A glimpse into the chaos

Etsy shop up and running, other things...not so much

2009-02-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

So I just opened up a shop on Etsy, www.TheSeed.etsy.com and there should be an "Etsy Mini" at the top of this blog. Not really sure how that works, but I figured I'd add it and see.

In bathroom tiling news...the tiling is done!!!!!

In silicone caulking news...it's not done yet :( so we still haven't used the 2 new showers.

In backsplash tiling news....I haven't even started yet, argh!! (but at least we picked a tile)

Welcome to the Greene Turtle

2008-07-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

We went to VIP night at Leho's new restaurant (sports bar/grill). VIP stands for free food and drinks and games all night long. The next day the place opened to the public. Actually, a more fun day was during staff training on Wednesday. I was there all day hanging pictures while the kitchen cooked every single item on the menu so that they could learn it and so the wait staff could be shown what each item is, what it comes with, etc. After each presentation, everyone was allowed to eat whatever they wanted, a little of this, some of that, etc. The had an appetizer course, a sandwich and wrap course, also entree salads, hot sandwiches, burgers and other dinners, and dessert, of course. They went through this whole thing twice that day, two sets of trainees. Anyway, when do you ever get to walk into a restaurant and have every item on the menu lined up for you and you just take whatever you want...? For free!! And everyone knows I'm not a "big tv" person, but even I was impressed by the 103 inch tv... too bad all it was playing was...sports. Channel 229 Leho, 229!!!

Birthdays

2008-07-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple pictures of Maili and Peanut Butter, the gerbil, also

one from Maili's birthday party way back in May and, in June,

Pada's birthday party (that's my dad). Here he is singing

"Happy Birthday to Me". I think he's had that shirt for 15 years.

Mommy's Little Helper

2008-05-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Aavo often gets himself dressed, usually with more luck than seen here. He was just so excited- Memme gave him money and was taking him to Wegman's to get popsicles. Note the underwear as pants, and Maili's socks with the heels at the front (and inside out, of course). Kulli knitted the cute hat with turtles on it. He loves it, especially since I call him turtlebird.

He helps Memme with her bills ("from: AAVO")

He "fixes" things, anything he can get his hands on. He has a stash of screwdrivers, regular and x screwdrivers. He worked on Maili's baby carriage off and on for several days.

He helps in the kitchen at the Estonian House.

He helps Memme work on her portrait of him. Yes, she did let him actually paint on it (a lot, too, not just a few token strokes with the brush)...that's a good grandmother right there....

'Guess what color I painted my hallway' contest

2008-05-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here are the before pictures- looking towards the kids' rooms and looking towards our room...

And the winner with the closest guess is...a tie between Miia and Liis, who guessed "roosa manna" (pink cream of wheat, an Estonian standby)! The true color is more of a persimmon...

Interesting sky at sunset tonight

Last week there was hail! It was all over my deck garden (like I need help killing these flowers...)

Maili at Reif's first birthday party.

Aavo did not want to leave and hid under Liza's baby pool (feet sticking out).

After dropping the kids off at home, I went back for more party, should have left before I got cake in my eye and ear...

"Hey, did I tell you guys about the retarded guy who kissed me at lunch today?"

2008-02-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

My cousin Andres and his wife Sara had a Wig and Wine-Tasting party. Most of the blond Estos showed up with jet-black wigs. At one point, too many of us crammed into a tiny powder room and much mayhem ensued. Kulli must have been the instigator because she cleaned it up without being asked. The following weekend, Kulli and I and several friends went down to Bethany Beach for a girls' weekend. There was snow on the beach and LOTS of margaritas in the blender... A highlight from the weekend was when Kulli did charades depicting her lunchtime experience that day.

Bowling and painting

2008-02-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

We went to a bowling birthday party for our friend Eric. This was in the upstairs of a rowhouse, basically. Cool place for a party, and it made for fun bowling since the lanes weren't exactly level... Maili painted a mural on her wall and of course Aavo wanted to paint his room too. He has since decided that green is the color he wants, and insisted that we could use this little bottle of paint to do it. Aavo likes painting almost as much as Maili does, and lately he likes "helping" with anything at all. He helped my mom address envelopes for my great aunt's birthday party invitations. Also, I had to throw in a picture of Marina's drawing/writing. She really concentrates when she's drawing, so much that her hand starts to shake. She's too cute!!

