Remodeling Blueprints

Since we decided to go to the library and grocery shopping on Friday night, we had a "free" day on Saturday. E didn't have band in the morning, but Josh went to work til lunchtime (where he found that one of his servers had crashed, but he got it up and running again before coming home to eat).

As I think I've mentioned before, Josh's work has a computer program where you can design houses and buildings to scale. Josh had taken all the room measurements beforehand, and we had a pretty good idea of how we wanted our remodeling plans to be, but we still needed to get all the measurements down and see how things looked to scale.

After lunch we all went over to Josh's work. E and G did some homework, and the kids watched a movie and played in the halls while Josh and I spent the afternoon working on the remodeling blueprints. It was fun!

The computer program is pretty awesome because you can view what your plans look like in 3D, complete with furniture even! Josh said he could make a video walk-through of our plans and send it to me, but for now, I can show the 2D blueprints. (None of the plans I'm posting have measurements on them other than the total square footage of the level because we didn't print them with those options for now.)

Our house is a tri-level with an unfinished fourth basement level under the living room and kitchen level.

(Our house last fall)

The washer and dryer are currently in the basement, and we will be keeping them down there. Here is a picture of what we plan on doing.

The bifold door in the boys' room gives access to the back side of the furnace. The stairs go up to the family room level (lower level with walk-out patio doors you can see in the above house photo).

Now for the upstairs ...

Here's the way the bedroom level is currently laid out. (I drew in the bathroom fixtures on this plan at home, so they aren't to scale, but you get the idea.)

Here are our plans for the upper floor. (This time the bathroom fixtures are to scale.)

The door between the master bedroom and master bathroom is a pocket door. It's a bit odd to have 2 windows in the master closet, but we are keeping all the windows in the house as is.

After getting back home and pouring over the plans some more, Josh decided to move the wall separating the master bedroom and master closet into the closet another 6 inches. We'd also like to put a corner electric fireplace in where the master bedroom jogs out toward the master closet.

The funny thing is that we designed the floor plan and then took a look at how many square feet each of the bedrooms would be. Both our bedroom and the girls' room was the exact same size ... 189 sq ft! (Although ours will be a bit bigger now with bumping that closet wall back.) When we took a look at the sq footage for the boys' room, it came out to 188 sq ft! Wow! We couldn't have done that if we'd tried! Funny how they all worked out that way!

Josh still has some tweaking to do to the blueprints, specifically in regard to the electrical plans, before he can submit them to the building inspector to get the needed permits, but he said that he'd like to start by digging the hole for the egress window in the boys' room around May 1.

A New Twist on the Lenten Supper

E rearranged the pepperoni on tonight's pizza to fit with the Lenten season.

It's Finally Out!

During this afternoon's Lenten service, F's second, extremely wiggly top tooth fell out. It was about time! Where her first loose top tooth could be rotated practically sideways, this one could swing down almost sideways so that it was only attached on one side.

And since I think kids look so cute with their top two front teeth missing, I've always taken a pic of my kids when they lose both of theirs. Here's F sporting her new toothless look.

Notice the missing tooth on the bottom left next to the middle ones, too. :)

Happy birthday today to my grandma!

A Valentine Message

We're CRAZY for you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday

Josh was home from work at noon today because we had some guys coming to tune up our furnace. When I got home a little after 2:00 with S, Josh went back to work. The furnace guys left soon afterwards, saying our furnace was in really good condition. I'd hope so since it's only about 3 yrs old!

Then I baked another batch of valentine cookies. I didn't frost them though. Didn't get a chance to stop and get more powdered sugar yet.

G and F counted out their 100 M&M's to take to school tomorrow to celebrate the 100th day of school.

However, the 100th day of school may get postponed til Wednesday. There is a big snowstorm on the way with 12-16" of snow predicted. It's supposed to start at midnight tonight and last all day Tuesday. The winter storm warning lasts til 6:00 Wednesday morning. So we may have a snow day tomorrow. Atleast we're not getting pummelled with 2 1/2 ft like the east coast did!

Josh is gone to a town about an hour away this evening. He should be back around 9:00.

I Won!

A few days ago, my friend Jenni had all of her readers salivating with a post about some divine chocolate caramels her husband had given her.

(That's Jenni's picture.)

Then she said that if you left a comment on that post about which kind of the chocolate caramels you'd like, you'd be entered into a random drawing to win a box with your choice inside.

So I left a comment and was entered. I don't win these types of things, but you never win if you don't enter, right? Well, guess what?!

Out of 97 entries ... I WON!!!

Whoo hoo!!!

Super Sunday

Today we had a guest preacher at church who is a WLIM chaplain who regularly goes into 7 different prisons in WI and has Bible classes. He led our adult Bible class this morning, too.

