Some Work is Being Done

We are finally able to work again on the house. All of the drywall has been hung except in the garage. This weekend Chris worked on getting the main line placed for the electrical. It has been slow going for him because the ground is still so frozen. He said alongside the house where the sun isn't shining all day, the dirt was just being scraped off, like shaving chocolate off a candy bar. Chris started to back fill yesterday and couldn't even move the digger, the ground was so icy the wheels just spun. Hopefully today they can get the dirt moved.


But we know have a heater running. Chris installed a temporary heater so we don't have to use gas blowers now. It was so fummy in the house yesterday, they had two heaters running on jet fuel. It was awful.


Thursday afternoon, Madi, Jason, Tabatha, and I made a trip to Topeka. We went to Jason's old store and picked up paint. We hit the jackpot actually. They had a bunch of five gallon buckets of paint that was either paid for and nobody ever picked them up or they were mistinted buckets of paint. But we ended up getting 40 gallons of paint, enough to paint the whole house, for $100.00!!! Chris was so proud of me, he kept saying, "Wow, you did a good job today." Which is a big compliment from Chris, usually he grumbles, no matter what kind of deal I get. So we are hoping we can start painting in two weeks.


Happy New Year!!! I sure hope 2008 is a great year for everyone!
Love, Amy



Our sink hole in the front of the house. We actually want this to happen though, hopefully it starts settling more on the other sides of the house.



All that's left to drywall. The office, part of the stairway and the master bath. (This was all completed yesterday)



Left side is the livingroom with the hallway leading to the pantry, laundry room and garage on the right.



Right side is the kitchen area.



Chris' dirtwork for the electrical.

A Little Bit of Everything

Another Christmas day has come and gone. It's been a busy last two days. We spent Christmas Eve day with my family and opened gifts that evening. We then had our own Christmas at home. We quickly left and opened gifts and had lunch with Chris' parents and brother. Madi took a nap and we headed to see his grandparents. At 5:00 we then made it back to my parents house to visit awhile before finally heading back home to a very messy house and one tired, cranky baby. All in all it was a great Christmas.

Madi is still not quite into opening gifts yet. We ended up opening about half of them. She just can't sit still long enough to realize what is going on, plus everything is in boxes and it takes me forever to get it open. By the time I get all 25 of the twisty ties off of a baby doll or farm set, she has lost interest. I think next year, all of her gifts will be opened and assembled and then wrapped in a new easy open box. It has to be easier that way, right? The only thing that did keep her attention was all the candy she received. I think her Christmas day diet consisted of smarties, cookies, chocolate candy, a few bites of ham and mashed potatoes and two bananas. If I wasn't so worried about her ever pooping again, she would probably eat bananas for every meal, she loves them.

Chris and I also decided last night, after seeing the pile of presents and wondering what we are going to do with everything, that next year we should go together and get something we really want or need. It sure is silly buying gifts just to buy gifts. Neither one of us had any idea what to get each other this year. Chris has everything under the sun and I don't do anything that doesn't revolve around Madi, so I don't need anything. I was more excited about the new digital camera that I got Chris than anything. I may have to get me a new one.

I love my digital SLR camera but it is so big and cumbersome sometimes that I just don't take it with me everywhere. For example, I have no pictures of Madi's baptism because I didn't want to ask someone to take pics with my big old camera. So, I got Chris a Sony Cybershot camera. It is so small and the coolest part is, it is a 12.1 mega pixel camera!!! That is twice the resolution of my camera and about 10 times smaller. I can't wait to see what the pics look like once they are downloaded. And it also takes movies, which is so cool, I can now take movies of Madi and download them onto my computer and blog!!! So excited and it isn't even my camera!!! That's why I may need to get my own. The other cool thing about it...it was free. How you ask? We have a Sony credit card that gets used for a majority of Chris' work expenses (gas, tools, etc.) So for every dollar we spend we earn one point toward Sony products. Which then convert to one point= $.01 to be redeemed. Therefore, his camera ended up costing me nothing including the shipping. We can also earn points by entering the answer to the bonus round puzzle from Wheel of Fortune. And if my Wheel of Fortune spin id ever gets picked, we could win $50,000 for having a Sony Card. I'm not holding my breath for that to ever happen, but wouldn't that be cool! (Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent there.)

We finally got some work done on our house at least Saturday, not sure about Sunday. Jon said it is no holding some heat. They got the drywall up on the ceilings and maybe the wall separating the garage and the living room. Not sure exactly, I haven't been out for two weeks now. But hopefully this afternoon or tomorrow we can make it out to look. We finally got power again last Thursday and now it is a muddy mess out there. We may not be able to get to the front door without making a huge mess of ourselves. We were supposed to have the appliances and tile delivered Monday. When I first set the delivery up I thought that would be pretty cool having it delivered that day, but of course with all the craziness the last two weeks and then the holiday, I completely spaced it off. It dawned on me at 4:00 Monday afternoon that they were supposed to deliver that day. We really are no where near ready to have the appliances yet but we got such a great deal the day after Thanksgiving. The lady said then that they could only hold them for 30 days. When I called Monday to reschedule the delivery, that guy told me that I bought them, I could have them hold them as long as I like. So we may have them wait to deliver even longer. Our thought was to have them deliver to the shop and we would move them later when we finally need them. But that makes me nervous moving them so many times, our last appliance purchase we moved them ourselves and ended up with a huge dent in the side of the refrigerator and a dent in the front of the dishwasher. I don't want that to happen again.

