Another Renovation or Two

First, building a snowman and having a snowball fight...

And working on a puzzle. First things first.

While Terry and I were working on the puzzle the other night and the kids were all gathering their things to go sled riding, we heard a big crack in the stairway. Nate was barreling down the partly broken stairs that needed a gentle and light foot, only to find himself wondering WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?
YAH!!! Can you believe this????

It totally makes our house look like white trash, doesn't it? I've never seen stairs cave like that before, but our house was one of four affordable houses built eleven years ago at an amazing price. The tradeoff was that certain things were built cheaply and might I say, poorly. Other things were just fine. The house was nothing luxurious, but it was ours!!

So, this stairway has had A LOT of use over the past 11 years. We've had our bedroom upstairs. The boys have had their bedrooms upstairs. Now the girls are all upstairs, but, gimme a break! No one in our house weighs 600 lbs. However, we have brought a piano up the stairs. But we didn't drop or anything. So far we have experienced two broken couches and now a broken stairway. The kids don't even spend any time wrestling.

It leaves me to wonder what goes on when we're not home??

Back to the stairs... What has been happening over the years, is the stringers on the staircase have been bowing quite a bit, compromising the ability of the steps to bear weight without slipping out of their place. There was an obvious break away recently. One step slipped from its proper position, but the carpet was temporarily holding things in place. Nate was oblivious to the situation with the precarious step, when he came bounding down in a huff.

Where has he been over the past several daze?

The basement renovation was the targeted project for this week, but this staircase issue took priority. Terry immediately went to work on the job... the following day. After all, we were busy woking on a puzzle! I must admit, I was a little more than worried that one of the girls might break their neck coming down the stairs having forgotten about the broken steps. So I posted signs--which wouldn't help the late night "trip" down for a glass of water.

Thankfully, no one came tumbling. But it was scary. I lost sleep. Wouldn't you?

Next morning...

Looky looky at what the builders left under the stairway. That's about the quality and expertise of their workmanship. (When we dug a new foundation for the addition, we found all kinds of garbage buried in the dirt--"Yea, just throw your lunch containers in the hole. It'll get covered with dirt anyway." Sheesh! You can guarantee that they left nothing of value. No treasures.)

While Terry worked on the stairs, I descended into utter darkness!

THE BASEMENT!This space has slowly, but surely, been taken over by demonic forces of chaos. The mess has grown and grown way out of control. Every attempt I've made to organize has not only infuriated me, but was immediately countered by acts of terrorism. Why would they even go to this place to play? Oh... I know. Because they knew I wouldn't check to see if they ever cleaned up their mess. I even bought a clothes rack for the costumes and dress up clothes to be hung after use... HAH! That was a total waste of money. Well all those costumes went to the dump! How's THAT for cleanup? I kept a few in a bin, which is going to be kept out of reach from playtime. They ruined all my wigs!!!

The stored items in this living hellhole range from nice pieces of lumber to be used for... something... in the future, to... a used dishwasher--just in case the one we have breaks down, to... weight training equipment that has no space to actually be used, to...

Outdoor pool and deck items, to... a color copy machine that need repairing, to... unused instruments and Musikgarten teaching supplies, to... insulation that's waiting to be used once the basement gets framed in... HEY WAIT!!! That's happening!!! In the next few daze. How very exciting. I will certainly show you some after pictures, but the storage is still going to be an issue for a while.

Meanwhile, the stairs are... braced, sured up, made secure, repaired. Don't worry. They are all fixed and sturdy!!! I promise!!!

It's weird how this photo makes every step look like it's bowed. It's just a camera trick... that and heavily trafficked carpet. (Who ever heard of taking off your work boots when you come inside? Or wiping your shoes at the door, for that matter?)

Post-Christmas Blues

I don't want to entertain the kids... especially not their friends. I'm tired. It took a lot of my time over the past few months getting ready for Christmas and birthdays. We also had two big parties at the house in the same week as Christmas. So there was lots of prep and clean up without much help. The shopping went fairly well. I think everyone was happy, but I can't say that I got many thank yous. I'm still smarting a little about BJ's comment that one of the gifts I got for him, he thought was really for me (as if he really didn't want it). I tried to remind him early on in the month, that I was doing all the shopping for 8 people, plus some things for myself... and the grab bag gifts. Yada yada. So he could help me out by finding the things he wants. All he wanted was a flat screen TV which I didn't get for him. We didn't have the funds available. And I don't care to watch football on an even larger screen... or at all.

