Raccoons and Hydrangeas

I just need to vent. Although I love living in my new house, there are two things that seem to repeatedly annoy me and both of them have to do with my back yard. First, every night around three in the morning there is a domestic disturbance between a couple of raccoons who live in the forest behind my house. It is not a pleasant noise to wake up to. It's like they are hissing at each other and screaming and it sounds like it is right next to my window. They need therapy or something. I just want to get a gun.

The second issue involves my dream of having beautiful hydrangeas to gaze upon when I look out my back windows. That dream seems to get shattered every 4-5 days. The first time it happened I was understanding. The second and third times were annoying and now I'm just ticked off. When my first hydrangea bloomed I was so excited and I couldn't wait to see what color it would turn out. Then next thing I knew, the long anticipated Hydrangea had been plucked. Caroline came up to me with it and said, "Look mom, I picked you a beautiful flower." I smiled and kindly explained that we shouldn't pick the flowers because we want them to last a long time so we can see them out our window. "But Mom, my teacher told us we should give our Mom flowers." (This was around Mother's day.)

So of course, I waited and waited for the next blooms. And just like that they were gone. Then Caroline tore the plant in half. Then this morning she picked another bloom off my second plant. (I taped the first plant back together, who knows the tape may just keep the stem intact- o.k. I'm not a plant surgeon, but it's worth a try.) I'm rambling- but I have one bloom left. One. I'll let you know how it makes out.

Who knows, the raccoons may just destroy it tonight.

Befores and Afters

Just wanted you all to know what I've been up to. I have finally emerged again after being totally consumed with redoing the house. Here's a few pictures:

Living Room Before


Living Room After





We are still working on hanging pictures and arranging the furniture. We changed the wall color from the white/pink shade to Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage. I just can't get enough of that color so I put it in the kitchen and the dining room as well. We pulled up the carpet and put in hardwood floors. The dining room is just off the living room.

Dining Room Before



Dining Room After



The Kitchen is adjacent to the dining room. We did the most work in there. Removed wallpaper, changed hardware, added new appliances, granite, and new fixtures. My back splash is my favorite part. It took me a while to find the perfect look.

Kitchen Before



Kitchen After





My Back Splash



Eventually we want to change/paint the cabinets, but for now I'm happy to be rid of the checkered wall paper.

Stay tuned.... next time, family room and master bedroom!

Birthdays

Caroline and Samantha recently celebrated birthdays. Our big Manthers turned one. She really enjoyed her cake:


Caroline had another successful trip to Build-A-Bear Workshop, where she obtained her new favorite stuffed animal, which she calls "Pink Loving Bear":


One nice thing about the girls having their birthdays so close together is that we could give them a combined present. It involved a little renovation to our backyard. We hope they will enjoy it for years to come:

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Chick Handling

Because the Darowski blog has been a major bore lately, I thought I'd share this funny little conversation.

This exchange with Henry took place on the drive home from school.

-Mom, can you sign a paper so I can do "Chick handling" after school?

Hmmm.... I thought to myself. You're a little young for that, and what kind of sex education program does this elementary school have? I glanced at my mother-in-law who sat in the passenger seat, she had the same confused expression as I had.

-Henry, what are you talking about? What is Chick Handling class?

Henry explained that the eggs in their class incubator had hatched. Only students who had permission from their parents could handle the baby chicks. But first, these students had to go to a special training called, "Chick Handling."

My mother-in-law and I got a big kick out of that. My inclination to even speculate that an elementary school might have a program designed to teach young boys how to "woo" women has only confirmed to me that I have lost all innocence and that the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

Basic Training

Adam's younger brother Alex joined the U.S. Army last month and is currently going through Basic Training at Fort Jackson, in South Carolina. Alex got married last January and his wife April is doing a blog where she posts excerpts from his letters. If you ever wondered what Basic Training is like from a married Mormon returned missionary's perspective, Alex's letters provide some insights. We are very proud of Alex!!!

A link to his wife's blog is here: apaldarowski.blogspot.com/

The New House

You've asked, I've been busy, but finally- no more excuses- here's a picture of our new house. It's red brink, just like our last house- and I had the shutters and door painted black, just like our last house. We've been busy putting our little touches on it, new carpet, paint, wo0d floors, and we did some work on the kitchen. Next week, we will be getting new sod and a play set for the back yard, just in time for the girl's birthdays!

