Just RK

As of the point that I'm putting this post together, we still don't have a connection at home.  But thanks to Meredith and her tip from a while back, I was able to download Windows Live Writer when I was borrowing WiFi earlier in the week, so at least now I can compile a post from home and just put it up when I get a chance.  Not a bad deal. So Julia and Ryan were here last week with me for most of the week while Braska was at Grammy's.  They were a HUGE help, and we got a whole lot of things moved and loads taken over during the week to get ready for the big move.  It was handy to have Ryan around for the things I couldn't reach.  I couldn't hardly reach the top of the wallpaper with a stepladder, but Ryan didn't need anything at all.  The plan was to do some moving on Friday night, then do the "big" part on Saturday morning.  It became apparent quickly that we better just capitalize on the hands available on Friday night to get done...

Nope. No internet yet. I've caught a stray signal from a neighbor a couple times, but it's fleeting and barely pulls in one or two emails. So for now, it's no go. We hope by Saturday afternoon we'll be in business. We're about to go nuts with no internet and no TV. It's a very telling experience, but that's for another post....or not. I'm at my sister's place to drop some pics so I thought I'd throw up a HI! I've got pics to share and stories (no guarantee on how exciting) to tell, but for now they wait. Maybe I'll need a quiche at St. Louis Bread Co tomorrow morning and can get on there for a bit. Oh, and I am feeling some better, still not 100%. It's just rough not to be able to medicate immediately like I would normally do. Hope this little Pepino appreciates my suffering for it's sake. Hope you're all having a good week!

It's been a crazy few days. We're in the new place in record time and with more frustrating elements to an actual move-in than I've ever experienced, but we had a GREAT crew who helped us get the job done! Family rocks!!! We don't have internet at home yet, so I'm at St. Louis Bread Co borrowing for a moment. I'll be slow to post and respond to emails until we go live, so feel free to load me up with hi and hello notes so I'm all surprised when I get to check in. I could use the sunshine! In the midst of it all, I've been sick with a cold that's really messing with my energy and sleep (not that Baby Pepino wasn't already doing that...) so it's been a fun one. But we have a house, and we are blessed to do so, complaining over!! I'll get to the blogs in my Reader as I can...sorry for not being on the quick as I try to be. Have a great week everyone! Do something fun and tell me about it! I'll live vicariously through you when I ...

Yesterday, the fam came and got the living room and hall primed and painted along with priming the door in the living room. We took them to grab supper before Mom and Dad took Braska and headed home. Here's the before (brown door) and the after (primed door, Sugar Beige walls, trim will be white). The color is so subtle, but I'm not going to change it to darker til we live with it for a while. Plus, I don't really care at this point. It's a good paint job and a nice color for neutrals, so it works fine. Today Ryan and Julia helped me a great deal by packing up tubs of kitchen stuff and making a few trips over to put them away. Initially, I just started unloading stuff into any open cabinet, thinking I'd worry about organizing later. But it was quickly apparent that having less than half of the cabinets from our last house is going to be quite the challenge. So tonight, as Ryan and M went to a movie, Julia and I began to unload and try to reload in proper pl...

The fam came today and primed and painted the living room and hall. It looks nice, though the color I picked is a bit lighter than I thought. It's good though. Sugar Beige, it's called. Yum. Tonight and the rest of this week, Ryan and Julia, my youngest two sibs are staying with us to be my extra hands and helpers in these last few days before the move. And in exchange, you might say, Braska went home with Grammy and Papa for a few days. I packed all her little things, wrote out all the instructions for feeding and such, and off she went. It's weird to think I don't get to get her up and have our morning playtime in the big bed for a few days, but she'll be fine with Grammy. I hope she's not mad at me by Saturday. She'll be happy to be home, to her new home, I'm sure.

The first of the contruction/remodeling projects are done, except for priming and painting, which will happen tomorrow. Here's where the fireplace used to be. I've never been so happy to see a plain jane wall. And here's the new kitchen pass-through, though I am sure it is more likely to be a look-through only. We spent a few hours tonight, Rachel and I, cleaning and wiping everything in the kitchen down thoroughly, as there was a ridiculous amount of drywall dust on everything and in every little crevice. Amazing. I'm sure I'll be finding it for a long time to come. But at least the kitchen is ready for some preliminary move-in of items tomorrow. My parents and the two youngest siblings are coming to town tomorrow to do the painting and help out with getting things ready for the Saturday move. This is a lifesaver since I've been completely non-efficient lately. I'm accomplishing nothing. In a funk, maybe. Overwhelmed, maybe. It's bad. Thank goo...

Today the fridge came. It's pretty and shiny white. The delivery guys were supposed to be there between 10 and 12 noon. So we went to the house and waited. We did a few little jobs, but we mostly waited. They arrived at about 12:20 pm, of course. Thankfully, they were nice, so we forgave them. Here's a question...do you tip delivery guys when you've been charged a delivery fee already?? Edited to add, since Teresa mentioned it and reminded me: M did offer them each a cold soda, which made one very happy especially because we had Dr Pepper. But of course! They were very glad for the cold drink (from the cooler).

