We have been working on potty-training Caleb since last Thursday.  He got the idea pretty fast (we tried a couple months ago, so he picked it up again) so Friday we went to underwear.  Well, Sunday we were gone a lot, and I kept taking him to try, and told him to tell his teachers at church, but you know that takes a while.  Well, yesterday we had to do a few errands as well.  He and Grace had a dr. appointment, and we tried to go there but he never goes on a big toilet without a smaller seat.  Well, by the time we got to church to hang out he had gone in his pull-up.  After his nap, I reminded him that he needed to tell mommy if he had to go potty, and about 2 minutes later he said he had to go.  The church has a little potty, so that was what he wanted to use, and did.  Later, when we were in Overland Park signing some paperwork, he said he had to go potty.  I doubted he would, since all they had were full-size toilets, but he DID!!  Yeah!!  So, I think we have now gotten over that hurdle (and he had a diaper on the whole time, too).

Now, for my readers without kids, sorry for the next portion.  I have been just mentioning to him about pooping in the toilet too, after cleaning a few pairs of underwear!  Well, last night, when running around without underwear on he said he had to poop.  (Caleb right now likes to completely take off his underwear when going potty, so he just  hadn’t gotten them back on yet.)  I told him to try to go on the toilet, and at first he said no, but then he ran to the bathroom.  A couple minutes later I hear him get down and he says  “Mommy, come see!”  So I come, and he pooped in the toilet.  So, once again, we cheered yeah!!  He then told Josh that there were “rocks” in the toilet.  Hee-hee

Thank you, God, for your amazing gift.  I am not worthy, but oh so grateful!

Ok, I am a lucky mom.  Grace is a good baby.  My mom took the night shift while she was here (thanks mom!!), and Grace did pretty well, but I still wondered what she would do once I was “on my own.”  Well, both nights she only woke up one during the night to eat, and then when back to sleep until the morning.  Yeah!!  So far, then, I have been getting pretty good sleep. 

Caleb is doing well with his new sister.  He likes to go up to her and tell her hello, and he’ll just sit by her and watch her.  I think he thinks she is pretty cool!!

The newest addition to our family came on Thursday.  Grace Marianna was born at 3:20 pm, 8 lb. 7 oz, 20 1/4 inches long.  She has lots of straight dark hair, and we haven’t decided whether he eyes are dark blue or will be brown.  Right now, she is sleeping!!  She made labor easy on mom, one push!!  Right now it won’t let me add pictures, but I will try again later once we take some more.

Ok, so here are some kitchen/dining room pics.  There are a few things that we still need to do:

• hang the ultra cool light above the sink
• get a new ceiling fan - I have hated this one since we moved in
• get some pics for the wall above the bench
• make pillows for the bench
• new rugs for the kitchen
• refinish the table and chairs

One day, the long term plan is to put a french door in place of the dining room window, move the fridge to where the current back door is, and extend the counter top & cabinets.  But, that will also require a new back deck, which is MUCH more expensive, so we opted to wait until we need to replace the deck.

I just want to take a minute to say thank you to all my wonderful church ladies for throwing me a wonderful baby shower!!  And you were all so gracious to give what we needed.  1 pack of newborn diapers, 4 packs of size 1, 4 packs of size 2, 1 can of formula, as well as other girl baby stuff like blankets, clothes, burp clothes, and etc.  Not to mention all of the gift cards!!  Thank you so much - you are all so very kind to us.

Not to completely change the subject, but I PROMISE that I will put kitchen pics on here later today.  My ultra cool light is still not hung, which means that most likely it won’t get hung until the fall, but most of the other stuff is done.  So I will put up pics of where we are right now.

Ok, so I know that many of you are probably getting tired of kitchen updates.  Well, it is almost finished (enough for now) so they will be stopping soon.  Anyhow, today I will be painting my dining/kitchen area - hopefully the last coat.  I should also be receiving my new pendant light for above my sink.  I found it on ebay.  I wanted something that looked original, so I think it does the trick!

Have you ever heard of Craig’s List?  If not, you should.  It is a wonderful FREE internet classified, and is city specific.  That means no shipping charges, like Ebay.  I can pick Kansas City and it will only show me results in the KC area.  Let me list all of the wonderful things we have bought and sold.

