Texas or Bust

Over Thanksgiving we went and visited the Johnson's in Texas. We had a great time gawking at the ducks and making faces at the fish. Carl can do an exceptionally good fish face, complete with gulping down bread sounds.

It's hard to get a good picture of lots of kids. It's even harder to get a good picture of kids facing the sun, nay impossible. 

Here we are enjoying an old trolley ride. 

It's so fun to be downtown on a sunny day!

We were so very excited to go to the Daiso store while we were in Dallas. The anticipation alone got us through the 14 hour drive the day before. It brought back good memories of the Daiso we used to shop at in Japan, where we'd find all of our dollar-store treasures. 

The star of this picture was actually intended to be the heron standing in waterfall. Sadly, he's hiding behind the railing.

We had a great time at the Johnson's! There has been talk among the kids of going back to the central market for more balloons.

The Kitchen is Finished!

It is so nice to have a deep double welded sink! Dish washing is such a pleasure now. We sing like Snow White while we clean because we're so happy. We've got a great marine edge so water just all flows right into the sink, despite our kids best efforts.

The wall below turned out to be my favorite. Our contractor was nervous that the cabinets were not all the same height. But had the cabinets all been the same height we would not have reached any of items in the cupboards without the use of stools, chairs or elephants. Our electrician loved it and said it looked like the Detroit skyline. 

Can anyone see where the chimney used to be beside the fridge? And the inspiration for the color scheme? The best orange clock ever made.

Happy Halloween! Happy Birthday Carl!

 This year the kids voted for Scarlet Macaw, Blue and Gold Macaw, Fairy and Fireman. One of the great ironies of life became apparent: if I didn't have kids I would have finished those costumes in one afternoon, but without kids I would never have made them.

How do kids learn how to be zombies? I have no idea. Rest assured that Ryan and I don't wander around the house in zombie style, at least not before the kids go to bed.

Sometimes you get so excited for your costume that you wear it whenever you can. And here is Carl learning a little about fire safety. 

Carl turned three! Ryan and I are still amazed that he is alive and are happy to report that he is not as risky as he used to be, or maybe he is more sneaky about it.

A little know benefit of growing up is that once you're three, the voting volunteers are willing to give you no less than 5 stickers at the polls. Who did we vote for? Our lips are sealed.

Baltimore or Bust

 A few weeks ago we took the kids up to Baltimore to visit their cousins by way of Shenandoah National Park. Among other things, we learned on this trip that when a road is described as "scenic" it also means th road "may cause nausea for everyone in the car except Dad."  As you can guess, we had to take a lot of stops to "enjoy the scenery."

They had some great hikes that the kids really enjoyed. We even managed to sneak up on a mother dear and her two fawns. This was only possible because A) the deer live in the campground and routinely ignore humans, and B) we were warned by the hikers in front of us to proceed quietly. 

 At one point in the hike we had a choice between Bearfence Rock Scramble or the Bearfence Viewpoint hikes. Can you tell which one we chose? This particular hike probably took a year off of Ryan's life, but the kids and I had a great time. It's hard to stop jumping from rock to rock once you get started. Carl did a great job, since he's been scrambling up things since he was 10 months old.

Our next stop was Baltimore to visit our cousins and enjoy some less dangerous past-times.

We loved the aquarium and thankfully no one has started having nightmares about sharks.

Balitmore or Bust

 A few weeks ago we took the kids up to Baltimore to visit their cousins by way of Shenandoah National Park. Among other things, we learned on this trip that when a road is described as "scenic" it also means th road "may cause nausea for everyone in the car except Dad."  As you can guess, we had to take a lot of stops to "enjoy the scenery."

They had some great hikes that the kids really enjoyed. We even managed to sneak up on a mother dear and her two fawns. This was only possible because A) the deer live in the campground and routinely ignore humans, and B) we were warned by the hikers in front of us to proceed quietly. 

 At one point in the hike we had a choice between Bearfence Rock Scramble or the Bearfence Viewpoint hikes. Can you tell which one we chose? This particular hike probably took a year off of Ryan's life, but the kids and I had a great time. It's hard to stop jumping from rock to rock once you get started. Carl did a great job, since he's been scrambling up things since he was 10 months old.

Our next stop was Baltimore to visit our cousins and enjoy some less dangerous past-times.

We loved the aquarium and thankfully no one has started having nightmares about sharks.

Around the house

It really isn't as cold in our home as it may look from this picture. I had just bought winter outfits and toilet paper (which the kids were in charge of putting away). Who can resist trying on new cloths on such a soft bed?

It is so nice to have a dragon to help you make cookies. 

