Big Deal of the Week...Andrew's Century Ride

Monday we were back at it…our first full week of school. The twins don’t have school on Mondays so Andrew was able to take the other three. The twins played with their trains downstairs and then brought all their John Deere vehicles upstairs to play, I knocked a few things off of my to-do list like cleaning the windows and floors. Then I got serious about working on Ellie’s room. Throughout the day I took apart her bed and set it up in the garage so I could paint it gray. I went through both of my cans and had to wait until I could get to Wal-Mart later that evening before I could finish it. I tried sanding the edges of the big stripe that goes around her room but it didn’t seem to be working quite right. Thankfully my dad gave me a sander to try out the next day. I also spackled all the nail holes, sanded them down and taped off the trim work hoping to be all ready to paint the next day.

The twins did a great job of keeping themselves entertained with a little fight every now and then. I did catch a sweet moment of them setting in front of our back door playing and Bennett put his arm around Miles.

They played outside for a bit while I put the first coat on Ellie’s bed and then it was time for a nap. I went upstairs to put away some laundry and they followed me a little later. Bennett was crying and then I saw why-his mouth was bleeding again. Something knocked his tooth a little loose again but I’m not quite sure what happened. I had him rinse out his mouth a few times and it seemed better when he woke up from his nap. The older three had another good day of school except Jackson and Ellie were disappointed about their homework. I think they enjoyed the first-week-of-school pace and were surprised when their teachers actually gave them homework in a few different subjects. They were able to get it done though and have a little down time before it was time to go again. Jackson had his first practice with pads that night and I had a K-Life board meeting to go to. So Andrew and Jackson headed to practice while I took the other kids to my parents and then to the meeting. The meeting ran long because it was the first one of the school year and they laid out their plan for the year which was great. When we got home later the night, I got another couple coats of paint on the other side of the bed so that I could hopefully get it back up to Ellie’s room and put it back together the next day. Ellie ended up sleeping with me since her room was in disarray.

Tuesday was Bennett’s first snack day which also meant he got to be line leader.  The boys were confused, first about snack day and having to share their snacks with others in the class, and then that it was only Bennett’s turn to be the line leader and not them together. Miles got his chance the next day though. After I dropped off the kids, I ran to Home Depot to get some primer and my lumber to do the fake board and batten in Ellie’s room. I had them cut the lumber to the measurements I needed but I even messed up on that. But I was still able to work with it. Once I got home, I used my dad’s hand sander to smooth out the stripe lines and then I put the bed back together. Once I got it put back together, I decided I wanted to move it and the dresser around a bit to make it easier to paint. They were both pretty heavy and I could feel it afterwards. I was able to start painting a bit though before I needed to pick the twins up. We picked up some McDonald’s after school and I just let them eat outside while I primed the bookcases and the lattice boards I was using. Then after they went down for a nap, I finished up the first coat of paint in the room and it was quickly time to pick up the others from school. I had a little left to paint so I finished that up while they did their homework and then we headed over to my parents since Kaitlin and her kids were in town. Andrew got home right before we left and then he and Jackson went to football practice. The twins were excited to see Owen and Lola and they had fun playing. Ellie and Lincoln went on several bike rides around my parents’ neighborhood and Ellie ended up riding with a girl that she knew from school. I think she was pretty excited to see Ellie around the neighborhood. I brought my lattice boards over to see if my dad could cut a few inches off of them with his table saw so they would be the height I was wanting. He decided to just tape them all together since they weren’t very thick and did it in one cut so they were all nice and even. It worked great.

Since Ellie’s bed was back together, she got to sleep back up in her room that night. Since I couldn’t work on her room with her in it, I was able to focus on the office work Andrew was wanting me to get done.

Wednesday I was back at it after I got the kids to school. I put another coat on the walls and then headed out to the garage to use my dad’s paint sprayer on the bookcases and trim boards. It took a little bit to figure out if I was doing it right, but it worked and gave it all a smooth finish. Then I picked up the twins and we met Kaitlin and her kids at Brashear Park. My mom and Becky came for a bit too. The kids ate a bit of lunch and then were off to. They also ran off some energy in the empty wading pool. We were there for about an hour and then headed home so they could get a nap. I gave the walls a final coat and did another coat on the bookcases. Andrew was able to pick up the kids for me so that I could keep working on stuff. I got the tape off the walls and tried to make it all look a little more presentable so Ellie could see all of it when she got home. She loved it and was so excited. She brought her friends over so they could see it too. Once the bookcases dried, I brought them upstairs too and was happy to see that they matched the vanity much better after painting them.  Then it was time to clean everything up from painting out in the garage. I got done just as Kaitlin and her kids came over for dinner. I told her I may make something or order out depending on how things were going. Well it definitely was an order out night, so I just placed an order for Colton’s and Andrew picked it up on his way home. While we waited, the kids did a pretty good job of further destroying the playroom and then we headed outside to eat and play.

