Helm Family Year in Review

Last day of the year...it has gone soo fast!! But time does go fast when you are busy and have a little one running around. Madi is growing up way too fast. It's fun to look forward at the new things she can do and will be doing, but I miss having my little baby around. But we will have a new baby to spoil in a couple of months!! I am really excited about being an aunt and Madi can't wait to have Jaxson here to play with.

Here's how our year went:

January: We are totally consumed by work on the house. The outside is done and inside is clipping along. Madi is energetic as usual and who could forget the "International Harvester" dance video! It's still her favorite song!


February: Still working on the house. Madi is starting to talk more and more. I wrote early in the month that she is putting two words together. She sure has made progress in the last 10 months, you can't keep her quiet now and I can't even count how many words she strings together.

March: Building is done and we moved in the last weekend of the month, YEAH!!! We had Daddy's birthday this month and Uncle Jason's birthday on Easter. Madi loves the outside!!

April: Absolutely loving the new house, peace and quiet and watching all the wildlife around us. We got the old house on the market.

May: Madi turned 2!! She is a ball of energy and talking up a storm. We got her to ride the four wheeler for the first time and she loved going on rides behind the tractor. I can't wait to do those again this summer.

June: Chris and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. Crazy month of bad storms. And we learned that Madi LOVES the water!! We can't keep her out of it, even mud puddles!

July: We had a little vacation at the lake over the 4th. We sold the house!!!! Madi and I had a great trip to the zoo and she absolutely loves it. (I'm so excited, Jason and Tabatha got us a family membership to the zoo for Christmas. We will be making lots of trips their this summer!) And we built the deck.

August: We had a fun visit from Walt and Beth and Joye and had a great Helm get-together. Madi moved into her big girl bed and made an easy transition. We started work on finishing the basement. And of course, it was the month of the fair. Madi looked so cute in her cowgirl duds!

September: Madi got her first official haircut! We finished the work on the basement. We made another zoo trip and got to see the Budweiser Clydesdale's. Madi tried skating for the first time! And the big news, Jason and Tabatha are having a baby!!!

October: Madi gave herself another haircut, she loves her Barbie's, and we had a great Halloween!

November: We got another tractor this month, something else for Chris to play with. Chris went and worked a couple days in Chapman on the Extreme Makeover house and we had our shop at the house built.

December: Chris went to deer camp and we got to go a couple times and visit. Madi absolutely loved it and is still talking about it. We spent most of the month working on our craft projects for Christmas and getting the house ready for family to stay. Madi loves Christmas and is still singing Christmas songs and talking about Santa.

We had a great year and really can't believe all that we have accomplished. We have a lot to be thankful for. Chris' business is doing great and growing, we have a wonderful house and are exactly where we want to be. We are enjoying watching Madi grow and change everyday. We also have a great family and want to thank everyone for their help this past year.

I hope everyone had a great year as well. Happy New Year!!!

Love, Amy

Not a Creature is Stirring...

It's a quiet house again. We had a full week with a full house and a lot of Christmas'. It was a good week, but I am ready to get back to our normal routine. We spent Saturday and Sunday doing absolutely nothing. It was nice to be lazy and lay around.

I spent the morning opening all of Madi's gifts and getting all the little tiny pieces out...just so she can lose them in a week. I am so sorry to the parents if we gave presents with a bazillion little pieces in them. This is our first Christmas having to experience that, what a pain. I'm making a trip to Wal-Mart after nap time to buy more storage tubs for all the play sets and hopefully I can pack up some toys that she doesn't play with anymore. I already went through all the stuffed animals and eliminated a bunch of those. I guess this is the perfect time to reorganize, when the house is in disarray and having to change over the holiday decorations to the everyday decorations.

I put together a slide show of our Christmas events this year. Of course I was a total airhead and didn't have the camera's or batteries ready or even located half the time. I didn't have very many pics of Christmas at my parents (I need to get them from you mom!!) and I didn't have any pictures of Christmas morning. So unprepared, I could kick myself.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! Thank you to everyone for a wonderful Christmas!

Love, Amy

"Snow!!!"

Madi got up this morning and came in and immediately saw the snow we got overnight. "Look at all the snow!!" "Let's make snowballs and a snowman!!" So, we got our first snow since moving out to the country. And you better believe I'm not going anywhere! It's days like this that keeps me in, I just wish we had a fireplace. We keep talking about putting one in but obviously we didn't get it done. It just makes me nervous after last year's ice storm, not having some kind of alternate heat out here. We definitely won't be roughing it if we lose power. The weather report is showing freezing rain for Thursday, let's pray we don't have the ice storm that we got last year, that was a rough week.

Love, Amy

Busy Elf

I have been non stop for the past two weeks. Since I procrastinated and have (had) huge plans on what I wanted to do for Christmas presents and we have family coming Friday to stay with us, I have been a busy, tired little elf. I'm sure I don't look like an elf because I actually feel like a chicken with my head cut off running around trying to get everything done and I can only imagine that the elves are a little more organized than I am and they don't wait till the last minute to make their gifts...Next year I will be a little better about managing my time (is that a New Year's resolution I just made???) I better add that one to the list.

Anyways, I have been driving everyone nuts around me lately because I am totally stressed out, sorry everyone!!! Actually it's getting a little better...except I just got off the phone with Chris, he wants me to go to Glasco and pick up his deer meat. That was not on my list of to-do's this week.

Speaking of deer...here are some pics from deer camp.


Chris' buck (I think the lens was fogged over, sorry about the blur)


Dan's buck, Chris' buck, and Chris' dogs (I mean doe's!!)


Madi looking at the deer.

I kept trying to get her to stand in front of them, but she said they were broken and she didn't want to. She actually did really well around the deer, I was surprised. I thought they might freak her out, but she was actually walking among the eight deer hanging down at the shop. She was playing with them and calling them her pets. She is too funny and probably scarred for life. She is constantly talking about wanting to hunt a deer now. She is such a tomboy. We did skip taking her down during processing of the deer. I think that would have been a little too much, that's not a pretty sight.

Wow, that post was a little spacey, that's me, Space Cadet Amy. I've spent too much time sitting already, got to get busy!!

Love, Amy

Deer Camp 2008

Madi and I tagged along this morning to Wilson Lake. We went to help setup and hang out and play for a bit. What a gorgeous day!! They always have such great days to setup and then it always turns nasty...which I think it's supposed to tomorrow. Madi had so much fun and I took a ton of pictures. She was so photogenic and actually smiling at the camera. I hope she does this great for the real pics on Saturday!!

