yr old.  She is wearing the skirt and hat again today. I think it will be in her dress-ups from now on.

Henry's costume I copped out on.  I just bought the Jango Fett costume.  I wasn't going to even attempt.

This is an action shot, he is shooting the rocket on his arm.  I love that he loves Star Wars this much.  It is turning into something the whole family can do together from watching the movies to playing Star Wars Lego.

Now for Libby.  At first she wanted to be Hermione.  Fine.  I started crocheting the scarf.  Easy enough.  I was also planning on making her cape.  It was to be the first thing I have sewn in more than ten years.  I don't think the table runner I did two years ago counts as the machine didn't like me and the lady teaching basically ended up doing it for me.  One day Libby comes home from school and tells me that her and two of her best friends all want to be American Girl Dolls for Halloween.  So after talking about it all she decided that she wanted to be Hermione for school Halloween and then Emily for Halloween day.

I bought the tie and the wand as I knew I would never get around to finding one or making one.  I bought her a polo shirt and crocheted the scarf.  The scarf isn't the greatest but I am not a fan of changing yarn colors ever two seconds.  I started out doing that and couldn't take it.  I kind of like my interpretation.  The cape was fun.  ;)  I found some directions online that seemed easy enough.  I read through them about 50 times before I went and bought the fabric.  I probably ended up with extra fabric but as I have none it is good to have some on hand for random things.  I finally started making it Wednesday night as she needed it Friday morning.  I worked on it off and on Thursday as I was also trying to finish up things for the Primary Program that I was in charge of this last weekend.  (Way too much going on)  I ended up staying up late Thursday night.  Mike ended up watching me make it so that the sewing machine would behave.  I think it turned out great for not really sewing much.  I did the lining color too.  Halloween can be very cold, last year it was raining like crazy.  Turned out to be a nice warm day Friday and on Halloween.

If you recall Hermione in her early years has rather crazy hair.  What I could find for recommendations on the interweb was to just blow dry her hair upside down and scrunch it with some gel.  Gel doesn't tend to work on the several different kinds of hair in our house.  Maybe we do it wrong.  So I got Libby up when I got home from a meeting Thursday night and this is what I did to her hair so it would be a little crazy.  It was slightly damp still from her shower.

If you look at the final product I think it turned out great.  Great volume, a little crazy, and slightly red.  I did some ratting, some braiding, some twisting, some curling, and I even put some ratting and some of the braids in curlers.  It was fun to do and she really thought it was silly.

The kids were able to dress up for school on Friday.  They had a parade and then parties in their classes.  That night Mike took the oldest three to the Karate Halloween Party.  On Halloween Libby went to a friends Halloween party while I took the kids all the way out to Mike's work just to get 5 pieces of candy.  Sorry dear, not worth it.  Then we took them trunk-or-treating, to Grandpa and Grandma's house to scare Syd with Dad's awesome Darth costume.  Last but not least they went real trick-or-treating just on our street.  It didn't take very long and they still got 3-4 times more candy than I ever did just trick-or-treating.  Lucky kids.

Here are the action shots from the school parade.  (remember, I said Action Shots.)

The kids are almost running through the parade so even when they "stop" so mom can get a picture they aren't really stopped.

Halloween was tons of fun this year.  I am glad that my kids are old enough that we do all the things that make it fun.  I didn't like the in-between stage.  That stage where you are an adult and the holidays just aren't as fun as they were when you were a kid.  Or you might have kids but they are too young to understand or really get excited.  Henry made us decorate for Halloween this year.  They were so excited about their costumes, they remembered the things that can be done on Halloween and made us do them.  I LOVE IT!

Brick Removal

We are taking a hallway, a bathroom, and a laundryroom and turning them into just a bathroom and a laundryroom. The problem comes in that the one widow, seen on the left, is right in the middle of where the wall needs to go. Can you see the wood down the sort of middle of the window? Thats the new door into the laundryroom.

We decided that we will split the one itty bitty window into two normal sized windows. They came and removed brick today. Bottom right is with just one side done and they are starting on the left side and the top right is with it all removed for now. They will come fix it all after the windows are installed in a couple days.

When he got here to do it he informed me that their big saw had already had the blade broken and he wasn't sure if the smaller saw would work.  They might end up going home and changing the blade.  They don't want to brake the brick getting them out as we are going to reuse them around another window so that the bricks all match and don't look too weird.  There were only two casualties.  One was already cracked and I am not sure what happened to the other one but if you look closely its the third brick down on the right.  Not bad considering their saw wasn't cutting as deeply as they would have liked.

Things are moving along quickly now!  YAY