New Flooring

Due to my persistent and obsessive nature (and the fact that I didn't have a job to go to at the time) we won a contest and earned a $2,000 gift certificate to a local flooring company. After mulling over lots of different options for what we could do to stretch the money, we decided to put laminate down in the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, and stairway. Neither of us had ever laid laminate flooring down, but when we found out we could cover more than twice as much square footage if we laid it ourselves, we quickly acted like we could do it with no problem.
Throughout the week Travis pulled up the old flooring slowly but surely. When he doesn't get home until 6:30 or 7, by the time we eat dinner there's only a small window of time before it's time to get Evalee settled in for bed. But we (he) cracked at it slowly, and by Friday he had the dining room, hallway, and stairs all ready to go. Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Eric came over Friday night and helped pull up the living room carpet so we would be ready to go Saturday morning. We discovered some rotten pieces of subflooring in the living room, thus proving you can never had a house project without something unexpected cropping up.
We celebrated Travis's birthday the next day with lots of head scratching and sweat. Grandma and Papa Kershaw came up from Virden with Alex, and Eva made sure she disappeared for most of the day in the backyard. I don't know for sure what all went on back there, but I do know they were laughing and running and playing with water enough to go through several outfits and popsicles and were both very tired toddlers after dinner. I was so thankful Grandma came up because I was certainly not up for keeping her busy outside of the house all day long. By the end of the night the men had gotten in their groove, and by the time everyone left we had all but a little chunk of the living room and hallway done.
Again, we tried to work on it just the two of us when Travis got home from work each night, but with less hands the boards were much harder to get snapped into place. We averaged about 2 pieces a night. We clearly needed help if we were ever going to get it finished. So, the crew minus Uncle Eric and Alex came back for a round 2 the following Saturday. By that time we (they) were a well-oiled machine and we were able to finish all the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway (minus a small section). Now all Daddy has left is the hallway piece, the stairs, and the landing and then he can put the trim back up. It sure was (is) a long process, but I'm glad we have such great people in our lives that were willing to help us so we could buy so many more materials with our winnings. We LOVE the change and do not for one second wish we had the carpet back!

The picture that started it all.

This was our other option for the contest.

Dining room before shot

Stairs before shot

Daddy finding some great flooring underneath the dining room laminate.

Whew! I guess it could have been worse!

Helping Grandma pull up staples... in her underwear

Keeping busy outside with Grandma and Alex

These two were wired

Dancing during break time

After dinner they got into a "You stink!" competition that had them both giggling up a storm

The cats huddled together for support during all the craziness

The kitchen before

Fridge spot before

New floor

The horizon

Woah-Woah, Jessie, and Buzz

Evalee has been in love with Toy Story since about April now. Although she has been one to obsess heavily and move on about every 3 months, this one has been different. These characters are friends of hers, she kisses her Woody (or Woah, Woah, and she calls him) doll spontaneously and often, and she spins in circles as soon as you start talking about the movies. We've been fortunate enough to find a lot of the "lesser" characters, if you will, at yard sales. Some straight from the Toy Story brand, some vaguely resembling the guys she loves. But she doesn't care one bit. She has her Etch a Sketch, Rex the dinosaur, Ham the pig, the Fisher Price phone (which she even got to pay for with quarters from a purse she brought at the yard sales) -- all of which we paid collectively maybe $3 for -- and of course Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye. Perhaps we've spoiled her by finding all of them for her, but the light in her eyes when she sees the gang is hard to resist.

Blessings

When I got the phone call last month informing me that we would need to find a new place for daycare, there were a variety of emotions that I was experiencing. I was sad to leave a place we had grown to love and friends Eva had made. I was filled with a little anxiety about the stress of finding someone new we liked. Mostly, I was scared that we wouldn't find someone that fit into our budget since we had planned for being able to afford the new baby under the current rates we were paying. To  be totally honest, I was afraid of the embarrassment that I would feel if I couldn't afford to take care of my family -- like some teenager that didn't think things through before getting pregnant.

Travis's reaction was totally typical Travis: "It'll all work out." This never helps me because I immediately think in my head, "Yes, but..." At a particular low point of feeling helpless, I even broke into a late night uncontrollable sob session. Travis assured me, saying that God would never give us another baby without having a plan for how we would pay for it. Ashamedly, I thought "God helps those who help themselves." I thought, could we really be selfish enough to expect God to take care of a problem we should have been wise enough to note as a possibility before making the decision to have another child?

I called the contacts I had, and one by one they were placed on the "no" pile, either because they were nearly twice the amount we could afford or because they didn't have space for a baby. As we got less and less people on our list, I was convinced we were going to have to go to extreme measures -- an entirely new career for Travis, selling our house for one with a lower payment, selling things from home like Tupperware or something, me learning how to play golf so I could earn more money as our school's golf coach... they all went through my mind.

