Finally! Up to date!!

Yay!  I'm finally to July!

Here's what we've been up to this month:
(Ahem, okay, in full disclosure, I'm now obviously not up to date, as July is over tomorrow...but am going to stop whining about it and just get blogging.  Okay?  Okay.)

Those chicks are getting big!

In an earlier post I talked about doing some agility stuff with Brin.
(I also mentioned something about optional clothing, which my kids take very seriously!)

Brook was excited to teach him "Over!"

He's a smart dog, but only when treats are involved, ha.

My fruit boy.  Pre-haircut.
Unfortunately, I don't have a post-haircut photo yet, which I'm bummed about because I did a great job!  We were literally walking out the door, a half hour late to visit our friends and Sam says, "I need a haircut."
HOLD.THE.PHONE.
We turned ourselves right around and head right to the bathroom.
It's not every day (or month. or year.) that this boy asks for a haircut, ya'll!

I started on my First Real All-By-Myself woodworking project (the blue/stained stool I showed in a previous post).
The kids needed an end table downstairs, and I wanted to make something out of 2x4s so it wouldn't be super expensive or anything if I messed it up.

Let me tell you, just looking at this photo, I am amazed at how much I've learned in just the past few weeks alone about woodworking. 
I was terrified I would screw something up on this dang end table (I did.)!!
But after building it, I was so ready for my next thing, ready to spread my wings just a tad more.

Aaaaand I chose a freaking 2-story fort.
I didn't just spread those wings, I strapped each wing to a child and then they ran in opposite directions.
Those babies STRETCHED.
But I now know how to level a structure, brace a structure, and use a framing nail gun.
But I did not learn math.  Because I forgot ten 2x6's...more stretching...

Thank heavens Russ was there to hold my hand (and re-nail my boards) every step of the way.

"I want some ice cream.  You want some, Mom?"

This is how I KNOW my wings stretched.
Because I made THIS!
It was my second I'm Going To Do This By Myself With NO Help project.
And I couldn't be happier (even though mistakes were made and cuss words were expressed)!
I was really glad that I got enough wood for two...even if the dog does like to use them as chew toys... (more muttered cuss words).

P.S.  I don't think I'll ever get tired of that view...have I mentioned that I love living here??  :D

Oh, this pup...one moment I want to smother him with love, and the next moment, a freaking pillow.
If we had had him longer before naming him, I think he would be named something like Shadow, because he's always 1/8th of a step behind me...which isn't always the most convenient of places.
Alas.  He loves me.  And I love him.

Our almost-daily dance in the rain.  Seriously, every time it rains.  We must dance.

I had my birthday!  And Russ surprised me with these which smelled up the entire upstairs!

Two weekends ago, Russ made the trek to California to retrieve the rest of our belongings.  I was so grateful when Corinne said she'd meet him in Oakland and help him load up and ride home with him.  Along the way, they also got to stop and hike Mount Whitney, which I cannot find the photos of.
Sad day.

But while he was gone, I was determined to try and quench my thirst for projects.
These are the lights that are in each of our bathrooms.  And I'm sure that this is the "updated" fixture, given that it's a nearly-50 year old house!

Well, it took me FIVE times to get this sucker installed (mostly) correctly.
SO much better!  Especially since it's a new $60 fixture that I picked up at an auction for $14!
WOOT!  Plus, I was pretty proud of myself, learning how to re-wire a fixture and all that...especially in a pitch dark room...this bathroom has NO natural light, so I had to do it all with a flashlight.

Love this boy and his sleeping abilities.

I also got Brooklyn's magenta paint on the fort's wall that will have climbing wall holds on the other side.  Now to get a roof on it so we can paint the underside Sam's sky blue color.

I also figured out how to install the zipline!
Unfortunately, I didn't really think it through and put the dang thing too low and on the only pole of the fort that wasn't supported!  Ugh.  Need to redo it all again now.

Ack!  Another chair bites the dust!!
Thankfully, Russ got home the following day with our old, much sturdier chairs!

This was my birthday present to myself--a 10 pack of soft-close dampers!
I was SO excited to install them...until I got my screwdriver aaaaand no hardware included.  What?!
So I waited until our next trip to Home Depot to pick some more up (which was this past weekend).  Russ surprised me by installing all of these for me!...and also in telling me that the hardware WAS included, it was already in place on the dang dampers.  Sigh.

