End of another week....

This week was filled with what else...rentals!!

We've been working about 7 days on a house built in 1951--and hasn't been worked on much since. It's been painted, and windows put in half of the duplex, but the other half has been lived in almost since it was new, and nothing has been done to that side...at the renters request!

Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time outside, getting the old rotted siding ripped off...the house power washed, the cement cleaned up, and we have damaged peaks to repair yet. The priming should start on Monday, Tuesday at the latest, and we are praying to have the house painted out by Friday...as Cec & Rudy should be arriving on Saturday...we are SO EXCITED to have my Aunt & Uncle arrive and spend a week with us!


On Friday...we headed out for some supplies, as we ran out of siding--as we found more rot than we originally thought. Just about the time we arrived back in town...it started raining! UGH...you can't work when it's raining sideways! We headed home, and primered the repair boards in the garage. Not a wasted day, just didn't get done what we expected.

Today on Saturday...we had a slow start. We worked at the rental about 4 hours before coming home to get cleaned up and head to a friends baby shower. It was a co-ed shower/bbq--and it was a lot of fun. It was low key, and just a few folks...so really glad we went and had a chance for a good visit. Looking forward to meeting Tony & Tina's little girl here soon!!

Odds & Ends

Just a few fun pictures that were on my camera that did not fit into any category. We downloaded all the cameras today, and found some fun stuff. These of Ryan & the kittens are just from Monday. The rest are old!! No, I did not run over the kitten--this just happens to be his favorite place to lay. I continue to pray that I do not forget and roll over him!

Ashley's old basket has been re-claimed....happy & sad about that!

O'Malley....wondering what all the fuss is about.....(He's watching the action below him...Zorro is giving Ryan a bath!)

Gee Ryan, have you cleaned behind your ears??!

Kristin's camera has not been downloaded in some time now!! I found these on there today....

Kristin and friends playing around....

COOL picture!

This was from December...roasting marshmallows over the wood stove!

This was from the covered wagon ride through Parks & Recreation on August 13th.

Water Park Fun

This was a family weekend. We spent Saturday at the Coast, and headed to "Splash" in Springfield after church on Sunday.

We arrived around 2:00pm, and by 3:00, Bill & I were exhausted!! We headed out of the wave pool, and Bill & Kristin headed to the water slide. Bill had his dive camera, and other than the water slide on the cruise, he hasn't really used it (in the plastic case--it's a regular camera that has a waterproof case...so actually, he hasn't used it in the case), so he played with it while we were there.

After the slide, we headed to the lap pool where we goofed around with the camera, doing silly things. With Bill and a camera, you never know what pictures you get! Pool drains, feet, jets, the list is endless!! Check them out intermingled in the slide show!


We headed out around 4:30--all wrinkled and tired! We had lots of fun. Stopped at IHOP on the way home for supper.....ok...if you go..you gotta try the Cream Cheese stuffed French Toast. So...we need IHOP for Stuffed French Toast, Shari's for Stuffed Hash Browns and boy, you have an awesome breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Enjoy the pictures....back to work on rentals this week. Stay tuned for more fun. We plan to work hard, because we want to take a week off while my Aunt & Uncle are here in Early September.

A Fun Day at the Coast

We've been working pretty hard on rentals lately...and the kids have been spending a lot of time at home alone. We start early, and come home at dinner (or after) and it seems a lot has fallen on their shoulders lately. We give them a "to do" list, and take off to do our "to do" list! SO...we had the idea to make a day and go have some fun. The kids were given the option of picking what to do. They both wanted the water park, and Kristin really wanted to go to the outlets. The outlets and a day at the coast sounded appealing to us, but Ryan was disappointed...so, we figured hey, lets do both. Coast on Saturday, and Water Park on Sunday after church.

We had a leisurely morning, and then left for the coast around 10:00. We packed a lunch and figured we'd do supper out. We had great weather all the way over, and when we came over the hill, there was a fog over the ocean. It wasn't long, until it burned off, and by the time we got to Cape Foulweather, it was looking pretty good! It was windy, as it always is in the summer....We had a great lunch, and then headed into the 'best ever' gift shop. At Cape Foulweather, this place hangs off the edge!! They have the most unique gifts.

