First day of school

We have spent a lot of time at the Brentwood schools this past week.  I got Ben and Maggie registered for school and they have had their lockers etc assigned.  You've got to love a school district whose colors are purple and gold (well, at least I do).  All the lockers are purple.

Yesterday was the first day of school.  Sam remembered to take a picture of them this year.  He's loving being able to walk them to school in the mornings.  They both had great days on their first day.  Ben found people to sit with in class and at lunch. Maggie's class didn't really have a regular day, just more of an orientation, but she was very excited about it and couldn't wait to tell me that she managed to get her locker opened 3 times!!!!

What a difference a day makes.....

I was off work on Tuesday and had a very busy day, with 5 different contractors in the house!!!

Sam hung Ben's picture in the family room-our first picture on the walls

We got our new furniture delivered first thing in the morning.  These are the chairs we got for the sitting room (the old dining room)

We got these dressers, one for our bedroom and one for Ben's room.  They are really cool, I love them

We got this coat rack/shoe storage to replace our mud room facilities.  I can't bring myself to allow the kids to store their shoes in here yet.  Not sure we want Maggie's shoes stored anywhere near a dining room!!!!

Dominko has been working on our basement.  He hung these shelves that we can use for storage, we definitely need them

There is another shelf next to the dryer so that I can store the laundry stuff

We hung the bathroom cabinet in the laundry area for now, but I think we will move this into the bathroom once we get the extension done

Dominko hung our mirror over the dresser in our room

HEY!!!!  This is supposed to be MY reading room.  Who let the kids in there?????  They love this room and my chairs.  Ben is spending a lot more time with us than he did in our old house.  He sits in the kitchen rather than his room, I'm very happy and hope it continues......

We have achieved a lot in just over a week

We moved in less than 2 weeks ago and we have done so much already.  We have had a huge number of contractors in to fix things up and it's so much better already.  When we moved in, I was thinking "Oh Lord, what have we done?"  After a few days, I absolutely love the house

We had the big hole in the family room fixed and decided to paint the wall a "Sylar color".  The green looks much better.  Looks like the kids have settled in well!!!!

The kitchen is working out well.  Definitely not like my old one, but it has as many cabinets as you could fit in the space.  I have missed the cabinet trash can, but I bought one from The Container Store and it's working well (honestly I thought we'd walk into it all the time!!)  Two of our counter chairs fit in the kitchen and that space has rapidly become our mini office, it is very cozy

Best thing about the house?  I can hang my stained glass again!!!  Sam put this up in the sitting room and I love it

Our major project is going to be how to put a light over the dining room table.  We decided to make the sitting room into the dining room since it's so much bigger, but the major drawback is that there is no central light.  We are going to have to take up the floors upstairs to do this, but it will be worth it

We have put a chair at the sofa table in the family room.  We need to try to find something better that could be used to eat at and that will fit in the room.  we found something ideal on line, but it appears that it isn't on sale yet (patent pending)

More green walls!!!!

The kids have bought their school supplies and sorted them out (apparently they are supposed to be at the bottom of the basement stairs!!)

We still have a lot of boxes in the basement, but probably only half as many as we had at the beginning

The new home for the cats in the basement

Sam got Jasim (our painter) to drywall the unfinished wall in the basement.  I am very happy to have a second fridge in the basement again

Our new shower curtain.  Got it from Anthropologie and I love it!!!!

Sam took the corner cabinet down in the bathroom to make room for our little cabinet.  We found this really cool cubbie behind the cabinet.  We are going to paint it and I can put towels etc in it

Our bedroom, not had anything done to it yet....

Maggie's room is small, but I have managed to fit everything into it very well.  It is so cozy in there

Maggie's room is so small, Sam had to take the door off the closet!!!!

This is NOT messy Ben, I just haven't had time to unpack his room yet!!!!

I did find his alligators!!!!

And I have unpacked some of his books.....

Our old house is empty

The kids and I went over to the Rockford house to get the cats.  I took the opportunity to get some photos of the house without the furniture.  I had forgotten just how huge the house looked before we moved in.  Everything looked like we had never even lived there!!!

Dining room

Sam's office

Our beautiful fireplace

The only thing left is the vacuum cleaner!!!!

Laundry room-Cleo was hiding behind the sink, I had to drag her out!!!!

Ferdy is none too happy at being left until last

Ben's bedroom-few things left in the closet that went to Goodwill

Maggie's purple room

The kids' bathroom

Daniel/Dasha/Greta/Caroline's room

Our bathroom

The basement bathroom

Basement bedroom

All that's left to do is grab the cat stuff and we are gone.  Goodbye Rockford, we loved being with you and will miss you.....

Our crazy week

Sam and I have been running around like headless chickens trying to get the house sorted for the past week.  Life has still gone on though, luckily I had a few photos in my phone to remind me that was so.  We have been to the Muny twice, to see Into the Woods (not as good as we thought it would be) and Beauty and the Beast (best this year, maybe ever).  We saw this hawk on a light in Forest Park on our way over to the Muny.

Maggie has still been horse riding.  It's horribly hot out there at the moment and the horse flies are terrible.  Even Maggie isn't as keen on going as she usually is.  Her teacher says that she is doing pretty well and should be able to move on to a higher level before too long.

We moved everything out of our old house last Wednesday.  We left the cats til last.  Ferdy had nowhere to sit but at the bottom of the stairs.  Cleo was harder to find. In the absence of furniture, she buried herself behind the sink in the laundry room.  I had to pull out the washing machine to get to her and then reach in as far as I could get and drag her out

Our furniture wasn't delivered to our new house until Thursday, so we stayed at the Chase on Wednesday night.  The kids absolutely loved it.  We walked down to the CWE and had fish and chips at Dressell's and ice cream at Jeni's.  What a perfect evening.  We got an upgrade to a 2 room suite, it was very nice.

We ate breakfast at the Chase, Maggie doesn't look too happy about it, but looks can be deceptive!!!!!

We have a lovely new fridge in our kitchen.  Apparently Maggie (by measuring size) thinks it's acceptable to close the freezer door with her foot!!!!

When I was gone last week, we had all the pipets recalibrated in the lab.  Apparently, John and Shannon think I have a problem with ownership!!!!  Things like this make me so glad I have my job.

Wrist update

I took Ben to see Dr Goldfarb yesterday.  He said he was frustrated that Ben's hand wasn't any better (yes, so are we), but that it wasn't unusual.  We are going to take him back in a couple of months and if it's no better then they will do another MRI.  He needs to work a lot more on his scar tissue, I need to try and remember to help him with it.