Jason and Tabatha were at our house first thing this morning to see if we wanted to go shopping with them. It was so early, Chris was just leaving for work and Madi and I hadn't even gotten dressed yet. But we had a nice time this morning. And it is so much more fun shopping with others to help with Madi. Plus Jason is so cute with her. We pull in somewhere and he is the first one at her door to get her out of the car seat and then he carries her almost the whole time we were shopping. And of course Madi is just in love with Jason and Tabatha. I should say Jayce and Tabby (as Madi would call them).

I will leave you with some pictures, sorry I rambled today!!

Love, Amy



Madi playing Santa, she delivered most of the presents until she started throwing them.


Uncle Jason and Madi making pancakes in her new kitchen.


Madi not waiting her turn.


Madi lounging on her new John Deere tractor and trailer she got from her Uncle Jon.


(Did I mention Madi was really spoiled by everyone this Christmas, I guess that happens when your the only grandchild in the family!)

Photo Friday (with words)

What a strange and busy last two weeks. We are slowly moving back into our old routine from before the "Ice Storm of 2007." I worked down at the shop for about a week answering phones and getting invoices out. We figured that between the four guys, 2 teams of 2, they did 40 service calls in a week. That's a lot. Now we are just hoping that the overnight shipping charges that the parts house is going to charge us isn't going to break our bank. We didn't alter our prices to compensate for the overnight freight charges, so we are a little scared to see the bill from the parts house. Chris and the guys took a much needed day off today. It will make for a nice Christmas break for them.

We just found out last night that we finally have power restored out at the new house. That's 10 days that it has been out. We are definitely looking into getting a whole house generator installed. I can't imagine being without power for that amount of time with little ones in the house, so we need to figure something out.

Monday I took Madi to the doctor. She woke up with her eyes all matted, draining, puffy, and really glassy looking. She looked awful. We found out she had pink eye. We knew she had been exposed to it the week before but she went 4 days before she started showing symptoms. But luckily we got her started on eye drops right away and within two days she was looking much better. We finish the prescrip. today. That was the first time we have had to take her to the doctor for anything other than her well-baby checkups.

Last night Madi got to see Santa Claus at Kennedy and Coe, where Chris' dad works. It's pretty neat what they do. Santa comes in and they all get to sit on his lap and get their pics taken. Then they get a present. They do this every year for the kids or grandkids of their employees. Madi has been so excited to see Santa. She says "HO HO HO." And she is also singing Jingle Bells. It is too cute. I hope to get it on video and get it posted soon, it is just too cute. She was really shy when Santa came in and came right up to her. She is now burying her head and closing her eyes when she gets shy, it was hilarious. Even after Santa left she would not look up. Luckily we sat right across from where Santa sat to meet everyone so she was able to watch him from a distance and see all the other kids sitting on his lap. After about 15 minutes I asked her if she wanted to see Santa now and she knodded her head and got a big smile. She did an awesome job sitting on his lap. She had the cheesiest smile and had everyone rolling.

I probably won't post again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to everyone. We hope you have a wonderful day with your family and friends.

Love, Amy

Chris with his new snowblower. It took him an hour to blow all the snow from the driveway.

This picture doesn't do justice. If you are familiar with the old airport runway on East Crawford that's what this is. The limbs that have been picked up and dropped off so far are all the way across the runway and about a 1/4 mile long.

Madi insisted on wearing her sunglasses while she ate lunch.

Madi eating a cookie. This is right before she spilled a whole glass of red punch down the front of her shirt. What a mess.

Cowering from Santa.

Madi and Santa Claus!

Photo Friday

My Hero

Since Tuesday morning at 6:30 am when Chris left the house, he has been non stop. He left the house early Tuesday morning to go out and start helping people who needed it because of the ice storm that hit Kansas Monday night. We were out of power at home but we were safe and had a heat source, we were going to be fine. But others we knew didn't have the luxury of a fireplace or a good safe heating source. So, out he went to get generators hooked up to furnaces. He also has been working with the City of Salina getting the waste water systems back up and running. And working for individuals to get their electrical services hooked back up to their homes.