After there, we headed to the outlets, and had a blast. Kids spent their money wisely, Ryan spending down to the last penny, and Kristin coming home with $30.00 of her $40.00! She is hilarious! We enjoyed a great supper at The Sea Hag in Depot Bay...our favorite place! Stay tuned for more water park fun tomorrow...providing I take my camera!

Another Busy Week

This week has been a weird one. Finishing up one project and trying to transition to another.

Although we had a blast at the parsonage--we were ready to be done there. We have some outside repairs and work to do on a few of Alice's duplexes, and will start those tomorrow. We spent some time there Tuesday working on a materials list, figuring out what needed repaired before we painted, and re-arranging Bill's truck so that we were ready for this job. The back of his truck is a toolbox on wheels!! Since I worked Wednesday, and Bill had a major migraine, with kids to get here & there, we headed out this morning to Home Depot to pick up supplies, and deliver them to the rental. Tomorrow begins repair, pressure washing and clean up to prep for paint. The temps are much better--103 on Tuesday, 102 yesterday, and a beautiful 85 today. Tomorrow they are calling for 80, and Saturday 75....great weather for painting.

This is our new project. The duplex on the left is the one that has not been updated since the house was built in 1951--we found some of the same things we found in the Parsonage that was built in 1953--only some of it is worse!! We will be spending LOTS of time here! Don't you just love those circular overhangs? We need to fix those!!

To catch you up on the last few days of our busy schedule--here we go: Just odds & ends!!

Kristin finshed up the summer program though the parks. Last week was Pioneer Covered Wagon day--they had three wagons (bones, no cover--but wagon's just the same!) and traveled about 3 hours, with a stop for lunch. It was SO cool, and I would have loved to been a part of it! This week was the 150th birthday celebration for Oregon....and wrapped up the program. It was a BBQ, games, prizes and a cake. Kristin is sad it is over...she's had fun this summer.

The kittens have finally taken over the house. We tried to move their litter box from the bathroom, and it has not been successful--YET!! We will work on it. The food has been moved, and we're doing well with that. They are no longer afraid of the dogs, but are still very cautious! Zorro loves the windowsill!

Ryan has been keeping busy. No swim this month, but he has been hanging at the neighbors pool, and has been going to the youth group here in town at Community Chapel, as well as our youth group too. My feeling is that you can never have too much Youth Worship!

Today...Robert found a BIG wolf spider at work. We've had these in the house before, but not quite this big. We watched it alive in the bottle for awhile, and then Robert put some ether in the bottle, so we could do some inspection tomorrow. We had a great microscope donated to the homeschool group, and I needed to test & learn to use this one, before classes begin, so we're going to look at it's eyes, mouth, and legs....should be interesting!! Kristin REALLY got into inspecting it with Robert. It was a good time. Thanks Robert for helping our home school science projects!

Parsonage Finished!

Hmmm...how is this wired?? Why would you do it like that???

Our to do list...just for today!

Our bargain find at Home Depot....25.00!!!

Bill poking his head through the ceiling in the new hole for the bathroom fan!

Pirate Bill!

It was a busy few days, but we finally got to a point where we are FINISHED with repairs at the parsonage!! Yahoo!!! It was a bigger job than we thought, nothing we weren't able to overcome, but took much longer than we thought. We were simply supposed to do some light repairs, tub caulking, toilet setting, refinish some wood floors, update some fixtures, which is were we got into a very large wiring mess. Lots of burned wires, damaged ceilings, and lots of two prong plugs that were three prong and not properly grounded. The burned wires worried us more than anything, and we got the church involved, since we were sure the house would need to be rewired.

Long story short...we called to get some estimates on what was going to be a big job, and Bill & I put in a bid as well....figuring we'd pull a permit, do the work and save the church a lot of money. (For those of you that don't know...Fir Lawn is our old church--which we attended for 13 years of our 16 here in Oregon prior to Calvary Chapel.) After the first electrician came out--he was not surprised at our "mess", and did eleviate some worry, stating that the burned wires were mostly from the light fixtures with too big of bulbs in them, and that we could have them easily repaired...of course, the plugs were another issue. The second electrician told us the same thing, and both explained how to make a 2 prong plug a 3 prong plug safely, without rewiring.

We had the electrician do the heavy wiring & repair in the attic, and Bill & I took on (or should I say Bill) took on the plugs. No easy task, since we had to find the FIRST plug in each string of plugs....it took us three days to trace all the wires in the house, and get the task completed, along with some repair along the way!

