Before and Afters

Outside from the driveway BEFORE:

Outside from the driveway AFTER:

Close up outside by garage BEFORE:

Close up outside by garage AFTER

Inside the new garage BEFORE (the workers are installing the super awesome 10-12 person storm shelter):

Inside the new garage AFTER: 

Mudroom/Laundry Room BEFORE:

Mudroom/Laundry AFTER:

1/2 Bath BEFORE:

1/2 Bath AFTER:

 Storage room BEFORE:

Storage room AFTER:

Garage turned into Play/Storage/Mud/Laundry Rooms BEFORE: 

 

View of garage turned playroom from kitchen BEFORE:

View of garage turned playroom from kitchen AFTER:

Turning around we have the kitchen. I don't have a before picture, but we didn't change anything in the kitchen anyways yet, so it doesn't matter. :) 

Standing in the same spot, but turning the other way we have the old yellow room BEFORE:



The old yellow room AFTER:

View of the joining living room BEFORE:



View of the living room AFTER:

On the other side of the wall with the map we have the formal dining room - used as a craft room:



Again we have no BEFORE pictures because we haven't changed anything about this room yet. One day, it hopefully will be part of a nice big kitchen.

Spinning 180 from the last spot of the dining/craft room we have the entry way bath and front door. We haven't changed anything yet here but hopefully one day it will be raised a few steps and the door will be slightly moved to where the window is now and we'll have a little covered front porch.

Entry 1/2 bath.


Up the funny steep, narrow hardwood stairs off of the living room, we have a loft that we'll use for a library. No changes here.

Then below the library, off  a little doorway and down a few steps we have the master area. No renovation plans here:

Masterbath: we will hopefully update sometime, but for now the space, one sink, two closets, toilet room, shower and big tub are super comfortable!

Back across the living room we have an almost full length staircase going up to a landing area and the kids bedrooms. We had to lower the vaulted ceiling in the landing area to accommodate the new HVAC system to heat/cool the entire upstairs including the new bedrooms. We replaced the carpet and lowered some closet doors in the hallway that used to hang up in the air about 2 feet. 

Landing Area BEFORE:

Landing Area AFTER:

another view of the landing area AFTER.

We moved the corner closet from the first small bedroom to the other side of the room and joined it with one of the floating hallway closets in order to open up the bedroom so it could fit a bed bigger than a twin if we ever needed. 

First Small Bedroom BEFORE:

First Small Bedroom AFTER:

The large bedroom in the existing upstairs we didn't change at all. Hopefully soon we'll be able to replace the carpet to match the rest of the upstairs. This was the room all the children shared during the renovation. 

Large Existing Bedroom BEFORE:

Large Existing Bedroom AFTER:

View from the other side of the room:

The existing bathroom for all the kids bedrooms to share was one of the reasons for the whole addition. It didn't have a tub and is pretty tiny. Hopefully someday we'll update it but its not too bad right now:  

In order to connect the new bedrooms and bathroom that were built over the new garage with the rest of the existing upstairs we lost one of the small bedrooms and turned it into "the lounge" / a common room.

Pink Small Bedroom BEFORE:

Pink Small Bedroom turned into the Lounge AFTER:

View of the lounge from the other corner looking down the hallway to the new bedrooms. Eventually we want to do some built-in benches and bookcases:

The first door on the left is the new bathroom:

Then on the right is the brick room:

Then at the end is the big room:

Chris goes to Nashville for a CT scan

Chris had a checkup and CT scan out in Nashville. I really like being there with him whenever we get back scan results in case its bad, but its just such a headache trying to figure out what to do with the kids and the money for getting a hotel for the night isn't something we wanted to do and all signs with regards to Chris' health seemed to be normal and healthy so we risked it and sent Chris by himself. He decided to just fold down the back seats in the van (since our little accord doesn't do long drives anymore) and bring a memory foam topper and some pillows to sleep on in the car. He left around 4:00pm on a Sunday night and drove straight to the Vanderbilt hospital parking garage to the top story. Walked in to the hospital to use the bathroom and then slept in the car. He had to be ready for his scan around 6:00am.  That meant the kids and I riding in the little car dropping off and picking up for school. Chris and I would text each other pictures:

Eating at Au Bon Pain was one of my Happy things during Chris' stem cell transplant 2 years ago. Chris couldn't eat much of it then, but he's enjoying it now on all his trips back. They've totally remodeled the entrance so you can access it from inside the hospital - nice!

