Bathroom redo

The tile is totally installed and the grout is setting. Or curing. Or resting. Or whatever it is that grout does. I didn't realize how big of a room this was until I wasn't even halfway done putting down tile and wanted to quit. Everything hurt and with the kiddos it just wasn't possible to get it all done in one day. Disappointing. John and I tag team a lot, but the time constraints just got to be too much. The mortar needs to be used within 2 hours and then you need fresh stuff.

The way it works is : John mixes mortar for me (FYI: many, many Mordor references were made this week, which was very amusing. Every single time.).

Kelly installs the tiles using the mortar. John is too much an engineer for this job. He likes it to be perfect and will spend too much time on one area. The one area will be perfect, but then wall will be crooked causing John's perfect work to be for naught. Kelly can make it look good enough and isn't so worried about perfection.

John's next job is to cut all the pieces of tile to size for the corners/edges/doors/etc. this is a messy job because a tile saw shoots water for some reason (ask John, I'm sure he can explain. In fact, I'm sure he has explained it to me at least once.). Now that our basement is finished, we don't have a great place inside where he can go and cut tiles. This week it meant John was cutting tiles in the garage. This normally wouldn't be too bad except the temperatures this week were record setting cold. We kept bringing hot water out to keep the saw from freezing and John's giant work light with a heat bulb pointed at the saw. It was still really cold. So cold that John decided he was tired of getting all wet and so he made himself a poncho so he would be drier and warmer.

Last night I helped him clean up in the garage after putting in the last tile and when I picked up a piece of the saw, it stuck to my skin. My hand was damp from cleaning up a bucket of mortar and the metal stuck to my skin. That hasn't happened to me in years! I was so surprised!

Honesty

We are just finishing up lunch when Amelia had a question.


Amelia:hey mom?
Mama: yes Amelia?
Amelia: do you remember the cookies you brought on the pink plate to Charlene's house yesterday for the party with all the people?
Mama: yes, I remember.
Amelia: no one liked the cookies.
Daddy: Amelia!
Mama: (tries not to laugh)
Daddy: how do you know that no one liked them? Those were good cookies mama made!*
Amelia: no. They weren't good. No one liked them. I watched and no one took one when we were at the party. I was right by the plate and no one took one. Lots of people ate the brownies next to our plate. No one liked your cookies mom.

Mama: (still trying not to laugh): that's okay Amelia. Not everyone likes the same thing. I think our pink cookies on the pink plate were so pretty -
It's okay if no one ate them though!

Amelia: no one ate them mom because they didn't like them.
Mama: thanks, I got the point Amelia. Finish your milk now.

*these were a new cookie this year chosen because one of the main ingredients was peppermint. I like to make things with peppermint because I dislike peppermint. Especially in cookies. It is easy for me to stay out of the cookies when they are peppermint!

Sent from my iPhone

William

This never gets old. William sleeps in such bizarre positions sometimes...

Note: I can turn the light on when he is sleeping because he is an awesome sleeper.

This girl

This girl likes the music. She like to push buttons on her radio and I wasn't quite sure how she was getting to it on the dresser in her room.

Answer: pull open the lower drawer and climb up onto the drawer. Then you have full access to wonderful, exciting BUTTONS!

What is this?

Do you know? It is the snow melting on our brick patio along the pattern lines.

Swiffering

We have a swiffer. I don't like it, so I don't really use it.

Earlier this week, we were getting ready to paint the bathroom and I needed to wipe down the walls. The bathroom is humid sometimes and the dust sometimes sticks to the humid wall surfaces and there was a spider web in one corner. The corners are really high up.

So I swiffered it. I wrapped a damp microfiber cloth around the swiffer and cleaned those walls. I swiffered it so we would have a nice, clean surface to paint. John walked in just as I was finishing up. Apparently, he saw me walk down the hall with the swiffer and assumed I would be cleaning the floors, not the walls.

Silly John. Then he took a picture because he found it so unbelievable.

Also, this is apparently how we celebrate the New Year holiday as this was taken a few hours before midnight.

New Year's Eve

We had a nice New Year's Eve at home with the kids. We had cheese fondue (note: kids disliked this last year and still don't like it) with fruit vegetables and bread. It was delicious. For dessert, we had chocolate pudding from a box in our never before used martini glasses. It was very festive and celebratory in between all the whining and complaining about not liking the cheese. William impressed us the most as he ate a pile of plain steamed broccoli. He was just happy not to have to eat the cheese. Weird kid. Anyway: happy new year!