piano!

just after we received the inheritance money, we got a letter from the college. they were having their annual used piano sale!

we've wanted one for years. me so i could play more, and shaun because he wanted me to be able to play more.

we made an appointment to go look at them.

they had 3 in our price range. one was an antique upright player piano. and the other 2 were what are called spinets. i really wanted the antique player, but it needed some work. the player part didn't work, it needed a tuning (they all did), and i learned later that there were several keys that didn't work.

the one we got though, needs the damper pedal replaced, and tuned. other than that, it worked fine. we did discover that one of the keys doesn't always work.

today, the kids started lessons!!

roller coaster

the last 3 weeks have been nuts!

we replaced everyone's mattresses. we replace everyone's pillows, we replaced my broken mixer, we replace my outdated (but still functional) blender, we repaired my sewing machine and i got a sewing surface extender. i got fabric for michael's christmas blanket, we got everyone halloween costumes.

for almost 2 weeks, we ran constantly. we've been to idaho falls 5 or 6 times this month. it seems like we haven't been able to get anything done cause we are always doing something away from home. things seem to have finally slowed down a little bit, and we are now home most of the time.

we started working on the kitchen cabinets. it's going to be a long process, and out plans have changed a few times, but we are so excited to finish it. the boxes and sides of the doors are going to be blue, and the fronts and backs of  the doors are going to be the natural wood! it's amazing how much the natural wood matches the counter tops!

we finally had a full day to put towards school as well. now if i can only convince the kids to actually do the work, instead of "pretending!" as we're still in a learning process and figuring out how things work the best for us, i'm not entirely surprised we still have a few bad days here and there!

fretting

shannon, age 5, knocking on dad's office door, "dad, what are you doing?"

dad, "fretting."

shannon, "that's a lot of fretting."

on top of things, for now

my sewing is fixed!

i have a new mixer! we thought that was easier than dealing with repairs.

we replaced all the mattresses!

we replaced all the pillows!

everyone has enough good fitting clothes!

all the past due bills are paid up and a couple months extra!

we've paid off nearly all the small debt (<$500)!

now we just need to figure out how to take care of things normally....

what a week!

we heard 4 weeks ago, that mom's house had sold (shaun's mother). it was just a matter of getting everything finalized. paperwork signed, final bills paid, etc. last wednesday, shaun's siblings came over and delivered his portion.

how do you write about the finality of death and everything it brings?

with the inheritance, we've been working on getting basics back in order. bills paid, debts paid, clothes, beds,

colors!

my evening went something like this.

boil 25.5 quarts of water, measure out 4 cups of salt, measure out 1.25 cups of fabric dye. place in large bucket.
stuff socks into dyeing water. wait 30 minutes, stirring twice.
rinse with cold water, wring out by hand.
haul down to the laundry room, dump in pile.
wait 2 hours on load in washer to finish so i can rinse them out properly.
80 minutes for rinse.

beautiful socks!

purple for ashley
pink for shannon
yellow for elizabeth
blue for taylor

now it will be immensely easier to sort and fold socks. not only that, but it will be a cinch to figure out which child left their socks under the table or behind the chairs!