Did I mention that I was loving the fresh air? Can you see the mountains in this picture? Neither can I. I used a filter from the cool new photo editing in Picasa so you can see the mountains. So much for blue skys! I feel like I'm going to suffocate. At least we have only had a few bad days this year.

We went through the walk through last Friday. We went through every room in the house and looked at the framing, plumbing, wiring and heating/cooling. Making sure every light, (that still haven't been switched) plug, and vent is in the right place. They start sheet rocking tomorrow. I'm hoping they don't have to wait for the electricians. They do project the completion date to be March 11th. Couldn't be any more excited. Well I could- but then I'd pee my pants. No one wants that.

Saturday Jason and Brett had planned to go over and install insulation into all the interior walls and ceiling between the main and upper floor. Jason has a serious need for all things quiet. I'm pretty excited about it too. I can only imagine what my life would be like today had I not had to bang on my wall to make my sister turn off her TV or alarm clock most every day of my life! Also would like to note that my bedroom was RIGHT UNDERNEATH MY PARENTS ROOM. Enough said there. Definitely could have used some sound drowning something there. HI MOM! Love you!!

I asked my Dad if he would come out and help. I wanted to get out there too because I knew it would be a huge project and they never would have gotten it done by themselves. Dad was my hero and came out to help. And thanks for everyone who watched my kids the whole dang day. I was glad that we got 95% done yesterday before the sun went down and we couldn't see anymore. We worked up a frenzy! Jason, Brett and my Dad went over there this morning to knock out the rest of it. All the insulation was gone but we needed one more bag. Jason went over to Lowes and got 'er done.

Master Bedroom Before: Master Bedroom after. The white stuff was contracted out because they were all outside walls.
Jason insulating in the garage to make it warmer in there! The ceiling in the family room.
The three bedrooms all look the same.

It's rare that we have such beautiful weather in January. We haven't had a month long smog trap which has been so great for depression sufferers out there like me. We might be FREEZING our butts off, but it is still beautiful. These are a few pictures taken today as I was taking my kids back and forth from my sisters house all day. I love it when Brendan says "Mom- the sky is so beautiful! Take a picture!"

Literally I can not wrap my brain around how fast these guys are going. I think that's why I had the epic meltdown the other day. For the record Robin- Jason's nickname for me is "The Enforcer." I get things done. Luckily they have a fine mesh netting over the vent holes to prevent anyone from pooping in them. But, thanks for the concern. Also, we've been keeping all the subs happy with food and beverages. How could they not like us? It's the company we're wrangling with.

Anyhoo... with the meltdown out of the way, I couldn't be more excited and hopeful of things to come. Can anyone say PARTY AT MANDY'S! (I would say Nigbur's, but Jason wants to be a social outcast, so I'll have to party alone. So he says. We'll see. I married a social butterfly- slowly he's turned into the grinch who hates people. At least I'll have a sitter for said parties, right??)

I got to the house today and this is what I saw. Jason had already been there all morning with his brother Brett. They are running conduit throughout the house for future wiring purposes. Jason said that the brick layers were getting all ready to get started as soon as the inspector got there. There are all these bricks and scaffolding ready and waiting to go. Except they have to wait for the inspector to come. He didn't show yesterday so they were betting he'd be there any minute. But then they left. Several hours later the inspector did show up, but they didn't come back today. I'm betting tomorrow there is going to be mortar all over the place. At least when it hardens up we won't have to walk on mud. Tomorrow's the 4-way with the Realtor, Contractor, Jason and Me. I'm still nervous about what's going to happen. They REALLY need to come up with a better term for it. Whatever IT is.

I got a call from my Realtor this morning saying that he talked to the big guys for me. Turns out that the builder is going to miss out on $1400 in rebates from the power company. A rebate that they were not going to pass along to us. So all of this because a million dollar company wants $1400 back in a rebate. I am going to be like those Mexican people that are hired to stand behind a plastic sign that says "SHAME ON ABC BUILDERS! LABOR DISPUTE!"

AND they want to charge me $400 to change them over because the electrical guys have to come out and tear the old ones out and put new ones in. And that the old ones will be forever destroyed because obviously they don't know how to pull out their own equipment. In remodeling this house we had to take a few out because we put them in the wrong spot and had to move them. They will be able to use them again. Just another lame excuse.

In fact when they called the electrician this morning to tell him of a customer who wasn't happy, he said "I know exactly who it is." I always make an impression. HA! Not to mention that Jason bought his crew lunch that day!

