Gigi, Aunt Lori, and Other Fun Stuff

The good news is that I don't have a headache.  It seems like almost every Friday, and that day only, I have a headache.  I'm scratched my brain to try and figure out what it is about Fridays that make it different from any other day.  Is it just the end of the week and I'm tired?  But then today, I only went to four yard sales (thanks, Hurricane Sandy) compared to sometimes a dozen or two so now I'm wondering if that somehow brings on headaches.  If so, I will not be deterred by a mere pain in my head!  At any rate, I'm glad not to have one since I have a lot to say on here.

Last Friday I did have a headache which was part of my reason for not posting but the other reason was that my mom and Aunt Lori were visiting and I didn't want to be rude.  You know those pictures of families sitting in a room together but everyone is on their electronics?  Well, now that I think about it, the two of them and Duncan were probably all on theirs and I was sitting here holding my head.  Ha!  But no, they were here and we had a marvelous time, of course.  We picked them up at the airport on Thursday evening, which would now be a week ago from last night.  It was my first trip to the airport from my new abode and I will say that it was probably only about five minutes longer so that was a good thing.  Naturally, on Friday morning we hit a bunch of yard sales.  My Aunt Lori is a huge yard sale person too so that made it even more fun.  Friday evening we took them to their first food truck experience which proved to be a success.

I always bring food from home for the kids.  No sense paying big bucks at the food truck to meet their simple tastes.

Mom, Aunt Lori, and Aunt Wanda

We did get them cupcakes (no other goodies were available).  They tasted like they were from Publix, seriously.  Jennifer's are WAY better.  I only got them for the girls but Brady got in some huge bites.

It's a plane!  It's a UFO!  Actually, I have no idea what it was because Duncan took this picture and I just found it now.  Cool though, huh??

Sabbath was church as usual but then from there we departed for a time share in Daytona that we had gotten for Saturday and Sunday night thanks to Aunt Lori.  We brought a picnic lunch with us and ended up at the Central Florida Zoo since it's conveniently located right off the highway.  The picnic tables are situated among the ropes course so we had people literally walking over us as we ate.  It did keep the kids occupied I will say.

The time share is called Ocean Walk and the interesting thing is that Mitt Romney had been there on Friday night holding a huge rally right where we stayed.  We missed out by one night!  I guess it would have been pretty crazy so it was just as well.  However, we did have a little craziness anyway because it was Biketoberfest and there were motorcycles everywhere the eye could see.

We stayed in a 2-bedroom unit with the girls in with my mom and Aunt Lori and Brady with us.  We had a beautiful ocean view and the weather was gorgeous last weekend.  The ocean was still plenty warm to swim in and Calleigh had a really great time with my mom in the waves (also a huge ocean lover).  Brady and Aubree were content to play in the sand the whole time although they did go in a little.  There were a bunch of pools there too but I would say the beach and ocean took precedence.  Saturday night Duncan and I went to a movie, Taken 2, since there was a theater right there as part of the complex.  It wasn't nearly as good as the first one but I was well entertained.

Ocean Walk.  We were on the fifth floor.

That's a sticker, not a giant orange sun.

Duncan taught Calleigh how to throw a frisbee.

Calleigh and Aunt Lori working on a craft project we got at a yard sale.

The Patriots were playing the Jets at 4 pm and I had figured I would just tape it at home and try to avoid finding out what happened until I could watch it Monday night.  But then Duncan reminded me that we could actually get it on DirecTV through our computer so the three of us ladies crowded in front of Duncan's iPad (smaller screen but better sound than a laptop) to watch the game.  The kids were busy doing this and that and at one point I promised them that we would go to Cold Stone to get ice cream as soon as the game was over.  Well, wouldn't you know that the game went into overtime and by this time it's like 7:15 or 7:30 and we really needed to go get it and get back for bed (besides, you can only imagine how little kids act when you've promised them ice cream and then you keep saying "Just five more minutes.")  Then Duncan realized that we could actually still get the game on my mom's iPhone 5 and that is how I watched the last part of the game...holding the phone in front of me on the walk to get ice cream, trying not to knock anyone over.  I was also watching as I tried to order for the kids.  Thankfully I had enough wits to double task.  But you gotta love technology which just proves to me that I need the new phone after all...and it may be happening!  The good thing was that the Pats won the game just in time for me to assist Aubree with her melting mess.  Realization: A slow eater and ice cream do not make a good combination.

