The 'Boda Clan

We have officially been living in the house for going on 3 weeks now.  Does that mean we are done, you may ask...?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  We are living smack in the middle of Chaosville with Mayor Mess and Sheriff Shouldn'thavemovedinyet.  OK.  That was dumb.  But it gets the point across, right? 

Only the kitchen downstairs is painted.  There is flooring that needs to be finished.  Trim that isn't done being painted.  Nail holes and joints that need to be caulked.  There is no fireplace mantle or surround and a half-built hearth screaming for someone to hit their head on it and get sent straight to the ER-unconscious.  I have no washer and dryer, 2 pantries with no shelving so I can't use them and no window treatments in our bedroom or the whole downstairs.  The master bathroom sinks leak, the kids' sink isn't hooked up, their shower leaks and their toilet is currently clogged with no-one-on-earth-wants-to-know-what.  All the 30 year old windows are leaking cool, Midwestern Fall air, and after having broken it, I am having one of them repaired for $100 when I could get a completely new one for $150.  (We are good investors!!!)  Tim is currently down in the dining room ripping out the hardwood that was installed the other day because the last 2 boxes were crooked and left gaps so big you could see the underlayment.  But wait, there's more.  Of course I'm not going to tell you anymore lest you all covet this house that I have.  :-)

Here are a few pictures I can leave you with just to give you an idea of what we are doing to ourselves...just remember, it's what you CAN'T see that is the problem.  Oh, and in case you all were wondering, I am so entirely thankful for this house!
 Introducing The Boys UNDER the Sink.  That's for you Veggie Tales fans!
 The counter tops look wonderful!
These guys couldn't get the gas hose to lay right in order to push the stove in all the way.  It was a lot of fun watching them fiddle back and forth...and it was late at night, so they got a touch slap happy.  You could imagine!  Perhaps I will take pictures of the kids' rooms...they are pretty well put together...and then you can get somewhat of an idea of what our house will be like when the mayhem goes away!

I am just now, after almost 3 weeks, taking the time to catch up on what's going on around here.  I am not blogging about the house, although that is definitely word worthy right now.  I am blogging about our first snow.  It happened November 6th.  Yes, it is the 20th and it is totally old "news" but it was a fun day for us and I don't want that to slip through the cracks!
 The trees were beautiful!


The lake was peaceful.
The children were ready.
 Micah didn't care what she had on.  Once they all found out there was snow on the ground, they were out the door, pajamas and all.  They were only on mom's deck, but Micah didn't even take time to put on shoes.
She was outside for over 10 minutes before she decided she wanted sleeves on.  Then she also changed into some shoes...but no socks.
Eden was sure to have plenty of sock...on her hands.  We didn't have any of our winter items out of storage so out came all the socks to keep all the hands toasty.
Titus has an undershirt and zip-up sweatshirt on and is quite content.
No matter how much there is, there is ALWAYS enough snow for a snow angel.
Making snowballs isn't near as easy when you don't have use of your thumbs.
Not too sure what the problem is here, but the picture was funny.  From what I remember, she was getting snow thrown in her face by Titus, who wouldn't let anyone throw snow in his face.
To top the whole morning off, the boys, in true boy fashion, built a fort.  Clearly their imagination far surpasses mine.  All I see is a sad pile of snow. 

We haven't had snow since that morning, though we did get a brief sleet/hail incident one day.  Perhaps that means that we are in for a doozie of a winter.  It's almost December and I still haven't really needed more than a sweatshirt.  Well, no matter what happens, the kids had a wonderful morning playing in the snow!  Thank you God for making kids so enamored by the wonder that is snow!

Today was one of the longest days I have given to the house.  Practically everything on me hurts.  We have carpet coming for the upstairs tomorrow and as usual, I was optimistic on how much work would actually get done in time for this.  While I didn't get all the painting done that I wanted, we are ready for carpet nonetheless.  The only room that needed to have carpet removed was the girls' room and I can't say as I'm sorry to see it go.  When all the carpet and the linoleum was finally out, all I can say is, "Holy pet pee, Batman!"  Someone had a pet who couldn't find the facilities on several occasions.  Yowzers!
I still had one section of ceiling to paint and, at the time, didn't have any scaffold to use, so when I'm in need, I improvise.

