Un-Extreme Home Makeover: Phase II, Part 2

Paintin' Party

Our late night painting party looked like this...

For some reason Meme did the second coat on an entire wall with the smallest roller in the world! The. Entire. Wall. That woman!

Paul worked on the bottom up and I worked from the top down.

We are planning on trying out for the Olympic painting team next!

And the night didn't end until around 3 o'clock in the morning! Paul and I got into bed around 4:00 and hit the floor running at 8am, when the reinforcements arrived.....okay, he hit the floor running. I sorta dragged myself out of bed and then laid back down until Isabel came to tell me that Claire was up. I feel tremendously guilty that I wasn't up making coffee....but then, I have no idea where the coffee pot is! And also, I am too tired to feel guilty.

Sweet Tonggu Momma saw the "Birthday Edition" post and felt a wee bit of pity for the husband, because the Tongginator is having a big birthday bash today and Hubby didn't get so much as a minute to relax on his big day! She offered to mail him a butterfly cupcake...which I'm sure would be delightful! But, don't worry too much, Paul got a cheese cake!

He hasn't had time to get any use out of it yet, but here is Claire enjoying his new iPod shuffle!

Tune in later to learn what "Murphy's Law" decided to serve up today. I'd hate for you to miss out on all this fun. Really.

Un-Extreme Home Makeover: Birthday Edition!

Today is Paul's birthday! Happy Birthday Honey! So, since it was his birthday I let him sleep in, served him breakfast in bed and he got to sit in his recliner and watch Man T.V. all day! Okay, NOT! But, that is the way the day should have gone! Unfortunately, we don't have a kitchen for me to prepare a birthday breakfast in, hence the reason he had to get out of bed, and there is nary a recliner to be found in our house!

Instead he got a store bought, whole grain, apple cider muffin with a banana, served on a paper plate in the bed at 8:00am this morning. Then he hopped to it! 'Cause he had this to do.

Getting rid of that nasty track lighting!

And then he....

Took down this lovely lantern!

And both those dinosaurs currently reside at the road...in the pile of trash I am ashamed to say will be sitting there until Tuesday. Oh well!

He also had to frame in my beautiful new window, no thanks to the city, thankyouverymuch!

And currently he is

Up on scaffolding, trying to spray paint the ceiling.....isn't he cute in his jumpsuit? Then we have to paint the walls. All the walls. Tonight. In case you don't know, it's already 7:30PM. I think it's safe to say that this is going to be a long night!!! Really. Thank goodness reinforcements are coming tomorrow. Paul called his Uncle Dave down in Jacksonville, and he is heading up to help with the cabinets!!!

Oh, and just in case you thought this week couldn't get crazier....you thought wrong!

Parker and Isabel are in bed with fevers! Yeah, we went to Wal-mart on Wednesday, came down with the Wal-mart shopping cart bug on Thursday. Haven't heard of that virus yet? IT'S THE ONE YOU GET FROM THOSE NASTY BUGGIES AT WAL-MART!

Poor Noah is going to change his name. Every time someone needed anything they were hollering for him! Me included! Now he is across the street at Meme and Papa's cooking dinner for us. Paul is getting Tater Tot casserole for his birthday dinner because that is one of the things that boy knows how to cook!

Un-Extreme Home Makeover: Phase II Part 1

The Kitchen

Well, the week is almost over and our little kitchen project is on time and under budget! YEAH RIGHT! That's a lovely thought, but we've hit a few snags, folks! Really........ did you expect anything else?

We started with a flourish. We bought a new table and chairs. Was that necessary? Well only if you take into account that fact that all our chairs were precariously close to collapsing any time someone over 100 lbs took a seat! Seriously. Not to mention the fact that they were all held together with extra screws, a gallon of wood glue and lots of imagination!

Alas, I can't show you pictures of the new furniture, because it is still in boxes. Did I say boxes? Well, you didn't think we shopped at Ethan Allen did you?! No furniture truck delivery. Not us. Paul picked it up, in the boxes, with a borrowed trailer! And, that is pretty much where the fun ended.

Today is Thursday and we should be installing the cabinets today. We aren't. We should have done all the painting yesterday. We didn't. Why you ask? Ummm....'cause we still haven't finished putting in the window, that's why.