I seriously underestimated how much I would love these little guys.
The downside is that I only had 10 and we have 20 cabinets in our kitchen alone (I want these babies in the bathrooms too!).  And I did not install them.
This means that I can not for the life of me remember which cabinets Russ installed them on!
Those suckers are LOUD when you aren't expecting them to slam!

We had these round segments of wood (and one 8' one) that I've been eyeing since we moved in, trying to figure out what to do with them.  Then I was looking into play structures and BAM! it hit me, a lava pit!!

So I put 10 logs and numerous rocks to create this "parkour course" as the kids call it.
It's great because this is the area that our property drains to when it rains.  Just yesterday it monsooned and only the top 6" of the closest poles were sticking out!
Also, that balance beam goes across a nasty fire ant nest...

Ack!  Now that I'm caught up, I need to take more photos!
Off to do just that...

June!

Welcome to the Teeter House where we jump on beds, always have a million projects going on and clothing is optional! 

(Although if you visit us, we'd appreciate if you packed some clothing...)

We finally have a bedroom big enough for all of us!  So much fun and so many fantastic conversations are had in here.  Everything from in-depth conversations on cancer and WWII to Brooklyn realizing she loves to give foot rubs (which I'm happy to volunteer for) and lots of stories being told--both childhood and written word. 
Oh, and lots of jumping.

One of the kids' requirements for a new house was that there must be stairs.
To be slid down of course!!

Out on the side deck popping Snap Its.

My watermelon boy.

Swingin' on the back deck.

We're in the east mountains of Albuquerque (Sandia Park, to be specific), and although it's about 10 degrees cooler than Albuquerque, it's still freaking hot!

So, at this point, at least half of our stuff was in California still.  We had one nasty couch and a few chairs (which were dwindling as they kept breaking--we were down to 1 when Russ brought our stuff back from CA!), etc.  Anyway, the weekend after we moved in, I saw a garage sale sign that said "decorator's liquidation".  Um, okay, it's worth checking out...
Dude.  I scored.  It was an interior designer who had a giant garage FULL of stuff used for staging homes.  Everything was in great condition and beautiful and from places like Pier One and World Market, where I would never shop and pay their prices, ha.
Anyway, I ended up with some amazing stuff--2 like-new couches (the one in the photo had been used once and was a $500+ couch!), my amazing sitting chair and ottoman (that I told the kids to be nice to because it's so comfy I want to be buried in it when I die), 2 gorgeous console tables, a big lamp, and lots of little odds and ends.
Oh, AND she lived right across the street! ...which is a 1/2 mile out here, but was awesome considering I had to make 6 trips to get all of the stuff!

Ah, this is a Before couches and stuff.  Like our tv console?  Ha.

The workshop area.  There WERE cabinets and everything in here when we looked at the house.  Apparently they TOOK them!  What the heck?!
Oh well...time to start crafting!
First big purchase for the shop?  Table saw!  ...which I was very happy for.  Woodworking has never been even remotely interesting to me, until I discovered Pinterest...and how much all of those beautiful things in all of the photos cost!!  

Then I found www.ana-white.com (who got into woodworking the same way I did--wanted the pretty things, but couldn't afford them) and I could not WAIT to get started!!
So a big requirement for the workshop is that Russ have his bench and I have mine (that way I don't have to stand on a stool to work at his bench!!).

Here's the After. 
Russ's bench is on the left and mine is on the right (although is always covered in crap, and I mostly work in the middle of the floor anyway).
This was all constructed while I was hauling things back from that garage sale!
And not only was it constructed, but the kids decorated it for me as well!!  They got their paints and markers out and left some fantastic artwork on my "crafting table".

(Oh, and since we've actually moved in and got started on projects, this 2 1/2 car garage has become FULL!!  I never thought we'd fill it up so fast...alas.  What do you do when you're working on 10 different projects at once?!)

Our first woodworking project wasn't anything spectacular...mostly just necessary.
A chicken coop!

 Not very pretty, I know.  But we were eager to get going on our little homestead.  And our first order of business animal-wise was meat chickens!  They don't need roosts or anything, so we just needed to construct something to keep them safe for the whole 8 weeks it takes them to reach adult-size (isn't that insane?!).
Oh, and after we finished this, Russ went upstairs and ordered not 15 chickens (like we'd discussed), but TWENTY-FIVE!!
So the following weekend we had to go get more materials so we could double the size of this coop...

This happens a lot here...we call it the redneck pool.

Russ snapped this photo in Albuquerque...ah, typical Albuquerque (enlarge and look at the cars to see what I mean).

