Flying By

I wanted to throw a quick update on here about how we are doing. I was gone last week to my niece's wedding in Texas. While I was gone, Trevor and the kids decided to frame some more of the basement.

When I got home from my trip we went right back to work, pushing really hard to get things done. I've been working at the house every day this week from sun up to sun down. It's exhausting,  but I know we need to do it if we are going to get done enough to move in before the cold comes back.

Let me show you what I've been working on.....

DRUM

ROLL

PLEASE

Good and Bad

Good evening everyone. We have had a productive week this week. The kids and I bricked up the very last window on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The next day my sister Jenn and nephew Jett came to rescue us from the pits. Together, we were able to calk most of the windows which needed to be done badly!! This means the house is almost ready for PAINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for coming and killing yourselves for us!!!! It meant the world and was a huuuuge boost!!!!

Meanwhile, after work, Trevor  started the window well digging process. He's getting close to being done with one well. Also, I made the cat door officially done and gone today. 

And that brings me to the bad. We had a really bad wind storm come through today. We heard a loud crash, and looked up to see a tree branch sticking through the roof! Good thing we are roofing experts. It was too heavy to lift out of the hole, so Trevor started chopping the "branch" up and ended up cutting it off a few inches above from where it was sitting in the hole. You can see the stump from the picture where I'm holding it in my hand. It went right through the roof vent, missing any wood. What a blessing, right? I cut new vent shingles while Trevor pulled the old ones out and put tar paper over the hole. The other blessing was that we had everything we needed to fix it and that it happened while we were there. And another blessing still, that it wasn't worse than that. We need to get that tree down!

Look for the speck of light. That's the hole.

FIXED!!! 

Now on to the basement. The wall is built and the manifold mounted. Let's get the water lines run

I've discovered something very interesting: ever since it has been so hot, and we've been working so hard in the heat, when we come home at night, our house is too cold! Yeah, 73 degrees is freezing. Bodies are amazing how they can adapt so quickly. I'm Having A hard time right now falling asleep because I'm so cold!  Brrrrr.

Family update

It's been a really really long time since I've written about what we are all up to, minus working on the house.

While it's almost impossible to give an accounting that does not include our house, I will try to give an untangled version.

So let's back up to the end of school. The kids all got straight A's!!!!! So, to celebrate all the good grades, we went out to dinner at El Toro. It was exciting.

We had a family reunion in Nampa at the beginning of the summer. It was fun, but very stressful for me because I went without Trevor. Trevor stayed home because he had to work. He was in the middle of a trial.

We have been spending our summer so far doing chores, swimming at the pool, reading books from the library, and working at the house.

Hmmmm, now let's be more specific:

Logan has been busy driving me crazy. He's beginning to become a teenager and has been working on his arguing skills and anger management abilities. His reading is also out of control and you can regularly find him with a book in his hand. He loves to spend hours reading on the toilet and anywhere he can find peace and quiet.

Samantha has entered the bossy years I guess. Her favorite thing is to tell everyone what to do and when to do it. She tells me how to drive and what I'm doing wrong daily. It's enough to drive a person crazy. Still, she's very sensitive and can cry at the drop of a hat. She is very caring and shows everyone she loves them by serving and doing crazy secret things like leaving anonymous notes on our beds and leaving presents. She's one in a million .

And then there is Phoebe; never to be compared to Samantha. Phoebe is her own girl. She loves to have fun and get waaaaaay too excited about everything. Phoebe gets to have her tonsils out, and seriously can't wait for the deed to be done. Her tonsils are gigantic!!! Always!!! She has problems eating and breathing and sleeping, and bad breath too!! Poor girl. No girl should snore or have bad breath. I've been working hard to help Phoebe get out of Sami's shadow.

Carter is such a funny guy. He's always wanting to kiss and hug. He's sensitive and wants things to be fair. He's an amazing singer and belts out songs like a radio station. He never stops talking, and always has a train or car in his hands. He likes to play in the dirt when we work at the house with his cars.

Will is becoming a little boy. He knows his body parts and will point them out on anyone he's comfortable with. He hates going to nursery and will let you know it. He is a huuuuge tease. Will is seriously so funny. He loves to make people laugh. He can also be stubborn and seems to have a temper.

Both Carter and Will are gaining weight like champs. They both get tired of their food, and honestly I get tired of making two separate meals every meal. I'm so tired of the food issue. But, oh well. It is what it is. I'm so happy they are both thriving.

The end.

Pictures of the Elephant

Eating the Elephant.... the Continuing Story

The weeks are starting to all feel the same.  I can't remember what I last talked about on here, and honestly I'm just too exhausted to go back and read my last post.

We finished up the last vent in the drain system. Also, we broke up the sidewalk that ran down the side of the house where we will be installing egress windows. Trevor is always mindful of the dang-blasted dumpster. The garbage company forgets to empty the dumpster all the time!!! So when it is empty, we try to fill it up asap, because you never know if they are going to come on time or not, but I'd hate to waste the money to have them come empty an empty dumpster. So long story short, we have to keep the dumpster full so we don't waste money. The sidewalk was such hot, heavy and messy work. I don't think I've ever EVER sweat so much in my life.

Also, we finally said "so long" to the cat door in the front of the house. It's outta there. We fixed the siding, and replaced the trim around the front door as well.

Then we went down into the basement and started putting up the foam insulation panels. We cut them to size and then put special adhesive on the back of each one and glued them to the cement walls. It's amazing how much better it already looks and feels down there now. We also closed up one of the holes that go into the crawl space from the basement.

We finished tonight at 9:30, and I'm feeling absolutely zapped at this point. I need to do a family update, but I'm falling asleep.

Next time...