Life as It Is

A lot going on lately. We've been finishing up the projects I talked about previously. Unfortunately Rick has been battling some infections so hasn't been up to par.

River gets around really well now, so it can be exhausting (in a good way of course) to keep up with her. She's been hanging out while Mama works and even stayed overnight Sunday night.

I think I totally missed sharing about the beginning of the new year. I started a new tradition--our own polar bear plunge with breakfast cooked at the beach and hot chocolate afterward. Of course it's not as cold here as up north where they have true polar bear plunges.

Before

Hamming it up after
Looking at the video taken on my new Go Pro and Jessica's, we discovered that the three "littles" cheated by not going all the way under. Next year we are thinking of going to the springs where there's a ledge to jump from and all jumping at once.

We all made our goals/wish list/ to do list for 2017, read them aloud and toasted them with sparkling blueberry/grape juice.

Afterward three of us went to a combination birthday celebration. When Jessica was dating Hunter and Adam was dating Deja, we had four late December/early January birthdays. So we started going out for them. Deja dropped out of the picture, and River joined the team December 30, 2016. So we still have a four way celebration. Anyone can go, but everyone pays for his/her own meal.

I have more to post about, but this is already getting long. So, next time.

Doing it All at Once

I haven't been on my blog as much as usual. The reason is that we have had several projects going on. A couple of months ago we looked at a waterfront house. We were really interested, but it didn't seem like the right house for us because it was a duplex, and I have a drummer and two trombone players. The location was great though. We also realized we need to get our house paid down more and also make some repairs.

The list of repairs was long, but mostly things like new flooring in the kitchen, new decks on both sides, replacing woodwork that is water damaged and so on. So I decided to use my birthday money (today is actually my birthday, but we bought the tile three weeks ago.) We also sold our wooden swingset and bought boards for one of the decks.

About this time, an adoption caseworker from the state called to say he was coming on January 6. Yikes! That gave us less than three weeks to do the decks and flooring. We jumped right in with the flooring and the first part went pretty well, but cutting the tile to fit around door frames and the little pieces around the edge got crazy.

When we pulled the old linoleum, we wrote our favorite verses on the wooden floor before we laid the tile.

First tile laid.

Replacing water damaged bottom piece.

We also started pulling apart both decks thinking it would just as easy to do both at once. They are both very small. One deck was built under Jessica's direction a few years ago. The other was here when we bought the house. It has steps up both sides, so we left one side so we'd have a way to get into the house. The problem was, it turned out the risers were rotted on those steps. Risers were $200 each so Rick made a pattern and cut the risers himself. We also decided to have just a single set of steps on that side.

So the past couple of weeks we've been laying tile, cutting wood, building steps and so on. Also during this I've been dealing with an injured elbow, so didn't get to do much of the building. So I did a lot of waterproofing boards and painting woodwork. We didn't get everything quite done, but did a good job of hiding it!

I don't have pictures of everything finished, but I do have a few of the inside of  the house in general.

My office that I share with everyone.

I will get some of the finished projects next time and also share the cool part of the adoption home study visit.

Random photos from my phone

I downloaded the pictures on my phone to my computer. Really random photos. Here are a few:

This is the oldest photo on my phone. It's from the home coming dance last September.

Our first photo class. Also last September.

Before we got our fourth doggy.

Where I walk 2-3 times a week.

Rick's work Christmas party. Feeling like a normal adult for once. (Except I was drinking Dr. Pepper)

Jasmine with our pastor's wife after the Christmas service.

With Adam in January.

River's first day at church. Jessica with our children's minister.

Rick and the twins at church.

In February I surprised everyone with a trip to Escape Manor. I told them I had an activity planned and asked if they were in or not. No clue as to what the activity was. They all chose to be in. The evening before, I told them all where we were going. I had dropped hints and a couple of them had figured it out. We escaped with a few minutes to spare.

At a zoo during spring break.

 At the beach after the zoo.

New doggy Sadie Rose. She'd been without a home for over two years.

River laying across my legs while I write.

Ty rescuing a wooden frame as the trash truck was making its way down the road. He ran three or four blocks with the wagon and got it. We are going to use it to build a raised garden.

I bought him the "Angriest Whopper" for his heroics.

 Johnny jump up for $5 from a yard sale.

At a cycle/jet ski etc open house. I went for the hamburgers they were grilling :)  Well, really we didn't know they had hamburgers, but they were good.

Building a three tier plant holder.

I saw these and sent this photo to Jasmine to see if she'd like them. She did, but we decided to wait and get them for next fall. Hoping they mark them down during the summer.

Picnic on the beach.

Jasmine is going on a choir tour to Colorado the day after school ends. They are biking up Pike's Peak, so we have started riding our bikes in the evening.

 Ty picking up his first vehicle from an independent car repair place.

Jasmine and Kaleb with Newberry award winner Kwame Alexander.

Signing "Crossover"

So, that's a bit of what's on my phone. What's on yours? Come on, play along.