Did I ever tell you about the time my husband cut a hole in our damned house? Yeah. When we first built our house, Mr. Enginerd said, "One of these days, I'm going to put another garage door on the back of the garage." I never really thought he was serious about it, but I've come to realize that when he says he's going to do something, he does it. It might take YEEEEARS, but, yeah. He'll get around to it. Witness the Halloween electric chair prop. Started it in '02, finished it in '07. Having a bunch of kids really gets in the way sometimes! That's what happened with the garage door thing. He built a trailer the year we completely landscaped our backyard, and then we couldn't figure out what to do with it. Well...why not roll it all the way through the garage and onto the back patio?

And how often do you get to take a picture of your garage wall falling to the ground?



Boom!



I'd love to tell you more about this, but I really can't brag about it properly without showing you thirty more pictures, and I think they're all on Mr. Enginerd's external hard drive. So, I'll go into further detail later!

Was it a mistake to cut a gigantic hole in our house? Or not? You'll have to tune in later and find out.

Labels: custom garage, garage door

What better way to welcome the weekend than with an embarrassing personal story?



Thought I'd "come out of my shell" a little bit there, to promote Be Oyster Aware, a site that helps consumers learn more about Gulf oysters and serves as a gentle reminder that individuals with weakened immunity should avoid eating raw shellfish.

You can also find lots of oyster recipes there, which I probably won't be trying out any time soon. The only time I ever eat oysters is at Hooters, and they're really not very good. The downside of living in land-locked Colorado, I suppose!

I used to HATE it as a kid when it would rain or snow in the springtime and ruin my outdoor plans, and my dad would ALWAYS say, "We need the moisture!" And I always though to myself, "Why? We have a hose!"

I understand now, but I still don't like it! My husband went out last night and fertilized and put down grass seed and weed killer, in anticipation of the snow. Hopefully when it melts, our grass will be greener.

STILL, though! It's the first of MAY! It was in the 80s yesterday! Snow? For real?

Mallory was running around the room and crash landed into the screen of our big screen TV. It didn't appreciate the hit! The screen is caved in and cracked.

I'm not-so-patiently waiting for the Enginerd to CALL ME BACK so I can confess to him what happened. The fact that my calls are going to voice mail is just stressing me out that much more!! I want to tell him and get it over with!!

Wahhhhh!

I know it's been forever and a day since I've posted here. And it's not like we're not doing home improvement stuff left and right! I just can't seem to catch my ass most days, and blog posting doesn't seem to take much precedence.

Currently, my home is in need of some improvement, in the way of getting all the crap out of my living room! My twins club is having their semi-annual garage sale in about a week, and I'm frantically tagging HUNDREDS of items of clothing so we can get it all out of here, and hopefully rake in enough cash to pay for the gas for our trip to California in a couple of months.

Hopefully I'll check in here again soon. I want to get this blog going again!

One of the reasons we waited so long to move Pablo and Mallory into big kid beds (hello, they're four-and-a-half!) was that we didn't want Pablo getting out of bed and wandering around the house. He knows how to unlock/unlatch/open every door in this place, and the safety measures we have in place already are really only buying us a few minutes, since he knows he can drag a chair over to the front door to reach the flippy latch, y'know?

Paul and I spent weeks trying to come up with an idea for blocking off the hallway. We wanted them to be able to get up and use the bathroom, so locking them in their room wouldn't work. I've always loved the adorable fenced-in play area at Lollilocks, and so I suggested right away that we use vinyl fencing.

Paul and I came up with lots more ideas. He wanted something sturdy and semi-permanent. I wanted something that didn't look like total crap, like a framed in wall with unfinished drywall would have looked. Eventually, I got Paul to embrace the idea, and as you can see, it turned out pretty okay! It's not all that ugly. It keeps the kids from leaving the house in the middle of the night. And we'll be able to remove it in a few months/years/whatever and just patch a few holes.

Lickety split.

Now, from the same Enginerd Daddy who brought you the playroom swings for occupational therapy, we have: a trapeze and a climbing rope!

We were hanging out on Sunday and Paul decided to head out to the garage and whip up a couple of "hanging devices" for the kids. Pablo love hanging from stuff - something a lot of autistic kids have in common - so we're always trying to find options for him safer than hanging from the top of the fridge, y'know?

I have such a cool husband.