Almost ready!!!

There are some really tired people here right now but it will all be worth it. The Riders will have a lovely home and they will be close by. Yesterday was a busy day for everyone. Ethan had an 8AM dental appt, then it was off to register Brooke for JR High. In the meantime Rob took his toolbox to his new job and got it unloaded and returned the U-haul. Les picked him up and then took Ethan to register him. I stayed at the house and painted. This morning Ethan got his hair cut and then Les and I painted. Bob and Rob went to buy new doors and Cory finished doing electrical hookups.I installed the receptacles in the kitchen and then Bob and Rob installed some other receptacles. Cory got all but 2 of the lights installed also. We did a lot of cleanup and were down to finishing the painting in Ethans room. He begged to have a camo room and guess what-----he got it. My pics didn't turn out very good so I will take new ones and post them later. Brooke and Ethan officially start school tomorrow. I plan to clean my own house tomorrow, catch up on laundry, and mow my 5 acres. Sometime in between I need to go get a new printer as mine decided to quit. I am so anxious to see the new flooring tomorrow. Well gotta go . Love to all.

These are the 3 huge pines behind their house. Ethan loves to climb them. There will eventually be a deck between them and the sliding door.

The living and family room . Trim and crown molding going on tonight. Ethan looks like he could be on Price Is Right showing prizes. He is a nut but I love him. I think he gets it from his "father".

Ethan proudly displays new house

The kitchen ready for flooring tomorrow and cabinets on Thursday

My family, Heidi eating "nana" at motel,

Home Sweet Home

We had a long but safe trip back home to Ohio. We got going about 11:30 Friday morning.Rob and his co-pilot Ethan led the way in the U-haul towing his truck on a trailer behind him. Next in line was Cory, Amy and the girls in their truck pulling the boat and trailer. Bob drove Les and Brooke in Rob's van and Jay and I followed them with our truck pulling our cargo trailer. Rob couldn't run as fast as normal due to towing the truck. He had his enormous tool box in his truck and it wanted to sway going down a grade if you were going too fast. Our trailer was really loaded too so a normal 5-1/2 hour trip took about 7 hours. Oh, Gunner their dog was in a cage in the back of our truck under slight sedation. We couldn't get everything in all the trailers and trucks so the balance(mostly Rob's garage junk) was loaded in one of Boyd's trailers and Simon and Barb Knepp brought it over this morning. We had lunch with them , visited a while and then they headed back west. They were going to stop part of the way back for the night. We unloaded the U-haul into the bedrooms, the stuff in Boyd's trailer into Bob's garage and our trailer will stay loaded until the house is finished this week. Brooke was happy to see the U-haul unloaded today as all her clothes accidentally got loaded in the middle of the truck Thursday and Les had to go to WalMart to get her something to wear for the trip. We were all very tired but still managed to get quite a bit of the new walls primed today. Amy fixed hamburgers and a bunch of sides for everyone tonight. We have decided to sleep in a little in the morning and go to 2nd service. Since Sue posted a slide show of the outing at Lou's I will just post a couple. Was great to see all the family together altho I must admit it is hard to figure out who belongs to whom when it comes to all the little ones. Will continue to post pics as the house gets finished.Love to all.

The Big Move

In about 9 hours the caravan will be headed west to move the kids. I ran all day getting last minute things done. Had to do some laundry first of all. I have been at their house so much lately I was extremely behind at home. We plan to leave Ohio at 5AM. I emptied our trailor of the electrical items we had in it at 6:30 this morning and then got tied up with numerous phone calls. I ran to Wally World, washed and fueled up my truck, stopped by the Rider house to make sure the carpet had been installed in the bedrooms and then headed home to hook the trailor up to the truck. Since the bedrooms were painted I had them lay the carpet in there so we can unload the boxes from the U-haul in those rooms. What we haul in our trailor can stay in it until it can be moved in. The drywaller says the rest of the house will be ready to paint when we get back. So hopefully by the middle of next week they should be close to completely moving in. In the meantime they are staying with Bobby. As you can see from the pics it is actually looking like a house now. Brooke told me her teacher had her classmates stop today and write her a letter or poem. Then this evening Ethans teacher had a balloon and candy bouquet delivered to him from his class. That is just so sweet of them. Well I must finish packing and get some shuteye as 3AM(when we plan to get up) will be here too soon. Love to all.

