Snowmageddon 2011

What did we do during this fierce snow of the century?  Well, take a look.  And, for the record, it was truly a let down.  I mean sure, the snow practically covers my mailbox and sure, my 4x4 truck got stuck for several minutes in my parent's culdesac, but 18"?  Is that it for our said "Snowpocalypse"?   I thought for sure we'd be snowed in for days at a time or something...like power would go out and we'd warm ourselves by the stove while we played games by candlelight.  Not that I am complaining or anything, but I'm just saying.  It was a slight let down.

I stayed at mom and dad's house, due to the fact that mom doesn't like being alone, let alone in bad weather and she certainly can't handle my being alone at our house with 5 kids when we could possibly be buried under tons of snow, starving and freezing to death...or something like that.  OK, so a little drama there for you readers, but nonetheless, we stayed at mom and dad's house.

We got up and made some Cinnabon cinnamon muffins that tasted NOTHING like Cinnabon, but the kids liked them for sure.

They may not have tasted like Cinnabon, but they were still good...especially with all the drizzle.

Finger-licking good!

Lip-smacking delicious.

And they washed it down with a cup of Joey.  Kid coffee.  Hot chocolate.  You never stay at mema's house without it!

The snow plows did finally make their rounds, even though it wasn't even close to being done snowing yet.  Check out how high the snow is to the truck!  We had plenty of time to take pictures and check it out because in this picture, it's stuck.  It was spinning wheels long enough for us to really get worried about what was going to happen...then as quick as he was spinning, he was back to plowing. 

The snow piled pretty high on the back deck, as you can see here.  The drift in the corner ended up being well over 3 feet.

Levi was the first to go out and play in it...

...followed by Kevin.  Levi was the only one to pack his snow gear to take to mom's house, so I left to go get the rest of the kids' stuff and to plow our driveway. 

 

So, just before I got out the door, Micah comes out dressed like this and says, "OK, I'm ready to go outside."  Then, when we all laughed at her, she just started making faces and being typical Micah.  I love that girl...mini me, I think. 

Now the next several pictures are just going to show you the snow and all those things "not so exciting unless you actually live here, so pretend to like it".

This is our driveway early Wednesday morning.  I took one pass with dad's snowblower and realized just how much work I would have to do.  

I even did the sidewalk for all those visitors we would get in this "blizzard."

This is a terrible picture, but the driveway snow was up to my knees.  Not that bad I say.

Poor mail box.  Poor mail lady.

Poor snowblower.

Treacherous driveway...but looking good.  Tim, you owe me.

I know that the beauty of the day gets lost in photographic translation, but these are my attempts to show you the scenery.

By the way, it is not foggy...

This is at mom's house again.  You could barely see to the lake at times.

The snow in mom and dad's driveway passed up my door...so that must have been over 2 feet I guess.

Dad had to snowblow the deck.  

Leave it to dad to break out the tape measure.  This is probably actual snow fall and doesn't account for any of the massive drifts.

This was while dad was snowblowing the deck.  Kinda funny!

Micah finally got dressed right, only with no snow pants.  I think all the other kids put on the wrong ones leaving her with none (Eden can't find hers...Micah has to pay).

They used mom's popcorn tubs as buckets or whatever in order to build a wall of some sort.

A scooter...not too sure what Levi was intending to do with it.  I think he was attempting to make a ramp and fully expected to go over it...in thick snow.  Whatever.

The scooter was short-lived and soon he realized he could find REALLY BIG snow chunks which was, by far, more interesting than ramping in the snow.

The mandatory "would you all just sit still long enough for me to get one good picture of you guys?" picture.

 Now one from the front.  Photography can be a full time job...

Elijah really wanted to dig a tunnel, but this is powdery snow.  It was not going to conform to anything he wanted it to do.  Poor guy.  Any time one of the kids would walk around it, part of it would cave in.

Funny girl poses for the camera...then pops up and says, "Can I see?" 

The tunnel.

Looks more like a cave for Kevin.

The boys found this huge ice chunk and it didn't matter what they could or could not do with it, they had to carry it somewhere.  So they did.

The kids got cold and one by one made their frozen way into the house.

