The true reason for the season!!!
My kids and I enjoyed a great treat this year, of a birthday party hosted by a friend in honor of Jesus' Birthday. It was awesome and a great way to remember just what we are celebrating this day.

However, the party reminded me of a discussion my children had with me about a month ago that went something like this. We were all around the diner table eating when one child starts to say "Mom, you know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday" I said "yes" wondering in my mind exactly where the conversations was going, when another child blurts out "yeah its his birthday so why don't we have a birthday party for him that day" and another screams" yeah, we need birthday food, like hamburgers and chips and cake and ice cream" and that's when I knew it. My children had an ulterior motive for their spiritual revelations.

My kids are famous for their picky eating habits, my friends actually dread having to feed my children cause they fear my children may starve in their care, or they may rip their hair out if they hear "I don't like that" out of my children's mouths for the millionth time. And, those things that make up a holiday dinner, are high on my children's dislike list, Aiden at Thanksgiving survived entirely off white buns, Courtney entirely off mashed potato's and Thomas entirely off Turkey, yep that is right they all like different foods each picky in their own individual way.

So you see , as much as my children love learning about Jesus and other biblical matters, that truly was not their intent during that deep diner discussion, they were thinking with their stomachs and not their hearts. They heard the word birthday at church, and tied it hamburgers and hot dogs cake and ice cream, and not a child in a manger who came to offer us a free gift of eternal life. A gift that means more to me now than ever, cause I know that my mother took that gift that Jesus offered, and because I took it myself, I am confident that one day I will see her again, and that is a gift I hold dear to my heart.

So whether you are eating Turkey or Ham, or perhaps even hot dogs and hamburgers. Remember that today is a holiday based on celebrating the birth of Christ. Take a few minutes to ponder the true gift, in the midst of the celebration.

Thomas Finds the Christmas Pickle!!!

Okay most of you are probably wondering, what exactly is a Christmas pickle?and what on earth is it doing on my Christmas tree? and why would Thomas be so excited about finding it?

Well the first year we moved here. I won a pickle shaped ornament at MOPS ( a mom's morning out group). The lady was very excited to be giving them away. She said it was a family tradition for an adult to hide the pickle on the tree after the children have gone to bed Christmas eve. Then, on Christmas morning the first one to find the pickle gets and extra small gift.

Since I could not find the Christmas crackers from my childhood Christmas's that year I thought I would give it a try, and the kids love it. They look forward to it every year. This year the gift was a Tom and Jerry DVD, which all three of my kids love watching. In previous years it's been play dough. But, it is always a gift all three will enjoy.

I hope your family too, is enjoying sharing silly traditions, today whether they be generational or something entirely new!!

Daddy really blew the budget this year!!

There were three big presents under the tree this year from my kids to me. I thought that they were small gifts wrapped in big boxes to stop me from guessing!!! I am a great guesser!!! It really irritates Jack!!! He doesn't get much past me. Well this time he sure did.

What your seeing in the picture (which by the way if you double click on it, it will get apicture as big as your screen) is the willow tree nativity scene.

Now this cost way more than the $30 the kids were suppose to spend on me but I must say I am one happy MAMA!!!

I know several friends who have been salivating over this set for years, just like I have, and now I got it, so friends you don't have to salivate in public anymore, just come on over and drool at my house!!!

The Christmas Crackers!!!

I pressed a wrong button last time I blogged and discovered by accident how to put a video clip on here. It just happens last summer I did exactly the same thing with my camera (I find out a lot of neat things by accident) and found out that it can take short video clips. So I thought perhaps the relatives especially would like a little glimpse into our Christmas Eve dinner.

In case you have not been raised in a home with British heritage, the kids are opening Christmas crackers. I finally found some at Target after we have gone years without them!!! I was so happy to share these with my kids as they were a favorite part of my Christmas childhood memories.

We had our big dinner early afternoon on the day before Christmas. That way I can enjoy the big day just watching the children play and contemplating just how blessed I am to have three healthy children and a awesome husband.

I hope you are enjoying your day!!! . I know we are, Jack is zoning out in front of the TV. Courtney is crafting and the boys are enjoying their Lego's and I thought I would take an hours to blog, and share our day a bit with others.