Today was a long day... but we got some work done, which is very good. I started the day with the necessary supplies. No, it's not much, but when you've got a Hello Kitty boombox, what else can you possibly need?!? I worked some more on the bathroom wallpaper. Of course, I'm quite short, and I didn't take a stool, so I was limited in my range of reach. But the good thing is that the top layer is coming off in nice big sheets, and the paper layer underneath is coming off that way also when it's sprayed with water...yep, just water. How cool is that! Now THIS is the way to remove wallpaper! It appears that they put up the wallpaper before they put in the cabinet and lighting stuff, fixtures, etc., and that makes it difficult to get it clean. But it'll help when I have a screwdriver available to take things like light switch plates off. At least one main wall is done, mostly. Tonight M and his brothers and their oh-so-helpful Pop came up and made a couple ...

This morning I was planning to meet the handyman at the house to go over some things we've asked him to take care of for us. But the call I got before 8 am was not the one I expected... it was Rick, the project manager for the construction company. He said since they were able to finish demo yesterday, he had a couple carpenters who could come and finish us up today. Yeah, that's right! Construction that will be done a week ahead of schedule!! I was way excited and Rick just laughed at me. Here's what it looked like when I got there. Outside... And inside... the hole is slowly disappearing. So I went over to meet them and give the final ok on the opening to be cut in the kitchen/living room wall. Anthony had the opening drawn out on the wall so I could see it. (If you click on the left picture, you can see where the drawing is. The other is the opposite side of that wall.) I looked at it and said it was good, then as I looked more, I decided maybe I wanted it bigger from t...

This morning I went and let in a team of guys to do some demolition. They did. Here's how it looked when we went back tonight to close things up. Well, to close the windows, anyway. In case you missed it, here's what was there prior to 11:30am today. (Don't fret. The new bookcase on the right got saved for use elsewhere.) If the schedule doesn't change, the great big pet door/alternate garage entrance will remain until Monday/Tuesday when the framing crew comes to finish up. That's why we're not moving in yet...make sense?

Braska and I went to the house last night to check things out. Not sure what I thought I'd find but an empty house (and it was dirty...what's that about? Clean your house when you sell it, people!! We left ours spotless!), and that we did. But there was a big dumpster in the driveway. That's for the demo that starts today. Pics of that when it gets underway. You can check out Braska's tour of the house on her blog . There's work to be done cosmetically for sure. We'll get to some sooner, some can wait. This is the border in Braska's room. Pandas are her theme anyway, so it works. The blue is not what I would choose (not that I would ever choose any border either) but we're gonna leave it for now. This is the border in Pepino's room. Noah's ark is always good, but the green is a bit much for me. But again, it'll stay for now. Looks like Pepino's got a theme picked out for him/her already. There's alot of wallpaper in the bath and the k...

Today we close on our new place. It's exciting and kind of scary too. There's alot going on in my head about it, but not much that I can share for various reasons. I'm glad to be getting in there soon to get cleaning and prepping for the demolition and construction of the next 7 days. I'm looking forward to seeing the new changes in place. And mostly I'm praying hard that this will be a good thing for our family as we move forward, something that marks another step in our healing and recovery process. M's home today from work, feeling horrible and looking it. This is a rarity for him to miss work. Hopefully he's able to sit up and sign his name a hundred times in a few hours. For now we let him sleep. I hope to be more consistent about posting as this process moves forward, more for my own record-keeping than anything, but feel free to follow along. Happy Tuesday!

This morning Good Morning America aired the first interview with Steven Curtis Chapman and the rest of the family since the very sad accident that took 5-year-old Maria from them 11 weeks ago today. I had my DVR set from last week, making sure I wouldn't miss it. I woke up this morning and happened to remember at 8:04 am, so I found ABC and it wasn't hardly 30 seconds before they started the intro. Both Braska and I sat silent during the whole piece. She didn't move, and I only moved to wipe a few tears. Steven and Mary Beth speak as parents, desperately missing their youngest little girl. The older three kids, including Will Franklin, 17, who was driving the car that hit her in the driveway, speak of their pain and how to help each other get through. In mid-July, Steven returned to his tour, with sons Will Franklin and Caleb, as they are part of his touring band. What better example of his faith in the God he sings about and tells of every night than to return to sharing h...

100 degrees is hot. 105 is even hotter. That's what it was today here. (The heat index, that is, but come on, if that's what it "feels like" then isn't that what counts?? M has a nice perspective on this too.) Our apartment is on the top/second floor, has a big sliding door and a large double window that face West, right over the lake (love that reflection of the water). Our air conditioner has been an issue since the day we moved in. The maintenance guys, one particularly who is nice, have been out at least 3 times to "fix" it since it runs non-stop during the day, especially on the hotter days, and the line to drain the condensation gets clogged or something and overflows. So we get water draining down into the area below the unit in the apartment where the cold air return is. You can imagine how that makes for pleasant smells coming out of all the vents in the apartment. So now there's a small trash can under there to catch the water, and i...

For those of you who have asked about all the house transitions and transactions, glitches and gaffes... we're getting closer to being in the clear. We closed on the house in C-U on Wednesday, 7/30, so we are currently not homeowners. It feels weird to say goodbye to that place, especially since we didn't really say goodbye. I thought we'd go back for closing and have some kind of ceremonial last picture or something, but we had an attorney handle it all for us, so we didn't make the trip. I'm glad it's over, but that place will sure be missed. I hope the new owner enjoys it and uses the heck out of that pool! I'm actually sending a card to the new owner today with a "congrats on your new home" kind of thing. Just thought it would be nice. We will be closing on Abbey on 8/12. We got a GREAT deal on the house and the sellers also gave us a nice credit for the repairs that needed to be made, so we're in really amazing shape, thank you God! Maybe...