Just Because

We're Home!

We've moved back home! The inside of the house was finished a week ago Thursday (8/11/11). My big people spent that weekend unpacking and getting ready for the kiddos to come home. The kids moved home on Tuesday (8/16/11) and I came home on Thursday (8/18/11). I would've come home on Tuesday, but once the rest of the stuff from Grandma and Grandpa's house was packed in the car, there was no room for me. I see where their priorities are. I have not quite settled in. My wooden fence is still missing large sections and the electric fence has a break in the line somewhere, so that means I have to go out on a leash. Not fun. My people can't put area rugs on their newly refinished wood floors yet, so there's not a good place for me to lay down in the living room and dining room. They went ahead and put my new dog bed down in the bedroom, but it doesn't compare to the Sleep Number bed I got used to at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I sometimes get so nervous I start shaking, which isn't new for me, but it happens quite a bit now. I think I'll settle down soon though.

As far as the house goes, the inside is done. My people just need to finish unpacking and decorating. There's still work to do on the outside. The fence needs to be fixed and the house still needs to be painted. There's still a ginormous dumpster in the driveway and a ton of stuff in the garage, making it hard for the kids to ride their bikes and such. It'll all come together eventually though.

We're all very happy to be home and would like to give a huge thank you to Grandma Polly, Papa Jerry, Nome and Hawkeye for letting us crash at their house for four months!

Kiawah Island, SC - 2011

Here are pictures from my people's trip to Kiawah Island, SC. They went with Grandma Polly and Papa Jerry and met Uncle Eric, Aunt Melissa and the kiddos there and had a blast. My people forgot to pack an extra camera battery and the battery charger. When they got to South Carolina, they had 2 bars of power on the battery they had with them. So, they had to be more conservative with their picture taking than in years past. Also, the first day they went to the beach they carried the camera in its bag in the cooler. They failed to remember that the lens would fog up when they first got it out. As a result, there are a couple of would-be really good pictures that are foggy. It looks like some sort of photoshop effect, but it isn't. Just poor planning on their part. :)

Enjoy!

Kiawah, SC 2011

Pictures (but not of vacation)

Our camera is currently MIA, so until it's found and charged, vacation pictures will have to wait. In the meantime, here are some albums with photos of things we've been doing during our extended stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Enjoy!

Extended Stay at Grandma and Grandpa's, Summer 2011

Strawberry Picking 2011

Marine Week 2011

Attack of the Dishwasher

It turns out Grandma and Grandpa have a very dangerous dishwasher. I was licking dirty plates the other evening (which I'm not supposed to be doing) when my collar go caught on the bottom shelf. When I couldn't pull myself free I freaked out and tried to run out of the kitchen except I was still hooked. I ended up pulling the entire bottom shelf and the dirty dishes in it across the kitchen with me. It was loud and scary! I vaguely remember this happening once before, which is probably part of the reason why I'm not supposed to be over there when it's being loaded, but I forgot. I've learned my lesson...for now.

18 Month Check-Up and Other Updates

Sorry for my absence. Surely a tornado is a good enough excuse, no? Let's start with the fun stuff...

Henry is 18 months old! He went for his check-up yesterday and the doctor says everything is good. He's 27.9 lbs. and 33-1/2" long. That puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height. These numbers are foreign to all of us. Lily has never seen these percentiles before or anything close to them. Ha!

I had an extended stay at the kennel last week while the family went on vacation. They drove to Columbia, SC to visit Tim and Gretchen and the kiddos for a night and then continued on to Kiawah Island, SC to spend the week with Grandma, Grandpa, Eric, Melissa and their kiddos. Henry's not much of a traveler right now, so I hear the drive there and back was...interesting, BUT the kids had a blast in the pool and on the beach. They had a ton of fun seeing all of their cousins. The best part is that Henry wasn't left on the side of the highway during the long drive. :)

As far as the house goes, things are moving along. They started on the inside right before the South Carolina trip, so my people scrambled to get all of the non-furniture items packed up and moved out of the way. The new A/C and furnace have been put in, drywall has been installed on the walls and ceiling, the first coat of paint has been put on, the hardwood floors are scheduled to get started next Wednesday, new carpet for the basement has been chosen and replacement ceiling fans/light fixtures/etc. have been purchased. There's still a lot of work to be done, but is that a light at the end of this very long tunnel that we see? It's been 11+ weeks since the storm, but who's counting?

A Month Later

We've been out of the house for a month now. I haven't been back to see how things are going with the clean up. I've been too busy learning the new electric fence boundaries of my temporary yard and then busting through them anyway. It's great fun to see either Papa Jerry or Katie sprinting across the lawn yelling my name. Good times. I heard that one morning Lily was looking out the window and told Grandma Polly, "Papa Jerry's running across the yard!"

I've been told that all of the storm debris, tree and structural, has been cleaned up from my yard. It took almost 2 weeks longer than planned for the contractor to get a building permit from the city to start repairs, but he now has one and the roof was completed at the end of last week. No more tarps! I'm not sure which project will be tackled next, but my guess is the siding and gutters. There's still a lot to be done, but it's a relief to know that water can no longer get into the house.

We're all extra skiddish with severe storms now. Yesterday one blew up and I hid under a barstool. Lily crawled under with me and said "This is a good place to hide."

Meanwhile, Mr. Henry turned 17 months old the other day. Time is flying!