The lights weren't to be installed until tomorrow and I have been in contact with the builder for weeks now trying to get them to install the correct ones. Because they went ahead and had them install the wrong ones we are now having to pay. When I told the realtor that I thought that was ridiculous he said that if he went back to the big guys to tell them I wasn't going to pay, they would just leave it the way it was. He offered to pay half of the cost. I took him up on it.

In my good news minute- I have windows! They put in all the windows today and I can hardly stand it. They even open and close! But when I went out there to take pictures my camera told me that I didn't have my SD card in it. Rats! I'll go out there tomorrow and see what else has happened. Friday we have our 4-way walk through. I'll tell you what a 4-way entails on Friday. I still think of something dirty. I have no idea why they call it that. I'll suggest a new name when I find out what it is. They will give us an estimated time of completion then. They are starting to sheet-rocking on Monday. So I'm guessing it'll be sometime around the first of February.

Jason wanted to install a wireless security system into the new house. Brendan thinks this is a better idea. We are totally covered by the Clone Troopers. I am actually going to send this troop over to a certain contractors house by the weeks end if things don't go our way.

Today's debate is about incandescent lighting vs. fluorescent lighting. I prefer the former myself. I am all about the light being instantly on when I flip that switch. None of this 10 minute warm up period. I also hate the humming buzz that you get with the latter. I also believe that if I want to I can have whatever type of lighting I want in my own house. This IS a free country after all, right? At least the last time I checked it was, anyway.

Which leads me to today's discussion.

Let me first start with a little background. The only sweat equity that we are allowed to do, under much convincing and persuasion, is Jason wants to install some sound proofing insulation in between the first and second floors to muffle the sound of the surround sound that we have. We don't want the kids in their bedrooms upstairs to be thumping off their beds while we watch some awesome action thriller with the sound turned up. Now because we are putting insulation in between the floor joists we asked the contractor to be sure that they were going to have IC rated can lights installed so they didn't over heat and burn the house down. That's when I received this message via email... (All between our realtor, the third party, who's an innocent party in this.)

Contractor: "The can lighting will all be a fluorescent bulb type that will only allow a pin type bulb to be installed. And the need for the thermal breaker is eliminated because the cans don’t heat up like the older incandescent bulbs did."

To which my response was "Rewind... I have NO intention of using said crappy fluorescent type bulbs. I HATE THOSE! They take forever to turn on and I fully intend on using incandescent bulbs in all said can lights. He might want to reconsider the use of IC cans. Did that sound too bossy? Sorry. But really- we only use incandescent lights at the Nigbur's."

Then the realtor came back with some B.S. that was most likely fed to him by his higher ups. "I found some things out this morning, let me give you an update. Congress passed an Energy Bill that all incandescent light bulbs are to stop production and sales by 2012. This is why all Home Builders are moving to the Fluorescent Bulbs."

WHAT?? I'm no idiot. I follow politics, and the 'Cap and Trade' bill has certainly not passed any hurdles yet. Far from it. And the 'Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007' certainly does not ban them either.

So I ask my trusty good electrical engineer friend Tim about this and he sends me this link: No ban on incandescent light bulbs. Whew. I knew it.

I relay this info back onto my realtor who sheepishly is now trying to get them to install IC rated cans into OUR house that WE are paying for. I certainly was not told before signing any contracts that I would be forced to use fluorescent bulbs.

I understand that they are more energy efficient. I get that the power company is trying to get me to use less power. I get it. I am all about living green-er and I fully intend on using some of those lights in my house on the lights we hardly turn off. I.E. Brendan's room and the kitchen. And the bathroom. Oh- and the hallways. I am a fully dedicated recycler. We recycle more than we have trash. That's got to count for something, right? I mean, I even recycle my toilet paper rolls! I got an energy efficient washer/dryer. I AM GREEN BABY! But- I want my lights!! Give me light!

My realtor tells me he is working on it and that he is talking to people to try to get them to change the order. I mean- the regular cans WILL support florescent type bulbs... if I want to down the line. I go to look at the house today. Things are still hopping over there. Plumbing, heating, roofing done. They even delivered the brick today.

And they installed the pin based can lights.

I started to bawl. Full on busted into tears. Electricians, plumbers and roofers as witnesses. This is not a sad cry. This is an I AM PISSED cry. And I say to the electrician standing there "I am NOT happy."

So, I ask you- which type of lighting do you prefer? What is your reason for liking such lighting? Would you like it if someone told you what you HAD to have? Please tell me that I'm not crazy. Or wait- just tell me that at least I have a point. I know I'm crazy. They gave me the medicine for that years ago.

All I can say is that they had better get those changed before I do some butt kicking. And I'm going to start with the realtor. Even though he has nothing to do with it.

