Twin Falls Idaho

We spent a weekend up in Twin Falls with my family after Mark's family reunion in Utah.  It was nice to visit with Susanna and her family and my Mom came out with Katie, Cade and Cameron. We got there Friday night and headed over to the community college there to see Lisa's end of theatre camp production.  She is becoming quite the performer.  For their short (but it didn't seem that short) play they provided (many) methods on how to survive a zombie attack. I know some people really like zombies but I have never gotten it.  Around method 8 (of 12) Lydia who was sitting with Mark said,rather loudly "No more zombies!" It was kind of funny and the people around us got a good laugh.  It was fun to see Lisa doing her thing and to attend a theatre event as it is a big part of their lives in Twin Falls. We went out to dinner downtown after that and Jared and I spent most of the time outside as he was super sensitive ( a sadly reoccurring theme that weekend) and just needed some alone time.  It was a nice evening outside and I am much more familiar with the downtown area of Twin Falls now.

The next day we went over to a new park there and had a picnic.  We hadn't been to a park in awhile and this park was super fun.  The park was so interactive and really different than many other parks. It was great.

Saturday night we went fishing.  We didn't catch anything which was a bummer but it was nice to be out on the lake.

This umbrella made me smile.  When Susanna and I were little we each had one. One was pink and one might have been this color.  I am pretty sure this is not one of them but it was fun to see it.

Susanna asked Lydia if she wanted to touch the worm and Lydia surprised Mark with her death like grip on it. She and Jared have worms from our yard as "pets" often so I wasn't too surprised she was fine touching it.

When we go back from fishing we had a glow stick party. A few weeks ago Lydia was sad because she did not get a glow stick when she and Jared went to bed. I was talking to my Mom at the time and she promised Lydia and Jared we would have a glow stick party when we met up in Idaho. So we popped some popcorn, got the glow sticks ready and danced around in the dark with the glow sticks. It was probably my favorite thing we did in Idaho.  Lydia and Jared's favorite part of Twin Falls was playing with Lyra and Lisa.  They both loved using their dress up clothes. Since Susanna and Ryan are involved in lots of theatre productions they have lots of costume pieces. Susanna put together a super cool pirate costume for Jared and he was thrilled.  He had told me earlier in the trip that he missed his pirate costume. I love how he is making his finger a hook.

Kitchen Remodel

When we bought our home we decided that we wanted to put money into updating our kitchen.  The kitchen layout was just fine, but everything was a bit dated.  The cabinets were original (1981) and the floors were linoleum.

The fridge was somewhat new, but the stove and dishwasher were at least 15-20 years old.  When we closed on the home we went to Lowes and selected the cabinets and countertops.  We debated on dark wood or white painted cabinets.  Either would have looked great, but ultimately we chose white cabinets.  A week later we demoed the old kitchen cabinets and countertops, ripped out the floors and threw out the old stove and dishwasher.

It is amazing how empty a kitchen looks without appliances, cabinets or anything.  The next step was prepping the floor for tile.  We decided on 2ft x 1 ft charcoal gray porcelain tile.  It looks almost like slate.  We didn't have the required tools, but some friends willingly let us borrow their tools.  Additionally, they offered to come and assist in the project, which was a HUGE help!

The project lasted several days, but we only had evenings to work on it.  The top picture was after day 3 and the 2nd and 3rd picture are day 4.  We used the doorway as our center point.  Also, we staggered the tiles like bricks to reduce any visible crooked lines.  

When the tile was finished we were very happy with how it looked.  The grout lines were nice and straight and the end result was beautiful.  In spite of the beautiful tile, we were frustrated by the delay in the cabinets.  We had placed our order on April 30th (the day we closed), hoping that they would arrive before memorial day.  Unfortunately, the order wasn't confirmed by the cabinet company until May 8th.  Because our cabinets were delayed and wouldn't arrive until June 4th, we decided to move back our move-in date from June 6th to June 13th, knowing that we would have to live without countertops for a couple weeks.  We were able to find a local contractor to install our cabinets a couple of days after they arrived, so the countertop company could come and do their final measure.  We were pleased with how the cabinets looked, especially contrasted with the tile.