Madi was so excited to go to Deer Camp. Once the guys put up their beds, she claimed one right away and I think she really thought she was going to stay. I told her she can go hunting with Daddy when she is seven. Knowing her, she probably won't forget that either!!

Love, Amy

**Check out this post from two years ago, same little girl, same toys...man has she grown, made me a little misty eyed seeing those pics again...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We certainly did. We spent Thursday at Dan and Jane's house. Had a great traditional turkey lunch. And then headed to Mom and Dad's to visit in the evening.


Friday morning we got up bright and early (4 am) to hit the sales at Wal-Mart. Dan came out to sit with Madi. She was supposed to sleep and let him go back to sleep. But she heard us leaving and she was up at 4:30. Poor Dan had to stay up and entertain her all morning. Needless to say, she took an early nap Friday. We ended up getting the items we most wanted at Wal-Mart. That place was a zoo. We got there before the 5 am start time and there were people just hanging out by the pallet of stuff that they wanted. Chit chatting with the people around them and then 5 am hit and you couldn't hear anything, you couldn't walk down an isle, forget trying to get a cart anywhere with any kind of speed. We found our items and made it to the checkouts at 5:15, along with about 200 other people. INSANE!!! We went to several other stores and made it back home by 7:30 with a car full. It was a lot of fun. This was the first year that just Chris and I went and we had a lot of fun together. We don't get very many chances anymore to do something together.


It was very sad though to hear about the Wal-Mart employee in NY who lost his life being mowed over by anxious shoppers. I don't understand how people can be so narrow minded about something that they didn't even know they were stepping on someone. That doesn't make any sense. And his poor family that has to remember that day and that event as the death of their loved one, just awful.

Saturday, Jason and Tabatha came into town and everyone came out to our house for Thanksgiving. We had a nice lazy day with lots of food. The girls went shopping after lunch and later the guys went out to sight in their rifles for deer hunting this week. Madi had a blast playing with Uncle Jason. She didn't want them to leave. They came out again on Sunday to eat and hang out. The guys were going to do some more sighting, but the weather didn't cooperate. So we played games and snacked. It was a great weekend.

Madi and I are at the shop this morning. I'm supposed to be paying bills and getting paychecks ready...oops! Chris is trying to get things planned out for the week and get his work done today and tomorrow so they can leave for deer camp at Wilson Lake. He is hoping he can get out of town early tomorrow. They will be gone until Sunday. It's going to be a long week. Thursday, I am planning on frying up chicken and taking supper out to them. Probably leave after Madi's nap so she can run around and do some playing out there, if it's not too cold. And then Saturday, Madi and I are going to Beloit to get some pictures taken.

I started decorating the house for Christmas yesterday. I got the tree up and a few small decorations out. I have a pre-lit tree that I got two years ago and already some of the lights aren't working and I can't find the bulbs to replace them. I'm a little discouraged. I guess I'll just have to put a couple of strings of lights on it and call it good. It's going to take a little more time to decorate this year. I don't have as many places to sit things and I really wish we had a mantle. I don't know what I am going to do with the stockings. But I love Christmas time and decorations, so I'll get it figured out.

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving. There are so many things to be thankful for this year and looking forward to a great December and being able to spend time with family and starting off a new year with many more things to be thankful for.

Love, Amy

Video Post

Quick post today...busy, busy this week. This is a video of Madi and Uncle Jason swimming in the lake Labor Day weekend. This is her first trip into the lake (where she couldn't touch the bottom.) Of course she absolutely loved it, my little fish. I know, it's old, but I didn't get it posted earlier. Enjoy!!

Movies

Has anybody seen Wall.e? It just came out and I am wondering if it's a good one. We love all the other Disney Pixar movies but really haven't seen much about this one. Thanks for the input!!

Building

I have a theme going this last week...building. So, I'll share with you our latest project. I know, I said that we were done building. But technically, WE are done building. We don't have to work on this project (sooo excited about that!!)

Monday night the crew and materials arrived to build our new shop out at the house!!! A company out of Stillwell, OK is building a 40x64 building and they are fast. They started yesterday morning at 7 and finished at 5:30 and had the entire frame and trusses hung. And there is only three guys working! I just went out to take quick pics while they left for lunch and was surprised to see the two long sides have metal already hung. They told us they would be done today, so we'll see. Yesterday was awfully cold and windy here, I don't know if that slowed them down any or not.

It will have a dirt floor for now. We just really needed something before winter. Our garage is full with the "toys" and mower (making it awfully stinky in there). So it will be great to get all that moved out, get the garage cleaned out (again) and be able to park inside. Chris has been having to wait for his windshield to thaw out the past two weeks, so I know he is looking forward to it. Plus there will be plenty of room to park both tractors inside and a nice wind block if he needs to work on them again. I'm really pulling to have a construction buddy of Chris' come out and do the concrete work. That is going to be a much bigger job than we have ever done plus it will save his back. I was glad to hear that he did talk to the guy yesterday about doing it.



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Other news...I won something!! I've never won anything before and this is so exciting! I wrote last week about Tip Junkie doing her 12 Days of Junkie giveaway. And I won a toddler fleece hat, gloves, and blanket set. Just what I needed. We stopped in Abilene on Sunday on the way to Chapman to get a hat for Madi. Good thing I didn't end up buying one! Don't forget to go check out the Shop-a-thon.

Have a great rest of the week. I have to get busy on my Christmas gifts!!

Love, Amy

Extreme Makeover Part 3

Madi and I went to Chapman Sunday to see the work and get a little viewing experience of the process. We drove into town and I really didn't want to park and load Madi up on the bus....so I took the chance that maybe I could park on a side street and walk over. So, for the first time, I got to see the damage that is still there. The grade school and high school had windows still shattered, no roofs, and even parts of the buildings gone. Just up the street, were the trailers lined up being used for classrooms with the teacher's name in the window. There was a church that had it's sanctuary ripped open and only two walls were left standing. And homes after homes that were still in ruin or in the process of being fixed. There were still homes with spray paint on the side with the date and time of when emergency personnel checked it after the storm. It was really sad.

