Fixing up our condo with family and friends

As most of you know, we are still living in the condo Gabriel and I bought in 2007 before we had children and while I was in vet school.  Due to several unforeseeable occurrences, not the least of which is the crash of the mortgage/banking industry in 2008, we are still living there, despite having added two children and two cats (plus Harley, our foster cat) to the fray.  We're a little cramped, to say the least.  Nevertheless, it's been a nice place to live, we can walk from home to downtown and back, Gabriel is only 5-10 minutes from most places he drives every day (school, store, work), and we don't have a big mortgage to pay.  

My biggest complaint, other than needing more space, is that the place needs some work.  It needed work when we bought it, and all the foster cats and kids haven't made it any nicer.  Still, little by little, we have fixed the place up a bit.  Remember when we painted the kitchen cabinets white?  Remember when we painted our bedroom the color "Desert Fortress?"  Remember when we painted the guest/baby room a color called "Kittery Green?"   (I just really enjoyed looking back at those posts from long ago).  

Anyway, this past weekend was the beginning of a bigger project: putting in new floors.  The carpets weren't so nice when we bought the place and the linoleum has gotten gross in the last six years we've lived here.  So, we are going to tear the floors out and replace them with fabricated hardwoods (laminate).  The good news is that Gabriel's good friend, David, is a contractor and can help us do it ourselves (and save lots of money).  The bad news is that we had to figure out how to go collect over 2000 lbs of boxes of flooring from Lumber Liquidators in Conyers (about an hour away from Athens).
We also have had a hole in the ceiling where the plumber fixed a leak once upon a time and David finally was able to get it fixed this weekend too.

Since we didn't have time to redo the floors this weekend (just pick them up), Tita and I painted all the bedroom cabinets, closet doors, and bathroom doors white, so we wouldn't have to do it after getting brand new floors.  The doors/cabinets used to be a dark, old, ugly wood color, so white is a major improvement.  I'll have to dig up a "before" picture and then take an "after" picture, but take my word for it that they are all white now and look great!

Many thanks to Tita and David from coming this weekend to spend the whole time helping us with kids and fixing up our house.  They are the truest of friends.

-Shirin

Friday night, I met the boys and Gabriel at Panera Bread for a date.  I sure do love my three men.

Tita also helped me repaint the guest bedroom and touch up any of the chipped paint spots.  It looks fresh and new again.  It was SOOO much more fun to do this project with my sister than by myself.  She and I talked, listened to music, and laughed at how much wet paint we kept getting all over ourselves.  We are messy artists.  I am sooooooo thankful she is back in the SE.

Gabriel, David, Tita, Cyrus (with his wagon), and I somehow carried/carted in every single one of these boxes.  They each weigh 25 lbs and I just counted about 89 boxes (over 2200 lbs!).  My entire body is sore today from the endeavor.  On a weekend soon, we will be ripping up the floors to put the floor down.  I promise to take a good before and after picture.

When Gabriel, Tita, and I went out for a run Saturday night, Gabriel came home to this delightful scene.

After doing all that work this weekend, Gabriel left this afternoon for the San Francisco Atlassian Conference.  He went last year too and loved it.  Essentially, he learns tons of new techniques and facts about software he will use for his software team at UGA.  He'll be gone for five days, so his dad, Pappap, drove up all the way from FL on Sunday to help me take care of the boys this week.  It's so much less stressful (and less scary) to have him staying with us while Gabriel is gone.  (This is the picture of the boys showing off their Superheroes ABCs book they made with Gabriel).

My lucky boys, listening to Pappap's nighttime stories before bed tonight.  He picked them up from school early, made them dot soup, bought them muffins for breakfast tomorrow, and let them watch Kung-fu Panda.  They are in hog heaven right now.  And to top it all off, Brendan is going to help me with them at the end of the week and then we'll be driving to RH with Tita to celebrate our 33rd birthday with my parents!  Life is good, folks.

Cyrus, the future anatomist

In Cyrus' class, they are discussing the anatomy and physiology of eyes and ears. Here's a synopsis from the little scientist himself.

 

Still busy at work in September

I know I've mentioned before that my hectic work pace is usually increased in the spring and summer and lessened once the school year starts in the fall (the opposite of pediatricians).  Well, so far this year, that has actually been untrue.  We are blessed at my office with lots of patients (and good clients), and we have stayed quite busy throughout September.  I am also making up a Saturday that my boss worked for me this past May, so that means I'll be working three Saturdays in a row.  This one coming up is the second of the three.
Since both me and my boss commute from Athens to Toccoa, we have been trying to tie up all our appointments and hospital patients by 5 PM-ish so we can be home by dinner time.  If we stop around six and still have to finish up charts, I'd barely get home to see the boys before bath and bedtime started.  But, lately, I've had to stay later just to handle the amount of care and work needed to help my sick patients.
Also, can you believe I've been working at my office for over two years now?  I'm in the middle of my third year.  As Cyrus said the other day, "Time just flies!"  While I love being busy, I do still look forward to a quieter winter.   Maybe I'll be able to blog a little more, since right now all I do is come home from working all day to make dinner, read/play with the boys, get them to bed, clean the house, make tomorrow's lunches, and fall into bed to do it all over again.  Whew...speaking of that, I'm off to clean, make lunches, and fall into bed!
-Shirin

This is one of my patients on the news for participating in a new chemotherapy trial. :)

