This is Nuts!

A month ago Brent and I decided to put in granite counter tops (yea!) and the earliest they could get them installed was going to be August 6th. During that time they came out for estimates and then to measure and the counters had to be completely bare so we tossed everything onto the dining room table and leave it all there figuring it would have to get moved again anyway. August 6th is approaching and Premiere Countertops (the company installing our much anticipated counter tops) calls and says they are running behind and could they reschedule for the 7th? Ya, sure a betcha, no problem. Mom will be visiting, won't that be fun to show her...until they call the week of and tell me they are still running behind and could they reschedule for Monday afternoon. Grrr, I guess Mom will have to wait. Monday afternoon arrives my counter tops are bare, cabinets empty, drawers pulled out and I'm herding Sage away from what she believes to be the best kitchen playset ever made available when they call Brent in North Carolina (why they called him I'm not sure) and guess what...that's right, can you believe they are still behind? At this point Brent rails into them about the inconvenience they have been (go get 'em tiger!) and how dare they do this to a woman who is at home with a toddler and a baby while her husband is deployed (at-a-boy!). So when they call me with their tails tucked between their legs, we decide on Wednesday at 9am.

Here's is how today went and I'm not kidding you, this all really happened:

8:00am--two kind gentlemen (whom I will now refer to as tall guy and short guy) show up an hour before we had agreed upon but because my girls are still faithfully getting up at the crack of dawn, I'm properly dressed and I've finished nursing. Whew! Then I realized that the kitchen drawers need to get pulled out which after I tell them it will take me a minute, they had the audacity to give me an annoyed look! But because I had been through the drill a number of times before, I was able to finish the task in a new Olympic record time of 56.021 seconds and before they came back in with all their equipment. MmHmm...that's right, you can just put that annoyed look right back into your tool box.

9:11am--Old counter tops are out, and in preservation in the garage to be transferred to the duck shack next fall. New ones coming in. Yippee!

9:34am--Call plumber to firm up a time for them to come and hook up the faucet and garbage disposal. I get connected with Lisa in plumbing and enjoy a friendly business chat with her. She must sense my giddiness over the excitement of the day.

9:43am--Get a shout from tall guy, "Hey miss, can I show you something?" That's never a good question. Go upstairs and outside with them where short guy is standing with a sorry look on his face and I may be wrong but possibly some fear too. They show me that when they were taking the clamps off a piece of granite the size of a marble chipped off. There are four counter top pieces total and which one do you think got chipped...of course the one with the sink. Here's the stinker, we do not have shut off valves for the faucet and therefore the entire water supply to the house had to be shut off. They tell me they can get a new slab cut and in by tomorrow but in my head I'm seeing a picture of a two year old and a sixth month old and all I can think is, "no water...No Water....NO WATER!!!"

9:52am--Sage appears from coloring (much to the amusement of tall guy and short guy) with a green mustache and arms that Rainbow Bright would have been proud of. Thankfully they are washable and I use a container of wipes to clean her up.

9:58am--Call the plumbing people and once again get Lisa to whom I blabber on and on about no water to and bless her, she somehow understands what I'm trying to convey to her and arranges the plumber to come to our house to install shut off valves instead.

10:40am--Tall guy and short guy finish the slabs that haven't broke and short guy, still looking quite sorry, blubbers something about being afraid of what the owner will say.

11:30am--Of course, the one time Sage would ask for water with her lunch would be today.

11:56am--Dishwasher topples forward and narrowly misses Sage due to not being attached to a counter.

1:18pm--Countertop owner calls and says they have dropped everything to get our slab cut and installed today. Good grief Brent, what did you say to them?

1:21pm--Call the plumber people, talk to my new best friend Lisa and tell her to put a halt to the plans and arrange to have them come at 4:30pm to install the faucet and garbage disposal.

1:48pm--Sage woke up from her nap and had a huge accident, completely soaking her favorite blanket and sheets. Deep breaths...it's okay, I'll wash them tonight before she goes to bed.

2:22pm--For once I'm happy this house has four bathrooms.

3:45pm--Tall guy and short guy are back with the new counter top and get installed in less than an hour. Yea!

4:19pm--Sage is asking for water again. I also just found what I thought was an abnormal skin tag on Clare's face but then realized it was just caked on baby cereal.