After taking the rest of us home from church, Josh went to Menards again to get some more drywall. It's on sale with a good rebate, so he's stocking up for this summer's upcoming remodeling projects.

My sister R stopped by around noon to pick up her laptop on which Josh had installed a new hard drive. She also told us her cell phone fell out of her pocket into the toilet this morning, so she was on her way to get a new one. WTG, R! ;)

I spent pretty much all afternoon baking and frosting these cookies for the kids to take to school for their classmates for their Valentine's parties on Friday.


I need 90 cookies for the kids for school, but I knew that the kids would want some, too, and I only had 3 left over. So, I'm going to make another batch yet this week. I need to run to the store to get some more powdered sugar for the frosting since I ran out.

In the late afternoon, our friends, the P's came over for supper. Although it's Super Bowl Sunday, that's not why they came. Neither of our families are big football fans! They stopped at Costco before coming here and brought some chicken and buns for supper. I made some scalloped potatoes in the crock pot and salad. P's also brought ice cream sandwiches which we had with some of the valentine cookies I made for dessert. We had a good time with them before they left around 9:00 to head home.

Peachy Pink Roses

Here are some pics of the pretty roses Josh bought me.

First Place!

E had band practice early this morning.

Then she came home, and I spent 45 minutes doing her hair for her cheerleading competition. (All the girls had to have high ponytails with curls.)

I worked concessions at E's cheerleading competition but was able to get into the gym to watch her squad perform. They did a GREAT job and ended up winning first place in their division!

E is on the right with her back to the camera.

E is in the middle holding the 2 girls' feet on her shoulders.

Meanwhile ...

Josh took the rest of the kids along to LF's funeral.

Then they went home to eat lunch before taking G to his classmate NT's birthday party at a bowling alley. G got 6 strikes!

While G was at the party, Josh and the remaining 3 kids went to Menard's to get a new service door for the garage, some paint, and a whole bunch of drywall.

When I got home, I discovered 6 peachy pink roses in a vase on the kitchen table. Josh bought them for me because he knew I hadn't had a great week, and he thought they'd make me feel better! :)

Basketball, Basketball, and More Basketball

Thursday night I worked concessions again. Even though it was dead on Tuesday, we were really busy that night.

E had a basketball game last night. Her team lost.

G was at a classmate's birthday party all yesterday evening.

J had a basketball game this morning. I finally got some pics of him playing.

His team lost, too.

After J's game, we hurried home for lunch before taking E back to school for an extended cheerleading practice. Their cheer competition is coming up next week Saturday, so they had a special 3 hr practice this afternoon.

While E was at practice, the rest of us went to the library and grocery shopping. We also picked up Josh's college diploma from Hobby Lobby. (Josh has been talking about getting it framed for years. It's an odd size, so we knew it wouldn't be cheap. At Christmastime, I'd told him that part of his present this year was to get his diploma framed.)

We got home just in time for me to drive back to school to get E from cheer practice.

I cut Josh's and all 3 boys' hair tonight.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Last night Josh and I went on a date to see the Dead Sea Scrolls which are on display at the museum in the big city. Josh was able to get a free ticket for himself and a discounted ticket for me. We got a babysitter for the kids, and off we went!

How was it? Well, before seeing the scroll exhibit, we saw the "Secrets of the Dead Sea" movie on IMAX in the planetarium. The movie was NOT worth it and barely had anything to do with the scrolls. As Josh said, it was like someone said, "Hey, we have this awesome planetarium. Let's make a movie that maybe has a tiny bit to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls but gets people into the planetarium so they will bring their friends here."

There were maybe only about 10 exhibits with the actual scrolls, but there was a big replica of the Isaiah scroll which I think has all (or most) of the book of Isaiah intact. It was neat to see where certain familiar verses were on it like, "For to us a child is born ..." (Isaiah 9:6)

There were lots of lamps, pottery, glass jars, etc. from the time, too.

The 5-10 min (free) movie shown continuously in the actual exhibit was MUCH better and more informative than the IMAX one. It was basically what I thought the IMAX one would be.

And then there were copies of other Bibles there, too, like a Gutenberg Bible, one of Luther's German Bibles, KJV, and other translations. There were 6 pages of an RSV Bible which is being commissioned by some monks in MN and is being hand calligraphied and illustrated (complete with gilding) by some monks in Europe which was neat to see.

All in all, it was alright. It was a nice night out, but I wouldn't go see the exhibit again.

We did have a good time when we went out to eat afterward though!

When Josh and I were on our honeymoon, we went to a Cheesecake Factory in Victoria, BC. I'd never hear of the restaurant at the time. Since then I've learned they're a chain, but we didn't have any in WI til recently. It seemed like a good choice for our late dinner!

