Finally some pics!

I know, I know..I've been avoiding putting up any piccies lately and writing more about the drama in the household versus the good stuff.

Well that's changing today!

Here comes the first of some piccies that I have been hanging to put up. Yes, it's the pics of the house in South Carolina.

Now to set the mood I am going to give a little background.

The house has been owned by the same people who built it - The Rudy's {yes, what a coincidence!} - and was built about 45 years ago by a master builder to Mrs Rudy's specific design. This design was based upon a historic house originally built by {I want to say} George Wythe. It is on 2.6 acres and needs a big step forward into the 21st century. As stewards of this house in this century we are tasked with this important task and it is one that both Storm and I are looking forward to. You'll understand when you see the pics.

So here is the front. Unfortunately, I could not find a view from the street as you would get a better idea of the house. I think that it needs a portico or something but I'm not sure that we'll use the front door a lot once we move in.

 Here is a close up for the front door. There is beautiful woodwork around the whole door but we're currently debating the colour of the trim of the house. I didn't like mission brown when it was hip back in the 90's and I most definitely don't like it now. We're tossing up between brick red or an olive green. We'll see...

 Here is the view looking back towards the garage side of the house. Look at the beautiful magnolia tree on the right. It's going to be lovely in bloom.

 This is the fireplace in the formal loungeroom. It's the beginning of our workload. Good bones though. The fireplace has been converted to gas which is nice but I would have loved to have had one of the fireplaces being a wood one. Oh well.

 This is the formal dining room. Both corners have built in shelves which are actually quite deep. Great space for my formal platters etc.

 The view from the formal dining room into the kitchen. Love the double oven.

 Another view of the kitchen. Hate the hardware and the cupboard colours. Storm likes it so we'll see who wins this battle!

 This top portion of the cupboard is most definitely on our "first thing to go" list!

 And this wall too! This will open up the kitchen and the family room.

 And here is the family room!

 This fireplace is huge! It's like 8 of my feet across and I love, love, love it. The wood, the brick - just needs a good clean.

 My laundry/mud room. This multi-purpose room leads {from the left} from the front of the house and {the door leading away from the shot} to the bottom full bathroom and to {the right} the family room and {behind} to the garage.

 And this is a shot of the hardware on all of the doors. All hand hammered and made specifically for the home. Yes, not my type but it's hard to argue with that kind of attention to detail. Also it's going to cost a bucketload replacing every door in the house with new hardware! I mean every door!

 My new craft room! Lots of shelves and there's also two wardrobes that can store all of my crafty stuff so that little hands don't find it. It's also going to double as a toy room of some nature. We'll see. It so needs a complete update and redo doesn't it? And the lighting - well it may be practical but it's so ugly!

 The view to the right of my craft room where you will find an understair storage room {on the left and huge!}, a coat closet {on the right and gigantic!} and the front door {straight ahead!}.

 The view from the front door up the stairs! Cannot wait to paint the risers and update it.

 The view from the spare bedroom to the front yard and the road. The house across the road was also recently sold and we checked it out online and it seemed lovely and had a wonderful, large pond also on the property. It was a little bit more than this house but I was worried about the pond - for the kids and also the dogs. We'd never get them out of the water! What I love a lot about this street is that it's like a P. When I say that I mean that it's not a cul-de-sac but a road that comes back around on itself so no through traffic, only residents, visitors and looky-lu's. Oh and by the way, it was winter (32'F, 0'C)when we took the piccie so the grass is in dormant, winter mode. It will be greener come spring/summer.

 The kids bathroom. Double sinks with a separate room for the bath and shower. From here there is also a door leading out to a separate storage area...

 Yes, this is the storage area. Huge! The door leading to the bathroom is in the background, past the hot water heater next to the light. Yay, so no more storage units for my christmas decorations!

 The view from the girl's bathroom - the door jam on the left is the spare bedroom, the stairs are also on the left, the two bedrooms that the girls will eventually have are on the right separated by a linen cupboard. The door straight ahead is the master bedroom. Don't you just love the lighting? Gotta go!

 One of the two bedrooms that we consider to the girl's. Both are identical with three windows and a whole wall dedicated to wardrobe.

 The view from the bedroom. We're not sure but the land goes way back past the clearing and more to the left. So much clearing to do. Mind you that's where the creeks are so we'll see.