Driving through town it was a sea of blue shirts. They were working on a building in the middle of downtown, they had a crew working on a welcome sign when you first hit town, and then at the house, there were hundreds of people working. When we parked, their was a man, a block and a half away from the new house, working by himself hanging siding. After leaving Chapman, I thought, what a shame. This show comes in and picks one family out of over 60 homes that were damaged by the same storm. How can they do that?

I knew there were other homes being helped. Chris and Dan went and worked at another home while we were there. But it was nice to see in the paper Monday that The Extreme Makeover team and volunteers have helped in some way at over 50 other homes in Chapman. That is wonderful!! What a great way to help get the community back on their feet.

Tomorrow morning is the reveal. I can't wait to see the show and see the final outcome of the house and the community. It is supposed to air on January 25, just days before Kansas Day, a good time to show what great people we have living in Kansas!!!

I put together the video's that Chris took and added the photos that he and I took on Sunday. All the people in blue shirts are the volunteers and the guys in red are among the five lead builders on the project. The stretch limo was bringing in "VIP's" to watch. How do you become a VIP? Aren't the VIP's supposed to be the family or maybe the hundreds of volunteers? Those would be my VIP's. Maybe they were the one's who footed the bill, who knows...Enjoy!!

Extreme Makeover Part 2

It was slow going in Chapman last night. They weren't ready for the electricians when they arrived. When I talked to him at 9:00 they still hadn't gotten started yet. There were a lot of volunteers on hand, he thought maybe a couple hundred. But maybe there wasn't enough direction or leadership. A lot of standing around waiting for the next task.

Chris was supposed to be working in the garage but when he left at 11:00, the concrete still hadn't been poured. We heard this morning that they didn't end up getting anyone in the garage to work until 3:00 am! The did get the pantry/laundry room roughed in. He said it was an 8x10 room with 8 guys in there working, plumbers, heating and air, electricians. But everybody was really nice, courteous, and understanding. It took them 30 minutes to get it completed. So, they decided to head on back home since they had plenty of people and nothing else to work on.

It's interesting to hear what really goes on there. On TV they make it look so easy and seamless with no problems. But that sure isn't the case right now. They've had some pretty big issues, nothing that can't be fixed, but I sure wouldn't want to be around during all this. If that was my house, I would be going on vacation too! And don't tell me anything that happened, I just want to enjoy the finished product!! After building our own home and experiencing the ups and downs of building over a 6 month time, I can only imagine what goes on when building a house from the ground up in 7 days. It's very cool what ABC and everyone involved with each of these homes is doing. Keep up the good work!!

Here's a couple of pics of the progress from last night!!
(And only one celebrity sighting, Michael Moloney was the only one that Chris saw there, maybe we'll see more on Sunday!!)

Christmas Cards

Since our lives are so hectic right know and totally revolve around a very busy business, we are having a terrible time getting our family photos taken for Christmas cards. But my favorite crafty lady at Skip to My Lou is having a great giveaway that may solve (part of) my problem.



At Skip to My Lou, get registered to win one of FIVE digital files to print your own Christmas cards and some really neat postage stamps to dress up those cards. How exciting, more freebies!! Plus, check out the rest of her site, she has awesome crafty ideas, recipes, and holiday tips.

All this holiday talk, I'm going to go join Madi in "Jingle Bells" (her new favorite song this past week!!!)

Headed to Chapman

If you haven't already heard, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is building a house in Chapman, KS for the Tutwiler family who lost their home in the tornado last June. Along with the new house, they are also building a new community center and refurbishing the city park. Chris and Ryan are headed there tonight along with a dozen other electricians in Salina to start the rough-in phase of the project. They are supposed to start at 6:30 this evening and have 6 hours to complete their jobs. Chris and Ryan will be working on the garage and pantry. I am sending the camera along with him and hopefully will have some pics to share tomorrow.

Sunday, they have to be back in Chapman at 5:00 am to do the finishing trim work which they have 8 hours to complete. I think that morning Madi and I will head over and check it out. It's pretty exciting stuff. There are a lot of contractors and tradesmen from the Salina area that have gone over already to help.

Check out the Rebuild Chapman website for pictures and a link to donate.

***Update***
Chris just came home to get some rest before going tonight. They are currently 6 hours behind on building. They are on call as to when they will actually be starting tonight (more likely early in the morning).

***Update...again***
This should be a fun night, they decided to go ahead and have everyone report at 6:30 anyways. Hopefully they don't have to wait around for too long. It's one thing to wait during the day, but not in the middle of the night.

Holiday Shopping

Need help getting ideas for all those special people on your holiday gift list? Check out Tip Junkie and the Mom-prenuer Shop-a-thon. Tip Junkie's Shop-a-thon features women who are selling their own products. What a great way to support women and small businesses.

Did I mention there are also prizes to be won? Tip Junkie is also doing 12 Days of Junkie and two winners will be chosen each day for the next 12 days!! Like Tip Junkie says, "Buy from women this holiday season!"

It runs!!!

We finally got our new tractor running. Well, it isn't new, it's a 1957 John Deere 720, but it's new to us. We got this tractor in trade from a neighbor and it had sat for quite awhile. It wouldn't start and Chris rebuilt the carb and put it back together yesterday and it started!! He was so excited and proud of himself.

This tractor is much bigger than our other tractor. When we bought our land, the guy who farmed it before was supposed to come out and get his implements. Well, he never did, so we inherited them. But they are so large, we didn't have anything to pull them with. Now all we need is a bailer and to find out if the swather that was also left behind works. We can then cut our own alfalfa instead of having a local farmer come over and do it. (I'm pulling for just getting goats and letting them eat it!!)

Our week

Sorry I didn't post this week. It's been a hectic week.

Jason and Tabatha were in town last weekend. Everyone came over for supper Sunday and to hang out for awhile. The guys (and Madi) went out and did some target shooting out back. They were all walking out and Madi comes running in the house, "I got to get my gun!" If you look close in the picture, Madi is also shooting "her gun", it's a squirt gun! She is too dang cute. I wish I had been closer to get a better picture. Later on all three were shooting and they were just shooting as fast as they could...Madi was the puller and was pushing the button as fast as it would launch!



Us three girls stayed inside and cooked supper while the boys (and Madi) played. Madi eventually made her way back up to the house and played with Aunt Tabatha.