What have we been doing all week? Oh, nothing much. Just removing all the old cabinets, pulling up a 9x15 ft piece of 25 year old carpet and FOUR LAYERS OF LINOLEUM, repairing the walls, and installing a window, and installing a window, and......installing that darn window. All I wanted was a little sun light, people. Is that too much to ask??? And, Let us not forget....going a few rounds with the city building inspector! Y.E.S. I said the city building inspector. See, we were under the mistaken impression, based on what we were told by some contractors, that we did not need a permit to put in a window. This is not true. But, that was not the problem. After a nosey concerned neighbor reported us to the city because they thought we were putting in an addition without a permit, and the building inspector came out and told Paul to go get a permit, the party really began!

First, we had to stop working on the window to go get the permit, so we lost half a day right there. Second, when Paul went to the permit office he came face to face with THE guy that everyone complains about. You know the one. He's the guy that actually WEARS A BADGE proclaiming that he is a building inspector. All the other inspectors just wear laminated name tags around their necks. This guy. He wears an honest to goodness BADGE, because he has power issues is very important, don't you know. And, he was a pain. Plus, he used phrases like "I'd love to help you out, but....", which just make things oh, so much better. He was also WRONG. But, it took us half a day to figure that out. He told Paul that he would not give him a permit and he could not put in the window we had. It wasn't up to code! Let me just say that my father-in-law worked for the company that installs these very same windows in all the new construction houses in this area, and he just about blew a gasket when he heard this. Because he knew it was wrong, that's why! But, what are you going to do? Argue with "Little Mister Napoleon Complex", who has the power and motivation to make your life miserable? I think not. You go around him!

As Providence would have it, Thank you, Lord!, when Paul was walking out of the inspector's office, he ran into our roofer, Billy. Billy told Paul to call the supervisor immediately. He did. While he waited to hear from the supervisor, he called all the building supply places about the window. Every one of them told him, the window we have is the right window. Finally, the supervisor called back, told Paul the window is up to code, and GAVE Paul all the code numbers he needed to get the permit. But by this time we would have to wait until the morning! $35 dollars later and a day late, we are still working on that darned window! BUT I WIN! I HAVE MY WINDOW!!

What I don't have yet are painted walls and hung cabinets! It's 2:00pm on Thursday afternoon and and it's not looking like a kitchen yet, y'all! As usual, our little project is going to take twice as long to complete! Thank goodness my in-laws have been helping.

Removing the old cabinets. Do you love my bird's eye view? Yeah, that's because the contractor that built this house was apparently on drugs. Who wants to look into their kitchen from the upstairs hall? Who??? The kids are constantly dropping things over the ledge onto the tops of the cabinets and there it stays until someone climbs up to get it. AND DUST. Do you dust the tops of your cabinets? I should. 'Cause you can see them!

Top cabinets are gone.

Here are my little helpers. Isabel and Claire like to spackle!

She LOVES to help!

The dining area before the carpet was removed.

And, after.

This is the pile of dirt I swept up after the carpet was taken up!!!! OMGoodness! All that dirt was under the carpet!!! Ewwwwww! And, we vacuumed EVERYDAY, y'all!

My Mother-in-law couldn't wait to get the linoleum up!

Here we see three of the four lovely patterns of flooring!

This is the street by the end of Tuesday. Unfortunately, the trash truck came that morning! Isn't that always the way? I'm sure my neighbors will love looking at this all week. I hope it really bothers the one that called the city. :) Not really. Okay, maybe.

While we wait for our kitchen to be serviceable, we moved the table and microwave into the boy's room. Hey, it works! They have breakfast and lunch in there every day.

Getting ready to cut the hole for the window.

We have a hole! Claire's not sure she understands why yet.

Okay, this just looks like a mess.....but they know what they are doing....I hope.

The window going in!

Complete with hurricane ties, plywood, insulation board and just for good measure, felt paper! Paul was not going to give the inspector ANY room for a debate on this job!

ALL DONE! Well, on the outside anyway! Paul is out there cleaning the window as I type. Don't you just love a man that does windows!?!

Guest Spot at the Prayer Meetin'

My dear friend, Significant Source, has asked me to do a guest post today for the Prayer Meetin', as she is indispose.....aka island hopping in the British Virgin Isles, y'all! Which I think is so, NOT FAIR since we are all freezing our butts off here in the south! It wouldn't have been too bad if we'd gotten some snow down here in Charleston to make it worth all this cold...BUT, NO! No snow for us! So, let's all wish her "happy sailing", shall we! No, really. And, we need to say a few extra prayers for SS. She hates to fly, but had to in order to get to the boat. She hated to leave her babies too. Pray for the safety of her children and for her in-laws who are watching them.