2008-02-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

More pictures of the kids being goofy, plus the helicopter that hovered over our house for 30 minutes filming the funeral procession for a policeman. The processions always come right past our house and get on the expressway. You can see the cars up in the top of the pictures, way up the expressway, and they were still getting on the on-ramp at the bottom for at least half an hour. Good day to rob some houses, I'd imagine. Also, our builders devise a plan for getting cement from the top of the lot down back to the area outside the sub-basement. They made a trash bag slide and shoveled it from there as quickly as possible into wheelbarrows. They must have made 30 trips with those. Amazingly, they did not spill cement all over the place as I had been certain would happen, given their track record. They are not the most efficient guys I've ever met...

Wintery stuff

2008-02-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

Here's Maili at the Estonian School Christmas program, Aavo showing off his stitches, and some pictures of a beautiful snowfall we had. A week before Christmas, Aavo fell and needed 5 stitches under his chin. He was so good at the emergency room, never even had a worried look on his face, no tears or anything. After 5 days we went to get the stitches out and that time he cried a little bit because they had a hard time getting them out. Before we left, he told the nurses "Sorry I cried." Then on Christmas Eve, he banged his chin again (on the pool table at Leho and Lili's) and part of the gash opened up but we just stuck a bunch of band-aids all over it. For New Year's we went to Leho's again and played Rock Band on XBox 360 late into the night and talked about Kulli, who wasn't there. All good stuff, of course.

Out with Halloween, in with Christmas!

2007-12-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

Aavo in our office- he says he doesn't like the color of his room, he wants this instead, Maili eats her Thanksgiving dessert, and finally! grass is growing in our yard thanks to hours of hard work by Bob. He laid sod and planted seed and rerouted downspout water so that we'd be ready for winter. The rock walls are starting to take shape too. So...now that it's December, it's time to take down our halloween mice decorations (time to take down the live ones too! Tired of seeing poop along the baseboards!) and put up a tree. This year, Bob wanted to go and cut one down so we went to a beautiful tree farm. On the car ride, Aavo chewed his first piece of gum. He'll be enjoying it for 7 years. Maili liked the cute little baby trees but we picked out a nice big one and Bob cut it down. I got the decorations out and sadly realized that we have some of the ugliest ornaments in the world. Remember the styrofoam balls wrapped in silky thread? Those are our good ones. Just kidding, but I did decide to splurge on some pretty new ornaments this year. By splurge I mean whatever's on sale at Target. We did put up some of them, though. Aavo hung all of his from the same branch. His favorite pose these days is with his tongue hanging out to one side...He had his 3 year check up today and they were so impressed with him and said he was a very intelligent boy with high aptitude. They said this is proof that I'm a fantastic mother. Ok, they didn't put it like that. They said something like, "He's so well behaved". Anyway, Maili topped the tree with her angel from preschool and then we put the kids to bed and sat around and drank festive drinks and watched Monk and Psych. Fa la la.

Nebraska sure is beautiful...

2007-11-20T21:07:00.000-08:00

Finally time for our trip to visit Tiffany in Arizona and the fun began the minute Gwyn and I got to the airport- and to keep me in check Gwyn threatened to mention her dead puppy every time I mentioned how much I missed the kids. This seemed to work. This is our first tourist attraction- Montezuma Castle, billed as a "prehistoric dwelling" and nestled along the mighty Mississippi or some other river.

The trip is off to a promising start.

First views of Sedona. We stayed there 2 nights before heading to Tucson.

View from our hotel's (Amara Resort) pool.

Another view from our hotel...Snoopy Rock!

Oak Creek runs along the back of the resort. We strolled down there with our complimentary wine...

They also gave me a free pedicure in the spa!
ok it was Gwyn and this wasn't in the spa.

Nightly bonfire.

