Well, We're Alive

What. A. Mess.

This roof is a beast. It's half way sheeted. We had a ton of people from our family and ward show up this morning. I can't believe how much help we had. We got so much accomplished. The eaves were extended, and even a catastrophe was diverted. Well, kind of. The spine of the addition (that's not a technical term), the board that runs across the length of the house, it split. A really bad, saggy split. And then the roof was just falling down. Oh joy. This dumb, stupid, horrid house. But these guys just came up with a solution and fixed it. Thank heavens.

This afternoon, everyone was dragging and I felt so bad for how tired everyone was, so I stayed at the house and helped. Everyone was leaving, and in the end, for the last few hours we had two guys on the roof, and three on the ground (including me). We got half the roof sheeted and still have the other side to do. So much left to do, but it will be amazing when it's done.

I can't thank everyone enough.  Thank you everyone!!!!!!! You know who you are!!!

The baptism happened yesterday too, but that's a totally different post. Maybe tomorrow. I'm going to limp to bed now. Did I mention my super hurt left ankle that I dropped a pile of 2x4s on today, or my right foot that stepped on a nail? That was just plain dumb of me. Dumb.

Not to whine. I'm in amazing shape compared to my dad or Trevor who can't walk tonight because they hurt so bad and are tired. Trevor couldn't sleep last night because he was in so much pain. Har har. It is a little bit funny. You have to admit. This is why professionals do this. We are a bunch of ninnies.

The Weekend of Certain Letters and Hockey Sticks

This is it. THE WEEKEND. Today is the start of the roof. Exciting stuff, eh? I'm not excited, but I am. I mean, Samantha will be baptized!!! I'm so excited for her!!! The roof... meh. I'll be sooooo sooo soooooo happy when it's done. It's a huge project. Our roof is not the same height. The additions are taller than the main house. I'm not sure on the difference, but it's a big deal. They left the cedar shingles on the roof of the main house and built the additions to match the height of the main house with shingles. Wait, following me here? Then they shingled directly over the cedar shingles straight across the roof, using the shingles as the deck. Still following me? It's hard for me to explain, because I'm not fluent in roofing lingo. Sorry.

Anyhoo, this train gets started today, and there is no going back once it starts moving. I sure hope it all goes semi smoothly. We are getting a bathroom!!!! Yep! The porta potty comes tomorrow!!! No more going to McD's!!

And back to Sami's baptism. I threw together a program yesterday after a few people told me my simple one was not enough. I had a very very simple one planned, but apparently baptisms have turned into large productions? I don't know... I missed the memo on that one. I thought the baptism was the point. Silly. I'm thinking this grumpiness I'm feeling about it is just from me hating things like this. Sometimes I wish my family could crawl into a hole and do things without having the whole world (ward) watch. I'm also thinking this is the roof talking. Yeah. Pretty sure.

Agh!!!!

Well hello again, faithful readers. If you are still hanging around, bless you. I've been taking a lot of pictures for you, but meant to post a while ago. Sorry.

I'll get right into it:

The kids and I have been working out every night but Sunday. This has been going on for a while, and man are we getting strong! Ask Samantha to see her muscles. You will be impressed.

The peacocks are crazy lately. They have been over in our yard at least three times a day. And they stay and yell at each other and prance around with their weird feathers. Those things are weird. Have you ever heard a peacock caw? Isn't that what it's called? Lol. Sorry if it's not. But forsheesh it is like a person yelling! So loud. And they walk so weird. And well, they are just weird animals.

We got a pool pass and have been making good use of it. The kids will learn to swim this year!!! It's going to happen!!

And finally I bring you to the story of how Will almost burned to a crisp. We had a fire outside and we were cooking dinner with friends. An ember popped out of the fire and onto Will's shirt. Trevor was holding him and didn't notice. Will felt the heat and started fussing. Trevor looked down and smelled the smoke and wiped the ember off Will's shirt. The pictures are of the hole, yeah just a thumb sized hole, and the shirt Will was wearing which I find hilarious.

I hurt my foot. Last week I noticed my left foot was hurting after a hard day of working at the house. I'm not sure how I hurt it. I've also been working out every day, so it could be from that. In any event, it is still hurting just as bad today as last week. What did I do? I get hurt at the house all the time, and it is just one of those things you have to shake off as fast as you can and move on. I just wish the pain would go away. It's radiating from the top of my foot through to the arch and ankle.

Well anyway, moving on. We got a lot done at the house today and the past few weeks. Let me fill you in: We have been working in the dreaded bedroom and laundry room all this time. We tore most everything out, including the ceiling, and bags and bags of insulation which are now stacked in a large pile in the basement. We put in the closet and bathroom walls, which is terribly exciting!!!!! We lapped all the walls for extra strength since that side of the house is an addition and seems to be slightly separating from the original building. You may be wondering why we would tear out the ceiling. The answer is because we raised it. It was really low before and also had water and mold damage. It was disgusting. Now we have a few more framing days ahead of us, but we are almost done with this part!!!

I thought we would be doing electric next, you know... wiring the house, but Trevor has informed me that it's plumbing next. Oh joy. You know what? I hate plumbing. I remember my dad putting in the plumbing in a new bathroom when we dug out our basement when I was little. I thought it would be exciting. It was slow going and boring. It was a lot of figuring things out and cutting and torching and just soooo soooo soooooo oooooh boring. We are using a new, and supposedly easier kind of plumbing. I hope it goes fast and that I can learn to love plumbing.

Before we even go further with anything though, we are tackling the roof. Two weeks, people. I don't know how this is going to happen. Please pray for us. Pray that somehow we will be able to get everything done that we need to beforehand. Pray that friends from church can somehow convince Trevor to let them help us a lot more than he wants to accept. The roof is a large job, and Trevor can be very stubborn. That's all I'm going to say on that.

Also, one more thing. I'm terrified of being on the roof. Actually, I have no problem getting on the roof, but it's getting off the roof that I have a problem with. When I was a teenager, I remember climbing onto our roof to jump off onto the trampoline. Soo much fun!! Based on this, I have devised a plan that we need to bring our trampoline over and put it at the lowest point of the roof. Otherwise, I'm never coming down. They will have to call the fire department.