Madi had to sit with Uncle Jason during supper. Poor Jason had to share the chair with her the whole meal, she wouldn't sit in her own chair and she wouldn't eat off her own plate, so he had to share his meal with her too. I have a feeling he didn't mind though ;)

Monday we went to Beloit for my dad's uncle's funeral. Uncle Tom passed away after battling cancer for the last 13 years. It was nice to see all of our family but a sad reason to finally get together. A lot of them we haven't seen in 8 years (since the last funeral). But there was talk of a family reunion this summer and that will be fun.

Tuesday morning was spent at the shop getting paperwork done. That's always a fun trip with Madi. I have about 3 hours that I can kind of keep her occupied with toys, a movie, and stopping to play ball or give snacks and then she is ready to go. So, I have started splitting it up. Doing bills and paychecks one day and invoices another day.

The rest of the week has been so stinking windy around here that we have hibernated in the house. The wind was so strong, Madi couldn't even walk against it. Our metal chairs and our barbecue grill have been moving all over the back deck, very noisy. I'm really surprised our little pine trees are still in the ground, it's been awful. Thursday we watched them harvest milo across the road from us. Madi loves tractors and combines so it was nice to watch them from the living room window. They probably lost a good quarter of their harvest transferring the milo from the combine to the tractor and then into the semi trucks because of the wind.

We have been going out in the evenings driving around and looking for deer. The other night we had an awesome night, we saw 17 deer! We had a big buck run right in the road in front of us, it was great. In another field we saw two massive bucks. They were well into this field and they still looked huge from the road. We saw them about two miles west of our house, we need to drive them closer!!! We have quite a few that come into our alfalfa field at night. We see them late though with our spotlight. Last week we had two bucks fighting and we could hear them butting horns from our back deck, pretty cool!!

Friday was play day. Kenley came to spend the day with us. The girls ran wild most of the day. I tried to lay them down for nap in Madi's room together, but that didn't work so well. Two minutes after laying them down I could hear them talking and giggling. I went in and Madi's sitting up in bed jabbering and Kenley's sitting up in her bed just giggling away. I told them to lay down and go to sleep. Two minutes later they are doing the same thing. I went in again and they both laid down real quick and Madi closes her eyes like she was sleeping, so ornery. I eventually had to separate them, it was not working! Here they are reading books, it was about the only 5 minutes of quiet we had all day, besides nap time. It was fun though and they get along really well.



This was from a couple weeks ago. Madi said she was going to school! She talks about going to school all the time now. We pick up Wyatt (Ryan's son) on Friday's from school and Madi loves it. I keep telling her she can't go to school until she potty's on the potty and wears big girl panties. Hasn't worked dang it! Question for all the mom's: Madi is totally not into wanting to even try potting on the potty, she flat out says no and doesn't want to. Do I keep talking about it everyday and asking her if she will go on the potty or do I just let it rest and try again later? It's like banging my head against the wall, and maybe it's like that for her too.



Last night was fight night again. This time we had both Quentin and Ryan fighting. Ryan won!!! His very first fight, it was awesome and of course they were all pumped and on cloud 9 last night. Chris and I were so stinking nervous before hand, I'm sure Jenny probably was too. Quentin
lost :( His guy gave a great fight and just would not go down. Quentin ended up breaking his hand halfway through the fight and wasn't able to throw many more punches. He finally ended up getting knocked out. We saw him after the fight and he looked pretty bad and then we saw the other guy and he looked just as bad, so it was a pretty good fight.

That's what we have been up to this last week...that was a long one (sorry!) Need to get busy, Chris has to work some today and is going to try and get our new tractor working and I need to go get Madi picked up from Grandma and Grandpa's. Have a good week!!

Love, Amy

The Day After...

What a day yesterday turned out to be. Chris went to work and ended up back at the house an hour later. He was simply bending over to pick up a piece of wood and his back went out. Not as bad as last time but he came home and got some medicine in and relaxed instead of making it worse and pushing on.

After Madi's nap, we tried getting her ready to go trick or treating. Lately she is very particular with what she wants and doesn't want to wear. So, I wasn't surprised when she threw a royal fit and didn't want to wear her cowgirl shirt (very cute button up plaid shirt), she didn't want to wear her cowboy boots. We went to get her picture taken at Forever Images, they were collecting food and money and you get a free 4x6 picture, but she was scared of the decorations and didn't get her picture taken. She was finally happy once we started trick or treating. We didn't go to too many places but she had a ball. She knocked on the door and would say "Trick or Treat" before they even opened the door. At Chris' grandma's apartment building an older lady invited us down to her apartment for candy.

Madi: "Trick or Treat"
Lady: "Here you go, do you want to give one to your Mommy?"
Madi: "Okay"...takes the candy and puts in her pail "I need one for my Daddy too."
Lady: "Oh, of course!"
Madi: takes the candy and puts in her pail..."Thank you"

Madi had no intention of giving us that candy. I think the only thing she saw the whole night was all the big bowls of candy, she wanted as much candy as she could get her little hands on.

Once we got to my parents house, we stayed for a bit to let her run around. She was so high on candy, she was running laps and literally would just fall over, she couldn't even stand or walk straight. She hadn't even had that much...yet!! But she had so much fun handing out candy to their trick or treaters. It was so cute! The doorbell would ring and she would run for the bowl on the table saying "I'll do it, I'll do it!" We would open the door and she would say "Trick or Treat" and put candy in their bags. As soon as they would leave she would run for her bag and have to get more candy out of Mom's bowl for herself. And she must have started at least four suckers and then want a different one.

After Mom's we stopped at our neighbor's house and Kenley (who is Madi's age) stopped shortly after and they both just ran and screamed and had a ball. It was too funny to watch. They probably won't want us back next year!! We finally made it home at 10:30! WAY past bedtime.

It was a little disappointing at first and I really didn't think we were going to end up doing any trick or treating, but it turned out to be a great evening and we really enjoyed ourselves. Hope everyone had a great evening!

Love, Amy


My little cowgirl!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!



We hope everyone has a safe and fun day with lots of candy!!!

Love,
Amy, Chris, and Madi

Camping

With the exception of Saturday being so nice, I feel like we have been camping in our own home for the last couple of weeks. We spend the day all bundled up and at night we sleep with two comforters on the bed. We have avoided turning on the heater. It's silly, we only get one month of nice weather where we don't need the a/c or the heater. But it's nice getting that electric bill and having it significantly lower than all the other months. We were out and about this morning and stopped at the shop. I was sitting there talking with Chris and the heater kicks on. It made me a little mad because it was 60 degrees in the house this morning, it was cold. He goes to work and turns on his heater, while we stay at home and freeze. When we got home a little bit ago, it was still 60 degrees in the house. The heater came on. I'm so tired of being cold. We shouldn't have to have it on for too long because it's supposed to warm up again for the rest of the week.