Monday morning Duncan had to go to work and Aunt Lori had a morning flight so Duncan dropped her off on his way in.  We headed out about 10:00, after a final swim in the indoor pool.  Gigi's flight didn't leave until that evening so we decided to do a picnic lunch at Chapin Station which went horribly wrong.  There were many, many flies and Calleigh was extremely distraught about the whole thing and said this was the worst park she had ever been to.  I think it's going to take her a while to get over that one.  Chapin Station will now probably be forever known as "the one with all the bugs."  They weren't even really mosquitoes (although some were) but more like big flies that kept landing all over the food.

Gigi was only here a few days but it turns out it was providential she went home Monday night.  That same night my dad was playing hockey (he plays in an over 60 league from time to time) and through some series of events late in the 3rd period, gravely injured his right ankle.  It turns out he fractured it and is now the proud owner of a boot and a pair of crutches.  Since it's his right one, he can't drive and so is housebound at the mercy of my mother to drive him place to place.  Poor thing.  He has declared that this is the end of his "professional" hockey playing and no doubt they'll be putting out a biography on his storied career on ESPN6 any day now :)  As I said to him, at least it wasn't your teeth.

This week we finally got somewhere with the painting.  Over the last few weeks, as I've mentioned, I've been getting quotes from three different companies.  All the quotes were very similar to do our 3.5 baths, laundry, foyer, and stairway so I decided to go with Company #1.  They were supposed to start on Tuesday but failed to get a contract to me and copies of their insurance.  The office person finally got it to me early Wednesday morning and I texted the painter to see if he was ready to start painting.  I didn't hear back from him so I contacted Company # 2 who said yes, they could start Thursday morning.  Done deal.  Meanwhile, about two hours later, the painter from Company # 1, finally calls me and says he's so sorry but his prepaid cell phone ran out and he had no idea that was about to happen and he didn't get my text until right then.  I would say that didn't work out too well for him and I had to break the bad news.  He called back a little later practically begging me for the business but by then, I had already paid a deposit with Company # 2.

Monday night we, of course, were anticipating them starting painting on Tuesday morning so we had to make a desperate run to Lowe's to try and pick some colors.  I had clearly not planned things very well because we had been gone during the weekend with our company and now we were almost out of time.  I went straight to Lowe's from dropping my mom off at the airport (actually, we stopped at Panera first) to try and make some decisions.  We have had the absolute worst time trying to figure out what color to paint our foyer/dining room.  Our living room is Fragrant Cloves (aka, orange/red) and our kitchen is Earthy Ocher (aka, tan).  I had been thinking of doing a green but we couldn't find one we liked so finally on Monday night we decided to just do it in Concord Ivory (aka, yellow/gold) that we had in the living room of our old house. We needed a color for the girl's bathroom too and Duncan picked a different yellow for that.  We had all the other colors already so we now at least had paint for each area...although I still wasn't sure at all about the yellow for the foyer.

Company # 2 has proven to be an interesting duo.  It's a father and his 19-year old son and I'm guessing he's not in college but instead, maybe trying to find himself.  I'm thinking it was probably wise for him not to waste his money on college at this time since, from what I can tell, he's put in minimal work over the last two days.  Yesterday afternoon after lunch I came into the kitchen and found him sitting on the stairs with his head in his hands, asleep.  Thank goodness we are not paying by the hour.  They also take smoking breaks which I find interesting.  I hear the son tell the dad at one point "I'm going outside for a smoke" and the dad responds "Sounds good." which then gets you thinking...exactly how does that work when you're a smoker and your kid starts showing interest in it?  You have no leg to stand on so do you just say "Go for it. We'll be smoking buddies."  Anyway, the guy is a nice guy, smoking and lazy son not withstanding.  So yesterday he paints a bunch of the yellow in the foyer (which is two stories tall) while I'm gone to the ABC and Costco and when I get back, I look at it...and I hate it!  In my humble opinion, whose opinion I would argue is the most important since I'm looking at it almost 24/7, it does not go at all with the tan in the kitchen.  I break the news to Duncan and to his credit, he's cool with it.  I had a dark sage that I had gotten a sample of and never tried and that is now the new color being painted over the yellow.  So yeah, we basically just threw money away but it is what it is.  The guy says that this kind of thing happens all the time.  I'm sure he's happy to get the extra dough.

