Law Breakers

Ashlee and Russ are trying to buy a new home.  Their home is amazing, but it only has three bedrooms.  With five growin girls, they simply need more space.  With the new house under contract, they have obviously started to mentally place their furniture in the new space and decided to sell their treadmill and futon.  We snatched up the deal and drove up yesterday morning to get them out of their house since it went on the Market at 2:00pm on Friday.  Less is always more when you're trying to sell a home.

 We arrived at 4:00pm where Russ and Randy immediately left for gas and groceries at Costco for a Mother's Day BBQ.  After a dinner of Dominos, Randy, Russ, and Ashlee went out for a 7-mile run.

 Are they not the coolest for taking this picture for me?!  On your mark, get set...

 Ashlee was the leader.  I'll tell you now, cause I wondered about it and found out later that night: Ashlee wears the jacket to keep her tissues in.  I have now recommended an amazing pair of capris with pockets sewn into the thighs.  The weather was perfect for a run, bordering on slightly too warm at the beginning, so I wondered if it was going to cool down enough for her to need it.  Nope, tissues.

 The scenery where they live is picturesque.  Truly, if they had better schools, we'd move there.  We already went from a 4/10 in Casper to a 10/10 in Richland, I can't go from a current 9/10 to 2.7/10.  Plus, I love our friends, community, ward, and house way too much.  And, obviously, Caden.

 1 more mile to go.  You'd think I wouldn't have had as much of a workout as them, but you'd be wrong.  The bike I was on didn't have any gears, so the hills they went on, and I mean hills, made it difficult to go up after a slower pace on the flat roads.  My knees and lower back got as much of a workout as if I'd been running, only I was able to keep up better on the bike.  Their pace is much faster than I think I'll ever be able to run.

 Mount Baker.

 I wish cameras were able to capture the true colors of this sunset.  They only have to turn a corner to be home, so Ashlee circled back to encourage Randy in their last heat.

 I heard Ashlee say to Randy, "I'll race ya," and they really took off.

 SO MUCH FUN!!!

"I've learned that it's much harder to run when you don't know the landmarks.  It's easy for me to judge how I feel when I know where each mile is."  Randy had already run 4 miles before we left for their house, and then another 7 miles (with steep hills) that night.  We decided a Blizzard run before bed was earned.

To cool off, we went for a walk to see their hoped-for home.  It's about three streets away from their current home, which will make move day SUPER easy, as we know from experience when we moved an entire home by ourselves in an afternoon.  And when I say by ourselves, I mean piano, just the two of us, alone, because Randy wanted to see if it would work.

 We got home, got the kids ready for bed and rooms situated, went for our Blizzards as they went to bed, and then relaxed, just the adults.  Russ gave Randy a haircut.  It reminded me of all the times he cut Caden's hair.  He's now cut all of my boys' hair.

 We all woke late today, had Sacrament meeting at 11:00am, had our BBQ at 11:30am, and planned to head out when Ash got word that someone wanted to come see their house.  My favorite-- cleaning!!  We helped get things picked up (there wasn't much to do, since Ashlee keeps a clean house), leaving only the mopping of the downstairs.  We cut up the Mother's Day chocolate cake and had one last party before getting into our car that hauled our new workout and lounge equipment.

It was the first thing we've done at all during quarantine that could be considered "breaking the law."  It was amazing to get away, although it meant a bit of hardship knowing we were going back to lockdown.  Their side of the state started before ours did.  Their hospital currently has only 2 cases while ours has 36.  We haven't even hit the top of our curve yet.  We're all hopeful that the May 31st deadline really is the end of phase 1 lockdown!

Phase 1-- Master

We woke yesterday and moved all of the important things out of our bedroom.  Well, important and not super heady for my back.

 There are piles of workout stuff, piles of Goodwill stuff, and piles of things set aside to give Ashlee, as well as Randy's office.

Nothing says, "Welcome to an episode of Hoarders like this view from the front door."

 I'm glad he got the big-guns mask on, because this dust is no joke.

 Look at his arm, watch, and hands.  When he went outside and brushed off his hair, it was comical.

 Practicing the different sprays, distance, and motion.  He'd try one and then look up at the wall in the garage that is textured.  When he finally found one that he felt was close, he actually sprayed the wall in the garage as a test.

 Then he moved inside.

 He'd start the spray after each shake at the foam that covers our jetted-tub components then circle his way to the areas that needed attention.  He used half a can to practice, the other half on the wall and then one full can to finish it off.  It was hard to tell if it was seamless because the paint on either side, the white lines from the mud, and the small "chicken pox" dots that lightened when dry.  We pulled out the existing paint to truly test it out, not realizing that it was actually a different sheen than what's in there now.

 Waiting for paint to dry is slow, but you can already tell how great it looks here.  When standing directly next to it and looking down the length of the wall, you can't tell there used to be a massive hole in the wall.

 The color difference from what we have now throughout the house (Remember, they had two rooms that weren't painted the same cream before selling-- one baby diarrhea orange, the other chocolate brown, which will be painted at the same time this is painted.) to what color it will be soon.  It will brighten up the house so much, not to mention this space.

 Because of the shadow, you can see the line going up that wall, but not where the hole was between walls.  Since it is a naturally shadowy wall, we're thinking that people won't really notice it once it's finished the same color and sheen.  Even if they do, it's as close of a match as you can get, and I'm thrilled.

 With everything dry, and everything dusted off, we decided to move our room back in this way, to see if we like having his office on this wall.  Might as well know what we want when the room is complete.

