A friend of mine, who’s daughter is almost a year old, went back to work part-time this week. She’s in the medical field and the part-time gig really works for her- you only see patients on the days you work- as opposed to the part-time office situation where one “works” p/t with full time project expectations from the boss.

Anyway, she was sharing about her daycare search and told me about a certain center that was over $10 more per day than all the other places she visited. Apparently this place has laserbeams that clean all the toys after the children go home at night as well as this air-filtrating ultra-violet light thing that kills all germs in the air.*

Laserbeams?

Really?

I felt like Seth & Amy on SNL.

Laserbeams?

Really? You need laserbeams to clean my kid’s toys?

What’s that, soap isn’t good enough for you?

You need Laserbeams?

From your lasercats? Really?

We both had a good laugh.

She decided to take her daughter to the on-site day-care at her work, which is not equipped with lasers.

*I can fully understand one’s concern over their child sharing toys with potentially sick children. I wash stuff at home too, but probably not as much or as often as my mom wished I did… and I bet that if aforementioned laserbeam was on the market, my mom would buy it for us.

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

One of the things I appreciate about being a knitter is that when the weather gets cool, I’m not as bummed out about the departure of summer because I have something to look forward to- wearing my creations!!! The temperature dipped this past week, and thus the opportunity presented itself to bring out the Cabled Coat for Sweet Pea.

At nine months, it fits perfectly and looks like it will last through the winter.

It was a tad big for her back in May (above).

My hourglass sweater has not seen a public outing but if this cool weather continues, I may be wearing her soon!

What are you looking forward to wearing this fall?

We have some friends who are pregnant. Some are blissfully unaware of what it will be like to take care of said child.

One such blissful couple was telling us of their post-baby work plans.

He: We’ve got it all figured out for after the baby is born. My boss already approved me to work from home one day a week. So I’ll have the baby that day.

She: And I am going to P/T, working 3 days, maybe 4. My mom will watch the baby 3 days and I am going to work from home the other day.

He: Yeah, daycare isn’t for us.

She: No. Definitely not.

Me: You know, you might want to look into having a babysitter or some kind of help on the days you are working from home…

Keith: Yeah, you can’t exactly take a conference call when you have a screaming baby on your hands.

He: Oh, nah, I think it’ll be ok. Sometimes they just cry for no reason right? I can just put ‘em in another room and shut the door while I’m on a call or something.

She: (Nodding her head in agreement). Yeah, they cry for no reason a lot right?

We resisted the urge to laugh hysterically.

We had an almost fire experience in the microwave this morning.

We were SO outta food & today is grocery day… and Sweet Pea decided to finally START eating food this week. So I made her some ground up oatmeal, but it was kinda bland.

No bananas in sight, no frozen pureed food cubes, no fruit to puree… I found an apple and diced it up, threw in in the microwave to just get it smushy and before I knew it…

Sparks & smoke.

Maybe I should just buy jarred baby food.

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 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.

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.

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!

My life has been a giant to-do list lately. Mostly move related.

Finally, our condo is rented to a lovely couple who is getting married in the fall. They’ll be moving in shortly after we move out! We listed the property on Craigslist and utilized a free web program called V-Flyer to make a professional looking listing. It took 8 days to rent the place- and we didn’t have to spend any money for classified ads!

So now it’s full steam packing ahead. Stumbling over boxes, not being able to find anything. I’m sure you can relate.

And a little decor planning for the new place.

I found this cool site through Better Homes & Gardens that allows you to virtually arrange your furniture in your house. You input the room’s dimensions, add architectural elements like windows, doors, etc., and then add the furniture you have. Very fun. BHG has a variety of web programs to try out new color schemes, arranging your deck and yard… it’s quite easy to spend way to much time on there.

I get to buy appliances for the first time in my life this week! A fridge, stove, and hood. I just need to find someone who can install the hood. Is it complicated to put a vent through brick?

I’m researching dog-containment systems (aka the invisible fence type deal) for Mercy, but we will probably be doing some cheap snow fencing for the first year. I just like to plan ahead… logistically and financially.

I’ve been weeding through the different things we want/ need to do to the house and phasing it out. We need to paint NOW, but we don’t need new bedroom linens immediately. Unfortunately, the linens in a bedroom affect the wall colors, so it looks like we’ll be going quite neutral for now. The bathroom needs some work but it works until we have a influx of cash to redo it. The floors should be refinished but that may or may not happen based on how quickly we paint.

In the midst of the above mentioned chaos, I’ve been enjoying walking to the gym as often as I can, since we are currently only a block away. Once we move, we’ll have to drive 2.6 miles to get there. Working out has been my sanity.

What helps you keep your sanity?