pure.genius

I'm not even kidding that this contraption is sitting in my yard! Thankfully, it is just a temporary fix :) On the positive side, I can do laundry. On the negative side, it might be a while before we get the permanent contraption installed and buried underground. As you can imagine, we have lots on the "to do" list! This mark of genius drains the water from the washer to the outside and was created by my hubby. I guess he thinks that now that we're living in the country, we can start acting like rednecks! I'm thinking not so much. And I don't want to hear of any of you trying to get a patent on this.....

Easter.morning

He's risen! He's risen indeed! Such a glorious event in history.

John 19:13-16, 28-30, 41-42; John 20:1-2, 10-18
When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, abouth the sixth hour.

"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"

"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.

"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.

Finally, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni" (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

popcorn.emergency room.easter eggs

Question: What do these two have in common?

Answer: A trip to the Emergency Room at 8:30 in the evening!

Parental Tip: Don't let your 4 year old put popcorn kernels in her ears...it can be expensive and make for a late night.

Anyway, so last night we decided to do a little movie night with popcorn. We were putting the girls to bed, and Claire says, "I have a popcorn seed in my ear." Did she just say that she has a popcorn seed in her ear? "Josh, why don't you check her ear. I think she said she has a popcorn seed in it." Ummmm yep. Josh tried to get it out a couple of times (delicately), and we called our on-call doc. He told us to take her to the E.R. if we couldn't get it out. It was pretty far in there, so we took her right in.

It took two tries once we got there. There were lots of tears (from Claire), and she burst her blood vessels around her eyes from crying so hard. However, the trip was successful, and the nice doctor was able to remove the kernel. Yay!

On to a happier subject...Easter eggs! We decorated Easter eggs this afternoon. The girls had a blast putting stickers on the eggs.

Claire's all ended up on one egg:

Meredith did a bit better, getting stickers on two eggs (but mostly on one!):

Here are some of the highlights of the process:

Happy Easter! I'll have some pics from our egg hunt next week!

boxes.boxes.everywhere

Actually, there aren't too many everywhere, although the office is full of them:

I apologize for not having pictures of everyone. There was so much going on, and I left my camera in the van for most of Saturday! I'm sorry if your photo didn't make the blog!

Let me begin by thanking my massive team of movers, shakers, and cleaners from Thursday to Monday! We completely couldn't have done it without both sets of our parents, Brian and Kristi, Jill and Andrew, Mike and Pam, Dave, Kay, Kent, and Rob and Jen. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Here is a small sampling of what everyone did:

My parents (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving (and more!)

Josh's parents (Saturday, Sunday): watched the girls all weekend, helped clean out the garage

Brian and Kristi (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): provided trailer, moving, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, rearranging furniture several times in several rooms, comic relief (see below)

Jill and Andrew(Friday, Saturday): cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, rearraging the furniture several times in several rooms, comic relief

Mike and Pam(Saturday): cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving

Dave(Saturday): hung shelf/rod in the coat closet, hung the rod in master bedroom closet, hung both bathroom shower curtain rods, installed the shelving in the linen closet, drinking the Sam Adams

Kay (Friday): cleaned windows (even the really, really difficult ones!)

Kent(Thursday): cleared off the front porch...such a HUGE and appreciated job...Kent has no idea how big of a help this was, and he installed a door knob

Rob and Jen(Sunday, Monday): cleaned out the garage, cleaned parts of the house, made us a meal for Monday night (yum!)

Even Meredith and Claire were helping clean:

Things went extremely well all Saturday morning with our moms arriving with 3 dozen doughnuts and a big pot of coffee between the two of them. I expected one dozen and we had three! My workers were running on sugar and caffine. I must apologize, though, to my coffee drinkers who wanted sugar in their coffee...it was already packed (hey, I was trying to be prepared for the day!).