Because we are getting carpet in the morning, I have a mandatory day off, and let me tell you, I need one!  I have a hair appointment at Cori's (CJ Warren Salon in Crown Point) and then I need to hit some thrift stores for jeans for the boys.  I hope I get lucky...they are in dire straits for jeans right now!  After the brief intermission of carpet installation, we will get the POD dropped of and unloaded and then sometime next week, I will be starting the whole thing over again...downstairs.  Deep breath and a sigh.

We just got the kids home and tucked into bed...all full of sugar.  Yes, we are indeed responsible parents who give their kids candy before bed.  Well, let me change that.  Tim is the responsible parent in charge of giving the kids some of their newly acquired booty before bed.  I had NOTHING to do with that.

Tonight we had the Fall Festival/Trunk or Treat at church.  In the auditorium there were 6 or so gigantic inflatable things...Pirate Ship, Large slide, Obstacle course, 5yr old and under jump house, older kid jump house and a Train...and in the foyer there was face painting and balloon twisting/shaping and perhaps more, but I didn't look out there much.  It was all a lot of fun, but we were intending to get in, get candy, play and get out.  We did alright.
John Paul and Sarah had a trunk outside where they passed out candy.  "Confucius say, "Too cold for satin!"
I Didn't get what Sarah said about her costume except that it was too cold to put it all on.  It was FREEZING!!!!


I will have to be honest.  With all of the house stuff we have been doing, I didn't take any time for costumes this year, so I am very grateful that we have dress up clothes for all of them.  Sure we pulled repeats, but who cares...they got the candy they wanted and I didn't spend a dime on costumes.  I would like to, one day, do a family costume theme...One guy came in the church tonight as a wizard (or whatever) and had 6 kids all in the Harry Potter school uniform.  It was kind of fun seeing the whole group.  I should think about it now and start looking.
 The lines were quite long, but the kids were patient and fairly calm and I was quite pleased with them.

I was painting ceilings...and this is how beautiful I looked afterwards. 
Do I look as pooped as I feel?  I'm wondering, though...will all the "flat" paint make my skin look and feel younger and healthier? 
This is -obviously- the girls room.  I absolutely love how it turned out and once the green carpet is gone, I believe it is going to be such a cute room.

Carpet is now scheduled for Wednesday and I feel that we can actually have all the upstairs trim finished by then and perhaps even have the master bathroom painted.  Maybe I will even get to the hallway, but I am fairly positive I am going to paint my bedroom and the kids bathroom AFTER the accessories get unpacked from the POD so I can match the colors.  Not ideal, but I'd much rather match than guess.  I am praying for our Wednesday deadline to be met so I can finally start on the downstairs trim.  You all can pray too, please.  I know we are, in essence, bringing this all on ourselves, but we are tired and the kids are tired and I don't know how much longer I can keep my sanity with all that I have to do in a day.  I just want to be mommy and wife and not general contractor/laborer/mommy/wife any more.  Crazy, right?!?

So I am in my...oh...I guess third week of painting trim.  Heaven's to Betsy this is going to kill me yet.  21+ days of staring at "White Dove" paint.  White Dove ceilings.  White Dove baseboards.  White Dove casing.  White Dove crown molding.  White Dove windows.  Blah.  My poor eyes are cross eyed from so much of the same.  Today, even though I am not done "White Dove-ing" I took a break and got me some color!

Elijah's room is the first one to be ready for wall color, so I gladly took a hiatus from painting purgatory to see some "December Eve" on Elijah's walls.  I love it!

 I intended to do both boy rooms in the same color, but tonight Levi informed me that he wants a dark red room, like I used to have.  Hmm.  We will see about that.