(this is just a small selection of my yarn stash)

My Addiction!!!!

Yes I admit that I have a problem.

I first started realizing that I had a problem when I ran into my friends mother and she did not recognize me at first, she told me it was because she had never seen me without knitting needles in my hands!!!

Then this summer it hit a all time high. I was spending a week up in Fort Wayne with the kids who were enjoying zoo camp. I of course took my needles with me. Well I found out that during a city stop light, I can knit a entire row of a wash cloth, so my eyes on the stop light and my hands on my sticks I did it. Is that sad or what.

My knitting and me are two peas in a pod. Even my purse buying decisions revolve around them. I won't buy a purse if its not either small enough to fit in my knitting bag, or large enough for my knitting to fit into, and it has to have a zipper, because i have lost a few needles now in bags with no zippers.

I knit slower when I am tired, but get me angry and I can finish a whole wash cloth from start to finish in 45 minutes tops!!!

I have knitted wash clothes for so long now that I don't even need to look at the needles while doing it. My hands just know the motions.

The Worse part though is that my disease is spreading. All my homeschooling friends use to sit around and locker hook during our children's PE time (locker hooking is another passion I will share with you perhaps another time), now they are all knitting.

The ladies in my bible study, are all now knitting converts as well. They all sit and knit while I lead the class (and I of course join in and knit while I teach it cause I have discovered I can knit and read too!!!)

I knit while I homeschool, I knit while I watch tv, I knit during half time at the boys soccer games. I have knitted in grocery store line ups. I knit in drive thru line ups.

Do you think perhaps I have a problem!!!!

We Got snow!!!!!

Thomas hiking up the hill for another slide!!!
Our snow lady (made by Courtney and I on Saturday afternoon)

Well it is finally here. We got our first really good dump of snow for the year. We got a bit of it a week ago but it did not stick for long. I think this storm should keep us white for quite a while.

Saturday, I resisted the urge to stay inside all day and cozy up with my knitting needles and headed out to make a snow lady with Courtney. I tell ya she is all girl, even her snow people have to be girls. That day there was barely enough snow to scrape together and make a little knee high snow person.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday has been a different story. By the time we woke up the snow lady we had built the day before was buried by the nights dump of snow.

By afternoon it had stopped snowing so Jack and I took all three kids out sleighing at the local school lot (about one of the only places around here with a good hill). They had a blast. Aiden is our biggest sleighing fan, we always have to drag him off the hill. Courtney, well she was done about 10 minutes into it, but she stuck around when our friends arrived with a thermal mug full of hot chocolate (and she drank the whole thing!!!!)

The Christmas Tree attacks again!!!

No this in not the normal state of my daughter's bedroom!!

What you see is what happens when six adults leave three two year olds in one room unattended for a few minutes.

And if you are wondering what the white stuff is. Well remember how I spent 45 minutes cleaning up the glass, and then patching the window the christmas tree broke? . Well what you see in the picture is what I used to patch the window. I used a 2 inch thick Styrofoam sheet to cover up the whole window and adhered it with painters tape. Yes I realize that is not the normal patch job materials but it was what I could find!!!

Yeah anyways turns out two year olds love this stuff. It breaks into pieces really easily and starts too look like snow when you really get it going.

Even after four of the six mom's vacuumed and swept the room, (we left the other two downstairs to supervise the culprits) I am still sweeping up a bit more of the Styrofoam snow every day since Tuesday.

And exactly what were the six mommies doing while the kids were up to mischief, well we were knitting of course!!!!

I have started an epidemic of knitting amongst my friends. Either I or a friend I taught to knit has taught pretty much everyone in our circle of girlfriends to knit. We have a grand time sitting and chatting and knitting!!!

If You Love to Laugh at the missfortune of others this story is for you!!!

For those of you who have been at my house at christmas time before, you will notice that the tree Courtney is decorating is not my usual tree. No it did not shrink.