Yesterday, I worked in the office answering phones from about 10:30 to 5:30 and then transfered the shop phone to my cell so I could go home and spend some time with Madi. In that time, I took 21 calls of people needing power restored to their house. Most of the cases are tree limbs falling and hitting the power line to their homes and ripping the wires out of the meter boxes or just ripping the whole box off the house. I can say so far the people I have talked to are being polite and patient. But I am afraid what tomorrow, this weekend and next week will be like. There are just too many people to get to and patience are going to be wearing thin when people are living without power for days on end. Today, I have stayed home with Madi but still anwering the work phone. It has been a bit slower with only 7 calls so far today. Chris' phone is still ringing off the hook and I don't know how many names he has taken. They are just trying to get to as many people as they can in a day.

There was an editorial on the newpapers website today that was reminding people to say thanks. They thanked the power crews, police, firefighters, the city crews, dispatch personnel, and power company operators. But I would also like to thank Chris and his employees for being out there working so hard to help the thousands of people that are still without power. And all the other businesses just like Chris' that are putting in long hours to help all those in need.

God Bless,
Amy

More Pictures

Right now it is cold outside. It has been raining for most of the evening. I just looked out to see what it was still doing and our entire roof of our back deck is covered in icicles. On our way home from getting our pictures done, the temps were right around freezing. It should make for an interesting day tomorrow. They were already closing down schools and activities for tomorrow.



Here is a sneak peek at the photos we had done tonight. I had Tony email me one. She is such a ham. It didn't go as good as I had hoped. She was very clingy and whiny all day, so I don't think she is still feeling quite well yet. Plus she didn't know who Tony was. We were able to get a few good shots but it took her a long time to start smiling and she did not want to sit for anything. Tony's daughter Marta came in and helped a little. She's probably 7 years old. But then all Madi wanted to do was play with her. We decided not to press her anymore and we would get together again and do some more pics. After we were done, we sat around and chatted for awhile and Madi went and played with their three kids. She had a blast. They were running all over and had crayons out. She was in heaven. Can't decide if playing and having fun with the kids was a good idea or not. She got warmed up to Tony and his wife and kids but she may only want to play next time we try and do pics again.




Sunday after Madi got up from her nap I called Chris to see how late he was going to work. He wanted me to come out to the house and bring my camera. I figured they must have gotten some work done if he is telling me to bring my camera. So of course, I couldn't wait to go out. Took Madi to Dan and Jane's and then picked up some hot chocolates for the guys. The three bedrooms were completely sheet rocked and they were working on the main bathroom. Chris got all the plumbing done except for the kitchen, which will be done later, and had it pressure tested for leaks. But it was cold out there. It was only 22 degrees outside. They had the heater blasting at the rooms they were working in so it wasn't so bad in the bedrooms. But Chris was finishing up downstairs and by the time we came back up, my legs were numb. I can't imagine working outside in that cold weather. Of course, I didn't have the layers on like the rest of them, but I don't think it would make it much better. Check out my photo albums for the latest pics on the house.

Me freezing, I don't normally have my pic taken, thanks Chris!

Chris working on the water lines.

Take care, stay warm, and have a great week!
Love, Amy

My Crappy Week

What a week it has been. I should have known it was going to be a bad one, Madi did have a doctor's appointment this week. We are cursed with sickness related to a doctors appointment. I don't think it had anything to do with the doctor's appointment but this always happens.

Madi had her appointment at 10:30 Tuesday morning. Wednesday night at 10:30 we are laying in bed and I hear Madi cough. I thought that was weird, she hadn't coughed all day. And then it sounded like she was choking. I ran into her bedroom and she was covered head to foot, entire bed was covered in vomit. It was horrible. Madi is 18 months old now and this is the first time she has ever thrown up. My poor baby was so scared, she had no idea what was going on. I put her in the bath tub and cleaned her up while Chris was cleaning up her room. After she woke up some and I got her out of the tub, she acted fine. She wanted to play, everything was great. I put her in bed with us, I wanted her close in case something happened. She tossed and turned and couldn't get settled. I finally took her back into her bed and turned the monitor way up so I could hear everything. She tossed and turned for about 15 more minutes in her bed and then I heard her cough again. Again I went running for her room and she was covered in vomit. We ended up camping out on the couch for the rest of the night. She threw up a couple more times and finally was able to get some rest. I "slept" on the floor beside the couch, which was a good thing. I learned that Madi is not ready for a big girl bed. She fell off the couch three times.

Thursday we spent the day being lazy and catching up on our rest. Madi didn't eat much or drink much for two days. Friday evening we went to The Hickory Tree in Smolan for supper with Chris' parents. Great food, but Madi didn't want anything. She finally ate some fruit for Jane. We went home and Dan and Jane climbed in the car with us and we went and looked at Christmas lights. Madi loves looking at the lights. She says "Woooooow." And her new love is Santa Claus. Her face just lights up when she sees Santa on tv or we look at books or my snowglobes with Santa. If you ask her what Santa says she'll say, "Ho Ho Ho" and then grins. We'll see how she does in a couple of weeks when she sees the real Santa in person.

