Durango Palmers: January 2010

Friday, January 29, 2010

Have you ever...

....had a conversation with a child and thought for sure one of you just got off a spaceship from another planet? I had one of those last night.

I was getting the kids ready for bed (Mark was at practice) and the big kids and I were in the bathroom brushing teeth.

Kale asks me "Mom what do you use croutons for?"

Me: Croutons? You eat them. On salads and stuff.

Kale: You eat them?!

Me: Yes you eat them. What else would you do? You put them on salads. They're yummy.

Kale: You eat them?!

Me: Yes Kale, what's the deal? They're little squares of dried bread and they have seasoning on them.

Kale: No! I'm talking about the croutons in the bathroom. You know, the long, skinny things?

Me: {lightbulb!} You mean tampons. Not croutons Kale. And no you don't eat them....

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for spiritual life lessons. I want to share the cool life lessons God showed me through the craziness of storms this last week. Our pastor prayed something on Sunday that got me thinking, yet again, of how things in the natural represent the supernatural. So cool to see it again!

I learned that the storms of life may come once in a while or they may come one right after another. Either way, they will come. They have to. They come to make us stronger, to help our roots grow deeper, and to have an appreciation for life.

God is like my house {although much more reliable :)}. He is a safe refuge in the midst of storms. A shelter. My protection from from the wind and the cold. A place to rest, refresh and prepare myself to face the damage.

Shoveling, yes shoveling, is cleaning up after the storm. I can choose to sit in my house and not deal with what the storm has left and as a result wind up being stuck much longer then I should, OR I can grab my shovel, head outside and fight back. Refuse to be stuck. Fight back against the storms of life. Make a way to move forward. It's hard. It's exhausting. But the results make me feel proud. Like I've accomplished something. And I know I am stronger because of it.

I have learned that there are friends, that in the midst of our storms, will be there to help in the digging out process. Friends who are willing to work along side you, to call you, to pray for you, to sympathize with you. Thank God for those friends.

I've learned that the snow will melt, the storms will pass. It may be quick or it may take time, but it will get better. The snow will melt, spring will come, life will move on. And through it all God has a plan. A plan greater than I can imagine. A plan that includes these storms. And I know, and trust, that He will walk with me and be with me, and you, throughout every storm of life. Big or small. He cares.

Oh how He loves us. I am so very thankful.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Out of Kate's mouth...

I started a new job a couple weeks ago. It's a seasonal job. I'm helping a local CPA. I'm doing electronic filing, putting together tax returns, and other misc. stuff. So far I'm only working once a week. That is until things really get going and more returns need to go out.

I worked last night and as I was leaving Kate came running to the back door. I figured she wanted one more kiss or something. I had already shut the door so I turned to peer through the window and she yells out,

"Mom! Is dad parenting tonight?"

Oh my gosh I laughed. I told her that yes daddy was parenting tonight. Ya see, we don't call it babysitting. Dads do NOT babysit. They parent. They are as much of a parent as moms.

So yes, Mark is parenting once a week :) JK....hahahahaha!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Snow fun

Snow much fun together.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Bathroom Color Reveal

Alright. To be honest it's a little tough to reveal the paint color. Everything else is so generic but paint color is personal. So here we go :)

We chose green. Specifically Happy Camper green. It's dark but cheerful. Bold but not over the top. I know that it will come together even more once we get in the floor and trim and vanity and toilet and tub surround....We're coming along but there's more to accomplish!

Mark put in new lighting. This is a view of where the vanity/sink will be. Note the awesome texture thanks to the Randols.

The tub. The sun was shining really bright in there while I was taking pics so I tried to avoid getting direct sunlight into the camera.

View of the bathroom door.

Again the vanity/sink area.

The toilet spot is missing since taking a picture of that area would have resulted in blinding sunlight. But when we get the flooring in I'll take more.

We are hoping to do the floor this weekend and once that's done we can crank a lot of stuff out. We can put in the toilet and the vanity and finish the trim. It will be a usable bathroom, hopefully, by next weekend. Whoohoo! We'll have to get the tub surround in as well but I can live without that for a bit if we can use the toilet and sink.

It's coming along and I can see the finish line. Which is probably why I wish I could put the floor in today....we will wait. But the end is in sight!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Silly Saturday

I have to start off by saying that Mark is fine. I thought his back was tweaked, and it may have been, but I think it was more of a muscle spasm. He took some Tylenol, rested and felt much better. He shoveled a bit last night even. So we are all good here at the Palmer house.

Yesterday our good friends, the Randols, braved the weather and the roads in their mammoth Suburban and came and helped us shovel our monster driveway and texture our bathroom walls. It was so awesome seeing other humans and having a blast with friends.

Ryan, Sommer and I shoveled while Mark watched kids - and rested his back. We were robots!

After lunch we started on the bathroom while the big kids played and played in the snow. They built forts for 3 hours! It was so great to have other kids to play with. And it was so great to have people help us texture the bathroom. We cranked it out pretty quick. Now we're able to paint, put up the trim, switch out the lights and get the floor going. We are well on our way to completion! Whoohoo!

Here are some updated bathroom pictures.

Our drywall project.

This is where the sink and vanity will go.

Sommer and I texturing the walls.

Ryan. He likes to make messes. :)

Ryan and Sommer stayed and played a while. It was great fun to laugh and talk.

This morning we were expecting to see more snow but thankfully....it wasn't snowing!! So instead we took pictures of the craziness. It looks a lot like it did a couple years ago. Tunnels of snow.