I love it.  I love that it looks like a room as you pass the door, not Randy's office with a bed in the room.  It feels much larger, feels much more peaceful, and put me closer to the bathroom.  Win-win.

While moving things back in, we placed our Goodwill pile in this nook for easy access to our trailer when Goodwill opens back up (can you imagine how busy that line will be with everyone having two full months to gather all the crap they don't want to keep anymore because there was nothing else to do?!).

 We still don't know why, but Mira walked into our room and sat like this for like 15 minutes.  When we clued in that she was staring at something, we urged her to "get it."  She put her front paws on the lego table (that Randy had manufactured to possibly sell at his Amazon store, but decided against thank goodness) and sniffed into the basket that has been on the floor for weeks. 

 Not sure what changed from floor to table top, but it kept her interest for a while, and any time she came back into the room. 

She's so cute.

Phase 1 of our Master remodel complete.  It feels amazing and turned out better than Randy thought it could as a DIY.  I'm not sure why he doubts himself when it comes to making things look professional-- I never do.

Corner

It's coming along.  We still have about 20-25 large stones/boulders to figure out what to do with, but it's coming along nicely.  I'd say we have about 4-5 more hours and this project will be done!

Caden's Corner

Shattered

I had some apples that were getting old, so I decided to make an apple crisp.  I peeled the apples, cut off the spoiled spots, sliced them, made the crisp, and baked the crisp-- it smelled delicious in our home!!!  Then this happened...

 Randy was putting holes into the topping to allow space for the moisture to boil out when the glass dish shattered.  He wasn't using a hammer, wasn't bashing anything, just piercing the apples, and BOOM!

 No deliciously tantalizing apple crisp for us...

I should have just thrown the apples in the trash and saved us the time, effort, ingredients, and excitement of savoring this warm treat with ice cream.  I'm super glad it didn't shatter the glass cooktop, and even more relieved it didn't harm Randy.  Well didn't harm more than his shattered heart...

Games

Just a boy playing games with his family.

I'm not quite sure what prompted him to pull his shirt up like that, but it struck me as so funny.  Cutie.

Serious

When Tyler Technologies asks for Work-From-Home pictures for a fun slideshow idea, we get serious with the nice camera.

It was so much fun walking around him, taking pictures from every single angle and level I could think of.  I got to work with a handsome model today.  Little do his co-workers know that behind him is the dusty mess of a recently sanded wall....

Grateful

At the beginning of the pandemic, a guy we've paid-- because he knocked on our door-- to wash our windows came and asked us if he could wash them again.  Not sure how tight money was going to be, we told him that we weren't interested in doing them again.  There was talk of having him stain our fence, but we ended up doing that by ourselves when we found out we'd be home for a few weeks.  Today he stopped by again, this time giving us the opportunity to teach our kids in a way that I think will stay with them for a long time.

"Is there any way you could give me a loan?  I'll come back this week, after I receive my stimulus check, to repay you, and then clean your windows for free."

How humbling.  Randy quickly went to grab him the money (and a pass-along card), telling him we wouldn't accept the money back but would be grateful for the window cleaning.  As we talked with the kids about what had just happened, Keilie commented that she would have been in tears.  I commented that I'm not sure I could have done it, asked for money today with a promise to come back.  The feel around our table as we played games changed by becoming more somber, but not in a bad way.  We all felt gratitude for our fortunate circumstances, gratitude that he was lead to us, and gratitude for each other. 

Bored

Our governer just extended our stay-at-home order through my birthday.  With another month of boredom opening up long and eventless, Randy decided to tackle this project ourselves.  Sounds like something Randy would do.

 Although there isn't picture proof, I, myself used a putty knife and filled holes and seam lines.  New pandemic skill-- check!

Phase one of four is complete for this side of the wall.  We have a tile guy coming out tomorrow to give us a quote.  Depending on how much it costs, I'd say there is a 50/50 chance that we'll do the other side ourselves, too, even though Randy doesn't currently know how to do tilework well.  With an open month of stay-at-home, it may be the best time for him to learn a new skill... 

Tomorrow's schedule: Sand this, apply another coat, get a 1/4 yard of river rock for our backyard project that we found this weekend while going for a drive, finish rock project, and probably sand again.  Possibly texture.  Then it will be time to paint!  I can't wait.  Our room was transformed without the bulky fireplace.  It's transformed again seeing more white on the wall right now.  It's coming along!

Half marathon

This is what a man looks like after he's just run the equivalent of a HALF MARATHON for the first time without preparation or even knowing that he was going to run that far when he started the run.  TWO HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES OF RUNNING!!!  His previous goal was to prove to himself that he could run a half marathon, his next goal is to prove that he can do it again.

While he was stretching (and sweating off 3 full pounds), he realized that if he ran at his current pace for a full marathon, he'd be running for four and a half hours.  He said that sounded crazy, but knowing him, he'll probably accomplish that goal (even if he hasn't really set it yet) in 7 weeks, since that's how long it took him to "train" for the half.  Wait, it was only like three weeks ago that he even thought about trying for a half marathon "someday," so I guess we'll see him running a full marathon for my birthday...

*I love being right next to him as he accomplishes his goals.  I rode my bike, holding his water bottle, cooling towel, headband, snack, and hat if he didn't want it.  At times I'd ride ahead with his hat to get it wet in the water fountains along the path and even grabbed him a fresh, cold water bottle from Maverik when we realized his small water bottle wasn't enough for the remaining distance he'd decided to run.  He can't say, "I couldn't have done that without you," because the truth is, he could have, but I love knowing that I helped him achieve his goals in a small way.  Helping makes me happy, but not as happy as witnessing victory for myself.*