Act 3: The cross country flight and frantic car ride from the aiport

So we moved this week. Did I tell you that?

Well we did. And Kolby was in NYC. There's plenty of stories to tell about all that, but really the climax of the week was Amelia's much anticipated (as well as much dreaded) talent show performance. She was sick about it for days, yet excited at the same time. If any of you remember Amelia as a preschooler, you'll know what a feat this is for her to willingly sign up for the talent show. The girl couldn't answer a question from me about lunch preferences without getting stage fright. They've been rehearsing for about two months now, and of course, Kolby has a very important business trip the week of the performance (and the week of The Move. It's important to remind you of that detail too, since this was the third move in a row he had to travel.)

Early in the morning on the day of the performance, Kolby calls me. He's missed his flight. And he's lost his phone. He bursts into tears. He knows I'll forgive him for missing the unpacking day, and luckily we have insurance on his cell phone, but the talent show? Big stuff. The parent performance begins at 6:00, and the next flight out arrives in Seattle at 5:30. Did you know that Seattle has worse traffic than L.A.? It does. It's taken us 3 hours to make the 30 minute drive from Bellevue to the airport on a Friday afternoon. But when Kolby tells me he'll make it to the performance, I don't burst his bubble. (He's crying, afterall).

I go to the school assembly and see the performance for the kids at 2:00. I did have to buy new shoes for Amelia beforehand because all of her shoes, except a pair of rain boots, somehow ended up in vaguely marked moving boxes. Amelia, does great. (I'm sure the new shoes had something to do with it.)

Madeline and I go at 6:00 (my lovely friends--mothers of Amelia's friends--stepped in as her stage mom(s) for me because I was buried in boxes) and still no Kolby. He's not answering his phone. (I know, I know. He lost it. He actually had a back-up phone. That's also another story. ) The show begins, and because I've seen it before, I know we're getting close to Amelia's performance. And no Kolby. I see Amelia move into the line up. No Kolby. The act before Amelia's begins, so I get up to find a better position for filming, just as Kolby comes thru the gym doors, sweat beads on his forehead, rumpled shirt, frantic expression like he'd just raced across the country for his daughter's first talent show...which he had. When I told him he hadn't missed her, I thought he was going to fall over. And when she began singing her incredibly charming song, he burst into tears (again).

And so I forgave him for missing moving day. But it doesn't mean he was off the hook for putting together beds and reinstalling the dishwasher on Saturday.

So....back to the real story. May I present Miss Amelia, and her fabulous backup singers Andrea and Martina!!!! (I should probably tell you that Martina's mom made the costumes because I totally forgot that was something that should be done. And she also shot this video because although I brought my Flip to record the show, I forgot to double-check that it had space. Which it did not. So go ahead and judge me. I'm really fine with that. I've decided that nursing school has been a wonderful lesson for me in letting go. I'm pretty mediocre at everything now, and we're all alive, so I guess that's okay.)

(I should also tell you, not because it's important, but because it is interesting: Martina's parents are from the little town in Chile where Kolby served his mission. Cuh-razy. And I wonder who Martina's dad is going to sue?)

It's all how you sell it.

Yesterday I was buried in books studying for my finals. Kolby was buried in #$@! packing Madeline's bedroom. Madeline was busy trying to convince Kolby that everything he thought was trash was really part of an art installation.

And Amelia was hungry.

She saw that I was going to be no help, so she made herself a ham sandwich for dinner. And then she put everything away. But then Madeline saw her sandwich and asked Amelia to make her one. So Amelia made Maddie a sandwich and put everything back in the fridge. Then Kolby saw Maddie's sandwich and he wanted one for dinner too. So Amelia got it all out again, with the addition of brown mustard because she knows he likes mustard. After making it, she again put everything away. I know all this because she narrated for me. She also let me know we were out of ham, so there would be no ham sandwich for me for dinner.

She took Kolby's sandwich in to him, and he said thanks, but then asked why he only got one piece of ham. And Amelia, already a brilliant marketer, told him, "Because you're lucky! You got the last piece."

EscarGo!

So I just walked into the kitchen to find Madeline and her three friends racing the snails they brought home from school across my kitchen counter.

(I suggested they find a better location for the race).