Anyway, we headed to the new house with a big load in Brian's enclosed trailer (which was such a blessing), my dad's truck, Josh's truck, and Mike's truck. We unloaded everything and the guys headed back for more while Jill, Kristi, and I stayed to start dispersing items and boxes. The men headed back to the old house for another load of the bigger stuff. All was going well until...

Brian and Andrew thought it was a good idea to pull Brian's truck (with the trailer attached) into the saturated, muddy yard. They were stuck....big time. I think Josh was ready to hurt someone (not really!). They tried to push the truck, put boards under the tires, and reposition the truck, but nothing worked. Thankfully, our video camera was handy, and Jill, Kristi, and I began the filming process. (I'm going to try to post the video soon.) They ended up hooking Josh's truck up to the trailer with a tow strap and pulling Brian's truck and trailer out. The whole process only took about 10 minutes, but it provided great comedic relief in the middle of the day as well as a great memory for all involved! If the guys just would have taken the 10 minutes to move the vehicles around, there wouldn't have been a such good story to tell!

So, we are settled in (kind of), and I'm looking forward to unpacking more boxes. The kitchen sink was finally hooked up last night along with the dishwasher. As with most other things, the dishwasher gave us a few fits and leaked water out onto the floor :( It didn't seem to have any problems during the majority of the wash. We were awake on the couch for the first couple of hours of the washing. Josh checked it several times, but then we both fell asleep on the couch. We woke up at 2:47 to find water on the floor in front of the dishwasher and cabinets. So, for the next hour, Josh worked on the problem. It isn't fixed yet, but I assume that it will be this evening.

Overall, everything is great. I am loving the new kitchen and family room. The girls seem to be adjusting very well. They even initiated the new walls in their room during their rest time today by drawing all over one wall with pencils. A severe discipline followed! Thankfully, the walls aren't painted yet :) Here is a small sampling of the artwork:

Overall, things went incredibly well on Saturday...much better, quicker, and smoother than I could have imagined. Everyone did a great job of following my no-muddy-shoes-on-the-new-carpet rule. As we continue to put things away and get things decorated, I'll post more new pictures of the house. Thank you again to everyone who helped. We couldn't have done it without you! We have a fantastic circle of supportive family and friends. We love you all!

Here are some updated pictures of what the kitchen looks like now (the microwave on the counter will soon be replaced with a hanging one above the stove):

mark.your.calendars

...for April 7! Our beautiful new baby will officially arrive April 7. The countdown is on...25 days! It sounds like I have a lot more time if I say I have 3 weeks and 4 days.

House update: The countertop is installed, but the sink still needs to be installed. The base trim is all in and painted! The carpet layers are coming tomorrow (Friday), and their cost came in about $500 less than expected...no complaints here. And the big move will take place on Saturday and Sunday! It will be a busy, busy weekend, but we're so excited about all of the happenings. I'll try to post more pictures tonight or tomorrow if we get over there tonight. If things are too crazy, I'll do a big post next week once we can all breathe for a few minutes!

daddy's.little.helper

Claire was so cute this weekend "helping" Daddy at the new house. She even wanted a pencil behind her ear so that she could be just like Dad (it kept falling out though, so she had to settle for it in her pocket!). They were working on putting base in the new baby's room. She was helping measure, mark the walls, and carry the pieces of base. She didn't like sound of the nail gun...hence the picture of her plugging her ears and closing her eyes! On the way home, she was concerned that no one had stayed to help Daddy. She said, "He probably won't get as much done without me!" I'm sure not :) Check out the pics:

We also held our first family dinner at the new house. It wasn't very fancy, but thanks to Kristi, we have a couple of pictures! Thanks!

kitchen.cabinets

My kitchen cabinets are officially installed....all of them! BIG step in the right direction! The toilet is also installed, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It is of equal importance (possibly more with 2 little girls in the house), and it will get its moment in the spotlight soon. The girls and I went over to the house last night to see the progress on the kitchen. Here is a picture of them hanging out in the office with Grandma:

They watched videos and ate popcorn while my dad, Josh, my mom, and I worked. Ok, so Josh and Dad did most of the work. My mom and I were extremely helpful though, especially when it came to finding the cordless screwdriver :) Anyway, again because of the enormous amount of dust in the house, some of the pictures are extremely clouded. You can tell which pictures I took before everything was stirred up and which ones I took at the end of the job. Here they are...

