January - All projects on target - well almost!

(Painting is all done and we are ready for carpet.)

This has been a busy month. The goals for this month were to get Christmas put away and to get the 3rd apartment updated before our shipment arrived. The third apartment has never been completely tackled before so now that it's tenants had moved out and we were re-arranging a lot of the house anyway, it was the perfect time to tackle that project. It involved -

*Removing all remaining detritus

*Repairing and patching walls (we had a painter come in and bid the job at $1,000. It was a BIG job.)

*Painting - Thanks to Darlene and Alyna , we were able to get it all done in 1 week

*Ripping out old carpet, removing all tacks and staples from the floor and screwing down the squeaky and/or loose boards - Thanks to Andrew, Alyna and Dennis for all their hard work

*Getting new carpet installed

*Moving furniture in and setting up the new sewing room - Again thanks to Andrew and Lindsay, also Lisa

*Replacing old light fixtures - not a simple job since it involved crawling up in the attic and replacing old wiring and in one case, putting a cross beam in to hand the light box on. -Big Thanks to Dennis who spent a day and a half on this project when he had many other things he should have been working on.

We got the carpet installed and furniture moved in on Friday the 22nd and our shipment arrived on Tuesday the 26th. So that all worked out perfectly.

I still have a few little Christmas things I've noticed here and there that need to be put away. There are still boxes of things in the parlor, bedroom and bathroom that need to be unpacked and put away. The old sewing closet needs to be cleaned out and refitted for an office. Finish organizing/setting up the new sewing room. I'm hoping that I will be able to get most of those done this next week so I can dig into February's projects, which are: finish work on the 2nd apt. and clean out the loft. I think I will need lots of encouragement and maybe even some help or I might wimp out on the loft. It will be another big job and I am tired.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We made the move home and are finally feeling a bit settled. It was a much more difficult transition than I had anticipated but I think we are finally feeling like this is home and not just a visit or vacation. I think it helped to have Mandy and Dan's wedding and Senior Ball the day after we got home and then all the Christmas parties and events.

It was soooooo cold as we all stood around outside waiting for the bride and groom to come out.

Mandy was the bravest one, or maybe the most in love. Everyone else had coats, and she was in short sleeves.

Alyna and Tina with their dates for Senior Ball.

The kids had worked hard and the house was nice and clean when we got home. It lasted until we had to open our suitcases and start digging through the garage and loft for dressers, hangers, and such so that we could put all the things from our suitcases away. (Remember, our house had a little flood in June and so everything from the front half of the house had to be moved to the loft or the garage so that all the walls and floors could be repainted and recarpeted.) So, for the next two weeks, the house was a disaster. We had to go through a huge pile of stuff - sorting out what things we wanted to keep and what things to give away and then putting the rest away. At one point, we had one side of the garge full of stuff waiting to go to the DI and the other side of the garage had furniture and boxes that still had to be brought in or sorted through.

Jessica and I took a morning and made some fun fresh floral arrangements.

While all this was going on, we also got to celebrate Christmas on the 19th with Lisa and Cameron and the kids. We spent most of that morning arranging a new cell phone plan and buying new phones. It took forever and most of the time it was really boring.
Our theme this Christmas was regifting and the kids did a good job and had some fun coming up with gifts to re-gift.

Alyna gave Dennis his cordless screwdriver back along with some cute little stuffed animals.

We had a Christmas party at the Van Natters for that side of the family.

Shaynie and her family came down and we had a party with them.

We had a Briscoe family Christmas party at Izzys. We had a fun gift exchange and played "In the manner of the Adverb" and Psychiatrist and Spluff. It was really fun.


The High School and College age kids welcomed in the New Year with a big party at our house and Izzy's. They had around 40-50 kids here at some point.

All the married folks and young kids celebrated at Bonnie's. We ate great food and played "Three on a couch" and then did a 550 piece puzzle in just over an hour.

In between all that, we made some big purchases. We bought two 2010 Honda vehicles, a Crosstour and an Odessy which we drove home on the 31st. (That gave us a big incentive to get our garage cleaned out enough so that we could to put the cars in it.)

We also ordered a whole new living room furniture set. It won't be here till sometime in late January or February. That's okay. It will give us something exciting to look forward to. Our shipment should also arrive sometime in the next couple of months so we will have a lot more sorting and rearranging to do in the coming months.