After looking at lights we went back home and watched a movie and were just plain lazy. Chris and I both had upset stomachs and just thought we either ate too much or the desert didn't sit well. Just wasn't sure, until 12:30 when I woke up and started vomiting. Oh, I hate being sick, I hate throwing up, it is just about the worst thing ever. I threw up a couple more times Saturday morning. Chris left to go work at the house. I don't even think he knew I was sick when he left. I was hoping I would feel better when I got up, but that didn't happen. I called my mom and she came to my rescue. She came over and spent the day taking care of us. Madi finally ate better last night and drank quite a bit of juice yesterday. I was getting worried about that too. Her diaper was hardly wet yesterday morning. We both took a three hour nap yesterday afternoon and I felt better when I woke up.

Madi is back to her ornery self today. Except for a headache and a little lightheaded, I am feeling better too. I guess it was a good weekend to feel under the weather, it is so nasty looking outside, I wouldn't want to be out and about anyway.

Here is a pic of Madi from Wednesday morning. She was so uncooperative and I should have known something was up when I got my camera out and all she did was cry everytime I pointed it at her. She is usually ready for pics with a big "Cheeeeese." I should have saved some of the crying ones. I took 50 pics and three turned out half way usable. Of course she isn't looking at the camera in any on them. Oh well, we will try again when she is feeling better. I just hope she is well enough and cooperates for Tony tomorrow night.



Chris has been out working on the house Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night this week, and of course this weekend. They started hanging drywall. He also worked on plumbing yesterday and got all the piping ran for the master bathroom and main bathroom. He was hoping to get it pressure tested today so they could continue hanging sheetrock in those rooms. But he was missing some caps this morning and I don't know if he got what he needed since it is Sunday. The work on the house is going to turn into just evening and weekend work from now on. Jon is going back to work Monday. His help didn't pan out like it was supposed to from the very beginning so this will be for the best. We are pretty much at the mercy of the weather at this point anyways. They were able to get the north and south sides of the house done with siding Monday and Tuesday when we had such nice weather to be outside. The back is going to have to wait awhile. It is just too cold and windy to be outside working right now. Chris said it wasn't getting much warmer than maybe 30 degrees in the house yesterday. But hopefully once they get all the drywall hung for the ceiling, it will help to keep some of the warm air from the heaters in the house. I haven't been out to see it since Tuesday so hopefully later this week I can make it out and get some new pics.

Take care and be safe.
Love, Amy

Madi's Checkup

Madi had her 18 month checkup and shots today. She is now 24 lbs 10oz., a gain of 3 lbs 3 oz. and is 32.5 in long, up .9 in. She has finally made it into the 50 percentile for her weight. The doctor was very pleased with her progress. We did an autism screening questionnaire and no problems there. Her doctor said she is very advanced with her development and is a pretty little girl. I am such a proud mommy!!



The poor girl knew shots were coming too. I laid her down on the bed and she immediately started wailing. She had two shots so the nurses did them at the same time, one in each leg. They put pretty shiny band aids on and she wanted nothing to do with them. As soon as they left and I started putting her clothes on, she ripped those things off and threw them on the floor. But the tears never last long with her. She was fine and ready to go by the time I got her socks and shoes on and out the door. I am crossing fingers and toes and knocking on wood that she doesn't get sick with these shots again. I told the doctor about her getting so sick after shots the last several times. She said that we are done with the nasty, high temp shots until Kindergarten, so she shouldn't get sick this time. I sure hope so, she is miserable for days with high temps, no appetite, and grumpy.



I am so excited for next Monday evening. We are getting our family portraits done with our photographer who did our wedding photos. He does such an awesome job. I am also hoping to get some pics of just Madi. I take a ton of pics all the time of Madi, but I haven't had too many chances to get professional pics done of her. Of course, we had that awful experience with Sears last year for our Christmas pics, but got a few nice ones of her. And then the beautiful pics that my cousin Andrea took but those were last year in September. So we are due for some new pics. My big decision now is what we are going to wear. Should we all wear the same color shirts, casual or dress up, Christmas colors or black or white? Having a lot of trouble with this, and of course Chris' response when I try to get his feedback, "I don't care, whatever you decide." Ahhh, why can't he help me out? Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Here are a few of my favorites.



Tony's


Andrea's

Sears




Sunday afternoon Chris was wanting cookies so I decided to just make some. I had all the ingredients here. I got started and Madi has been wanting to help me cook lately, but I am always doing something around the stove and I just didn't want to get her started with that. But I thought mixing cookies would be perfect for her to help me with. She had so much fun. I got out this old step stool that my brother and I used when we were Madi's age and she was able to stand at the counter and help. She measured out flour, and had it all over the floor. And then she would take a bite and mix some more. We poured in the chocolate chips and she was shoveling them in before I could get them mixed into the batter. It was a lot of fun and kept her attention long enough to get it all mixed and then she was done. I finished the rest by myself and she went off to play. Worked out great, I didn't have to worry about her being around the oven while they baked.

Cheeeeese!