I wish I was as gifted as my friend at this sort of thing, but guys, I'm just not! She always has such a wonderful message each week, and I look forward to reading it. I will fall short, but I told her I would try, so I will.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has noticed that times are tough right now. I have several friends with husbands that are out of work. My brother-in-law is working in California while Paul's sister and the kids are still living in Nebraska. My father-in-law was laid off 6 months ago and can not find work. Things are bad for many right now. In fact, I would be surprised if you didn't know at least one person that is struggling financially right now.

Of course, I don't have the answers. I just feel Blessed that my husband does have a job. But, I can say that we have been there. I was pregnant with Isabel when Paul lost his job in 2001. He was laid off again one year later and a few years after that his boss just stopped paying him one day! He just didn't have the money to support his own family and pay Paul for the work he'd done so he chose not to pay Paul. We had a very hard couple of years. In fact, we almost lost our house. I am so thankful that we had the support of family and friends to get us through those years. And, I know now, that God's plan for our lives was way better than the one we thought we had at that time! The things we went through during that time of hardship are priceless to us now. But, how did we get through it then? We leaned heavily on God's word and His promises.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding. ~Proverbs 3:5

But those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint. ~Isaiah 40:31

And one of my favorites-

"For I know the plans I have for you,"

declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11

Today I will say an extra prayer for all my friends and family members that are going through some tough times. I hope that you will come to be able to thank God for these times one day. And, I hope you find comfort in the words of our Father.

*check back later today for an update on our Un-Extreme Home Makeover!*

Half The Sky

Holding up Half the Sky

One day an elephant saw a hummingbird

lying on its back with its tiny feet up in the air.

"What are you doing?" asked the elephant.

The hummingbird replied, "I heard that

the sky might fall today, and so

I am ready to help hold it up, should it fall."

The elephant laughed cruelly.

"Do you really think," he said, "that

those tiny feet could help hold up the sky?"

The hummingbird kept his feet up in the air,

intent on his purpose, as he replied,

"Not alone. But each must do what he can.

And this is what I can do."— A Chinese Folktale

11 years ago, Jenny and Richard Bowen brought home a toddler from China. They, like many parents that adopt from institutions, found that their new daughter was severely delayed both physically and cognitively. But, after just a year their daughter had been transformed! This realization inspired the birth of the Half The Sky Foundation. The mission of Half the Sky is to provide "family-like" nurturing for orphaned children. In the years after their pilot programs were first implemented in China's institutions, "Listless babies have learned to coo, to laugh, to cuddle, and to follow the sounds of their nannies’ voices. Withdrawn, sullen preschoolers have learned to draw and plant sunflowers, ride bikes, negotiate with their peers for toys, and greet their teachers with open arms." The Big Sisters program has offered learning programs for older girls that allows them to pursue their higher education dreams and keeps them off the streets when they are too old to live in the orphanage any longer and the Family Villages program provides permanent two-parent foster homes for children whose disabilities preclude them from ever being adopted.

Paul, Claire and I had the opportunity to attend a Half the Sky Foundation fund raiser as honored guests. We listened to the speaker and watched the video created to explain why funds are needed for programs that will nurture children in institutions. It was not eye opening for us. We, like Jenny Bowen, have lived this story. When received a two-and-a-half year old that did not react to us in anyway for hours. She sat where she was put and did not attempt to move. She would not speak. She could not feed herself or drink from a cup. Thankfully, she could chew, unlike the 3 year old we met last night that had not learned that skill in China.

We saw small changes in Claire each week and today, just nine months later, most strangers would assume she's been with us since infancy. She has come far. She has overcome much. She was fortunate that she lived in foster care. While we might dispute the quality of her care with our "American" scales, I know she was nurtured, because she was able to bond fairly quickly. She is not indiscriminate with her affection either, which is another sign of healthy bonding. This is not always the outcome for these little ones. Like most parents that have adopted from China, or similar programs, I am haunted by the ones I left behind. Of course, I know I had no choice in the matter. But, I also know they are still there...waiting. And, I know that some will wait a life time and still not find a family. So it is comforting to know that there are programs that will invest in these children. That will try to give them what they need most in the world.....LOVE and attention.

Paul and I are not wealthy. In fact, we border on lower middle class by most standards. Living pay check to pay check. Driving very used cars. Counting on bonus checks for incidentals...you know, like shoes when a kid grows out of them AGAIN! But, we have decided to sponsor a child through Half the Sky. I know these are tough economic times, but if you feel lead to do the same, I assure you, you won't regret the decision!