We are looking forward to Friday. Going to try and get Madi all dressed up for Halloween. She says she wants to be a farmer and a cowgirl. I told her she could be both. It should be a fun year for Halloween. We practiced saying "Trick or Treat" the other day.

Hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Halloween! I'm going to enjoy warming up this afternoon, hehe!!

Love, Amy

New Look!

Let me know what you think of the new blog layout. I liked the old one, but I love all the colors in this new one. Just trying out something new.

If you want your own, new blog layout, checkout Simply Fabulous. The best part, they are free!! Who doesn't love free stuff. Also, checkout my fun places to go buttons on the right. I found Simply Fabulous from Tip Junkie. Loving that site also!!

My favorites on my computer is growing larger and larger. Sorry Chris, but my new homepage is going to have to be my blog!!

Love, Amy

Family Update

Not much going on around here. Chris is still super busy at work with no end in sight. Which is great because of all the hype about the economy but it doesn't look like we will be getting a vacation this year. Which is okay too. A little nervous about taking Madi in a vehicle for longer than an hour!

We finally made a turn around in Madi's sleeping this last weekend. For two weeks we have had quite the battle on our hands at night getting her to sleep in her own bed. But like always, it stopped as abruptly as it started. But we will see how things go the rest of the week with the rain and storms that we are supposed to get the next four days. Her being scared of thunder and the rain is what started all this two weeks ago. Other than that, Madi is doing great. A couple of weeks ago I brought home a bunch of stuff that had been in storage at mom and dads. I had two big cases of Barbie's and clothes and Madi has fallen in love with them. She loves to play with her "Darbies" as she calls them. Right now they are littering the floor of my sewing room. She can't really change their clothes or anything but she likes to lay them all out and cover them up. If I talk, I get "SHHHHHH, Darbie is sleeping." So this weekend I found a Barbie bed and a sand buggy at a garage sale for her to play with. She loves them, I'll have to find some more things at garage sales. Makes it so much cheaper. Her other favorite thing right now is Play-doh. I got out the little cookie cutters I have and she has had a ball.

Oliver is doing better. He is no longer doing his coughing thing. He is still as grouchy as ever and it gets soo loud in the house when him and Madi get going. I think he is partly to blame on her getting so amped up, especially at night. They just run and run and she gets crazy. But he always chases after her and she thinks he is just the coolest. She calls him "her pet" and gives him kisses.

I have been busy with my many sewing projects I have going right now. Mom came over Sunday and we spent all day trying to finish up the crayon rolls for Tabatha's class. We had a lot of fun. But we sure make a lot of mistakes when we are working together. We get to talking and being goofy and forget what we are doing and what we are supposed to be doing. It's still a lot of fun and something we used to do before Madi came and haven't really been able to do much the last couple of years. I spent part of yesterday down at the shop doing payroll and bills. Today we have to go back down and get invoices sent out. I am also trying to get collection letters sent out today. We will see how that goes and hopefully these people will PAY UP!!

Better get busy and out the door!!

Love, Amy

Cold, Dreary Monday

We received a lot of rain last night. Woke up this morning to a river in the back and in front. I was up most of the night with Madi but didn't think that it had rained that much, I sure didn't hear it. Madi has been sleeping horribly this week. The wind has freaked her out and she doesn't want to go to bed at night. Once she finally falls asleep, she is usually up again around 2 am and ends up sleeping the rest of the night in our room. And then nobody gets any sleep. I finally got her baby mattress back out and put it on our floor for her. She sure goes through these cycles of bad sleeping. I'm ready for this one to be over.

If it isn't Madi keeping us awake, it's Oliver. Since Friday morning he has been having these coughing spells and they are deep and loud. I took him to the vet Friday because he wasn't himself and hacking all over the floor, yuck. Ends up that he has pneumonia and is on antibiotics for two weeks. What a pain.

Saturday we had a pretty fun and adventurous day. We went to the Yesteryear Museum here in town for their Harvest in the Fall. They had a bunch of old tractors and people doing demonstrations of how people farmed and lived from the the late 1800's to the 1960's. It was a lot of fun and a lot of stuff to see. Chris knows one of the Board Members who also had several old tractors there that he restored. He needed some extra drivers for the tractor parade so Chris got to drive one. Chris will probably be out there next year with our tractor. The highlight of the event was the Steam Engine Tractor that was brought in for the show. It's from the 1880's and it was the first piece of farm equipment to be powered by something other than horses. It sure seemed like a lot of work. It took three guys to drive the thing and it was huge and slow. Pretty sure there weren't a lot of farmers in those days that owned them new.

Late afternoon we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Dan and Jane came out to pick up the lawn mower and ended up going with us. We took the tram out to see the Bison. Wasn't as neat as it was last year. They don't take you into the same pasture with them anymore and by the time we got out there, they had all moved to the opposite side of the field, so we didn't get to see them very well. But Madi didn't care. She had more fun pointing out all the "buffalo chips" than actually seeing the buffalo. The man behind us told his daughter to watch for buffalo chips when we got into the fields. She started yelling out, "there's a buffalo chip" and of course, Madi being the follower she is, started doing the same thing. So, the whole trip she was looking over the side and yelling out "there's a bufawo ship."

We then played in the kids area and went and picked out pumpkins. I have taken her out the last three Halloween's. The first year she slept in her car seat the whole time, last year she wandered around but didn't really care about the pumpkins and this year all she wanted to do was load up every pumpkin she could pick up. I ended up taking some pumpkins out of the wagon, she just kept putting them in. Each year she keeps getting more and more fun as she learns what we are doing and why. After I arranged the pumpkins on the front porch yesterday, she keeps picking them up and kissing them and saying "I wuv pumpkins!" I always try and get three different sized ones for each of us. As I laid them out, I told her "this one's daddy, this one's mommy, and this one is Madi." She turned to me and said, "where is Oliver's?" So, we rearranged so we had all four of us.

I included some pictures from our adventures on Saturday and also a little video of some of the cool things we saw. Enjoy and have a great week!

