What a Week!

Well, it has sure been a week in this household. First of all, we are minus one child. He stayed with his grampy to build a desk this week, which correlates to a momma missing him but a child who is having too much fun. I'm glad that he is having a good time. Yesterday, Kaylee and I went to her therapy and ran some errands. One of the errands was to get haircuts. Kaylee and I had decided that we were going to cut and donate our hair to Locks of Love. So, now 10 inches are gone and we have much shorter hair. Someone or more than one person will be very happy with all the hair. Kay had one thick ponytail cut and I had mine put into four ponytails and cut. It was a lot of hair. Pictures are at the end. Today, Kaylee had a doctor's appointment with her allergy doctor to see what caused the allergic reaction she had to her flu shot. When all was said and done, we found out that she is allergic to gelatin. When tested, she tested at level 4+, which is the highest allergic reaction. So, we now have to watch for gelatin in things and have an epiPen just in case. Hopefully, we will never have to use it. Hopefully, the next couple of days we can relax and get working on completing my list of things to do before going back to school. Have a great new year.

-S

Fast, Furious, and Fun

Christmas has come and gone. It seems to do that faster and faster every year! Here is a journal of the events in our house.

Ready? ...

Here we go...

For us, the break started on Friday the 18th. Shawna and the kids went half a day to school and got home around noon. Shawna and I decided to take the kids to the babysitter's house so that we could go and celebrate our anniversary. We had a great time .... I supersized the meal for our anniversary! Then we went shopping.

Saturday was fun and a good break from the routine. Sunday? Well, it was Sunday and I had to work just like every other Sunday. Not to worry though. That is my job. We decided to have our family Christmas Monday so the kids could play with thier toys before we left town. It was a good night together.

Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment. You will be happy to know I am just as crazy as ever. While we were in town, JT picked out his final gift - a Nintendo DSi. He loved it and Kaylee inherted his Nintendo DS. She plans on buying some games with her Christmas money. We enjoyed Tuesday. We would have celebrated Christmas on Tuesday but I had a Bible study planned. It did not work out. Such is life.

We are still in the middle of a bathroom remodel. Wednessday was spent puting in the floor and cutting the vinal to fit to the place. Then, we got to a stopping point - you know those points where you have to stop becuase you have to make a run to town to get some supplies you did not think about becasue you are an amature? Yea, it all concluded around 3:00 PM and there was no time to do anything else with Bible class that evening.

Then, the fun began...

We took off Wednesday evening after services and drove through the rain. There was rain. There was more rain. There was a lot of rain. The trip took about an hour longer because of the rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.

We stayed at the wonderful Days Inn until about 7:00 AM Thursday morning. We went to Shawna's folks for most of the trip. We spent Thursday, Friday, and left Saturday morning around 10:00 AM after a wonderful breakfast. The time at her folks went like this: JT played with Nickolas. Kaylee played with Adam, when he was willing. Shawna and the women played cards and did women things. The guys (except me) did farm work. I worked on the computer. Amber, thanks for the text. I needed the laugh!!

We met my folks on the way home. It was about an hour drive for them. It was on the way for us. We did Christmas at the Pizza Hut! I have never done that before. Whew! You think I am making that part up! We spent about two hours with them and then JT went home with them for the week. JT and Dad plan on building a desk during the week. JT is surely decarling his independence as he did not even tell us bye until we asked him to do so. Shawna, Kaylee and I got back home around 7:30 PM after some stops to buy some supplies for the bathroom remodel. Sunday was normal. Here I am blogging on Monday. So, life it good.

More to come on the continuing break. And, more to come about the bathroom remodel. We might even post some pictures.

That's all folks!

See ya!

Have a great day!

Hasta la vista, baby!

-J

From the Message Bin

“They great thing about this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are headed” (Unknown).

-J

From the Message Bin

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision be cleared and success achieved. Fame is a vapor. Popularity is an accident. Money takes wings. Those who cheer you today may curse you tomorrow. The only thing that endures is character” (Don Earnest).

-J

Spelling Bee

This is a picture of the spelling bee.

This is another picture of the spelling bee.

Here are some more with me lounging around.

Here I am receiving a trophy. The sash had to be returned.
Here are the winners: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place and then one alternate for the district finals.

Here is another one of the same thing.

And yet another one.

And another one.

Here is a close-up of the four mentioned. And another one.
This is the 1st and 2nd place winners.
Here is first place.

-J&JT

Inch by Inch

The bathroom remodel is moving along nicely. Today, I pulled the border off the walls, took the mirror down, removed the towel racks, removed the crown molding, and cleaned the walls preparing them for paint. Here you can see where some of the thigns were, most notably the toilet. Here you can see were the mirror and light fixture were.