We went hiking in the mountains. I actually go hiking all the time in case you didn't know that about me- I hike a lot as a matter of fact. Hiking up mountains, long trails, etc. It's not like this was the first time I went on anything that could qualify as a hike or anything like that. Anyway, they offered some advice for how to deal with a mountain lion encounter. Basically, they want you to dance around like an idiot.

There was a really cute shopping village. Too expensive but lots of cute alcoves and courtyards, notice the little fireplace.

These are obviously not local shells...

Cool store selling furniture made out of rocks, and metal wind sculptures.

Almost at the Grand Canyon!

This is just inside the entrance, which by the way was not at all as I'd imagined it. I thought you'd be driving through the desert for a while until you finally saw something off in the distance...then as you got closer you had to slow down and kind of park behind some cones or something, and walk the rest of the way over to the canyon's edge (which would only be about 50 yards from the cones. There would be a little kiosk over under a tent where you could buy Grand Canyon magnets and postcards, and some soda).

Incredibly, my first reactions to the Grand Canyon were caught on film.

More feel good signage!

If you look closely you can see mountain goats.

Crazy man at the canyon- didn't you read the sign???

Bird waiting at the shuttle bus stop for his food delivery...

Don't know what this thing is but luckily it didn't come any closer than this.

I made Tiff and Gwyn wait in the freezing cold so that I could get a picture of the sunset. Thanks guys, sorry! To make up for it I'll give you guys a pedicure back at the hotel...wait, I've got that backwards...

Some shopping in Sedona before heading to Tucson. Beautiful sunset around Phoenix.

I just don't think I can pull off the Mary Kate and Ashley look.

Secret Message Prickly pear cactus near Tiff's house.

Tiffany and Jason's beautiful backyard.

This may look like a normal yard to you, but apparently it isn't wise to walk onto the grass, definitely not in barefeet (scorpions, snakes...)

And don't even think about venturing down to the other end of the yard to get that one plump juicy orange...

Here's a grapefruit, just growing right in their yard! I can't believe it, they can just walk out into their yard (in thigh high rubber boots) and pluck fruit off a tree! Incredible. I'd like to plant a yogurt tree in our yard.

Beautiful and delicious Prickly Pear margarita and the worst service in the world, but still a great last night in Arizona at this Mexican restaurant. The main thing Gwyn and I noticed was that Baltimore has some pretty good Mexican food. The only thing different at this place was that a burrito is called a burro, and that's what I got even though I ordered a chimichanga.

Last post before I see the Grand Canyon!! Unless I post again before Saturday...

2007-10-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite pictures of Aavo (you can see part of Squirmy the frog, his favorite, in the 3rd picture. I love Squirmy) Maili dressed as a vet for her school's Halloween parade/party. The K, 1st, and 2nd grades paraded through the school and out around the neighboring shops. Poly's (high school) drum marching band led them, they were great! Some pictures from trick-or-treating and some from Miia and Amber's Halloween party, including my 2 all time favorites. I know I'm going to get a million emails asking who's that hot guy to my right in that one picture (to MY right...the other guy is Frank) so...he's my cousin Albert, OKAY?? And there's another hot guy/mental patient (Bob) sitting at the bar. And I HAD to include a picture of that cute scary thing that kept trying to claw it's way off the couch. Poor thing.

"Before" photos...

2007-10-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the before/during photos of the construction. It's giving me a headache just looking at them, but it has come a long way. Groundbreaking was August of '05, and we still don't have our final inspection!!

First 2 are the view from the family room into the kitchen. This is on the basement level of the house (same level as the original basement, although we have another basement under this level). We lived with those temporary stairs for about 9 months, no railings. Same story with the other set of stairs to the top floor. We tried not to invite a lot of foolish drunks over during this time (although we couldn't exactly turn away Kulli and Leho). Luckily no falls!

Still in the basement, this is the family room. By the way, I laid all of this flooring while we were living here. Most of these pictures were taken while we were already in the house- dirty, dusty, noisy, no running water until we had been here for 5 months (luckily our house connects on every level to my parents' house so we were able to use their bathrooms, kitchen, etc.).

