I was gonna write a post today, but Brenda just HAD to have lemon bars, and while I was busy baking them she went and stole my words.* So here’s a guest post, written by Brenda Ponnay and published concurrently at her blog Secret Agent Josephine.

The unpacking is going pretty well. I’ve been in the zone for three days now and I’m just starting to feel a tiny bit tired. Overwhelmed no, just a little creaky from working hard. I’m loving the challenge of finding a place for everything. I know I can do it and when I’m done this house is going to look sooo good!

Even though everything is messy right now, I have a feeling that this house is going to be very photogenic when it’s done. I love the layout and the charming wood floors. The windows are nice with lots of light and offer great views of their giant back yard. I love how the back deck leans out into the branches of the nearby trees. I don’t have a great photo of that but that’s only because I have been unpacking non-stop. I don’t even like to stop to eat.

Of course we have to stop to eat every once in a while because we have little girls in our company with strong growing bodies who demand that we do so. “Feed the kid!” Bug yells at me from time to time. Don’t worry. Nobody is starving. Bethany is taking good care of us when it comes to eating. She’s making lemon bars right now as I type this! I can’t wait.

We’ve made a couple of trips to IKEA to scout out a new couch and some rugs for Bethany’s house and then back again to pick everything up. Shopping at IKEA is pretty fun (especially when you are helping spend someone else’s money) but it does get a bit tiring when you’ve been there for an hour or three. All the choices seem to run together and you feel a bit like a mouse in a maze going crazy. But I can’t complain because I don’t have to put everything together.

Troy does.

We’re all happy in our zones. Me unpacking…

Bethany cooking and baking…

Me eating…

And the girls doing whatever it is that they do.

*Brenda didn’t steal my words. She wrote her post and I said, “I think I’ll just steal your code and put it up on my site as a guest post, okay?” She said, “You should!”

Also, I didn’t mind making her lemon bars. I felt guilty about not helping much with the unpacking, even though she keeps assuring me that she’s having fun, so I practically begged her to give me a baking challenge.

We got to the airport a little early, and had to wait for 20 minutes or so for Brenda and Bug to arrive. When they finally walked around the corner and we saw each other, Bug smiled hugely and ran towards us as Annalie danced a little with the effort of keeping herself from running past the security sign. They hugged each other happily, then held hands and chattered nonstop as we walked to the baggage claim. The past month is probably the longest they’ve gone without seeing each other in the past two years!

That night after the kids were in bed, Brenda and I worked on unpacking the kitchen. When we came across the box that had our ridiculously-large-for-people-who-don’t-really-drink-much wine collection in it, I found a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and decided it was just what we needed. Apparently I was right because around midnight we finished the kitchen.

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday by having lunch with friends and painting pottery, which was a lovely way to spend my birthday. I was also treated to many emails, texts, Facebook and Twitter greetings, and phone calls wishing me the best. My birthday was rather anticlimactic this year what with being in the middle of moving and everything, but all the kind, funny notes made me smile and feel loved. Thanks for all of those!

Today we unpacked a bit, then went on a monster trip to IKEA where we bought Annalie a dresser and picked out a couch and living room rug to buy later and Annalie and Bug discovered that they completely love Småland (the kids’ play area). We were all wiped out by the time we got home. Also, it’s been raining all day (yay!) and the hole in our ceiling we were assured “is just cosmetic, the roof is fixed, we just need to repair the ceiling” has been leaking on and off (boo!). I used my recently-unpacked kitchen to make some really delicious homemade chili which was perfect for the rainy day. While I made the chili Brenda cleared the empty, flattened boxes out of the living room and did some more unpacking. I’m starting to think we’ll have this house DONE in no time.

There are more photos on my Flickr in Brenda & Bug’s D.C. Unpacking Adventure, if you wanna see ‘em.

Yeah…we haven’t made much headway on the unpacking yet. Good thing Brenda’s coming to help us with that. She and Bug are flying here tomorrow, and will be here for two weeks, whee! That should give us plenty of time to unpack and do a little sightseeing too.

Since we knew Brenda was coming to whip us into shape, we weren’t in a huge hurry to get the unpacking done. We decided it would be a good idea to paint Annalie’s room while most of her stuff was still in easy-to-move boxes. Her bedroom was a dark wine red that, while a lovely color, wasn’t a great color for a little girl. Also the room just needed to be painted, it had obviously been a few years.

Sunday we primed. I had photos of us priming the room, including some cute ones of Annalie making crazy designs with a paintbrush. I thought I had downloaded them, so I cleared the memory card. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Oh well.

Yesterday morning when Annalie realized that we were going to wait for Troy to get home before we started the actual painting, she was rather annoyed. She wanted to paint! She wanted princessy, ballerinaesque, girly-foo-foo pink walls! So by the time Troy got home, we ate dinner and changed into our painting clothes, she was super excited.

We carefully explained to Annalie that if she wanted to paint, she would have to listen carefully to our instructions and follow them. She definitely likes to do things her own way so I thought that might be a dealbreaker right there, but no. Annalie listened, repeated the instructions back to us, and nodded determinedly when we asked if she understood that if she didn’t follow the directions that she would have to stop painting.

I remember when my mom painted my room when I was about Annalie’s age. I was all excited about it till I actually helped with the painting a little and realized how boring it was. I thought Annalie would do something similar. She stuck it out though!

Annalie painted and painted, followed the directions to the letter, and only had a couple of small mishaps (getting a bit of pink paint on the baseboard and accidentally putting her hand on a wet wall when she lost her balance) both of which were things that everyone does sooner or later while they’re painting. In all, I’d say Annalie was responsible for about a quarter of the paint that got on the walls in that first coat, which is pretty respectable for a five-year-old. She just kept rolling on the paint till it was time for bed.

Okay, she stopped a couple of times for breaks, but I don’t blame her for that. Those rollers are heavy when they’re loaded with paint. And five-year-olds may not need coffee breaks but they definitely need silly breaks.

Heck, even dads need silly breaks once in a while.

By the time Annalie announced that she was tired and we realized it was 15 minutes past her bedtime, we’d almost completely finished the first coat. While I got Annalie into bed, Troy finished up and cleaned the rollers and brushes and trays. Today we did it all over again for the second coat.

Even though it’s a bit crazy that we painted right away, I think it was easier since we just had to move boxes around, not a whole room full of stuff. And if there’s anything more exciting than unpacking and setting up in a brand-new room with a fresh coat of paint, I don’t know what it is…unless it’s having wonderful friends who will do the unpacking for you!!!

We are SO looking forward to you getting here, Brenda and Bug! Fly safe!