Wow, big picture post. I have never been able to get blogger to publish this many pics in one post! Have a great rest of the week.
Love, Amy

Product Promotion

We finally went out and bought a new mattress on Wednesday. I was joking with Chris because when my back was so bad a year ago, we had talked about getting a new mattress. We even went shopping for mattresses, the day after Thanksgiving last year, but we (meaning Chris) were not ready to spend the money and we (meaning Chris) didn't really find anything we liked. So instead of settling for something we weren't 100% sure of, we just let it go. That is until Chris' back is so out of whack, that we had to rush right out and buy a new mattress.


I'm not complaining, we really did need a new mattress and it's just funny how it worked out. When Chris' Aunt Beth was here in August, she was saying how much she loved their mattress. I called her and found out they had a Simmons Beautyrest. It turns out that that was the exact kind of mattress Chris has wanted to get. It has the pocketed coils and cuts down on feeling your bed buddy moving around.

I had the best sleep ever last night. It wasn't one of those get into bed and not wake up in the middle of the night sleeps (that never happens anymore). But I could roll over and have no pain. I got out of bed this morning and had absolutely no pain. It was awesome!!

I think Chris slept okay. His back is still sore but it's going to take more than one night to help his problems right now. He was up at 5 am this morning to head to Wilson Lake for Deer Camp. I didn't really wake up enough to ask him how he slept. But he was able to get his own socks on for the first time in a week and a half. He's making progress. He did say this evening when I talked to him on the phone, that he liked the bed but his back is still sore.

Well, it is late and I get my brand new bed all to myself tonight (with the exception of Oliver)!!!

Love, Amy

I Have My Internet Back!

Our DSL modem crashed last Wednesday night, therefore, I have not had internet for a week. I never knew how much I depended on the internet until I didn't have it. I pay all of our bills online, I do all of our banking online, we wanted to look at the online only sales for Lowes and Walmart on Thanksgiving Day and couldn't. Plus it is my only 2 hour retreat from laundry, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of Madi when she goes down for a nap. I admit it, I play on the computer almost everyday when Madi is asleep. I could get so much done around here, but I choose to relax. I am a computaholic.

Madi was supposed to have her 18 month checkup and shots on Monday morning. I didn't remember until 12:30, oops. So I immediately called the doctors office to reschedule. They take an hour and a half lunch everyday and close the office. I thought that was strange for a doctors office. Who gets an hour and a half for lunch, how nice. Her new appointment is for next Tuesday, so I will have all the new info on Madi then. It is exciting to see how much she has grown in the last three months. I am anxious to see what has changed because her last checkup she hadn't grown that much. Maybe it is because she is such a picky eater anymore. She is a good eater once I find something she will eat, which changes daily. She would eat hotdogs like crazy and then this week, she won't eat them anymore. Two meals now she has gathered them in her little fist and brings them to me. Green beans are the only vegetable, other than potatoes, that I can get her to eat. I had picked up a can of low or no sodium green beans at some time, I didn't think there would be much difference. Boy was I wrong. Since then, she doesn't want anything to do with green beans. She eats alot of fruit though. So at least she is getting some good foods.

Some of Madi's other new things going on right now...She finally broke through with that bothersome molar about two weeks ago but she is still drooling like crazy. She must be working on some more teeth, but I haven't seen any sign of any poking out in there. Not that she will let me feel in her mouth very well. She has a mouth full of teeth now and she has used them a couple of times. Last week we were playing and she runs away from Oliver and jumps into my arms. She then bit down into my shoulder. I pulled my sleeve up and she had torn through my skin with her two little front teeth and what made it worse is when I pulled her away from me it broke the skin even more. That hurt for two hours and it was right where the sleeve seam is and it was rubbing on it, quite painful.

She is also talking like crazy. You still can't understand what she is saying, but it is nonstop jabber all day. Her new thing is "no." Everything is no. I really don't think she knows what the meaning is. We were eating snack yesterday together and I said Madi do you want another bite of banana and she says no while she is coming at me with her mouth open. But it is cute when she seems to be thinking about it. I said Madi do want some milk. She stood there with her head cocked to one side and says, "Ummmmmmm, No." And she has the sweetest little voice. We are going to be in so much trouble when she does start talking. She also says, "Oh, whawasdat?" She loves airplanes and she heard one fly over the house and that's what she said. She also says cheeeeese. My camera comes out and she automatically says cheeeeese. Yesterday we were went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Helm, she was taking pictures and saying cheese with Betty's camera. It was so cute.

Not much to tell you about on the house. There has been no progress made on it for a week and a half. I am getting very frustrated. I vent to Chris but all that does is put added stress on him, so I am now trying to bite my tongue. I can say as of last Friday, we started framing and working on the house ourselves four weeks ago. We have made tremendous progress on the house in such a short period of time. But it is still very frustrating that the house looks the same as it did last Monday. I have stopped going out and looking at it, it doesn't help.

