Far too long again!

Alright, once again it has been far too long since I have blogged.  Here's what's happened . . .

• I got married on August 1.
• We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon and our trip happened to coincide with Shark Week.  This led to my decision to NOT go snorkeling.  Come to find out, shortly after we were there, a snorkeler had his arm bitten off about an hour from where we were staying.  Call it silly paranoia or the still, small voice . . . all I know is I still have all my limbs.
• The day we got back from Hawaii, the kids arrived home from the fair with three rabbits.  Their names have changed about 50 times since the day we got them, but I believe they are called Oreo, Sherbet and Stormy.  Or something like that.  All I know is if Oreo/Wild Thing escapes and has to be chased down one more time, we're having rabbit stew for dinner.  I have no problem with the other two and as they are all boys, we will probably be getting some females so they can breed like rabbits.
• Fixing up the house is moving right along.  My goal is to have it ready in the next week and a half so the kids can move in before school starts on September 4.  Here's what's left to do:
• Come up with flooring for our bedroom.  (This can wait.)
• Put the french doors back up that go into our bedroom so that people don't immediately see where the magic happens when they walk in the front door. 
• Paint the ceiling in the living room.  (This can wait.)
• Finish the trim in the kitchen.
• Finish painting the kitchen cabinet doors.
• Come up with flooring for the hallway and babies' room.  (This can wait.  We'll get some throw rugs.)
• Paint the ceiling in the babies' room and kitchen.  (This can wait.)
• Paint the laundry room.
• The bathroom is still a shiz-hole.  Too much to do in here to list.
• Decide what to do about the floors in the basement.  We pulled up the disgusting carpeting and pads and now it's just a cement floor. 
• Sanitize and paint the downstairs.
• Finish unpacking.
• Hook up the internet and tv.  (This cannot wait!)
• My mother-in-law's job ends today, so she'll be able to help me get things whipped into shape.  
• Things are going well with the kids.  When we got back from our honeymoon, they all immediately started calling me mom.  Do all kids preface everything they say with Mom?  "Mom, watch this."  "Mom, did you see that?"  "Mom, can I have a drink?"  "Mom, I have to go to the bathroom."  "Mom, Mom, Mom!"  They did it before too with my actual name, but I guess since I'm not used to being called Mom yet, it's more noticeable.  Stop saying my name and just speak, child!
• Tyler's parent's dog is preggers, so we'll be getting a puppy soon.  I'm also stealing one of their cats, who also happens to be pregnant.  Plus, since I didn't want a puppy, we're still going to get a nice, housebroken dog from the shelter.  Add in the rabbits and their inevitable babies, and we're well on our way to having a farm.  I don't know when we'll get the chickens-we need to fix up the hen house first.
• When I started out with these kids, I wanted them to watch as little tv as possible.  Now I have realized the value of tv and movies.  I choose carefully what they watch, though.  Meaning, they are only allowed to watch what I also want to watch.  I've introduced them to all sorts of stuff from my childhood . . . The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, Faerie Tale Theater, The Gnome Mobile, etc.  
• I have started sneaking vegetables into their food.  I made meatloaf the other night and added pureed bell peppers to it.  I also added finely chopped cauliflower to their stroganoff.  This seems to be the only way to get them to eat something other than just corn.  Speaking of which, changing corn-filled diapers is nasty.  

weekly stressfulness update

I spent the weekend in Idaho again and I feel like I was at least semi-productive, so that's a start.  We did get all registered at Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  While there aren't a ton of things on our lists, we did find more than I thought.  We also got some more painting done, but not quite as much as I would have liked.  The house is really slow going.  I have realized that just because Tyler is capable of doing certain handymanish things, it doesn't mean he will have time to do them.  Normally work slows down for him around this time of year, before harvest begins, but this year has been crazy.  Pivots have been breaking down left and right.  On Saturday he was only supposed to have checked the water in the morning and again in the evening, but the pivots kept breaking down, so he ended up working pretty much all day.  For those of you who don't know what a pivot is (which included me up until very recently), they are the sprinklers that you see out in the fields.  Not the pipes that lay on the ground, but the ones that are suspended in the air.  They're called pivots because a motor slowly moves them around in a giant circle.  When Tyler has to go check pivots it means that he has to go watch to see if they're still moving.  They tend to get stuck in the dirt and he has to dig them out, or else they stop working and he has to try to figure out what the problem is.  He's gotten to be really good with wiring and electrical stuff.

