Today's the Day!

Yahooo!! Today is the day the cement will be poured in 1/2 of our basement. The cement truck comes at 9:00 and Dunk is scrambling to finish getting ready. He was up until 3 am last night and back at it at 6:30 this morning. No matter how hard one works, it always seems to work that way. :-) It will be sooooo cool to have that cement work done in the basement. AWESOME!!

Next steps are: putting the furnace back in the basement, finishing up the duct work down there, fixing the rest of the wiring in the basement, replacing the last two windows in the living room, tearing out the living room's paneling and gross carpet, deciding whether we are getting a wood burning furnace in the basement or corn stove, figuring out how to finish the garden shed we are working on outside, fixing the last leak in the mud room plumbing, finishing up the last of the details in the mud room so that it can be insulated and sheetrocked, and the list goes on... :-)

Yesterday we made it to town for a "cape" for Dime and Duke. (bathrobe) (Drum already has Dad's with a towel hood sewn onto it.) They were totally excited when we found some that would work. Grandma W is stitching them up to fit and adding hoods. Now they can be Obe Wan, Mace Windu, Luke Skywalker, and Anakin. They have really enjoyed their pretend Star Wars battles. They have decided that Jedi are gymnasts so it has really spured their interests in that field as well.

We picked strawberries on Thursday. Wow! They are beautiful. Some were so big you could peel them! I should say "were" as most of them are eaten or in the freezer. We had strawberry shortcake last night that could melt in the mouth. Mmmm.... So nice to have older kids..Joy made the shortcake while we were working on supper. Doesn't take as long to get the kitchen stuff done anymore. Although I noticed a batch of anything doesn't last more than one meal or a snack.

The Dot, Drum, Dime, Deer, and Daisy went to some fireworks last night with some of their friends. Dunk was working on the basement (not stuff we could help with at the time). Dessert was almost asleep on the couch so he stayed with Dunk. When we came home, Dessert was sound asleep on the styrofoam in the basement in the midst of the project. He had helped until he just couldn't do it anymore. :-) I took a picture in my mind.

The real deer have eaten my raspberries!!! We are frustrated but determined to fight back! We have never had that problem before but this is the first summer Dunk is not leaving for work at 5. Sheepish to admit but we have been sleeping in. Boy, that bed feels good. :-) Dunk has been laid off for 3 weeks now. We think God is waiting until he is done with the cement project. :-) We will have to see what He has in mind. We were talking the other day about the fact that when I am pregnant he has not been out of work. Is God hinting at something? :-)

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. :-)

Father's Day!

Sunday we celebrated Father's Day in fine style with both sets of grandparents in attendance and Daisy's brother and his family at our place. The kids had a blast with the sprinkler! Grandma K gave haircuts to all the boys. Dime, Duke, and cousin, Dash, are sporting a new buzz. We see them rubbing their heads as they enjoy the new haircut. Deer and cousin, Delight, showed off their new gymnastic skills. It is so fun to see them grow. We look forward to more times together.

Basement work continues.... We have had plumbing troubles in the mud room and so progress has slowed down as one leak after another gets fixed. The plan is to have the cement poured on Wednesday. We definitely plan to celebrate. :-)

Life Continues

Work continues on the basement. Dunk put in the new sump pump after much labor. Drum and Dime washed the basement walls (since it is so wet down there anyway) and it looks great!

The next steps are to level the dirt that is left, put in rock, drain tile, more rock, styrofoam, tubing for the in floor heat, and then finally CEMENT!! We can hardly wait to see that happen. :-) I thought doing laundry was a project before (when I went up and down two sets of stairs). Now I get to cross a moat at the bottom of the stairs or else go outside and into the window well to crouch through the window and arrive at the washing machine with my load of laundry! :-) I figure it gives me plenty of stories to tell the kids later when I'm wanting to brag about my "tough" life. "That was uphill both ways, right Dad?"

We had gymnastic classes at our house again today. They went great and fun was had by all. Deer loves her coach and classes. Today she learned the Arabian trick on the trampoline. It is so fast, despite having her do it twice, I had trouble figuring out what she all did but I'm proud of her just the same. :-) (It's a back tuck, half turn - I found out)

We watched the movie tonight called THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN. It was based on a true story about a missionary to the Kongo Islands. Wow. He went through some incredible adventures and it was awesome to watch God at work. The kids were in awe.

Dessert has earned the award for the youngest bike-riding member of the family. He prefers the old bike without training wheels. He looks so little! We didn't decide to teach him to ride. He made us do it! He loves to keep up with the big kids. Mom wants to keep him from growing so fast.

That's all for now. :-)

New Project

Yesterday we started a new project in our basement - digging out the west side of our basement. We found out one of the reasons that side of the basement was so damp was because we had a leak in our pipe connected to our outside hose. We'll save that fixing project for another time. Drum, Dime, Deer, and Duke spent several hours in the basement with Dunk helping him dig out the old cement. I think Dime's muscles are increasing as I watched him chug cement out the basement hole. It is a yucky job but the kids are excited about getting to see progress on this old house.
We have switched our hours around and have been working late and sleeping in around here. We are all looking forward to some upcoming days where we can wake up with NO RAIN! Dunk had a few times with digging where he had to quick board up the basement window while the rain poured over him.
Today's project is to clean up in the studio before gymnastic lessons today. We will continue in the basement as soon as the rain lets up and we can open up the hole.

Blogging Begins!

Here it goes! I'm going to enter the world of blogging. Jodi's website has inspired me! Someday I hope to have pictures to enter but for now I will be content with adding our family events as a sort of diary. When I read other bloggs it makes the daily events in our lives seem quite normal and humorous. Thanks Jodi!
I need to introduce the family.
We have Dunk and Daisy, Dot, Drum, Dime, Deer, Duke, and Dessert :-)
This should be fun!!