The New Floor

Andrew has been working hard on getting the new tile floor installed in the half bath.  He started Sunday evening trying to get the laminate floor in there up.  He took the trim off and only broke one piece.  Then he was trying to cut through the floor at the doorway with a Dremel tool so he could pull it up and all of the dust it produced set off the fire alarms.  So with that plus realizing he would have to take out the toilet and vanity and my frustration of trying to keep the kids out of everything, he put it off until the next day.  Ellie had an exciting day though because she lost another tooth.

Monday it was back to swim practice for Jackson and dance for Ellie.  I also decided I had enough of the twins pulling out all the pots, pans, and lids while I was trying to cook (plus they liked to fight over the lids and hit each other with them) so I put some child locks on some drawers.  We just have rubberbands around the doors which seem to work for now.  I just put off putting these on the drawers because they are such a pain-it took me an hour to just install three.  But they help and the twins were a little upset when they first discovered they couldn't get in those drawers anymore.  Andrew worked on the bathroom a little more during the day.  He even had one of his client's who is a plumber come by and help him get the vanity out.  I tried to keep the kids downstairs to keep them out of the way, but they loved to help Andrew out.

And then later that night, Andrew started working on laying the backer board down.  He was up late, I would say until at least midnight, getting that part done.  Surprisingly the twins slept through all of it even though it was right outside their bedroom.  I eventually turned the noise maker on high and put in ear plugs in an attempt to block out some of the noise as I went to bed. 

The next day was Super Hero Day for Lincoln at school.  They were celebrating Lutheran Schools Week by having "spirit days".  This was the only one Lincoln agreed to and he was very excited to wear his Buzz Lightyear outfit.  Once he got home, he took it off for lunch and then put it back on again.  He even wore it for his nap time.  And yes, Buzz had to wear his cowboy boots.

During the day I decided to put up some Valentine decorations.  I decided I didn't really want to put out what I used last year, but was able to come up with some other decor with stuff I already had laying around the house.  I was able to use some of the jars we used for Lissy's birthday party that still had some lace and burlap wrapped around them and then I cut out some felt hearts to add to them.  And I was able to find some random silk flowers to put in the jars.  Then I cut out some paper hearts with the Silhouette and sewed them together to make some garland for the chandelier.  And while I was at it, I printed and cut out the Valentine cards I had been working on for Jackson and Ellie to use at their class parties.

Andrew was fortunate to have another client that had a tile saw that he could borrow, so he started working on laying the tile during the day.  He didn't have any trials to prep for this week, so he was able to work on the floor during the day too.  Before we knew it, it was time to eat a quick dinner and get Ellie to the ball game for her dance performance.  It was a pitiful dinner time.  I heated up some chicken nuggets for the kids along with some fruit, Andrew quickly made some eggs, and I managed to eat one chicken nugget, some trail mix, and a banana.  But we made it to the game on time.  It was a boys JV game and we had not been to a game in a long time.  It was actually kind of fun to be at one again.  Ellie's group performed during the half time and she did a great job.  Lincoln was yelling for her after she was done saying, "Good job, Ellie.  Good job."  Jackson even sincerely told her she did a good job as we were getting in the car. 

We left after her performace so that Andrew could get back to the tiling.  We dropped him off at home and then went to my parents to hang out for a bit so that we would be out of his way.  My parents had ordered Paglias for dinner and the pizza looked so good, I just had to have some.  So my dinner improved at that point :-).  I ended up having to run to Home Depot to pick up a few more things for Andrew so my dad gave the three youngest their baths-so much appreciated.  Then it was time to get home for bedtime.  Andrew again worked late into the night.  He sent me a picture of one of his injuries.  One of the tiles just shattered when he laid it down and he cut his hand.  I was going to add the picture, but decided the blood may gross people out.  But he got almost all of it done and then realized he had forgto to cut the hole for the vent in the backer board and the tile.  He debated about whether or not to tell me.  When he did, I convinced him that it was probably best to cut out the hole.  Thank goodness again for clients because he was able to borrow a reciprocating saw from the plumber that worked well to cut a hole through the backer board.  He was also able to easily pull up the tile that was over the vent and get it cut out too. 

We got some snow and ice Tuesday night and the kids ended up having a snow day on Wednesday.  We got a little more snow during the day too.  The older three went out to play in it after lunch while Andrew worked on fixing his little mistake.  I was able to keep the twins in their high chairs for a while after lunch watching the kids play outside the windows and therefore they weren't in Andrew's way as he finished up.  Jackson, Ellie, and Lincoln had a lot of fun outside and we even got out the water bottles and put colored water in them so they could spray the snow.  They were out there for over an hour. 

You can see Andrew's truck in the background of this picture.  He had it parked in the driveway and then one of the workers across the street came over to let Andrew know that his truck had slid down the driveway.  Thankfully it didn't go all the way and hit the trailer that has been parked across from our driveway.  After they played in the snow, Jackson, Ellie, and I worked on putting their Valentine cards together and signing them.  We added their classmates names to them today, so it is nice to have that all done.

We still had small group Wednesday night and had a decent turn out with the weather.  I had put out a bunch of salt on the driveway and sidewalk and then spent a good amount of time the next day trying to clean up all of it that was tracked inside :-).  Then it was onto Thursday and Jackson and Ellie had K-Life again after school.  Then Andrew picked them up, I had dinner ready to eat, cleaned up and then I took Jackson to basketball practice while Andrew stayed with the other kids and worked on baths.  He worked on the grout after I got home and was almost done with everything.  He cleaned up the floor some more on Friday while I got things ready for a small group dinner we were having that night.  CCF was having Parents' Night Out at our church that night so we planned a nice adults-only dinner.  We had a Fajita Friday, so Andrew was excited.  Everyone brought something for it and we just sat around the dinner table for a couple hours and enjoyed each others' company.  It was a great night.  We love our kids, but it is definitely harder to visit while they are all around.  Andrew was even able to get the bathroom in working order before the dinner.  The plumber came by and set the vanity during the day and then Andrew quickly put the sink top on and set the toilet before we had to drop off the kids.  He then managed to get the door hanged again just before everyone showed up :-). 

Andrew was out early Saturday morning putting out hay for his cows and got home in time to head to Jackson's basketball game.  I put some shoes on the boys (they have worn them maybe one other time) and they weren't quite sure what to do with them.  Jackson had another good game (it is the shoes of course :-)).  Andrew headed to the office after lunch and then cleaned out the garage from the mess made with the tile saw (and also the general mess that comes with winter) which was awesome.  I ended up going out grocery shopping after dinner Saturday and it was snowing.  I had no idea it was going to snow, but we were out of food.  So even though the roads were covered and it was hard to determine where the "lines" were, I made it safely.  But it was kind of a frustrating shopping trip as they were several things the stores were completely out of that I was needing for the meals I had planned. 

After church and lunch today, Andrew started putting the trim back up in the bathroom.  He has one last piece to put up and he will be completely done.  He had to paint a new piece and is just waiting on it to dry.  He worked so hard on it and did an awesome job.  THANK YOU ANDREW!!!

 

Now I really need to finish this up and get dinner going.  We are having my parents and Molly over for dinner.  My mom has been sick with a bad cold this past week so I thought making dinner for them might be a nice gesture.  But I have a couple more pictures.  The twins have started loving their blankets.  They like to get them out of their beds and carry them around, plus they fight over them.  And the second picture is how Miles looked on afternoon as I went to get him up for lunch.  I think he was covering his ears to block out the noise from Andrew.  And I'm not sure why his pants are off :-).

And I forgot one last picture.  Ellie was making up a dance today and decided to "write" it down.  I love it.