So NOW I have to deal with snow! which means snow gear!!! I have to deal with drying out wet coats and hats and gloves and snow pants and socks and scarves!!! And then all the hot chocolate mugs. SERIOUSLY??? Do you know what that's like when the only place to dry out these wet items is the KITCHEN??? (The dryer was doing real work today i.e. laundry). What's worse is when the kids all come in wet and full of snow and want to go back out again after about an hour. Nothing is dry yet from their earlier playtime and so they find a whole new set of items in the bins to get soaked. Sure its great that they are playing out there. I NEED TO GO PLAY OUTSIDE--but my coat and my boots and my gloves have all been borrowed and are now part of the soaked group. >:-/

I think the thing that set me off the most today was when the mother of Caleigh's friend, the friend who slept over last night because of the storm, called to find out when she should pick her daughter up, only to freak out that they were going sled riding in the woods [gasp]. She immediately assumed; 1) that I was not smart enough or cautious enough to keep her daughter safe from harm; 2) that I was going to send them off to sled ride smack into trees and stuff; and 3) that I actually wanted to have an extra child at my house all yesterday and today. Yea! Cuz that's the kind of mom that I am. I like to have other people's kids at my house 24/7 just for the fun of loaning out all the snow gear I can find in the attic, picking up all the snow gear all day long, feeding them all meals and snacks throughout the day, and my all-time favorite thing, sending kids into dangerous weather conditions and treacherous sledding trails just to see if they can handle it. "Hey kids, you want to try being pulled on the sled by the car? Here, hold this rope as tight as you can..." W/E!

After assuring the mom that the sled path was not a dangerously, steep hill with trees and large boulders to dodge, I told her she was more than welcome to come pick her daughter up. "No, no. Let them play for a while." Oh. o...k.

Meanwhile, I tried not to feel so steamed about it for the rest of the day. TOTAL FAIL!

Facts and Figures

Fact: All of these photos are posted in reverse

Figure: It's because you have to start from the end of your photo collection and go towards the beginning if you want them to show up in chronological order. I forgot.

Fact: We had a jolly time playing our Christmas songs with the little numbered whistles.

Figure: The whistles were very poorly tuned..., but we had fun anyway.

Fact: Playing paintball on Christmas Day with the family is definitely memorable and great fun.

Figure: If it would have snowed on Christmas Day the way it's snowing today, on this glorious Boxing Day, we probably wouldn't have done it, thus canceling our new, annual Christmas tradition, that we've unanimously decided to keep.

Fact: It's illegal to play paintball in Germany.
Figure: Certain Germans can and will most likely cave in, deciding to play, even against their own conscience.

Fact: I put no pressure, nor did anyone else, knowingly.

Figure: I was all completely internal, within a certain german girl's mind. And she won the game.

Fact: My niece is almost 100% PEELE. No wait... that would be a FIGURE!

Fact: Wearing a white sweatshirt to play paintball is a bad idea!
Figure: Those with the best working guns and anti-fogging masks and camouflage clothing had the definite advantage.

Fact: You cannot see where you are aiming when your mask is fogged. Hat's are good.

Figure: You will likely hit someone in the head when your mask is fogged up.

Fact: My brothers like to play paintball.

Figure: Between them and their borrowed items from friends there was enough equipment for 10 people to play. HA!

Fact: Christmas has been lovely this year. One of my unofficially "adopted" children came home to roost on Christmas Eve (unexpectedly).
Figure: I didn't think about the fact that he might come, so there was a bit of worry through the night about the awkwardness there could be in the morning... until my husband came up with a brilliant plan (not until in the morning, of course). Our long lost boy got a couple of VERY nice gifts on Christmas day. Terry reminded me, 'tis the season for giving.

Fact: Having everyone home and bustling about during Noah's regular sleep time, made him very uncomfortable and confused.
Figure: But it also signaled to his brain that he should hang out in the kitchen every waking moment in hopes of getting a few tasty morsels throughout the day.