 The master bedroom and the view from the door. Wardrobes are to the right - the whole wall - and the ensuite is to the left.

 The wardrobes - his and hers. The one on the left has extra storage through another hole in the wall access via a panel. Very cool.

 Ahhhhhh....the ensuite/master bath. This is going to be a major renovation for us as we're thinking about taking out the wall behind the shower {to the left of the loo} is another storage cupboard accessed from the main hall. We're tossing up moving the shower back there and making a stand alone shower/bathtub or alternatively removing the door jam {which actually leads to the sink and then via another door to the left of the camera to the bedroom} Confused? Anyway, the green has got to go!

 Back downstairs. This is the sunroom that runs along the back of the house. The door on the left leads to the kitchen and breakfast nook, and the window frame you can see on the left is the one that is above the sink. All of the sliding doors open and have screens on them so it'll be interesting to see how cool it will make that area. It certainly wasn't warm on the day we visited but it's good to note that the area has it's own heating system so we'll see how that goes on a cold winters day....

Oh and the mission brown again - ah...the bane of my existence! Gotta go.

 The view from the end of the sunroom back towards to the door.

 Just outside the sunroom is the back porch with BBQ area. It's great that there's a gas hook-up there too so no propane tanks! That's the cottage at the back. That's going to be our office so it'll be nice to be separate and not to be woken up to phone calls at all hours of the day

 The view from the back.

The time has gotten away from me so I'll have to post more about the outside, the office and views of the block another time.

You can see that the house needs a fair amount of work to bring it into the 21st century and Storm and I cannot wait to get our hands into it.

Da-daaaaauuuummmmm....

As if it wasn't enough that today has been spent cleaning very sore bottoms from a plethora of poo (yes, the antibiotics that the kids are taking for their pneumonia is taking its toll!) a whole bunch of times - it seems that mummy's throat is now sore and I'm starting to wheeze.

I wish I could sleep (as I think that not sleeping well is running me down) but it seems that sleep doesn't want to come to me until well after 3am at the moment. The kids were responsible for a lot of it (I mean if it wasn't one kid it was the other - I swear they organize who is going to wake up during the night before they go to bed and alternate so that each one gets a good night's sleep but daddy and mummy don't!) but now I'm in a pattern and trying to get back is a nightmare (pardon the pun!)

Anyway, back to the cough medicine and vitamin C drinks and hopefully some sleep!

So very tired....

So, against my better judgement, last weekend we went to the Oysterfest in Rockport (about 1/2 hour away).  The reason it was against my better judgement was because we have SOOOOO much to do to get ready for the move and at that time we needed to get deadline over and done with.

But to the hell with it we both said! And it appears that we're paying for it big time!

The Oysterfest was held in the bayfront park with minimal parking (but they were expecting 30,000 people over the three days mind you!) and boy it was laid out awkwardly. We've been to a couple of festivals since we've been down here - one with the tents configured too far apart (Rockport Art Festival) and then there was Shrimporee. It was laid out well but the food choices were poor and minimal.

Oysterfest was cramped with no seating (apart from what was under the tent) and even though there were fantastic tents providing wonderful shade, the guy ropes were in everyone's way due to the two main tent's proximity to eachother. For a festival that was expecting the amount of peeps they were expecting they needed to create some more public space for the loitering people to (obviously) loiter in.

Oh and because I really need to vent about it here is my last rant about it. They (the organizers) came up with this splendid idea that all the vendors who were selling food couldn't sell anything that the other vendors were selling so despite the fact that there were 15-20 various vendors, the main oyster vendor and three separate tents selling beer, there was only one place selling water and soft drinks. Their sign was minimal and none of the other vendors were happy to advise us (the non-drinkers) of the location of this small vendor - of course that's if they even knew it existed in the first place!

Anyway, I digress.

The real ticker of the whole day was the fact that it was sunny but windy. As a result the dust and dried up grass was a'floatin' all around and ended up irritating Kendall so much that by nightfall she was coughing up a fit!

Sydney ended up coming down with a cough on Monday. Yay! What fun just when they were cough free for a week and a half - what did I expect huh?

So after a couple of nights of sporadic coughing and sneezing (but no fever - important to note!) with Kendall, Sydney really got hit hard on Wednesday night. I mean she was exhausted as she didn't stop coughing every 10 or so seconds the entire night. How do I know this? I spent the entire night listening to her struggle with it, trying to figure out what I should do. Humidifier, medicine? Nothing worked so in the morning we went to the Dr's.