5:10pm--Plumber guy shows up and as we walk over to the sink he says "Oh, they didn't tell me I was hooking up a faucet and disposal. I just thought I was fixing a garbage disposal." Lisa, WE'RE THROUGH! At this point his sources for getting the parts he needs are closed so he ends up installing shut off valves. We go over the estimate for the hook ups and it's clear that if I go buy some parts myself, we can save a good deal of money. So we agree for him to come over in the morning to set it up.

6:10pm--After supper and enjoying the wonderful feeling of getting to wipe my kids faces clean, we head to Menards. Great, there's an accident, I'm stuck in traffic. I'm not kidding you there were two police cars, three ambulances and one fire truck at the scene.

7:00pm--Get back from Menards and start getting the kids ready for bed upon which I realize Sage's blanket and sheets have not been washed. I quickly put different sheets on her bed and when I tucked her in I put a different blanket on her and shoved her gross blanket to the end of the bed. Thankfully she didn't catch on.

7:49pm--Countertop owner guy calls to make sure I'm pleased with how they went out of their way to get the counter installed today. Seriously?!

I documented the progress today. No, there isn't a backsplash right now but I'm working on it.


I know this is a grainy picture but I was getting too much reflection with a flash. This is what they finished.




This is what wasn't finished




Semi-finished.




Can you tell what's missing?

She Did It!

She made it down the aisle! I wish so badly that I could have watched her but I was busy playing some music for her to walk to. From what my Mom said, (thanks again Mom, things would not have gone so great if you hadn't been there) she started out and then Mom took off to go meet her up front but Sage kinda stalled until a very kind usher walked with her a little ways and then let her go on her own. About a third of the way to go she stopped and realized she was completely on her own so she squeezed her eyes as closed until she could only see out very small slits and went the rest of the way down the aisle as if thinking "if I close my eyes nobody will see me." Nana was there to greet her and then I joined them to sit during the ceremony while Sage enjoyed her jelly belly beans she had been promised as a reward.

Oh my little Sage, I was so proud of you today. You are wonderful just the way you are--a tough little girl who will brave it out and be herself no matter what. Thank you for singing your little songs while I played after the ceremony, your sweet La, La's are the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard.

It was a beautiful day with a beautiful bride and groom but what I will treasure in my heart is the memory of my little flower princess dancing barefoot to her own song.

Flower Princess

We've had a young lady, Brynn, living with us this past year. She was our babysitter who after graduating from high school, came to live with us while she went to college. We've shared a lot together this past year, including her engagement to Chris last Thanksgiving. Today is their wedding day and the crazy level has gone up yet another bar around here.
Sage is their flower girl, or as we refer to it--her "flower princess," and I am playing the piano. The piano playing poses a dilemma in how to get Sage down the aisle without screaming for dear life. So, who do you call when there is a problem to be solved? SUPER MOM AUDREY to the rescue. Do you want to know why she's super mom? I'll tell you anyway. Somewhere down the road she forgot that Sage was the flower girl and just knew that I was playing the piano in the wedding so she figured I was asking her to come babysit and to be a support for me since I would probably be an emotional wreck with Brent being gone only a week. Let me clarify that she drove eight hours by herself to babysit. My dad questioned her before she left, "Can't she find a babysitter?" but no, in my mom's mind her daughter needed her so grabbed her super hero power drink called "coffee" and jumped in her mighty mobile called "the minivan" and sped...well kinda sped down the road to not waste too much gas with the prices so high.

Excuse me while I have a good laugh...

Okay, I'm back. So now my mom has remembered her role in coming here was to help Sage make it down the aisle. Brent and I were quite skeptical as to whether or not Sage would do it but after the rehearsal last night there is a possibility that she might actually go through with it. We refer to Sage as "slow to warm" and not usually liking to be in the center of attention but last night she was out to prove me wrong. The girl was actually doing a funky dance around the stage while the ceremony was rehearsed. She's pretty excited about getting carry a basket of fake petals around and as long as it helps I will go along and pretend that is the coolest princess job ever invented. The funniest moment for me came when mom and Sage were sitting in the middle of the sanctuary and I was at the piano while the pastor was talking to the bridal party and Sage starts yelling in her sweet voice "HI MOMMY! I LOOOVE YOU!"

I'll let you know how the wedding goes.

Would This Work?

Sage, Clare and I got up bright and early this morning to meet friends...oh wait, we get up not too bright cause the sun's not quite up and way too early every morning (seriously, when do kids start sleeping in?)...anyway, to meet some friends at the Henry Doorly Zoo. It's a fabulous zoo and we hang out there a lot. So one of the things the kids really enjoyed today was this giant spider web they can play on. As I stood there trying look utterly amused by my child when really I was using every ounce of my body to keep my eyes open, I suddenly saw a real potential with this whole spider web play thing. Wouldn't it be great if it actually worked like a spider web--minus the whole spider bagging them up and sucking the life out of them part, of course. Let's say you had to go grocery shopping, you put them on the web on your way in telling them it's a fun place for them to play but little do they know their little butts won't be getting off until you're on way out.