My dear sweet Leslie threatened me if I ever posted a pic of her without prior approval. Well never threaten your mother. This was taken on their last trip over when they went to dinner with friends CH and Julie. Isn't Julie beautiful? Love you Les!!!!!

It doesn't take much to entertain Heidi. The guys were using Jay's 200ft tape and Heidi decided to see just how long it was. She also stretched on her tippy toes trying to reach the pine needles. There are 3 big beautiful pine trees just outside the back door that Rob planted when he was in grade school. It was so nice and cool sitting under them today. Would be a great spot for a couple of hammocks.

4 More Days

Just 4 more days until we all head west to bring the kids back east. Bobby and Cory along with some unsolicited help from Tristin, Paige and Heidi managed to get the footers dug for the addition of Rob and Les's garage. They just didn't seem to understand that they were to stay out and away from the trench.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

I really don't know how Extreme Makeover does it in 1 week. Rob and Leslie's future neighbor here told me today that I needed to change my address as I have been practically living in their future home. The carpenters and plumber finished today and the drywall goes up tomorrow. Amy and I have the 3 bedrooms and bathroom 99% done. We put in new wiring and a new breaker panel and are switching out the existing receptacles and switches to nice new ones so we have a lot of the electrical circuits shut off which includes the AC. It has been so hot in there as we work. Today Amy was in the bathroom painting and sweating and I heard her saying to herself "I love my sister,I love my sister". I guess she was trying to convince herself that there was a reason for the "blood ,sweat and tears". As I sit and type my fingers are a mixture of white, blue, plum and cafe something or the other paint. I haven't had my shower yet tonight. I do have to say that Les has picked out some really cool colors.I'll post some pics. Paige and Heidi have been sick the past couple days with upper respiratory. They stayed with their Mama Brenda today so Amy could help me. Bob and Cory worked at the house all day today too. They finished the wiring and installed the new insulation. We put new recessed can lights in the kitchen and Cory had the honor of spending some time in the attic which was must have been about 200 degrees. I climbed up the ladder to do something for him and it was like sticking your head in an oven. BUT!!!! I am so happy that in a week they will be here so all the STRESS and hard work is more then worth it. Amy and I did tell Les that she owed us a week at a spa. Well it is 9PM and I don't have payroll done yet and need a shower so I will be signing off for now. In case you wonder the plum room is Brookes and Cafe a la something?? is ROb and Leslies.Love to all.

I am including some pics of Rob and Leslie's house as it looks now and then will post some more as we go along. Can you believe that we plan to have it done in 2 weeks? It is really going to be cute and the same as a new house.

What a busy day. Jay, Bobby and I spent the day at Rob and Leslie's house doing some re-wiring in preperation for drywall. I managed (between numerous interuptions) to get 1 bedroom primed late this afternoon. Amy and the girls stopped by for some lovins from Mama and Papa. There were 4 carpenters there also so I ordered pizza delivered for lunch and it arrived the same time as Amy so they got to help us eat it. Heidi gets so excited about giving kisses when she leaves and it is so cute. Leslie called right before lunch to tell me they were at ER with Ethan. Her and Rob ran a marathon this morning and as they came across the finish line they were informed that Ethan had been injured in a bicycle accident. Guess he went face first into the pavement. He looks pretty gruesome from the pics she sent to my cell. He has a concussion, banged up a wrist, loosened some teeth and as you can see from the pic below messed up his face pretty good. I must close and get an estimate ready and then hopefully watch #24 win tonight.