We got a new dishwasher!

I've been wanting a new dishwasher for FOREVER (like, from two weeks after we bought the house).  We finally went for it, so I got up at 5 am to get in line for the Albert Lee warehouse sale.  I was one of the first hundred or so people in the door and I managed to find the very last Miele dishwasher they had available.

I got it home and we started dismantling the kitchen.

After spending all morning removing the old dishwasher, then all afternoon installing the new dishwasher, we plugged in my new toy and nothing...

It didn't work.  So, for the next three weeks, check out our new dishwasher:

It's me, I'm the new dishwasher.

Eventually, we sorted it out with Miele, and we got a brand-new whatever the broken piece was and we have a fancy new dishwasher.  Miele and Albert Lee were actually both amazing, and Albert Lee gave us a free extended warranty to make sure that the dishwasher works for us for a good long time. 

In the meantime, check out our oh-so-classy front yard:

Now, if the remainder of our appliances can hold it together for the next few years, that would be great, thanks.

Guess the new bathroom has been broken in

The Bathroom Project ~ After

It's done!

Check out our fancy new toilet!  We had some drama installing that bad boy, but it's in now and it's awesome.  It has a coating to help prevent it from growing little nasties, no crevices for said nasties to hide, and you can flush an entire bucket of golf balls in one flush (why you would do that, I have no idea, but still...)

Eventually we're planning to add a shower door, but we're feeling kind of poor at the moment and we've never actually used this bathtub (except to bathe the dog) so that can wait a while.

The Bathroom Project ~ During

We had this idea that we could do the whole thing in about a week, for about a thousand bucks.  By the end, I think we were about four times on timeline and almost double the budget, but it's done!

It took two full days, with two people working, just to pull up the old linoleum.

Then, Keith spent about a week tearing out and replacing all the rotted sub-floor under the toilet.

This is always the point in the project where I do, oh I hope I like these colors!

It took me a full (school) day to get just these tiles down.

Then I spent a full second (school) day cutting all the other pieces to fit.  By the end, I pretty much brought the wet saw to it's knees and my fingers thought that they'd fall off from pushing so many tiles through the saw.

Things we learned from this project:

1. Hire a professional

2. Pick thinner tiles

3. Buy a new tile cutting blade, or see #1

4. If you ignore #1, #2, & #3, you should probably get a heavier-duty saw.  Or, just go with #1

This was my second tiling project (if you count the stairs as a project).  I think that at this point I can confidently say, I'm never doing that again.

The bathroom project ~ Before

We've been talking about re-doing the bathroom pretty much since we moved in, but thought we'd wait until the kids were old enough to not be constantly peeing on the floor. Hopefully we're at that point, 'cause we're going for it.

The before:

"But Julie" you say, "Sure the bathroom is boring, but there's noting wrong with it, do you really NEED to re-do it?"

Yes, yes we do:

This is the current state of our house...

I will be so glad when this remodel is over and we can stop living in the middle of a construction zone.

Merry Christmas from the Krugers!

Merry Christmas from the Kruger family!

Wow, look at that, another year, another Christmas Letter.  I’m totally turning into my Mother here, but these years go faster & faster every year.

Cecily turned 4 this summer and continues to be our “spirited child”.  I was excited for her to turn four and round the emotional-basket-case-corner, but so far, four is turning out even more emotional-wreckage-y than three (who knew it was possible?!)  We currently have Cecily in full-day Pre-K 2 days a week, with an additional half-day on Mondays.  She enjoys school once she’s there, but she does not love it the way her brother did.  She does certainly seem to enjoy her Tuesdays & Thursdays at home with Mama’s undivided attention.  In the spring, we signed Cecily up for ballet.  She loved the class and especially loved the sparkly tutu she got for the recital.  After the Summer Olympics, Cecily decided to switch to gymnastics, so we’ve been doing gymnastics once a week since October.  Cecily loves all things fancy & sparkly, and she loves playing with babies and her friends.  Like good Gen-X parents, we try not to pigeon-hole our children into society’s confining gender roles; our children, on the other hand, seem perfectly happy in their traditional roles.  This summer, Keith was trying to play with both kids in the backyard.  Keith & Parker were kicking the soccer ball around the yard, but every time the ball went near Cecily, she’d grab it and say “Here’s the Daddy ball, and here’s the Mama ball, and this is the baby ball ‘wahh, wahh!’”

Parker turned six this summer and is officially a “big kid”.  He loved his last few months of Pre-K this spring and started Kindergarten in September at our local school.  Parker LOVES school.  Parker loves everything about school, he’s made several new friends and he loves all the routine, rules, and activities involved in being a Kindergartener.  Parker continues to love all things sports related, and after an evening at his friend’s house he recently discovered that you can watch BOTH the Seahawks AND the Huskies play football on the TV (who knew?).  As long as no one tells him about baseball on the TV, I think we’re good.  Parker played T-ball this spring and had a blast.  As a leftie with a decent arm, we have big plans for his future in baseball, I’m just not so sure I’m ready to give up 2-3 evenings a week of my time to watch him play!  Parker is our rules & plans kid, he loves playing any sort of game, giving him a constant refrain of “Mama, can you play a game with me, Mama can you play?”  He also loves structure; the other night, he told me his plan: “Step 1: put on my pajamas, Step 2: Go to Bed, Step 3: Go to Sleep, Step 4: Wake Up, Step 5: Have breakfast…”  We have many days with such detailed plans, he’s a boy after my plan-loving heart.

