Sails, Grass, and Squirrels

Jason in his new bean bag chair (perfect for reading).

It seems as though every week I have a new project to report. Well..................this week you won't be disappointed. Mom and Dad came down so you know we had to do something big. We really didn't have anything planned except for relaxing and a little golf.

Saturday we stuck to that plan quite well. When they got here we brought Jason to ride his first 9 holes. Despite the high scores it was a great time. That is until the squirrel decided to make an appearance. For those of you that don't know, I have a history with squirrels. When we lived in Laramie two of them jumped on my back from the trees and I couldn't get them off. It was only a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. That was the point in time when I really realized how frightening those little rodents can be. Plus they carry the plague, have lice, and have fleas. They are just yucky and I don't like them in the least bit. When we golf we always bring drinks and with Jason there we needed snacks. I have these really cool containers that have a very small opening so that he can grab the snacks, but they don't fall out. For this particular outing I put tricks in that container. We just finished hole 4 when I looked up and there.......in the cart............was a squirrel eating out of Jason's container. I flipped out chasing him with my putter. I understand this must have been a funny sight, but it was a very serious moment for me. Then to top it off.......after mom and Jason were in the cart, he tried to get in with them. It was quite discusting and just made me dislike those creatures even more.

The shed (we haven't finished the doors)

The next morning the project of the weekend started. Colin and I had purchased a kit for a shed because it was on sale. Thinking it would be a simple project, Dad suggested he and Colin tackle it in the morning. Once the small box was opened it was clear that this would take longer than a couple of hours. There was the makings of an 8'X10' shed in a 3'X5'X6" box. It was like opening one of those peanut cans with the snakes in it. Mom and I left to get some groceries at that point. When we returned at noon Colin was holding a sheet of metal and dad was frantically trying to screw it to the floor assembly. We quickly jumped in to hold the flapping metal in the wind and offer as much assistance as we could. This is the point that Colin and Dad gave us some advice that we would like to share. If the instructions caution you about stopping the project if there is going to be any chance of wind, take it to heart. They aren't joking or saying it just for fun. Colin and Dad learned this lesson the hard way, but we did get the shed finished. The tin worked well as sails and it was a challenge, but it is finished and we now have a place to store our yard equipment. Thank you Mom and Dad for helping with that.

Our Grass!!

Today we had another milestone. I mowed the yard for the first time. It is coming in so well. The spots that look bare even have little blades of grass starting to come up. so in a couple of weeks it will all be lush. We love it. I hope all of you had great weekends as well. Happy belated birthday Beermaker. Have a great week everyone.......................

Warm Cricket Days of Summer?

So many people have problems with pests in their homes. We commonly hear about mice (though some of those tales are quite perplexing), roaches, even spiders. But, in our house we have a different pest problem. CRICKETS!!!!!

We began to find crickets in the beging of May. Every couple of weeks we would find one on the stairs, in a bathroom and sometimes in the livingroom. I never thought anything of it and surely didn't think it would be an issue in the future.

Then about 3 weeks ago I woke up with Jason in the middle of the night. To my suprise the crickets were chirping a chorus that night. It was really loud, so I closed the window in Jason's room. I thought the sound might be keeping him up. But, when I closed the window the sound didn't stop. The crickets weren't outside, they were inside his room. I quickly searched and when I approached the loud chirps the sound stopped. It was quite late so I decided to continue my investigation in daylight hours.

That was 3 weeks ago and I haven't had a problem since................That is until today. This morning I was doing laundry in the basement when the annoying chorus returned. It was all around me. So....................The hunt was on!!!!! I tore everything off of the walls and had my vacuum ready for attack. But, the moment I sucked one up another would start to chirp. After sucking up 11 today I am waving my white flag. It is hopeless............at least with that approach. My next tatic is poison. I am done with this hunting them one by one thing. It is an army against me. Now I must revert to chemical warfare. So............... soon those crickets will see their end. I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend and watch for those crickets. They can be lurking in any dark corner. They are watching you.....................................

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is a special day for one special dog. His name is Glacier. To celebrate this day Jason and I decided to create a card. So.......HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

We will be famouse with this kind of quality art work.

We wish we could be there to party down with you, but we aren't able to make it. We hope you have a wonderful day, eating, playing (I heared a rumor that there will be tennis balls at your party), licking yourself, and sleeping. Jason wanted to do something special so he decided to do a sommer-sault for you. It is better in motion, but you can get the idea from the pics.

Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Can't wait to see pics from your big day. Till next time......................

It was a close call for the flashlight.

One crayon lost it's life in the making of the birthday sign. It was desert brown. It was a very good crayon.....until it was partially ingested by a 17 month old child. We would like to honor that crayon with a moment of silence.

Rollers, Brushes, Water, and Baseball?

Kitchen before last weekend.

When Friday rolled around Colin mentioned that we should paint our kitchen this weekend. Without thinking I agreed. We had no idea of the task we were about to undertake. It was two days of a lot of taping, priming, and painting. I don't want to paint ever again and Colin would gladly agree to that. We do have a few more rooms to go though. There were times that we thought we just couldn't do it in one weekend. At one point I thought we would only finish the cabinets. But, every time we got really discouraged we took a break and played with Jason. Jason wasn't allowed to really get into the paint mess for those of you that are wondering about our little helper. He was banned from the project when he dented the refrigerator with a piece of molding that he pulled off of the living room wall. It was and interesting point in the weekend activities.

Pizza and baseball watching break.

Colin was glad to take breaks when there was a game on. Both him and Jason love to sit together and scream at the TV. Jason even has a mitt, just in case a foul ball comes his way.

Watering the back yard.

Even though we were super busy with the kitchen we still found time to get outside and water. Jason loves to play in the water, that is until he gets mud on his hands. That is another story though.

Our kitchen this morning.

I know the suspense is just eating away at you so here it is. This is what we have finished so far. We still have to do all of the molding. We really don't want to think about that at this point. The project did turn out way better than expected. Today I am going to get hardware for the cupboards and they will be finished. We are just chipping away at the projects in the house. Though the Red Sox lost, we made the best of our weekend. I hope all of you had a great weekend as well. As for us, we are going to enjoy what we have finished, rest our sore muscles (from painting at least), and water the yard some more.

A quick note: Colin's company announced they are being bought by Uranium One Inc. The formal announcement can be viewed if you click on the following link

http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/emu_news.html

Have a great week everyone.

One last thing..... When looking at Zacks video suggestion I came accross this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y88IYGOcJKE&mode=user&search=

Enjoy

Snoring....Bonking.......You Know...

It has been the week of rain. A much needed rain at that. This is good for our plants but can be tough when you have to stay indoors. We haven't let this bring us down. When so many people give in to the dreary weather, we had a surprisingly wonderful week. Everything just worked out in our favor. We did have a lot to be happy for this week though.

To start the week, Colin and I over seeded the back yard (before the rain.) The timing couldn't have been better. The rain began to fall about 3 hours after we seeded. I also mowed the front yard before the rain fell. This just added to us being happy. We still had to spend many hours indoors due to the water that kept falling from the sky, but boy has it been wonderful.

We played in Jason's tent.

Caught up on some much needed scientific experiments (pouring water.)

Relaxing

And taking care of some loose ends.

You may be a little confused on the last one, but we hit a big milestone this last week. WE PAID OUR CAR OFF!!!! It is finally ours.

As you can see it has been an amazing week of fun and now we are ready to get back to playing outside. The weather should improve over the weekend, our mud pond in the back should dry up a little, and we will be back in the sandbox creating castles and other miscellaneous piles of sand. I hope you all have a great weekend as well. Till next time..........................