This and That

This was my living room last week. Who doesn't want a fridge and a gas stove in their living room?

They have sealed off the kitchen to keep the dust from sanding to a minimum.

A kitchen table in the front  of the front door. Why not. 



The china cabinet had to be moved four feet away from the wall. Thankfully I did not have to empty it and was able to slowly slide it away from the wall.





To get to the upstairs you had to climb over the railing. I tried to catch Bob on the sly.



Carter had baseball tryouts last Saturday so Bob and he did some warming up before hand.

Tryouts are pretty basic. They show how they are able to catch pop balls. Grounders. Hitting. Throwing.

Everyone who tries out is picked. No one is eliminated.



The coaches then have their roster of who they would like on their team and have their draft. At first I thought what a ridiculous thing, why are you having little kids tryout for your team. It is actually a good thing.



It evens out the team so that one team doesn't get all the really good players and one team gets all the beginners.

He is pretty cute, I would pick him for my team!

Here they are waiting for their turn at bat.

He hit the ball and Mom was relieved. I don't care how much you tell yourself "as long as they have fun" you still want them to whack it out of the park.

Later on I went to pick up the boys at a friends house.  She is so cute.

Sam trying to come to terms with riding his pink bike and playing with a 2nd and 3rd grader.

Or showing off on his bike, whatever works.

See those shorts and shirt?

Kind of nice right? One would have thought I was torturing the kid when I went out  to buy summer clothes. He is the worst when it comes to picking out clothes. A pain short of murder. I have gotten to the point where I select clothes and bring them home for him. Well that is what I did this time.

The result.....Complain, Complain, Complain.

I then told him to get in the car, we are going shopping. Two hours later we came home with the same clothes were were going to bring back. Pain in the ass I say!



It took some restraint not to say "I TOLD YOU SO!"



Walking home was so pretty, cannot wait to see that whole mountain green.

Happy almost spring! I have lots of yard work to get done.

Sam joins the National Honor Society

Sam joined the National Honor Society last week...Woo Hoo! He love all the attention. Can you see the excitement on his face?  Actually I did get a smile out of him, he knows how proud we are of him.

Martha is excited for him too. Can you tell?

There is the wood for my house that they have started to install today. So ready for this to be done with.

Relax Martha, go back to sleep.

Day 2 of the flooded kitchen

Today they came to start the clean-up from the water damage. The insulation has been removed from the basement. The duct work also had to be removed. They sprayed something that smells like lemon pledge to inhibit any mold growth, brought it fans, dehumidifiers and air scrubber.


Upstairs they have wrapped everything in plastic so that they can start removing the hardwood floors tomorrow.

They will also have a separate company come in to remove the granite counter tops on the island so that it can be removed also.
The bathroom has had all the fixtures removed and the hardwoods.

The laundry room is on the other side of the wall across the hall.
The design of the home is very open concept so blocking off doorways has been tricky. Tomorrow they will be running saws so the dust will be flying. I explained to the restoration folks very politely that I had just unpacked this home 3 months ago and I did not plan on doing it again. I wanted everything wrapped in plastic and I was not going to clean up the dust and I was not moving anything that they were going to have to do it. They were very understanding, they get it.

This is the prelim stuff. In 2 weeks they will empty the house out into a POD in the driveway and we will all be going to a hotel for 5 days. yipee skippee. 
This is Sam  in the kitchen, to get to the kitchen we have to go outside.

 Ozzy is not real fazed.

 Martha on the other hand is a little stressed....people are moving around. Furniture is moving....


My kitchen table is in the hallway?

Sense of Humor GONE!

Happy February Folks!

I have to say that it has not started off on the right foot.
Nope.
Not at all.
As y'all know we moved into a new home on Halloween and it has been a production. One that I am hoping has its final act soon.
I was starting to see the curtain coming down but apparently there was to be an encore performance.
We had FINALLY sold our Culpeper home to relocation. Done with it. Good riddance to having to deal with the relo people. ARGH! 
We were really looking forward to having  that done with.

One of the things that has been a hassle is our dryer. Just so you know, I have not had a dryer for 3 months. Since we were relocated we were provided a service that moves our appliances and makes sure everything is hooked up properly and working. To make a VERY long story short we...
Had the dryer installed.
The movers failed to convert it from propane to gas.
Dryer does not work.
Gas company comes out to change orifice, they install orifice and leave.
Dryer does not work.
Appliance repair comes out.
Dipstick gas people installed the exact orifice they just removed.
Dryer still does not work.
Gas people come back out. Install correct orifice.
Dryer does not work.
Appliance guy comes out. trouble shoots problem says he will get back to me.
Dyer does not work.
Appliance guy comes back out yesterday. Changes orifice. Moves appliances around. Leaves.
Krista does her first load of laundry and goes into the bedroom to sort more laundry and pick up. Gone about 45minutes.

Krista goes into the kitchen, FALLS ON HER ASS!
Why does Krista fall on her butt......Because the washing machine has been pumping water all over her hardwood floors!
Damn appliance guy did not put the hose in the drain when he put appliances back.

So I am now waiting for the restoration people to show up to estimate the damages.
As I am typing this I am hearing the loud pops of the wood expanding.

It went through the duct work and floor dumping water all over my basement. The basement where I had just spent hours upon hours sorting through boxes. Organizing holiday decorations. Labeling. Stacking. Moving. Cleaning.

Now I get to deal with having my hardwood floors replaced. It just chaps my ARSE!

Seriously. Really? My sense of humor, Gone.

If a tree falls.....

Our house and yard is work. Lots of work. More work than I want to do or have time to do. So, in an effort to ease some of the work we are making changes.  We have 3 plus acres of yard with a shebang full of trees. A shebang full of oak and hickory trees that also equals acorns and hickory nuts. LOTS of hickory nuts. There are not enough squirrels to eat all these nuts and I don't have the desire to keep raking and shoveling them up just so I can mow. This is the yard before the tree removal.

From Each Day....

After the trees were removed.....

From Each Day....

Sure it is much prettier with the trees for right now...we need to plant grass. But now I can park in the driveway without the trees damaging the cars.
Before....

From Each Day....

From Each Day....

From Each Day....

From Each Day....

So then after paying what seems like a Kings Ransom we were done, or so we thought. I got a call from my son while I was at work.."Mom, a tree fell down." Uh, what do you mean a tree fell down? We just had 24 trees dropped and REMOVED, what do you mean a tree fell down?
Yup. A tree fell down.
A big tree. I does not look big in this picture but it is.

From Each Day....

We also had a birth at our home. In the garage. I thought they were dead. I was afraid we had locked the momma out of the garage, away from here babies because it was too quiet for too long. But nope they are alive and well and trying to fly. Their fuzzy little heads are so cute!

From Each Day....