a "new" end-table

We've had this old end-table for books for some time. I can't even remember where we got it - probably from the mobile home we lived in for the first three months of our marriage. Anyway, it's always been in need of a makeover. I finally got to it in the last couple days.

Here is a partial photo of the table in the old house, just so you can see where it was - next to the love-seat. Evie is about to walk by it. It's got the green cup on top of it and all their kid books in it...

Here is what it looked like after I sanded it down:

You can see it needed some TLC - needed blued back together!

More separation in need of glue

I used about one and a half cans

This is after the first coat

The following day Terry glued it all back together and I put on a second coat of paint.

We put felt sliders on the bottom feet and placed it here in the front room. This is actually the view from the front door.

Awwww. So nice to have it done.

date night

As I've said before, it's been a busy few weeks, one things after another: roof, fence, youth group movie nights, preaching, etc.. So when a student offered to babysit again we took her up on it. Thanks Danielle (or Daniel, as my kids call her)!

I meant to take a couple more shots but was too embarrassed to do so in Ruby Tuesday (steak) and Starbucks (mochas - i am starting to really enjoy those! who would've guessed that from this coffee hating girl?). So here are the two I took.

Terry was so hungry he couldn't wait to start eating - his phone was all he had... I opted for gum.

And me. I quite like this shirt. We had a great evening!

more work...and more

I must say, Terry is doing a great job taking care of this house. After two busy weeks at work, he finally had some time this Saturday to get up in the attic and finish some of the work there.

Almost a month ago after the roof was done, Terry and his dad began putting boards up in the attic of the garage/house. A couple weeks later, when they were done with the fence and Jerry had left, Terry climbed up there all by himself and got the insulation up.

So today he got up there and put plastic over the insulation

See how pretty? Now all that needs to go up is the drywall =)

a boy and his dog

This is what the gate looks like when Evie leaves it open and Snap escapes...

Twice since the raising of the fence, Evie has left this gate open in her quest to enter the house. See, she can't open the back screen door so she likes to go through the gate to the front door which she can open. Problem is, Snap is wise to her scheme and follows her out. Then he takes off wherever his nose leads him.

This happened on Wednesday when we had some friends visiting. Though I was aware that he had escaped, I was not going to leave to find him. So when Terry came home two hours later (!), he went out to find him, fearful he would be squished somewhere on the road.

Noah was beside himself. He was freaking out hardcore. It was so pitiful. He would alternate between desperately looking out the front window and coming over to me in tears. We prayed before daddy left. Actually, Evie prayed, so we don't really know what she said. As I watched Noah and comforted him I realized how much he really cares for his dog. He was genuinely distraught. So I prayed that God would just bring Snap home for Noah. Noah was at the window at that point and yelled out, "Snap is home!" There came Snap trotting up the driveway! Noah rushed outside and hugged his dog and then drug him in the house.

Talk about a fast answer to prayer!

popsicle weather?

Well, no, actually. It is definitely not popsicle weather. But that doesn't stop my kids from wanting one every day. What are we going to do when we run out during the winter season?? Only 2 more packs left in our freezer from clearance...

family movie night

Today, after a family nap (we had a long week!), we headed to Pamida to buy How to Train Your Dragon. But they were sold out! So committed were we to watching it for a family movie night that we drove a half hour to Walmart just to buy it. B/c yes, it's worth owning, not just renting.

We popped it in when we got home while mommy finished making the pizza (which has to go with family movie night). We even ate it downstairs, which was a first.

How fun! We enjoyed ourselves even though Terry and I had already watched the same movie on Friday night with some students. Ha ha!

Here are Hiccup and Astrid flying to the dragon nest. Yikes! I like Snap's head in the corner of the photo =)

it's time...

...to get this girl a real bed.

Evie is all congested again. Which apparently means that she does not like to nap. After having already gone in there to remind her to sleep, I heard a knock on her door, from the inside. That might not sound so strange except she's not supposed to be able to escape from her crib so she can knock on the door! I guess that time is past.

I tried to get her to show me how she climbed out, but this is as far as she got. I think she actually climbed up the other end where her little attached dresser is b/c the lantern which hangs above there was taken down... Little punk stinky squish!

fall apple pie time

It's cloudy and gloomy today. They're hanging around after the huge thunderstorm last night. It freaked Noah right out. But I'll take it over the 2 freak snow storms we had by this time last year.

Anyway, since Terry has to preach tomorrow (again), he's working all day. So what better way to pass the gloom away then in the kitchen? I made homemade mac and cheese, beef soup in the crock pot, homemade bread and apple pie! I must be getting comfortable at this point in my cooking career b/c I didn't even use a recipe for the soup. I used what I had on hand and put in some things that sounded good from some other recipes I browsed. So we shall see if I am indeed a "good" cook.

