garage floor prep

Must have been Wed, July 14 ~ Kayleb returned for yet another long weekend of helping us!  Wednesday night we were up until 1am getting the floor ready for a Thursday morning pour (or so we thought).  This meant installing a drain... which meant drilling/knocking a hole in the wall  ~ Through how many inches of concrete?!

(sorry, can't turn these two pics ~ cock your head to the left)

But yay!!! the drain pipe is through the wall!

Here the girls are helping "staple" the pex tubing to the styrofoam ~ Yes, we are putting heat in the garage floor too.  We baby our cars.  ;-)

Another day Kayleb put another hole through the wall, this time encountering re-bar (oops), in order to vent the stove hood.

Not much else on that roll of film besides messy closets and kitchen  =)  So here's one more of Smokey happily relaxing on the front stoop while the guys worked on the garage floor ~ and the kids enjoyed quite the lightning show before the rain.  Didn't capture that on film.  It was the branch-all-over-the-sky type lightning ~ very cool.

Oh, and a little miscommunication about the concrete pour ~ they eventually came on July 21 to pour the floor.  Just a minor speed bump.  Those pics are still undeveloped.  That's life with one-time-use FILM cameras.

finally pictures

First the surprise... that is difficult to do justice with photos ...

...such a cool gift with our farm's name painted on an old barn board  =)  Tim got it mounted on the wall yesterday morning.

Thanks, Amber!!!

I've lost track of which day the Computer Geek accomplished this project... creating a 'sidewalk' to the front door.

(photos by Miss MusicBox ~ actually all but one? in the whole post!)

The daily battle for the boys is to conquer the weeds ... the hills of dirt make them even more impressive oppressive.

Anyone recognize this prevalent plant?

Smokey seemed to be enjoying our new home... but she disappeared last weekend  :-(

We found a new pink wildflower to add to our collection ~ Anyone know what this is??  The plant must be about 3 feet tall.  We moved it from the old ditch to the new one this week (thanks to the ComputerGeek).

Tim must have been moving the fence the same evening that the CG was building the rock sidewalk.

She even captured the cattle on the move...

Must have been Monday night I finally got to this project... which was a lot more work than I expected.

First I changed my mind about which wall to put it on... got it taped up there level and centered. Then you have to peel off the backing... without taking the letters with it...

Then it's time to make the letters stick to the wall while peeling off the top layer...

while standing on a step stool, leaning across the piano... stop, roll the shoulders... while Miss MB tries to get me to make funny faces at her for a photo  :p

Whew... no need for all the in between photos...

This corner looks like home at least!

Meanwhile, Tim was moving more appliances...

And the Cattleman learned how fun it is to reattach the bottom grill on an upright freezer  ;-)

Miss Artist is enjoying the variety available in the ditch and pasture for making 'flower' arrangements...

five day countdown

...until August 1.  It is our current goal to be completely OUT of the old house this week.  Thus, my ADHD thinking is "focused" on...

• Where will we put that?
• I forgot the bread bags again!
• This laundry room would be big enough if it wasn't so full of dirty clothes.  ;-)
• This kitchen IS bigger ~ why is it full already??
• Another appliance moved = another icky corner to clean.
• The piano is really loud here without any carpet or curtains to absorb the sound.
• I love having all the leaves in our table all the time  =)
• The bombshell bunker style house makes dropped calls a regular thing ~ need to find the right place to sit/stand (not usually where I could multi-task) 
• Who wants to paint this wall (again) and that closet??
• I love having a large living room to gather in with my family.

According to a FB friend, the heat/humidity is back today  :-(  Yesterday and Sunday were sooo lovely.  I should have done more.  We need to make a few trips of hauling s.t.u.f.f. this morning.  This afternoon I think we'll make the errand trip to Ames ~ lots of stops so I'd better get a good list in hand.  Oh yeah, and laundry and supper plan B.

