What? It's almost June?

My Princess on Mother's Day

I'd been doing so well at posting updates and then... I have no idea what happened.

So here I am... 6(ish) weeks after vacation and I know a lot of stuff has happened. But do I remember it all? Nope. 

I'll pick up with Mother's Day and go from there. Stephen and Katherine gave me a wonderful day! It started off with sleeping in and having a certain excited little girl come running up the steps (thinking she was being quiet) to "sneak up on Mommy" and scare me into waking up. I heard her coming... I might have felt her coming given the thumping. She and Stephen made me the best french toast I've ever had. It was sooooooo good!! 

Muffins with Mom day at school

My "hand bouquet" :)
We also received a "recipe book" of all of the kids favorite meals mom's make.
Katherine's was "mac & cheese from the garage" *sigh* 

The reason for the season! :) 

The beautiful table and amazing breakfast!
*still dreaming about it*

After breakfast I laid on the sofa and read a book for a few hours. It was wonderful! Stephen & Katherine continued their kitchen efforts and made me a heart shaped cake for that evening. Very sweet.  I don't think Stephen spent much time out of the kitchen that day, as it happens.  He's decided there won't be a repeat of that for Father's Day. He wants to go out to eat instead. My sister Nicole came over to celebrate the evening with us.  It was a fabulous day! I'm so grateful for all they did to "spoil me" that day. By far the best Mother's Day I've had. 

Speaking of Nicole... We started having "Sunday family dinners". It's been great.  Of course the next month or so things are a little haywire (more on that later) but we managed to see Nikki every week for more than a month straight. Awesome!!! I LOVE spending time with my sister. Even if she does fall asleep on Sunday evenings when we're watching Game of Thrones together. ;) She claims she's gotten some pretty good naps in during the show. OH and she may get me hooked on Sister Wives. ooohhheeemmmgggeeee!!! Stephen claims he can't understand how the guy handles more than one woman. He "can barely handle the one (he's) got!" *smirk... Just the way I like it!* 

What else is going on... SC renovations have begun.  It's been something we've been putting off, saving for, etc. for 2 years.  It's here... We're in it... There's something to be said for having just finished the Raleigh repairs. There's also something to be said for having a GC. Right now WE are the GCs. The plan started as: 

• Paint Walls in 4 rooms
• Lay laminate/wood flooring throughout the condo

What are we ACTUALLY doing... 

• Removing all popcorn from the ceilings
• Prime/paint ceilings
• Paint all rooms (evidently our "finish" on the rooms we did paint isn't the right kind... And I'll admit the green paint in the master bath is... Interesting, at best.)
• Lay laminate/wood flooring in all rooms except the kitchen and bathrooms.
• Lay tile in the kitchen & bathrooms
• Refinish the countertop with the Countertop Transformation Kit thingy

The countertops have been something we've talked about for over a year.  Do we do the transformation? Do we just replace them? Lemme tell you... We priced replacing them. Yeah. Um... not happening.  The countertops in SC will cost almost as much to replace as the countertops in Raleigh did. For serious... not happening. Oh... And we're doing that part of the work.  Everything else we hired two contractors for.  

We thought the project was going to take two weeks. When Contractor #1 showed up on day 1 I said to him... So, are you really going to have the popcorn removed & the whole place painted in a week? He looked dumfounded and then laughed out loud and said something like "F NO!" I see... So how long will it take you? "I thought I had two weeks!" Ummm, no. The whole project was budgeted for two weeks. So we're now looking at a 3+ week project. The contractor was extremely concerned over Stephen's reaction about this. What he didn't, and still doesn't seem to grasp, is that I'm the one he should be concerned about. It seems when it comes to contractors I'm "bad cop". I'm not sure I like that label, but we all have certain skills. Stephen said I excel in this area. Gee, thanks.  

Last weeks project was popcorn ceiling removing.  Everyone said it would be messy. I steeled myself for this.  I really was ready for the popcorn removing to be a disaster.  In actuality that went just fine.  Yes, messy but not overmuch.  And if you know me well you know my OCD cleaning tendencies.  The mess part came in when they had to sand the ceiling after patching things up. HOLY GAWD!!!!! Mess doesn't begin to describe it. I had to sit/work on the porch all day because the whole house was a fog of dust. Every piece of furniture, since Monday, was in various heaps throughout the house.  This was difficult enough for me to deal with (disorganization) but the dust on top of it? There were a few moments I contemplated camping out in Walmart for a few days.  It is more organized and clean than the condo was.  There were two moments of drama this week.

The first occurred on I think it was on Monday. Day 1. The contractor was removing the popcorn in the hallway and said that the light fixture screws (there are two fixtures) were stripped and he couldn't get them off. He was just going to scrape around them.  Hmmm. Interesting.  He also wanted to know if Stephen and I were to blame for that... Aaahhh, no sir.

That evening he left all of his equipment (AKA very tall ladder) in the house so at around 9:30pm (sure I could have started earlier but meh... I didn't) I decided I'd try my hand at seeing if I could get the screws loosened so he could scrape all of the popcorn off. And ya see... I hadn't thought this all the way through. What I did do was turn off the circuit breaker. (WIN for me!) What I hadn't thought of is...What do I do if I actually get the screws out? Or in as was in my case, the light falls off without having both screws out. Well what I do is panic. Stephen claims he can tell instantly when I've done something I'm worried about telling him about. (For those that remember the Easton snow-blower incident... <- Example!!) The first light I was able to get the screws out just enough so that you could easily turn them with your fingers. The second... I got the first screw out and as I started to turn the second screw the whole thing fell off the ceiling and was dangling by the wires. Crap, crap, CRAP!!! (Or if I steal Stephen's new phrase of the week... Crap on a stick!!!)

So what do I do? First I called Stephen and left a voice mail message saying to please call me ASAP. Then I texted him. Then I posted on my Dad's FB wall.

My handiwork. 

Stephen (finally) called me back and as soon as I said, "oh hey honey..." He said... "You have the I crashed the car, burned down the house, blew up the snowblower voice." He walked me through unhooking the light and replacing the safety caps. Phew. 

What it looked like the next morning after I removed the 2nd fixture...
I had to work up the courage. 

I was quite pleased with myself and couldn't wait for the contractor to arrive so I could smirk a bit at my getting the screws out that he claimed were stripped. (There is NO possible way he could even see the screws since you had to take the glass dome off before you could even get to them... And he didn't!) His response when he saw it, "What did you use to get them down?" My reply, "A screwdriver." And yes, I smirked. A big 'I'm a girl and I did what you said was "impossible" to do' smirk. (And I quote... "There's no way those things are coming down without cutting them out of the ceiling. It's impossible.")

The next blow up occurred on Tuesday when got to the master bathroom and found out that the ceiling had been painted. For those with popcorn ceilings... Evidently this is one of the worst things you can possibly do to popcorn ceilings. Dude flipped and wasn't going to finish. You can imagine my reaction. It was (literally) the last room of the house for him to remove the popcorn from.  I told him he had no choice but to figure out how to get it down. And I started Googling for him. He really appreciated this. (I hope you detect my sarcasm there.)  He dropped several F bombs on me and I held my ground.  Five minutes later he told me we had mold and we needed to replace the "whole ceiling" in the bathroom... Five minutes after that both issues were miraculously resolved.  Five minutes after that I had a CTJ with him to discuss his freaking out. I offered him beer, lunch, whatever to just chill the heck out!!! I learned this is just how he is. The rest of the week we went on pretty amicably without incident. I did however tell him that he complained more in one week than I heard in almost a year from the contractors that repaired our house after the tornado. And he was only around for about 20 hours... Total. Man wore.me.out!

This is what things looked like this week...

The bathroom... After the popcorn finally came down.

Where I spent multiple hours each night. No TV, no furniture... me, my laptop & the porch chairs.

I made a home office outside on the porch. It was delightful.

The plastic *was* clear... The opaqueness is dust. LOTS of dust.

Every morning I'd strip my bed, bag the linens, remove everything from the shower & bag the shower curtain to protect it all from dust. Every night I'd put it all back. 

Post popcorn removal, prime, paint. (Family Room)

Next week we start the flooring replacement. And it's Stephen's turn to stay in SC while Katherine and I return to Raleigh for the week.  In the mean time, we're enjoying the long weekend here in a moderately cleaned house, with TV and new light fixtures. :) 

This weekend I decided it would be good to get K's help with the laundry. :) 

She's learned that Daddy rarely checks his pockets for stray cash.
(Now I have to share!)

Before heading to the beach we stopped for some brunch. 

Building me a "Princess Castle"

Turtle feeding while Stephen grilled our dinner. 

We hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! To all of our friends & family members who have, and continue to, serve... We thank you so very much for all the self-sacrifice you and your own families have made to protect our freedoms. 

Our love to all,

Darlene, Stephen & KK

xo

I love Williamsburg!

There was a time in my life that I would have promised you I'd NEVER utter those words. They were somewhere around ages 8-12. Don't get me wrong, I loved going on vacation with my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and Grandparents... but Williamsburg wasn't the "vacation destination" of a child's dream. Or so I thought. Or so I tell Katherine. :)

This is our third year visiting Williamsburg and each year it's been a fantastic vacation. We have loose plans, but nothing that can't be changed spur of the moment depending on weather, what we feel like doing or the status of a nearly 2, 3 or 4 year old.

Every day we all share our favorite parts of the day. Highlights for all of us this trip included lunch with the Sesame Street Gang, A carriage ride in Colonial Williamsburg, Running through Colonial Williamsburg (Okay maybe everyone in the family didn't see this as a highlight but it was enjoyable!), Katherine and I riding "big girl" rides (ala things that spin and make me want to hurl), and Stephen's birthday dinner.

We spent 3 days in Colonial Williamsburg, 2 days at Busch Gardens and 1 day (few hours) at the outlets. I found a White House Black Market outlet store and thought I'd arrived in heaven. $115 later and I had 3 silk blouses, two pairs of pants, a pair of shoes, and a suit coat. *Yes I'm pretty proud of my finds!!!*

Stephen was excited by Katherine's interest in all of the historical buildings in Colonial Williamsburg. She wanted to visit all of the "flag buildings". I visited them once. The history doesn't change. I got it. ;) Stephen on the other hand could visit them every year. This year he had a partner to visit with and I was able to sit outside and enjoy the weather.

Busch Gardens was a bit different this year too. As Stephen says, we started the week with her on the little boats going in circles. We ended the week riding the tea cups back to back with her yelling, "This is sooooo fuuuuunnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!" (While I held onto the railing moaning ooohhhhh....) We went back to the Irish Dance Show at the park (twice) and again it was a huge hit for the family. Katherine loves the dancers and got very upset each time when the show ended.  She asked if she could bring them home. We  told her no. (You have to teach kids limits, ya know?!) I can't imagine what she or Stephen would think if they actually got to see a show like Lord of the Dance.

It was a great week filled with lots of super family time. Each year on this trip I fall in love with my family even more than I already am. I'm already looking forward to our trip next year and making more fun memories.

xo,
Darlene

Our pictures from the week...

Digital scrapbook made with Smilebox

One year... Many blessings

One year ago today a tornado came through Raleigh... more specifically it took a trip down Serendipity Drive. 

We've been incredibly fortunate to have so many wonderful friends, cousins and my sister (Nicole) who have been so helpful in getting us back to normal. In fact, I think we're probably better than we were before the tornado.

See for yourself... 

April 16, 2011

April 16, 2012

I'll say that the tornado was a blessing for us, in so many ways... Just to name  few:

We got to know more of our neighbors. We even learned that one of our neighbor's son (who we had seen playing along the block) was actually one day older than Katherine. Very cool. Katherine gained a new BFF in our neighbor's little girl. I gained three wonderful girlfriends. We've had ladies night out, ladies lunch out and shared some post kids go to bed coffee time.

Our home is practically new! Our house was built in 2003. We were approaching the 8 year mark. You know, the time when things start to break and you need to begin replacing them. We did. In one fell swoop. New siding, new roof, new HVAC, new screens for our porch, 8 new windows, nearly all new screens in the windows and the whole interior of the house painted. (I'd say re-painted but more than half of the house hadn't been painted beyond builder beige yet!) We also took the opportunity to upgrade our kitchen a bit with new countertops... Quartz! (Remember the fortune I had in my Pei Wei cookie the Monday after the tornado? It said "by the end of the year you will be in a new home"... It was right!!!)

My family needs me more than my employer does. This one was harder for me to get to and resulted in an education and a blessing.  I realized within a couple weeks after the tornado that the work I was doing, while very enjoyable for me as I loved my team, was not something that was valued as much as my family valued time with me. Or me doing things to help make our family life better. This lead me to seek new employment. I did... While I am still finding my way I am glad I have been able to find a better balance in my life that enables me to take care of my family better than I did before the tornado. For those that know our life before we spent many an evening eating dinner out. Now it's a special treat (that Katherine gets WAY excited about) when we go out to eat. I'm not quite sure if it's because she doesn't like my cooking (apparently Mr Tyson, the cook at school, makes everything better than I do) or because she just thinks it's fun to pick from a menu. I'm hoping the latter.

These are just a few of the blessings... There of course were more.

A few people that helped us immensely: The Krieman family, The Miller Family, The Vanderbilts and Jesse & Jeremy, Michele & Nicole... Thank you for coming over and helping us in the days immediately after the tornado.

Krieman's thank you for giving us a place to stay when we didn't know where to go.  Our thanks to the Krieman ladies for playing with Katherine and taking her mind off of the events of the day. She thought the sleepover was pretty awesome! We so appreciate your help in the securing the house & boarding/taping up the windows.

John, thanks for taking Stephen to Lowes to get the emergency supplies we needed. Stephen would have wandered the store for hours just staring into space, I'm sure, if it weren't for your help! Thanks to your help securing the house! Between you, Stephen and AmK, and T the house was as secure as it could possibly be! Meredith, your interior sweeping of the carpet was fantastic. And you kept me from completely losing my mind. (I still laugh at Lexi taking her shoes off inside the house because she didn't want to get the carpet dirty... Among the piles of glass & debris everywhere!!) :)

Frank and Meredith thank you for bringing us our foodie favorites and helping me tackle the bedroom. I just kept closing the door thinking it would magically clean itself. You helped that happen about as close to "magic" as it could be!

Jesse & Jeremy, you answered the call for help when we realized we needed to rebag the debris that we did collect in order for the city to pick it up.

Shell, the shopvac was a great tool for vacuuming the lawn. I think I might take that up as a hobby... it was quite cathartic!

Nikki... You remained calm and helpful throughout everything, despite your own car being damaged by the tornado. <3

And of course our thanks to the volunteers that came in force in the days and weekends following the storm.

Now... if we can get our grass and yard back to it's former self... Life would truly be back to "normal". =) For now we'll revel in our weeds and remain grateful for our blessings.

xo
Darlene, Stephen & KK