ESCAPE!

A Dogs on Thursday one day late post…….

Mercy escaped last night.

Keith had just gotten home from work and was changing into comfy clothes.

I had just returned home with Sweet Pea after an incredibly busy day and sat down in her rocker to nurse her.

We both suddenly realized that Mercy had not been let out. Keith sprinted downstairs to do so, as we are zealously protective of our freshly refinished floors with respect to doggy business.

He opened the back door and bent down to grab Mercy’s line when RABBITZILLA appeared in the middle of the yard.

I heard some loud barking, followed by silence, and then an “Uh oh, she’s gone.”

SP and I came downstairs to three-stooges-esque activity. I was running one way, Keith was running another, neither of us had shoes on, he was in his “drawers”, I had a baby in my arms.

Our neighbor showed up, breathless and barefoot with a spatula in hand. “Your dog!” Much panting.

“I was grilling steaks,” more panting, “and she ran past me chasing that rabbit! She went through the fence into the thick brush in the park!”

Sweet Pea went into the playpen while I grabbed a bag a treats. I ran into the yard and started calling for Mercy, interspersing her favorite words like “treats” and “chicken” and “go for a walk.” Keith had since gotten dressed and was running to the park.

It seemed like forever before I heard my neighbor yell, “He got her!”

Mercy had eventually given up her pursuit of rabbitzilla and was walking back on the path towards our street (was she coming home?). When she saw Keith, she turned around and started walking the OTHER way, with her tail between her legs and ears back! He commanded her to sit, which she did, and he scooped her up and brought her back home.

Phew!

I was thinking that her turning around and walking away was an illustration of us and God. He wants us to live a life of obedience to him not just for us to follow the rules, but to protect us. We want Mercy to stay in the yard to protect her! When we stray from Him, there are consequences to our actions. Sometimes even when we are confronted with truth we continue to do our own thing or even turn away, but He will scoop us up and bring us back.

What an amazing God.

“If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” - Matthew 18:12-14

Picnic break

The park I mentioned in my last post is literally behind our house. There’s a side entrance trail two driveways away.

On a rare dry evening, we went on a picnic when Keith came home from work. It was so nice to have some time to relax and play.

Can you see her top two front teeth? They just popped through…

Mercy was “on guard,” as usual. Except when the picnic food came out, when she decided to switch her job description from security detail to food-quality-assurance.

We’re in!

We made it.

That’s my father-in-law on the front steps. Try to imagine that the overgrown trees disappeared and were replaced with supercute landscaping. I’m trying to imagine that now…

That’s Keith and I’m in the way back of the truck. This was trip #2 of 3 with the box truck. We only moved 2.6 miles away from our condo.

The back of the house & the perennial gardens…. that need a little love. Locust tree on the left and out of control wisteria on the right. There’s mint, chives, peonies, 2 rose bushes, too many day lilies, cone flowers, and a bunch of other things that I don’t know how to identify. And weeds. A lot of weeds.

Keith’s parents were in town from San Diego for the move. We sort of worked them to exhaustion.

My father-in-law got a little break in the shade.

My mother-in-law took a break in the sun. Mercy was just happy to be outside.

The neighborhood is awesome and there is a park with trails behind our backyard.

This trail is also the shortcut to Dairy Queen. My in-laws LOVE LOVE LOVE ice cream. It’s been an adjustment getting used to our normal routine of no dessert after they left!

So we’re here. We’re in. Exhausted and happy.

House Progress

The painting was finished Friday. Well… the painting that needed to be done. There is one bedroom upstairs that does not have hardwood floors that can be painted this week. And the teeny foyer has tile and will also be done this week.

We rented the big ole orbital floor sander from Giant Big Box Hardware Store Friday night. The thing was AWESOME and it impressed all of our friends. It was so powerful that every time we turned it on, all the lights in the house flickered and all other powertools in operation ceased for a moment while the giant beast revved up.

But. The beast met it’s match. My husband.

