ABCZ

...well, if she had her way, that's how it would be. Although that would make a really weird custody thing with Kelly & Erik, so I guess we'll just get our own, when the time comes. But if you ask Anna, she wants a BOY baby brother, and she's going to name him Kyle. And if it's a girl, she's going to name her Dara. It makes me so happy to see her forming such wonderful friendships, even this young. These three are so cute together...the best of buds.

We found that we have to tear out the two concrete steps, to get to the siding and the floor joist that has some rot in it BEHIND the step. When it's out, we'll replace it with wood 'deck type' steps (the deck is WAY down the line), so it doesn't have to be pretty, and we only need the TOP step gone.



We've only gotten HALF of the step off so far. So, how long do you think this little piece of demolition took, with Curtis and I both working on it, using sledge hammers, pavement breakers, concrete saws and jack hammers?

A. 6 seconds
B. 6 hours
C. 6 days
D. 6 weeks
E. 6 years

The answer is B. However, it only took us A to realize that this was going to take about E to complete. So far, it's going to take our backs and arms D to be able to move without screaming out in pain and be functional again, but we only have C to finish the project. CALGON - TAKE ME AWAY!!!

My poor baby. He got that big abcess, and it turns out that we had to do surgery to remove the dead skin that wouldn't heal (which turned out to be a fist sized chunk of flesh). Since he was down for that, and mastiffs are really hard to anesthetize because of their size, we decided to cut out the rest of the little cysts, so that he wouldn't have to go through this again. Long story short, he looks like Frankenstein dog. He's such a trooper. I got to stay with him and watch the whole surgery, and recover him myself, so that was great. Our vet, Dr. Hoskins, is AWESOME, and an amazing clinician.

Anyway - everybody send a big slobbery hug and a kiss for my poor baby. He's doing much better now, but he just looks so pathetic.

From the park behind our house. Ours is the big one wrapped in house wrap. hahaha

We made a fun trip (although way too quick) to Tahoe a few weekends ago. My aunt, uncle & cousins have been going to the same condo for years and years, every summer. We always went up for part of it with them. Now, my mom has rented one right next door so that we can make this an ongoing 'family tradition'. With all of us having families of our own now, it's rare that we all get together in one place, so it is so fun to spend some time just hanging out....kind of like when we were kids. Even more special now that we are having kids of our own to share the tradition.

Here are a few pics of this years trip.....good times. Next year - we're going to try to make it a little bit longer than 2 days...provided that we have a roof on our house when we leave house this time!

Uncle CARL, that is. Apparently, following him up on the drive to Tahoe made quite an impression on Anna. She and I were following Curtis home the other night. When we pulled into the driveway after him, she said,

“Daddy beat us! He’s a really, REALLY fast driver, just like my Uncle Carl!”

But, to be fair, she's been a little tough on me too. I went through a SLIGHTLY yellow light the other day, and we had the following conversation…no joke. I’m just glad it wasn’t in front of a police officer while I tried to sell MY side of events.

ANNA: Mommy, why did you pass the red light. Red means stop.

ME: I didn’t pass a red light, Sweetie. It was yellow.

ANNA: No, Mommy. It was red. Red is different than yellow.

ME: No, it was yellow when we went through. It turned red after that.

ANNA: NO! The light was RED and you passed it. Why did you pass the red light, Mommy? Red means stop.

(You can just repeat the above sequence in your head four or five or sixty times….that’s about how the rest of the conversation went.) Funny girl…this one.

Nope - lost it already. It doesn't take long. So, I'll just ramble on here with stuff I keep meaning to write, but not finding the time to:

THE HOUSE UPDATE
The roof is almost done! Whoo hoo!! Just need gutters. Curtis fell off a ladder and sprained his ankle on Saturday while we were working on our part of it. OK, well, he takes exception to the phrase 'fell of a ladder'. He 'stumbled down the last few rungs while trying to get off of a ladder' and injured himself. (There - how's that?) So, we didn't finish all of our part before the real roofers came on monday, and some of what we did just did NOT go well for some reason. So I TOTALLY took one for the team here. *I* was the one that had to stand there with the roofer Monday morning and look at the piece of crap repair work we had done. I think his exact words were "A child could have done this. It is THE worst roofing work I have EVER seen." So - I played the silly girl card and said, "Gee, can you just fix it?". They did. I just hate being the dumb girl. I am pretty damned capable, if I do say so myself.

