November is always busy since we have 4 birthdays, coming into Christmas, we were pretty worn out. But we had a great time with our family renting out Pump it Up. The kids will always remember having the whole place to themselves and their cousins. I think Jeremy and I will always remember going at each other with the boxing gloves. Kate is walking and attempting to exert her will. Marley loves preschool and is just a bundle of energy. Ella went to Arizona with her Grandmother to see Stef's cousin Carley, and had the time of her life. Girls night every night, toenail painting, dress-up, they had a blast. Asher is into baseball. It is humorous to me to see how quickly the sports shift depending on the season. Asher didn't touch his baseball glove since the last game last year. He was all soccer. Then even a week before baseball tryout, it was all soccer and football. "Dad, I don't know if I really like baseball anymore." Tryouts come, and every second since has been about baseball cards, baseball magazines, and most of all, playing catch with me or by himself in the backyard. Today we actually went and bought a new glove. He probably would have slept with it tonight, but he asked me to put his name on it instead. Ella just finished her first grade play. She had the lead role as a narrator and loved it. Here is the video for it.
Ella's First Grade Play from Jason Sutter on Vimeo.
It has been 2 months, so a house update is in order. Right after the last bit of work (stucco, windows, counters), we tore out the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. It seems rather... well... stupid, I know. Why start something new with so much unfinished. However, we had reasons. Probably not the best, but reasons. We had a debris pile to get rid of before it rains. Since we knew we were tearing those things out this year, it made sense to do it when we had the debris box. Secondly, the laundry room still had a rat-ish smell when it rained, so we guessed there was rat nests, poop, etc in the walls. On this second point I was a little worried that I missed my guess when we started ripping stuff out, but at the last piece, I struck paydirt. The smell was located. It must sound funny to be excited about finding rat remains in your wall, but understand that means I can get it out. Under the landing in the staircase on the other side of the wall was what looked like a rat disco lounge before they were all poisoned. So there was a lot to clean out. I know I am going into great detail, possibly too much on this point, but please understand that I am excited. I can confidently say that our house no longer smells like rat poo when it rains or gets too hot and sweltery. That is a good feeling, let me assure you. So, I drywalled both rooms immediately and all was back together before Christmas. The cabinets are all finished. I am staining them in the evening and will put on the last coat tomorrow night. As for the counters... who knows. But I think we are close. I have finished staining them, and they are now in the garage waiting to be sealed. I expect to place the cooktop into place on Tuesday, and start hanging cabinets next week. Look, here they are in my garage. So a New Year's date was not realistic, but Valentines is actually possible.