Chris hurt his back about two weeks ago, just did to much working at the house one weekend. But it hasn't been getting better, it has been getting worse. Wednesday he came home early and was in so much pain. He couldn't sit, couldn't stand, all he could do was lay down. We went to a "Chiropractor" that afternoon and that was a joke. This guy doesn't do adjustments. He puts you on machines that are supposed to do the same thing as a regular Chiropractor would do. We ended up leaving two hours later and Chris left feeling worse than when we went in. He was so excited for the long weekend, to really be able to get some work done on the house. And he ended up laying around all weekend. He didn't even get to go shopping with us the day after Thanksgiving (which he loves). But at least this way we didn't have to try and take Madi out. I think that would have been a disaster. He is slowly starting to feel better this week and is even talking about going out to deer camp Thursday and Friday. He was going to skip it this year, but he has the hunting-need-to-kill-a-deer-sleep-outside-in-the-freezing-cold-in-a-tent-with-five-other-men-spend-three-nights-butchering-meat itch. (That's the technical term.) He just can't give up all those fun times at deer camp.

Must get Madi up, she was up at 3:40 am so I let her sleep in a little. Probably a big mistake.
Love, Amy

My Thankful List

I was tagged by Laura Stiffler.

The rules:
Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.
Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let those people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

I am going to change the rules a bit. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I would share what I am thankful for. (Plus, I don't know seven bloggers)

1. I am thankful for my husband. He is a hard worker and great provider for our family. Without him we wouldn't have the things we do.

2. I am thankful for my daughter. She is the most important thing in my life. Everything we do is for her, with her in mind.

3. I am thankful for the chance to stay home with Madi. I have had the opportunity to watch her grow and change the last year and a half. Being home and able to experience these changes as they occur has been a blessing.

4. I am thankful for our parents. They have helped us in so many ways, especially these last two years. I can't imagine life without them.

5. I am thankful for our family. We have the best family ever. Everyone is always there for each other, for good and bad times, offering support. What a way to experience life when you get to share it with the people that mean the most to you.

6. I am thankful for everyone who has come to help us with the house. Everyone who has come out is giving up their weekends and time with their families to help us. It has been an awful big help having them there.

7. The most important person I am thankful for is God. Without God, I wouldn't have all these wonderful people to be thankful for. Sometimes the holidays can turn into what are we giving for presents, who are we giving presents to, and how are we going to divide spending time with everyone. But the real reason for the holidays is to celebrate Jesus' birthday. And I pray that I can keep that into perspective this holiday season.

Now all of my blog readers, TAG YOUR IT!! Leave a comment and let us know what you are thankful for.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!! And be careful shopping on Friday.
Love, Amy

Weekend Work

My to do list from last week was a bit ambitious after seeing what actually got done this weekend. All of the electrical work is complete. We had 4-5 electricians out this weekend helping get it done. The plumbing is half way done. All the tubs are set and vented and all the pvc piping has been run. We need to finish putting the supply lines, hot and cold water pipes, in the house. We had two plumbers out working this weekend. Chris will finish getting the rest of the plumbing done himself. Heating and air was not installed this weekend, but Chris was able to get all the duct work made and the holes cut in the floor for the vents this week. This week they also got the garage doors hung and the stairs going downstairs completed.

The outside of the house went very slow this weekend. The soffit and siding on the front side of the house is all that was completed this weekend. I don't know if it was because it was a new kind of material that they hadn't worked with before or the people we had outside just didn't know what they were doing so it took longer. But we were hoping to get the house weather tight this weekend. After today it is supposed to be bitter cold outside with chances of rain and snow.

This week's to do list (in this order):
1. Finish siding and soffit
2. Finish plumbing
3. Hang insulation

If we can get the outside done this week, they can then come inside and get insulation up and be able to start drywalling.






Water manifold, Electrical box, telephone and cable.



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Christmas is 36 days away. I had to look that stat up, I am not keeping track. But I knew Christmas was coming because of all the toy commercials on tv. I have seen some very strange toys for children being advertised.


This first toy has been around awhile, I think they may have had a version of it when I was younger, but still a little disturbing. This toy is the Baby Alive doll. Here is part of the description from the Hasbro web site: "the doll that “eats” and “poops” like a real baby!" The doll will even tell your child when she needs her diaper changed, “Uh-oh, I made a stinky!” I am sorry if anyone thinks this doll is fun for their own children. It is recommended for children 3 and older. A three year old still doesn't clean up after themselves, so why would a parent give their child a doll that they have to feed and then change it's diapers. And this doll is $50!!! I know this gives children imaginative, real life play. But whatever happened to just a regular doll and let kids make things up as they play.

The second new toy is the Rescue Pets: Train and Play Puppy. The description says, "He drinks water from his bottle, burps, then lifts his leg and wets." I saw this commercial and I thought this was the worst advertisment and toy ever. The dog actually lifts its leg and pees. AWFUL!

