Getting Closer

Boy what a hot and very humid day. Is to be hotter yet tomorrow with rain on Monday then a major cool down on Tuesday. Thank you God. Kelsey had a cross country meet this morning in the next county south. LEslie, Brooke and Ethan went to watch her with Bob and the boys. I haven't gotten to watch her yet. She is doing very well and turning in some good times I am told. She had Aunt Leslie (former track star here) to urge her on today. Jay went on a service installation this morning which turned into an all day very exhausting job. The client supposedly had 90% of it done with Jay needing to only do some final hookups. WRONG!!! They didn't have it half done and what was installed was all wrong.He said he about got overheated until he finished. I did payroll this morning ,then ran to the supply house to get a receptacle for their new range, and then to the Johne Deere dealer to pickup hudraulic fluid for the township trustees(Jay is a trustee) and then went to the Rider house. The block layers were there laying the block for the garage, the carpenters were working on crown molding and the cabinets, and the plumber was hooking up the water heater. Soon after Bob and his kids, Les and their kids, Amy and the girls and my sis-in-law with her girls were all there. We all left about the same time all the workers did as it was getting pretty hot and humid. I came home, did some paperwork, started a load of laundry, washed some silk shirts out by hand and checked my deer cameras. I had 100 pics on 1 camera, which by the way is less then 20 feet from my back door, and I had 214 on the other one. I realized I had forgotten to put the memory card back in 1 camera and there were deer already there when I went back out.I will have to start posting some pics from my cameras as some are really funny. Last night I had a doe stick her nose on the camera as it flashed. They are not a bit afraid of the flash. Well I better close and fold my laundry. Love to all. PS: Hannah-I set my blog where you should be able to post comments for Brooke if you like. Thanks for being such a good friend to her. love to all.

Just about ready to move in!!!

The kitchen , utility room and hallway flooring is down and beautiful. The cabinets should be finished tomorrow along with most of the crown molding and other trim. Block for the garage will be layed tomorrow. If i can get the plumber to hook up the water heater tomorrow they hope to stay there for the first time on Sunday night. It will take a while to unpack the boxes that have 2 of the bedrooms filled up. Rob starts his new job on Monday. Brooke and Ethan started school Wednesday and got along just fine. Brooke was a little nervous so I made an appt with my hair stylist to get her a new "do" Tuesday after school. She has received a lot of phone calls from her friend Hannah from Indiana which makes her happy. Thanks Hannah!!! Ethan, well he fits in about anywhere. His room really is kinda cool and when it is finished being decorated it will be the envy of all little boys.I will probably post more pics tomorrow night. Gotta go. love to all.

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.