What? New Carpet?

 *Newly reposted!  I bet this didn't make much sense without pictures, eh?*

In my strep haze I seem to have forgotten all about posting all about the new carpet. We DID get the installers back, and now you can't even tell where the bunny was (except for the dent in our wallet).  Here it is on the stairs next to our old carpet - not an exceptional color difference, but just try walking on them :)

Or try staining the new one, since it's Stainmaster... though we're trying to refrain the kids from doing that! It's been a fun experiment trying to get everything back while NOT making it messy in the process and then keeping it PRISTINE.

Not for the sake of the carpet, just that once the room's clean it's easier to KEEP clean, so we're starting off on the right foot. The mature foot.  It's sure a foot I've rarely stood on, I'm the queen of "I'll pick that up later."  The bedrooms, VERY pristine.  The downsta...aaaaaahhhhhhh!  What is THAT mess?!?

Just keepin' it real, folks!  Just keepin' it real.

Photo Op's

When I bust out the camera Patrick wants in on the action - MY side of the action.  I'm super-hesitant to let him touch it, 1) it's an expensive camera (even if I'm not great at using it, that's not the camera's fault!), and 2) whatever he does the other kids want to do, too, and I am NOT letting THEM touch!  But I've relented on 2 occasions, and 125 photos later....

One decent photo!  Well, terribly backlit and all, but at least we're smiling!

Weekend Wipeout

You, Reader of my Post:  Hey, Kirsta, do anything fun this weekend?
Me:  Oh, nothing, really, but I thought it was funny how many ER doctors had opinions on "4 kids." I just don't see what the fuss is about.
You: ER doctors?! What were you doing at the ER?
Me: Well, just making sure the pulsing pain in my leg wasn't a blood clot - can't be too careful, you know, especially after being in bed 24 hours straight.
You: What? Why were you in bed for 24 hours straight?
Me:  I had a really wicked case of strep thoat!  I didn't find that out until Saturday morning, though, 12 hours into my bed rest.  But I wouldn't have been worried about strep and bed rest causing a blood clot, except for my shots.
You: Oh, great, what's up with shots?
Me: Well, I take my blood thinning shots at night before bed because it's when I'm least likely to forget them, but for 2 nights I felt AWFUL before bed, so I figured I'd catch up on my shot the next day.  Sounds simple, but then the next day I felt WORSE and didn't take my shot AGAIN so for two consecutive days I missed blood thinning shots.
You:  Okay, IIIIII get it... so you felt yuck, didn't know why, and *innocently* missed your shots.
Me: Right on
You: So then you went to the doctor on Saturday and found out "yuck" was strep
Me: Correct-o-mundo
You: And then, laying around 24/7, no blood thinners in you, your leg started to hurt
Me: You got it!
You: So you went to the ER, where lots of people had opinions on "4 kids."
Me: You are soooooo good!  Where did I get a good listener like you? What's your IP address?  Anyway, in spite of widely varied opinion on family size, the two consensus opinions are that I do NOT have a blood clot, but I DO have a wicked case of Strep throat.  So "anything fun" THIS weekend included lots of doctors, lots of sleeping, barely any eating, forced drinking, at least 3 dozen pills swallowed while forced drinking (mostly pain meds), and NOT FORGETTING ANY MORE SHOTS.  What a perfect storm to make me TOTALLY WIPED OUT.  

Unloading my life

If you read my blog, you already know me.  If you know me, you know things have been CRAZY 'round these parts.  First and foremost, we're expecting again!  But you already knew that because you already know me (and I already posted it on facebook). But you DIDN'T know that I get very tired when there's a bun in my oven, so the house has been roughly 8 1/2X messier than usual.  Poor Joe :(  So I've been dealing with sneaking in naps while pretending to do housework, but I am neither rested nor in a clean house, so I hope 2nd trimester lifts the napping urge.

Second, we had a lovely visit to Junction where we reunited with all my siblings - unusual, considering Karl avoids us like the plague.  Well, maybe like the swine flu :)  I kid (but we seriously never see him), but he decided to visit my parents so the rest of us swooped in on that visit and had a wonderful time!  It including a trip to the monument for grilling burgers and getting ridiculously dirty, a night without kids out to sushi, getting family photos with 8 kids/toddlers, lots of movies (for adults and kids alike), and my sister Elsha having a baby (my personal highlight, as I got to be there and cut the cord!). I have absolutely no pictures of any of this, but I took LOTS on my sister's camera... just use your imagination... well, don't imagine me cutting the cord...

At any rate, we got home to do laundry and get the house destroyed (remove furniture, clear out closets, general chaos) so that we could get carpet in.  Ahhhhh, glorious new carpet!  It is pleasing to the eyes and plush on the feet.  UNFORTUNATELY.... one of the kids let the rabbit out, unbeknownst to me (I've been keeping a KEEN eye on that fellow, he's a trouble maker), and when he was discovered, so was the hole in our new carpet.  Needless to say, he is living outside 100% of the time, forever, until he lives out his natural time or earth or until we decide to kill him (quite possible with that hole). Meanwhile, we'll get the installers back, we have loads of remnants for them to patch it, but seriously?  And, ironically, it's inches away from where the black paint was spilled oh-so-many months ago.  I think that niche is back luck.

Busy, n'est-ce pas? I'D say!

Pretty girl on a pretty day

 After being cooped up at our house for 2 weeks with sick people I was ECSTATIC to go out and do regular things today!  Hit the gym, run by the bank, stop at the grocery store for basics (but end up spending $100 anyway).  Compared to laying around in our pajamas watching movies, this was LIVING, and we needed to get DRESSED! 

Caroline bore the brunt of my good mood and got ridiculous amounts of compliments in the process, including from herself.  She struggled against me putting gel and a flower in her hair until I showed her the finished product in the mirror and you could practically hear her say "ooh, la la!"  She smirked, put her hands down, leaned back and brought her chin to her shoulder, effectively giving herself the "come hither" look.  Frankly, I think we're in trouble for the coming years :)

"Homemaker" takes on more depth...

It's a juggeling act to get folded laundry, hot meals, cleaned rooms and happy kids on a regular basis.  Throw in some more work on our house projects and you get MADNESS!  Ignore any mess you see in the pictures, it's only there semi-permanently as we get things ripped up, torn out, painted over, and reworked.  THEN life can calm down and I can complain about hum-drum laundry and meals :) 
In spite of Joe being sick pretty much all week (he took TWO sick days! Unheard of!) we still made lots of progress. Carpet in Caroline's room and our bedroom removed, starting to paint the trim.

Ripped-out wood paneling got a new layer of drywall.  One sheet of drywall gave in to headwinds on the ride home and broke in half in front of the tie-down straps!  These projects continue to be an adventure...

Now it needs to be textured and painted.  Old wood paneling got a coat (or three) of white paint.

Like the color we're considering for the top half?  We'll do the same thing on the other side of the fireplace, plus pull the blue onto the other wall, which is currently a much darker blue.  Ain't no thang.

New smoke detectors installed.

New light fixture up in the hall.

You know, other than that we're not too busy :)

Hairy scary

Static much?