The chute that is called our road. A very narrow way with high walls of snow. It has not been plowed by a big plow in a couple days. This trail is thanks to neighbors with trucks and plows.

Our house. Buried.

These fence posts are roughly 3 feet high.

I posted a picture yesterday of this same view. This time the driveway is visible thanks to the Randols.

The narrow trail to our front door.

Then Mark and I decided to have a little fun with the snow. He climbed out in the middle to show how deep it is.

Too tempting. Must jump.

Too much fun. Must jump again.

So we're enjoying the snow now. I don't mind the snow if we can get places and if we don't have to shovel it. Today was the perfect day for that :)

Friday, January 22, 2010

Storm Stories

Have you ever watched Storm Stories on the Weather Channel? Well I feel like I'm living in one...

It started Monday night. The first storm I mean. When we woke up Tuesday morning there was 6" on the ground. We shoveled and shoveled. Mark was able to get out of the driveway but got stuck on our road. The plow didn't come by until after noon. Mark stayed home and worked. But then the sun came out and the roads were drivable.

Until Wednesday...We woke up Wednesday morning with another 3 inches. Ok. No biggie. We shoveled that, got Mark on the road and everything was fine. It snowed off and on all day but it was doable/survivable.

Until Thursday...We woke up Thursday morning with another 3" or so. Mark was also fine getting to work on Thursday but getting home was another story. From the time I shoveled in the morning till about 3 that afternoon we got another 6" or so. Mark made it home about 3 but he was frazzled when he walked in the door. He had passed a jack-knifed semi on Farmington Hill, driven with a bunch of crazy people trying to make it home, and plowed through our unplowed street in his little Honda civic (with no clearance). He was done. But the snow was not. It just kept snowing and snowing and snowing.

We woke up this morning with another 6" or so. Hard to say exactly how much we've gotten total. I'm just guessing here (I know my math doesn't quite add up). But our fence posts, that are about 3 feet high, are almost completely covered. That's a lot of stinkin' snow. And it's still snowing!

Mark shoveled off part of the roof last night so that our furnace vent wouldn't be covered and we wouldn't wake up to a 55 degree house. It was great except that we woke up to a 55 degree house. After some troubleshooting we figured that the batteries on our programmable thermostat were dying. Of course they were. I mean why wouldn't they with 3 feet on the ground and really no way to get to a store anytime soon?! Thankfully we were able to steal some batteries from a remote control with enough juice to get us through until we can go to the store. How crazy is that though?

Mark's crashed on the couch now. He tweaked his back shoveling off the deck. I'm praying it's not a serious or longtime injury. I definitely know I can't keep up on the shoveling by myself. Poor guy. I hope the meds work!

This is our backyard. You can barely see our fence posts.

View from our back door to the garage.

Yes Kale is under there. He'd been throwing snowballs at Mark the whole time he was shoveling. Mark got him back.

Her favorite thing to do out in the snow is eat it.

Kale, on the other hand, says "bring it on! I love snow!"

And now Mark is rescuing Kale from his snow prison...
(by the way, I'm inside peeking out with the camera. Someone had to watch Jack...)

Our driveway in in there somewhere. Not plowed or shoveled quite yet. That's coming.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

CV Part 6

This is my last CV post. I just crammed them all in today so I - and you - could move on to the happenings right now. Like over 2 feet of snow that is being dumped on us as I type...

Back to Christmas.

We got to go to a bouncy house place in Longmont with Mark's parents and Chad and Alisha. We've never been. It was actually really cool. They had 5 huge bounce houses, including one for 3 and under (so thankful for that one for Jack). The kids had a blast and the adults were quite entertained watching and many times participating.

The place was empty when we first got there but by the time we left there were tons of little ones running around. It's like an indoor playground. Parents standing around watching and making sure their little ones behave. Several brought their laptops and sat on the couches and worked. It was comical.

Jack visited this slide many, many times.

Kale got bored going down the big slide the traditional way. Head first is so much more exciting.

I love these next 2 pictures. Mark and Chad were so funny going down with Jack. The climb up was hard but down was fun!

This picture was taken moments before grandpa bounced off the side and collapsed the house. He wasn't hurt but we sure laughed hard. He was such a good sport to go in the jump house with the kids. It was really fun. Luckily our family was the only one in there so we didn't scare any other little kids.

Grandma and Kate

A lot of the pictures were blurry. Action shots and we haven't figured out how to make those look good. So I didn't get many of Alisha and I. But Alisha was awesome and took Kate into almost every single bounce house. They were having a blast.

After bouncing for an hour or so (that's all we could take!) we headed out to lunch then home. Really a fun and different day.

Thanks Alisha and Chad for the great idea! It was so fun!

CV part 5

Christmas at the Palmer's! These pictures were taken the night Kale gave his heart to Jesus. Mark's brother, Chad, and his wife, Alisha, were there. Mark's sister, Julie, and her husband, Mike, and Mark's parents. We did our stockings then moved upstairs for the present frenzy. Jack was asleep during all of it so he got his own special time to open his gifts.

Alisha

Uncle Mike the trash bag ;)

Mark modeling the fun hats that the men got in their stockings.

The kids had no shortage of presents. Holy cow!

His first G.I. Joe's!

Her first bathrobe. She hates to tie it shut though. It makes it too tight. This is probably the only time she's let us tie it. So it's more a flowing gown type thing.