Josh had the charbroiled flat iron steak, and I had the garlic noodles with chicken. Both were absolutely delicious ... and calorie-free, of course! Ha! Ha!

Since it was 10:00 by the time we finished our meal and since we were both full, we opted not to get the cheesecake ... this time!

Even though the scroll part of our date was only so-so, we just had fun going out and being together.

Boys and Guns

First off, let me say that Josh has never been hunting. We don't own a gun. I don't have anything against those who own guns or hunt as long as they are responsible with the guns and ammo; I just want to let you know where I'm coming from. That said ...

What is it that makes boys drool over Nerf guns? Run around the house shooting each other? Set up targets in the basement to shoot at? Build a gun mount out of K'nex?

(This is the same boy who has rigged up a gun rack with hangers at the foot of his bed for his Nerf gun.)

And, just in case you think I'm being sexist by only asking about boys doing these things, how many girls do you know will take a bite out of their sandwich quarters and then shoot them like a gun without outside influence from a person of the male gender?

Honestly, I'm not worried about the boys and their Nerf guns and what it might mean for them in the future. Their heads are usually screwed on right.

It's just that there are interesting differences between boys and girls.

Bubble Bath

aka - future blackmail pics ;)

Just look at those cute little toes that are getting too big to fast!

Minimalist Photography

This week's photography challenge: Minimalism (Click the link to see the other entries.)

(Hint: for a little help check out what this guy had to say.)

No rules, just do your thing and tweak if you'd like! And post as many or few photos as you'd like!

Here are my submissions:

This picture was supposed to be horizontal, but blogger uploaded it vertically. I guess it works that way, too.

I really like how this one turned out.

The Family That Sticks Together*

Hmmm ... We're not a day care, school, or restaurant, just a family with 2.5 kids ... x 2. ;)


So what is it we've started buying in bulk?

Peanut butter!

We bought this can/jar/cardboard-cylinder-thingy on Saturday. Any guesses on how long it will last?

*Or maybe it should be "the family that's sticky together".

And Now It's Just Winter

After church, Sunday School, and Bible class this morning, we drove out to the site where some of our friends are having their new house built. We'd been out there before anything was done, but now the outside walls are up and the stud walls are in place. It was fun to see and imagine what the final product will look like.

Later in the afternoon we took down the Christmas tree ...


... and Christmas decorations ...

... and put the "regular" decor back up.

It's kind of nice to have things back to normal and not have Christmas tree needles all over the floor, but now we still have the longest part of the winter ahead of us.

Near Silhouette

This week's weekly photo challenge:

• A self-portrait featuring a physical attribute that you find endearing or beautiful about yourself - something that you feel makes you uniquely "you".


• Submit one photo.


• This photo can be color or black and white.


• Go ahead and "tweak" it if you feel like it!

How ironic after I'd already posted 2 self-portraits already this week due to my new haircut!

Anyway, here's my entry for the photo challenge:

I purposely backlit my profile against the window, then lightened the pic, bumped the contrast way up, and converted it to black and white to bring out the contrast even more.

I debated about what feature to highlight as I think my best feature and the one that makes me uniquely me are two different things, but I think they both come out in the photo.

• My best feature? my hair (dark in the pic, but you can still see how thick it is and how much I have)


• The feature that makes me uniquely me (or that I'm "known for")? my big, high cheekbones aka chipmunk cheeks

Click HERE to see the other entries.

Window Painting

-by God

Frost on our bathroom window. I lightened the pictures and bumped up the contrast quite a bit so that the patterns were much more obvious. Beautiful!

New 'Do, Take 2

At the risk of appearing narcissistic, I took another pic of myself with my haircut today. It looks better today since I did it rather than just taking a pic after getting it cut. (My hair never looks the way I would do it after coming from the salon.)

I can't believe how curly it's gotten! All of the waves/curls in the above pic are natural and are from letting my hair air dry this morning after washing it. (By the way, the "M" pendant was one of my Christmas presents from Josh this year. More on that in another post.)

My hair has always had a bit of wave to it, but I think it was when I was pregnant with S or Grace, it started to really curl. It seemed to be getting more curl in it recently because I was starting to even get ringlets when it was long, but I was afraid that they'd disappear once I got it cut shorter. (I had curls as a toddler til my hair was cut, and the same happened to E and F.) I'm glad to see the curls and big waves are still there.

Yesterday I said I'd gotten about 5" cut off. After comparing the above pic to this one E took of Josh and me on Christmas Eve, I think it may have been even more.

6"? 7"? I'm not sure, but it looks like a lot.