Fact: Nate really likes his Christmas gift (which is on his head).
Figure: He and Luke, along with Amanda and Will had to go test the helmet camera out on Mountain Creek immediately following Christmas Day i.e. this morning.

Fact: The kids love opening their gifts from the grandparents.
Figure: One day they will be adult enough (with jobs and families) to reciprocate. I loved listening to them have some great conversations on the phone with their grandparents, yesterday.

Fact: This gingerbread house that Jolene and Anika decorated was a lovely, festive centerpiece for the past few daze.
Figure: People were bound to steal pieces of it here and there before it was officially allowed to be eaten.

Fact: Karenkool can get just about anybody to go through the birthday spanking machine!

Figure: If the person is smart enough they will find a way to keep it from hurting i.e. wearing a pillow.

Fact: It is totally possible to spell words with your rear.
Figure: The chances of getting a member of the Clique to play the Butt Spelling game vs getting a teenager to do it are about 100 to 1. And we LIKE it!!

Fact: Having 25 teens and 15 adults all hiding in the kitchen to jump out and surprise Jolene will NEVER be a quiet experience.
Figure: But Jolene will be completely shocked and surprise even if only by the sheer volume.

Fact: The granite countertops have a lot of reflection.
Figure: One can get some cool mirrored shots by accident.

Fact: Jolene is easy to fool. (HAHA)

Figure: She was in shock from the surprise for a good ten minutes after stepping through the front door.

Fact: Nate is rather good at volleyball.

Figure: But not good enough to get his team of seniors to win against the parent/teacher group. YAH!!!

Fact: Our team was quite organized this year.
Figure: All it takes is one year of losing, and then our competitive natures kick in making it happen for the following year.

Fact: Nate really did wear underpants on the outside of his shorts to play this game.
Figure: I think his secret super power name is Captain Underpants.

Fact: The Christmas Luncheon hosted a raffle with 3 large collections of prizes. There were some seriously valuable gifts to be won. It never pays for me to enter the raffle (although I do, because the money is for an amazing cause).
Figure: Even if it doesn't pay for me to enter the raffle, It pays for me to have good friends who win. YAY for blessing me with 2 trees and YAY for something else that I can't mention... yet!!!

Fact: The Pink Panthers (High School Student Council) is AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!! NOT TO MENTION, BEAUTIFUL!!!
Figure: They do more good deeds than probably than any other student council ever. Anywhere. I'm so proud of them. :-D

Fact: I am glad that my long list with a chockablock full schedule has worked its way through the past several weeks. I was especially glad for the Christmas Eve service to be over, because it is NOT a fun service for me (long explanation).

Figure: It was a miracle that one of those little kids who were placing the nativity figures in their places at the stable didn't catch themselves on fire while squeezing past the advent candles. I cringed and said a prayer every time. I'm just sayin'.

Fact: It's snowing snowing snowing, and it's supposed to become a blizzard by mid-day with white-out conditions. Snow through Monday.

Figure: The boyz and Amanda just had to travel to NJ this morning to go snowboarding (happens every storm)! but this time will probably have to stay somewhere overnight.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. The New Year is coming... as is Hell Week for the show. Anika and I are in 50 Million Frenchmen opening Jan 6 and closing Jan 16. If you're local, come out and see it.

Baking in the Kitchen

OK. I don't have any pictures of a person baking in the kitchen. These shots are from Thanksgiving.

But I have to admit... my kitchen looks like this most of the time. Everyone puts their junk on the counter for "safe keeping" i.e. school books, cups, plates, packages from the p.o., car keys, important papers, food, snacks, and things in general that no one wants to put away (or throw away). It's seriously ridiculous!!
It's one thing for us to have a meal served from the counter... but I regularly become annoyed at the clutter and mess that the family leaves there. And if I remove things from the counter and place them on the stairs to be brought up to their rooms, they remain on the stairs for weeks. Grrrr...
So... about that baking. I haven't been baking at all. I have no time, or desire. But between Jolene and Jennah, they each bake at least once a week if not twice. It's usually for a bake sale at school. It's usually done after dinner, when I'm off at a rehearsal. They usually get started so late that they forget to finish up the job. Either the brownies are left uncovered on the stove, or the cookies haven't been packaged up for the morning. I really don't care so much about that. I figure that it's their problem if the items have gotten hard. It's the dirty dishes in the sink that are driving me crazy!!!