Poor Elijah had swollen cheeks...you know the kind where it's actually white cheeks with the red outline?  Yeah, he was done!

 What?  Do I look like a deer caught in headlights or what?  Yes, so it is a flattering picture.  It was funny to me.  Can I help it?  It was stinkin' cold out there.  The heat was shocking.

We had a long day.  We had a full day and in the end we were all ready for bed...our own beds. 

Kevin wasn't the only tired one.  We went home that night and I couldn't get in the driveway again.  I had to shovel almost 5 inches out of the way so as not to pack it all down, causing ice.  (Our driveway is a "you better use the emergency brake" driveway and driving over and packing down the snow is not a smart idea, if Tim wants to be able to park.  His little 2 wheel drive can't make it otherwise.)  Needless to say, I was very tired by the time I got in the house.  I certainly was among the happy to find that there would be no school on Wednesday.  Time to sleep in for sure!!!

Ketchup

Well, who has time to catch up on blogs?  This is where we are.  We had Christmas.  It was nice.  Rushed in the new year.  I liked that too!  Currently?  Well, I guess we have just been the proverbial chickens, running around without heads.  Does that sound gross?  Well it doesn't matter because it sums up what we have been going through.  The house is painted.  That may not sound like such a big deal to you, but for me, it is glory hallelujah, praise the Lord I'm free at last, and all that.  I was eating and sleeping paint.  That is not the case any longer.  Most of the projects are done and I almost have laundry caught up again...after 2 months.  Not bad, I guess.  Sigh.  I do have some pictures of the house, but before I show them, this is a snapshot of what we have been doing the past 2 months.  Here goes:

We read for the 3rd Advent candle at church, 5 of us speaking while the younger two entertained the congregation by trying to snuff out candles 1 and 2.

Titus became the first Svoboda child to finally figure out that you can indeed cut your own hair...and your jeans and mommy's bed pillows.  Little Dutch boy, right?  Donna, if you are reading this, do you remember when Dolly did the Dutch Boy look to you??? 

Sledding.  This is the midwest.  It's winter.  Need I say more?

The hill is a couple doors down from mom and dad and yes, it goes right onto the lake.  In one word...fun!  That's all there is to it.

I had a lot of work to do, and when I say a lot, I mean a LOT!  Paint, paint and more paint.  I couldn't have done it with out you grande iced vanilla latte, non fat with whipped.  For the record, since the work has stopped, so has the love affair with Starbucks.  She is now only a dream once in a while visited.  Sniff.  Sniff sniff.

Next we have my trusty ol' painting pants that have stuck with me through 3 houses so far.  Well, technically only 2 1/2 since we only did work in the basement of our first build.  Shall I retire these?  I don't know.  Trends these days may make these a hot item on ebay!!!  Any lookers?

Last, but certainly not least was celebrating mom's birthday.  Ruthie met mom, Micah, Kitty and me at Panera on mom's birthday.  Somehow Kitty got in the picture instead of Micah.  Not sure why...or how.
 
Ok, so now for some of the house pictures.  The bedroom ones I took after all the kids went to bed, so they aren't all that good because I was in a hurry so as not to wake them all, but you get the idea.  Now remember, when you think of the "before" picture, just picture a plywood floor and drywall walls...everywhere.

This is right at the top of the stairs, as you can see.  It is a nice entryway table but the entryway couldn't hold it.  I think it goes perfectly...

This, of course, is the girl's room.  I have since put some painted flowers and the girls' names on the walls next to their beds, but I will post that later.  This room is one of my favorite.

At the end of the upstairs hallway used to be the bonus room and we divided it into 2 bedrooms.  This is the one to the right, Elijah's room.  This is the view of Elijah's room from the doorway and behind the Indonesian flag is an opening to a tunnel that comes out in the other boy's room.

This is the rest of Elijah's room, a little nook of sorts with a door to another "hideout" room that is right behind the dresser.  This is one of my favorite rooms.

This is the far end of Levi and Titus' room.  This is the window that looks out the front of the house, and it is Titus' side.  Levi got first pick on where his bed would go.  There you see the entrance to the tunnel to Elijah's room.  It is carpeted so they don't gather all sorts of dust while going back and forth.

