Tour de Payne

Well, since it costs billions of dollars for anyone to fly over here at the moment, even a year into the calendar. I have photos of the house to share. You must keep in mind that there is a lot more house than either of us has ever had, so not nearly enough furnishings. We did not hit the lotto before coming, so decorating and furnishing will just take time and I am NOT color blind. I am well aware that wine colored curtains don't really go with a mocha sofa and lime green chair, it's what we've got so we're rolling with it. The windows that ARE here, are ALL different sizes so this whole window covering bit will take a little while. Maybe not AS long as I'd expected though now that my wonderful mother in law shared a killer idea with me! I'm very excited about that!!!! I'll share later when I make it happen.

So... this is how the house is, starting out. Starting out with bare basics. I just KNOW that Kristy is going to be SO proud of the complete and total LACK of clutter. (It's also why there will be no photos of my office or bedroom). Shockingly though, there's not really even clutter in there, they just weren't ready yet. Our bed, gee big shocker here, can I say "I TOLD YOU SO?!" would not fit up the stairs, so we have mattress and box spring on the floor, our nightstands are too big to fit in the nook for the bed and we never thought in a million years that there would also be no cabinets for towels and other linens etc... so, it is very make shift in there. My office well, trying to go through the mounds of photos I have to put in the mounds of empty frames I've had sitting around for years is a little messy to say the least. Not so messy, until the boys run in here and somehow every single time manage to walk through the photos I've regrouped and neatly piled in separated stacks the last 18 times they did that. Yeah. So, less those two rooms, oh and the room that is serving as temporary storage until we can furnish the OTHER rooms with places to PUT things. So, here is the tour minus 3 rooms. haha.

I've over-explained I'm sure but well... I just did. Deal with it. ha

Shut up Aimee! ON WITH IT WOMAN! (as Mike would lovingly bellow).

Welcome...

Why looky here, I've got me a foyer, entryway, cloakroom - whatever you wish to call it.

To the right of the door, you will find the ground floor loo. hehe. Its tiny, meant for but one purpose and that is all you have room or will to do in there.

Now turning back to your left, you find the living room - or lounge as it is called here. Our nifty TV on our temporary TV stand. :) It works AND hides toys. Nifty huh?

A fireplace! Yay! Once Mary Poppins' pal the Chimney Sweep paid us a visit, I had to take it for a spin! Yep, it works! :)

LOTS of wonderful natural light in here!

A full 360 view for you.

Now, back into that entry room, you see the broom closet under the stairs, no Harry Potter under there, sorry. My office to the right and straight ahead...THE KITCHEN!

The coolest room in the house! I actually LIKE cooking in here! I do NOT like cleaning that damn stovetop or the stove at all though. Ugh. That is also not our dining set (or cabinet that you can't really see) it is a loaner courtesty of the AF until I can make up my damn mind what I want to get!

A few things have yet to find a "place" yet, so no, that is not normal storage up top.

This has to be the very best dishwasher in the world. I never knew it was possible for them to REALLY clean things, but it does. Oh man...does it EVER! Love it!!!!

Then, here's my freezer. Being an American and coming to this, albeit it might even be more of a culture shock being a TEXAN and trying to figure out how anyone does this, is simply beyond me. How do you not spend a small FORTUNE in constant runs to the grocery store??? Luckily, we got a spare for the garage, so we are making it now. hehe

And last but certainly not least. This, my friends, is our washing machine. Anyone in America that has less than 30 kids in their house that says they do NOTHING but laundry all day and night....I'm calling a big fat BS! *I* do laundry all day and night, I think I can do it in my sleep now. I've actually CRIED b/c I think I'm done, and then I find more. Or someone gets sick, or has an accident. CRIED! TEARS!!!! Where's the dryer you might ask? Oh...it is also a dryer. Crazy huh? Cool you think yeah? NO!!!! Its AWFUL! Now listen here, upon first moving in, it was taking a minimum of TWO HOURS to WASH one load that basically holds about 6 regular sized bath towels that I shoved in there with my feet putting ALL my weight into it. No I did not shove it out the back wall thank you. So now I've spent 2 hours washing, I still need to dry. Wanna know how long THAT was taking? At the very least, 3 hours. THREE hours! So, now to wash and sort of dry your clothes that still come out smelling musty and so wrinked a steam roller couldn't knock a single wrinkle out of them, I've spent FIVE freaking HOURS on one teeeeeny tiny load of laundry. Yeah. I said FIVE HOURS. FIVE. Once again... military to the rescue! I've got a spare dryer in my garage as well. hahaha. Thank goodness for that garage, its keeping me somewhat Americanized! ha! Now I've got a LOVELY dryer that REALLY makes my towels ultra soft and fluffy that dries and does not wrinkle in half an hour. ALSO, my lovely friend and neighbor actually read the book on the washer and that 60 is not the time, but the water temp in Celsius. Meaning I'd been washing ALL of our clothes in really hot water which is a huge huge no-no for me. All said and done, we're running on a fairly decent TIME for laundry, size is the main issue for now, we'll live though.

Now, all that said and done, I've gotten sidetracked so many times and tonight was NOT an insomnia night and its into the wee hours again and well, I was woken up way early this morning by this sweet soft voice whispering at my door, "Good Morning Mommy...I've got to pee pee."

So, the boy who's had a little trouble lately made it to the potty with no incident, comes to bed with me b/c it is so very early and gets all cuddled up with me and toasty warm. The very instant we are all comfy and close our eyes again, I hear this other sweet voice from the other room....

"MOMMY!!!! MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!!!!! MY BINKY MOMMY! MOMMY!!!!! MY BINKY MOMMY MY BINKY! MY BINKY!!!!!"

Cody is up.

On went our busy day from there. :)

Oh well, while snoozing in and cuddling and being toasty in your very comfortable toasty bed is wonderful, I'll take it over not having it anyday. Binky screams or not, potty trips, or not, anyday. Any day. :)

Yesterday I thought I would end the day in a straight jacket and literally felt my hair turning more gray up there, and today...today I was suddenly blessed (perhaps rewarded for NOT running away yesterday) with sweet wonderful helpful loving angel boys.

Go figure.