Everyone is on a rotation with the dinnertime dish duty. Someone clears the table and the other cleans up the dishes. So, whomever is on that night, will finish their job and turn on the dishwasher. Countertops and oven are wiped down (in theory). The job is finished.

Then these baking girls come in and create a whole new after-dinner mess. Of course, the bakers should clean up after themselves and they seem to THINK that they do. I have tried to clarify what cleaning up really means, but that lasts for about one night and all is forgotten again. I suppose I must make some written rules for the Bakers.

RULES FOR THE BAKERS

1. If you are going to bake at your every little whim, you will not expect your mother to go out at a moment's notice to pick up ingredients that may not be in the cabinet. Your mother is on a tight schedule (just check the calendar on the frig, if you haven't noticed). Extra trips to the store don't easily fit in. TRY A LITTLE ADVANCED PLANNING!

2. If you use up ingredients entirely, you must write them on the grocery list and let your mother know, so that she isn't caught unaware when she goes to make dinner for the family. Yes, she needs flour sometimes. Yes, she needs sugar--everyday in fact! Coffee. Yes, eggs are important to have on hand. Oil is something that is used everyday as well. Butter! Come on!!! Seriously?

3. If you are multitasking during your baking frenzy, use the kitchen timer for God's sake... because if you waste another round of ingredients to your burnt sacrifices, you may find yourself without sheets that night.

4. Once your baking is done DO NOT think for a moment that if you place all your dirty bowls and utensils in the sink you can CALL IT QUITS!!!! Those are YOUR THINGS TO WASH!!!! It is not a valid excuse, to leave everything there, just because the dishwasher is in the middle of its cycle. Uh-uh!!! NOPE!!! YOU ARE NOW THE DISHWASHER!!!

5. If it happens again, where I am doing your baking dishes the next morning, because they were left in the sink, you will never be allowed to use my kitchen AGAIN!

6. When you bake each week, plan to leave a few pieces aside for the family to nibble on. Your little "DON'T TOUCH" signs help everyone know that you've baked for the bake sale at school, but you are using up all the brownie mixes, so that we never have any at home. It's a bit rude and old, week after week.

Can you think of anything else I may be forgetting?

Checking Things Off

Each day I feel a little more relieved because I get to check off another majorly packed day. Friday and Saturday's time consumers were Christmas cards, rehearsals for 3 completely different things, and a basketball tournament.

(Jennah and Anika are the last two girls in the line up)

Nate plays a good defense. I was happy when Saturday's tournament was over. It took forever to get home from Southampton (which is only about 8 miles away) because we had to load 9 passengers in the suburban (not all of the same people who came with us to the game). We were about halfway home when someone realized that Michael wasn't in the car. We tried calling people who may have stayed behind for the second game, but none of those people actually stayed. So we turned around and to retrieve Michael. Here I thought he would be a little panicked that we left him behind... but no... he PLANNED to stay for the second game. He was sitting with his friends having a good ole time. I was so mad, because he didn't bother to tell us as we were filing out of the gym in a very large group. (Why do other kids call the Hochstedler's for a ride. We already have a 100 people to transport just from our own household). Anyway, by the time we got home, I just needed to unwind and watch a movie. I should have rehearsed my lines, but after a whole day of rehearsing other things, and being on the move... I couldn't do it.
Sunday was a packed day for me. I had church in the morning, which was a special service requiring greater concentration on my part than the regular Sunday service. Can I just say that I don't like doing hymns I've never once heard before. I try to find all the hymns I've never heard and practice them for the future, but I know that if I've never heard it, the congregation is definitely not going to be familiar. Let's not mention the fact that its mostly a non-singing group. So hear I am playing the organ, which is not my instrument, leading the singing from the balcony, and trying to sing the right words for each verse while changing stops to give it some texture and variety. All of this, while failing to receiving the bulletin until late Saturday night to even know what hymns were going to be sung. Yah... that didn't help me have the time to solidify the words at all. But still... it went well. [deserving a few pats on the back]

After the morning service, I raced home to grab Anika (who was still sleeping!) to head to our marathon play rehearsal. It started at noon and was scheduled to go until sometime in the evening--which it did. Anika and I could only stay until 5:30, because our Christmas Singalong was in the evening.