But it reminded me of this classic Madeline story. We were at our friends' house when Madeline was about 3 years old. She came in from outside and said she needed to wash her hands, which if you knew Maddie at 3 years old, could only mean she was up to something. I looked at her hands and they were coated in something thick that looked a little like vaseline. We went into the bathroom to wash her hands, and the substance wouldn't come off. We tried scrubbing with soap and water, wiping with a towel, even scraping with our fingernails and it would not come off. At this point we were in a bit of a panic about what she could have gotten into--maybe it was a chemical and it was eating away at her skin? None of the kids saw her getting into anything.

Finally one of the kids suggested that maybe she had smushed one of the slugs they'd seen her playing with. And guess what? That was exactly what she'd done. Smushed it up and rubbed it all over her hands.

As disgusting as that was, at least we knew what to use to get the slime off her hands. A large supply of table salt. Which is what is now needed to clean my kitchen counter.

Help Save Our Marriage

Yes, our marriage is so fragile, it's future rests solely on whether we can come to some sort of agreement on where to put the television in the new house.

I won't bore you with all the reasons why neither of us can bear to have the television in the actual family room. Just know that that is something we can both agree on. I can tell you it has something to do with a certain porous fella who lives in a pineapple under the sea. So the TV is going in the "formal" living room, similar to how we have it in our current house.

But we are unable to agree on the layout for the room, and since we can't get the cable outlet installed until we figure this out, and heaven forbid we live without television for a few days, I'm asking for your input.

Which layout? That big behemoth on the wall on the right is a fireplace. Not really that big in person, but it has a long raised hearth, so that wall is pretty much taken. The upper right corner is the kitchen, the upper left is the dining room. The left wall is the floor to ceiling windows, so no furniture can go against that wall.

Option #1:

Option #2

A couple of photo reminders from the MLS listing, if that helps. (This is the seller's furniture. And the realtor's fake plants. Our furniture is size/shape as shown in layout above. And our houseplants are less dusty, but much more brown than that.)

And no pressure, but if you choose Kolby's layout (and in fairness I can't tell you which is his), I will no longer respect you or call you my friend. Just so you know.

Getting there

So you've seen the before photos. Here's a few photos of the "during."

And this is the master bedroom--the first room to have all the staples from the carpet pad removed. It's all prepped and ready to be sanded and finished! We also removed all the mirrored closet doors. And no, we will not be mounting them to the ceiling. You thought you were being original with that little joke, didn't you?

I think this job has turned into MUCH more work than the hardwood guy expected. He thought it might take him 1.5 days to remove the carpet, vinyl, staples, etc. He just finished up the third day and has plenty more staples to go. But he does think he'll get the hardwood installed in the kitchen and living room tomorrow!

Snowball

I forgot about the home improvement snowball effect.

We decided refinishing/adding hardwoods was a good idea before we move in. And I'm pleased with that decision.

But so far doing the hardwoods has snowballed into the need to:

• replace all the baseboards
• replace the door trim
• replace closet systems
• build a built-in bookshelf where a coat closet used to be
• call in a plumber to replumb for the dishwasher (DIY gone wrong--not my DIY)
• call an electrician to decommission some terrifying DIY electrical work. (I know nothing about electrical work, but I'm taking a wild guess that extension cords should not be hard-wired into the home's electrical system.)

I've of course been moaning about the financial aspect of the snowball effect. But my nice hardwood floor guy just pointed out the flip-side---the cosmetic snowball: how much better everything is going to look once those unexpected improvements are done. New baseboards, new bookshelves to complement the spiffy new floors. That's all fun. I just don't like the plumbing and electrical part. Nobody cares if I have sexy new copper pipes behind my dishwasher, although they might appreciate not getting shocked by those live wires hanging around behind the new bookshelf.

John Hancock

So we signed and signed and signed this morning and we are officially homeowners once again. I have very mixed feelings about it until I take a look at my nasty rental seafoam green carpet, and then I'm giddy with excitement. I think the (lack of) carpet, and having a cat door again are the two things I'm most excited about.

Don't ask me what the move-in date is. I don't know. I have two more exams to get thru before I can wrap my brain around packing boxes or wielding a paintbrush. Sometime after March 15th we'll be moving.

We will be celebrating tomorrow night by eating pizza on the floor in the new place.