The bathrooms before February 25, 2008

bathroom #1

Our toilet paper holder doesn’t work, thus the toilet paper sits on the sink. I think the toilet is the original one in the house…probably over 30 years old. We painted this vanity when we moved in , but the sink is broken. The shower used to be broken, but we got that fixed a couple of weeks ago.This light fixture has to go.
sorry..forgot to rotate this one..


Bathroom #2..the floor is coming up. It was installed incorrectly. I can’t stand these little tiles.

Ok..so I will admit that I picked out this ugly light fixture. We are going to replace this. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, yet, though…but almost anything has to look better than this.the old bathtub…

Note the broken tile..the faucets don’t work well either.

Another original toilet and more of the floor is popping up.

February 25, 2008

Here is a full length shot of Ellie and her pretty dress. My friend Laura gave this to her. Her daughter, Maggie had worn it. Thanks Laura!

Here is a picture of Thomas before his hair cut. I didn’t have a good close up, but his hair was getting long.

After….


Like it?

In other news, things are going well here . Thomas is calming down a bit. He is still very active, but he is not quite the maniac that he used to be. Ellie is getting older and smarter every minute. She can count to 100 now and is adding small numbers. We had her first parent teacher conference and it went well. I have no idea why, but I was nervous. (Is that normal..does everybody feel that way???) We had received her report card and she was right where she is supposed to be in every category except cutting. And, we don’t have scissors out much around here, not even the safety kind. Thomas will have to be much less of a maniac before we will practice cutting here. She’ll learn to cut soon enough.

I gave up my diet Pepsi for Lent. In the past, I’ve always tried to add something to my life…last year, I added a weekly rosary, for example. Well, this year, the thought of adding something to my life made me panic. So, I finally decided that it is time to take something away. Let me tell you, I love my pop. I normally drink two a day. So, now I’m having one (sometimes two) cup of coffee each day. Well, Sundays are feast days and are not technically part of Lent. (Count the days….the 40 days of Lent don’t include Sundays! Yay!) So, my feast today consisted of a 20 oz of Diet Pepsi..my first in over two weeks! Yummy yummy yummy! Maybe that will take care of my craving and make the next few days without Diet Pepsi easier.

Well, that’s enough for today…stay tuned for the ugly bathroom pictures.

Hi there! February 24, 2008

First some pictures…
Ellie before the daddy/daughter dance…
Aren’t they a nice looking couple?
The “fiesta” at Spanish class. Here, the students are teaching the mom and dads the colors.

I’m going to do another post soon which will include a picture of Thomas’ hair cut. He looks just like Andrew.

We’re doing well here. The flu just went through our house, I think. Well, Andy didn’t get it, but Thomas, Ellie and I did.

Our bathroom remodels will start next week. I will definitely have to post some before pictures this week.

I’m still here… February 13, 2008

I’m having some trouble getting pictures to load. I have a video of Ellie bowling too.

Anyway, we’re here. We’re doing well. We’re busy…

Good news….

The kids are doing great. They get taller all of the time. Thomas talks more and more daily. Ellie teaches him all of her tricks and they love to wrestle together. Yesterday, Thomas got a hair cut. He looks just like Andy now. It’s amazing. After Ellie kept saying, “Is that Thomas or Daddy?” I’ll post a picture soon. He definitely looks older! He spends his free time playing trains, running, climbing and watching Hi-5 reruns. Ellie went bowling for the first time for Nick’s birthday. She loved it and did pretty well for a first time bowler. She will go again next week with her preschool.

My job is going really well. The term has started and this week I start observing and evaluating the teachers. So, I will be downriver, Waterford, Avondale or Lake Orion almost every day for the next few weeks.

Big news is that we are going to do some remodeling. Grandpa and Grandma Brooks are helping us a bit with the monetary portion and we appreciate it sooooo much! We’re working on our bathrooms. Stay tuned for some before pictures. We’re hiring some friends of friends to do the work. I’m very excited. So, in our free time, we have some tile shopping to do.

Please pray for Mike, Jori and my Aunt Laura. Mike continues to struggle and it really is cold outside. Jori is undergoing chemo and feels pretty rotten some days. Aunt Laura is starting some medication and I hope it helps.

Stay tuned for pictures!

February 2, 2008

Thomas has been spending a lot of time playing with his trains. Here are pictures of him with some of his Christmas presents. Cool bridge, huh?

And, above, is a fire department. Ellie likes the trains too, but not as much as Thomas.

We’re doing well, here. I haven’t been updating much. I think of these wonderful blog entries in my head, but never get to typing them out. OH well, that’s how it goes. I worked a lot of hours in January so I’m sure that has something to do with it too.

People told me that they loved Phillip’s directorial debut. He is a character. Ellie and Phillip met when they were 6 months old. Sandy and I met at matchingmoms.com. I’m not sure if it is still around. But, moms put their own info and their children’s info. Then, the site provides a list of moms with children of similar ages sorted by zip code. Sandy and I emailed a few times and decided to meet. We met in public, at the Plymouth library, I think. Anyway, finding other moms to hang out with is like dating. You never know how it is going to go. Well, we all hit it off and we are still friends. She introduced me to a pretty cool playgroup. We don’t have playgroups anymore, but we stay in touch on a message board. Anyway, I enjoy that group of women. This group is not like your typical playgroup. We are down to earth, supportive, not gossipy, and fairly diverse.

On a political note, I found this cool site. So, if you aren’t sure how to vote, that site can help and it is nonpartisan. I had one republican and one democrat as my top two choices. Ron Paul was not even in the top 5.

Ok, Thomas is trying to take over my puter. More soon!