This is Levi's side, obviously, and it is closest to the hallway as you can see.  The closet door is to the right  and inside that closet is the third and final "hideout" area that is what used to be attic space.   This is one of my favorite rooms.

Our room was the last bedroom to be painted and I will have to say, I love it!  We have cream and brown faux fur zebra print bedding and the red, cream and brown curtains were the perfect addition.  I may only be saying that because we have had absolutely zero privacy in the Master bedroom for over 2 months.  I would have been crazy about Barney bedsheets on the windows, and I HATE Barney! This is one of my favorite rooms.

This is the best picture I have of our bathroom.  It is one of the few works in progress, but it is leaps and bounds different than before, and the water doesn't even smell like rotten eggs...anymore.  Two months of that nearly did me in. 

For a few pictures of the downstairs, I will start in the entryway.  This is it.

This is also it, but the color is terrible. 

This is Tim's office, the first room to the right when you walk in.  It will be a work in progress until we can find all the appropriate furniture and all, but it's functional.

This is the other side of that room.  The piano is going to go here as soon as it gets here but I think that is low on the priority scale.

This is the family room, the room immediately to the left when you walk in the house.  I wanted a warm cozy feel to the room and really love the dark brown on the walls.  It is more of a dark chocolate while I would have preferred more of a milk chocolate, but apparently men do not care how difficult it is to commit to a shade of brown to match the curtains and for pete's sake just pick one already...this is what we got.  This room is also a work in progress with the beams on the ceiling needing to be covered and the fireplace needing a surround.  It will be a stacked stone surround that goes floor to ceiling.  As I recall, it was months after moving into our last house before we had a fireplace surround.  They are highly overrated anyways.  Yes, I'm just saying that.  No, I do not mean it.

If you notice, I haven't been able to commit on a sheer color yet.  Details like that can drive me crazy.  Are they important?  No.  But still, they can drive me nuts.

 

We are in desperate want for a new couch.  This one has been chewed up by a dog, kids (I think) and perhaps some vermin while in storage, but since we cannot afford a different couch, I will remain in denial about that last one.  Grunt.  I still have some tweaking to do on decorations and all, but it's becoming quite homey.  

This is a look into the breakfast area from the family room.  The main project to do in here, and in the rest of this house, is to paint all the doors.  Spring.  I plan to do them in the spring. 

Here is the powder room on the main floor.  We did remove the vanity that was there and replaced it with a white pedestal sink, but it isn't hooked up yet.  In actuality, the sink was from one of dad's jobs and it looks more like a glorified bird bath and I don't care for its small size, but until we have money to buy...well anything...it stays.  I love this color.  It is one of my favorite colors in the house.

This is the kid's bathroom and I had a lot of fun painting it.  I wanted to do the whole bathroom green but in the end, thought it a bit overwhelming...this stripe thingy was a great compromise...well that is, until Tim brought up that it's done in Packer's colors.  We are Bears loyalists..I promise.

We have things to do, yes, but we are tired.  Right now we are going to rest in knowing that our requirements for the bank have all been met and now we can dictate what gets done and when.  As I get the house cleaned up and organized and on some sort of schedule, I will take more pictures of the downstairs and let you see them. Guess what?  It is next to impossible to get the house clean AND remember to take a picture of it all before it goes to pot once again.  That's pathetic but true.  Sort of.  Until then, I hope you enjoyed the walk through our house.  Stop in and see us next time you are around!  We love having company.

We are in!

We have officially been living in the house for going on 3 weeks now.  Does that mean we are done, you may ask...?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  We are living smack in the middle of Chaosville with Mayor Mess and Sheriff Shouldn'thavemovedinyet.  OK.  That was dumb.  But it gets the point across, right? 