For the singalong, I was leading the Christmas carols (piano YAY, and voice) and accompanying some of the specials as well as singing my own solo, Breath of Heaven. My favorite was playing with the band for the youth group. They performed Angels We Have Heard on High (Glee rendition). We had several rehearsals to put this song together, and I think it went very well. Sohailah was a monumental figure in rehearsals. She helped figure out the vocal harmonies and teach them. We had to lift the song from youtube and dumb it down slightly (We happen to be a little bit "white toast"). Can you believe that the Glee song was raised 1/4 pitch on their recording?? It made things very difficult to "lift". AGH! Tricky tricky. If they would have had the written music available, I would have happily paid the $5 to purchase it, for the love... Anyway, many thanks to Sohailah for working with the singers while I was off at another rehearsal. Needless to say, even though I was annoyed to have all the extra pressure resting on my shoulders for this singalong evening, it went off swimmingly.

Caleigh had a solo too. And Brianna and Anika performed another Carol medley together that was just lovely. Nice blend of voices.

In eggshell cease day oh!

Today I will get to check off 1) my part-time work, 2) phone calls to family about Christmas dinner, 3) taking a shower, 4) giving rides for the following things: Luke's speeding ticket pretrial appearance, Nate's dentist appt to cap the root canal, cheerleading practice, basketball practice, and then 5) making dinner and 6) heading to play rehearsal. If I come home to another night where the dishes have not been done, there will be hell to pay!!!

When will I be able to get things ready for the party (sssshhhh) and what about Jolene's birthday dinner on Thursday, and the Christmas Eve service, and Christmas dinner? Then I head straight into full out play rehearsals and HELL WEEK. I look forward to January 17th. It will be the beginning of some down time.

One day at a time has been working pretty well for me.

Decorations

Christmas decorating is definitely NOT one of my favorite things to do. It's a lot of work, and for what? a lot of people living in the household who probably couldn't care less about it. well, this year I left the decorating completely up to the kids. Terry and I headed into the city to spend a little time with Sohailah and that "quirky" OKC Cowboy (haha inside joke) while the kids were officially assigned to decorate.

They did a decent job... kind of. The tree looked good. The stockings were all hung by the chimney with care. But the more I noticed certain things, the more I felt the need to... rearrange... slightly. Bad mom. Very bad.

I waited several daze before changing anything and made it a point to ask Caleigh who put all the village houses out? (seriously... they were placed randomly about the house, wherever there was an outlet to plug in to. Very inconvenient not to mention odd. It just wasn't working for me. I usually put them all above the kitchen cabinets... nice and orderly. Maybe with a little cotton for snow. Caleigh told me that she had done that part. So I suggested that I really wanted to put them up high where they could be seen all together, but I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by moving them. She said that she would have put them there but just couldn't reach. HAHA. OK good. Phew. No hurt feelings there.

Another problem was regarding how the "table decorations" were placed in various places alongside of the items which are there regularly. The regular items weren't put away for the Christmas items to have their season. It just looked like one big cluttered mess. So today I did a bit of rearranging and DUSTING for Pete's sake. You'd think a little bit of dusting could be done from time to time. It feels a little bit better.

And finally, the Christmas tree... there are some things that must remain as they are i.e. very few lights. But I like A LOT of lights!! [sadness] I like them all white. Non-blinking. But it seems that there are only two, maybe three long strings and that is it. Also we have many ornaments which are heavy or large. They need to be placed strategically. You can't hang them on the tips of the boughs. They have to be placed on the larger boughs and moved quite a bit to the back of the branch where it's strong and where there is room for dangling. I like when ornaments are staggered... some placed into the center regions of the tree as well as on the tips of the branches. Needless to say, I did a bit of maneuvering and rearranging. I didn't want to pull a Grinch and take down the entire tree. That would have been mean, not to mention that it didn't bother me that much. It's a good thing I did some rearranging, because my delicate ornaments were, in many cases, hanging by a thread (excuse the pun) just ready to slip off the tips of the branches, shattering onto the floor.