Oh, I guess I should give an update on Chris' scan.  The doctor met with him after but hadn't yet had a chance to get the results back and so he said, "everything is probably good." Hahaha. We know too well that "probably" doesn't cut it, but we decided to roll with the meaning and react like it was a clean scan. Chris kept checking his online MyVanderbilt account multiple times a day until we saw the actual scan results posted a few days later which were indeed 'good'. Still some build up of some kind in his neck but nothing is growing. Next scan isn't until February! Yay for 6 more months of worry-free health. 

Trek family reunion and other stuff

We had a fun stake-wide Church youth activity... a survivor themed Standard's Night on Saturday. I came up with the idea and the other members of the Stake Young Women's presidency just embraced it and brought lots of really fun ideas to the table. We had a lot of fun and I think the youth did too. At the end of the night we had planned to watch a slideshow of the pictures from TREK and having a mini reunion for all the families. This meant that Chris needed to be there too which meant, we were bringing our whole crew. Chris took car of them in a side classroom while I ran around like crazy during the activity then he came out for the Trek reunion part and we reunited with 4 of our 7 Trek kids. It was really fun to see them all together again and hang out and reminiscence and introduce them to their younger siblings. We missed Kobe, Brody, and Tyson!

One day we found out about this local (Sturgis) bikers rally that was coming through town 45 min after school. So we parked near the main highway and watched a movie while we waited. The bikers came through and it was fun to see them (even if it sort of made me dizzy!) Not sure we'll do it again next year, but it was fun to see once. 

Cute Frederick moment 'reading' on the beanbag. He cuddles up with a blanket and pillow and babbles out loud as he turns pages.

Grandma Dixie's birthday presents for Gwen came! So fun to see her in the ballet clothes. 

While my friend Christy was here she helped me get the built-ins above the washer and dryer primed and chalked and Charlie helped me paint it. It looks really nice! I'm so glad we did this.

All the kids love to play with Freddy when they get home from school and Freddy seems to be a more willing playmate, now that he has more alone time in the mornings. Him and Charlie kept these hooded sweatshirts on outside for a long time... in 100 degree heat! 

First day of school

School starts early here in the South. We had dangerous heat indexes for the first couple of days. Supposed to feel like 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit! Know what that means? It means no recess. Poor kids. But still they are all so excited to go. Especially Gwen. She mentioned a few times that she was nervous but she never complained or cried or anything. She was all smiles from the minute she woke up...at least I assume so since they all woke up and were dressed before Chris and I.  We were grateful to be given a bunch of extremely well kept handmedown school uniforms for Gwen from a friend who moved out of state. At first she complained that all the polo shirts and kahki and black shorts/pants were "boy clothes" and cried when she saw them. But after showing her there was also some skirts and trying to point out details like polkadot ribbon on the inside trim of the collars she stopped complaining. She even wanted to try them all on the day before school started. Haha... I don't know where she learned it but she would strut and pose a bit in each outfit. Gosh, she's growing up. 

Alec goes to 3rd grade, Charlie enters 1st grade and Gwendolyn starts Kindergarten! 