Yesterday I did get my calendar hung up ~ It's really hard to put a nail in a beautiful solid wall, ya know?  I was discussing the need for a daily chore list/routines with a friend.  I was thinking September 1 would be a good date to adopt a FlyLady attitude again, but maybe August 1 would be better?
And last night I labored to get this verse stuck to the wall.  Miss MusicBox took a bzillion photos of the process, so one of these days I'll borrow her card and upload some pics.

Wish I had a picture from yesterday.  We arrived at the old house to gather another load, but couldn't even get in the driveway.  A couple of young girls had somehow driven their car into our ditch ~ at a very deep/steep point which we don't even mow (that's how steep it is).  The tow truck had his cable attached, so we sat and watched as he pulled/she drove herself back out again.  (Meanwhile I got out and directed traffic ~ ha ha ~ in my "not-going-to-town" clothes  :p)  Her car didn't appear damaged ~ just lots of mud/grass stuck to her front bumper ~ so after paperwork with Blake (the tow truck guy), they were able to drive away leaving us wondering....  You see, it's been almost 8 years we've lived there on the curve of the highway out of town... and we've had several unfortunate people leave their mark in our ditches, fences, etc.  We actually live on another curve on this gravel road ~ but I'm hoping we are on the road less traveled and will live with a little less excitement here  ;-)

Ahem, yes, Iowa does have some roads with curves  :o

good morning to you!

My far-away blogging friend Felicity gave me this award, bless her heart! 
♥  Thanks so much!  ♥

Now to pass it along to 12 of my favorite blogs...
(in alphabetical order, because I'm like that...)

Amber Waves of Grain ~ Amber

And then I Married a Missionary ~ Sarah

CiCi's Corner ~ Lea

Faith, Hope, and Love ~ Angela

Felicity's Thoughtful Spot ~ Felicity (right back at ya!)

From the Heart of My "Haus" ~ Conny

Granola Mom 4 God ~ Jodi

Heavenly Homemakers ~ Laura

Herding Grasshoppers ~ Julie

Home Joys ~ Gina

Julie's Thoughts ~ Julie  ;-)

Letters to My Airman/50 Chubby Toes ~ EMichelle

Oh, but I have more than 12 favorite blogs!  Check them all out in the sidebar  ;-)



To receive your award copy the picture above to your blog and then post 12 of your favorite blogs underneath.

almost there

Well, sort of  ;-)

I have done laundry and baked bread and cookies today ~ all in the comforts of our new home!  woot woot!  And now, I'm even online  :o  My brother came Saturday to hook us up, and tonight Tim took down the tree that was in the way of the signal... so we're almost up and running (my computer is still at the old house ~ I'm using a kiddo's laptop). Oh, and we even brought the Idiot Box over here... to receive most of the channels (converter box style TV here) ~ easy to check weather now anyway  =)

I'm sure there's more I'd love to tell you about ~ and show you!  but I am reduced to FILM  :o  Actually 2 of my girls still have functioning digital cameras, but the Cowgirl's is malfunctioning now too. 

So you will have to continue to be patient for photos ~  Miss Music Box was busy with her camera this evening, but I'm not uploading anything tonight.  Surprise coming though!  A sweet friend gave us something very special today... We love it and can't wait to get it in place!  And I can't wait to show it to you!

G'night for now  =)

it's official, right?

...if the cat changes residence...

This is Smokey, our Mouser.  (no new pics since I gave the Cowgirl her camera back again... and I don't have time for photo-journaling it seems!)

Last night Tim moved Smokey and her house to our new house.  She seemed to enjoy exploring her new domain.  We had the Popper supervise her for the first hour.  Um, then this morn the neighbor's dog came to say Hello.  Hissssss.   The girls escorted the dog home (half-mile) while Smokey found a tree to climb.  But, the good news is that I don't think she's inclined to run away.  :-)  And I was anxious to get her moved before what appears to be a growing belly on her gets any larger...  Know what I mean??

and more pics from Wednesday

(kitchen ceiling fan still needs glass to cover light bulbs)

Front entry

Laundry room

pictures from the weekend

Kayleb (Tim's nephew) was here for the weekend ~ He helped to finish the soffit and fascia on Saturday.

