one shoe two shoe

How does a kid lose so many shoes? Really. It seems that every time we are ready to go somewhere we are searching for shoes. We have 2 shoe gathering places and yet the shoes are never there. Sometimes there might be 1 but to find 2 when you are all ready 15 minutes late, forget about it.

Gregory gave up looking too. What a 6 year old will settle with so he can go play baseball.

Brendan looks at mirrors

Brendan is getting bigger. He has really started to develop a personality. He is a happy and smiley baby for the most part. He loves to watch. He will stare at the windows and mirrors happily for long periods of time. He loves to watch his brothers. He is a baby that has to be included and wants to be held by you all the time. Cuddly, wonderful time consuming I love this little boy!

Tearing down a deck

Neither my husband or I are craftsmen, builders or carpenters. I know nothing about construction and home repair. I don't even know the names of tools. Let alone how to use them. Neither does my oldest son who proved this to me by a big blood blister on my thumb due to one mighty whack with a hammer. Ouch! My caring husband just laughed and said "I always move my hand before he tries to hammer nails." Really good advice there, now please get me some ice.

So why did we think we can take apart and rebuild a deck? It comes down to the dollars. To save money.

Uff da. Here we go.



This is a 25 year old badly built deck. It was strong when I was a child but hardly used. So it got neglected and no one took care of it. The boards rotted and splintered. Bees have nested in it. Vines have grown through and weakened the boards.



It is so bad and unstable I won't let the kids walk on it. I run to them when they walk up just 3 rickety old steps with a rail that was ready to fall down, very wobbly.

The first step in putting up a new deck is taking down the old. So Jay and I walked out there with sledge hammers and crowbars and started whacking away. Some might think it is therapeutic but it was tough. The railings all came down really easy but the floor boards gave us a struggle.



We pried the horrible boards off that were nailed on with long 4 inch nails every few feet!



It took us 2 days.

We ran into nests and bees buried in the wood. They came out and swarmed us many times. This sent us running inside and would delay us each time. Finally we could run in no longer. We got the pulled the boards off all the way to the door.



Finally we got all those boards up. The desk is coming apart. Next we pulled off the face boards. They came off pretty easy too. We pulled them with umph as we new this is the end. We are stopping here.




Over a ton of lumber we loaded up in the back of our truck and with two trips to the dump it was all gone. Now how do we rebuild it?

getting big

It came up so quick. The days went by some were fuzzy because of all the sleepless night. But here we are August 9th and our brand new baby is...

2 MONTHS OLD!



Brendan you are so cute!



Brendan you are so big! 13.5 pounds to be exact.



Brendan you are so loved!



Brendan you are 2 months old!




Keep growing baby. Healthy, happy and strong. You are amazing and I am so blessed to be a part of your life unfolding.

row row row your boat

To look at this is to look at my life. To see a blessing. I have a wonderful husband who has been reminding me often that we can joke with each private jokes, silliness. It is what keeps you in love. It makes us more than partners, more than parents, it makes us friends. It gives me hope of us making it when all odds are against the conservative, traditional family. We love nothing more than to spend time together. The children love to spend time with us! I am lucky. I thank you God for it all!

It grew

The garden took us by such surprise. It worked, and we actually grew herbs, green beans, tomatoes, and more peppers than Adam Richman (man vs. food) could eat. In fact we were not able to eat a lot of it as it went to seed. But DH had a good time growing it.



We definitely will do it again next year.

A happy day for the boys

These two could not have reminded me more of Lucy and Ethel. They were so happy to watch the doughnuts be made, happier to eat them, but sad that they could not cook them their selves.



Yummy doughnuts.



baby does not know what he is missing



Jay and I have always been firm about no guns in the home. Until Rodger started digging holes in the ground. We like our lawn better than the rabbit so we brought home a pellet gun. The boys were so happy. They thought this was the coolest thing.