The story all starts on the morning of Thanksgiving (the fourth thursday in November for you Canadian folks). I asked Jack to get the Christmas totes out of the attic for me and place them on the landing, because that way I could have them out of the way while I decorated a bit each day. I normally try to do it all on Thanksgiving day and the day after Thanksgiving, but things have been hetic around here and I knew it was not going to happen, so I thought if we left them upstairs at least they would not be an eyesore downstairs.

So Jack did just that. Well that morning Courtney was so excited she kept asking me if we could get the tree up that day. I had a few things to do in the morning and then we were invited for a thanksgiving feast at a friends home, so I told her when we got home from that we would put of the tree.

Jack had to work at 3pm so I came home from our feast at friends at the same time. Courtney had seen my friend had her home all decorated and was repeatedly telling me at the party "mommy we can get up our tree today right?"

As soon as we were in the door I kissed Jack goodbye as he left for work and I went upstairs to get the christmas tree. Now we have a big huge pre-lit tree (or at least we had) and it fits in a big huge box that was placed in back of all the christmas totes. Our hallway upstairs is narrow and rather than move all the christmas totes out of the way to get the tree through, I decided to slide it over the totes and simply catch it at the other end.

WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things did not go as planed. Instead of catching the tree it bounced off the top step and proceeded to smash my landing window into a thousand pieces and then park itself on the roof of the small overhang for the side door.

So I spent 45 minutes cleaning up glass and first searching for covering supplies and then covering the now very broken window. And still the whole time courtney is asking "MOM when are you going to get to the tree!!"

Finally I get it out of the big box and get it together, and then comes the next hassle ( I mentioned it was prelit right), I plug it in only to discover two sections no longer light up.

NO PROBLEM I think to myself, I will just simply unwrap the limbs and put on new lights. 2 hours later I am still trying to figure out just how the company got those lights so well wrapped around the branches and Courtney is still within 5 inches of me the whole time saying "MOM your going to get it up today right!!!!"

Not wanting to disappoint my 5 year old who still thinks her mom is a super woman, I decide to take desperate measures. I throw the tree back into the box whip out my bank card and go to the open 24 hours even on national holiday "walgreens" located just 10 minutes away to purchase a new tree!!!

Now Walgreens displays all its trees on the top shelf about 7 feet up in the air. I first thought that this was because that way they could be seen from outside, (I now discovered their secret).

I quickly pick out the biggest non prelit tree they have (I am never doing a prelit tree again!!!) throw it in the cart along with a bar of dark chocolate (because oh how badly I need some chocolate therapy by now!!!!), and enough lights to keep ten christmas trees going ( I am not taking any chances that I might not have enough at this point). I take time to grumble loudly to the clerk and the customers in line about the hazzles of prelit trees as I cash out then pop quickly back into my car and head home.

We get it home, Courtney is estatic finally a tree. I put it up, now the box says 6.5 feet, so apparently I myself am now over 7 feet high!!! (wow I grew from 5'10" to 7 feet in a day!!!!) cause the tree only goes up to my nose!!. At this point I no longer care, I give up, throw some lights on it, and enjoy decorating it with Courtney.

Turns out I am not the only one who has been tricked by those 7 feet off the ground displays, I have had two other people now tell me they have the walgreens charley brown specials in their own homes!!!

Oh well I will wait till after christmas sales this year and get back my big tree but this time it will not be pre-lit!!!

Oh and by the way, I placed the old tree out on the curb and someone took it within hours. I hope they have the patience of a saint, cause they are going to need it!!!!

What happened to October and November!!!

Several people have been mentioning to me, when are you going to update that Blog of yours. I finally felt in the mood tonight to write, so I thought I best take advantage of it, and I noticed as I signed in that my last blog was October 2nd. So much for trying to update the blog at least twice a month!!!

The house is coming along, the bottom floor is all drywalled and ready for the crew of taper's and muder's to come over and get it done. Once that is done, I will start priming and painting while Jack hangs the drywall on the top floor. Which will take him a while since we changed around alot of the closests to maximize storage in the old home that one had very little storage.

You might be wondering how are one year time line is going, well, we got real!!! and sat down and made out a schedual for how long things were going to take based on how long things have taken already, and realized two homes in one year is too much, but a home a year is fine with the spare time we have, and since we own the second home completely we can live comfortably at that pace, so why wear ourselves out when we don't have to.