You see, the Giant Big Box Hardware Store does 24 hour rentals, but I don’t think the “powers that be” in their corporation ever thought that the tool would be in operation for that long. Ha! We alternated operators so we wouldn’t have to rent it another day, and so the machine was kept on almost all day. We ran on pure adrenaline from the manly awesomeness of the giant sander. Vrrrrrooooommmm!

At hour 21 with 2 rooms left to do in medium grit and fine grit, the welding cracked.

It was a godsend. We were able to actually take a break to return the sander to the store and get another one, plus they gave us ANOTHER 24 hours free. Ahhh. Sleep. How I missed you.

After 2 days of sanding, sweeping, shop-vac-ing, & tack cloth-ing, the stain was ready to be applied. And I now feel like I have sawdust particles coming out of my pores, despite many failed attempts to cleanse my pores of the grime.

I was able to peek through the tarp to snap a picture of the first coat. (We had tarps up so we could be staining one room while prepping others at the same time and not get sawdust on the fresh stain).

It’s called “Colonial Maple.” If all goes well, another coat of stain will be applied tomorrow night and then two coats of polyurethane by Wednesday. The weather had been really humid here to the dry time is alot slower than normal.

I wish we had more time.

So the work begins…

We closed on the house Monday afternoon!

The plan is to paint this week and for Keith to start refinishing the hardwood floors this weekend. We are moving in after the floors are done.

Hopefully we’ll be happy that we painted first, then refinished second. Oh well. Live and learn.

I wouldn’t say that the house is a “fixer-upper” rather, a home in need of some love. Granted, there are some serious home improvement projects that need to be done (think- rip out upstairs bathroom and completely redo because the tile is falling down), but that will come in time when we have an influx of cash to do it right. I refuse to spend money to put a “bandaid” on it. The previous owners were relocated over a year and a half ago, so the house has been vacant for quite some time. The gardens have been unattended, but thankfully we’ve had quite a bit of rain to sustain the flowers. And the weeds. Gotta do something about those.

But, first things first. Prep the walls for painting and paint. The appliances are going to be delivered on Friday, so I am hoping to have the kitchen painted by then. I’m painting above the wainscotting.

Sweet Pea’s room needs a good spackling job, which Keith began and I am working on today (after Sweet Pea wakes up from her nap). I’m doing random spackle jobs and more prepping so we can get as much painting done as possible. The prep work is was takes so long!

My friend Paula came yesterday afternoon to help out. I am so thankful for all our friends that are offering their time and talents. It definitely takes much longer to do ANYTHING when there’s a baby around… Sweet Pea started trying to crawl so we have to take breaks often when she “faceplants” on the floor and cries… so the support and help of friends is definitely priceless!

Ahhh… garden dreams….

Keith shot this photo in the lovely town of Lewiston, NY, about a month ago. I love it! The bright colors, the white picket fence, the whole package.

Little did we know that one week after seeing these beautiful blooms that we would have found a home for us, and one with fabulous gardens too! So next spring, we will have beautiful tulips blooming in our own yard!

Now, what to do about Mercy and the gardens… and the not-completely-fenced-in-yard.

Big news!

We’ve found a home and we are going to be moving! We are very excited, to say the least, and very busy. Cleaning up the condo, packing when we can… and all the million papers, documents, & insurances we need to get taken care of in the mean time. Our closing date is in mid-July.

At last, a garden to call our own.

My hourglass sweater is complete, and I am waiting for the weather to cooperate for an outdoor photoshoot!
In the mean time, I have decided that a “sanity” project is needed for me during this transitional time.

Daphne’s Baby Cape is back on the needles, the, uh, correct size needles I mean.

Garter Stitch. All garter stitch. Doesn’t get any better than this.

Except for the fact that I may run out of yarn. Ravelry talk points out that 3 skeins of Cascade 220 will NOT be enough, despite what the pattern says. Hopefully I can get ahold of a fourth skein.

I can pause in the middle of a row and not worry about messing up anything. It’s also great Stanley Cup playoff knitting too.

GTG! The puck drops soon!

