Adventures at The Bunny Manse

Before reading this, know I have Bill's full permission to share. Most of my friends know Dollar Bill is my daughters' self-proclaimed godfather. The girls run in delight when they hear him approaching calling their names. For our youngest, he's decided she goes by her middle name, asking for little Hillary. What you might not know is that this summer he's experienced some hardships that require surgery. His remaining upper teeth have suddenly failed, making eating, talking, chewing difficult for him. He also doesn't smile as much anymore. Bill had some dental work done when he joined the Navy in the 80s. They pulled teeth and left him with partials that have now failed. The VA won't fix this for him and he doesn't have dental insurance. While you can't see his teeth, his roots are intact - necessitating surgery before he can get dentures. A reputable local dentist  has examined Bill and come up with a plan of treatment to remove his root...

That's what happens when you start working on houses right? You start having babies who delight you and get in the way of finishing projects. We hired Merritt-who-has-moved-to-charlotte to photograph the family. Marianne Hillary Spring And her adoring sisters Related - the adults are now on diets

We decided we wanted the front yard and porch to be finished. Like, for real playful, beautiful, and not on our mind. To do that, we needed to finish little pebble creak as well as find pavers to make a complimentary walkway. And what to do about the grass. Just...start over . Harris and our neighbor Adam rented a sod cutter and cut the top layer of dirt off of the front yard. Then they picked up the chunks of sod and dirt and grass and loaded it into the back of the truck over and over and over again taking about four tons of dirt and junk to the county dump. Dad and I took a good load or two ourselves during their short visit while Mom hung out with Margot and Marianne. We were going to lay sod but sort of...got distracted. We decided instead to throw out some lime, fertilizer, and seed and see what happens.

Our littlest creature is such a delight. Some pictures of her first three months in our family. Sometimes we call her the maymaybaybay, little Hillary, mayYann, but we haven't yet settled on the just right family pet name. She'll help us figure one out soon enough. Margot loved the cream filled croissant muffin. Apartments being built in Central Park in the background.  Laying on my big squishy tummy  Laying on the coffee bar at the coop My favorite infant picture so far  Selfie I took while nursing and cooking dinner. Ok, I love sleeping babies. 

We've been very slowly attempting to convert the South Lawn into more than a grass pit and parking lot. We started earlier in the year by having TROSA come and remove all of the leaves, ivy, and debris from the yard. We then fixed the fence at the back property line so none of us would fall over the 8ft drop into the church parking lot behind our house. Fun times. One day, the tree that is on their property that leans over their church is going to fall.  We've talked to them so many times, offering to let them use our yard to trim or remove the tree... their response was that they have insurance if anything happens.  OK then.  Then, we finally got started building the swingset. Hard to believe, but when Harris and our friend/neighbor Rob went to disassemble and bring the parts back from Raleigh, the dolphin swing was for Margot. She got her ride in it, was joyful, then moved on to the big girl swings.  Madeline taking pictures of me ...

Our happy ttle surprise girl arrived mid February. I've spent the past month with her cuddled in my arms, nursing, sleeping, and enjoying her random hour of wakefulness here ave there. This is the last little infant I'll spend so much time with and I'm revelling in the experience.  Also, I'm ecstatic to not be pregnant anymore.  Marianne, the icon of Liberty, the dreaming middle sister of Austen, a song and poem. Hillary, the woman who should have been President. Spring, because we're alternating last names In reverse time lapse order, after the last picture, the story of her birth. Like her sisters, she was born at the women's birth and wellness center in chapel hill. She was born at 41 weeks, 6 days. We resorted to castor oil after every other thing that worked previously did not work and I was approaching the point of transfer to a hospital setting that I very much wanted to avoid. Marty came down for the weekend to sta...

There are often little details in old houses that go unnoticed. These never make it into new houses because it costs money to do these things and 'no one is going to see it anyway'.  For example, this is the inside header, trim, and casing on the doorway of a small closet off the kitchen. You only see it when standing inside the closet which is almost impossible to do. And yet, when building the house, they wanted it to be beautiful and consistent throughout. One of the reasons I love old houses.  We used this small closet as a pantry since we moved in. Some crappy plastic shelves and viola! all of our dry good storage could be dumped in here. It was fine.  However, with the advent of the pantry, we decided to move the washer and dryer here and make the former laundry area the temporary cat home. It's fine.  So here's the empty space with the gas, water, and vents all hooked up, and then as Harris started stacking and hooking up the machines. Luckily...

There's the beautiful princess tub that I looked for on Craigslist for over a year. That Harris almost didn't get because we got into an argument the morning he was to go get, that Madeline rescued from adult drama by quietly saying, 'but my princess tub...' with her head hung low making the adults feel pretty low.  It's been sitting, waiting upstairs, for two-ish years.   There was a gross shower here. Now it is gone forever and the tub will go there using existing plumbing.  Us checking out paint colors. We all mutually decided we liked a peachy pink color for the walls.   Harris getting rid of paneling after I got rid of the shower stall. Well, I unscrewed and unbolted everything so he could chuck it in the dumpster across the street. The last of the paneling is now gone from the house. I think. I'm sure I'll find another little bit here or there.  The tile arrived in August.  Harris built a partition wall...

Someone is eight years old today.  She's very insistent that until the time of her birth, she is not yet actually 8. Precision is important with this one. 

Because I'm a million months pregnant, we did not drive to DC, but instead to Raleigh where we joined 15,000 other people who marched. The girls were getting restless in the crowds, so we did a fair bit of walking around in search of open spaces.  The sign says "I stand up for..."  Madeline wrote, Women's Rights.  Margot told me to write, Mommy, YaYa, Margot.  with our signs, Madeline decided to write, Be Kind and Brave Mine said My Body, My Choice, another mother raising Smart Strong Girls! The crows were a little too much for Madeline, Margot liked them, but not the massive puppets in attendance.