Want a tour of (part of ) our house?

First, let's have a look at our bird friends...

See those red things? They are baby birds! There are 3 of them and they look super gross here, but...

after just a couple of days, look how fuzzy they are! I will keep you posted for when they actually turn cute!
Okay, now for the tour. I loaded these on blogspot in a very random manner, so just go along with me...

This is my laundry room/hallway to the garage. Please notice that I have a shelf for all my laundry needs!!!
That's the door to the garage.
This is our bedroom. You can see we had to put a curtain to the master bathroom because there was absolutely nothing blocking it.

We still have a few things to put up and we'd like to get a headboard eventually. But, it's nice to have so much room!
This is the way to the master bathroom....
Our double sinks, which I love love love!!!!
Our massive tub and see-through shower. The tub is used weekly by Ebeth where she fills it up and kind of swims in it. :)
The door on the left leads to the toilet. The door facing us is to our walk-in closet. That's the best part of the whole stinking room! I don't have to store non-season clothes under the bed anymore!
Okay, this is the hallway bathroom.
This is the hallway to our bedroom (on the right) the hallway bathroom (middle) and the garage. There's also a door to the immediate left that leads to the basement.
Our dining room. Right now, we do not dine in it, and probably won't while we're in this house. The shelves you see are for Ebeth's books, art supplies and games. Julia and the cats play in this room all the time!
More dining room.
Large window in dining room that is usually holding a cat.
My kitchen!
I have a million cabinets!

Our small dining area, where we do all of our dining.
The doors to the deck and backyard. Also usually has a cat in front of it.
The living room! The fireplace is electric, so there's a light switch that turns it on.

The view if you walked in our front door.
Our front door. See our bird nest? And there's Lala and her bench!
She loves helping Evan with yard work.
Because she tries to escape!
And here's Elisabeth riding her two wheeler as promised!

Here's a little before and after shot....
Elisabeth in DeKalb riding her training wheel bike, age 4.
Elisabeth riding her two wheeler in Colorado Springs, age 6.
We're still working on the upstairs. We're getting ready to paint the girls' rooms and are finishing the loft area. Once we're done with that, I'll show you all the rest of our house!!!!!

The grass is always greener...unless it's our yard, then it's kind of brown

I have a job interview today at a preschool in the area. I have decided that after 2 years of dealing with junior high and high school students, I'm ready for little ones again. The job sounds great--3 year old classroom (my favoritest age!), Julia would get to go too and I'd get a discount rate. It's privately owned and not large. I'm excited at the possibility of working again, especially with this age group, to have my own classroom again, to be planning themes for the room that will meet their fine and gross motor skills, engage them in using their imagination and stirring up their curiosity in their surroundings.

But...

I don't want to give up the time I have with Julia right now. I know, I complain constantly about how high maintenance she is, but the truth is, I like being home. I guess I want both. I want the job with the co-workers, the satisfaction that comes from a doing your job and doing it well, the change in scenery. I also want to be home with my kids, to have the whole day to work on projects around the house or just skip the cleaning and take the girls to the park for the day.

I know that Ebeth has school soon and then it'll just be me and Julia. And I know that Julia would LOVE to have other playmates. I guess I want both and would love for someone to figure out how I can get both that doesn't involve me having a day care in my home. :)

Mr. Eefers.

I am feeling very sad today. You see, it's been a few weeks now since I've seen my Ethan. And I love that boy. For those of you not privileged to know of whom I speak, Ethan is my nephew and I am love him to bits and pieces. He's Evan's sister's son and he's very far away in Illinois. :(

So, this blog is all about him to make me feel better. :)

Ethan is a basketball guro. Someday we will be rushing to make his championship games, because I kid you not, the boy has mad skillz. (He made the shot pictured below!)

Look at this face? How do you not absolutely love this face?!
He's kind of gangsta, but isn't every fair skinned, red head? With goggles?
He's so onery. Look at him, he's going to make Kyle and Matt grey earlier than Papa was grey!
He has lots of friends, and often has them over for meals.
He is in love with Elisabeth. He calls her B and really misses her. He knows B is a fan of Star Wars and is so proud of his own Star Wars shirt and still knows that popcorn=Friday nights watching Star Wars.

I love this smile!

He was not quite sure of Julia when she came. I mean, he already had the perfect cousin (B), so who's this girl trying to make a place in his world? At times, he would deem Juju (what he named her) unworthy and push her down and proclaim, "Baby down." But soon, after many days of being forced to play with her while his mommy and Ginia (that'd be me!) at work and Debbie watched both of them, he learned to love Juju (just not as much as B).
He's such an angel when he's sleeping (right, Kyle?)
See, pure onery! But, notice he's checking out the paper, probably for when the next basketball game is playing. He demands basketball (sports page) while eating his breakfast (not kidding!).

I miss my Mr. Eefers.

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!!

Happy 4th of July!!! We had a quiet-at-home celebration this year. We were supposed to be celebrating the marriage of our good friends Cole and Jessie, but due to a new position at Evan's job, we were unable to leave the state (or, really, a one hour radius of Colorado Springs). Elisabeth was really disappointed because both she and Julia were to be the flower girls and Elisabeth had big plans to wear her swim suit under her flower girl dress so that when the wedding was over, she could take off her dress and be ready to jump into the ocean! (The wedding took place in California on the beach, Elisabeth is not just a crazy). We're so sorry we missed the wedding, and we wish them both the best (especially because they are both starting law school in southern Illinois in the fall...they heart the adrenaline rush, apparently.) Love you guys!!!!!!!


