some teaser pics of our beach vacation(ammended to add captions):

Six adults, Twelve kids! We had a great time! More pictures later...time for bed right now!

Here are a few to prove that I wasn't lyin':

Filling a little inflatable wading pool with water. This is where they kept the fish and sea creatures that they caught. Angela's idea. They really worked at it all day.

Ivy lounging in the "swimming pool" they made out of seaweed. Lovely.

The final eight kids left at the beach. Plus parents (excluding me, the camera "man").
This was our last trip to the beach before the drive home. The kids really enjoyed riding in the back of Marie and Dayakar's pickup.

I think I need a whole separate post about this one....

A little blurry.

Volleyball at sunset.

Our Anniversary was that week. Thirteen years! Lucky Steve. :-)
And, Heather, that might be tan but it is more likely the effects of the sunset lighting and a rosy sunburn that you see. Haha!

Moving diary #26

Richard pointed out that my posts have been reduced to one-liners. Yes, they have gotten shorter. In fact, yesterday I didn't post at all. I figure that I am probably pretty boring with my did-this-didn't-do-that monologue. That, combined with the guilt of sitting at the computer when I have work to do has had an effect on my writing the last few days.

But I have been up to something. I have been spray painting things. We have some furniture that we have gotten at yard sales or that we have had since we were married 13 years ago this Monday. I have, in the past, refinished several pieces of furniture, mostly with the help of my friend Heather, but there are a few things that I know I will never refinish but that were still sturdy and functional. One was our night stands. They look great now all in black with their drawer pulls painted silver. Another is a dresser we just bought through craigslist.com a couple of weeks ago. I also painted a side table that I got for $2 at a yard sale up the street. I painted all these things black. Steve is joking that I am going to spray our whole house black but I won't; I promise. ;-)

Want to see the dresser? It was brown but even though the wood is real (all except the insides of the drawers) there is some kind of strange faux stain on it that is more like paper than actual paint. That, combined with brass pulls in fancy shapes, was a mixture of cheap and dressy that bothered my eye.

I removed all the drawer pulls, rubbed them with steel wool and sprayed them with aluminum colored spray paint like I had done with the nightstands. I sprayed the whole dresser shiny black. And, with the pulls re-installed, it looks great! I love the sleek, crisp look of the black and silver. I also realized that the lines of the dresser are decorative enough for it not to be stark but simple enough for my plain, not frilly taste.

It looks so small in the pictures but it is really quite tall.


Makes me want to paint something else black....

Moving diary #25

Steve's repainting the porch spindles...

Moving diary #24

Alright. So...What to do today?????

I suppose just catch this house up after the weekend. How does it manage to be messier the less time we spend at home?! I need to catch up on my laundry and paint trim. Begin the final surge of schoolwork before the end of the year and sort out my laundry closet. (My! Does stuff ever collect there!) Oh, yes. And I need to get groceries.

Does anyone have a cup of get-up-and-go? I need it...

moving diary #23

We painted. Steve, the railings on the front porch; me, the end tables from our bedroom.

It rained. The porch paint is washing away but the tables are safely tucked inside. Now we'll have to do the porch again. Ugh.

Publish Post

Anyway, the tables look good. When will we be done with all this work?!

moving diary #22

My list is shrinking into something I can picture myself finishing. Don't get me wrong; it will take days. But it will get done. Of that I am sure!

Now, for a house....

Moving diary # 21

Well, unsurprisingly, our offer was rejected on the house yesterday. So, we are still looking. Ugh!

The house is almost ready and it will be good to be back to a semi-normal state around here. Of course, that will include acting normally but with the small differences that we don't bump any walls (Keep that paint nice!) and we make strict good habits of keeping the house practically show-able all the time. I think that will be a downside that could also be called a perk--that is, if the habits stick... It's not on the market quite yet, though.

My list today is long. Let's see what I get done!

Moving diary # 20

(Vitali "helping" Steve work on the back porch.)