The UCKY burned ceiling & wires

Repair in progress....

A crack fixed at the same time...(JUST FOR YOU BETTY!)

Refinished floors....

Treasures under the stove drawer today that were found when I removed it to scrub the floor....Anyone for cheerios or chips? I even found some denture powder!!!

We have caulked, refinished floors, fixed several cracks in the walls, painted, fixed hot water tank overflows, strapped it down, and replaced ceiling light fixtures, replaced fans, replaced vents & did a lot of scrubbing. The attic had some long lost treasures in it....most of which went to the dump....some were worthy enough for the "recycle" shelf....where some things find a home!

We do have one more venture there....meeting the electrician to finish up something that we thought was repaired....then get our tools out, and check to make sure it's all DONE!! Then...on to the next project. Repair ing & paint a 1951 duplex. Outside painted first and then the interior of a place that has not been remodeled ever!! Stay tuned...that one will be exciting!!

Weekend Update

The weekend started off as usual on Friday--but on Saturday, we had a wedding of some friends at church. It was a fun evening, and nice to just relax for an evening. It was on a members property, so beautiful....and the weather was perfect...rain had been in the forecast, but it was so nice!! No hot temps like we had been having, and no rain! YAHOO!

The groom came down the aisle (it was an outdoor wedding) on a Harley, along with his Pastor. The Bride rode in princess style in an old convertible. There is some divine intervention here though...

The Bride was to ride in an old classic of the man who owned the property. MINUTES before the wedding, a radiator hose broke....tragedy...but lo & behold....God provided not the car Aubree wanted to take her to the "church", but the car God felt was more fitting...a classic convertible. She looked like a princess...and her Dad lost his composure when he realized that this was the perfect car....and totally a fluke that Dan drove it that day to the wedding!! God is so good!

On Sunday...we had a real treat. Brett Williams, an awesome Christian singer/artist came to our church to not only sing, but teach as well. It was an incredible service....but the bonus was, we were to have an evening service , a bbq and a concert by Brett.

After our usual Sunday nap..and a trip to a friends (we loaned them our trailer for a 'hotel' as they had out of town guests coming), we headed to the church property for a BBQ and a great concert by Brett Willams. THere was a special treat with the Pastor from Cottage Grove Calvary Chapel joining us, and singing as well. He plays so well, and did a Dillon tune....it was so cool. The two sounded great together. Afterward, it was just Brett. It was so much fun, and very emotional--his songs just hit the heart!! It didn't hurt that I was sitting next to Pastor Tom...and a few hit him too. Bill wasn't sure who to give his clean hankerchief to!!

Monday Bill headed to the parsonage, and I headed to Brownsville to meet with fellow homeschoolers regarding back to school stuff!! It is tough to think our summer is almost over.

Tuesday we were back at the parsonage....we finished the wood floors, they look SO good!! The drywall patching is done, and Bill is working on getting the wiring up to code...so it is safe. It has been an adventure!! We should wrap up there this week, and then have some rentals of Alice's to paint, and then we can start on the 1950 renovation! That should be FUN!

Stay tuned.....more to come soon, I'm sure. There is never a dull moment around here!!

PS> Kitten update...they have left the bathroom finally!!! They are adventureous enough to roam the house now. They will walk gingerly past the dogs, and as long as the dogs don't move, they don't hiss!! They have finally accepted O'Malley as one of their species, and allow him to come near their food dish now! Will get more pictures soon! I did post pictures of them on the side bar in our "family pet" section!

Busy?

Wow...can you say busy??

It seems since Bill has been laid off, and we've been doing some projects for Alice, we've been busy, busy, busy......combined with the kids activities...it's even more so!

In between...we try to relax, and have some fun. The kids have been great about helping out at home, and we are getting the "this is the way we need to do this" thing down now!! There is still a lot to be done when we get home, but they are certainly making it easier. I worked for Joe on Monday & Tuesday...the last of my extra hours, as vacations are about done, and the girls are caught up, so no extra hours in the office. It's fine, since I've plenty to do on collections.

On Tuesday night, I picked up Kristin's friend Sydney on the way home from work. She spent the night with Kristin, and they are soaking up all the time together they can, since Sydney and her family are moving to Eugene. Thankfully, we can still manage time together, but now that Syd is going back to school, we will have to work about a public school schedule, instead of a home school schedule!