Love, Amy

Wow, what a difference one day can make. We had that nice slow rain all day yesterday and by 5:00, we had grass poking up out of the ground!! How exciting. You can see little patches of it coming up in the front and back.


I just could not wait to share this super cool craft project I have been working on for the last two days! These are crayon rolls and they hold 16 crayons and then roll up and stay snug in their little pockets. I think these are neat ideas. I hate trying to get crayons in and out of a crayon box and it is almost impossible for little ones. So instead of dumping out the whole box and having crayons roll everywhere, these are easy to slip in and out. Plus, how long does the box last anyways? Within 10 minutes, that thing is already been torn and the crayons really never stay in.




I made a girls and boys crayon roll. My mom and I are going to make these for Tabatha to give to her 1st grade class for Christmas. Plus, we have a lot of little ones coming for Christmas this year (hint, hint)!











Madi is still getting used to it. We don't do a lot of crayons unless we are coloring together. I am going to adapt the pattern and make one that will hold her Color Wonder Markers. I love them, she can color anywhere and anytime and I don't have to worry about making a mess.


If you want to make your own Crayon Roll, check out Skip to My Lou. She has awesome craft ideas for kids and kids to make. Plus tons and tons of other ideas. Or let me know and I can make some for you!

Another Haircut!!

Chris and I worked down at the shop all weekend making bookshelves for downstairs. They turned out really great. We made three and since we didn't stain them, we were able to get them completely made in two days and are already in the basement. I've spent most of the morning getting our books and collectibles out of storage and getting things arranged. The downstairs is almost done, except for decorating. Next weekend the plan is to get the entertainment gadgets all hooked up and finished. We need to mount the projector and get the speakers mounted and all the wires run. I'm ready to get that done so we can start spending some time down there, other than just using it for Madi's track and field events.





I've also included some pics of the new furniture and our "tv room". It still seems sparse down there and we are debating on getting a couple of recliners. There is definitely room for them but we just have so much stinking furniture in this house now, I am tired of buying furniture.








So, while Chris and I were busy working on the bookshelves, Madi was running around the shop playing with everything she could get her hands on. Saturday, within 20 minutes of being there, she was a total dirt ball. Completely covered in dirt and marking chalk, her hands were black and her face was gross. Chris had gotten the shop all cleaned up last week so we brought her bike along for something to play with. Sunday she got bored and I started a movie for her in the office. I went in to check on her and she was sitting on the couch with scissors in her hand. I freaked out and took them from her and then noticed a big pile of hair on her lap. Then I really started to freak out. She had managed to chop off quite a bit of hair on the top of her head. It looks totally stupid and sticks up in the air but there is nothing I can do with it unless I chopped it all off. But I won't. I've been wanting to get her pictures done for months now. We were finally slowing down a bit around here that I was hoping to get them done within the next couple of weeks. Not anymore...I just hope it grows out enough by the time we get Christmas pics done. Needless to say, she went to Nana and Papa's shortly after this happened. This also confirms that she is a monkey, those scissors were on top of a filing cabinet and she had to have stood on the back of the couch to have reached them. I'm just glad she didn't cut herself or worse (shudder).





We have had a slow rain all day long so far. I am loving it!! I spent all last week watering the front and back yard. It literally takes me all day, moving hoses around, to get it all watered. It's giving me a nice break and I'm loving the free water too. I just hope it starts growing, we have yet to see anything poking out of the ground.


Well, need to get back to the basement. I am hoping to get started on my newest sewing project. I'll show you what I am working on next time!! Have a great week!!
Love, Amy

What a busy weekend. Not only just the weekend, but we have been busy and getting to see and do new things since Thursday. I am currently downloading 122 pictures from my camera and haven't even looked at the pics Chris took on the little camera. It has been fun and exhausting at the same time.

Some of the highlights have been:
Thursday
1. Seeing a blimp outside of our house, how often do you get to see a blimp in Salina, KS.
2. Budweiser Clydesdale horses in full hitch at Rolling Hills Zoo.

Friday
1. Trip to the zoo.
2. New golf cart. Loving it! I feel so much better taking Madi on the golf cart than on the 4-wheeler. It scoots pretty good...going down hill!!

Saturday
1. Parade downtown for Smoky Hill Museum Street Fair and also Salina's 150th Birthday. The longest parade ever, it took an hour and fifteen minutes for the whole thing. It obviously didn't keep Madi's attention the whole time. All she wanted to do was eat the candy!
2. Went to the street fair and quickly made our way through the museum, did a couple of games and went down the giant inflatable slipper slide.
3. Birthday party at the skating rink. Again, all Madi wanted to do was eat nachos and run around after the kids. She did finally get on roller skates and made one stretch of the rink and was done.

Sunday
1. Church
2. Bought fertilizer, grass seed, and 5 pine trees.
3. Spent all day finishing the tilling on the front and back yard, applied fertilizer and grass seed and planted our trees! Feels so good to have it done. Now we are praying for rain and dreading the water bill next month. I just hope the grass comes up, that was a lot of work.

Finally got the pics downloaded. I've got to get busy cleaning this dirty house, yuck! Have a good week.

Love, Amy



Check out the newest blog, Waiting on Eugelmer! Jason and Tabatha's blog.

First Haircut

Monday was Madi's first official haircut. I have trimmed her bangs a couple of times (not very good) but Monday we got her bangs trimmed and her hair evened out in the back. Looks great!! She won't let me do anything to her hair and very rarely even lets me brush it. I thought about cutting it real short and giving her a style instead of trying to do something with it everyday. After looking back at pictures this last weekend, I decided against it. She had no hair for so long. It wasn't even long enough to start doing anything with until January of this year. So, I just couldn't cut all of her hard work off!!



It's been awhile since I did a post about Madi. She is working on her two year molars right now. She has one in on the bottom and the other is almost in, nothing on top yet. She is definitely a two year old right now. She has little melt downs several times a day over nothing. She will be playing and having fun and all of a sudden she falls on the floor and "cries".
Me: "What's wrong Madi, why are you fussing?"
Madi: "I want a popsicle, snif snif"
Me: "But you didn't even ask for a popsicle, don't cry."
Madi: "Mommy, can I have a popsicle!" And everything is fine. She is so crazy sometimes. I just let her throw her fits.

She is starting to notice that she is alone. She will tell me, I'm going to play...in my room...by myself. So sad. And since we have been talking about Jason and Tabatha having a baby, she is now asking where is her baby sister. But she did tell me that her best friend is Oliver and she chases him with her doll stroller daily. The noise in the house when they are "playing" is deafening.

