Saturday, May 23, 2009

Darin's homecoming!!!!!





Big day for the family. Darin returned Friday from his five month deployment with the USS Nashville. They sent him home a month earlier than the ship's return so that we would have alittle time to prepare for Singapore. The kids were so excited to see him and spent the whole ride home from the airport saying "daddy, watch this." and doing silly faces (the girls). Kyle was patient as always to wait for daddy's attention. Came home to Darin's favorite, thai food, and then starbuck's this morning! We will take the long weekend to relax and then jump in to Singapore plans early next week.

















































Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Mother of all Mothers!!!!!








As you all know, we will be moving to Singapore at the end of June. So in anticipation of moving out of our house, my mom decided to come down for a week and help me get the house ready for our departure. The first day we spent nine hours cutting back ten years worth of overgrown bushes, schrubs, rose bushes (can you say "thorns") and who knows what else. Over the next few days we cleaned the gutters (of which I had to refuse to hold the ladder for my mom because she wanted to get to the "A framed peak" of the house....she wanted to extend the ladder completely out and climb it over my concrete front porch...NO WAY.....finally I talked her out of it), cut all the grass (my wimpy self did that), patched up missing wall paper (I'll give you a great tip for finding extra wall paper to fix tears....look under your electrical plugs.....worked great) replaced bits of missing carpet, reupholstered my kitchen chairs (for those of you who are related to the Saar girls, you know what an accomplishment that is), striped and waxed my kitchen floor, cleaned windows, and the end all of outdoor jobs.....powerwashed the outside of the house. Above pictures show my mom power washing the house in a thunderstorm. Yet again I had to "make" my mom stop power washing during the thunder and lightening storm. Overall, I'd say my mom is a trooper and hardest worker I know!!!!! Talk about labor of love!!!! Thanks Mom, I could not have done a quarter of what we did without you here!!!!


We did get one night out to ourselves for dinner and a movie! What a treat!