Here, you can see were the crown molding, light fixture, and mirror were.

Right above the shower, you can see were the shower curtian rod was, among other things in the picture.

I did get the first phase of spackling done as well as tape around the trim work. Hopefully, I can do the second round of spackle tomorrow and maybe even sling some primer on the wall. I do hope so.

In other news, I did not move as fast as I wanted to on the project due to the Kaylee being sick. We thought she may have had an allergic reaction to the flue shot (not H1 N1) she got last week, but the doctor thinks it may be a virus combined with an allergic reaction. She should be better in a couple of days.

-J

From the Message Bin

"It is enjoyment and not mere posessions that make for happiness" (Michael DeMontaigne).

-J

The Bathroom has a Floor...But Not Much Else

It has been a busy week for us. The kids have had tests at school. J.T. has been sick. Shawna and I are in the last week of the quater with our school so we have been busy finishing up papers and the like.

So...

Not much has been done with the bathroom. Remodels are not much fun when you start doing the, "Since we have done this, we might as well...." We are going to paint the bathroom and, of course, put new linoleum on the floor. I told the guys helping to wait on the toilet till we get some of that done. We have not even bought paint, yet. With everthing as busy as it has been, we are hoping to get to it next week.

Anyway, here are some pictures fo the new sub-floor. At least, we can walk in there!

-J

You're Not Going to Believe This

Okay, so here is the situation. Right now, we are doing some experimentation and Kaylee is sitting on the toilet for 30 minutes a day. She obviously gets bored with it and so we turn the television up loud. She asked her brother to strategically move a mirror so she can see the relection of the Television in the mirror. This explains the unusually placed mirror in this picture.Here, you can see the television, the backside of the mirror and the door to the bathroom. The kids came up with this all by themselves. I am so proud. I thought it was pretty creative of them. I want to leave the mirror there when I use the bathroom. That may be more information than you wanted to know but...

-J

There's No Floor in the Bathroom!

That's right. Over the past few months the bathroom floor has felt soft and been getting progressively worse. We finally had to take action. We ripped out the floor and found the toilet was not sealed properly. Here is a picture with the sink to give you the persepctive. You can see where the toilet was painted around on the wall and the sewage pipe in the floor.

Here is one to show you the tub behind the door. Again, you can see were the toilet was.
Here is one of the floorless floor. We have more work to do tomorrow.
Finally, J.T. wanted to be funny. So here he is sitting on the toilet in the kitchen. Lisa, this reminds me of you USING the toilet in Shane's room. You can blog about that on your blog.

-J

From the Message Bin

"Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning" (Unknown).

-J

From the Message Bin

"It takes a big man to cry but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man" (Jack Handy).

-J

Pictures as Promised

As promised from a previous post, here are some pictures of my last soccer game, the awards ceremony, and some random pictures.

Enjoy!

-J&JT

From the Message Bin

"Every society honors its live comformists and its dead troublemakers" (Unknown).

-J

Party Day!

Today I was baptized. As it says in the Bible, the angels in Heaven are rejoicing. I have been thinking about this for a while. What a great day!!!

-JT

From the Message Bin

"We will turn a frog into a prince and call it a fairy tale. We will then add a million years and call it science" (Unknown).

-J

From the Message Bin

"Freedom does not give us the right to do as we please, but rather the liberty to do as we ought" (Unknown).

-J

End of Season

The rain finally stayed away so were able to finish the soccer season. As you can tell from the title, this was the end of the season. We won the last game, which put us in the championship game. Our team played very well the first 15 minutes and scored 3 points. The other team only scored one. It went downhill from there. Our team went into slow motion. The other team eventually tied the game and then went ahead with about 5 minutes to go. After this happened, my team went into fast motion again and played well but there just wasn't enough time. The burgundy team won first place by a score of 4-3. My team got second place and the gold team that we beat Tuesday night won third place. We consider this pretty good since we only won one game. We just happened to win the right game. The trophies do not have any place on them, so we might just have to exaggerate a little with who won first place. Pictures of the game and the trophy will be posted later. Until then...

-S & JT

Victory at Last

Last night, I had a soccer game. Our goalie could not play because she kicked a metal chair and broke her foot. Our back-up goalie did a great job. We ended up winning the game two to one. This was the first win of the season so we were really, really, really happy!

We will be out there kicking again on Saturday for the championship game. We are gauranteed second place over all!

More to come Saturday.

-JT

From the Message Bin

"Many complain of their memory. Few of their judgment" (Unknown).

-J

What Do You Think of My New Look?

We tried the bow tie with several different hats. The final choice was to go without a hat. What do you think of the bow tie?

-J