The cabinets above the stove:

Mom and Josh:
Dad and Josh installing a cabinet on the uneven floor:

Oh, and I've included a pic of the ceiling fan in the family room:

Corner with the lazy susan; the sink will be in the cabinet on the right:

Pantry/Refridgerator area:

The "long stretch": kitchen sink on left, dishwasher in open space, the bar stretches back towards the door/dining room area:

Whole view from right (sorry for all of the dust):

Whole view from left (sorry for the dust):

Josh, my dad, and Josh's dad are all installing the laminate floor in the kitchen and dining room today! The countertop is coming on Monday, and the carpet layers are coming toward the end of the week. Wow! Lots of big updates this week. I can't believe that we are moving a week from today. I'm tired just thinking about it, but I'm soooo ready for it to be here (although my husband may beg to differ!).

On a side note, this update is in honor of my sister-in-law, Gina! :)

"Nastics"

First of all...what did the Captain say to his soldiers today? March Fourth! (Get it? March Forth!) It was one of my favorite jokes when I taught 5th grade...although you can only use it once a year.

On to "nastics"! Everyday when Josh gets home from work, he asks the girls, "What did you do today?" Every Monday, Meredith exclaims, "We went to nastics today!!!" She's actually referring to gymnastics! The girls have just completed an 8 week gymnastics class, and they absolutely loved it! They have been so much fun to watch. Since Meredith was in the 2-3 year old class, I had to participate with her. Claire was in the 3-4 year old class, and she was able to go to class by herself. It was so cute to watch her interact with her classmates and teacher. She did such a great job! Meredith and I were able to watch through the windows in the observation room. Here are some pictures from the girls' last class this past Monday. Meredith is so serious when it's her turn!

Google Reader.Kitchen.Mom.Mattresses

The very first thing that I'm going to address is "Google Reader". It's my new thing (found on someone else's blog), and I LOVE it...almost as much as I love Cherry Coke. Anyway, if you read more than one blog (or several like I do), you must MUST sign up at Google Reader (this is my first link in one of my blogs...I feel so validated as a blogger). Instead of clicking on every blog that you read individually, it gives you an update on all of them at once. Possibly, I'm the only one here that hasn't already signed up, but I couldn't help but share!

We headed to the new house to take some pictures and see the new cabinets. The cabinets are in the kitchen (a step in the right direction), but they aren't installed...yet. Here are some pics:

The cabinets still in the boxes:

The pantry (I'm so excited because I've never had one!)

Kitchen lights:

Family room lights:

I want to send a big shout out to my mom. She totally ROCKS and completely spoils me rotten! She came over yesterday (Saturday) around 10:00 AM and stayed until around 9:00 PM. She did ALL of our laundry (soooo helpful) and even put most of it away. Not only that, she played with the kids, picked up lunch, straightened the house, and washed dishes. Then, she came over again today (Sunday) to help again! I think she was wondering how the house went from looking straightened to a little crazy in a mere 17 hours...and most of that time we were sleeping and at church! Those of you who have kids know excatly what happened! Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM! I love you, and I don't know what I would do without you. You're way more than a "73" in my book (inside joke)! You're more like a "99"...I mean you did leave a load of laundry in the dryer :) Just kidding!

We spent a portion of this afternoon purchasing mattresses for the girls along with mattress covers, mattress pads, pillow covers, and pillows. It was a slightly expensive day. The bedding came in last week (my mom pointed me to that as well...she knows how picky I am), and it is completely adorable. I can't wait to see how it looks after we paint the room and decorate! I've included a picture, but keep in mind, we didn't get all of the bells and whistles....just the essentials.