Tim hired someone to haul sand from the back of our pasture where we have an old sandpit ~ then he pushed it around to fill in the driveway and up to the front door.

Life on a gravel road

Sunday night ~ 10:45pm.... Let there be light!  (and hot water!)

This is Plan B carpet in our room ~ the boys' room is similar but a darker (medium) brown

Saturday I dragged my weary girls to Lowe's (they'd just come home from Omaha) to buy closet stuff ~ and this is what Kayleb did with it on Monday!  =)  Another hanging shelf behind the door for my longer clothing.  And yeah, one of these days I'll move our closet over there and fill it up for real...

...like the boys did with their closet  ;-)  Tim had the challenge of this closet ~ mounting the tracks in the exterior wall is a bit different than 2x4 studs.

Happy boys ♥

(note the Python computer books under the bed!)

And girls!  ♥

(who are camping in the school room for now)

daybook 21? sort of

The Simple Woman's Daybook is usually posted every Tuesday ~ here.  For the summer, Peggy is posting a Linky just once a month... Just thought you ought to know.

And, note the number of my daybook.  At a quick glance at posts, I saw that I have TWO Daybook 16 posts and TWO Daybook 12 posts, and that was just looking at one page of the list.  Um, so maybe this is week 21 for me?  Maybe not.  Whatever.  I should probably follow Julie's lead and abandon the Daybook for the summer... but here I am... instead of packing our stuff into boxes...

And, just a disclaimer that I am not feeling like much of a Simple Woman these days ~ unless you use the definition from Proverbs?   :o

FOR TODAY

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Outside my window... it's hot and muggy.  The corn is loving it!  I am loving air conditioning.  And this week we should have it in the new house, too!


I am thinking... I should load the bike helmets into the van to deliver to Alicia tonight... along with the math book... and the paper flannel figures for Sarita... and the ISU tee for Ethan.  Um, yes, we went to Salvation Army today to 'donate' some usable items ~ and I discovered someone had brought a couple bags back into the house (!) and they weren't accepting books  :p  So glad I hadn't loaded all the hardcovers we put in the discard pile just yesterday.  (That was not very short and to the point, eh?  I'm thinking about S.T.U.F.F.)


I am thankful for... my husband ~ and his many abilities which include plumbing, electrical, landscaping, carpentry, automotive and mechanical repairs, ....


I am praying for... the A Family in China ~ so excited to see them here next summer on their first furlough, Lord willing!


From the learning rooms... Miss Music Box actually took along her literature book today on our errands/chiropractor trip.  Can't say if she read any of it.  Now she's trying to read every book in the discard pile before it leaves the house!  I had the Computer Geek read some books yesterday as part of my purge process ~ Quo Vadis?


From the kitchen...beef roast in the crock pot is ready to eat anytime; baked potatoes are still in the oven.  Tomorrow will be Santa Fe Chicken ~ Who can tell me where I found that recipe before I wrote it on the back of an envelope??  (chicken, salsa, black beans, corn... cream cheese... rice ~ sound yummy??)

I am creating... easy closet 'doors' with $3 sheets from Walmart  =)  woot, woot!

I am going... to church tonight to serve in the baby nursery.
...back to Lowe's again another day to rectify a pricing issue ~ hopefully before they update the sticker on the shelf  ;-)  (ran out of time today)

I am reading... finished the Psalms!  started Ecclesiastes.  Oh, and we finally got our new books for summer Sunday school ~ When Sinners Say "I Do"

I am hoping... God will continue to work things out with the house process in spite of all of the continued unwanted setbacks (this was my wish from May ~ I'm still hoping He works all things together for good!  And we will be thankful for it!)

I am hearing...  Miss Artist is playing the piano  (you'd think we were having a nice relaxing afternoon... since we're not frantically running around to DO Stuff)

Around the house...yeah, there are boxes and dust bunnies grizzlies everywhere

One of my favorite things...the word DONE

A few plans for the rest of the week:  moving my kitchen???  :-)

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Saturday night pizza

Thanks to Peggy for hosting the Simple Woman's Daybook ~ Find more daybooks here.