Thursday was my day to get some stuff done that I had neglected while trying to work on Ellie’s room. I did my grocery shopping, went by the bank and also went back to Home Depot to get a small piece of the trim that was cut too short. Then I ran some stuff by my parents and visited with my mom and Kaitlin for a while before heading home to unload all of the groceries. When I picked up the twins we also got to bring Luke home with us because Kristin had to go to Columbia for a quick trip. So they played downstairs while I got lunch ready, ate lunch and then we played outside the rest of the afternoon until Kristin picked him up around 1. I was able to work on painting Ellie’s nightstand while they were outside. Since it was already later than when I usually put the twins down for a nap, I let them stay up until we had to go pick up Lincoln from school. Jackson and Ellie had their first Little K so Lincoln was our only pick-up. Lincoln was excited to tell me had got pink on the behavior chart and that a kid threw up in the middle of their room. Sounds like a great day. That evening definitely wasn’t going to be a sit-down dinner night so I pulled some of our freezer taquitos out and went ahead and cooked some to give to Andrew when he stopped by home so that he and Jackson could eat. He was picking them up at Little K at 5 and had to go straight to football practice. I picked Ellie up at practice and then we headed home to finish up dinner for the rest of us. Later that evening my parents came by to help me put up the trim pieces for the board and batten. I thought I had the measurements correct for all of it but once we started temporarily putting everything up, I was off by almost 2 inches. I hate to say that it took us a few tries to figure out but then I finally got to use the nail gun. I was so thankful they helped me out though.

Andrew and Jackson got home while we were finishing up and then Andrew went to work preparing his bike for his big bike ride the next day. After my parents left and I did baths, I got the spackle out to fill up in the nail holes on the trim. I really wanted to paint it also, but knew I would be pressing my luck as I still needed to pack up for our trip to Columbia the next day. So after the kids went to bed, I packed a bag for them to take to my parents and got Andrew and I packed up. Andrew was up early the next morning getting everything for his bike ride to Columbia. He headed out around 6:20 with some Clif bars, a couple bottles of Gatorade and money to get some more drinks along the way. Then it was time to get everyone else up and moving. I dropped the twins off at my parents at school drop off and then headed to Columbia-in my car. It was nice to do some shopping without kids in town or Andrew waiting on me (he totally despises shopping) but I’m still not a big fan. I got some stuff for Ellie’s room-several different options of baskets since I wasn’t sure what would work and I would just return what didn’t. I also got some clothes for me and was on the never-ending hunt to find jeans that I like. I had just gotten into the mall when Andrew called. I checked in with him via text a couple times throughout the day and things were going well but he was getting sore. It was around 1 and he was about 25 miles south of Columbia. So I make a quick run through Target and then put the bike rack on the car before I headed out to get him. He was on Highway E which actually turns into Stadium in town so I just headed south that way and spotted him about 20 minutes later in a random driveway. I was so thankful that he had made it safely and so proud of him for riding 100 miles. Awesome! He said his knee started hurting at about 85 miles and he thought about quitting but knew that this was his chance, so he kept going. He also fought a decent headwind pretty much the whole way plus the route ended up not being very safe. He said he would definitely not take that one again.

We headed back to Columbia and stopped by Shakespeare’s for a late lunch. He was a little weary of being around people in his biking gear, but it worked that we just ate outside and he didn’t even have to go in the building. Plus, with it being 2 we were pretty much the only ones there. It was delicious as always and then it was time to check in to our hotel. We stayed at the Tiger Hotel downtown and it was really nice. We will definitely stay there again for a quick get-away. Andrew was excited that had a tub and he soaked for a while. Then we headed out to quickly hit up a couple more stores that I didn’t get to. Again, mainly in the search for jeans. Andrew was a trooper by going with me just to be with me, but he waited in the car most of the time J. Then we headed back to the hotel to change and head to dinner. Since it was such a nice night out, we decided to eat downtown at some place we could just walk to. We decided on Flat Branch and it was a busy place. We had to wait about 20 minutes before we got in. Andrew liked his food but I wasn’t crazy about my dish. Even Andrew agreed that it wasn’t that good. So when we got to the hotel, we stopped by a little bakery that was in the hotel called the Velvet Cupcake and I got an Oreo cupcake. Then we just vegged out in the room which was great.