1.  Josh sold his table saw, within 3 hours of listing.

2.  Josh sold some walnut unfinished wood.

3.  Josh sold a drill and a jigsaw.  (He had duplicates of some tools.)

4.  Josh bought a weight bench with the weights and leg attachment for $100.

5.  I bought a bench, which I LOVE, for $200.

6.  I bought a kitchen table and 4 chairs for $100.  Need to be refinished, but a great price for a solid oak table.

7.  I sold our stove.  Yes, our electric range in the kitchen - we are right now stoveless.  Josh saw that the kitchen looked so nice, and that the range really looked out of place since everything else is stainless.  So, he mentioned that we could get a new range for our anniversary next month.  He then said that if I could sell our range on Craig’s List he would buy the new stove the same day.  Well, Wednesday I was exhausted and stayed home from church, planning to sit on the couch the entire evening.  I remembered I had a picture of the range still, so I put it on CL.  Not even 45 minutes later, I had sold it, and she wanted to come get it that night.  Well, I didn’t want to refuse since I was promised a new range, so she came.  Yesterday we bought the new range, and it will be delivered tomorrow.  Now, the only thing really left to replace is the ceiling fan in the dining room…I ordered a really cool pendant light for above the sink. 

So, I like CL.  You should look in your area.  People try to sell anythin on there, and you can really find some good deals.  I am still looking for a specific type of dining chair for our kitchen table, so I check for that periodically.  The chairs that came with the table work ok, but they are a little too country for us.

Oh, and hopefully I will have pictures of the kitchen/dining next week.  The cabinets are almost finished, and then all I have to do it paint the walls.  (One is already painted, the “mojito lime” color from mom’s teapots she sells in her store.  The others I bought too dark of a color, but will be able to make it work by lightening it with white.)

So, check CL out!!  www.craigslist.com

Today is a very happy day.  Probably one of the happiest days of my married life.  Not the happiest, but I must say that it ranks very high.  What has caused this supreme happiness?  Let me enlighten you…

About two months ago, we began a kitchen renovation.  No it is not finished yet, so this is not the cause of this extreme happiness, but it coordinates with it.  Josh first tore out the soffets, and then he became the assistant pastor at Faith Baptist Church, so things were put on hold.  A couple of weeks ago, he sheet-rocked the wall and ceiling behind the soffets, mudded the seams, and scraped the ugly popcorn ceiling.  However, due to the ceiling being previously painted, it did not scrape cleanly, and we had to skim-coat the entire ceiling, and then sand it, before applying the knockdown spray.  Well, due to a house appraisal coming, this weekend we made a major dent.

I started repainting the cabinets, Josh put crown molding on the top of cabinets, and started it around the kitchen/dining room.  Then, today, my dad came to help.  Why?  Well, the reason for my udder happiness, of course!!  We installed a dishwasher, new countertop, sink, faucet, track ceiling light, and garbage disposal.  Now, some of you know this, but I have not had a dishwasher since we bought our house, 4 1/2 years ago.  Over a year ago my garbage disposal stopped working, so I have been without that.  It is like Christmas!!  I think that this is the first night that I will go to bed without dishes sitting in the sink or on the countertop waiting to be washed.  Complete happiness!!

The kitchen and dining room will look so wonderful - I now can see the future.  There is still more work to do:  lots of painting, finish the crown, change other counters, tile backsplash, pendant light, and ceiling fan.  But, that will come, and probably pretty quickly due to the appraisal.  Yippee!!  I will include pictures at the end, because it is right now still messy.

Oh happy day!!

Today, I am sitting here in the garage, watching our garage sale.  I have been here for 2 hours so far, only 4 more to go!!  We have done pretty good so far, most of our big ticket items have been sold, which makes more room in our garage - just what we need!!  As I sit here, pretty much doing nothing, I decided that if I brought the lap-top down I could at least play a little.  So, here I am, blogging about nothing.  I still need to do the song list for May, but that is done easiest without the computer to start.  I kinda hate sitting here doing nothing, because I know that there are many other things that I could be doing, like painting, cleaning, washing dishes, and so forth.  But, I guess I should just enjoy an excuse to just sit here.