FLOATING FRIDAYS!!!!!!

Betsey came home on Friday to watch the kids for us. Dad & I went to Pestos with Uncle Jon & Aunt Nona. We had a great time. Well, it seems the kids had a great time too.

Last week, Elyse made boats out of construction paper. They were very detailed with designs and bows on them. She tried to float them in the bathroom sink downstairs, but paper doesn't float too well. When Betsey was watching the kids, they decided to try to float the boats again. So, all three of them made their own boats and timed them to see whose floated the longest.

Elyse is sad because her boat is sinking.

Betsey and her creative mind with Elyse and her artsy ideas! Betsey painted nail strengthener on the bottom of her boat - so hers lasted longer in the water.

Does this remind you of "Anne of Green Gables" and the time she tried to act out a play and her boat sunk?

Zachary even got in on the action. They had a great time!

Help!!!!!

Dad & Elyse are still very sick. Elyse & I are staying home from church today. She is still throwing up and coughing. Dad has to teach Sunday School, or he would be staying home with Elyse, and Zachary & I would be going to church. Zachary and I are not sick. We were going to have Jan & Jay King over for lunch after church today, but we canceled because of the sickies. We will reschedule with them another time.

Yesterday's weather man said we might get an inch of snow. Usually they are wrong, so we didn't think another thing about it. This morning, the snow is coming down like crazy. Now they say we are going to get two to four inches. Crazy! I took pictures of it because who would have believed that on March 29th, the weatherman would be right!

And it is still coming down in buckets! We might get our four inches yet. I am sure you Michigan people are getting snow as well. Hope your ride to church isn't too bad!

I just talked to Erin and she is having gorgeous sunshine today. She has to work because it rained all last week. Tobin is taking their house guests to the airport. So, both of them will be missing church today. They really like their church, we did too when we visited there.

Have a super Lord's day!

STARTED WITH A BAD DAY...ENDED UP FUN!!!!!

This morning was a screaming morning. We are trying to keep the house clean for the realtor to take pictures. First, the kids didn't clean up their messes in the family room. That made me mad. Then Elyse threw up all over the clean carpet in the upstairs hall, her bedroom AND the rugs in the bathroom. She not only missed the toilet, but she got it on all the lids, the floor AND the carpet. After cleaning that up, I walked in the kitchen to throw the paper towels away and there was a HUGE pile of throw up. Ask me if I was a little upset. Again, we finished cleaning that up. The realtor showed up ten minutes after all the clean up was done. But, my nerves were shot. Teach school today - not on your life. So, we went to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm for the day.

The first thing you do is see a 4D movie. Not only do you wear silly glasses, but the back of the chair in front of you shoots air and water (when the cow on the movie snorts, or belches - thank you for the educational value in a film). The chairs also shake when the huge tractors come by in the film. The little children were afraid and screaming. We laughed because we have been there before and knew what was coming. Zachary figured out if he put his foot on the back of the chair in front of him, he didn't get wet or get snorts blown on him.

Here is an example of the silly glasses:

Sorry I couldn't get Elyse to keep a straight face:

We tried to watch a calf being born, but all we saw was a balloon (at least the kid in front of us thought it was a balloon).

But we did see a calf right after it was born.

After the calf has a half a gallon of colostrum, they take her away from the mother and put her in a separate cage (sort of sad for the baby).

My two friends riding a cow. At least she held still for them.

After the tour, we went to have ice cream that was made from the cows milk on their farm. You will never believe who waited on us - ELISE RENEE. What a stitch. We had to take her picture. She is pointing to her name tag, but you can't read it.

We brought home six blocks of cheese and a half gallon of their chocolate milk. Yum, yum. If you hurry, we are going to have one of the cheeses and the milk for dinner tonight. It will be ready in fifteen minutes. Come join us!

AS CLEAN AS WE GET!!!!!

After the carpet cleaner left, we started putting furniture back in the rooms. We were tired of sleeping downstairs AND taking showers down there. It sure messed up our routine.

We didn't even take our alarm clock and we slept in on Saturday all the way to 5:45 a.m. Whoa!

While we were washing the windows (me on the inside and Tim on the outside) a man stopped and asked questions about the house. He sure sounded interested, and he didn't even flinch when he heard how much the we were asking for the house.

We just wanted to keep you informed that this is how our house looks when we are spotless (at least in our estimation). I am really stressed out about keeping the house cleaned. We have never been one to do that. It will really be hard to do. I hope it sells quickly, if just to save me from stressing to long about it. Did you notice that we have kitchen counters?

After all this work getting ready for the realtor to take pictures, he decided that he wasn't coming today. He will come tomorrow instead - ahhhh! Now I have to do this again tomorrow. Hopefully, we won't mess it up to bad in 24 hours.

Dad came home for lunch today and said that we have to be stressed until we sell the house. Oh boy, thanks alot. Just what I wanted to hear.

The realtor had a real sign put up today. When he takes pictures tomorrow and measures all the rooms, he will put up a box with the ads in it describing the house, etc.

Betsey and Zachary's room:


Erin's old room:

Elyse's room (still crowded, but much better than normal):

Somehow, Elyse sleeps with all these babies - I don't know how she has room for herself in the bed:

Our room:

The living room:

Our gorgeous painted wall (plus no clutter on the tables):

Dining room (we moved the music cabinet - makes the kitchen look bigger):

Kitchen (looks nicer in the picture than in person):

So, what do you think? We done pretty good, we think!

