Basement Reno's Cont'd

Katie's room still pretty much looks the same except there is more junk in that space than there was before. More specifically a giant tub box, that is now a shelf for junk. It even has the bathroom sink sitting on it.

However, this means we now have a tub and a sink (and a toilet if you're worried) ready to go into the bathroom space as soon as the line fitter guy we made friends with has time to come over and do some plumbing for us.

The office now has a wall making it a real room! This is looking at the wall from what will one day be the family room.

Inside the office there is going to be the access to the storage room that is under the stairs and behind the bathroom. This is the door...all I can fit in the picture. Chris is down there right now drywalling the rest of the office.

The Bathroom!

It has a door now, but the door is not actually secured onto anything, it's just squeezed into its spot. So far we've been lucky and it has not fallen.

This is looking into the bathroom from inside Katie's room. The second picture is looking into the bathroom from where the wall behind the tub will be one day.

She can see clearly now....

I need to start off with a short letter to my sister.

Dear Amber,

I am sorry I promised more basement pictures 3 days ago and have not posted them yet. Actually I have not even taken them yet. But I will. Soon. After Christmas.

Yours Truly,

Corra

Okay, that's done and out of the way. So on to the big news at home here. We had the yearly optometrist appointments last week. Every year for the last couple of years we have been prepared to hear that Katie would need glasses. Chris got his in grade school sometime, I got mine in grade 5 or 6, so we figured it was inevitable. Each year we are slightly surprised when they say her eyes are fine. In fact a couple of years ago it was Beth they wanted to keep a close eye on because she was more farsighted than she should be at her age, which was not what we thought we would hear. Her eyes are good now though, still slightly farsighted, but within normal range for a six year old.

This year however we were 99.9% sure Katie would leave the office with a prescription. We've noticed over the last couple of months that she doesn't see as well as she should. She'll be sitting at the kitchen table and we'll ask her what time the microwave says, and she has to get up and walk to it to read it. Street signs were also bad, she couldn't read them until we were almost driving past them. Sure enough, she needed glasses! She was so excited about it, more excited than I thought she would be. We went out that evening and picked out a couple pairs of frames (2 for 1...yay) and they were ready the next day. I took her to get them fitted and all the way home in the van she read signs, and was so excited about things she could see, like the individual bricks in a brick building. I guess we sort of take our eyesight for granted, even those of us with glasses, and we forget how fuzzy the world can be when you can't see well.

She is so happy to have her new glasses, and very excited that they were ready in time to wear when we go see family over Christmas. She can't wait to show them off!

Katie's favorite are the dark frames, but I like the other one. The picture really doesn't show just how cute they are.

The Basement Renovations have started!

It's very exciting!

When we moved in the basement was unfinished except for the exterior wall framing. It was great because a lot of work had been done yet we had complete say as to how we were going to design the basement. Our plan is to build a bathroom, a bedroom, an office (with a window so it can be considered a bedroom when we sell), a family room, a storage room, and a utility/laundry room. The exact design of each room has changed over the few months we've lived here, and I am sure they will change slightly as we build, but we've actually started! I say we, when mostly I mean Chris has started, but I held some framing still while he put a few screws in and held some drywall up so he could do the same, so I have helped, a little.

I decided I needed some 'before' pictures tonight, but some of the interior framing has been started so they are not completely before pictures.

The Bathroom

First picture: To the left of Katie are the stairs.

Second picture: Looking into the bathroom from where the bedroom will be. To the right where all the boxes are will be the storage room. The bathroom will end right about where the blue drywall ends.

The Laundry/Utility Room

Excuse the huge mess of the basement.

Family Room

The Office

Hail Mary

My kids go to a Roman Catholic school. We are not Roman Catholic. They say prayers three times a day at school. In the morning it's Our Father, which my kids know. At lunch it's grace, and is different depending on the teacher. Before school lets out they say Hail Mary. There is no Hail Mary in our church. Tonight at dinner, after grace, Katie started to say Hail Mary (to see if Beth knew it) and Beth joined in. Between the two of them, this is what we heard:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among Swimmin',
and blessed is the fruit of Thy Mung, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Beth laughed at the end and told me her teacher says Women not Swimmin', and then told me her whole class says Swimmin' and they think it's funny their teacher says it incorrectly. Katie says Mung (Beth just mumbles through the last few lines) and she has no idea what a Mung might be, but followed along anyways. Chris and I laughed so hard and when Katie discovered what the real words were she laughed pretty hard. So hard she almost spit soup out of her mouth. Beth and Anna laughed too, but I'm sure had no idea that it was funny and just wanted to join in. I'm sure Beth will continue to say Blessed art Thou among Swimmin' along with her classmates.