The garage isn't just for Russ and I...also for Brooklyn and Sam and Barbie and My Little Ponies.
Trying to make it a fun place for everyone to be.

So I LOVE this game on my Kindle.  Pixel Perfect I think it's called?  Anyway...it's a math-type puzzle and I can sit and play it over and over and over all.day.long.  And here's the thing, because I can't find another version, I play the same 20 puzzles OVER and OVER.  Insanity, I tell you.
So it's no surprise that Sam was quite curious about it.  He's been interested in numbers lately, asking me to ask him math problems.  And of course he's a technology dude, so it's no surprise he likes it, I suppose.

Oh Tesla...don't you know that's where the dirty laundry goes??

Another New House Requirement from the kids was "A good house to have a dog."  I think a 1/2 acre fenced backyard will do!
So, meet Brin (Short for Herobrine, for you Minecrafters)!
He's a 1-year-old Australian Red Heeler mix who was given to the pound by his owners, saying he was aggressive towards cats and was an escape artist and was house-trained...none of which were true.  ...including the house-trained part (he was outside alone all day long and then slept in the garage at night, no wonder he wanted to escape!  He was bored!).
We looked at several dogs, but he was the only one who paid any sort of attention to us.  And actually, the thing that drew me to him at the shelter was at first his name, Russell!  And he's a red-head!  Plus, while all of the other dogs were barking their brains out, he just sat there staring at you with his soulful greenish eyes, begging to be pet.

I won't say it's been a cake-walk, but he's a really great family dog.  We started doing some agility training on him after he got loose once and I called him to come home.  He was sprinting, turned on a dime, then sprinted full-speed back at a barbed wire fence...I yelled, "NO!" but that boy sailed right through the 1 foot wide gap...insane.

Another New House requirement:  Good place for hammock.
Check!

The troops coming in from romping in the dirt.

We have some really crappy chairs that we got on Freecycle for cheap when we moved here (and were chair-less).  Well, they started breaking one by one and why waste a good chair when you can have a swing!?

So much fun!  There were daily fights over it for awhile...and then another chair broke...hehe.

May!

Okay, getting back on track...have been doing lots of awesome projects that I can't wait to show you all!  But Must.Get.Caught.Up.

We decided to take a walk to the park one afternoon.  Sam and Russ were well ahead of Brook and I when we got sidetracked by the ants.

 

She and I observed for a good 45 minutes...it was amazing!  There were at least 4 different kinds of ants just on a section of our street and they all seemed to function a bit differently.  What was amazing was watching each nest--there were some ants that seemed to be scavengers, bringing food back to the nest.  Then there were others that were bringing garbage out.  Then others that were seemingly milling around, but I'm sure they had a purpose...anyway, quite fascinating.
And no, we never did make it to the park to join the boys, ha!

 

Sam, my gamer.  Could be cards, could be Nintendo, could be board games, could be the computer, could be social games...today he chose chess.  And I was impressed that he already knew how to start playing and what some of the pieces did!

My Gamer Boy is also my Vacuum Boy. 
He tore up little pieces of toilet paper so he could suck them all up.

Snuggly kitty time.

Growth spurt!

Brook stayed up late one night and when I woke up the next morning, I found this.
Yes, I cried.

Typical Albuquerque sunsets.

More jump photos!

Aaaand we're done with jump photos.

Princess Peach photo bomb!

They love each other so much...most of the time...

And guess what!  We bought a house!!...which I'm sure most of you are probably already aware.
But I'm finally posting about it!!  Ha.
We didn't sign on the house until 4pm, which means we didn't get out of signing until 6:30pm, which means we weren't sure we would be able to stay in our new house for the first night.
But we made it!!  We ran out to the house to get the key, ran back home (30 minute drive) to load up all of the essentials (mattresses, a change of clothes, some food, laptop...) and headed back out.

We knew this house was huge, but seeing it empty...it was ENORMOUS!  Especially since it's more than twice the size of any other house we've rented or owned!  It took the kids days to figure out what rooms were where.  It's true, they actually got lost...hehe.

So we spent the first night playing Spot It on the living room floor.

I had to post this photo, it makes me laugh every time I see it.
I have wanted a mortar and pestle for so long and when I saw this one at Costco for a great price, I snatched that baby up!  ...but I didn't realize it needed seasoned (grinding white rice in it until the ground rice stays white...make sense?).  So Russ got to work on it for me...love him!

Alright, time to get crack-a-lackin' on June!