Look the part.

Tired, I'm so tired. I really would just love to lay in the bed all day, for a week! So much is going on now.  Ansley(I) has to decorate a red wagon to be in a "wagon parade" at school. I don't know who thought this would be a good idea and they had better hope I never find out. I had to get on youtube just to find out what this thing is supposed to look like. I found a kid who did one on Texas and it looked like a yard sale threw up on his wagon. He seemed really proud of it though as the video is six minutes long.  She had to pick a state and decorate her wagon with information about the state. Of course, she wanted Georgia but she didn't get it so she got Pennsylvania. Twenty five dollars later here's what we've got so far... ChaChi also has some ridiculous report due. He is in 1st grade and on the bottom of the instructions it says its lessons were adapted for 3rd - 8th graders. This should be so much fun.

Last week was Spring Break and I took the kids and met some of their friends at the Tupelo Buffalo Zoo.

The boa constrictor was cool but it was not nearly as cool as the tranny monkey. I swear, there is a male monkey with a really nice set of B cups. I had total monkey boob envy. This picture doesn't do "him" justice. You'll have to go see for yourself.

That was the only thing we could manage over Spring Break. At the time we thought we had to be out of the rental on April 11th so we spent a couple days looking at storage buildings and apartments. We were able to get in touch with the buyers of the rental and they are going to let us rent it until May 11th. We still won't be finished with the house and figure we'll just stay in hotel until it is finished.

They finished drilling for the geothermal last week and the duct work is in. The electricians started on Wed. and should finish up by Tuesday. The plumbers should also be finished next week but we haven't picked out a fire place yet. We were torn if we should get a fire place or not because with the Geothermal we should never use it.

I ordered the natural timber roofing but when I went to pay for it they informed me that they didn't have enough for my house. I literally called them before I left to pay for the shingles. Wasn't really too surprised and all I could do was laugh. This is the teak it is a nice dark brown but appears black in this pic. I picked it and Ryan said he didn't like it but now that it's up I think he's Ok with it. Not that is matters but if it would have looked bad, I would have heard about it every time we pulled in the driveway. Let's just hope the brick goes well with it.

I've picked my first paint color it is Sherwin Williams, Blue Click. I have always wanted a haint blue porch ceiling. I first saw this done in Charleston, SC and loved it! It's said to protect the house and the occupants from evil. Some say it's for good luck and when I told my painter I wanted a blue ceiling he swears it's an insect repellent. Either way, it's cool.

Between building a house, running kids to school and soccer (we had 6 games this week) I'm pretty much a haggard mess. You know things are bad when your husband says, "Isn't it time for you to get your hair done?" Yes, yes it is! My wardrobe is basically running shorts (thank you elastic waistbands) and free T's I've gotten from 5Ks. I'm so fat that when anyone sees me I'm quite sure they think that I've purchased my T's from the Goodwill.  My shoes are usually covered in mud from doing the clean up around the lot. I guess if I'm going to be living in a hotel soon in my temporary state of homelessness I might as well look the part.

Not a good sign.

We started off the day with a wedding. As I was getting dressed I sang, "Oh woe is me, I'm as fat as I can be." My loving husband says, "Well, at least you have a good attitude about it."  I have gained fifteen, yes fifteen pounds since we sold our house. I have the worst metabolism! I have to watch everything I eat and get in some running in order to not gain weight. I picked out a pair of pants I haven't worn in a while and continued to get dressed. When I got ready to put my shoes on I heard a popping noise. Holy Crap! It was coming from my crotch, I'm so fat I'm splitting the crotch of my pants! I was running late (as usual) so I didn't have the time to change nor did I want to subject myself to wiggling into different pants. I continued to the car and when I sat down I checked my crotch one more time. The first row of stitching was gone, just gone. I went ahead and wore the pants, I had on a sweater and I figured if they split any further I could just wrap that around my waist (I use the term loosely) to hide my embarrassment along with the split. I figured if I dropped something I could just kick it back to the car. There was noway I would be bending down for anything! My pants survived the wedding and it's a good thing because if I would have taken off my sweater you could see that it's hiding the fact that my back is so fat it looks like a can of half opened biscuits. My point in all of this is to say that building a house is fun. It really is, it's just very consuming. So, I'm getting fatter, my hair is falling out and I'm pretty sure I've given myself an ulcer. Also, I forgot all about picture day for ChaChi. Guess what he wore for pictures? If you guessed camo pants paired with a nice Mario Bros T-shirt, you are correct. Ok, so I hate to admit this but it's the second time he's worn that shirt for school pics, maybe I've just always been scattered.

I'm really questioning my judgement on renting a house that is for sale. Honestly, the market is so bad I didn't think there was ever a chance It'd sell. I guess if we would have started building right away we wouldn't be in this mess! We showed the house five times in one week! That in itself will bring a sane person to the edge. I was hoping since it's under contract that at least we wouldn't have to show the damn thing anymore. Wrong. Tuesday a home inspection was scheduled with an inspector and the home buyer. They were supposed to get here at 4:00. We had two soccer games that night so I thought that would give me enough time to get the kids home and dressed for their games and out the door before they got here. Wrong again. I got home at 3:30 and they were already here. It's just weird having someone in "your" house where you keep all your stuff. At this point, messy stuff. Really. Messy. Stuff. Thursday the realtor wanted to come by to check out what the inspector found. Now they have to repair what ever was found and also do a termite letter. To top it all off this is what is in "my" yard.

That is just a subtle reminder of our impending eviction. Thanks.

Don't worry though, we are getting prepared. I think we have enough boxes to make a lovely fort to live in for a while. It also reminds me of my favorite movie, Friday "How you gonna get fired on your day off for stealing boxes. What you gonna do build a clubhouse?" Still makes me laugh!

After the wedding we decided we needed to relax so we took the kids fishing. Ryan really had to make me go because I wanted to finish cleaning up at the lot because I don't want it to get out of hand. I'm so glad he did because we had a great time!

He got skunked. Poor baby.

Back to the house, we have the cornice completed and now we have to get it painted. I went the cabinet place and this is the way I'll probably go:

Our kitchen is in an L shape so the light gray will make the L and the dark brown will be the island. The granite is called Alaskan White.

This is the style we've chosen. The lighter brown in the middle. It is really similar to the gray but the trim is wider. Now this is the fun part!

Framing complete!

Framing is almost complete! Herb keeps saying he'll be gone by lunchtime but he's been saying that since Monday. I guess he is eternally optimistic.

The plumbers started yesterday and the cornice started going up today. 

I called to place the order for brick yesterday and I literally started to sweat placing the order. I am starting to think that I have commitment issues.

We are now looking at shingles to compliment the brick we have it narrowed down to two: 

Natural Timber

Teak







Not to much excitement in this task. I like the teak but this picture just doesn't do it justice. I wish the people at the roofing supply were as helpful as Katie. I called them to get addresses so I could check out some roofing and it went like this. Me, "Hi, can you give me some addresses of homes with these shingles? Them, "What area are you looking in." I tell them and he says just drive around and we probably did it. I say, "Well, how am I supposed to know what color I'm looking at?" Them, "Well, just come by and we have samples here." So not too helpful...

We have pretty much decided to just get the Natural Timber.

Since I began this post, Herb has finished framing. The windows are set and the cornice is being put up. We just have to find someone to paint it and then the roofer can get started.

We found out last week that the house we are renting has a contract on it and are supposed to be out April 11th. Our house...as you can tell is nowhere near ready so some fun times should be coming our way.

This was just too cute not to share.