Makes me wonder how many Catholics die wondering what swimming has to do with Mary and what the heck a Mung is?

Wall Clmbing Pictures...as promised

I didn't take these because as usual I forgot my camera. I am going to have to start chaining it to my neck. There are none of her at the top of the wall, but she made it up there quite a few times.

On Belay!

If you know my kids and I asked you which one was the bravest, I bet you wouldn't pick Katie. Katie's my bookworm, she's quiet and can be quite shy. She's not nearly as adventurous as Beth who we have a hard time keeping indoors when it's nice out. Katie likes to be outside, but often it's to find a quiet, relaxing place to read. So it will probably surprise you just as much as it did me, that Katie is quite the little wall climber!

She went on a field trip last month and they had a chance to wall climb. When I read the permission slip for the trip I was sure that the wall climbing waiver I was signing was useless since she was never going to do it. But I was surprised when she got home to find out that not only had she given it a try, she got up quite high and really enjoyed herself.

Katie was ecstatic when she found out for the last Girl Guide meeting before Christmas that they were going wall climbing. They needed volunteer adults to belay so I stuck around to help and to watch Katie. I was a little nervous about belaying as I had never done it before, but it was actually pretty easy. Most of the girls did well, only a couple were too scared to go up more than a couple feet. Katie, however, amazed me. She climbed walls none of the other girls could do. Not all were perfectly vertical, some had parts that jutted out at angles and that stumped most of the girls since you had to hang slightly upside down to get around them. Every wall she tried, she made it all the way to the top to touch the ceiling. I'm not sure how high the walls they were climbing were, but they were pretty darn high. Even if I had the strength to do it, I couldn't get over height, so I would most likely be a terrible wall climber.

One of the Guide leaders was taking pictures and I'm pretty sure she got Katie in at least one shot, so I've emailed her asking for a copy and as soon as I get it, I'll post it on here.

Katie was still talking about it this morning. She went so far as to say wall climbing was her passion. I took a brochure from the place home last night, and the prices seem pretty reasonable, so I think Chris and I will try to take her every couple of weeks. Anything to get her out doing something physical is good I think.

Can a 4 year old keep a secret?

That's the question every Christmas season. It's not always a four year old I suppose, but kids in general. Every year they cannot stand the anticipation of finding out what it is that present under the tree with their name on it, so they ask over and over, and then when that fails they ask what their sister, or their mom, or their dad is getting. And every year I am faced with the dilemma of letting them in on the secret or keeping it all to myself.

A few years ago I bought Chris a PlayStation 3. I was so proud of myself that year. I got him something he really wanted, but also something he never thought I would actually go out and buy for him. Katie and Beth were with me when I picked it up from the store. And although I can't actually remember how old they were because I am not sure how long ago that Christmas was, I remember that Katie was old enough to keep the secret and Beth was not. She begged and begged all the way home to tell her what daddy was getting and finally I broke down and told her that I had bought him shampoo (because there was shampoo in the cart that day it was a reasonable lie). I made her promise that she would not tell daddy what we had bought him, and she thought she was so convincing that she would keep the promise. I, however, was not fooled. That's why I said shampoo in the first place.

We arrived home and walked through the front door and wouldn't you know it, the first words out of Beth's mouth were "Daddy, we bought you a present and it's shampoo!!" The best part of the whole story is that it has since become a family tradition that when one of the kids asks what the other parent, or their sister got for Christmas, we tell them "Shampoo".

But the kids are getting older. Katie's been in on the secrets for a few years now, and even Beth can be trusted to not tell. Anna I'm not completely sure about. But this year I did tell them all what they were giving their daddy for Christmas, and he's told them what they are getting for me. I not only bought Chris's gift, but I bought my own, and that's the only part of the secret they do not know. I can tell Anna's been dying to tell me what I got (a beautiful stainless steel teapot) but so far she has not said anything. Well anything out loud. She very secretly whispered to the 4 yr old that I care for during the day, that they bought me a coffeepot(teapot, coffeepot, whatever, there is no difference to a four year old I'm sure). I wasn't even a foot away from her when she whispered the secret, and the whisper was more of a quiet talk than a whisper, but she she hasn't come out and said "Mom, we're getting you shampoo" or anything like that.

She has been trying to 'trick' me about what they've got me though. Today she told me it was a show, a good movie, that I would really love. Then she said it was a real horse, no she meant a bear. All I'm waiting for now is the day she tells me it's really not a teapot.

As far as I know she has not accidentally or on purpose told Chris what I bought him from the girls. I'll have to ask him when he gets home from work if she's let it slip. I didn't tell any of the girls what I got him from me though, so that secret should actually be 100% safe.