Yikes! It all leaves me to wonder if Caleigh did the majority of the tree decorating, too. Nah. Just kidding. All the kids obviously need a little guidance with these things, and I'm so grumpy when it comes to decorating that I'm sure I scare them all away each year, as soon as the boxes are opened.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not necessarily anal about Christmas decorations, I just don't enjoy putting them up. And I thought I didn't care how they looked, but actually I kind of do. Next year I will try to be sure to decorate together with the kids. I'll even try to be nice. They need to learn some of the tricks that I've learned from my friends--the ones who love decorating at Christmastime. I should make an attempt to make decorating a happy time, a joyous occasion, a beloved tradition. And there should be spiked eggnog on hand to make it go better for the mama and the papa.

Things I've Been Doing--Videos

... or watching.


My son, Nate was in a play along with Brandon Jenkins this past weekend. The play was written by one of his classmate, Greg Rojano, and selected to be performed along with 8 other plays written by HS students. It's a out 10 minutes of a pointless, but humorous, story about two ants. Los Ants!

You'll have to turn up the volume because it was recorded on my iPhone.

Los Ants by Greg Rojano from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

Also, there were two nights of Winter Concerts. I didn't get a video clip of Caleigh's night (because I was accompanying).


The second night I also accompanied but had some free time to video. Caleigh videoed too--it's a little shaky when she does it.

Madame Novec was performed by the French 2 Class and Madame Novec is none other than my very own Jennah.

Madame Norbec from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

Jennah was also featured on the sleigh bells in the piece the band played. They band ranges from 4th graders to 12th graders (the downfall of a small school).

Sleigh Balls featuring the sleigh bells from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

Basketball...
Nate's number 20--THE AGGRESSIVE ONE. The crowd is aggressive too--hahaa

Nate playing ball from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

Nate missed his lay up and Brandon took a charge.

basketball BHS vs. Mercy from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

A little rehearsal time for 50 Million Frenchmen

Let's Step Out from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

There were also a few volleyball games! But I'll spare you those clips. But if you are REALLY enjoying this...

HERE'S A BONUS VIDEO--Lizzy and Jennah dancing at home (you may catch a glance of me in there, dancing while making dinner and briefly comforting Lizzy who was hit in the head by her sister with the lemonade container) Ah Good times!

Lizzy and Jennah's dance from Karen Hochstedler on Vimeo.

Screaming Good Time in NYC

I know that its been 7 days since my last post, but my most faithful reader (or the one who faithfully comments anyway) was here visiting. So I'm not sure that I was missed very much here in bloggerville. If you missed me, HOLLA!

We did the quick tour up 5th Ave and to Rockefeller Center and to many other places all before meeting some friends for cocktails at the Campbell Apartment and dinner at The Place in the meat packing district.
Sohailah picked up this lost, hungry, homeless COWBOY along the way, so we let him experience all the joys of NYC with our crazy selves.

We visited the New York Public Library. It is beautiful and amazing. Terry commented about the painting on the ceiling... just that it was odd that there were no women and it just looked a little odd. He referenced the movie, Death at a Funeral. HAHA (had to be there).

Saturday was what is called Drunk Santa Day in NYC. We saw Santa and his elves every where all day long. I loved the squirrel... or as we learned from Jolene: Eichhörnchen.

We found this lovely display in one of the parks we were passing. It was so colorful we decided to take the photo opportunity. Homeless Cowboy stayed with us the next day for continued touring.
We had to chastise Sohailah for trying to smuggle the plants home in her decorative CAbi coat.

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge until Sohailah began to misbehave.
That's when the marine officer ushered us back to safety.
We gave Homeless Cowboy a cup of coffee and tried to convince him that the camera does not actually steal your soul. "You can keep your eyes open when the shutter releases. It will do you no harm."
This picture may have been only a few moments before my head got caught in the subway door. Now there's a story for ya... It's when I found out who my real friends are!!!
We went a LOT of places.

On Sunday we were back home. Because I haven't gotten a pair of these yet, Sohailah graciously offered her foot pedaling services by joining me for the church service. It was an organ duet. I think I should have paid her.
She did a fantastic job and even sang the verses as she played the low notes.
HEE!