Ingalls Family for Halloween

Last year in 2nd grade, Alicia’s teacher Mrs. Willden read the first two books by Laura Ingall’s Wilder.  Alicia told us all about “Little House in the Big Woods” and “Little House on the Prairie.”  It helped that Laura is the 2nd daughter of 3 girls.  It may be that she loved the idea of life before electricity, or how close the family was.  Whatever it is, she has wanted Tabatha to be Mary, she wanted to be Laura, and Olivia to be Carrie.  She has also called me “Ma” and Ken has been “Pa” ever since.  It makes Alicia super excited when we call her “half-pint” but since only Laura was called that, we can’t give that accolade to anyone else.

It took months of cajoling her sisters, but about 3 weeks ago, Tabatha and Olivia consented to be the Ingalls family for Halloween.  Since the floor was finally done, I decided 2 weeks before Christmas to buy the patterns, to use fabric we already had, and with the help of supplies from Grandma High, I was able to make five cute Wilder Family costumes.  I told Alicia, next time she will be old enough to make her costume herself (with some help).  We are even talking of doing a homemade Christmas, just like the Ingalls did.  And now the favorite show to watch is the 70’s tv version of “Little House on the Prairie.”  We are up to season 2, and I am sure we will watch them all at some point.
So without further ado, here are my cute pioneer children.

Little Carrie.

The intrepid Laura.

and the wise Mary (before she became blind).

This small picture is from our Trunk or Treat at the school.

And here we are at our Ward’s Trunk or treat.  Olivia was authentic, making sure not to smile, but the rest of us sure like to look happy.  I was pretty proud of these costumes,  I spent hours shopping, getting patterns, figuring out sizes, and even changing my pattern significantly since it was smaller than the package said it would be.  I sewed the dresses, bonnets, Alicia’s apron, and I bought Ken’s shirt and modified it as well as purchased Ken’s cowboy hat and all in all the patterns and supplies were all purchased and made for under $40.  Not bad for homemade.  I wonder if the real Ingall’s would have been proud.

Happy Halloween, pioneer style!

Happy Retirement

Ken’s dad has spent his life in many careers.  A tv repairman, an army veteran who served in Vietnam, a Navy man who served in Iraq, and then went back to college when Ken graduated high school to become a medical technician at Harborview in Seattle.  He has worked hard to take care of his family, and in part to recognize that, and also to celebrate his retirement, we took my in-laws to dinner at Black Angus.

Part of the fun was that we surprised them with a few extra guests.

We had my brother-in law Scott with his wife Melissa

as well as my sister-in-law Debra and her husband Matthew sitting at the table waiting for us.  It was a great surprise and started the evening right.

I have to say, we ate a lot of food, had a lot of stories told, and I laughed harder than I have in a long time.

In fact the only picture of Ken and I was when I was eating and laughing at the same time.  We always have fun together, but it was different without the kids vying for attention.  This made for a relaxing and easy atmosphere with each other that we sometimes forget we have.   So not only was it a nice retirement dinner, it was a great night out.  I am so grateful for a husband who put it all together.

Help in the kitchen

I love the fact that my girls love to help in the kitchen.  Every year I make a large batch of borscht (one of my favorite soups) and this year I had three sets of extra hands.  Not only did they do a great job, they willingly ate our bright red soup at the end.  Thanks girls.

What a little bit of water can do!

On September 1st, right before Labor Day, Ken and I broke down and bought our very first carpet cleaner.  Little did we know that only two days later we would find out that we didn’t need to worry about making our ugly brown mottled carpet last, but that we would be living with no flooring at all in areas for over a month. 

How it started was a large puddle in our dinette area.  We have always had carpet there, and we assumed that the girls had spilled water, and we noticed it the day after we bought the carpet cleaner so we were excited to use the cleaner to fix the spill.  The spill surprised us, but not enough to worry.  It happens with all kids.  So on Monday, the 3rd, we got out the cleaner since the towels weren’t working.

Ken went over the area 4 or 5 times with the cleaner just sucking up liquid, and it kept filling up with thick, dark, sludgy water.  It was disgusting, and we thought maybe something besides water was spilled.

After Ken went over the carpet numerous times, we figured it was done, but the water kept coming back.  That is when we lifted the carpet and found the pad under the floor so wet that the sludge was from 30 years of wear and tear coming up sopping wet.  We pulled up the carpet and pad, and checked for a leak.  We found it behind the refrigerator.  The water line somehow sprung a little hole that was allowing water to spray all over the wall, under the linoleum, and under the carpet in the dinette area and dining room.   Ken even found that under the floorboards under the house was so soaked with water that the insulation attached to the floor was falling off.

We called the insurance company when things weren’t drying up, and they took up all the flooring in the kitchen and dinette area, half the carpet in the dining room, and took drywall off of the wall in the kitchen behind the fridge.  Then we had to live with loud, noisy fans for a week.

The good news is that they would replace the carpet in the whole house.  We decided that if we were getting new carpet and floors that we would paint first.  We painted several areas, including the master bedroom, several closets and the hallway, and touched up various areas that had scuffs and marks.  We also went to numerous places to pick out new carpet and laminate, figured out the costs involved and decided that with everything else going on, that we would pay for new carpet downstairs too that would match the rest of the house.

So after a month of deciding, painting, drying out and waiting, we finally got our new floors and we feel like we have a new house.  So here are some before pictures:

This is the subflooring, not comfortable and caused loud echos in that area.

Tearing up downstairs.

We found a second leak while dealing with the first here in the hallway.  It ended up being a leak from the master bath that went under the wall out to the hall.  Luckily a few fans over the week-end cleared that out.

Here is the old carpet next to the new.

Here is the new bedroom floor and paint.  Our bedroom was the last to be finished, because we found a third (yes third) water damage spot in the middle of the master closet.  We think it was a water bottle, at least we hope it was, because after the third set of fans came in it dried up quickly (only 2 or 3 days, but we kept the fans on 3 just in case).  It looks so much better that we kept the closet doors off so that it looks more spacious now.

The hallway.

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Family Room

and downstairs.  We knew the girls liked the new carpet when they decided to roll around on it to feel how soft it is.  Then the laminate became the new sliding area.  They are loving having the house back together.  We will be enjoying this new floor for a long time.