Just plop them on there.


This is close but how do you convince your child it's fun?


Are you seeing it? I'm thinking pretty genious if you ask me.

Good grief,

I'm tired.

I have to go to bed.

It's Okay, Try Again

We're in the midst of potty training Sage right now. Yeah, I know...FUN! So during our trip we pretty much got lazy, strapped a diaper on her and didn't push too hard for potty breaks. So today I knew I had to step it up and go full force with training pants once again. For those of you who aren't too familiar with Sage, one of her personality quirks that we adore is that she practices self-therapy. For example, before Clare was born she would freak out if she saw me holding someones baby so we would tell her "it's okay Sage, you're fine." So after awhile when I would again get caught by her holding another baby she would start chanting "I fine...I Fine...I FINE!"
Back to potty training. I've read that when kids have accidents to not make a big deal about it or else you create more problems for yourself in getting them potty trained, so that's what we had been doing in the past. I should have guessed that there would be some regression in the progress she had made and I should have pushed for her to go use her Dora Big Girl Potty a little more often. I realized this mistake when I heard her having this conversation with herself in the next room
"Oops, I have accident. That's okay, try again next time. I put my poop in potty. Oh dear, I dirty. Oops, I have accident. That's okay, try again next time..."
The nice part is I don't have to say anything anymore. I just clean her up and let her keep talking.

A Visit to the North Country

As I mentioned in the last post, we took a trip up to ND/MN to visit our family and friends. A whirlwind of a trip that included staying overnight at five different places over the course of eight days. It was asking a lot of the girls but they did really well considering and it was worth the build up of exhaustion just to watch all little cousins playing together. The main reason we went up was because all three of my brothers and their families were going to be there and with two families out in NY, this doesn't happen too often. If I learned anything on this trip it's that I am incredibly blessed with amazing friends and family. Like Melanie and Eric, who are going into the Peace Corp for two years this October knowing that there is a great chance they are going to have some major digestive problems but will risk it because their hearts are so big and they just want to show love to those who need it most. Or like Becky and Travis who have two boys (and I mean boys in all its meaning!) ages 3 and 4, and are going to have twins in a couple of weeks. There should be some kind of award for that. These two are wise beyond their years and so humble at the same time. They are two of the coolest people I know and anyone would totally love hanging out with them. And then there is Stacy who, bless her heart, when I asked to look for things at garage sales in Fargo, ND for me so that I won't have to lug a bunch of stuff up there in November, took the list and went running from one sale to the next (I consider her an expert when it comes to garage sales) and completely checked off every item after first lending me the things she already has. This woman is so kind and generous--she has literally given me the socks off her daughter's feet when this ditsy mom here had forgotten to pack them. Nothing is better than friends who inspire you to be better and do better.

That's just friends, I also have a great and sometimes crazy (including you Mom) family but I need to wrap this blog up now because I only have so much time to myself after the girls have gone to bed and I need to soak it up. I'll talk about the family reunion another night. I know you are all anxious to here more so I'll pacify you with some pictures.

Aren't they cute?!


Clare and cousin Kason. He's three months, she's six months. He weighs over 14 lbs, she weighs around 13. We get a kick out of this.



Sage telling her Nana "Shhhh, Anika is shweeping." Apparently Anika must have superhero hearing because she was taking a nap in the cabin.



Admit it, you want to try it too.



Kade and Sarah, the two oldest cousins.

Sad Day

This was the morning we've been dreading for quite some time now and it was every bit as hard as we thought it would be. Brent left for his training and then eventually his deployment. I'm not going to go into detail about what it was like saying goodbye to him or watching him say goodbye to his daughter's, I need to be strong right now and if I start writing too much I'll lose it! Part of me is glad that it has started the rest of me is just really sad right now. Please keep us in your prayers, we appreciate them so much.

We just got back from a wonderful trip up north visiting friends and family. I have so much to share from that trip and will start sharing it with you tonight. With Brent being gone I'm going to have lots of time in the evening to blog! In the meantime, check out the beautiful pictures my brother, Ehren, and his wife, Ester, took on their website http://ehrenester.wordpress.com/