Another view of the family room. We actually used this room, in this state, to watch tv. As my flooring installation moved along, I just kept shoving the couch closer and closer to the tv until we were finally sitting about a foot in front of it. At that point I had enough flooring laid to move the couch up onto the finished side. The door in the second photo leads to my parents' side of the house...the sauna! Complete with a front room for drinking, playing rummikub, cooling off, etc. My dad has a record player in there and there's a huge selection of records- old Estonian folk music, classical, Dr. Zhivago, the Monks, Aerosmith, of course Bowie, hundreds of records, hours of fun.
Below is the view through the pantry into the downstairs bathroom. We keep a bunch of building supplies that we still need, and lots we don't need, in there. Second photo is a close up of the BEAUTIFUL tile floor (which I'm not done laying yet, obviously). I love this floor, and I don't mind saying I did a pretty good job for my first time laying tile. Well, when I put it in writing, it sounds obnoxious...but whatever.

Next 2 photos below are of the "dining room" on the middle floor. It is actually part of my studio but it's disguised as a dining room, since we already had the furniture and all. The door on the left leads to my studio and the one on the right goes to our office. Second photo shows the stairs going down into the family room/kitchen and stairs going up to the bedrooms. After I laid the floors (on this level and the next level up I had help from several friends- I'd like to take this time to thank Gwyn, Paul, Garth, Leho, Danny, and Brook. And thanks, Kulli, for the idea to get Leho to come and help. Sorry, I didn't have time to prepare a more elaborate speech), Liza's husband Matt did all of the finishing. It looked gorgeous for a good 2 days until the electrician used the pushing method to move probably the heaviest piece of furniture I own. That guy was truly an idiot and I hope he's finally kicked his painkiller addiction. I feel sorry for his wife and their 6 or 7 kids. Especially because he's a jerk too. But I digress.
Next 2 photos are of my studio, looking towards the dining room. Powder room is at the back in the center. I put a linoleum tile floor in here, but not the peel and stick kind- oh no, that would be too easy. This was the trowel-on adhesive that is just like really sticky chewing gum. It's really hard to get off of your skin. This room is still a complete mess but I do work in it, and I love it. Next photo shows the stairs leading up to the bedrooms, den and laundry room. You can also see the front door for this level (another front door is downstairs). This was before we moved in.
Next photo is the master bathroom, also before moving in. I was able to borrow an industrial paint sprayer and prime the entire house including ceilings, and paint the ceilings too (2 coats) in the weeks before we had to move in. It was July, 90+ degrees outside, our air conditioning wasn't working yet and it was HOT! This was a big job, the addition is about 27oo sq ft... Thank GOD I had the sprayer! Actually, I guess I should thank Danny. Thanks Danny. Sorry I broke your sprayer.

Below is the view from the attic of the old part of the house. One guy is standing in our future bedroom, 2 more guys are standing in part of the new attic, and Construction Roger (aka hot Roger) is standing in our den/play room which is above my mom's studio. You can still see the roof that used to be over the studio.

This is what the front yard looked like for a looong time, minus the everpresent dumpster.
View from the street/alley.
Side view, much further along. See the next post down for some of the afters...

After/during

2007-10-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

The house is far from finished. You'll see lots of unpainted walls, trim, etc., unfinished floors,tiling and backsplashes, but we are working every day on it so it'll get done sooner or later.

First group of pictures features the family room/kitchen. We hang out in here a lot and it's very comfortable. Some of you will remember the "big tv"- subject of many debates. I keep hoping it will run away from home...Bob hopes it will magically double in size overnight, and have babies too. The door closest to the kitchen leads to the screened porch.

This is that downstairs bathroom again. Still keeping tools and supplies there, shower is still not done but everything else works fine.

Still unpainted, and no finial chosen yet, but this is the newel post that I built- twice. The guy who installed the stairs told me how tall to make it. When he went to install it he realized a mistake he made in calculating the height. Oops!

This is my studio, view towards the dining room. In the foreground is my foot chopper, used for chopping moulding, not feet.