Have a great week!
Love, Amy

House Update

This last week we have made quite a progress on the house. The roof has been sheeted and shingled and is complete. The concrete guys came back out and capped the front porch. This weekend we finished sheeting the outside walls. We got the house wrapped. All the windows and doors have been installed, with the exception of the garage doors. And all the framing on the inside is now complete.

We had a little ordering mishap on the windows. The big front window and the window in the master bedroom were ordered at the wrong size. Which meant that our framing openings were not right. It could have been fixed, but not an easy fix. So, the window that was meant for the master fit in the opening in the livingroom. And they just had to brace the roof in the bedroom and cut a larger opening and install a larger header for the window that was supposed to be in the livingroom to go in the bedroom. I decided to just switch the two windows and only brace one time instead of having to brace in two places and cut two larger openings. It just made less work and I am actually really glad we switched the two. It looks great.

This week the to do list looks like this:
1. Heating and air installed.
2. Stairway downstairs installed.
3. Finish framing for garage doors.
4. Start on siding.
5. Install electrical.
6. Install plumbing.

That's an ambitious list, we'll see how much of it actually gets done this week. But it would be nice to at least get the utilities in. If we can get those three things done this week, we can get insulation in and start drywalling next week. So, that's the goal.

Last week Chris and I went and ordered the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I am so excited to get those in. I just want to see them. I can't wait. But I have to, 5-6 weeks!! I guess that will be my Christmas present this year. They should be in the week before Christmas. Chris is going to make the countertops. Otherwise, it would be another 2-3 weeks after the cabinets are installed before getting the countertops. Chris made our countertops at our old house on Kansas and did an awesome job, so I know these are going to turn out just as nice. Chris also got all the plumbing fixtures ordered: toilets, master bath tub, faucets, piping and fittings.





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Madi went to her first football game Friday night. She had so much fun! We were going to just stand near the endzone and watch and let her run around. But she started walking up to the stands so we thought we would try sitting with some friends of ours. She did great! We sat in the parents section, so you can only imagine how loud it was. Madi joined right in with the rest of them. She was yelling and cheering and clapping. One of the moms gave her a towel that they wave. So she would wave her towel and cheer with her hands. It was alot of fun. We got there right at half time, which was probably perfect, she didn't have to sit through the whole game. The Mustang's won and will be playing in Wichita on Friday for Sub-state. Go Jordan!!!

Have a great week!
Love, Amy

Family Update...Finally!

Madilyn does not stop. That girl is a ball of energy and I can't keep up. She is constantly moving and talking. I have to schedule our outings according to how much time she has had to play and run or the trip out of the house will be a disaster. What is nice now, I can load her up and we can go out to the new house and she can run all she wants. I don't have to worry about the street, I don't really need to bring any toys because she occupies herself with sand or the neighbors dogs or any tool that is lying around. But she is the funnest person to be around...most days!

She has been working on her fourth molar for the last two weeks. It will just poke through and then go back down. I wish it would just come in and be over with. She can be a little grumpy and whinny, especially when things aren't going her way. But I know this will pass as soon as that tooth comes in...we battled this a couple months ago with one of the other molars.

Madi jabbers all day long. Most of it is her own language and I wish I knew what she is saying because she can go into a rather lengthy conversation. Every so often you'll hear a mommy or daddy in her ramblings. The other night she got into trouble and she started jabbering (whining) to Chris and it sounded like she was saying "Mommy meany, Mommy meany." Chris and I laughed so hard, it was so funny. Some of her words include:
1. Olie (Oliver, our dog)
2. Macky (all trucks are Macky, from her favorite movie "Cars")
3. Snacky
4. Peas (Please)
5. Ank you (Thank you, or it will be sing-song of jabber that sounds like thank you)
6. Trator or Daddy trator (because Chris has a tractor)
7. Weady (Ready, when she wants to do something)
8. Minky (Binky, she calls out to it if she can't find it)
9. Mickey (Mouse)
10. "Oh, I see" and points to whatever.
She also says cracker, wee, wow, baby, Eddie (her stuffed animal), ball, duck, and she says the sounds of quite a few animals and things especially when she sees them.

I started this post before she got up this morning, since then she can now open doors. She shut our bedroom door while we were getting ready this morning and she went over and opened it, like she knew what she was doing. I then shut it behind her and she opened it and grinned and laughed at us when she came in the bedroom. She is also mocking everything we do and say. This is gross, but funny. Chris got up and cleared his throat and she did the same thing, then he spit and she stood there and made a spitting sound and then laughed, she is such a ham. We really have to watch what we say and do around her now!

I got Madi a potty chair two weeks ago. She doesn't use it yet, but she has learned to sit on it right and she knows to sit on it when we go into the bathroom. The reason I got it is because she has been telling me yucky and then she will pull on her diaper. I have been changing her everytime she does this so she will continue to tell me when she needs her pants changed. But I thought if we have it and she can get used to it, maybe she will have an easy potty training experience. (I can only hope!)