We are going this morning to sign paperwork on a long-shot offer we are putting in on a house. While the house is awesome, I have some reservations (the lake touching the property, distance from where we shop) so, even though it would be a great move for us, I won't be sad if we don't get it! This is not the first one we have offered on but we are looking for steals. That makes us pretty likely to be rejected. Haha! good thing we can take it!

Also, here is a picture of our current house on the outside:
I wanted to get a picture while the roses are blooming.

Moving diary # 19

I skipped yesterday's post which would have mentioned my porch painting from the day before. I am going to try and keep today's post shorter than usual. Think I can do it?

What did I do yesterday? I took a picture of the outside of the house while my climbing roses are blooming, the sky had swept aside it's clouds for the moment, and everything had a sparkle thanks to the nonstop rain we had been working around lately. Then, we took a break and the kids and I went to Grandma's house. We haven't been for a visit in weeks--only brief "Hellos" and "goodbyes" at church. It was time. Grandma made scones (Annette calls them crones) and had a tea party for the kids which they always cheer about. She read books and they watched a couple of Gene Autry episodes with Grandpa.

I did get one other thing done yesterday, I guess. I bought the paint for today's project: Neutral colors for the living room and hallway. They are currently blue. I like the color but I recognize that not everyone will envision themselves in a blue living space so, Neutral it is! I matched the paint to my bedroom color which means that I can just paint the one wall in my room that has dings and not paint the whole room over. I would like to take this moment to thank myself for the mommy's-room-is-not-a-playroom-for-kids rule: Thank you, self. You have shown great foresight and for this I am grateful.

So, that tells you what I am doing today. Taping. Painting. Painting. Painting....

Ivy and our pet chicken, Indiana Jones.

Indiana is getting bigger. So is Ivy! But she's not growing feathers....

Moving Diary # 18

Number eighteen, huh?! Please tell me the number of entries on this topic won't break 100!

Must.

find .

House.

Sooon!

And, as for what I got done yesterday? I finished the mudding in the bathroom. It's really just a small spot but needed several layers. It's been so humid here--raining for days on end--that my mud has been taking forever to dry! But now I think I can sand it and tell Steve to paint it. Well, I may end up painting but I can try, can't I?

I did it again. Made myself a list for today. Paint the front porch. It's not that big but a lengthy job. and it needs to get done so that I can take a picture of the front of the house while the roses are blooming. Today is the only day in 10 (counting the next couple of days too) no rain in the forecast, so this is it! Really, we should get the front yard mowed too. So, a busy day. Steve thinks he will get home early and that will help.

And, in other news, Richard thinks I didn't have a good time last Saturday when his wife took me up to Cookville to a writing seminar. ;-) He thinks that because I didn't mention it on here. Actually, weirdly, other than this never-ending moving diary, I don't normally detail much about things I didn't take pictures of. But anyway, I did have a good time and got a couple of good hints that should help my writing improve.

One hint that took me by surprise was to avoid the use of adverbs. This should really help my writing dramatically. Especially since I often find my self solidly stuck in the proverial rut. I type slowly along, deftly popping in adverb after adverb and now I surprisingly find out that this is actually not the best writing strategy! In fact, as I carefully go over my old writings I find that I liberally use adverbs all the tme. And for those of you who are gramatically-challenged, I am sorry that you will have completely missed my attempts at humor here.

I also enjoyed the speaker. She and her husband adopted a little girl whose birth mother had not wanted to take care of a little blind girl and had caused her to be burned severely. This little girl, who has no physical beauty was beauiful to her adoptive mother and a blessing in their lives.

How much are we like that little girl? We have no apparent value, except to ourselves, but God loved us anyway. He saw us as valuable. He truly loved us, and proved it! Praise Him!

I wanted to put a link here to her story but I don't know where my paperwork or the book Steve borrowed from Ginger is. Later, I guess..

