Decorating With Wood

Today we did some cleaning in the morning and then went on a short shopping trip while the boys were still in school.  Julaine took me to a store called the Wood Connection.  It is just as woman friendly and anti-man like as the other store she likes called Rod Works.  It is great walking in the door and being stared down because you and one other person are the only men in a store stuffed with women.  The store is full of creative ideas to decorate with.  No doubt the building was built in the early 80's and has a very small parking lot.  The layout of the store is very odd.  When you first enter the store you come down a long hallway with three cash registers, so the the in and out are very congested.  While we were there the girls picked up some metal rods used for decorating that were curled on the ends.  The girls thought they looked a lot like mustaches and held them up to their faces.  After they pulled them away from above their lips the rods left black marks on their skin.  Both of the girls were left with Charlie Chaplin style black mustaches that we all got a good laugh out of.  It is a lot of fun for Julaine to find the projects she has done so far that involve gluing, painting, and detailing.  Afterwards we stopped by the polar opposite of her store, the Home Depot.  I wanted to see how much a band saw was so that I could cut some things out for her on my own.  Later that night we were back at the house for pizza and movie time with the kids.

Pie and a Challenge

Today started like an average day; but around 4:30pm everything changed.  There has been a hornets nest near the top of my house near the hexagon shaped vent for most of the summer.  I had had put out some of those yellow plastic traps that they are supposed to fly into, but I only caught one over the summer.  With the colder weather we have been having I figured they had all left their nest or were still tiny larva.  I got the 15 foot ladder out and began to climb.  It was a little shaky but I made it to the top.  I went to put my foot on the shingles and stopped.  I thought, holy crap I hope I don't fall and get hurt.  This roof is pretty steep and if I fall I will have two kids scarred for life.  After going up and down 4 or 5 times I finally made a courageous crawl from the top of the ladder to the roof.  I brought a long piece of PVC pipe with me and began to crawl on my knees further up the roof until I was up against the wall of the second story.  On the roof I saw a dead hornet that looked like it had just frozen there and died.  I thought; awesome that is probably the last of them, this shouldn't be too bad.  With a couple of swings I finally knocked the hornets nest down beside me only to find there were plenty of hornets hanging around.  Instantly I was transformed into Jackie Chan and without thinking kicked it off the roof.  Only after I began to think oh crap a couple of my kids are down there and so I began to shout out to them to run.  Luckily they flew away quickly and no one was stung.  Afterwards we had dinner and had Apple and Peach pie to celebrate the 364th day of the year (the other pie day besides March 14th).

Crash Day

Today was Wednesday, or as I know it crash day.  It is always a challenge to switch from staying up all night working back to the world of daylight.  Julaine and the girls spend the day with friends while I slept half the day away.  In the afternoon the boys came home from school.  After getting the report of what had been happening the girls got home.  That lead to scouts, dinner, and then bath time.  With everyone cleaned up and in their PJ's we had our delayed F.H.E.  We read a book about a bear and another about filling up other peoples imaginary buckets.  We watched the first 15 chapters of the children's version of the Book of Mormon and then got everyone in their beds.  With a quiet house, a new Sherpa throw, and some hot chocolate we watched an episode of Chuck online.  It's weird not having the character who plays chuck not have the intersect.  I have skipped a couple of seasons and decided to jump back in before the show ends. Looks like I have missed a lot of plot twists, but overall it was o.k.

Birthday Bash

Today we celebrated the birthday of my youngest daughter's first birthday.  We started the day at my parents for a big breakfast.  It was good to see everyone on that side of the family.  The kids played with toys while parents talked.  Nothing too exciting happened it was good to briefly catch up with everyone and how they were doing.  When we were leaving it began to snow some pretty big flakes.  Later we ended up at Old Navy and the toy store to pick up a new Winter coat and one last present.  After we finished shopping we made our way over to celebrate with Julaine's side of the family.  Everyone ate lunch, opened presents, and enjoyed cake and ice cream.  We were very grateful for all the gifts that she was given throughout the day.  When we got back home in the afternoon it was weird to see green grass again after the snow we had been in earlier.  We had dinner and cleaned up for the evening.  All the kids had gone to bed so we decided to watch the movie Quigley Down Under.  Neither of us had seen it but had heard it was a good show from multiple people.  It was a good show that we both enjoyed watching.

Trees

Today was spent racing around to complete tasks before the storm came in.  We started the day with some grocery shopping, followed by taking the kids to pick up a birthday present for the baby.  When we got home I put the bags of groceries in the house and raced out to the back yard.  I hurried to finish planting the trees with the boys and picking up the tools in the yard.  After finished that job I spread a bag of fertilizer around the yard, successfully filled in the tree holes and watering them we had taco soup and then headed to Walmart to pick up some more items for the baby's birthday.  On our way back it began to rain and get windy.  I am glad to have completed this before a change in weather made it ultra cold outside.

Fix and Clean

With the colder weather now here we have been spending more time than we have been inside.  Today was chore day in the house.  This meant I got to clean up rooms, do laundry, fix the vacuum, and lower the crib mattress.  That's right my youngest is now tall enough that she could have jumped the rail.  Luckily we haven't had that problem and got the base is just right for her now.  Tonight we have had some pretty strong wind, if the weather is good tomorrow we should be able to finish the second hole in the back yard and plant the two apple trees before the snow on Saturday.