The street is nice and quiet. The neighbors have been so friendly since we moved in. All the extra room is nice and we love walking over to the school to pick up Henry. I could see us living here for a long time.

We have plenty of room for company now, and we will be having visits from both sets of Grand parents over the next couple of weeks. And I just realized I don't have anything funny to say in this blog, except I could share a story about a friend who went to get a manicure- but I'll hold off for now.

Favorite Moments from our move!

Hello! The stress is finally alleviated and I'm ready to reestablish the blog!

We've been in our new home for about 2 weeks and we are finally settling in.

Week 1- Work was still going on in the house. Painting, texturing, lots of kitchen stuff, new appliances were being installed, and the lighting was being reworked. We didn't even move the fridge in from the garage until day 8.

During week 1 Caroline complained- "Mom, the Hollywood house doesn't have a table."
(We call this the Hollywood house because the street is called Hollywood. I overheard Henry telling a friend that we were moving to "Hollywood, you know where Tony Romo's girlfriend lives."- I have to admit I do like living in Hollywood.)

Funny story from Week 1 (or, "The Night Adam Almost Went to Jail" [DISCLAIMER - we have been to the Lewisville landfill many, many times, so the story that follows is an isolated incident, and not how we typically roll]) - After the move we had a lot of stuff that needed to be removed from the old house and thrown away before we delivered possession of the house over to our buyers. In fact, it was a whole van load. Since he wasn't going to be able to make it to the landfill in time, and since he didn't want to move our garbage over to the new house, Adam decided to visit an apartment dumpster with Henry in tow. After Adam had been unloading his junk for a few minutes some man came out from the apartment complex and asked Adam if he was a resident. Adam told him he was not. The man said that what Adam was doing was "illegal" (criminal trespassing--sounds kind of harsh but I guess technically that is what it was) and that he had called the cops. Yikes. At that point Adam envisioned having to call me to bail him out of the Lewisville jail. But then the guy told Adam that he better leave before the cops got there (at which point Adam knew he was bluffing) and quickly left. On the ride away from the apartment dumpster, Henry asked his dad, "What does 'illegal' mean?" Adam told him that it means, "Next time, we'll just go to the landfill." This situation was not Adam's finest moment. The next day Adam, burdened by a guilty conscience and needing to repent, did call the apartment complex manager to apologize and ask if he could pay for a portion of that week's garbage collection costs. The manager thanked him for calling and asked him to just please not illegally dump there again. The moral of this story is obvious. The fact that Adam did this at 7:30 p.m. (not exactly the middle of the night) and that he had the van backed up to the dumpster (rather than parked in a regular stall) may have made him a little extra conspicuous. He was also wearing a hooded jacket because it was raining, so he probably just looked a lot like someone up to no good.

Public Service Announcement from the Darowski's: Don't dump in dumpsters you're not supposed to dump in.

Addendum to this story - the other night we went to Henry's school for an open house to visit his classroom and see what he and the other kids had been working on. The kids are currently keeping a journal where they write entries every few days. One of Henry's entries was entitled "My Dad Did Something Illegle" (that little guy almost had it all spelled correctly!). Again, this whole episode was not Adam's finest moment. Next time we'll just go to the landfill, or at least not bring the children along when we are committing misdemeanors.

Day 9- I held a baby shower at the house for my good friend Bethany. Literally the painter was finishing up just 30 minutes before the shower started. Having something at the house was a good motivator to get unpacked quickly.

Week 2- Cooked for the first time in two months. The family was reintroduced to vegetables, and we had some good friends from Austin come in for a visit.

We are almost done with the remodeling. I will post before and after pictures in the next week or so. Here you can see pictures of Adam and Henry at the FC Dallas LA Galaxy game. I think it was the highlight of Adam's life to see David Beckham play, after all, earlier that week when we debated going Adam said, "If we don't go, what is the point?" "The point to what?" I asked. "To everything."

Needless to say, Adam needed a pick me up after the dumpster incident. Henry had a great time, and you can see that he lost his first tooth this week!