Evan got his Father's Day/Birthday gift right before the 4th festivities...a grill! It's charcoal and a Weber. Julia really liked it...



Figaro enjoyed snacking on the materials it was shipped in.

Julia claimed this as her new home.
Here's Evan showing off his grill.
Check out the clouds! I love clouds.


For the actual holiday, our block had a block party. There was a bouncy house, grilling of food, and running around of children. The weather was super uncooperative, so it rained and stormed all day long. Grump!

Julia wore her Independence Day finest.
The bouncy house/firetruck.
Ebeth's artwork. It's supposed to say Earth+USA=People.
Evan is all bidness when it comes to hamburger makin'.
The flag cookies I slaved over for hours...

Julia sharing the green part of her watermelon with Evan.
Yes, Elisabeth is wearing her helmet to lunch (in the garage due to weather). But, the best part is, she'd already eaten a hamburger at one of the neighbors' houses while Evan was grilling ours, so she just stopped by for sides.




Julia finally got to try out her birthday present. Well, with water at least. It was sitting in our living room and she was crawling in and out of it. The water was freeeezing, but she didn't care at all.




We decided to chance going to the Air Force Academy for fireworks. The city of Colorado Springs decided to cut fireworks from their budget this year, so there were very few places to actually see a fireworks display. Look at the fog covering the mountains that the Academy sits at the bottom of!
There were bouncy houses galore for Ebeth to go on...if you had a ticket...which were $4.00 each!!!!!!! Evan complained and we got two tickets for four dollars. Ridiculous.




This was right before we decided to leave. It started raining again, Ebeth was soaked from the slides being all wet, it was 54 degrees and it was just not fun sitting there waiting.
Elisabeth was the most disappointed ever. It was her 6th fireworks, you know, and that's important (or so she continuously claimed on the car ride home. Thankfully, her Papa is a wonderful genius, and he videoed the fireworks from Pekin on his phone and sent us several videos to watch. It made Ebeth's night!


And here's some Julia showing some July 5th pride...



Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend!!!!!

Let's Talk Some Ebeth...

This young lady has not gotten enough time on this blog, so I shall fill you all in on her ups and downs in Colorado using bullet points. I am so fun.

-Elisabeth has made friends in our neighborhood, which has totally worked out well for me, since she is outside ALL THE TIME. She scooters down the sidewalk to knock on her friends' doors and they all run around until meal times. It's a little 1950s and I love it! Although, I've been bugging Evan to get me a giant bell to ring when it's time to eat so I don't have to lug Julia down the block to try and find my kid. (Oh, and don't worry, I suck at remembering that we are thousands of miles closer to the sun and that if I don't apply sunblock on my child she will fry like a lobster. Yeah...we both are working on reminding each other to apply it before she leaves for the day.)

-Elisabeth has (finally) learned to ride her two wheeler!!!!!!! Yesterday she calls me outside to show me how she can do it!! I am so proud of her, especially because the kid has no balance whatsoever and has really struggled learning how. I totally credit the scooter Pepaw bought her for helping her learn balance and therefore giving her balance to ride her bike. I will take pictures ASAP.

-Dear lord, the child is so sassy. I definitely blame Hannah Montana and those other Disney shows. Oh, and I guess her age (which is almost 7). We're relearning our manners (like saying "Please" and "Thank you" and not assuming mommy is her servant). Also, we're learning the consequences of fibbing...which aren't great. Like not getting to go back outside with friends or losing TV time. It's hard being a grade schooler, you know.

-She is SUCH a good sister. It's so funny to hear her lecture Julia in the car about not whining because she's not getting food or because the car's stopped. She shares her toys with her, and sometimes will even get to Julia before I do to tend to her. Recently when I was sick out of my mind with kidney stones (2 weeks ago...ungodly pain, vomiting, crying...it was bad), I could not function at all. I was trying to lay down in my room, but it hurt too bad, so I'd try sitting (no go with that either). I was calling Evan and begging him to come home and take me to the emergency room, and was just sobbing. I honestly had no idea what the girls were doing because I was pretty incoherent. Evan told me later that Elisabeth had played with Julia, picked her up and buckled her into her highchair, fed her lunch (cheese, yogurt, crackers), cleaned her up, got her down, and then played with her more until Evan showed up. When we finally got to the hospital, she told Evan that she'd forgotten to feed herself. It just gives me goosebumps thinking about how responsible and sweet that was. Could I ask for a better older sister for Julia? I don't think so.

-Elisabeth's current favorites include: the Disney channel, Star Wars (still), riding her bike and scooter, begging to go swimming, playing with her friends, Captain Crunch cereal, begging for diet sodas, our cats, keeping the hallway light on at night until midnight so she feels safe, learning to play the piano on a tiny keyboard she got for Christmas last year, Junie B. Jones books, going to the library, and shopping for clothes.
Best 6.5 year old I know.