I have been concentrating on the upstairs most of the time but dad and Tim have done some work downstairs.
The kitchen is ready to have the granite measured for, and in case you are wondering, there is color on the walls and it is called Vanilla Latte.  How appropriate!   I still haven't touched any of the trim downstairs yet, so once I get the upstairs done and ready for carpet (hopefully by next Monday) I can begin downstairs.  Yay for more White Dove.  Ugh.
Dad has been working many nights here.  This time around we are paying him to be here, otherwise I don't think we would be half as far along as we are.
Tonight he put in more trim and doors...that I have to have to paint.  Will it ever end?  If you all think of it, please pray that we get done and out of mom's  house before Thanksgiving.  We need to get everything cleaned up for company and right now, it looks like a long shot.  Just pray!

So I had this brilliant idea that the trim and doors and such should all be white, and I was right about that, but when it comes to the execution of said brilliance, well, not so much.  I am so entirely sick of white paint that I could scream.  I have painted almost all the ceilings, and that was a breeze, but priming, then painting all the trim 2 times is about all I can take.  I wake up every morning with numb hands, reminding me of the purgatory I must dwell in for yet another day.  When will it end?  I believe I am 1/20 of the way done and I have devoted 3 days myself and even had someone else come in and do some windows.  We have at least 2 more weeks of trim to paint.  BIG sigh.  Many tears.

It wouldn't be so bad during the days, but I still have Micah 5 days a week and Titus 2 days and then 2:30 is my cutoff to go get the kids from school and noonish is lunch and that doesn't leave much time for the daily whitewash.  I am almost tempted to scrap it all...midway through.  For my birthday, since I didn't get anything from anyone, I'd like someone to come in and do that all for me.  Heck, I'd accept that for birthdays and Christmases from here to eternity, if someone was so inclined...wishful thinking?  Yes.  But a girl can wish, can't she?

Since I have been in "White Dove" purgatory, Tim and dad have been doing other things, like tiling the kitchen floor.  Dad is so anxious to get the cabinets in that he'd just as soon tile half the floor, grout where the cabinets won't be and set them...I had to reign that in a tad, but it looks like we will get cabinets started as soon as I paint the upper walls.  The color I chose is called Vanilla Latte.   How apropos!
You can't really see it in the picture but this time the tiles are laid in a brick pattern...so much easier than the usual diamond.  Plus, it's nice for a change.
 Micah thought she was being oh so helpful.


These two kept us all company.  I can't remember if the other kids were upstairs or what, but these two were continually under toe.
Mutt and Jeff...or something like that.  Please pray that this project of paint gets done soon.  Seriously.  We need to get into our own home for the sake of our health, sanity, marriage and parenting!!!

It is 6:30 in the morning and I have been up since 4:30ish after having slept 2 hours since the last time I was up.  Hot Toddy to get me to finally sleep-my eye.  I got insomnia.  Too much information?  Sorry, but I have been sick with this sinus infection/head cold or whatever it is and I will do anything to sleep right now.  Even force some nasty elixir down in hopes for some relief.  In the meantime, here's a bit of what's been going on at the house.  
The drywall has been mudded and is almost ready to be painted.  Now for the grueling task of choosing the colors. 
This is looking at Elijah's room from the hallway.  It really came together when that drywall went up.
I know it looks odd, but this is looking into Levi and Titus' room, right next to Elijah's room.
In Levi and Titus' room looking toward the door gives a better idea of the size of their room.
This is one of the "secret" hideouts that the boys have in their "wing." 
It is at the back of Levi and Titus' closet and will be a lot of fun for them to use!
To the right is the entrance to Elijah's room and to the left here is a nook of sorts.  We thought about putting his bed in there, but there is another "secret" hideout off to the left in that nook and he wouldn't have easy access to it with his bed blocking the doorway, so now we aren't sure what's going where.  We will just have to wait and see. 
This is on the far wall in Elijah's room as you walk in.  It is transformed attic space into the third "secret" hideout for the boys.
It connects the boys' rooms together and I can imagine a lot of fun happening there!