The wall cabinets were off by 3 inches, so that the microwave would not line up with the stove.  We were glad we caught that, so that we could have the cabinets moved 3 inches to fix it.  Once the cabinets were in we moved the appliances into place and installed the microwave.  We kept the refrigerator, but purchased a new stove, microwave and dishwasher.

We moved in on June 13th knowing that we would have to wait for our countertops, but we anticipated that they would arrive before the end of the month.  We were leaving for a family reunion in Utah on June 30th, so we assumed they would arrive sometime before, but we were disappointed and frustrated that they did not.  We received a phone call when we were in the airport to let us know that our countertops were in and asked for an install date.  We would return from Utah on July 14th, so we set up our install appointment for July 15th.  We also made plans for our friend to come in to hook up the faucet, so we would have a fully functional sink.  I took a picture of the first piece of the countertop to show what it looked like and to show the process.

Although the trim is not yet in, here is the finished product so far:

We are very excited to use our newly completed, fully functional kitchen!

ice cream, organization and locks of love

Jared and Lydia both got their charm jars filled this week. Originally Lydia said she wanted to go get cupcakes so we figured we would get ice cream one day and cupcakes the next day but then Lydia decided she wanted ice cream too so we went with it.  We love ice cream so it wasn't too hard to go twice.

Kirts Ice Cream (our favorite local shop) 

Kohrs

I also spent one afternoon organizing the storage shelves in our basement.  They are not the prettiest shelves but they are amazing. I was really excited when I saw them when we toured the house. I love how I could get everything organized and put away and the best part is I only used half the shelves.  I do love some good organizing.  I got art projects, science project materials, math and literacy resources, games, toys, coloring books, craft supplies and Play-Doh on there.

Yesterday I went and got my hair cut.  Mark always likes it when I have short hair and it's really humid here so I went short, I cut off 6 inches.  I will grow it out this Fall and Winter but for now I will keep it short. I was surprised because the hairstylist said it was long enough for locks of love.  I always thought they only took 10 inches but now they take 6 so that was a fun bonus.

We have been working hard to get the house set up and it is looking nice.  We got the townhouse all cleaned and turned in our keys. We are so glad to be done with the leasing people there. Anytime Mark or I talked to them we always felt like we were putting them out like we shouldn't be bothering them. It was just annoying and we didn't call very much at all. We will not miss them. I have also been trying to get ready for Girls Camp. It's been pretty crazy the last 2 weeks. I packed up the townhouse, unpacked here and now need to pack for a week at camp. Jared has been doing well with his glasses.  He doesn't love them but he wears them well. We started having him wear his eye patch for the 2 hours. It was pretty rough the first day but he has done better each day. I don't blame him for being so distraught the first day.  His left eye really doesn't see well so everything was blurry and he was saying the eye patch was tickling his eye he had quite the meltdown, poor kid.  I am glad he is getting more used to it. We are still waiting for our counters to be installed so that is a headache. I hope when I get back from camp they will be installed so we can unpack our kitchen and have running water in it. That would be amazing.

Jared's glasses

We picked up Jared's glasses today.  He seems to have mixed feelings about them as do I. He was excited to get them and also bummed.  It is really hot here today so he was commenting that his glasses were making him hot, I am pretty sure it was just the weather. As we were driving home from some errands I mentioned that when we go home Lydia would go down for her nap.  Jared said he wanted to take  nap too so he could have a break from his glasses.  This was just after wearing them for a little over an hour.  Not the best sign.  I think we will give him a day to adjust to glasses then have him start wearing the eye patch tomorrow.  After the (very nice) optometrist finished adjusting his glasses she explained to him about 1. not letting anyone else wear his glasses and 2. how to clean them. When we got home he wanted to clean them so bad, at least he is excited about that part.  Although I don't really think they are that dirty after 2 hours... It will be an adjustment for us all. I do like them more than I thought I would. He does look very handsome.

