a life beyond running shoes.

we had a stoop sale yesterday. think.....yard sale - brooklyn style. words will completely fail to convey the uniqueness of this experience. it was a block event. okay....only 5 families had stuff out. visualize if you will: two picnic tables in front of our house. plates, books, clothes, baby stuff cover the tables. then underneath....bins. i brought out all the bins of storage (for kids' clothes). there were about 6. i went through each one and divided them by size (for interested parties to peruse and purchase said adorable items), what to send to cousins, what to donate to charity, and what to take to consignment shop....and what might actually fit my children. we were set-up from 9:30 to 2:30. i had spent friday in the basement sorting and organizing for our "grand event." i had one gentlemen ask me if i had any suits for kids. ummmmm......nope. $2 on kids books. $1.50 on novels. $1 on glass bowls. i made $4.50....total. peanut (5 year-old) sold lemonade....

i know that no matter where you live, everyone loves outdoor space. everyone wants a nice backyard..... but here in new york it is especially desirable. when we lived in a 625 square foot apartment, it was close to doubling our space. we ate meals, played, relaxed, entertained, lived out there. in this house, we did not use our backyard until a month ago. it was concrete rumble. it was a mud pit. it was a failed vegetable garden. it was a mosquito haven. now, it is usable. we are living out there. we had two dinner engagements this week marking summer. our final community group for the summer.... pork burgers (thank you mark bittman), orzo, three philospophers beer, and apple crisp plus good conversation, laughing, and the first firefly..... then we had a nigerian, anglican pastor over for dinner. we got to hear about his nigerian tribal princess wife, his grandfather who was friends with winston churchill, and about his experience of living here in brooklyn for the past two months. ...

in an attempt to make the backyard usable space...... we added 700 pounds of sand. there was much rejoicing. found a used box through neighborhood group. the only one that does not love it..... sweet pea. there were many tears. also.... night out with friends. celebrating her 40th. i got to wear a dress and heals. anyone recognize the dress??? (mom?)

our church community gave us a house warming party on sunday. this was great incentive to finish up all the major projects.... floors, walls, bedroom, ceiling, etc. my hubbie worked so hard.... what a trooper! we had 51 adults, 18 kids, and one neighbor..... what an outpouring of of support & love. here is one table of food: christian and mary made all the food - grilled flank steak, grilled figs with blue cheese and prosciutto, artichoke dip, homemade bread sticks, hummus, corn salsa, roasted peppers, tomatoes & goat cheese with olives, crab cakes, and that really is just the tip of the ice berg. it was amazing!!!! here are some pics of the house: we even painted the stairs from poop brown to black: we have an entry way: our kids area in the dining room: (ikea rocks!) our bedroom: showcasing our new bed (our first headboard in seven years of marriage. we can actually read in bed and not roll away from the wall). here are the floors & baseboards. what is just not communi...

it is always more than we think it is going to be. here is the ceiling where the plumber fixed the leak.... we still have to fix the plaster. THEN there is our bedroom floor.... all those dark spots.... we think are cat urine... from the 20 that lived here before we did. heat and humidity don't work well with cat pee smell. we will be replacing it all including the sub floor. what fun, what fun.

with the departure of mom & dennis.... the arrival of four cousins.... we had a full couple of days. day 1: south street seaport times square, toys 'r us, museum of natural history. day 2: staten island ferry, battery park playground (they kept going and did top of the rock, american girl store, and rockeller plaza) day 3: new york historical society, central park (rocks, lakes, playgrounds, picnic), pizza and sparklers. day 4: everyone leaves and we build stairs.

...that ended with a date. we got to go out for our anniversary two weeks early taking full advantage of free babysitting. but more of from the homestead. windows... primed & painted. washed. living room windows washed with new screens.... a fabulous house warming gift from mr. denny. more light fixtures. a ceiling fan in the boys room. more paint. i love this color! they leave tomorrow but more visitors arrive tonight. we will have a FULL house tonight. in total: six kids and six adults.

here is dennis finishing the dining room ceiling and our new light fixture. mom got the kitchen ceiling painted.... walls are all prepped for some color! we had finished all the trim on wednesday during nap time. de nnis cleaned windows and scrapped the old paint off the trim.... that was a serious job... and he hates doing windows! and john got the kitchen painted. phew. we are not sure if we love the color.... i may need to call in some decorating help to figure it out. it blends with the cabinets..... we'll wait until we can get all the canisters organized and off the counters to decide.

mom and dennis are here in work mode. here is the recap from thursday and friday. we got the dining room wainscoting sanded & painted. hall & bathroom light fixtures changed out..... i should put a picture up of the old ones but i didnt' want to waste my time... they are gross. got the boys room painted. daddy did that. it is orange..... better pictures later. more work for saturday....more painting, more light fixtures, and some window cleaning.

here and there we keep getting things done. this past weekend g'pa & g'ma were back up.... he replaced the window in the bathroom. the night light with sensor now registers when it is day. john primed the kitchen with a little help from the three-year-old. and last night started painting the trim..... half of work crew #2 arrived sunday....my mom. she is prepped and ready to paint.... we'll try saturday. today she helped me unpack three more boxes, use animal urine enzyme cleaner (for the third time), and got me some running shoes. not bad for a days work. and we keep pressing on.

my husband is a busy little bee. he was out of town last week and before leaving got a few things done in the house. i tried posting last week but was having trouble. forgive the delay. the boys room..... wall finished. floor sanded & painted. carpet down. beds up. toys creeping out of boxes. air conditioner installed. inside front door painted. (we have two front doors) new bathroom door.... new as in found in the basement. painted, shaved, and installed. it used to be green....lovely. john's office... painted. carpeted with carpet tiles. books on shelves. desk up. (okay, so i was the busy bee and did all that while he was out of town two weeks ago with help from friends)

we have two beautiful sets... one in the living room, one in our bedroom. this is our bedroom.... the windows sills got sanded earlier during the week and got painted on saturday. blinds got put up too. now it is not noon-day-bright at 5am when the sun wakes up AND i can change in my room and not the bathroom. our friend michael helped get all the trim in the windows painted. john worked on the baseboards, closet, and bedroom door. we are loved. we still don't have a flash so pictures are not great. we have to find the warranty first.... which who knows where that is.

paint sample #3... we have a winner. it looks browner against the other two samples. farrow & ball's "organgery" now let's see if home depot can match it. here are the boys watching cupcakes cook for daddy's birthday in our new oven. installed yesterday. first meal cooked: chicken nuggets (very glamorous, i know!) there are doorknobs on the doors to the bathroom off kitchen and the stairs to the basement. and the windowsill in our bedroom has been sanded and is ready to be painted. also, one more coat of plaster on the boys wall. .......baby steps.

we had our first dinner at the table tonight.... strange to think that we will be having dinner here when the boys are teenagers... hopefully. today was church. it was amazing to worship considering how tired i was last week that i barely heard the sermon... i think we were in ephesians. "great father of glory, pure father of light, thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight; all praise we would render: o help us to see 'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee." john and i opened the most expensive bottle of wine we have every purchased (back in september). i'm not sure the meal warranted it but the occasion did: our first dinner in our first home....modavi "oakville" cabernet sauvignon....yum!