As I was cutting up the apples for the pie, Noah got all excited about the peels. Said they were his favorite part! He promptly tucked in and ate a whole bunch of them. Strange right?! Here's my proof:

Noah enjoyed helping mix the flour up and watching me do the rest. Here is the empty pie shell and apples a-juicing. Oh, and the cheesy boy. That is the face for when I say Cheese.

Apples with butter on top. I always forget this part, but not today

It's ready for the oven

Time to cool off. I can't wait to eat it tonight (and the soup and bread)!!!

the dog is loose...

Snap is off his line...

...but he is not lost. He is safe and sound in our backyard. In fact, he is all snuggly for a nap on the deck chair next to me and I fear not his escape.

...please come in and see why: we have a fence up! Here is the northeast corner of the yard, one of three gates.

Walking along the north border of the yard finds Terry and Jerry evening out the top of the fence. We'll just say they didn't do it the easiest way they could have. But they worked it out.

Checking out their work

The kids can play safe in their sand box, and hopefully any stray cats will stay out of there.

The view of the northwest corner of the yard. The shed separates one half of the fence from the other. Now Terry can park his trailer back there.

The other side of the shed where the fence starts again. Gate two.

This is the west section of fence around the bball court

And finally, the southeast corner of the yard. It's a double gate so we can get vehicles into the back if we ever need to.

I am standing on the north side of the fence looking south. It's a big yard!

And now I've walked to the south side to take a photo of where I just was. What a great job they did!

tree trim

We had the back yard maple tree trimmed up. There was one limb (to the left in the these photos) that hung over the deck and roof and several dead limbs stuck up high.

Here is what it looked like before.

Can you tell the difference? It's much more open and airy, not to mention safe!

poor boy

So poor Noah stepped on a nail today =(

Jerry was installing the storm window to our bedroom and he happened to break the old one as he pulled it out. Well, it was more like it was shattered. As he was cleaning up the shards from the ground, bare foot Noah came running around the corner of the house to see what Grampa was up to. I was sitting right there and said he better go and get his shoes on. As he turned around to go put his shoes on, he either stepped on a nail leftover from the roofer or the glass.

He freaked out b/c of the blood, but he controlled his tears so well when I took him inside. What a big boy. And he learned a valuable lesson the hard way - wear shoes outside.

storms

Voila! Here is the new storm window for Evie's room! Terry's dad installed all of them to the upper floor today - three bedrooms and the bathroom.

Okay, here is what they used to look like - aluminum storm windows.

Here Jerry is scraping off some of the old caulking from Noah's window

And here is the new storm window there!

They actually look really sharp! Hopefully this ensures a warmer winter for us =)

fence 2

Terry's dad came to help out with house stuff again this week. He's just great. Poor Terry is pretty swamped and is feeling the crunch of Fall and the ground freezing, so here comes Jerry to help him out.

Here is the gate next to the garage that they got up. This way if we ever need a truck or something back there, there will be a way.

Here is the second gate by the shed. You can see that they got these poles cemented in and the top bar in place.

This is the area behind the shed and fort where the fence will go around it. It's kinda hard to see the posts, but they're there.

The north side of the lawn with cemented posts. The two nearest posts are where the third gate will be. Now all that needs to be done is getting the top poles on and then stretching the chain link on!

my kids today...so far

Evie has been sick for a few days. After hearing of a friend's girls who had strep, I thought I better take her in - so that's what we did this morning instead of going to my MOPS steering meeting. Evie's throat looked red and she was very wheezy. Tell me about it - her coughing led her to throw up in the night! I think I have changed that bed every day for the last 4 days. Sometimes more than once a day (not b/c of vomit, b/c she's been taking off her pull-up and peeing on the bed! perhaps the infection is causing delirium? i got her up this morning and she was naked!)

Anyway, we left the doctor's office with a pretty minimal amount of tears (even though she is afraid of the place) and a prescription for an antibiotic, a bronchodilator (for the cough) and a decongestant. The funny thing, I thought, was even though she's already having trouble getting a nap b/c of the cough, the combination of the bronchodilator and decongestant can make her a little hyper. Ha =)

So hopefully these drugs will get her to feeling better. She was running around like a psycho, similar to Noah, so perhaps the hyper drugs were working...

Here the kids were hanging out on the porch after lunch. It's a little chilly today so they requested blankets.

Still cute with lunch on her nose and the snot and drool...

On another note before I forget... As I was putting Evie's bed back together, Noah was playing with her bear and monkey in the doll house. He was trying to pull the bear through one of the windows when he said, "You're a fat bear." I laughed.

When I was done he put the animals on Evie's bed and told them "Bear you are fat and monkey you are healthy" (this is the wii fit talking. but he likes to know if what he's eating is healthy or not. i don't think that bear is particularly fat though. just cuddly!) So perhaps we need to have a talk about not calling people fat... bad manners...musta come from his bottom... hahahahahah