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Visit with Martha and Ken in RH

My mom's only sister, Martha, and her husband, Ken, were able to come visit my parents in RH this past weekend for a few days.  Gabriel, the boys, and I headed up there after work on Friday and Tita came on Saturday morning to spend a lovely family-filled weekend.  Since it had been 3 years since we had seen Martha, Cyrus didn't remember meeting his great-aunt and -uncle, and Kai had been in my tummy the last time we hugged.  :)

It was great to catch up with Martha, and Gabriel and Ken got to geek out about Apple products and Ken's quadcopter (a remote control helicopter with four propellers and a camera attached).  My mom made some delicious food and we spent some nice moments outside, picnicking and roasting marshmallows.  The good times ended too soon.  Martha and Ken are headed up north to go to an RV convention before heading to India for seven weeks, while the rest of us headed back home to go back to work on Monday.  It was a great visit, which will hopefully be repeated sooner than three years from now.  

-Shirin

Martha used to read to me and Anahita when we were this little.  I got a real kick out of seeing her reading to my boys.

Boys and their toys.

Kai, chilling out at the picnic we had at Martha and Ken's campground where they had their RV.

Tita, catching up with Martha and Ken (and don't forget Cha Cha!)

Ken, flying the quadcopter.

The whole family, enjoying the show after eating our picnic lunch.

Afterwards, Gabriel got a turn to fly it.

We joked that we should put a government sticker on it so people would think they were being spied on.

Kai, especially, was impressed and chased it around like a lunatic. 

Chasing the quadcopter.

What a beautiful way to spend an afternoon with one's family.

Later than night, we made a campfire near Martha and Ken's RV and made s'mores.  Yum!

The boys' favorite auntie.

Since I was a little busy with the boys, helping my mom with cooking, and enjoying my relatives, I didn't take too many pictures.  Here are a few more taken by my Aunt Martha.  She and Ken are very good photographers (they did my wedding photos beautifully), and are always great about documenting their trips.  Here are a few of them:

An aerial view of our campfire and their RV from the quadcopter (so cool, right?)

A big family dinner together.

My mom breaking her own rules for a s'more.

Kai and Cyrus loved us breaking our rules for sweet treats.

My mom, her daughters, and her granddog.

A lovely day for a picnic (in the shade).

Doing a puzzle with the boys.

Helping prepare a yummy lunch.

Tita, watching Kai color.

Back home in Athens.  We got home late Sunday night, but it was worth it.  What a great trip.

Labor Day weekend with Pappap and Grandma

We have been lucky and had Gabriel's parents visiting in Athens this whole week.  I worked on Saturday morning, but then I was off from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday morning for Labor Day.  Aaah, long weekends are the best.
 Saturday night, the boys had a slumber party with their grandparents and stayed in their hotel room.  I was sad at first, but it was actually really nice to have a full ten hours of sleep with no interruptions.  I sure did need it!  Since I was up with the sun after sleeping all night, I headed right over to the hotel to have breakfast and go swimming with the boys and their Pappap.  Gabriel and his mom like to sleep in, so we left those sleepyheads behind.  After they woke up, Grandma read the boys library books in funny voices and on Sunday morning, the boys and I played a long game of Hide and Seek in their hotel room.  You'd be surprised how many places there are for people to hide (especially small people) in a hotel room.
As per usual, we've had treat after treat, dining out at Indian, Thai, Olive Garden, Baskin Robbins, and Your Pie.  I'm going to gain back all that weight I just lost!
Today, Pappap picked the boys up early from school and took care of them til we got off from work.  What a nice thing for my kids to have.  Surrounded by their grandparents on both sides, who shower them with love, and their aunt and uncles, I have to think my kids will feel such security and emotional support as they grow up.  Lucky, lucky boys.
-Shirin

Cyrus and Kai heading home with Pappap for their slumber party after a yummy dinner at Olive Garden.

Cyrus was actually the sadder of the two children, which is a reversal.  Kai is usually my Mama's boy.  But, despite a few tears, both of them really wanted to go and had a great time.  Pappap showered them, brushed their teeth, got them into their PJs and slept with them all night.  What a treat!

In the morning, Grandma read them some library books, which they loved.

At home with their many costumes, the dual Spidermen attacked their favorite wrestling buddy, Uncle Bren.

Oh!  It's just Peter Parker, not Spiderman, afterall!

Sunday evening, we celebrated Gene and Rita's 40th wedding anniversary.  We stopped by Barnes and Noble first to read some books.  They are already putting out the Halloween themed books, so we read about lots of kid mummies, vampires, and zombies.

Waiting for a table at the Olive Garden.

On Monday, we played Hide and Seek in the hotel room.  I wonder where Kai is?

It's so hard to not laugh and pretend I'm looking for him.

Cyrus has been reading out loud at least 10 minutes per day as his homework.  Yesterday, he decided to read the entire "Llama Llama Misses Mama" book and read for 40 minutes straight.  I'm a very proud Mama Lllama.

After eating Thai food last night, we went out for ice cream.  It was a celebration of how many math problems Cyrus got right.  He was extremely excited.

This little guy got Rocky Road, one of my favorites.  I snuck a few bites.  Yum!

Tonight, Cyrus read the Llama book again, this time to Pappap.  It only took him 20 minutes this time.  I can't wait til he can read Harry Potter and books like that.