Windows and doors go in this week. House wrap and siding after that. Yeah! It is so exciting to see it all come together. This weekend we're starting the electrical, working on some of the new mechanical system and doing some exterior demo to get ready for the new siding.


ANNA CATHERINE
Oh Anna. What a crack up these days. What are some of the best ones?
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This morning I was expecting someone, but I couldn't tell the difference between the pounding on the roof and the knocking on the door. So after checking the 10th time, I said, "Hey - can you tell Mommy if someone is here? I can't tell if it's the roof knocking or someone at the door." She replied, "The roof doesn't knock, Mommy. The people on the roof knock." Ahhhh....yes. I stand corrected. Thanks.
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She walked into our bedroom today to find our whole back wall gone, and she proceeded to walk over to the contractors and say, "Oh my, you made such a terrible mess. Why did you do that?"
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After hearing the guys out back talking and joking around while they were working. I hear her call out, "Mommy, they're laughing at you." I started to correct her, but hell, after the roof work I just showed them - they probably WERE laughing at me.
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This weekend, she informed me that "boys and girls are different". Fearing the OBVIOUS, I asked, "How"? She said, "Boys are always asking where everyting is, every time. And the girls have to tell them where to find it. " Ahhh.....I couldn't have PAID her to say anything better than that. However, Curtis was quick to point out that she also asked me to sit in the passenger seat last time we all got in the car to drive to the store. When I asked why, she said, "So Daddy can drive. He's a much better driver than you are."

CURTIS' NON FALLING OFF OF THE LADDER INJURY
Curtis is doing pretty good. He followed the doctors' orders closely and kept his foot elevated and rested and used the crutches they sent him home with. Yeah...I didn't figure you'd buy that. Actually, he went to the Giants' game the next day and left his crutches at home on monday morning. His foot is doing better, but it's gotten more swollen and bruised now.

I spent the last 10 minutes talking to a roofer who showed up at the door (Why did it take 10 minutes, anyway? Dude - we picked someone else....weeks ago. Do you have issues with rejection?) looking like this.

Apparently, sometime during the chaos that has been this morning, which included a 200lb dog with a BIG bleeding abscess (which made my house look like a crime scene), trying to find a place on the destroyed carpet that is not wet with Resolve (from said bleeding abscess and an old mastiff who can't hold his bladder anymore) to clean the bleeding abscess, Doritos for breakfast (chosen by Anna while I was trying to clean up Kodi), Anna decided that I really needed to be a princess too (I DO recall declining at that particular moment. I do NOT recall her bestowing a crown upon me anyway.)

*sigh* I'm still keeping my sense of humor. That's good, right? Or does that mean I've just cracked completely?

P.S.: I quit. This is what Anna did with her strawberry yogurt (I wasn't going to let her have JUST Doritos for breakfast!) while I was typing this.

Here's a few pics of our recent progress. The roof is torn off, and the repairs are almost done. We'll finish the facia board this weekend. The REAL roofer starts installing the new roof on Monday. I'm to excited to have a ROOF!!!

The interior framing is just about done. Next I think the doors and windows get installed, then siding. Then, the wonderful Timberwolf Construction is out of here and we're on our own. I'm SCARED! They have been awesome. I'm not sure who I'm going to ask all my questions to now!

Anna and her stairs. She LOVES the stairs. To the left will be the hallway. To the right, a wall that has closets for the bedrooms. This used to be Anna's room.


The view from the side of the house, standing on the kitchen patio looking toward the park. Family room on the bottom, "my brother or sister's room (Anna's words)" on the top.


More stairs. Used to be Anna's room. Now the closet is framed in.

Kodi has been back and forth to the vet a bunch lately. He has a big abscess (I'll spare you the pictures.) So, the other day, as we're leaving the vet, we have a conversation that goes like this:

ANNA: (sounding totally exasperated) Kodi! Will you PULEASE stop slobbering me. You're always slobbering me, every time!

ME: You know, when you were a baby, you slobbered all over Kodi, and he was VERY patient with you. You should be patient with him too. He can't help it either.

ANNA: Ok, Mommy. (Note, the "Mommy" - I'm making my case, huh?)

So...the next morning, I hear Anna talking to Kodi. She says:

"Kodi, it's OK if you slobber on me sometimes. Because I know when I was a baby mastiff I used to slobber on you, and you were very patient."

When SHE was a baby mastiff??? Awww....does it get any cuter?