I am still trying to get her to potty on the potty chair. She occasionally will go sit and potty, but it has to be her idea. What a horrible time to try and potty train a child, being two, independent and stubborn and trying to get them to sit for more than five seconds. She'll sit and grunt and then say "It's not working" and gets up. I have to remind her to sit and have patience. I'm not pushing it too hard, it's like everything else with her, it will eventually click and just happen (I hope).

Madi is such a talker, she talks all the time. We took a trip to Beloit last week and she talked the whole way there (an hour drive) and she talked all the way home. When she isn't talking, she is singing. She loves singing nursery rhymes and along with the radio. She is very inquisitive, always asking questions and we are constantly pointing out things.

She is loads of fun and a handful at the same time. That's probably why I love and hate staying home sometimes.

Have a great weekend!
Love, Amy

Pears, Pears, Pears

So here is what I have been up to for the past two days...well 3 days since today was cleanup day! A friend of ours has a neighbor with a pear tree that just went crazy with pears this year. Monday night we went over and picked at least 50 pounds of pears. We didn't plan on getting that many but the owners of the tree came out and helped us pick. They are obviously getting tired of pears and the tree is still loaded with ripe pears ready to be picked. Needless to say, they were happy to get rid of them.



Here is our beginning product, lots of pears!


I found some recipes online for Spiced Pear Jam, Canned Pears, and Pears Conserve. I have never made jam or canned before but I thought I would give it a try. With free pears and only a couple of other ingredients and canning jars (that are reusable), I figured if it didn't turn out, I wasn't out a bunch of money. So, Tuesday after Madi went down for nap I started peeling pears for Spiced Pear Jam. It sure takes a lot of pears, once you remove the peel and core, to make 8 cups of pears. I peeled pears from 12:00 to 6:00 and only had enough to make one batch of jam and one batch of just canned pears.


The smell in the house from the Spiced Jam was awesome. It smelled like fall and reminded me of Christmas, it was great. I thought about just making some and using it for potpourri in a small crock pot. Yummy!! I was able to get both of them canned before Chris came home and I left one of the jars of jam open for us to try. Those two batches yielded 3 jelly jars of jam, 5 small jelly jars of jam, and four pints of canned pears. Not a lot to show for all my work. So Chris comes home and says "that's all you got done?" Like I had should have had all 50 pounds of pears peeled already. He looked at the pile of pears still left and immediately called his parents to come out and help peel, he is so goofy! He decided he didn't like the chunky jam that I made and wanted to puree the pears and make jam like you would buy from the store.


First of all, if you don't know Chris, he doesn't do anything in small scale and he doesn't follow recipes. He is also a very, very messy cook. I don't know if that is a Chris thing or a guy thing. But he managed to dirty up four different machines trying to get the pears pureed. And he doesn't cleanup while he is cooking, he just brings out the next thing and slides the mess over. I have quite a bit of counter space now and he managed to have all of it dirty and full of everything in the kitchen. Drives me NUTS!!



This is my first batch, on the stove top in a large pot.





This is Chris' batch. Tripled and in our huge roaster oven. At this point it is 9:30 at night and this stuff is supposed to simmer for two hours and then can it right away. We decided to cover it with foil and I would finish cooking it the next day. There was no way I was going to stay up all night to make jam. It's a good thing we didn't wait either. I started it back up the next day at 8:00 in the morning and it cooked until 12:00 and then I canned it. Triple the recipe, double the time! It still turned out great, but next time, I will try and have it done before he gets home from work!




Here is my final product. A huge success for my first time. All my jars sealed. The jam turned out great, the canned pears look great, my conserve didn't turn out very well, but I found a better recipe and will try it next time.


Now, we are trying to find an apple tree!! And next year we will be planting our own fruit trees!

Aunt Amy

I am so excited to say that I am going to be an aunt!!!

Jason and Tabatha are expecting their first baby on April 25th. They had their first doctors appointment last week and they were able to have a sonogram and see the baby and see the heartbeat. Everything is going well and they are both very excited.

Congratulations and we love you guys!

Cleaning Weekend

What a long weekend. We spent two days cleaning. Saturday, Chris helped me clean the whole upstairs. What a relief to have that done and with help. Sunday we spent the afternoon outside cleaning the garage and getting it reorganized. I can now park my vehicle inside! A couple of weeks ago while Chris was out riding the four wheeler, he noticed we had two musk thistle plants out in the field.



So, yesterday he went back out to cut them down. Instead he found hundreds of plants. Musk thistle is a noxious weed in Kansas and can easily take over a field. Plus they are hard to get rid of, they lay dormant for years. And it is actually illegal to have them in Kansas. A friend of ours has some land north of Minneapolis and he has been fighting these things for three years now. But of course we have seen them all over this area recently in the fields and along the roads. We spent a couple hours out cutting the heads off and pulling the plant out of the ground or spraying it with weed killer. I don't know if we are doing any good but I'd rather do something than nothing. We didn't get them all yet but we made huge progress. Once we get the heads all picked we are going to mow that field. We mowed it last year but we haven't mowed it at all this year yet. So hopefully that will help also.

That was our fun filled weekend. Hope everyone else had a good one. Happy Birthday to Grandpa Tom last Friday. Happy Birthday to Aunt Linda tomorrow, Emily on Friday and Ella on Saturday!

Love, Amy

It's Official!!

As of yesterday at 12:00 pm, we are done building (at least on the house). YEAH!! Carpet layers finished up yesterday and it looks awesome. It is so nice to be able to walk anywhere in the house and not worry about tracking dirt and dust everywhere. Plus, it's been a great area for Madi to just run and do whatever she wants. Especially on days that we can't be outside, it will be great.

Now we just need to finish putting stuff where we want it and I need to clean, clean, clean. The upstairs has been ignored and everything is covered in dust. So you know what I will be doing, fall cleaning!!

Here are some pics of the basement. The carpet looks a little pink in the photos, but it isn't. It's the same carpet as upstairs, beige.





Love, Amy

Ugh!

