Blah, blah, blah and tiling window sills

This week has been a busy one. Each time I sit down to blog the happenings, another item on the "to do" list prevails. It's finally Sunday, the day when I allow myself to push that list out of my mind for a few hours in the morning and just BE.

I started the weekend off with this from my sweetie Alex (ALL by himself!):

A well balanced breakfast for mom, complete with can opener, knife AND spoon. Ok, maybe a little fruity, but healthy none the less. What a sweetheart I have.

Mark and I tag teamed and were able to get both kids to their basketball games. Ashley had a double header, and played better than I've ever seen her play AND she even scored 4 points in the second game.

Alex's allergies are doing a LOT better now that he have Alegra and Flonase. I can't believe it has taken me this long to learn that allergy medicine needs to be changed up every few months. I had no idea that the body worked up a resistance to the allergy meds. I've never had to worry about it because we only give Alex meds seasonally. This allergy season has just been an exceptionally long one.

The kids (and I!) were off on Monday thanks to MLK, Jr. We had a nice relaxing morning together, follwed by an afternoon at Mollie's house where we watched Ratatoullie with Alex's buddies.
Afterwards, we went to Targe' and bought our little mailboxes that I was SO excited about. (Thanks Renae!!!)
By the way, if you have kiddos and I haven't already talked your ear off about this precious idea.
See this post over at Planting Seeds . We bought 4 little mailboxes, decorated them with our names and have been actively sending letters (and goodies) back and forth all week. It has been so FUN!!!

School is going well for me. I'm feeling very confident that I can handle all that I have on my plate and will not have a problem tackling this class.

I was contacted by an Environmental firm (a PTA acquaintance's company) that is interested in me doing some overflow CAD work for them periodically.
They have one tech that needs to be able to take vacations and on occasion has more work than she can handle.
It is so, so hard to say no to such an offer even with the already full plate that I have.
And I didn't.
I sent them my qualifications along with details about how much time I can commit. I have to admit that because of my already hectic schedule, part of me was hoping they would make this an easy decision for me and just tell me that they need someone who can work more hours, however, after reading my requirements, they now want me to come in and talk.
We'll see.
I'm definitely going to hold my ground on the amount of time that I'm willing to commit, but I can't help but think that this might be a really good opportunity.
If I'm able to work from home, this would enable me to take the summer off of my current job, yet still keep a little money coming in.
The dynamics of me taking the summer off have been on my mind a lot lately, so this could possibly be the solution I was looking for.
And how exciting to work in an entirely new field of Geologists and Environmentalists!

Friday, Ashley attended the grand finale for Cotillion. The Ball. Good grief, the lengths that some of these parents went to, to get these girls ready is mind boggling to me. There were multiple girls that took off half the day of school to make it to hair and nail appointments. As you may guess this prompted Ashley's insistance on doing the same. Yeah RIGHT. After a LOT of not so convincing pre-pubescent conversation, I ended up rushing Ashley home from school throwing some curlers in her hair and giving her a french manicure (which I already had the supplies to do). She looked beautiful. We were in such a rush that I didn't have the time to take pictures of the "do" before the humidity got to it. I'm a little bummed about that, but she looked gorgeous and might have learned a little frugal lesson in the process. We met up with at least 10 other kiddos and their moms at Chili's, where we had dinner and piled the kids in to a handful of vehicles. Ashley had the pleasure of riding in Nicole's Hummer, major score. The ball was held way out at Austin Country Club and I was OH SO THANKFUL to Nicole for offering her chauffer services up. She ended up getting home after midnight full of chatter about the evening. Nicole took some pictures at the Ball that I will post as soon as I get ahold of them.


Last weekend Mark started his latest project: tiling window sills. He is doing a BEAUTIFUL job!


And why would he want to do that? Well, our horses dogs have little friends, or rather, friends they wouldn't mind eating (cats, squirels, armadillos etc.) that like to tantalize them from outside. Every window sill within reach looks similar to this:

Rub a Dub Dub, we have a TUB!

The plumber finally made his last trip out to install the tub fixtures yesterday. Lastnight the kids got to stay up late and enjoy their very first jacuzzi bath.



The tile surround for the tub was finished today, but other than that, nothing has changed. Thursday will be 10 weeks since the first day of demolition.

Bathroom Remodel Day 1,573,984

WE

FINALLY

HAVE

A

SHOWER!!!