I loved this old tractor we saw on a vacation a few years back. I found it amongst the lost and lonely so I thought I'd post it. I've also been having a lot of fun with the new photo editing in Picasa. I love it!

I was up until 3:30 am last night going through my old hard drive that crashed several months ago. Restoring pictures and documents, but most importantly- my saved template for my blog. I'm SO glad that it is back to normal. I should update the color scheme, but hey- at least I've got my template back! Not to mention the thousands of pictures that had gone into the abyss. The next step is having to organize all of those pictures into folders because they are just all over the place! Well, good to be back. I feel so much better. Thank you for asking.

I also love that this brother and sister love each other so much. They bring me such great joy. (And more often than not- a lot of anxiety.) I can't wait until Brendan's school starts again. One more week of off track- then back to work! Addison will miss him. I will miss "Mom, I'm so bored!" Oh wait- no I won't!

There was wood flying everywhere! The fastest framers in the world. About 5 guys working on their own little part of the house. Not a word of English was spoken. These dudes were getting it done. The nail gun was going at 100 miles per hour. They would saw sheets of plywood in mid-air. Scraps of 2X4's dropping everywhere. It was like a symphony of construction and we watched so much of it! It was so neat! We would go in the morning and by the afternoon it would look completely different. Jason took them donuts and OJ one morning. Then he took them beer Saturday night when it was getting dark. Beer, people. The first time in his whole life he bought beer. I was am mortified! He said he had no idea what he was doing or which one to get. He just went safe and did some Bud because it was a familiar name. He said they were pretty happy though. That's what we wanted. Happy, wanting to do their best framers. And they did.

About a week after they dug the whole they poured the foundation. That was before Christmas. The wood was delivered on Jan 5th and by the 12th they were done.

Today they had the HVAC people out there and there was a tub in the garage. This house is going to be done next week! Love it!!!

After we were done remodeling Jason forbid me to buy a coat tree to hang up our coats. He said it was ugly and a waste of space. We do have a coat closet right to the left, but as you can see we can never get around to opening that hard to open closet. Instead, it all ends up right here. Jason actually hangs his coats on the back of my bar stools or on the back of this couch. Off the floor, yes... but still cluttery. A much better solution than that ugly coat tree. Much better. And yes, I do mop my floors. In fact, this is just one day after. Stupid snow.

I bought two additional identical bears so that she didn't have to keep this worn out, tattered, twice toilet dipped one. But alas, she must have THIS bear. She knows that the others are imposters and wont have anything to do with them. I've even washed them a few times to get the new smell off and maybe pile them up a bit so they look a little older. Nope- still knows.

She has been so cute with it lately and must have this blanket so it can go "nigh-nigh". And she says it over and over and over and over and over. It finally dawned on me what she was saying the first time she was saying it. Now that I know, she is very glad to have me as a back up babysitter.

Thank you Great-Grandma Putnam for the flannel fabric to use as a blanket instead of the old rag Addy found on the floor in Brendan's room that he was using for his dry erase board. Grandma's question to me- "Is that the best thing you could come up with for her to use?" Hey- she found it on the floor, it was the right size, and it was in Brendan's room. It was a given that she used it. Luckily she wasn't as attached to the blanket as the bear.

It has been a while since I have mentioned that we are moving. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I haven't talked about it for a while because things were in the 'works'. We had to pick out this and decide on that all before they would dig the hole. It felt like an eternity before they started to dig. On the day they were getting started Jason and I drove out there to watch. I was kidding to Jason saying "Hey- maybe they'll let me dig some." He said Yeah right. They probably have a code that would make it illegal. We get to the lot and we see the rig, and we see the guys. Only, they couldn't start because someone forgot to label the sewer line. Minor detail.

You can see the spray paint of the outline of the house where they should be digging. So I asked the guys if I could at least stand by the scooper- which is the technical term- and have Jason take my picture next to it. The guy said "Well, don't you want to dig some dirt? We could just go out in the middle where it wouldn't be near the sewer line and it won't matter."

It didn't take but a split second to say "FOR SURE!"