This summer, I started watching my brother’s daughter, Fiona, during the day while everyone is at work, and I continue to watch her before & after school as she & Parker are in Kindergarten at the same school.  The three cousins very quickly moved from cousins-behavior to sibling-behavior.  They have a lot of fun playing together, and they have a lot of fun fighting together.  It has been great for the kids to have their cousin around, but having that third body in the house every day has officially stamped a “NO” on the whole “should we or shouldn’t we have another baby?” conversation.  In anticipation of Fiona “joining” our family, we finally became official parents and bought ourselves a Grey Honda Odyssey mini-van.  This car is the joy of my life, and at least for the first few weeks it made getting the kids ready & out the door infinitely easier “who wants to ride in the mini van?” “Me, Me, Me, let me get my shoes on and run downstairs!”  Sadly, this novelty has worn off in the past few months, but carting 2-6 kids around has become infinitely easier since we got the van and I try to fill it as often as possible.

Keith is still working at the same engineering firm downtown (I think this statement will just be copied & pasted into every Christmas letter from now to eternity).  He continues to move into management, this year has had some growing pains, but he’s turning into an amazing leader in his company…whether he wants to our not!  In June, Keith & I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!  We had big plans of taking a big vacation for our 10-year; but once it came time to plan it, I realized that anything less than a 10-day Caribbean cruise was just going to feel like settling. So, we ended up sending the kids to Grandma’s for a few nights and had a mini-stay-cation at home, then went up to Bellingham for a night.  Maybe next year we’ll combine my 40^th and our 11^th Anniversary for a big trip, we’ll see.

This has been an interesting year for me, I have one kid in Elementary and one in Preschool.  I’ve let go of most of my Preschool responsibilities but haven’t yet stepped up to any Elementary responsibilities.  When everyone asked me what I was going to do when both kids were in school semi-full-time, my response has always been “Nothing, I fully intend to sit around the house reading magazines.”  Well, I don’t seem to be getting much done, but that magazine stack doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller either.  Honestly, I sometimes wonder what I do with my days, but they do seem pretty busy?!  I have greatly enjoyed having a few minutes to myself and luxuriating in the wonder of going to Costco ALL ALONE. In the spring, I did start selling Norwex (all-natural cleaning products), but by “selling” what I really mean is “buying all sorts of stuff for myself at a discount”, so maybe not my next career. On October 19^th, after a lengthy fight with Alzheimer’s, my (Julie’s) Mom went to be with Jesus.  It’s been a long journey and we’ve done plenty of grieving over the past 10 years, so the loss isn’t super acute, but it still feels different to know she’s not around.  We had a lovelyservice in November and it was a joy to see so many people from my childhood come to celebrate my Mom.

This summer, we took the motor home out for several adventures.  On our first outing of the season, the deadbolt managed to break itself in the locked position, leaving us to get in & out through the driver’s door (in the pouring rain, what kind of weirdo camps over Memorial Day in the PNW?).  Never a lack of adventures when you motorhome!  We took it over to Lake Wenatchee for a few days in August (more rain), and a few weeks later, took our longest “road trip” so far, leaving Skagit Valley at 9pm and driving straight to Brian’s house in Beaverton, Oregon, arriving at 2am for our niece, Amber’s 1^st birthday party.  In retrospect, not the brightest plan ever, but there’s only so many weekends in summer and we were determined to squeeze every last moment out of them.

We hope that this letter finds you well with prayers for a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!

With love from the Krugers:  

Keith, Julie, Parker (6), & Cecily (4)

The play structure is done!

I was starting to think this was the closest we'd ever get to a playground!

Keith finished the play deck on Sunday.  The kids love it.  I think that the slide might be a little steep, it was designed for a significantly lower structure.  Parker flies down it going "ow, ow, ow!" and then lands with a huge grin.  So far, Cecily will only go down if you are holding onto her, which kind of defeats the purpose of a play structure.

Keith lowered the slide a little bit, so hopefully it's better now, but I haven't had much luck getting Cecily to try it out yet.

Rainy day

We've had beautiful weather for several weeks now, so naturally, the one day Keith could work on the kid's play structure, it poured down rain.

Norwex battle

I got a shipment of Norwex, so the kids were fighting with the dusting wand and the dry mop.

Because more shelves make everything better.

I've been watching WAY too much HGTV, so I decided we needed a coffee station.

Boom, there you go:

Cleaning

I got all my Norwex stuff in the mail, so the kids have been helping me clean the house:

The dusting mitt is the hands-down favorite.

I told them I was having my Norwex party tonight, so they're helping me get ready.

...they don't need to know it was only online.

The New Deck Project ~ Finally, finally done!

Only a week after their promised install date (and two days after the kid's birthday party), the railings were installed!

Aren't they pretty?

Although we were so irritated with the delivery delays, we really love our new deck and it was all worth it!  What's really funny about the railings is that it took them a full day to measure, build, & install the frames on-site and then a 2nd day to install the glass.  So, apparently it took them 8+ weeks just to make the glass?  I'm not sure what the delay was, but it's done!

I love the little extra pop-out to give us more space.  We might use it for the BBQ in the summer, but at the moment, we're still keeping the grill by the house since we don't want to block our beautiful sight-lines.

And this is what it looks like when it's pouring rain: