Friday, November 27, 2009

Another Thanksgiving Memory

Hilarious! Picture 10 adults sitting around the Thanksgiving dinner table. Clay (our 7 yr old) is finished, and sitting 10 feet away on the couch. There is one person talking while we are intently eating. All of the sudden out of our peripheral vision, we see something fall from the ceiling and land in the plate of a guest that is new to our home – a distant relative. We all look up to see what fell. For 5 seconds there is not a sound, because we are all looking in disbelief at a used sock, lying upon her mashed potatoes. After I choke, turn neon pink and apologize profusely; she removed the sock, said “it’s perfectly alright, I've had children” and started to laugh. With that moment of tension graciously removed, the whole table completely lost it. For 10 min. A memory definitely was made this Thanksgiving.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Spraying on the insulation

It sprays on just like paint, then it expands and grows and grows!


A sideways video...just tilt your head to the left... :)


Saturday, October 18, 2008

No more water inside!

Notice the ropes! Bunch-a monkeys!

I am very thankful for those monkeys!





I thought for sure this would take about 4 men.  Never underestimate the might of a mexican construction worker!



Roof is just about finished.  It will be complete today. 




Sunday, October 05, 2008

We will Rebuild!

Back of the house...the screened in porch is now up a foot higher to 11 foot high ceiling.
On top of the screened in porch we made our game room bigger and at 21x27 it's now the biggest room in the house with a 16 foot ceiling at it's peak!  Can you say testosterone?!!!
The white walls are walls that we were able to salvage after the fire.  They power washed them then painted with a special sealer (thus the white color).
The front of the house...we saved most of the attached garage.
We steepened the roof to the original blue print specs...no more Christmas lights on the eve!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Our House Fire

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 3PM lightning struck our beautiful house and set it a blaze while Shannon and the boys were inside. They all made it out safely but the house did not fare so well. Here are some photos taken the day after the fire: sorry some are sideways....not a whole lot of time to perfect at the moment.































































































Wednesday, May 14, 2008

This IS My Reality!

When i was in elementary school, i signed up for basketball. All i came away with was that, with that darned ball, came A LOT of pressure!!! The less time I had it in my hands, the better off i was. Then and there I realized that I did not have the competitiveness or tenacity for team sports. So I found art and grew in that for a time, but i think if i had had a great art teacher that inspired me, i would have gone farther.

Instead I found ballet. I was in the 6th grade. A girlfriend of mine said she was going to sign up at the only ballet school in smallville. My fear of trying/joining new GROUP things started early. But curiosity helped me ignore my fear and my mom brought me to the school to register. Figures.... my friend never showed.

I had never "danced" before, so they put me in the beginner class. With the LITTLE girls. I was 2 feet taller than all of them, at least! I felt rediculous. But i fell in love with the teacher! She was beautiful! Her blond flowing hair fell down past her waist - her chiffon skirt floated behind her as she walked - every bit the dream picture of a true ballerina. She inspired me! And thankfully she told me it was only temporary, that i would have to be with the itty bittys. She just needed to see ..... basically how good/bad i was. Much to my ego's pleasure, i was told i had lots of natural ability and quickly zoomed up the ladder to a class of girls my own age. I fell in love with ballet, and didn't stop until the day i graduated from highschool!

My sadness at having to give it up for practical reasons was tempered with the thought that when i had a daughter of my own some day, i would have the pleasure again, even if only as a spectator and.... ok, maybe just a little source of inspiration. I mean i would still have my video tapes of me as the Snow Queen in the Nutcracker.... (a pa de dux and everything!) just in case she would ever like to see mommy in her hayday! And so that dream got put prominently on the "Looking Forward To" shelf in my head. I even saved 1 pair of many a beat up and torturous toe shoes, tights, and my favorite skirt!

Tonight..... 15 years later..... i'v just signed two out of my three all male children up for the Cal Ripkin Farm League Baseball, - their very first organized team sport.

(Go ahead, if you need to grab a hanky... I don't mind waiting. )

This is a very big step for me. At last i have put my little dream to rest, and faced my childhood fears all at the same time!! There will be no ballet class or recital. But that's ok. I'm not alone. Every parent has dreams they would have loved to dream through their children, but never got the chance.

This is a new stage. I have new things to embrace as a mother of three sons. It's time to turn the focus off of myself. I know virtually nothing about team sports, outside of the "blond basics". So i get to look forward to broadening my horizons. I really look forward to the cheering on. I look forward to learning even more about my children. What will this bring out in them? What will surprize me? I look forward to identifying with a new group of adults. And while it' s true that we have chosen to refrain from a lot of typical childhood activities for certain reasons, but yes to others .......

it's yes to baseball! Woooo hooo! I'm scared to death, but "GO TIGERS! OR DRAGONS! OR WHATERVER THE HECK NAME YOUR TEAM WILL HAVE!

Stay tuned for pictures!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Patio Hard Labor

We've been wanting to have a patio out in our back yard for some time...so when Dan's folks came down for their annual Spring break vacation...Dad fearlessly took on the project!








We put Dad's Land Surveying talent to good use! Those retaining wall blocks are about 25lbs each!





It took a little discussion (OK maybe a lot...) but Dad figured out a good system to get our wall at the correct dropped elevation.








This was the funnest part! Fortunately no house walls were damaged!





It took 36 yard of sand to fill in our sloping back yard.





Did I mention that this was the funnest part?





The sand compactor was awesome! After it was done our shoes didn't even leave a single track in the sand.





We estimated 27 yards was needed...but by the time we figured out that we were going to be short, the tractor had to go back. So the last 9 yards we had to manually move. Good thing we had some big strong boys to help us!





It wasn't all work and no play...





Dad figured out an ingenious way to level out the sand...although Dan's back wasn't sure about the ingenious part!





Those steps were not light...but on the second try we got them in their right place!





All graded flat and ready for the pavers...





How many more do I have to put in???





Shannon was the master paver....



Dad put on the final touches by custom cutting the last blocks that abutted the retaining wall.

The last paver...Shannon will ever lay...



Celebrate good times...come on...





Nice!





Relaxation and community is what the patio is all about!



Friday, May 02, 2008

Caleb's 9th Birthday


It's hard to believe Caleb has reahed 9 years old...but he wears it well!




We decided to all go bowling...Clay was our ringer!