We have floors!

So awesome! And I think Zoe agrees:

Our floors (laminate wood-look primarily, with linoleum in the laundry) have been installed, and the house trimmed out. Painting soon, then plumbing fixtures installed. I am SO RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY to have that awful carpet gone. It's been in the house since we purchased it 7 or so years ago, we've power-cleaned it probably three or four times, but it was still so disgusting. You just can't keep that stuff clean with animals around. I'd much rather have area rugs that I can remove from the house to have professionally cleaned, or, worst case, gotten rid of if need be.

You may notice spots for TVs -

care to donate one?

Just kidding, of course.

Maybe.

Insulation, breaking through, and sheetrock

We finally have one big connected house. The exterior doors arrived, allowing us to insulate and put up sheetrock, as well as bust a whole through Zoe's old bedroom and into the new hallway. The 'new house' has heating piped to it, but the ducts are closed off right now to (supposedly - ha!) prevent too much dust from getting into the 'old house.' In reality, there is dust everywhere: our couches need constant vacuuming, floors dusting, return air filters changing. Soon, though, the new floor will be in place, which should cut down on the dust drastically. Looking forward to that point, when this will really start to feel like a complete house, instead of two different parts.

Mo is old

For my birthday this year, Kyle and Zoe made a donation to the Missouri state board of tourism, and in exchange got these wonderful t-shirts:

Thanksgiving 2010

We enjoyed this past Thanksgiving in New Braunfels with plenty of food and family fun. The night before, Pops, Preston, Kyle, Emmy, and I all went out to a honky-tonk to listen to some music and have a few beers. We ended up going home with a freshly fried turkey, thanks to Pops' bidding skills. Kyle suffered through the car ride back to the house, and the rest of us devoured it as soon as we got in the door. The next day after a wonderful meal where everyone pitched in, we were able to watch little Mark's football game on TV. They didn't win that game, however the team is still able to play in the Armed Forces Bowl on December 30th - keep an eye out for him! They've had a great season so far.
Zoe loved the weekend, primarily because she was able to hang out with cousin Emma the whole time:

Emma perfects her two-wheel biking,
while Zoe tries to catch her on foot

2 years old = 2 trips to the ER

Well, never a dull moment with a kid around.

About a month ago, Kyle was out of town the whole week. On that Wednesday nite Zoe's lying on the ground, w/o a diaper on. We've already very successfully and happily gone potty (yes! potty training has started!), brushed our teeth, and said good nite to Lola and Sophie. I'm already in my pjs cause it's sort of been a long day and I'm sore from lifting 600 pounds of bathroom tiles. I'm envisioning hot cocoa and some crap on TV, or the other book I just started (I can't seem to get anywhere on this historical fiction Civil War book). We're laughing and having fun. I pick Zoe up by her wrists and 'fly' her over to the dresser so we can put on a night-time diaper. She lands, looks at me confusedly, and starts crying. "Elbow! Icy!"
Again. I hate those unstable joints. Ugh.
Put diaper on Zoe. Put real clothes on both of us. Convince Zoe not to move her left arm during all of this. Call pedi nurse hotline. They call back one minute later and say to go ahead and take her to Dell Children's Hospital, thankfully only 5 minutes away. Ugh.
She was awesome in the car and the waiting room. Not crying at all, just watching everything and not moving her left arm. It was busy there - barely an open seat. She only started crying again when they wanted to weigh her and take her temp. Dr came in, did her rotating elbow magic, and said this will likely keep happening til she's about 5. Ugh.
Zoe said she didn't want to go home, she wanted to stay at the doctor's (the hospital).
We came home around 11pm to dogs that needed to pee, a daughter that wanted noodles (she got yogurt), and a bag full of odiferous diapers and human waste, which I had left in the hallway in my rush to get out. The next day was trash day.

Note that she did not in fact play with Aidan
the previous nite, but the previous week. Ah well.
Understanding time is hard.