While Amber and her big boys have been tackling the grueling bicycling merit badge, I've had the rest of her kids. I discovered really quick that kids who are working are easier to watch.:)  Our yard has almost unlimited possibilities for work (and the kids like earning nickles in exchange).  In this particular picture we are in the process of moving 1 ton of rocks from our front yard. The kids also washed all my windows on a different bike riding day. 

Carl loves monitoring yard work and keeping track of inventory. Jane is still picking peppers for us to eat. I think she just does it for the purple basket.

I made a pizza with olives, green peppers, pineapple and ham and called it the Hackett Supreme. The kids said, "What a great name! Those are all the foods that we all love!" I consider this to be a sign of great parenting since Ryan detests olives and I hate green peppers. Clearly they haven't noticed subtle signs on our faces when gulping them down as fast as we can. Ryan and I gave each other air hi-fives for that one.

Kitchen Remodel Part 2 Floor and Ceiling

After Ryan ripped up 3 layers of linoleum in the kitchen we found black tar paper on top of our hidden hard wood floors. There wasn't a floor guy in town who wanted to sand them down with that sticky stuff on the top. After many emails and texts to Ryan's sister, Celeste, discussing her own trials with hardwood floor restoration, we discovered this trick of steaming it and then scrapping it off. What a stinky job! There is something really satisfying though about finding such lovely floors underneath. 

One of the challenges of remodeling a kitchen is getting all your subcontractors in the right line up. We had a hard time finding a floor guy who could refinish our floor on short notice, and the cabinets couldn't go in until the floors were done. Luckily I found a "seasoned" floor finisher who could squeeze our job in, and he did excellent work. I admit, I prayed harder him while he worked than for any of my other contractors. I was afraid that he might move onto the next life while on our job, and I had all sorts of visions of the sander taking off through my house. 

Here is the finished floor -- and to think that all the other flooring experts we talked to said it couldn't be done and that we should tile over it! 

We had to lower our ceiling in order to get our stove vent to discharge outside the house. I cannot count the quantity of onions I have burned because the old vent used to blow straight into my eyes. We also took our that timeless fain and put in recessed lighting.

 The rest of our downstairs has wallpaper on the ceiling, so we decided to keep the theme. We were a little nervous to wallpaper against the laws of gravity, but it turned out great! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, although the arms get a little shaky until you learn to speed up.

Kitchen Remodel Part 1

This summer we tackled the remodel job of our lives. When reading all the books on kitchen remodeling to prepare, this title stood out, "Kitchen Redos, Revamps, Remodels, and Replacements: Without Murder, Madness, Suicide, or Divorce." I'm happy to report that we are all alive and well in our family. It's been a little touch and go. 

 I had the brilliant idea to rent a dumpster to dispose of our cabinets, old chimney bricks and linoleum all at once. We bought a large pvp pipe that we put through our window to slide the bricks down. We had 2.5 tons of junk. Awesome!

 Here we are taking all our our things out of our old cabinets. These cabinets had un-moveable shelves with small doors. I understand that many Western kitchens aren't planned to accomodate a large wok, but these cabinets didn't fit my regular pots or skillets either.

But who would have thought they were a perfect fit for Carl? Note the black tile counter tops. The grout was coming out of the cracks and the protective film on the tile was flaking off into our food. Ultra-gross.

 I talked Ryan into letting the kids and I take off all the doors and pull out the drawers. They had a great time.

 Things got really messy once the chimney started coming down. This was the messiest job with all the plaster powder and cinders suspended in the air. I have never seen such dirty boys. Thanks to some determined scouts and a great EQ President, we were able to get it all done in one day.

Ryan still looks for the chimney when he walks into the kitchen. I think he got attached to it after spending so much time planning and executing it's removal. Note the old fancy wallpaper. There were 10 layers to take off under what you can see and it felt like taking a trip in time back to 1940. Our kitchen smells so much better without all that old paper and paste. 

 The plaster wall here was so cracked up from the house settling that all the plaster had to be taken off and replaced with drywall. The smartest thing we did was to cover the doorways with plastic. It kept Carl out of the action and the mess out of the rest of our house. Although that did mean we had to come up with alternate routes to the laundry room in the basement. Option #1 Walk laundry out front door facing our busy street and around the house in 90* weather. Option #2 Squeeze through my bedroom window into the back porch. The kids liked option #2 the best.

NC Arboretum

It's so good to have rocks in our yard to play with. We do have a no rocks in pockets policy. 

I include these pictures as a study in animal behavior. Watch the bunny and note how much more nervous it gets as the fox approaches. It pretty much ends up at abject terror.

 Amber is tapping into her Olympic spirit here.

They had some good building ideas for the kids next fort.