Ok, let's jump upstairs to the master bathroom. Here you'll see the unfinished shower,and more building junk. Other than that, I love this room. The toilet works really great.

View into the master bathroom.

Quick back downstairs to...the stairs...trim still not painted, but at least we have railings up!

Below are more views of my studio. The double doors lead to the deck which is over our screened porch.

Let's go back upstairs to the view from the deck (off of the family room) down into the backyard. Boy we have a lot of dirt.

The upstairs deck. How did these all get backwards? What am I doing wrong??

Upstairs, the laundry room, looks out onto the deck.

This is the bathtub room, could be my favorite room in the house. The doors are all original to the old house.

This is the old original bathroom, now the kids' bathroom. Needs some work.

Another scary room, Leho's old bedroom (where all the magic used to happen, right Leho?). This room will be the guest room/big fancy art printer room. Needs some serious work for that to happen.

Below is the stairs to the old attic, forgot to take pictures of the other set of stairs and the new attic. The 2 sides connect, so you could go up one set and come back down all the way on the other side of the house. Great for hide and seek.

Side view.

View from deck up to the street. Bob's digging trenches to bury drain tiles. Why are they called tiles? It's a plastic pipe.

Bob's trench, one down 2 to go.

This is the extent of our landscaping.

Back views. Upper deck is visible better in second photo.

Front view.

Bob in the bobcat.

Just a portion of the huge pile of rocks we've been bringing over from the jobsite where they are excavating for Leho's new restaurant. Lot of good rocks out there, and I want to build a lot of rock walls. My mom has been getting them too.

And here's my poor dad unloading them.

More "after" pictures later. All rooms not pictured aren't straightened enough to allow for that. Could be a long time...

Siiri+technology=BAD!!

2007-10-06T20:38:00.001-07:00

Oh boy, I meant to finally sit down and add some pictures but the evening was spent on the phone with tech support for both our wireless router and internet provider. Woohoo! Then I tried uploading pictures without resizing them first and found that it takes forever so I dug around some more and FINALLY found the "resize all" button that I have been hunting for. And apparently, I haven't figured out how to load pictures in the order I want them to be in, but I had to start drinking after the second hour on the phone with Linksys so that may have something to do with it . Anyway...some pictures from Sunfest in O.C.- my mom's booth at the arts and craft festival, taking the kids on the rides (another funfilled day of "Excuse me sir, could you stop this ride please?"), the ride operator who Kulli thought was hot (??), Maili making the most pathetic scared face on the Frog Hopper, a giant inflatable ice cream stand, Kulli Raili and Maili somewhere on the ferris wheel, and -finally- something Aavo can get happy about- popcorn and ice cream. Back at home the kids make brownies and goofy poses for pictures, all haphazardly arranged here on this blog. I finally have pictures of the house too, but I'll have to do that tomorrow.

2007-08-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

Kulli, Raili, me, Maili, Aavo and our friend Marika from NY and her 2 kids spent the weekend out at Leho and Lili's house (minus Leho who was in Ocean Pines hosting his annual golf tournament, and minus the other husbands as well). Weather was great, swimming was great (they have a salt pool, no chlorine), drinks were GREAT...mojitos, margaritas, lemon drops, that thing with coconut, pineapple, and rum... Maili took some nice pictures of me and Aavo and I got some good shots of Aavo's new teeth that are coming in. Buddha (Leho's dog) wore her best necklace. Aavo pretended to sleep on the way home (but he really did fall asleep poolside).

2007-08-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

Maili and Aavo posing for the new digital camera (and Aavo tasting his toes) right before we head off to Esto camp in New Jersey (mini frogs all over the place). The older guys built a cool wind-up swing thing for the younger kids. It goes up and down and around after just a few wind-ups. Older boys built the coolest tents and beds and we had a hammock in our sub-camp. More posing for the camera, Maili and baby Reif, Aavo and Maili's foot having a private moment, and Aavo on the toilet- easiest potty trainee ever!

2007-08-09T20:28:00.001-07:00

Second post! I'm really getting the hang of this...

2007-08-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

First post. No pictures. The end.