Where I've Been (alternate title: Ugh)

Wow, that's quite a gap - like, a month... and a half.  Fail.

I'm super duper annoyed with myself for being a slacker.  It's totally fair for you all to be annoyed with me too.  I can't really explain why I haven't been blogging much without sounding like Whiney Whinerson, so I'll try to keep it brief since I don't love crying into my blog like it's a hankie:

Some dudes royally screwed the pooch with our house (Remember? The gorgeous, monster house I love so dearly and posted about before?  That house.  Yup.) and we ended up with a basement (which is where the kids' rooms are) full of mold.  And, as it turns out, basement walls full of water.  And a bunch of douchey contractors that refused to acknowledge the scope of the problem until I took it upon myself to start ripping baseboards off the walls.  It's awesome.  No, like truly AWESOME.  That nonsense isn't fit for human habitation so I have all 4 kids sleeping in my bedroom.  Yup - all 4.  (On the plus side, hooray for a master bedroom big enough for 1 queen bed, 1 crib, 1 Pack 'n Play and 1 twin-sized bed!)  And remember my struggles with Chronic Laundry Buildup?  Imagine what CLB symptoms look like when I no longer have THREE closets in which to hang 4 children's worth of clothing and when I cannot fold the 894 onesies Peyton has into dressers or the 9,476 socks Jack possesses or the 88 pairs of pants I have for the twins are homeless due to dressers being in mold-infested places.  So I've brought the dresser drawers upstairs and they ALSO number among the orphaned furniture items now cluttering up my bedroom.  And I have essentially no time to do anything because I spend about 75% of my life on the phone trying to get someone to do something beyond painting Killz on some baseboards and expecting me to be happy with that. 

Dudes, it sucks.  Look:

 Nursing chair, Pack 'n Play next to my side of the bed (the night stand is full of baby PJ'S)...

 There's Jack's bed - the mattress covered in junk on the floor in the corner next to Justin's side in front of a door.

 There's the crib... and no, I don't think it's a good idea for 60 lbs of terrible two's to still be occupying a crib, but I have no idea what else to do with them.

 

 

There's the stacks of drawers... the brown ones are Jack's, the long white ones are Peyton's and the short stack of many drawers belongs to the twins.  It's super annoying. 

And this is what I found when I pulled the baseboards off the wall in Peyton's room.  Grody, no? 

So I've been a super delightful person lately and haven't really wanted to burden anyone with my anger and frustration - my poor kiddos get enough of it as it is.  (I think we're all just getting tired of me being on the phone and us being reduced to 900 square feet of living space and constantly sushing because someone is always sleeping nearby - usually Peyton or Justin if he's on night shift) and no one having their own space to go to get away from the others...

Blech.  Be glad you're not me.  Actually, be glad you're not the contractors working with me because I reduced 3 grown men to near tears yesterday. 

Or be glad you're not a baseboard in my basement because that would mean I had abused you with a crow bar. 

Getting Settled

I've got all the boxes in the house unpacked (the garage has some work we need to do, but we'll get there) and things have a home.  I'm reluctant to start hanging pictures because I want everything to be perfect of course, but we're getting closer.  Blinds are all up and I've got the curtains in Jack's and in the Girls' room hung.  But we're settled in as much as I wanted to be before the baby gets here.  She's going to sleep in our room in the Pack 'n Play for a little while - we're going to buy the girls big girl beds soon and transition them in the next few months so littlest one can have the crib when her big sisters are done with it.  But I'm happy with the progress!

  

See?  No denying this is my house.  A giant pile of laundry - it's as essential as a toilet.

 

The cube-system's purpose is supposed to be to stem the flow of toys from the playroom into the living room... So far, I don't know how well it works.  I think it does okay but the toys still invade.  Always with the toys.

 

I LOVE the guest bathroom!

We're loving it so far!

Done! It's Done!

Finishing up the house and moving in has occupied all of our time over the last two weeks... which explains my huge lapse in posts.  On top of that, my household got hammered with illness atop illness, with disease hitting us one after the other.  I'm just now getting back on my (pregnant, tired) feet and getting some semblance of order back in my life as we settle in and get ready for Jack's birthday party and the arrival of Baby (3 weeks out!).  I'll have some more decent posts in the next few days, but for now, here's how the house project turned out, in pictures!  Enjoy - we are!  It's absolutely perfect for us and we couldn't be happier with it - the kids are beyond content and extraordinarily giddy.  We all have smiled more in the last week than I remember smiling in a while!  Once I get it all put together (it's a work in progress!) I'll post final pictures! Thanks for sticking with us!

 I think this is the last time any of you saw the house...

 Here it is, all ready to move into!

 Hi, 35 weeks!

 Home, sweet home!

Another House Update!

So it sounds like we'll be in by Valentine's Day!  Drywall should be finished by the end of the week and we're headed to pick out lighting and bath fixtures on Friday and then hardwood floor on Saturday. 

I am amazed to see this growing!  It's just an incredible experience and so far, we're thrilled with how smooth the process has gone - our builder is an awesome guy and we couldn't be happier with the way things are going... I can't believe how soon we'll be living there!