Play while you Play

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
This is the way
To be happy each day.

All that you do,
Do with your might,
Things done by half
Are never done right.

-Nursery Rhyme

We may have been in Idaho to remodel a house and get it on the market, but Mommy and Zoey needed a little time for play.  Play with a four year old is never boring, but sometimes draining.  I'm grateful Zoey has a few aunts and uncles around to help keep things going when Mom has crashed.

While home we were back to the daily grind of renovations, there was always time in the evenings to go to Grandma and Grandpa's (Memoo and Papa) and visit, oh and play with Rufus of course...

...the races with Chrissy, Karlie and Bianca.....

 ...take trips to the park and have water fights in the back yard.

The slides are her favorite.

The end of June we took our annual trip to Ogden for the D.C.  Although we were there for a specific purpose, we weren't going to pass up a chance to make it a full vacation.  My sister, Chrissy, and I thoroughly enjoyed taking Zoey to Cherry Hill, our old stomping grounds, to ride the water rides.  She rode each one fearlessly, including Cardiac Canyon, a wild tube ride down waterfalls  and through twisty canyons.  At the end she declared it was fun, but she wouldn't be going down it a second time.  Her favorites were the blue tube slides and a pirate ship where she play-steered the ship then ran periodically down stairs to check the map and change course.

One day after the D.C. in Ogden, my other siblings Karlie, Micah, and his wife Jessica joined us for the Dinosaur Park adventure.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the fossils and life sized replicas of dinosaurs artfully displayed amongst dense vegetation.  

The work on the house was not over in July as I had hoped, but we still had many wonderful days of fun ahead of us.  Although we had already bid farewell to our poultry, we did get to foster a neat little rooster for a week (he loved to perch as near us as possible, which was often my head); and  we loved the cool little 20's dress-up dinner party hosted by Karlie and Bianca...

 


...days in the canyon with friends and family.....

with Barbara and Joe's little ones.

...the county fair and Zoey riding her first pony...

...and of course our own petting zoo.

 There were so many great moments this summer.  When we worked, we worked hard; and when we played, we played hard.  The only sadness was that I was only able to share most of these experiences with my loving husband, John, via pictures, but at least we had that.  I hope all my friends, family, and if you're reading this and I don't know you, I hope you too had a wonderful, fun filled summer too.

The Long Road Home

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is Home." 

 -Matsou Basho

In Idaho, I didn't have internet and was too busy to bother finding it, so the last four months will be condensed into a few blogs.  

Leaving our new home in Midland, Texas was difficult, but I knew we had unfinished business with our home in Idaho.  The trip would be less daunting since I planned picking up Donna, John's mom, in Tucson and bringing her back to Idaho for a visit and a bit of support as I tackled the beast that is John and I's first home.  

Driving into the Magic Valley in May after spending several winter months in the deserts of Texas, I realized how beautiful my childhood home really was.   Green was everywhere and so many flowers were in bloom, but the best part of Idaho was being greeted with all the love of my family and friends, it was so nice to see them again, but this was not a social visit.

I hoped to finish the house in about two months, so I quickly started tackling projects in the house and realized some projects which were not on my list ad to be added, that would mean I needed more time and money.  The largest project added to the list was all new plumbing, sewer and water, to the entire home after discovering some leaking pipes and realizing how antiquated they were.   We also moved 1500lbs of trash and 1000lbs of metal including 2 old furnaces (the metal was recycled) from the crawl space.  Apparently in the 60's it was too much work to go to the dump so the crawl space was the obvious choice.

Four months later, with the help of friends, family, and contractors, I had cleaned out the home and property (which involved selling the hot tub, another 2 day yard sale, a lot of muscle and many trips to the dump), three new windows, remodeled two bathrooms completely, finished the cabinets in the kitchen, finished a bedroom in the basement, put down a moisture barrier in the crawlspace, put in all new cherry laminate and carpet, and painted, painted, painted and PAINTED. 

Amidst it all, my sister Karlie decided she too was going to join us in Texas (YAY!) and moved into my home to ease her transition.  Although moving her into my already tore up house made me adjust my life once again, the help she offered was a life saver.  Also deserving special thanks are the following:  my mother-in-law Donna who helped me dig in and get started without getting overwhelmed; my parents, Dan and Brenda who helped me get the sprinkler system up, sent people to help me, and helped me with various projects along the way; S. Hurley who is the most motivated contractor I ever met; S. Partridge who laid the most beautiful laminate ever; my brother Micah and Jessica who willingly volunteered to lend their hands; my brother-in-law Brandon who did a beautiful job on tile and took my trash to the dump more times than I can count; my aunt Vonnie who was always willing to help and knows the ins and outs throwing a sucessful yard sale; and Bianca, Vince, and Joel who showed up at a moments notice to give me a hand when I needed them most.  Sorry if I missed a few people, but know that all the help (paid and unpaid) was so appreciated and made this project so much easier to tackle.

John, who was working in Texas day and night to finance the remodel, was able to make the 24 hour on-the-road journey up (in 26 hours) to visit us in the middle of our great project.  During the five days he was there he installed the crown in the kitchen, built and installed the last bedroom closet system (8 doors and 8 drawer fronts), helped me make a few tile decisions, and helped my sister find a fifth-wheel for herself.  He left me to finish the project and hauled back Karlie's future home in another nonstop journey through the U.S. to start another long work week in Texas.

All along Zoey handled the madness in stride. She stayed out of the dangerous work areas and made friends with everyone coming in and out of our home.  She helped when she was able, and I tried to take time out to show her some fun, but unfortunately I was often busy with coordinating or doing a project myself, so she got a little TV addicted during the course of the project.                                                                           

 The last few weeks were a mad rush to finish as much as possible and pack everything into storage.  We packed, painted, cleaned and polished (once again, thanks Karlie).  I still felt there was so much I could have done, but some can be left to the new owners and their imagination and it was time for me to go home. I put up a For Sale by Owner sign, handed over the keys to family and we headed out, hoping the last four months of hard work will pay off.