Getting Things Done & Making Friends

The only way to get things done around the new house on the weekends is to have one of us take the kids somewhere while the other paints (in this example, I am the field trip coordinator and Jay is the painter, so I snapped a few photos of the kids having fun at the Children's Museum the other morning. If it's a quick job we can just turn on a movie, give everyone a snack, and shut the door to the family room so we don't loose anyone and just keep an ear out for screaming. (yes, this house is much bigger than the old one and we have in fact lost each other in it.) Rosco specifically has shut himself into a closet by mistake as well as let himself out through the broken screen door. With the closet incident we could hear him barking, and it only took 10 minutes to narrow in on his location, but when he left the house that was a bit longer of an incident. Jay met a lot of the new neighbors driving around looking for him though! And we did actually get him back from one neighbor who walked him back to our old house and then contacted our realtor. We even managed to score two babysitters out of the deal! Two girls were part of the group that found him and dropped off letters at our house afterwards. There's also a 12 year old next door that Joseph has taken a liking too. He's started playing with her 5yr old brother but also enjoys hanging out with the middle brother and older sister as well. We've actually met a ton of neighbors, and just last night met some folks who moved in this summer and have a 2 mos old girl, who if I've calculated correctly will only be one school year behind Hannah and Leah. There are quite a few kids in the neighborhood so I'm hoping they all find fun playmates nearby. But back to the subject of getting things done, Jay is actually finished with Joseph's room....two coats of primer and one coat of paint to cover up the bright red and holes in the walls and it is now quite nice. I thought I'd clean the carpet this morning and officially call it done, and would you believe that the carpet in fact was dyed ?!?!?!? We now know where the "dirty" feet are coming from....black dye! I washed it twice with the bissel and the water was colored with dye each time. We thought we were just going to do the attic carpet and the girl's carpet (both are truly nasty due to the cats that previously had control of this place), but we're thinking Joseph's bedroom and our bedroom are not too far off in the future. (ours is a lovely shade of faded aqua) As we "finish" rooms I'll post some before and after photos. We have a lot to do but we're already loving some things, like the second floor family room. We have the computer, tv, toys and everything set up in there for the kids and us to relax and play with and it already seems to be the space we use most along with the kitchen and patio. We've never had sliding doors to outside before, and it is pretty nice. Eventually I assume the kids will actually learn to close the screen behind them and to not push on it every time it's open. The location is turning out to be really nice too, it's a pretty quiet street (in terms of traffic and people walking by) but is conveniently located near a lot of things. Yesterday we moved my sister in (Gina is going to be living in the finished attic, and we're pretty excited to have another pair of hands around to paint and play with kids) and this afternoon we are taking a break! Jay went to the Brewers vs Cubs game with friends and when the kids wake up from their naps I'm taking them over to the old neighborhood to hang out with friends. It'll be a bit strange seeing the back of our house from their yard and have it not be our house!