Tyler's mom ended up getting a seasonal job that starts next week, so I am now going to be going up there to be with the kids after my last day of work on July 3.  Eek!  I'll have them all on my own, which could be really good or a really big disaster.  I'm going to stay up there for about a week, then come back down here for a couple of bridal showers and to move my stuff up there.  Fortunately my family is back in town for a little bit so we're frantically trying to get things done.  Hopefully invitations will be done by tomorrow and sent out this weekend, my wedding dress (that we are hoping and praying I like and fits since I ordered it online) will arrive next Tuesday and we're going to get clothes for the kids purchased this weekend.  Plus other assorted odds and ends.  At this point I have made peace with the fact that everything might not get done.  As long as the major things like a dress, invitations, etc., are taken care of, then I'm not going to worry about the rest.  Or so I'm telling myself!

While I was up there this weekend I had one child say I'm the best mom ever, another say I'm going to be the best mom she's ever had (which is both sweet and sad at the same time) and then I also made two kids cry when I punished them for hitting and pushing each other.  They were supposed to be cleaning up their bedroom, but then one of them hit the other so she shoved him back.  They both ended up in time out and had to clean up different rooms by themselves since they clearly couldn't work together.  I happened to be the only one home with them and I was trying to make dinner at the time, so I'm proud of myself for not losing my cool and handling the situation in an appropriate fashion.  Give me a few more months and I'm sure I'll blow up, but at least for now I'm doing alright with the discipline.  When Tyler got home he asked me if I gave them a swat on the butt.  My thought on that is how am I supposed to tell a child not to hit as I'm hitting them?  He does a half-hearted swat that he calls a spanking but it's kind of more to emphasize his point I guess, since they don't seem to phase the kids at all.  If that was the kind of spanking I had gotten when I was little, I would have just done whatever I wanted and taken the spanking!  I prefer to make the kids work or take away privileges, which seems to make them far more miserable. 

Oh and btw, no other McDonald's trays appeared on the deck.  I was slightly disappointed.  I also never solved the mystery of where they came from. 

Another fun weekend

I spent the weekend in Idaho again, but this time I took my parents along for the ride.  The meeting of the two families went really well, thankfully.  We spent Saturday morning taking engagement and family pictures and we got some really great photos.  I went and got coordinating outfits for everyone and I think it all came together really well.  When my dad finishes photoshopping them, I'll post some for everyone to see.  The rest of Saturday was spent getting to know each other and then we had a bbq in the fire pit in the back yard.  My mom was thrilled to do s'mores.  Apparently it's been years since she's gotten to roast marshmallows over the fire and she was in heaven.  It really is the little things, isn't it! 

Sunday was spent working at the house.  Things had not progressed as much (or at all, actually) as I wanted them to since last weekend, which sucked, but we did get quite a bit done.  Tyler borrowed the backhoe from work and finished digging the trench for the new waterline to the well.  The previous pipe had broken and it was all old, so he decided to just replace all of the pipe.  The water pressure also wasn't that great, so we're getting some kind of pressure tank that will help with that.  After a few bumps along the way, we got all the pipe laid down and the connections made.  We're lucky in that Tyler gets all of the materials to do this for free from his work.  The new pipe ended up not fitting through the hole into the house, which could have been a big issue, but we just ran down to the workshop and he cut off a piece of thinner pipe, then used their equipment to make the threads on the end.  That was kinda cool to see.  I mean who ever thinks about what it takes to make the threads on a pipe?  I certainly never did!  They also had all of the connecting pieces we needed.  I have a feeling this is going to be really handy as time goes on!

While Tyler finished up the piping, his mom and the kids and I worked inside the house.  We got the walls scrubbed down in two of the bedrooms and the hallway, so they're ready to be painted.  I also had to step into the disciplinarian role, which was interesting.  Ethan, who is 7, kept playing around and not helping out, so instead of getting to work with everyone else, I made him go outside and pick up pinecones.  He pouted the whole time, but next time hopefully he'll do what is asked of him instead of messing around.  In order for this family to work, everyone is going to have to help out and if they don't want to do the chore they're given, I'll be more than happy to find a different one for them to do!  I had to get on Lily (age 9) about helping out too.  It's interesting to see how I'm going to have to deal with each child differently.  Kylee (age 5) does really well when you praise her and I think that'll be the best motivator for her.  That's not going to work with Lily.  I don't think making her do extra chores will necessarily work either.  That's what they've been doing, by making her clean out horse stalls when she has a bad attitude.  I think losing privileges might be what will work for her.  We'll see as time goes on. 