THE WORK CONTINUES...!!!!!

We are having the carpets cleaned upstairs tomorrow. In preparation for that, we moved all the heavy furniture into the dining room and the upstairs bathroom. Making meals is a bit hard, but it can be done if you are patient (not!).

The dining room...

The kitchen...

The upstairs bathroom...

Elyse will be sleeping downstairs for the next two nights. Dad & I will be sleeping in Erin's old room for two nights.

Hopefully, the kids will go to sleep. They will be in the same room. Elyse will be in the bottom bunk and Zachary is on the trundle bed.

It may be two very long nights if the kids don't cooperate.

And you all thought Luke & Lacey's basement was messy - ha! We win!

Once it is done though, it will look amazing (at least that is our hope).

MORE WORK DONE!!!!!

This weekend we worked on the house again. I started on Elyse's room on Friday night. I finished it up around 3:00 Saturday afternoon. Yep, it was that much work. I left several things in her room for now, but we have informed her that they aren't moving with us. She is a little upset. But, we just won't have room for all of her "treasures."

Here is the finished project:

Elyse is into rearranging her room, so it won't look like this for long. She loves to move furniture and her things. I even straightened out the closet (sorry, no picture).

Dad spent Saturday doing odd jobs to get us ready to move. He replaced two screens, worked on mold removal, fixed closet door handles, and three kitchen cabinet hinges (now all the doors remain closed when I want them closed - no more hitting you in the face when you forget they open by themselves). Those jobs took him all day.

Saturday night was the Chili Dinner at PCS. After the dinner, they held an auction for all kinds of baked goods with the money going to the athletic department. Dad was the auctioneer. He did a great job! I tried to bid on a fresh peach pie, but was outbid by Kara Spencer. I had made six poppy seed breads for the sale. Two of them bombed, so we "had" to eat them. I ended up taking four of them to the auction. Dad auctioned them off as one package. Kara Spencer knew that we wouldn't be handing them out for Christmas, so she wanted the "last" ones she could get her hands on. I think they sold for $22. I bid on a "Mock Eclair" concoction. I stopped at $10, the bidding kept going. Dad said that I couldn't bid anymore. I thought he was serious, but he wasn't. So, I tried again. I got the 9 x 13 pan of Mock Eclair for the low, low price of $25. Boy, is it ever good (plus I get to keep the brand new pan it came in). I think I got a good deal. So much for losing weight though. We were trying to think of people to come over this evening to help us eat it (we surely don't want the weight gain from eating it all, although it would be very good going down - we just don't want it to stay). There were two fresh peach pies. The first one sold for $4, the second one was a fight between me and Kara Spencer. She won for $25. After the auction was over, Mrs. Grafton (the winner of the $4 peach pie) gave it to me. She didn't want the pie, just wanted to give money to the Athletic Department. So, I got both the pie and the mock eclair - we definitely need someone to help us eat these great desserts. The auction made over $260. We had a great time!

We had 21 things on our list of repairs to the house before we list it. We are down to 12 more things to do. Any volunteers to get the list shorter yet? The realtor is coming on Monday morning to see the house, talk about prices and get us to sign papers to list the house. Pray we get a good price for the house, we will need the money.

Tuesday, is the day for the tubes. Maybe I will hear perfectly on Tuesday afternoon. Call me and see if I do!

PAINTING DONE!!!!!

Zachary's room is empty, prepped and painted. We are now making it our "retreat." Zachary is sleeping in Betsey's room downstairs. When Betsey comes for a month this summer, Zachary will sleep in Erin's room. We still have a long list of things to do on the house before we can list the house for sale.

Dad is the better painter, so he did most of the work.

I put the tape on before the trim, did some of the trim work, and helped clean the room. Our photographer got my best side!

Notice the antenna for the new converter box. It works better sideways. It looks funny, but at least we have a decent t.v. picture (most of the time). Since we are so far away from the tower, we sometimes get a lousy picture. When we move to Deerfield, we should be nearer a tower and get better reception. This is the third antenna we tried to get this good of reception. I guess this is as good as it gets.

L & L, if you change your mind, we still have a coupon for a converter box. It expires in April.

I need new clothes to go to "Milwaukee on the train" any volunteers to help me out?

Have a GREAT Lord's day tomorrow!

FUTURE CHEERLEADER!!!!!

This week was Cheerleading Camp. This is Elyse's second year to attend. Tonight was the Powderpuff Game (JV cheerleaders against the Varsity cheerleaders). The boys were their cheerleaders. The younger girls (K-5 grade) cheered on the sidelines. Each group of girls had the floor for part of the game. Elyse was in the 2nd and 3rd grade group.

Here she is before the game.


Of course, brother has to get in the act too.


Elyse did really well. You would have been proud of her.


This year, the coaches gave "olympic-type" medals to all the girls. Elyse said, "We didn't get candy this year." I guess she was sad about that - we were glad that she got a medal instead. We didn't stay for the alumni vs. varsity game - too boring for me. I guess it was an o.k. family night, even if it cost $8 (plus the $35 for the cheerleading camp). Fun times!


Elyse and her buddies with their medals.


Painting tomorrow! How fun!