Luckily we saw the Dr this time and not the PA. I love the PA though and think she is really good but Dr Almouie gives me a bit more confidence. He took about 3 seconds listening to Syd's lungs through the stethoscope and told me it was pneumonia. He kept listening at other positions on her back and chest and kept a-ha-ing about it. Yep, it was. My heart sank.

Kendall was confirmed as the same but she also has bilateral ear infections. God bless the child as she had not complained of anything considering how bad he said they were! My heart sank further.

The kicker into my already pounded heart was when the Dr told me that it was good that we had gone in on that day otherwise we would have been in the ER come Friday night with Syd.

So, two breathing treatments and two IM antibiotic shots later I left the office carrying both children to the car with orders to return the next day for another IM shot for each child.

How do you tell a child that to make an IM shot much less painful you just need to not flinch after you feel it go in? When I laid them down on the table for their shot on the second day both girls went into hysterics and it only got worse from there.

Anyway, I forgot to mention that on Thursday I came home from the Dr's visit to find Storm in pain and needing to get to bed ASAP before he got worse (he has a certain pattern to his descent into sickness so we know the drill)? So he worked on to get the magazine to print and then went to bed. More yays!

I made soup.

So, to summarize:
Two kids with pneumonia? Check
One sick husband? Check
One puking dog? Oh yes - this happened yesterday...puke all over the dining room and loungeroom!

And one very, very, tired mum. The nights have been rough and we've been sharing our bed too which (until we get a much bigger bed) is always rough because I always end up in a position that puts my neck out. So I'm one very, very, tired mum with a sore neck that needs adjusting. I gotta wait until Monday for that one though.

I take the girls back to the Dr's on Thursday for a follow-up. We will be discussing asthma prevention as Dr Almouie believes that it is asthma that caused all of their issues that we've had since November.

Yes, six colds in five months (now including RSV and Pneumonia!).

Yay. I hope South Carolina doesn't cause the girls to have these kinds of issues. Although the Dr did say that the fact that they were preemie and had immature lungs will only be an issue until they're about five. Fingers crossed. Until then they'll take meds.

So, there it is...my rant and evidence of my descent into the madness that is caused by nights of minimal sleep.

Overheard....

So here's a little something about a conversation overheard tonight.

Location: Hallway outside the girl's room
Time: Way past their bedtime with no chance of sleep even close to happening

So it went a little something like this...

Syd: I go shops at HEB (local grocery store)
Kendall: I go shops Wal-mart (other local variety/grocery store)
Syd: HEB!
Kendall: Wal-mart!
Syd: H-E-B!
Kendall: WAL-MART!
Syd: I GO SHOPS AT H-E-B!
Kendall: NO! GO SHOPS AT WAL-MART!
Syd: H-E...(sentence unfinished)
Kendall: WAL-MART!

And so and so forth for a couple of minutes. Storm and I had to stifle our laughter while the intensity and volume increased and stepped in only when each child decided that jumping added to the joy of the argument and an injury was imminent!

Yes, this is what my children argue talk about!

It is really cute though.

Quick catch-up

Sorry.

Kids have been unwell with colds AGAIN!!!!!!! This is the 5th cold in four months that we've unwittingly welcomed into our household. I'm not happy that's for sure as tissues and cough medicine are becoming far too common on our shopping lists.

The kids are fine during the day - well mostly anyway but it's early evening where things get a little hairy and go either way very quickly. Yes, they've dropped their midday nap but since they've been unwell again they have been known to nod off every now and then if given the opportunity.

It's nighttime that is causing the most trouble. For several nights both girls have coughed their way through the entire night. They are not getting good rest, their throats must be so sore from the constant attempts at coughing away whatever it is that they're trying to expel and it makes for a very, very long night.

Now I don't sleep very well at the best of times but it's darned near impossible when I have one child in distress let alone two. I cannot sleep knowing that they're in discomfort and am pretty close to the end of my tether. However, I must admit that my thighs have been getting great workouts from getting in and out of our bed throughout the night from tending to the kids etc. It's been quite funny trying to explain that no I didn't work out hard, I just got out of bed!