This afternoon the son had a headache, I guess from working so hard (ha!), so I gave him some pills.  Around 3:00, the dad asks if it's okay for them to leave because he has to get his son home since the headache is still there (I should be more compassionate since he got my Friday headache).  These guys haven't exactly been working killer hours here which would explain why there is so much left to do but what can you do?  We signed them on to do our bedroom, dining room, and small hall too but at this rate, I don't know if it's going to happen because I don't see things getting finished by Monday.  I think he's booked Tuesday - Friday.  We shall see.  I will post pictures when it's finally done.

The main drawback of having painters in our house.  Brady wants to get into and onto everything.

This afternoon we also finally met with our warranty guy who is in charge of anything that we discover wrong after our closing and anything else that goes wrong after that which is covered by our warranty.  He's supposed to talk to us about our warranties shortly after closing.  It's been seven weeks since then and I guess that's Exhibit A of the problems we're having with getting our post close issues fixed.  He's a nice grandfatherly type and all but we are getting very frustrated.  Our main areas of contention are that several sprinkler heads are broken...a few don't turn and one shoots straight up into the air like a giant gush.  We told them this a few days after we moved in and nothing has happened.  Meanwhile, our grass is dying where the sprinklers don't turn and our water bill for the first two weeks was $219!  I'm not happy.  I told him today that David Weekley was going to have to pay for some of our water.  The way I see it is all I'll have to see how long it takes to fill a gallon container from that geyser so I can try and calculate how much water is being used the two days a week that we're watering and it's gushing out.  Duncan, nicely, laid down the law with him today when he came to explain our warranties to us and I surely hope things will be happening now.  A lot of the other stuff is minor but one of the other big things is that they only installed one gate in our fence instead of two.

Actually, the other big thing that they're going to do is replace the granite in the girls' bathroom. I can't remember if I've mentioned it on here or not but I HATE the granite in their bathroom. I really don't think I picked it.  It doesn't match at all with the floor and shower tile.  I finally looked at our paperwork and found that the granite in the two upstairs bathrooms are supposed to be the same.  I don't think they're the same at all and I've been hoping that will be my "out" as far as them replacing it on their dime.  Everyone that comes here I take to the two bathrooms and have them give their opinion on whether the granite is the same or not.  Almost universally, the women all say it's clearly different and the men say it looks a little different but it's probably the same granite but from a different cut.  Regardless, Mike, the warranty guy told me last week, and said it again today, that he would just have the granite guy come out here and see which of the two granites upstairs I wanted to keep and they would use the same one in the other bathroom.  I actually want to just replace the girls' with the granite from the kitchen/master/half bath since I'm not nuts about the other bathroom either but can live with that one.  Hopefully this can happen soon.

The kids are doing well.  Brady, unfortunately, has fallen back into his same sleep pattern as far as waking up between 6:15 - 6:30 every morning.  I got to enjoy the 8:00 for about 10 days which I decided must have been from his getting an MMR shot.  I enjoyed it while it lasted.  When he wakes up, I go and put his binky in and then I leave the room (lately going to the guest room to sleep on the blow up mattress we had in there for Aunt Lori) to wait things out until 7:00.  I refuse to get him out before then.  Usually he'll go back to sleep until around then although sometimes I have to reinsert the binky.  Because of this earlier wake up, he's back to sleeping in the morning again although I don't do an intentional nap.  He just falls asleep in the car while we're out and about.  The afternoon nap is averaging about an hour and 45 minutes.  I can live with that.  He's also getting at least one new bottom tooth which may have some impact on things.  Who knows.