Wednesday...Ryan caught this picture of Bandit...watching TV...way too fun.

Have been working on the parsonage this week. We were getting ready to do a big wiring job and are so thankful we called for some estimates first, as the two strand wiring that is in the house, and is burned, is localized to lighting fixtures...and can be fixed!! PRAISE GOD!

This will free Bill & I up sooner to get some painting done for Alice hopefully next week, or early the week after. Onto new projects!!

Stay tuned for more BUSY soon!

Birthday & Crawdadding

This weekend was a new experience for us. Not only did we head out camping with two new kittens, but we also headed out for new waters....Crawdadding!!

It was Jason's (our Godson) 5th Birthday. He wanted to go camping for his birthday party. Everywhere that Jen tried to register us...was full. We ended up at Blackberry State Forest Campground, and little did we know...it was the best thing that could have been. Temps here in the valley were reaching the 100's....and 18 miles off the coast, there was a nice breeze the whole weekend. We even put sweatshirts on in the evening & in the mornings. It was a nice break from the heat. The days were in the mid 70's, low 80's, and it was great for the task at hand. Birthday parties and Crawdadding!

We headed out of Sweet Home around 3:30, later than we wanted...but the kids had an opportunity to head to the lake with the Youth Group from church, and they really wanted to go...so we delayed our departure.

We arrived at camp around 5:30 and found the camp to be a great campground! We were hesitant since we've driven by there, and it's close to the road. What we didn't realized, is other than Friday night and Sunday afternoon...there is very little traffic on the road. It didn't bother us one bit. We settled in, had dinner, and a nice campfire. Around 10:30, we all headed to bed...feeling good as we pulled the covers up. I'm sure it was 60 out there!! It felt cold after weeks of heat. The coast was close enough that we got the cooling affects. It felt wonderful!!

We woke to sunny blue skies, and spent a great morning with friends by the fire. Around 11am, the crawdadding crew loaded up, and took off for the river. Bill & I stayed at camp and kept Brooklyn, since she didn't like the river. We had lunch...played and had a great nap!! Our intent was to head to the river after nap...but we had such a good nap, the crew was back before we got up!!

We headed out to greet everyone...and we thought Jen & Brady were getting dressed...but instead, we found Jen, Brady, Mike, Kathy, Eric & Kristin all behind Mike & Kathy's trailer, cleaning crawdad.

Brandon was brave enough to "pet" a Crawdad!

Now, we've only had experience with crab...and you clean those after they are cooked...crawdads you clean before cooking....which means...pulling them apart while they are alive...UCK. What amazed me more, was that Kristin was right in there, learning how to do it, and sat there the whole time....until the entire 5 gallon bucket was cleaned. We weren't there at the river...but we heard she was a champion crawdad catcher.

After cleaning crawdads, we had a birthday party for Jason. The kids had a great time playing with his stuff afterward. Got some cute pictures of all the kids playing together with the big crayola pad. Happy 5th Birthday Jason!!

We had a great predinner first course of crawdad with melted butter, to which we added garlic...yummmmy!!!! We then experimented and added some Joe's crabshack hot sauce. WOW>..it was great. What butter dip was left after everyone had their fill of crawdads, was used to dip some fresh rolls into. There was no calorie counting on Saturday!! Some of our "leftovers"!!

We enjoyed supper together, and then a great fire, fun visiting, and a good sleep!!

On Sunday, we got up, Jen & I made donuts (yep, still not counting calories!) and we enjoyed a nice morning fire. Before we knew it...we were tearing down, and out of there before noon...and home at 1:30.

The kittens did great...they fell right into our routine....traveled great (didn't want in their kennel) and slept in the truck on a lap and/or a shoulder!! We will certainly take them again with us!!

It was nice to be home early, as we got the trailer unloaded, the laundry started and did some troubleshooting on the refrigerator that quit working this weekend. We were hoping it was only the propane function, but it didn't work on electric when we got home either. Bummer...as it was fine when we left. Hopefully, Bill can pinpoint the problem, and we won't have to take it in for service.

It was a great weekend. We had dinner with Robert & Missy...and it was nice to have had such a relaxing weekend, and a nice evening before starting a busy week.

Still no word on the application I put in at the library, but the posting just closed on Friday. Will let you know if I hear anything.

Have a great week...enjoy the pictures!