On a brighter note we're getting closer and closer to being prepped for the move. Each weekend we've been knocking out tasks and crossing stuff off our list and that sure does feel nice. Last weekend I painted the hallway (Storm leaves that stuff to me as I like doing it) and this weekend signals the arduous task of kitchen cabinet painting. It's the prep that's gonna kill me on this one though so not really looking forward to it.

We've got boxes all around the house and need to get our butts to the storage shed to organize it and make some space here for some rearranging and more packing.

We're taking the girls to the Sesame Street show that's going on down here for the next couple of days. They don't know it yet and we're not going to tell them until we're in there tomorrow. Kendall has been looking at the ads on TV when they've come on screaming "Elmo, Elmo!" so I've got a good feeling that they'll enjoy it.

Storm's off to Las Vegas again in five weeks. Don't ask me why we planned another move around the biggest conference that our business attends each year. We're just suckers I guess. We've also got two deadlines between now and then so it's heads down and butts up for us!

We've also got Storm's friend from high school coming to San Antonio from Los Angeles for a wedding that we're planning on catching up with. So we're planning a weekend up there catching the zoo and the drive through safari that they've got up there before catching up for lunch with her and her hangover on Sunday. Should be fun as we haven't seen her since I was pregnant with the girls.

Oh, we started the girls in a dance class that is held by a private company at the daycare facility that they attend. They are so, so, so cute running around dancing and following the ladies. They giggle and scream with delight and have the best time. I've watched them by hiding down behind a lounge chair so they wouldn't see me. I didn't want to spoil the fun. Next time I'll get piccies but I think that they'll somewhat resemble a private eye's photos - fuzzy, out of proportion and focus. Oh well you'll get the gist of it I'm sure.

So, it's all go down here. We're busy packing, fighting coughs and planning the next couple of months.

It's going to be so nice to be settled and (fingers crossed!) in one place for a long, long time. We knew that Las Vegas wasn't our ideal location to live and thought (rather hastily I might add) that Portland would be a better fit for us. In some ways it was but in most it hasn't been.

Third time's a charm isn't it?

Yummmmmmm...

Chocolate ice cream anyone?

They enjoyed it. And will again soon-ish... (once I clean up the mess!)

Kitchen fun!

The girls have been wanting to help more and more around the house. Stuff like cleaning, sweeping, feeding the dogs, vacuuming, washing the windows, cooking etc.

Now you need to know that this is a good thing but it also has its drawbacks!

It's good because they're learning new things and learning about helping etc.

Bad because it takes so long for them to do some of these things and sometimes the outcome is messier than it was before.

It's a toss-up I suppose and it all depends upon time and our patience.

Now for their 2nd birthday Henry and Karen bought the girls a learning tower. This great piece of furniture allows the girls to get at counter height so that they can see what we're cooking as well as help in anyway that they can. It's a lot of fun for them and keeps them safe as they watch.

So, keeping their new found sense of eagerness and independence in mind we gave them plastic knives to "assist" in the veggie prep for dinner and other cooking stuff. Yes, they're helping cut the veggies, cheese, salad stuff, anything that is able to be cut with a plastic knife for dinner. 

The benefits of this has been two-fold. Firstly, it's the independence skill thing and secondly, they're eating the veggies as they cut them which has been fantastic (even raw zucchini!) and other stuff they help prepare

Here are some piccies.

First, making OJ with daddy. Yes, our orange tree kicked in massively and we have an excess of oranges (and as a result - OJ!)

Syd is helping first. Look at that determination! Kendall is learning patience and not too happy about it.

Making sure the job is done right...

Pressing it down hard to get the maximum juice out of an already juicy orange! (oh, sidenote: orange is pronounce "on-ag" by the girls - the "g" is like in giraffe not garage)

 Kendall is also as determined.

 Kendall is so focused but Syd found the bowl that they used previously to make the cupcakes with.

 

Hooking in with the wooden spoons. Mmmmm...cupcake batter! Yep, she's taking after her mummy.

 Here they are helping with the salad and veggies.

 Carrots, lettuce - all is fair in salad prep!

 Please note that Kendall has now got the concept of holding the knife the right way - sharp side down!

 Kendall is still a dribbler. She just concentrates so much and forgets to swallow. I'm not what the neoghbours think when they hear us say to her "Swallow Kendall and wipe your chin!"

 I'm looking forward to the new house where the layout of the kitchen will be better for the kids to help out with us both and keep on going with the food prep!