I did a lot of bonding with the kids this weekend.  No one has ever sat down and read with them regularly, so I spent lots of time reading to them.  Even the babies (Trysta-1 year and Ava-2 years) were fighting to sit on my lap and look at the pictures.  My mom brought up little presents for everyone, including some books and Morgan (8 years old) sat and read a book to my mom.  There were lots of hard, foreign words in the story and she did surprisingly well.  She's an excellent little reader!  Even my mom, who actually teaches reading, was impressed.  Lily seems to need lots of physical affection right now, so I made sure to give her lots of hugs.  When we were saying goodbye, she gave me a huge hug and started crying.  She didn't want me to go and said she was going to miss me.  Holy cow, way to pull at my heart strings!  Despite having their grandma and aunt around, what these kids really need is a mom.  Taking them over to the house so they could see that it's being cleaned up and made into a home again has made them excited and they all keep saying they can't wait until the wedding.  Kylee did whisper in my ear, though, that Tyler and I aren't allowed to kiss until we get married! 

My ring was done being sized this week, so now I finally get to wear it:

Sadly I only took one picture this weekend . . . Trysta really liked her Jello salad!

Weekend in the 'Ho

I spent the weekend in Idaho, working my butt off.  You see, Tyler (the fiance) let his ex-wife live in his house for a little while after they split up.  Now I'm not going to say this was a stupid decision, but given the fact that she was (and still is) a drug addict who neglected her children and any form of cleanliness, it may not have been the best idea.  One of the reasons I love Tyler is that he is one of the kindest people I have ever met.  I fully appreciate that he didn't want the mother of his children to be on the streets, so instead of saying what I would like to say about this woman, I am going to choose to focus instead on how big his heart is.  Sometimes, though, a big heart leads to a house being destroyed and turned into a shit hole.

So that's what I spent the weekend doing.  We borrowed his brother's horse trailer (that holds 6 horses, mind you), and filled it completely with stuff to take to the dump.  And there's more still to take out.  The couches that were in the living room still need to go as they are disgusting and who knows what has happened on them.  All of the walls and ceilings have to be repainted.  We ripped up a bunch of carpet that was nasty.  Fortunately, in the bedroom that will be ours, there was wood that will look amazing after it's been sanded and stained.  In another bedroom we pulled the carpet out of, we expected to find the same wood but instead found a weird linoleum.  So . . . now we have to find new carpet to put down in there.  We're hoping that the carpet in the basement can just be steam cleaned and be ok, but I have my doubts about one of the rooms.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Part of the basement is also unfinished, so we need to put up a wall to close off what will be my gloriously large food storage area.  The ceiling also needs to be fixed in most of the basement.  When I say fixed, I mean that there isn't actually any ceiling up right now-it's just exposed beams and pipes.  There are also other things here and there that need to be done, so we're looking at a ton of work over the next month and a half before I move in there. 

One of the best things about the house (which used to be one of the nicest on the farm), is that we've got plenty of land to use.  There's another old house on the property that is falling down and I'm hoping that we can tear it down and use the materials for other things.  There are also several sheds, one of which will be perfect for chickens.  We're also looking at getting possibly a cow and pig.  We'll see.  There is also room for a massive garden, which will be awesome since there will be six growing children to feed.  The land needs quite a bit of work as well.  We walked around it yesterday and found several rhubarb plants, which made me happy.  Hooray for strawberry rhubarb crisp!!!  There's a fire pit right out back, which will be fun.  There's also a cool semi-hidden away area in the trees that will make an awesome fort area for the kiddos.  I was pretty excited about it-I may have to be a kid for a while and play in the fort too.  There are lots of lilacs and some peonies too.  The lawn desperately needs to be sprayed for dandelions and we need to reseed some areas where the grass is no more, as well.  Oh, and we're going to put in raspberry starts this year, so in a couple years I'm hoping for raspberries galore. 

Despite all the issues, the house and land have amazing potential.  I can't wait until it's all done (or at least the major stuff is done)!  The house is going to be super cute and cosy and I've always wanted to live on a farm!  His parents live just down the road, which will be great since I'm going to need massive amounts of help getting used to having six kids.  I think there's another neighbor somewhere north of us, but there aren't many people nearby.  Oh, and by the way, once you walk past the row of wind break trees in the backyard, all you see is acres and acres (like hundreds, maybe thousands) of fields.  I can't remember if it's hay or wheat right now.  The green is gorgeous, though.  I want to set up a little table and chairs back there so we can watch the sunset over the fields. 

I'll be going up again next weekend to work.  I picked out a paint color (everything is just going to be a neutral color), so I'm hoping maybe a room or two will be done by the time I get back up there.  If I'm really lucky, maybe my bedroom floor will be done too!

I'm guessing this will be the first of many posts about the progress about the house and land.  I did take before pictures of the disaster the house was, but I don't know if I can bring myself to post them, they're so bad.  And I don't want them to reflect badly on Tyler!  I know it wasn't him that did it (he and the kids weren't living there at the time), but still.