Meet Brendan. Pro-driver. You get in the car with him and it's "Why are you going this way", "Why is that car going so slow? Can't you go around him?" "Why are you going faster than all the other cars, Mom?" "What does that sign mean?" ALL. THE. TIME. It was really cute in the beginning a few years ago when he started asking questions about how to drive. He would say "Mom, I want you to tell me everything there is to know about how to drive." and I would. I would show him signs, the stripes on the street, the school zones, the traffic lights, the turn signal the brakes and his personal favorite... the cruise control. Or as he likes to call it "Auto Driving." "Mom, are you driving in automatic driving right now?" as we are going 35- or 45 down the road. He is especially aware about the violations like running a red light, or driving too fast. There are several stories I could tell you because he does it every day. He does it to my parents. He did it to my sister in law Hayley on the way home from school. You know exactly what I mean if you have ever had him as a passenger in your car when I say "SHUT UP!!!" but in a kind, motherly, non-verbal abusive kind of way. We don't say shut up in my family. So I take a deep breath and I say, "Brendan, I would really like it if I could do the driving today. Can you sit there and be quiet for me?" So today while out and about he said something and I actually can't remember what he said because something in my brain snapped and that's when I stopped the car and took his picture. He was giving me a sour puss face because he didn't want me to take the picture. So I had to use the word fart face. That's what got this smile out of him. We don't use the word fart in my family either, so you can imagine the lecture I got about using that word afterwards. The picture of the infamous back seat driver. Isn't he cute?? Yeah- until he tells you how to drive. Which is every day. I seriously love this kid. He's getting too smart for his own good.

This potty chair that Grandma Joyce gave me for Christmas is much better strewn all over the floor. That music that plays after you go potty? I can make that sound just by pushing those two buttons on the bottom there. Duh.

Addison has never been in a professional photograph her whole life. I know, I know- second child- blah blah blah. Brendan's old Pre-School Teacher was nice enough to let us come and use her gal that comes in for their pictures. I thought she did such a great job with Brendan's pre-school pictures I wanted to use her again. She at least takes 5 or 6 and chooses the best one. Verses the schools that might as well hire the DMV to come take school photos. These were taken back in October- the day after we sat on Brendan to pull out his second tooth. I told him there was NO WAY that I was going to let him have his picture taken looking like Quasimodo. Not that there's anything wrong with him... So, now that I have given these pictures as Christmas presents I can now debut them to the world. They needed to be a surprise after all.

So when I say that this Gal takes 5-6 pictures, I mean of kids that will sit still and let her take thier picture. Addison didn't want anything to do with her. In fact, this pose that she is doing you will notice to the right ------> she is in the exact same pose. My mom says that she was born with her hand up to her face as if to say "Why, yes, I AM the princess." This was probably the 20th pose. Most of them with her butt in the air trying to get away.

Since we decided to buy a house we thought we would go ahead and rent out the basement so we could pocket that money and put it to better use. So we moved up the washer and dryer which happens to be plumbed into Addison's room. She loves it. It has a whole set of buttons and special tricks that she can do. (I would like to put out a special THANK YOU to LG for putting a 'Child Lock' button on there. This has saved us from being in mid wash to shut down mode in one push of a button.) There is also a secret compartment that she has found several items that will fit in there. To her it is a keepsake place. To the rest of the adult world it is the filter that catches all the junk going through the washer. For all I know it's full of Spaghettio's. At least she's putting it away. It's one of her mittens. Ten points for her!

2011. It seems like science fiction when you see a number that big. I for one never thought this year would come. Only because when we were in elementary school and we would say the date and pledge this year seemed so far away. Surely, I would be dead by then. Or worse- in an old folks home. But, alas, it is here and I am surprisingly young, and it is much less techie than I imagined it to be. Yeah, we have really cool gadgets, but let’s face it- we all thought we would be riding in hover crafts. At least a skateboard like the one Marty McFly rode in ‘Back to the Future part 2’.

In lieu of making resolutions this year I have decided to make a list of things I hope to get around to.

• I hope to not get a speeding ticket this year.
• I hope to find the will power to start working out regularly. I have been working out, but certainly not regularly.
• I hope they won’t put me in a loony bin this year. You just never know, do you?
• I hope to have more patience with my kids. This will hopefully keep me out of said loony bin.
• I hope to keep up on my blog so I don’t have to backtrack like I’m going to have to for this last month. Where did time go?
• I hope to be able to not spend money so frivolously. After we buy the X-box Kinect, of course.
• I hope the move goes smoothly.
• I hope to be able to start quilting again.
• I hope to keep a picture of the day going. I resolved to do that last year, but you can see how that turned out. Or not see, for that matter. :)
• I hope to be more loving and patient towards my family.

I better keep it to a short list. I hate feeling guilty about not making things happen, and who wants to feel bad about New Year’s resolutions gone awry?

Back posts coming soon about our Christmas holiday season.

Thanks to Brendan and Jason for making some yummy triple fudge chocolate cupcakes today while I tried to sleep off a cold. And for cleaning up Addisass afterwards.

Isn't that WHY we have kids? To do the work for us? After this one pass he was too pooped and too cold to do anymore. He needed his hot chocolate while I finished with the snow blower.