There is so much that changes with her and she just amazes us sometimes. I am so happy that I am able to stay home with her and get to experience these things with her. It truly has been a blessing to be able to do this, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way. I am looking forward to being in our new house and having more kids some day and really living life differently out there. I can't wait!!

Chris has been working like a mad man lately. Between his work and working out at the house, he has had no down time. The only plus right now is that it is getting dark so early and he doesn't have lights wired in the house yet, so he is able to come home at a decent time and have supper and spend time with Madi.

Dan is doing great after his open heart surgery. Tuesday the doctor released him to all restrictions!!! He is losing weight really well and his chest is firm and healed around the scar. The doctor was really impressed at his progress. He even said he could go deer hunting at the end of the month.

I better get busy, Chris wants me to go work at the house today. I will post an update on our progress from this weekend. We are supposed to have a bunch of people out helping this weekend again. Hopefully we can have it weather sealed before the rain forecasted on Monday!!

Love, Amy

"It Looks Like a House"

Everyday we have been working on the house, someone says "It's starting to look like a house." We can now finally say, "It looks like a house!"

Saturday was spent finishing the outside framing on the garage and sheeting the outside walls. It was nice once they got the sheeting done. It was a little windy and chilly Saturday, made for a nice wind break.

Sunday morning was spent finishing the framing on the walls inside. After lunch, we started setting the roof trusses. At 12:30, we picked up the first truss and set the last truss at 6:30. We would have had just enough light if it hadn't been for the time change. But the last five trusses were set with floodlights and truck lights lit. And we had perfect weather to set the trusses. It was warm yesterday and just a breeze blowing. You can blame us for the 40 mph wind today. It's making up for yesterday!

Madi and I drove out this morning to get pictures of the roof done. I was so afraid to come over the hill and see roof trusses on the ground. But they held perfectly!

Thank you to everyone who has been out to help the last couple of weeks. Also thank you to our parents for helping watch Madi. It has been a huge weight lifted off me. Otherwise, I would not have been able to help. We still have a long way to go. And once the sheeting is down on the roof and windows and doors are installed, weather won't be so much of a factor.

Coming up:
1. Front porch concrete should be finished this week. (No more death hole!)
2. Complete sheeting on front porch.
3. Sheet the roof.
4. Install windows and doors.
Stay tuned for updates and pics. (And I should have a Madi post coming up soon!)

Love, Amy

Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. Madi did pretty good. She got scared a couple of times, seeing some pretty scary costumes. And she didn't really understand what we were doing, she just wanted suckers all night.

Madi was up too late last night and up too early this morning. She is a grump today and very whinny. (Back from my fourth break since starting this...Madi couldn't get a toy out of the toy box.) Little things like that send her into tears when she hasn't had enough sleep. Early nap time today.

More pics on the progress of the house. Chris and I were out the last two days helping Jon during the day. Yesterday, Bob and one of Chris' employees came out to help and we got a lot done. All the outside walls are up, except around the garage, and the bathroom, pantry, and hallway area behind the garage are framed. The next two nights they should be able to finish the rest of the interior walls. Saturday we will be ready to put the roof trusses up. It is going fast.

I need to get busy. Laundry has been piling up.
Love, Amy

Busy Weekend

Framing has begun!!! Jon and Chris started on the framing Friday night and by Sunday night, they had made a lot of progress. It looks so great and I am so excited!! It was a family affair this weekend. For the most part, it was Jon, Chris, and their two cousins Josh and Issac that came out to help. Saturday night they had the basement walls framed. Sunday, it took all day to get the floor trusses placed. And with only four guys and me and Jane helping when we needed to, it was a big accomplishment. Those trusses are heavy! Especially when we have Chris (the yay-who) on the end not helping carry. Half way to the house with the last truss Chris says, "Hi Amy" and waves with a big grin as he is walking away from us. I was so mad. He is such a turd.

Madi and I went out late Saturday afternoon and helped finish up. She has so much fun running around in the basement and playing in the dirt and sand. I need to find some more play clothes because she is just a mess when we leave there. I stayed out all day Sunday and helped and Madi was out most of the day. I finally sent her with Dan and Jane for a nap at 3:00, way past nap time. That girl will go and go if I let her. But as soon as we slow down, it's lights out and no fuss.

Madi had a sleep over Saturday night at Dan and Jane's. Chris' cousin Bobby had a Halloween Party. We had a nice time, it wasn't a huge party and the crowd was a bit more tame than what they usually have. Of course it was a costume party. Chris wanted to be a Civil War Soldier, but when I insisted that I cannot make a replica coat and pants in two days, he had to find something different. He went as a railroad worker. I went as a Stay at Home Mom. I know, not a huge leap from the everyday, but it was a lot of fun getting my outfit ready.

Just a couple of pics included here. Check out my photo albums. I have a ton of pics of the progress on the house and of course, more Madi pics.
Love, Amy


Too bad you can't hear the noise she was making.

Railroad worker.

Stay at Home Mom.