If January was our busiest month yet, February has to have been our most stressful. For real. (Harder than IVF, I swear.) To be quite honest, we’re a week into March and I don’t think I’ve recovered yet. And to be fair, we (and by ‘we’ I mostly mean ME) are going through A LOT. In the span of about two weeks, we packed up our entire downstairs, moved into Andrew’s parents’ house and then Andrew had ACL surgery. All three of those things are hard. All three of them at the SAME TIME has been a bit nuts. However, I’m trying to remember what M is for Mama says: Hard is Not the Same Thing as Bad.
And the end of January, the house project finally (officially, at least) started! They dug and poured the foundation on the 29th, then let the concrete cure for almost a week.
We were still in our house at the time, and it was honestly a little unnerving to have people working right outside my dining room window. It was only a couple days, but I can’t imagine living in the house for any length of time while work of this magnitude is going on. We’re VERY thankful that Andrew’s parents are just a mile away and have plenty of room for us.
The first Saturday in February is National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day! Rosie’s opens early and encourages pajamas. We went last year and had so much fun. Word has clearly gotten out, since there was a line through the parking lot all morning!
(If you look closely, you can see Maelle and mama in line!)
Andrew and Maelle did some demo at our house in preparation for the project! Andrew and I are planning to re-do the area near the back door ourselves, but the TV room is getting a new wood floor as part of the project. So, we have to decide where the new floor ends and the tile for the back begins. We plan to design one of those bench/cubby spaces to replace the closet we tore out, as well as widen the hallway from the back door to the TV room.
As usual, we celebrated Chinese New Year with the Nyes!
Once the concrete was set, our contractors made quick work of the porch. They built the pad (green structure) for the new foyer and started demoing the porch, to include the windows and doors.
We decided to again (we did it last year, too) watch the Super Bowl with our friends, the Hazbouns, which means we got to ski! I only did one run, and I spent most of my time with Maelle on the bigger bunny slope! She’s doing great!
It’s always fun to watch her play with Ále, as they are little buddies and tend to build or draw. His older sister was at a ski race, so it provided a good opportunity for them to play together.
One of my favorite holidays is Valentine’s Day! I love to make it special for my family with goodies and a fun breakfast in the morning. I wasn’t going to let not being in our house stop me. This year, Andrew got new boxers and Maelle got a new Squishmallow! A friend is a cookie-baker, and I also got some cute mini-cookies with Valentine cards for my in-laws, one of which was a slice of pizza and the other was a cat face (too perfect!).
Maelle was being a stinker at school and wouldn’t show us the heart on her sweatshirt 
The following weekend was Presidents’ Day, and I’d planned to get away on a girls’ trip! I hadn’t seen my besties from college for real length of time since we lived in Ohio (!!!), and it was so nice to catch up and have some down time. We stayed in a cute house in Shepherdstown, WV and enjoyed lots of talking, a little shopping and a quick stop to see Harper’s Ferry.
While I was gone, Daddy and Grandpa took Maelle to the Buffalo Science Museum. I’ve never been, but it’s our list to do again soon.
Maelle has taken an interest in learning checkers and chess since we’ve been at Gram and Grandpa’s house. She is a quick study and knows more chess than I do at this point!
Andrew’s ACL surgery (Sorry, no photos! Apparently I was too busy taking care of TWO individuals to snap a SINGLE picture of him on the couch.) was Feb. 21, which left him almost 100% immobile for the first few days. Thankfully, he’s doing well and improves a bit every day. However, while he’s on the couch, I’ve been running point on the house project in his absence. I’m sure my level of oversight leaves something to be desired, but I’ve been over MANY A NIGHT in a headlamp to get a dimension for him!
Speaking of progress…check out the new foyer and the curved gable!
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