We also moved all our stuff on Saturday.  Our house looks pretty crazy and our kitchen is not quite functioning but we are excited to be here.  It is starting to really come together and I love the paint colors we picked. I was really stressed about the gray but its perfect. I may or may not have forgotten that today was the first day of swim lessons...  it is going to be a busy week of settling in and cleaning the townhouse.  The leasing people here are kind of crazy.  We have to get the carpets cleaned, the walls painted/repaired, the ducts cleaned and the chimney cleaned and just clean it really well.  The chimney and ducts seemed a bit much to me.  We will be so mad if we do not get all of our deposit back in reality its going to cost like 450 - 500 dollars to move out so its like you only get a portion of your deposit back.  So annoying! After this busy week I head out to girls camp and then we head out West for 2 weeks.  Summer will go by fast this year!

Appointments

I finally got around to taking Jared and Lydia to the dentist. I meant to do it in December when Mark was out of school but that clearly didn't happen.  I originally chose December because I seriously hate going to the dentist and 6 months from December is June so Mark will be out of school and can take care of it for both appointments. Thats how much I dislike it. I never took Jared to the dentist in Colorado, it was always Mark.  I feel like you always get bad news and I hate hearing the sounds.  Even knowing the appointment wasn't for me I still dreaded it. But we went and Jared and Lydia did awesome! (I will pat myself on the back because I have done quite a good job of not sharing my dislike of dentist appointments.) It was Lydia's first time and when we got back to the room she was pretty hesitant but when she looked up and saw the TV screen and cute stuffed animals she settled in and was a star patient.  Jared was perfectly composed and didn't bat an eye when they asked about X-Rays and I stayed in the room with Lydia.  He went and got it done like a boss.  Such  a rock star.  And both kids came away with no cavities or real concerns.  I was pretty nervous because it was 6 months later then I wanted Lydia's first appointment to be and Jared hadn't been since right before we left Colorado last June but it all worked out just fine. I felt pretty proud of myself (and Mark) that both of them had strong healthy teeth.

We also had Jared's long awaited eye appointment this week.  I wasn't quite as nervous about this one as I was the Dentist.  When he failed his kindergarten vision screening back in March I hoped it would just be an easy fix but it does not appear to be that way.  The Doctor did a series of tests and it was determined that his eyes are healthy but that the left eye is not doing any work, like at all.  He has amblyopia or a lazy eye.  Medical definition: "Lazy eye is often associated with crossed-eyes or a large difference in the degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness between the two eyes." (a.o.a) I can't remember if he was near or far sighted. 
He will now wear glasses full time and for the first three months he will have to wear an eye patch (its great that he loves pirates) every day for a consecutive 2 hours!  I was so disappointed.  Like really sad about it and still feel that way. The doctor said that that glasses are more for protection of his good eye (the right one) more than anything else.  His example:  if a rock were to hit Jared in that eye, he would be without vision unless the left eye was strengthened. So that is our plan.  We need to strengthen his left eye so that it starts working and developing.  Jared seems pretty okay about the idea of glasses.  We found some nice frames (glasses are super expensive by the way!) and should pick them up by the end of the week.  We went straight to the store after the appointment to pick them out.  Jared just wanted blue frames so that is what we got.  It will be so strange to see him with glasses!  I think it will be a huge adjustment and hope it goes well. There is a chance he could grow out of it as he gets older but I am not going to get my hopes up.  I understand that being able to see is the goal but I still wish he did't have to wear them. He just seems so big with them, like he lost some of his little boy-ness. I am so sad that it wasn't caught sooner so we could have started fixing it then.  

 First choice

Second choice