Getting Ready

I haven't been updating lately, but we've been getting ready for Allen's departure. Several parties have happened - one at Texas T-bone, one at our house, one this weekend in Lincoln. I'll put up pics as soon as I can. Monday night, Allen was really tense when I got home. He couldn't find Cael's SS card, and he needs to take it to BCT with him. Where is it? What did we do with it? Lots of praying was going on. Plus, he's worried about getting his official transcript so he can be an E4 when he gets to Ft. LW, instead of an E3. He got everything done, now he just needs the piece of paper to prove it. Bellevue University hasn't been so gracious in that department. We also want to get some hospital bills paid off, and pay off the car. Worry, worry, worry. If you know Allen, he thinks that's his job. Really. Well, Tuesday, God laughed at Allen for all of his worrying. He found out that his recruiter had Cael's SS card. the registrar at CCC got his transcripts sent to Omaha to Bellevue. Allen's recruiter's boss's boss is here all week from Denver. He told Allen not to worry about his transcript. HE'LL take care of it. I would really like to be in on that phone call. AND Allen got his tuition reimbursement check for last semester. TAKE THAT all you worries!! We needed some wins, and, of course, God made them happen. He always does. Why are we surprised when it happens? I don't know. Because we're sinful, and trusting is hard. Cael is sick today with a fever and cough. It sounds like a lot of kids at preschool are sharing the "fever/cough" love. I just don't want Allen to be sick when he leaves. Cael knows that Daddy's leaving, and he's not terribly pleased. We are doing our best to keep good attitudes and be very optimistic. Daddy has to leave because he's not the Daddy he really wants to be. He'll be back. We'll all be together again, and we'll get to do lots of fun stuff and go to lots of cool places. If Cael sees a map, he says he either wants to live in New York or Texas. Both are possibilities. We'll find out toward the end of AIT, so it will be a while. Our house will be put on the market next week sometime. We are praying for a fast sell. The handyman should be done today fixing all the stuff we haven't gotten to in the last year. Sorry this is so long. I guess that's what I get for not updating more, huh?

Sledding

Last week Cael and I went to Ravenna to go sledding with the Keiligs. Mike pulled us behind the 4-wheeler, but Cael didn't like that too well, since he kept getting mouthfuls of snow, then we fell off. I ended up just pulling him on a sled behind me while Mike pulled Ethan and Elly. It was a good workout, and I was pretty sore the next day.

Our Little Chef

Linguini had Remy, we have Cael. Cael has been really into helping us in the kitchen lately, which we are definitely encouraging. Last night I was making my Baked Mushroom Chicken, and since it takes a while to make, the boys helped. Cael and Allen coated the chicken in the wheat flour, then egg/milk, then the panko crumbs while I browned them. Cael was also in charge of taking the stems off of the mushrooms so I could chop them up. Food is so much yummier when you help make it! :)

A day at the museum

Today we went to the Hastings Museum for their monthly "Preschool Playday." Today's was entitled "Blast off!" The kids got to make a 'magic' telescope out of a paper towel tube, streamers, and sticky stars. Pretty darn cool, according to the kiddos. They also made an orbit toy that has a 'sun' in the middle on a stick, and a button planet swinging around it on a string. Look out! You could get hit. We also went in to the planetarium for a short show of some stars and some basic things you could see in the sky. Of course, like the mother-of-the-year I am, I forgot my camera. ooops. Cael's really been into rockets, spaceships, and astronauts lately, so we figured this would be a great day for him. His only gripe was that the planetarium part wasn't long enough. We need to take him back to see a full show there, obviously. All in all, it was a pretty good day. We posted a lot of stuff on Craigslist, as we're trying to continue to downsize as much as we can before we list the house. If it doesn't snow too much tomorrow, there will be someone coming to get Cael's dresser tomorrow. If you've helped us move, you know what an absolute bear it is. Solid oak. We want something lighter and easier to move for each one of us. Guess we'll see what happens.

$350 Kitchen makeover before/after

These are taken the day we moved in. New floor, new paint on the walls, cupboards, and trim, new curtain rods and curtains. You can hardly tell we have 5 different styles of cabinets and 3 different styles of countertops.

Project

The kitchen project is underway! I have the walls painted, and now the cupboards and trim need to get done. The walls are "almond toast," the same color as our livingroom. The cupboards and trim will be "cottonseed." Kind of a light cream color. Doing the cupboards are going to be a pain, but hopefully they'll get done soon, since the kitchen is completely torn apart. After the painting, I need to put down new floor tile. Phew! I'll post pictures when it's done. This is the biggest project we have to get the house ready to put on the market in February. We still have trim to put up in the dining room, hallway, bathroom, and our bedroom. As well as finish our closet, and fix some siding on the back side of the house.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve and Christmas were pretty good for our family this year. We were at church Chistmas Eve for Cael's program. He was a cow, and this is his buddy Ethan, the donkey. Ethan and Cael found one of the kitchen carts and decided to entertain themselves. They would push each other and then spin around. Meemaw Keylon was "taking orders" for supper at the window. We had supper with the Keylons, Gaschos, and Reynolds clans.