Only the kitchen downstairs is painted.  There is flooring that needs to be finished.  Trim that isn't done being painted.  Nail holes and joints that need to be caulked.  There is no fireplace mantle or surround and a half-built hearth screaming for someone to hit their head on it and get sent straight to the ER-unconscious.  I have no washer and dryer, 2 pantries with no shelving so I can't use them and no window treatments in our bedroom or the whole downstairs.  The master bathroom sinks leak, the kids' sink isn't hooked up, their shower leaks and their toilet is currently clogged with no-one-on-earth-wants-to-know-what.  All the 30 year old windows are leaking cool, Midwestern Fall air, and after having broken it, I am having one of them repaired for $100 when I could get a completely new one for $150.  (We are good investors!!!)  Tim is currently down in the dining room ripping out the hardwood that was installed the other day because the last 2 boxes were crooked and left gaps so big you could see the underlayment.  But wait, there's more.  Of course I'm not going to tell you anymore lest you all covet this house that I have.  :-)

Here are a few pictures I can leave you with just to give you an idea of what we are doing to ourselves...just remember, it's what you CAN'T see that is the problem.  Oh, and in case you all were wondering, I am so entirely thankful for this house!

 Introducing The Boys UNDER the Sink.  That's for you Veggie Tales fans!

 The counter tops look wonderful!

These guys couldn't get the gas hose to lay right in order to push the stove in all the way.  It was a lot of fun watching them fiddle back and forth...and it was late at night, so they got a touch slap happy.  You could imagine!  Perhaps I will take pictures of the kids' rooms...they are pretty well put together...and then you can get somewhat of an idea of what our house will be like when the mayhem goes away!

Finally...

I am just now, after almost 3 weeks, taking the time to catch up on what's going on around here.  I am not blogging about the house, although that is definitely word worthy right now.  I am blogging about our first snow.  It happened November 6th.  Yes, it is the 20th and it is totally old "news" but it was a fun day for us and I don't want that to slip through the cracks!

 The trees were beautiful!

The lake was peaceful.

The children were ready.

 Micah didn't care what she had on.  Once they all found out there was snow on the ground, they were out the door, pajamas and all.  They were only on mom's deck, but Micah didn't even take time to put on shoes.

She was outside for over 10 minutes before she decided she wanted sleeves on.  Then she also changed into some shoes...but no socks.

Eden was sure to have plenty of sock...on her hands.  We didn't have any of our winter items out of storage so out came all the socks to keep all the hands toasty.

Titus has an undershirt and zip-up sweatshirt on and is quite content.

No matter how much there is, there is ALWAYS enough snow for a snow angel.

Making snowballs isn't near as easy when you don't have use of your thumbs.

Not too sure what the problem is here, but the picture was funny.  From what I remember, she was getting snow thrown in her face by Titus, who wouldn't let anyone throw snow in his face.

To top the whole morning off, the boys, in true boy fashion, built a fort.  Clearly their imagination far surpasses mine.  All I see is a sad pile of snow. 

We haven't had snow since that morning, though we did get a brief sleet/hail incident one day.  Perhaps that means that we are in for a doozie of a winter.  It's almost December and I still haven't really needed more than a sweatshirt.  Well, no matter what happens, the kids had a wonderful morning playing in the snow!  Thank you God for making kids so enamored by the wonder that is snow!

Carpet...at last!

Today was one of the longest days I have given to the house.  Practically everything on me hurts.  We have carpet coming for the upstairs tomorrow and as usual, I was optimistic on how much work would actually get done in time for this.  While I didn't get all the painting done that I wanted, we are ready for carpet nonetheless. 

The only room that needed to have carpet removed was the girls' room and I can't say as I'm sorry to see it go.  When all the carpet and the linoleum was finally out, all I can say is, "Holy pet pee, Batman!"  Someone had a pet who couldn't find the facilities on several occasions.  Yowzers!

I still had one section of ceiling to paint and, at the time, didn't have any scaffold to use, so when I'm in need, I improvise.

Because we are getting carpet in the morning, I have a mandatory day off, and let me tell you, I need one!  I have a hair appointment at Cori's (CJ Warren Salon in Crown Point) and then I need to hit some thrift stores for jeans for the boys.  I hope I get lucky...they are in dire straits for jeans right now!  After the brief intermission of carpet installation, we will get the POD dropped of and unloaded and then sometime next week, I will be starting the whole thing over again...downstairs.  Deep breath and a sigh.