Sunday, October 19, 2008

Mice Playing

While I was licking Dole Whip off my spoon in Hawaii, Nick and Bethelle managed to keep themselves pretty busy.  To keep Bethelle's mind off of being Mommy-sick, we made a special calendar together before I left.  It had pictures indicating where she would be every day while Daddy worked.  She spent two days with each grandma, two days with her cousins Haley and Ellana, and a day with her cousin Asher.  Weekends were Daddy time, of course, and they had a lot of good bonding time.  Nick even took her on a date to Puerto Vallarta.  She was so excited, she had to call me right away to say that she was at her favorite restaurant.  She had never been there before.  Nick told me later that she fell asleep at the table soon after the call.  He laid her out on two chairs and had a meal alone.

Bethelle really had a wonderful time while I was gone.  Thank you SO MUCH to all those who helped take care of her.  I could not have enjoyed my trip if I knew she was sad or lonely.

Nick feigned on the phone that work was keeping him sooo busy and that he just wasn't able to get to all the things that he had wanted to do while I was gone.  I totally bought it.

Driving home from the airport in the dark, Nick drove very slowly in our driveway, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.  There was a faint smell of sawdust in the air, even with the car windows shut.  I looked up at the house and said, "shut up, what the heeeeeeeeck!"

If you know me, you know that I do not talk like that.  Ever.  Not that that is so bad, but I certainly don't want my toddlers repeating it.  This is  what I saw:
Ok, it was dark and there weren't any men or ladders, but the material point is that THERE WERE COLUMNS!  And they're so beautiful.  

And this is not all.  Nick also finished the brick in the walkway leading to the front porch and coordinated the installation of my master bathroom shower door, tiling around the master bathtub, drawers in the vanity of the master bathroom, some finish work in the kitchen, and a whole lotta cleaning.

Way to top off my vay-cay, Nick!

4 comments:

mindy said...

what a beautiful house!! I've never been there, but look forward to it next visit to washington. Nice job, Nick, on the surprises. I'm impressed!

Ashley C said...

Wow, that's awesome! It looks great!

Rita said...

Well, Nick, What a wonderful surprise for Elke. But, I hope you realize what you have done, encouraged her to leave more often!
We loved having Bethelle come for 2 days. We colored a "Belle" Pillowcase together and read lots and lots of stories. Asher came over for a short while and we played baseball in the family room. It was such great fun. I took Bethelle to Music Moments at church. It is a music program for the 0-4 year old set. This is one of the differences between young, busy Moms and Grandma. The Mom's were there to visit with each other while their kids played. I was their to play with Bethelle. During the time in the gym with balls all over the place, Bethelle and I had a great time, kicking and throwing the balls to each other. After music moments, I took Bethelle to Target and she picked out a pink and purple basketball and a pink bat and ball to use at home with her Dad. What fun we had!
Love, Mom and Grandma Jackson

Our Ohana said...

Gorgeous house, you guys! I love the columns! It sounds like Nick had almost as much fun as you had, Elke :) I hope I get to see the fruits all that hard work in person some time!