And shower fixtures, and rugs, and towels, and a half hearted attempt at decor that will only be around for the weekend. Monday, it all comes out for more construction, but for now, we will enjoy!

Don't forget to click to enlarge!

Bathroom Update

The bathroom is coming along nicely. We're SO close to being done. Yesterday, the plumber installed our shower head, and we got to take our FIRST SHOWER!!!!!! All that's left to be done is texture, paint, a few light fixtures, a few plumbing fixtures, a toilet, and some small touchups.

The wood floors came in, but unfortunately, they were not the ones we ordered, so we're back to playing the waiting game again. We've been told that they will have them here Monday and will be able to begin. I'll believe it when I see it. Meanwhile, we're living in a construction zone and have been for waaaay too long. We're more than ready to be done with this.

Bathroom Remodel Day 5 and beyond

We're moving along slllooowwwly, but we're getting super close to being DONE!

Here's Day 5....most of the tile is in place, we're anxious to see what it will look like once the grout and trim pieces are in place:








And here we are after days 6 and 7.... a wee bit more tile and grout later and now we're talkin':

And after day 8 (Friday Sept. 28th), Mark and I are getting more and more impressed with our design! It's actually starting to look like a bathroom! We're getting so close





Since the last pictures were taken, the only change is the arch above the opening to the water closet is back. Now we'll contiue to wait for the plumber and electrician to show up, and after that all that's left is patching, taping, floating and texturing the walls, and getting the glass enclosure installed around the shower. That's IT! We are now in to week 6 of the remodel.

As for the wood floors...nothing has changed. They were supposed to start demo this morning, but it's not much of a surprise that I came home to an empty house with no changes. PLEASE LET ME KEEP MY PATIENCE with these people!!!!!!

I'm hoping to find some more time to update with all of the recent happenings at the Urben house as soon as possible. Right now, I'm off to the dentist AGAIN, but this time for some relief. I'm pretty sure I have dry socket from the molar I had pulled last Thursday. I'll be feelin' good in no time, I'm sure!

Bathroom Remodel: Day 4

Friday, Jeff framed up the tub and shower, and added a couple corner seats in the shower as well. We originally planned on "bench" spanning the entire side of one wall, but Jeff got creative and thought up the corner seats to allow us more clearance in the middle. That proved to be an EXCELLENT idea, and now we haven't really lost any shower space by adding the corner seats.

In the last picture you can see where he came out from the wall about a foot to give us some extra room in the shower, which will also give us an area for shelves on the adjacent wall. We might end up using the space for free standing furniture in lieu of built in's. We have a lot of decisions to make!

We've purchased all of the electrical and plumbing fixtures, so all that's left is finding the perfect vanity mirrors.

Bathroom Remodel: Days 2 and 3 along with an update

Two weeks since deomlition, and yes, we're only on day 4 of actual work. So far the water closet has been framed in and the plumber has been here twice and done no actual work. Right now Jeffrey is framing in our tub surround and shower.

As for all the new work that we're having done on the hole in the wall and replacement of our wood floors, we're still where we were 2 weeks ago. The adjustor came out last week and we're waiting to hear what the numbers are so we can start picking out flooring.

Even though I intended on having more free time now that the kids are in school, just the opposite seems to have happened. With being on the PTA Board at both schools, volunteering, and my new workout schedule, I'm completely overcommitted (who me??) and up to my eyeballs in To-Do lists. AND, I haven't even started my job yet! I'm not sure how I'm going to handle everything once I'm working, but hopefully, things will calm down and I'll have more time for whatever else it is I'm forgetting to do. (housework maybe, keeping up with my family and friends???)

The kids are doing great in school, they've already completed their first two weeks and seem to be adjusting to their new schedules well. I talk to Alex's teacher everyday, and have already begun to hear the stories about Alex's silly antics. Fortunately, his teacher and I are very like-minded and she just adores him, and appreciates his sense of humor. Yay! She quickly discovered his ability to read and has him "teaching" two other boys to read. He is so, so proud.

Ashley is working super hard on her daily homework assignments, and I've been so proud of her determination to be neat and organized. Ever since she was a toddler, she's always been extremely particular about making sure things are all in the right place and neatly organized, and it's proven to be a very helpful trait! Everyday, Alex and I walk to meet her afterschool and walk home together. Alex asks about her day, she asks about his, and they are just so sweet to one another again! Summer had it's moments, so I'm so, so thankful that they are back to their old selves again. Distance DOES make the heart grow fonder, that's for sure!

Day 2

DAY 3