UPDATE!!!

Hi, long time no see eh?

I took a little blogging hiatus to focus my energy on our remodel (pictures soon to come), which is coming along rather nicely thanks to a great group of friends, babysitting grandparents and superhero construction inlaws! Since my last post was so heart wrenching, I wanted to update you, the blog readers, to how the situation panned out.

I read through all of your advice multiple times, mulling over the options I had. After a great conversation I had with a school teacher friend, I decided to take George to school one morning and then speak with his teacher. I spent the morning talking to George about why kids bully, and why it is important to stand up for himself by telling the kid to stop. When I got to his school, his teacher wasn't there, so I spoke with the office about the problem. That afternoon, I walked George home from school and he told me that the bully kid had apologized and played with him at recess. I thought, "Great, problem solved." Wrong. As we walked home, we walked past an older group of boys, and I overheard one boy mention George's name as we walked past. I realized that the younger boy who bullied was not the only one, there were older boys.
The following Sunday at church, I spoke with a friend, who often looks fashionable and coordinated! She offered to speak with her daughter and son, who is also named George, to see if either would want to go out of their way to make sure George isn't getting teased at recess or on the way home. That plan worked great! George had someone to walk him home a few days, and a few days later he walked home with other boys who were friendly and shared their toys as they walked home!

Thank you for all of you advice, it was great!

My heart just sunk...

It's not often that I publicly admit that I am feeling sad or blue, but today is quite the exception. I normally try to keep my blog posts upbeat with a light touch of humor, but I feel so much anxiety about the following situation, that I thought I would put my saddening problem out on the blogger world and see what advice I get back.

Problem: I left our new home today to meet George afterschool at grandma's house. When I arrived, George was standing across the street at the neighbor's house. He was in the yard talking with the little girl his age and her mother. As I pulled up I could see that he was clearly upset. George climbed into the van, and with tears rolling down his cheeks he mumbled through broken sobs, "the boys are mean to me." To find out more about what he was so sad about, I rolled down my window and asked the neighbor girl what happened. She informed me that the other boy they walk to school with everyday had started teasing George. George asked the boy to stop many times and told the boy that he didn't like what the boy was doing. Apparently this started happening over the last week, and today it escalated to other boys joining in. The first boy was incouraging the other boys to tease George as well. George told me how the first boy started by calling him names and telling him that he didn't like George, and today the first boy got a group of older boys to join in.

George was so upset and he didn't know what to do. I too feel upset because I am not sure that I know what to do either. I told George to just tell the boy to stop and if he doesn't to walk away and not walk home with that boy. I practiced with George a few times so he would know what to say to that boy. What should I do to make sure this bullying stops before it catches on? Please share all your advice, I feel at a total loss.

Nothing Much to Say

I really don't have anything to blog...just construction, construction, construction. I am tired, there is paint permanently stuck to my hair, hands and nails, and my back feels like I was hit by a semi. There isn't much more to say but we are in the thick of it!

I did want to send a note out to all the wonderful friends and family that have taken pity on our money pit project and spared countless hours to help us. THANK YOU! I feel so grateful for the time and energy you have given us. I am thankful for the new skills many of you taught me and I am thankful for the waves of energy you have brought into our house. It seems like everytime I felt like I was too exhausted to keep going, all of a sudden, someone would show up to help and I would feel refreshed!

THANK YOU AND HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The Joy of New Construction

Now that we are fully invested in our home remodel and into our 3rd week on the job, the home is starting to come together. In some rooms I have already attached trim and painted the walls. I am going with subtle sage/gray/greens in the living areas, and yellow in the kitchen. We are trying to do most of the work ourselves since we had to sub out the electrical, plumbing, cabinets and new windows. Those four areas alone have cost more than I ever expected to spend while remodeling a home. So, we have resigned to doing all the framing, dry walling, mudding, finish carpentry, and tiling.

One area that we debated on is the wood floors. The wood floors were in really poor condition and in the bedroom, the floors were unsalavageable. In the living room we are going to lay carpet on top, so that leaves the dining room, entry hall and office in wood. If we finished the floors ourselves, they most likely would not look as good as if done professionally, plus, because we moved walls, there are many gaps in the wood floors that would need to be repaired and look seamless....I am not to sure that we could do that. After long debate over the cost of having a professional do the floors, we agreed and got bids. The best bid came from Sokol Flooring. They came two days later. In just one day they seamlessly patched the open areas, sanded down the entire floor and then laid wood filler. The next day they came in and stained and then later on left a poly coat on the floor. We were told just to stay off the floors for 24 hours while the poly coat hardened and set!!! I was totally impressed with how fast they worked and the quality of the work. If I had be cursing earlier for having spent the money on the wood refinish, I wasn't cursing after I saw the finished product! The floors are absolutely magnificant!






This picture was taken one minute before the BEATING!!!

ok, now seriously, if you tell a kid, "hey don't walk on the floors and stay out of the house," OF COURSE, they are going to walk right on the newly poly coated wood floors and then double back so there are multiple sets of foot tracks through the newly finished floors! When I called the wood floor guys to come look, he simply said, "well, I guess it's like when you lay new concrete, your kids always have to leave a pemanent mark." Needless to say, the word 'devestation' does not nearly describe the pit I felt in my stomach after paying the bill for the wood floors and seeing the mark of my child on them!

A RIDDLE...

What do a VAMPIRE, OVEN, A FISH....and an odor eater have in common?




Answer: They can all save your life when you least expect it....thank you very much.

Summerill Slam: Week 2

Once we finished the demolition, it seemed as if our work was slowing down; but, in reality, we were working longer and harder. Rebuilding seems to take a lot more time than I had hoped for. We are slowly plugging away at putting new sub-floor down and reframing the home. We had to add extra support along the areas that we took out walls. Mark framed those areas up with 2x6 beams. At least when we are finally finished our house will stand strong through anything.


Here is the new view from the front room. Mark put in the supporting beam and framed out the old cubby in the wall.Here is a view of the upstairs bathroom. We replaced the subfloor and framed the area for the tub.

You, Me...the billard room *wink*

Happy Halloween! I hope your Halloween was as spooky and event filled as ours. Our day was packed with activities. Henry attended a fall/Halloween carnival for his preschool and then George had a party and a parade at his gradeschool. After running a few home remodeling errands, I was busy the rest of the day with spooky celebrations. I ran the boys around to their parties and then took them trick or treating before the Halloween party at the church. Our costumes weren't a family theme, but I still thought we did well. I picked up George's fireman costume, and Theodore's pumpkin costume at yard sales this summer for 2 dollars! I pulled Henry's costume together the night before after digging through my mom's fabric stash. Luckily, Henry had a pirate eye patch he had picked up at a party a month before. My costume was inspired by a friend who had mentioned that when she and her husband played Clue, they liked to dress up. That same day my friend mentioned that to me, my mom mentioned that she was going to dress up as Ms. Peacock for Halloween. So I jumped on the bandwagon and pulled together a Ms. Scarlett outfit. (And, if you have ever played a game with me or my sisters, you probably know that we fight for the red player...hahahaha...so I was the ultimate red player for Halloween...I guess that makes me THE WINNER!!!) Mark couldn't go to the Halloween party because he was busy at our new home, but he did pop in for chili dinner, dressed as a construction worker!

My dad is Professor Plum, my mom is Mrs. Peacock and I am Mrs. Scarlett!

Here is Henry our Pirate! I made his vest and head cover. Henry just so happened to match his pirate teacher!

George walks to school everyday with the neighbor girl, Alaina. Notice how manly George is trying to be:)