Before I close out with a bunch of pictures, here a few conversations with the girls recently..

We're getting gas the other day..
Calleigh: "Look, see all those stickers on the back of that car?  I bet the person has a bunch of stamps on him too."
Me: "Huh? Stamps?  Oh, do you mean tattoos?"
Calleigh: "Yes, tattoos."
Me: "Why do you think they would have a lot of tattoos?"
Calleigh: "Well, if they like a lot of stickers on the back of their car, I think they would like to have a lot of stamps on themselves too."
I can't say I've ever noticed this connection before but Calleigh usually notices things like that when I do not.

We're eating dinner and I've just served applesauce on peanut butter toast to the kids.
Aubree:  "Yuck, I hate this.  It's disgusting."
Calleigh: "No, Aubree.  Your ACT is disgusting."
As I side note, I've really been trying to lead the girls away from using the word "disgusting" except when referring to cigarettes but I haven't completely succeeded, clearly.

A few minutes later, Aubree is still sitting there with the untouched food in front of her.
Aubree (starting to whine/cry): "Ouch, I pinched my leg on the chair."
Calleigh: "Mom, I know what she's doing.  She's trying to say she's hurt so you'll feel bad and say she doesn't have to eat her food."
Me (to myself), "Calleigh, when did you get so smart??

Even though Calleigh was giving Aubree such a hard time, there are times when you can really see the bond that they have.  Yesterday I was having the girls clean up there room and I had given Aubree a few exceedingly easy tasks to do.  As can be her typical fashion, she laid down on the floor and declared that she  was too tired to clean up and refused to do anything.  I told her she was staying in her room until it was done and in the meantime, we were all going downstairs.  At this news, the tears started to flow and wailing ensued.  Once Calleigh saw that I was really leaving and she saw Aubree crying, she quickly went over and told Aubree she would clean up for her.  I told Calleigh, no, this was Aubree's mess to clean up and although I was happy that she was offering to help, Aubree needed to do it herself.  I picked Brady up and started walking to the stairs.  Calleigh starts following me and then stops and starts hysterically crying herself that she "doesn't want to leave Aubree" and that "we're best sisters." etc, etc.  She would not leave and would not stop crying!  I finally explained to her that we needed to do this to teach Aubree a lesson.  We didn't want Aubree to think that she could just start crying and Calleigh would come and do her work for her.  I finally got Calleigh calmed down and at last, got Aubree to clean up.  The two were united again!  They clutched each other like they had been parted for hours or days.  Then what do they do?  They come downstairs to get a snack and instead of each getting her own granola bar, they get just one, sit down at the table, and then pass it back and forth each taking one bite at a time.  Why?  Because "we're best sisters."

That's a wrap folks.  Have a very Happy Sabbath!

My Eager Beaver posing before Adventurer's the past Wednesday.  She freaked out about wearing those jean capris  although I said Braelyn would probably wear jeans or capris.  What did Braelyn wear?  The exact same jean capris!

A picture from a few weeks ago that Jennifer just sent me.  Love it!

Duncan took the kids, along with some other dads and kids, to Sea World two Sundays ago so I could clean the garage. I meant to remind him that Brady doesn't like this ride.

That he REALLY doesn't like this ride! 

A few years makes a big difference.

He looks so grown up here.

Yup, it was a good day.

We got some plants/trees to put next to our front door.  Calleigh listens intently to all the instructions.

Calleigh's big thing right now is making all kinds of things out of paper using her scissors and tape.  On this day, it was these paper dolls that could attach to your hand.  

The Isidros' (minus Tangie) joined us one day for supper last week since Tangie was working very late hours.

Costco run this week.  Had to get more lentils.  But darn, if we didn't fill up on all the samples!  

Brady is into biting as of late and gave Aubs this doozie this afternoon.

Despite that, these two really love each other and I see them developing a closer bond every day.