The next day Andrew was anxious to get home but he did let me stop by the mall one more time-still in pursuit of some jeans. I walked away with a couple options and a better idea of what I was looking for. We got into Kirksville around a little after noon and picked up the kids at my parents. When we got home, Andrew worked on cleaning his bike while I unpacked and started laundry. The older kids found friend to play with. Then Andrew went to the office while I laid the twins down for a nap and started working on the final steps of Ellie’s room. While I was taping things up to paint the board and batten, my dad showed up to put in the final trim piece for our top piece that was just a couple inches too short. So he got that put in and then I filled in those holes before I started painting. I put a couple coats on, went through Ellie’s baskets of stuff I had thrown in the closet and threw out some stuff and reorganized the rest in the new baskets I got to go on her bookcases along with her books. I ended up not using a majority of the baskets I got so I need to get back to Columbia sometime soon. After the paint dried, I put the bed and nightstand back in place stood back to admire all of it. It looked great and was all coming together.

Andrew ended up taking the kids out to the ranch that evening. Jackson had a friend that wanted him to come over, so Andrew dropped him off on his way out. While they were gone I worked quickly to try to finish stuff up. I put some new fabric on the vanity stool and used the same fabric to redo her bulletin board. It previously just had quilt batting so I removed the old fabric, ribbons and batting. I hot glued cork boards onto it and then covered that in the fabric before I put it all back in the frame.  Then I ran to Wal-Mart to get some pillow shams and a bed skirt I had seen there. I didn’t find anything better in Columbia so I went with it. I also stopped by JC Penney to try a couple more pair of jeans. As you can see, I am obsessed with finding some jeans that fit me well but I don’t want to spend more than $35 on them. I was able to find some for $27 plus a $10 off coupon. Then I ordered some similar styles online. Hopefully it all works J.

I was able to start hanging some pictures in Ellie’s room before Andrew showed back up with the kids. Then I had to pick up Jackson at 10 from his friend’s house. I was determined to finish as much as I could in Ellie’s room so I went back to work after we got back. Ellie was excited about all of it but eventually gave up on me and went to sleep in her closet. She has slept in there before and I don’t know how she does it because it is just a normal closet, not a walk-in. I eventually finished up what I could around 11:30. There were just a couple things left-waiting on the vanity mirror to come in, designing a print for a frame I had put up and then letting Ellie create a couple canvases that will go above her bookcases. I worked on the print the next day after church and got it put in that afternoon. I used the verse Phil. 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” Overall I am excited about how it all turned out and glad that Ellie loves it.

Andrew got a bike ride in after church on Sunday but didn’t go very far as his knee was still bothering him. So he planned to take a few days off. I have been sore all over in the pelvic area and my back, plus I think I strained my hamstring. I think some of it was from doing Ellie’s room and moving stuff around by myself. And I think the other side is that I probably tried to do too much as far as running and biking and have decided to take several days off and let my body rest.

The kids spent Sunday in and out of the house with their friends. Ellie and some of her friends got out some of her paints and headed outside to create some masterpieces. Then they came in all wet. I guess they were hot and decided to cool off with the hose. But the big excitement of the day was that the LaBeths got a trampoline. The kids couldn’t wait to get on. Jackson was excited to have something to do after multiple attempts to see if Zach was home, which he was not. So they spent a while over there in the afternoon and later in the evening jumping. I was always nervous to get a trampoline because I felt like one of my kids would surely get hurt. So now they have the opportunity at their friend’s house J.

Monday morning was a little rough on the kids. Andrew was up early to head out to the ranch to gather his calves for a sale. But the kids were a little slow moving. But we made it to school on time and then the twins and I came home. They played with their trains and built “hiding places” while I got a roast going in the crockpot.

Then we headed outside to get some work done. I planted a grass on the side of our house, threw out the flowers that have dried up in my pots (the rain spoiled me earlier this summer and I got lazy about watering them), cut out some random trees that were going up in some of our bushes, pulled some weeds, pulled out a dead tree (it was obvious why it was dead as it just took a few pushes since there were hardly any roots) and cleaned off the patio and swing set. The twins brought their trains outside and at some point Miles decided to hide some of Bennett’s trains in the house and then locked the door and came back outside. The bad thing was that it was the only door that was unlocked on our house, the door from the house into the garage. The front and back doors were unlocked. I tried a few things to unlock to no avail so then I decided to take the door knob off. But the “screwdrivers” I found in the garage weren’t quite what I needed. So I decided to check with Tiffany when she got home and went about my work. When Tiffany got home she let me use one of their little keys that usually work on these kind of locks, but it was too wide to fit in the hole on our knob. So she found a different screwdriver that ended up working but then I was having trouble getting the latch to move once I got the knob off. But Tiffany came to the rescue and was able to unlock it using a credit card. I was so grateful for her break-in skills J.