Freddy looks confused in all this pictures because we had to wake him up. Our morning routine is going pretty smoothly. Chris and I have an alarm that rings at 5:20. At 6:05 we get out of bed and one of us wakes up the kids while the other starts breakfast (we're trying to only have cold cereal 2 times a week) usually mush, oatmeal, eggs and toast, or apple toast, sometimes pancakes or German pancakes. Then at 6:30 we all sit down and eat breakfast together while Chris reads the scriptures out loud.  Sometimes I'll go around with a spray bottle and a brush and do the boys hair while they eat. Lunches, snacks and backpacks are all packed the night before. Then 6:55 potty time, teeth brushed (which actually rarely happens) and family prayers so that Chris and the kids can load into his little car and drive away at 7:00am. 

But the first couple of days, we all go in the van so I can walk any of the kids to their classrooms that want me to. Car pool drop off is CRAZY this first week and we wait for a while and barely get Alec to class ontime, but know that Charlie and Gwen will be late since they're at a different school. For Alec, its his first year at the 3-5th grade school: Henderson Ward Stewart. Drop off was so backed up that I had time to take a picture of Alec infront of his school, walk him to his class, take another picture and walk back out to the car before Chris is even close to leaving the parking lot! I hopped right in. On to Sudduth Elementary

At Sudduth they don't let parents get out of the car in the carpool drop off spot, so we planned to park and all go in, but parking and traffic is so backed up and the kids are already late so Chris dropped us off near the front office and waited in the car with Frederick.  I wondered if Gwen is going to go all shy and clingy and not want me to leave the classroom like she did last year at preschool so we walked Charlie to his classroom first. He was so excited to have his good friend Dash in his class again. He practically ignored me as soon as he walked in his room. He has Ms. Black (1st year teaching) and Ms. Brown as teachers.  Gwen has We walked alllll the way across the school to the Kindergarten hallways (theres over 1000 children at this school with only K-2 grades) Gwen really IS growing up! She did so great and walked right in (albeit at a turtles pace) and found her hook to hang up her backpack, let me take a picture with her teacher. Ms. Walls and then she just stood by the door and smiled for a while. I got a "I love you" out of her before leaving and I stayed just out of sight for a bit wanting to watch her longer. Good thing I still have Frederick waiting for me back in the car to fill my craving for chubby little arms wrapped around my neck. 

I blissfully imagined subdued mornings getting the house clean, while Frederick plays with toys, at least brainstorming dinners if not slightly prepping them, having a tidy little lunch with Freddy and often Chris, then quiet afternoons of preparing church lessons, sewing, organizing while Frederick sleeps. HA! Turns out Freddy isn't so self entertaining as I thought he was. He must really only love playing by himself when it means he's older siblings aren't trying to clobber him or make him do stuff. He must really really be used to chaos because he practically cries at my feet all day long, if I'm not holding him or playing with him. When I do sit down near him while he plays with cars, trying to sort mail or *tons* of school papers, he'll bring his car ramp so it's half on my legs and then position himself with his little bum up and neck turned looking back at me, trying to sit as close as possible to my face. If I'm laying down, his favorite place to sit is on my neck. If I get up to walk across the house to grab my shoes, or go to the bathroom, he'll start crying, run after me, grab some piece of my clothes or my finger if he's lucky and hold on with a vice grip... probably 'cuz he knows from experience I can quickly unlatch myself and try and reach or put away this or that.  And who was I kidding? A tidy little lunch?? Freddy is still the champion messy eater no matter what it is we're having for lunch. Although all my dreams are realized during nap time. With lunch at 11:30ish, and naps until we leave to pick up the kids at 2:15 its a calm, quiet house for at least 2 hours. Big slow breath in and out, now smile. 

At 2:15 I get Frederick up and load him and snacks and books in the car in an attempt to entertain him for the next hour and a half. We picked up Alec first the first little bit of school. I wait in his carpool pick up line from 2:30-3:10ish then once he's in the car, we head over to Sudduth and wait in their carpool line for 20 minutes and then get home around 3:45. WHEW. Now the battle for patience and cool calm parenting begins and goes strong until the last kid is tucked in around 8:00pm. But thats for another time.