a land down under

As if we didn't have enough going on with work and the end of the school year fast approaching...we decided that this would be the perfect time to finally finish the basement. We've been talking about this since we moved in almost five years ago...and now it's finally happening.

Like, super duper fast.

I came home from work yesterday expecting to see a pile of lumber in my driveway. But there was also a bulldozer (backhoe? I have girls, I don't know the difference) in my yard. And a big hole by my house where the egress window will be installed.

 

The girls were fascinated by this. And the bulldozer/backhoe trailer. And the lumber pile.

 

But the fun ante was totally upped today when the inside stuff begins. By tonight we should have the aforementioned window installed, and the basement rooms framed out. The girls were delighted to watch the hubbub this morning.

 

So, I'll keep you posted as things progress. Hopefully, by the beginning of July, we'll have pictures of the finished project!

the cat came back (just not the next day)

So, it was a crazy busy weekend in the Slacker house. John left on Thursday night to go to Knoxville for the Tennessee v. Florida game. E and I had dentist appointments on Friday morning. The cleaning ladies let Frank out of the house on Friday as well, causing him to be lost and me to be nominated as The World's Worst Catsitter. I spent a good portion of the day taking walks around my neighborhood and posting lost cat signs without much success.

On Saturday, our living room furniture was (finally) delivered and I went to a wedding in Richmond which was tons of fun. There's a veritable baby boom among my friends at the wedding...two other ladies are pregnant (one with TWINS!) and due right around the same time as Kiki. (For those of you not in the know, my sis and I both went to UVA and were in the same sorority, so Kiki is friends with this crowd but couldn't make the wedding because my parents are visiting. It sound like we are losers who do everything together, I know...but we really are relatively normal.)

On Sunday, I got back from the wedding and spent the rest of the day hanging out with the girls. E and I spent A's nap time making pizza dough and playing board games. We also went for a walk looking for Frank and playing outside in the gorgeous weather. I got the girls to bed a little later than normal (what can I say? I wasn't feeling 100% on account of the wine wedding). I came downstairs and guess who was peeking in my front window? Frank! He was hungry and tired but no worse for wear. John returned home from Knoxville about 10 and the three of us (me, John and Frank) headed up for a little shut eye.

I'll be spending a good portion of this week recovering from this weekend and gearing up for A's birthday on Thursday! We're not going to party, but there might be an Ice Capades trip if we can get our act together. We also have to figure out the snack we're bringing to class on Thursday and buy her presents.

'Cause that's how we roll in the Slacker house.

housekeeping

For some reason or another, John and I are on this really big home improvement kick. It's like were both nesting...and yet neither of us are pregnant (thank the stars above!). It's weird. We've lived in our house for three years now, and while there was a flurry of activity when we first moved in and then we painted the house last year, we really haven't done much else. So it's kind of nice to finish up some stuff.

So far we've powerwashed the house, cleaned the gutters (and fixed one that had fallen off) and this week we are painting the Master Bath, the sitting room in our Master (where the elliptical trainer lives), the girls' bathroom and our office. We're also replacing the faucets in all of our bathrooms because somehow E has managed to break them all. (I think it's more a sign of how cheap the previous owners are than our daughter's super-human strength but you know what I mean.)

And by "we" I mean the contractor we hired. Because, John and I combined are the two least handy people in the world. Really. I try to do things around the house which always end up necessitating several trips to Lowe's, a few phone calls to my dad for moral support, and enough curse words to make a sailor blush. John, on the other hand, doesn't even try. When I asked him to help me hang a shelf in A's room, he actually told me that he didn't know how to use a drill. Seriously. So, it's safe to say that for the sake of our marriage (and our own personal safety) that we leave any work that involves ladders or plumbing to the professionals.

In other exciting news, we're finally getting furniture for our "formal" living room. Currently, the room is furnished with couches John and I bought when we first moved in together as well as The TV (aka, The Bain of my Existence...another post altogether). We'll be removing all of it, and getting all new furniture.

Here's the floorplan I drew up using Visio...we're getting a sectional and a chair, and then a side table, coffee table and a small console table upon which we'll put a small TV. The room is hard to work with because it is really narrow, but I'm pretty excited now. Tell me you love it!


Finally, I did a little housekeeping on the blog. I used Blogger's new blog roll feature to update my blog roll. It now shows the last time that one of the blogs I read has updated a post. I added a few more blogs to my list...but I'm pretty sure I forgot a few. If you want me to add you to my blog roll so I can stalk you read your blog...let me know!

head wounds, basketball and more spring cleaning

Overall the weekend was a good one in the Slacker house. On Saturday morning, we went grocery shopping and then the girls played outside while John and I did some lawn work. Saturday afternoon, my parents came over to watch the basketball games. My mom brought meatball subs, which were delicious.

Sunday was our anniversary. In a true testament to the give and take that couples must make in order to be successful, I let John sleep in while I got up with the girls...and John didn't grumble about me drinking 95% of the coffee. We then got dressed and headed into Arlington so that I could go to The Container Store. We walked around a couple other shops and then headed to Faccia Luna for lunch. John and I split a Franco pizza, which is totally symbolic of our relationship (sausage for him and roasted red pepper and red onion for me). On the way back to the car, we ran into a friend of ours, so we stopped by his house to catch up with him and his wife. When we got home, I got to organize my cabninets and coat closet with my new toys from The Container Store)...we then had some dinner, played some more and then headed off to bed.

The only minor glitch in all of this happened on Saturday. E and A were playing on the couch...and E managed to fall off the couch and hit her head on the coffee table, resulting in yet another trip to the Urgent Care to get a forehead glued together. The good news is that she was a total trooper about it all...but I still feel somehow deficient in that both my children have required Dermabond in the last few weeks.

And, A? After a rough night on Friday night sleep-wise, she seems to have made a total recovery from this latest ear infection. Saturday and Sunday she went to bed without so much as a peep and didn't wake up until the morning. So yay!

Hope everyone had good weekends!