We had one number left. I just left it alone for days because I didn't want to feel completely hopeless. Finally I braved up, knowing that ignoring the problem wouldn't make it go away. And just like that, the pieces fell into place.

The new place Eva will be going to this fall is a 20 second car ride from our house. We walked to her house tonight, in fact, in less than 3 minutes. She will spend the day with about 4 other kids her age, all of which just got done getting potty trained and like to all go together to the bathroom. At least a couple of them live on our street. The house has a medium-sized dog that Evalee already adores. The daily rates we will pay will in some situations be less than the rates we planned on. In short, she is exactly what we needed when we needed her to be.

So tonight I am once again humbled before my God. How dare I question whether or not He would take care of us  -- that He would have a plan for our family. This baby is a gift from Him, just as her sister has been. He has blessed us with each other, a home, two jobs, cars to get to those jobs, and now two children right when we needed them. He has never left us on our own. I don't know how anyone could be blessed with the things we have been given and not believe in a God above them watching over them.

Baby's Room

 We've made great strides in the baby's room this week. Before we knew if we were having a boy or a girl, we decided to paint the walls blue. We figured if it was a boy we could do light blue accents and if it was a girl we could do pink accents. So the walls were painted (goodbye maroon sponge paint!), the furniture was moved in, and boxes from the attic came down with all our newborn stuff. I forgot how much **stuff** you use with a newborn baby! Grandma helped us out with one of her famous 30% off at Kohls coupons, so we were able to snag some pink curtains and a rug to pull the room together. We still have a few things to get for the room and to decorate the walls with, but I love how it is coming together!

The baby blanket was made by my Aunt Sue. I've always loved the pattern, so I decided to base my "pinks" off of it. Plus, I didn't want to use the baby bedding we bought last time again since the bumper was so thick and dangerous.

Drive in Fun

We went for our first (of many, we decided last night) drive-in experience last night. The first movie was Brave and the second was The Avengers. Evalee was so excited to be there around all the other kids. She ran around like a crazy girl while we waited for it to get dark. I had never been to a drive in, so I was excited too. Once it was time to settle down for the movie, Evalee was enamored. She sat so well through the whole movie. She kept calling the main character Jessy because she was a girl with red hair that rode a horse, so I'm not sure if she thought perhaps it was a Toy Story spin off or what. She had no problems at all staying awake even through the movie started at bedtime. In fact, when it ended around 11, she was ready to run around and go  back to the swings. We moved into the car for The Avengers and us girls fell asleep after the first hour and Daddy watched the rest. My allergies were acting up so I was a little sniffly and grumpy by the end, but if we make believe I wasn't so grumbly on towards 1 a.m. it was a fantastic night. Next year we'll have to talk some more people to come up with us and bring more food (and pillows!)

So Easily Persuaded...

This week Evalee has followed her peers' lead twice in doing things we've been trying to get her to do. Our neighbors have a granddaughter that lived there for the first year or so of Eva's life, moved away for a little while, and is now moved back. She's a year older than Evalee and they are both smitten with one another. Natalie loves to come to our yard to swing on our swings, and Evalee loves to run to their garage to drive their Barbie car. Sometimes, they even play together. But on Saturday, Evalee got invited over to swim in the blow up pool that they have next door. It was close to bedtime and I didn't know if she'd even get in, but we changed her into her suit to give it a try. All she needed was Natalie's sweet beckoning from the pool and in she went. She splashed, she got wet above her knees, I was impressed. She could have played there all night, but eventually it started getting dark and very close to bedtime so we got out of the pool. Evalee sobbed the whole way home. Hopefully we'll catch an opportunity to swim again soon!

Then again Sunday night we went to our first drive in movie. We had to get there early to get a good spot, so we had time to kill before it got dark. Luckily, they had train rides, swings, sand, and a few other things for kids to play with. Evalee rode the train 3-4 times (the lady running it said we were lucky it wasn't busy because normally kids only have time to ride it once) and then watched the older kids on the swings. Not wanting to be outdone, she too decided to swing like a big kid. Once she started going, she had a great time.

So now we're just waiting for a visit from cousin Alex to show her how awesome it is to pee on the potty... :)

Father's Day with the Kershaws

The day after the wedding we packed up and headed to Peoria to spend Father's Day with the Kershaw family. I was not feeling well -- mostly from not drinkng enough water the day before (I think). So, I ended up taking a nap once we got to Peoria while everyone else went down to play in the pool. It seems as though Eva eventually warmed up to the idea of swimming, at least for a bit. We also got to meet the new addition to the family, Bailey, Trevor and Ashley's dog. I was seriously lacking in the picture taking category and did not get a single picture of the the kids with the dog, but they were very excited to see her. Maybe too excited. Eva was a bit out of sorts from the chaos, but all in all it was a successful afternoon.