Another baby hat!

My hourglass sweater progress was interrupted by a new baby boy, Noah, who came two weeks early. This is the second time a friend of mine has gone into labor early and sent me scrambling to knit something. Maybe I should just start knitting for babes earlier?

Another Child’s Cotton Hat, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I truly love this book and the last minute-ness of this particular project. I suppose I could probably finish one in a day if I didn’t have, umm, interruptions. This is the fourth cotton hat I have knit in the past 6 months and the first time I experimented with color changes. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Noah’s mom is my table leader at MOPS, a Mothers of Preschoolers group I belong to . When Sweet Pea was born, she organized meals for us the first two weeks after we came home from the hospital. Yesterday was my turn to bring over dinner to her house. And a cute knitted gift.

MOPS, is a group of mothers who share the common bond of having little ones at home, from pregnancy up to kindergarten. We meet twice a month and cover all sorts of different topics, share stories, and enjoy a little time away from our little ones (who are being cared for by a loving nursery staff).

The support from a group like MOPS is great, for first time moms and fourth time moms alike. It’s nice to have somewhere to go, to meet other women in similar situations, and to be encouraged! Being a mom is NOT an easy job. You can’t clock out at 5 or 6, you are on call 24-7. I would highly recommend a group like this to everyone!

People ask me often how I am adjusting to motherhood, if I’m going stir crazy, etc, and I have to say I really feel pretty good. I don’t stay cooped up in the house all the time, I am out just about every day, doing something, whether it be bible study once a week, MOPS twice a month, or exercising with a friend. Even on days that I am home ALL DAY LONG I usually feel okay about it. I’m raising our daughter, and I can’t think of a more important job I could be doing. It’s a privilege to be a wife and mother.

Daughters of the human and canine kinds…

I printed this photo and framed it for part of Keith’s Valentine’s Day gift. His 3 girls! I sometimes forget that he is outnumbered here!

I mastered the side lying nursing position when I had that awful flu a few weeks back and you know what? It comes in handy, especially when you are exhausted from lack of sleep, have a headache, and just need to put your pounding head down for a bit. The above photo is from such a time, and Sweet Pea fell asleep for a few minutes, in what I call a “food induced coma”. Mercy is all snuggled up to her! Don’t worry, I didn’t leave my baby in the bed with all those covers and SIDS factors. She sleeps in her crib, free of stuffed animals, blankets, etc. This was just a few minute occurrence. Besides, they don’t IMMEDIATELY die from SIDS if they have a blanket near them, although I feel I have been trained to think that!

Thank you all for the yorkie misbehaving suggestions from my last Dogs on Thursday post. Mercy continues to bark, although I have proactively given her a “pacifier” while nursing Sweet Pea- a Kong filled with her food and treats or yogurt, a biscuit, a bone to bury. And that helps. A LOT. I’m waiting to finish some applesauce to try the coins in the jar trick.

The weather here continues to be uncooperative for walks with Mercy, the slush does a number on her paws and she doesn’t last very long outside. Soon enough though, all four of us will be in San Diego and we’ll be taking Mercy and Sweet Pea to Dog Beach! I can’t wait!

Ahh… Dog Beach memories….

Lost that knittin’ feeling?

I seem to have lost my knitting mojo lately. Project hiccups, erratic sleep, guitar hero and exercise seem to have taken their toll.

I finished the back of Sweet Pea’s sweater a few weeks ago and haven’t worked on much of anything since. I could cast on for the rest of the sweater, but it’s for 6-9 months, and she’s only 3 months right now. I’d like to work on something that she could wear when we go to California at the end of March, like Daphnes Baby Cape.

I heeded all of your advice and the Denise needles were not the same gauge for my hourglass sleeves . I also tried the magic loop thing with no success so I ended up ordering the right size addi circulars to finish it. They shipped out from Threadbear yesterday, along with the famous Patons Street Smart booklet.

I’m slow to get on the bandwagon, I know. Better late than never, huh?

So I sit and wait for the mailman. He rings twice, no?