I especially enjoyed the drive. It was good to just sit, drink my coffee, and have good company to visit with for the long ride there and back! How relaxing and refreshing. :-)

And now Richard knows that I, indeed, did have a great time! And you all do too! Even if you don't have pictures. :-) Thanks (AGAIN), Ginger!

Moving Diary # 17

It is beginning to look like lists are my downfall...I make them...they discourage me. I should go back to my favorite list-making method which is to write down everything I have gotten done today and then cross things off. So satisfying. Cheating, but strangely satisfying.

Reminds me of Vitali, who couldn't seem to win at memory the other night. He was complaining about his inadequacy and Steve took mock-pity on him. Steve turned all the cards the right-way-up and told Vitali that he could go first. Vitali didn't say, "Daddy...that would be cheating!" Nope. He dove right in and beamed as he kept exclaiming to us, "Look! I have O' Loss (a lot) of matches!" And he did. Over half. Then, he messed up (to his credit, three were left upside down) and Ivy got to go next. Of course, she cleaned up the rest and was also unaffected by sportsmanship's call. The next morning Vitali spent the better part of an hour on the floor playing cheater-memory (which, ironically, requires no memory whatsoever)! Ah, to find a game you are good at. That is the stuff of life...

And back to my moving to-do list for yesterday:

Feed the kids check.

morning chores check.

laundry check

wash rags for Steve check

Feed the kids again check

put another layer of mud on bedroom ceiling. Check.

schoolwork check

Make dinner to go so we can meet the Realtor after the boys' horse riding class. check

Meet the Realtor; look at houses check

hang up clothes check

pack a couple of boxes, tape and label check.

clean up before bed. check

flop into bed, tired but having gotten so much done! Check.

See how well that works? And, now, rather than jinxing myself by telling you my plans for today, I will just surprise you (and myself) tomorrow!

Moving diary # 16

I had two things on my list yesterday and I got them both started. That should count for something, right?! The front door had a drip and I was going to sand and paint it but I only got it sanded. And our ceiling in our bathroom had an air bubble that came loose so I was repairing that but only got the first half of that project done. I guess, "type diary entry" should have been on there too since, as it happened, I forgot to check in.

Today, I am planning on finishing the bathroom ceiling and hopefully packing up my computer area, most of which is junk that has accumulated here. We'll see if I get this far.

We went last night with a house to look at in mind, we drove around a while before we realized that the house in question was not built yet! Haha! Just when we thought we might have found a good one!

Oh well!

Ivy's haircut.

I cut eight inches off of Ivy's hair the other day!
She was very proud to have "short" hair.
:-)

Picnic fun!

(The kids enjoyed playing in the over-zealous water fountain at the park!)

Just over a week ago we went for a weekend picnic with Heather and Martha, my friend and her mother, who were visiting our springtime while they waited for NY to get moving!

The weather that evening was perfect and we had a nice time at the lake-park near our home. Good food and a relaxing evening. Their whole visit was good but that was my first time to just sit and enjoy Heather's visit for any extended time. (ugh, moving stuff was stealing my time, of course)

Heather and my mom playing corn hole. I beat Heather every time! (in my dreams....)

My Dad

Heather's mom, Martha, models the perfect looking hot dog.
I know Bethany will say that the perfect hot dog wouldn't have onions-- but who asked her?!

An example of Heather showing that she is not bound by conventional ideas of beauty. This may be my submission into What Not To Wear. I figure when they find out that Heather wears an apple slice instead of lipstick, she'll be a shoo-in!

More water fountain fun

Moving diary # 15

Took a picture of the kids yesterday evening. I like it except for Hannah's slightly annoyed expression...Oh well, can't win em all! And, yes, I got the whole yard mowed!

We got our storage room cleaned out almost entirely today. Steve was home due to rain. A trip to the dump, another to the storage unit, and one to the Goodwill. Ahhh... Feels good to have so much more stuff gone!

It's late and I am off for a ladies' thing all day tomorrow. :-) Leaving early so, goodnight!