"My girlfriend is late for our annual intimate encounter. By this time of the year, she usually has begun to send me sweet harbingers of our end-of-summer fling that make me tear up, but so far, nothing. Shes probably waiting to surprise me on my birthday, which is coming up in a few weeks. Shes done that before, so I'm not worried. We've had a relationship for years, so I know this is just her playful way of messing with my head -- in particular, my sinuses. When I was younger, I would awake on my birthday to find that she'd finally arrived. I couldn't see her diaphanous beauty because my eyelids would be mattered shut; however, I knew Id gotten a whiff of her intoxicating pollen because my nasal passages would be so swollen they could stop a speeding bullet. She has that effect on me. Always has, always will.

She disgusts my wife, as any mistress would, especially one who moves in. Her name is Hay Fever (unmodified for this family newspaper), and she generally shows up about this time with enough luggage for a two-month stay . I should mention that she stops by briefly in the spring and early summer but remains uncharacteristically aloof. A few sneezes and a mildly runny nose is all she has time for. But, as summer wanes, her desires peak and all she can think about is finding ways to drive me crazy. (That's how I know Hay Fever is a woman.)

"Why don't you take something?" my wife implores. I have an aversion to pills of any kind, firmly believing that the forbidden fruit of Eden was not an apple but a time-release gel cap. Hay Fever learned this long ago and uses it to her advantage. She knows she can have her way with me for many weeks before her charms become too intense and I'm driven, snorting, sneezing and wheezing, to the medicine chest, sin or no sin. I am no match for Hay Fever, but neither is she for a hard freeze. It must be freeze. A frost wont do. She laughs at a frost and then comes after me in unquenchable fury, as if I had something to do with the weather. The best birthday gift imaginable would be a temperature reading in the single digits, but with the Earth heating up, no longer is there a place in the Northern Hemisphere that chills that low so early in September. Eventually winter arrives, and Hay Fever departs. I stand in the doorway, eyes residually crimson, sniffling the last of her, not unhappy at all to see her go."

Artical written by Gordon Fiedler of the Salina Journal on 8-24-08.

I read this article a couple of weeks ago and laughed because I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had just gotten my visit from Miss Hay Fever myself. It wasn't too bad yet, it would go away in a couple of days. But she is still here. I was laying in bed last night, not able to sleep or breath, with water running down my face from my leaking eyeballs, and this article popped into my head.

I love this time of year. The weather cools down and we get a huge break on the electric bills because I can open the windows. But on the other hand, I am so miserable with allergies because the windows are open. And not just allergies but my asthma then starts giving me fits. It's a vicious cycle. I was able to handle the runny nose and itchy watery eyes during the day for awhile. I would only take my little pink pill of heaven (Benadryl) at night so I could actually lay down and breath and get some sleep. But I can no longer go without medicine. My new best friend is my Claritin. Like Mr. Fiedler, I am longing for that first freeze now!!

Busy, Busy

This last week I have been busy working in the basement getting it finished and ready for carpet to finally be laid tomorrow. They keep pushing our carpet delivery back but so far they are supposed to be here tomorrow and finish on Wednesday. I am still super excited to get it done. Friday I spent the whole day pulling all of the tools and building materials out of the mechanical room so we could load them up and bring them all down to the shop. But of course it has been raining since Friday and is just way too muddy to drive the truck to the back of the house. So, everything is sitting and waiting until probably the end of the week, since it rained again last night.

Friday night we pulled the pool table out and got it all setup. Saturday we spent the day going through the pile of stuff that got pushed to a corner of the basement in order to put up the walls. We pretty much managed to turn one huge pile into two smaller piles. We are just waiting to move half of the stuff again into the areas where the carpet is going to be laid. Chris got himself a work bench made in the basement and was able to get most of his hunting room organized. I was able to get my seasonal tubs put away and organized. I'm anxious to get my sewing room setup and get some quilting done soon.

Sunday we went to KC and went furniture shopping. It took us four times longer to get there and back than it did to find what we wanted. But I already had it picked out, we just had to find it in the massive Nebraska Furniture Mart store. They carry some of Ashley Furniture's pieces, and I had picked out what I wanted here in town and found the same furniture for hundreds of dollars cheaper online at Nebraska Furniture Mart. It will be delivered on the 17th!!!

Madi went with us and we had a nice day. They were having the Richard Petty Driving School at the Kansas Speedway. We got to go into the infield and see the cars and the track. I was excited and so was Madi. While we waited to get in, Madi was sitting in the back seat singing, "Going to see race cars, Going to see race cars!" It was cute. And she is such a tomboy, her highlight of the day was getting a diecast race car. I asked her if she wanted a teddy bear or a car, "Car please!" She had that car in a bear hug on the way home. We kind of stumbled onto the RPDS when we were in Charlotte two years ago and got to go see Lowe's Motor Speedway. LMS is way better than KS Speedway but it was nice to see. I keep telling Chris he isn't going to be able to get away with just taking me to the race tracks for much longer, I want to GO to a race!!

I have pictures and will post them soon on Winkflash. Need to finish up here at the shop and get Madi picked up from Grandma's house.

Love, Amy

Saturday night we went to the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fights. Both of Chris' workers are involved in it and we went to support them and have an evening out. Ryan is a corner coach, he wasn't fighting but Quentin was the big fight for the night. He is the heavyweight champion, he has two belts and he won Saturday. I don't know why anyone would want to do any kind of fighting, but this MMA fighting is even more dangerous than boxing or any other kind of fighting. These guys (and one fight with girls!!!) get the snot beat out of them. Dislocated arms and shoulders, broken noses, broken teeth, cuts, bruises, and everyone is sore the next day. It was pretty fun to watch and more fun and nerve racking when it's someone you know.

The fights were outside and I haven't really been affected by allergies yet this summer, but early Sunday morning I woke up with a full on allergy attack. I hate my allergies, I get these attacks about 4 times a year and they never really go away, just eases a bit (or I get used to the runny nose all the time). And Madi has a cold or maybe allergies, I don't know. But her nose is constantly running and she woke up this morning coughing. Although, she isn't slowed by it at all, so it must not be bothering her.

All the dust in the house isn't helping either one of us. We just finished the tile Saturday and I have been trying to get the grout haze off the tiles for three days now. I have tried everything and probably mopped the floor a dozen times and it doesn't change a bit. I finally found that just a slightly damped cloth and on my hands and knees scrubbing every tile is the only way it is coming off. Just had the lights delivered for downstairs. The guys are supposed to be here the rest of the week to install the doors, baseboards and window trim. Carpet is delayed by a week so they will be here to install on the 8th.

Happy Labor Day and have a good long weekend!
Love, Amy