BROKEN lawnmower

It has been a rough & hard few days... we've been up early with a beautiful baby & working late in attempts to get floor & paint finished before the furniture is delivered. Espen is doing GREAT. He is busy "helping" and is very FAST moving from one project to another. It is VERY hard to believe he turns one in less than a week.... but let me stay focused....

It is Sunday & the laminate floors are DONE. Doug did an amazing job. Yes sure they are not perfect & there are some gaps that need fixed. BUT all in all the floor looks good. Now it is all about keeping the shoes off it & the dogs clean & dry & calm! And Espen & I from spilling on it!! Laminate is special & doesn't like moisture it seems. So we will do our best!

All of the house EXCEPT the living room, foyer, kitchen & one bath have been painted & have window coverings up (which makes the neighbors happy!). So this week I will work on painting those little spaces AND I am not a clean painter so I am nervous about painting around the new floors but I will try TRY to be careful! The carpet for the downstairs is nearly ordered. We are not sure at this point if it will be installed by May 24 (furniture delivery ~ we changed it & our 13th anniversary). But Doug will be tiling the walkway so the carpet can be installed. And that is all that is left. Except some minor things... really minor...

So since Doug has been frantically trying to get the floors done for us I have taken on the responsibility of mowing the yard. We have a BIG one. We have an odd corner lot & I generally DO NOT MOW. It is THICK & Lush grass that has been tended to by the fertilizer company. We had a little lawn mower that most people have ~ cuts grass, you push it, can have bag attached to catch grass! Well I've been mowing the lawn & because it is so much grass & it is not safe to have Espen out there when I mow, I only do it when he naps. And sometimes the sound of the mower scares him. So I do the lawn in 30 minute increments over a couple days. If I mowed straight through I calculate it would take me 2 & 1/2 hours to mow the whole lawn (that is ALOT OF GRASS). With the lawn mower we have ~ or had.

I'm out mowing the back & yelling at the dogs to get out of the way. They would not move so I released the bar which should have shut the mower down so I could move the dogs and the darn thing kept going. So I kept mowing, just changed my route so the dogs would not be in my way. I mowed some more & then got thirsty so was intending to go get a drink and I released the bar again & IT KEPT GOING. Doug could not hear me as he was cutting & installing floor & Espen was napping. So my only option was to keep mowing until I ran it out of gas. I knew I was close because I had checked before I started! So I mowed and mowed until I ran out of gas. I was nearly done too.... I pushed it over to the garage & told Doug that it was broken. He said.... "I wish you'd stop touching things because everything you touch ends up broken". And he is right. So he rigged it for me so I could finish. The engine was SO slow that he told me to walk slowly. So I had to finish SLOWLY. It took me some time to finish. But I did & by the time I was done the lawnmower was SMOKING. Doug had to unplug the spark plug to get it shut off... and it is not going to come back on. So I have a week to find a new lawnmower. UUUHHHGGGGG... Well it will be a little bit bigger that is for sure!! Cause if I have to mow the lawn, I don't want to take so long to do it!

So this week I think we are slowing down a little. I was finally able to take the dogs for a run at a field & today I took them all for a walk. Espen LOVES riding in BOB so we walked for over an hour... he was so happy to just look at all the houses & flowers & people.... and the dogs were happy to be walking again... and I need new shoes cause my feet hurt!! But it was good to get some air & feel like progress has been made & that we can almost call it home... ALMOST....

And can you believe my baby turns one next week.... he will get cake & a trip to the zoo.. and we got him some awesome gift!! Of course I researched it & compared it and studied it! SO I think it will be a good one!! And today we found a neat little kid pool at Target & we are so excited to get a trailer for my bike so he & I can bike ride!! What a fun summer we shall have!!