(picture taken by jami-jo of Old Barn Photography)

Merry Christmas to YA All!!!

I hope you enjoy the picture, it took a hour and a half family trip to walmart to decide what we could all wear, and the day that we had it done was freezing!!!. But I think it was worth it.

Opps a whole month went by!!!

I cannot believe that I have not updated the blog since the end on August.

September was cram packed with soccer and homeschooling co-op started up again and I have begun leading a bible study on Tuesday afternoons. I've nicked named it the Jami study cause all of the other three ladies in it are named Jami. It is confussing my kids cause they ask me mom "what jami's house are we going to today". Its become "katie" Jami, "three boy" Jamie", and Taylor " Jaimie.

And on top of all that we have been renovating. I am the official landscaper right now. I have dug up and under, both of the very over grown gardens. I took out both laundry posts. I had to dig a hole up to my thigh but I got those suckers out. Now I am moving on to digging under a spot where I want a flower garden and then I will take down two huge liliac bushes to make room for a driveway area for our trailer and a vehicle.

Jack has wired and plumbed the whole house now (the dinning room still needs a few plugs but other than that we are done. He is moving on to insulation now and then finally drywall.

The biggest news is we will have a working toilet and sink by early next week at the latest!!! that makes me so happy!!!

Sorry no new pictures. I had to make this quick. But I had to update it cause some of you crazy guys are hooked and have been bugging me to hear more!!!!!!! (Shannon, that would be you)

Progress!!!

We are now offically left the demo work behind inside. The outside is a whole different story, but the inside now looks like a house being put back together rather than a house that someone is in the process of destroying.

I am still stripping paint. Now that school is back in my sitter is available less often and so am I with soccer season in full swing and homeschooling taking up my week days, however our non busy hours are sort of clashing, so I am in the process of finding a back up sitter that can watch the kids when she can't. If you live here locally, and know someone let me know.

Anyway back to paint stripping, the full 7 hours I was able to put in last week I spent stripping windows, (except for the last 1 1/2 in which I spent at taco bell with my hubby followed by a neck cranking visit to the Lowe's lighting department where we picked out clearance priced lighting fixtures).

So really for 5 1/2 hours I stripped 2 windows, and a bit of a third, so just three windows, four door ways and about a miles worth of floor trim to go. I must say though I really kind of like paint stripping, its strangly satifying to see the wood emerge under layers of paint, using only my arm powered paint striping tool.

I am trying to convince Jack to let me insulate next. It looks like something I could handle, but Jack looks a bit scared about trusting me with blade sharp enough to cut insulation. (Must be that darn pumpkin carving incident still engraved in his brain, thats holding him back, and for those of you who don't know the story don't ask!!!) So for now I am paint stripping.

Jack has continued to work on the wiring. I am so excited about being able to pick where all the plugs go. Right now our upstairs has one plug per room and it can get kind of annoying at times.

For Some reason this gives me that AHHH feeling

Oh the little things that give you joy when you are renovating. I was over at the house the other day with the kids and walked into what will be our living room and felt so satisfied to find that Jack had actually insulated it (this was before I asked if I could insulate) and framed out the new front window (if you scroll down this is the window that is missing on the main floor front, and it should be in soon!!!)

We managed to get the insulation on sale too!!! I thanked God for that one, I mean really who hears of insulation going on sale. Our deals we have been finding are incredible I got 88 dollars light fixtures for $22 and $189 ceiling fans for $88, my living room chanadlier was $32 and I think it was originally well over $100. God keeps providing; everything big we have purchased so far has been discounted in some way, even the wire for the electrical was on clearance!!!

More progress!!

we now have a new furnance in our basement that is not the size of a NASA space ship. The heating and cooling guys figure it should be fully installed by Saturday. I happened to be the only one there when they came to mark out the ducts so I got to actually pick where they would make most sence (in other words not right under the spot someone would put a large piece of furniture)

Marion's newest park!!!

The picture above and below are taken in Marion's new playground in Matter Park. Every time I go I pinch myself cause I am so surprised to find such a great park in Marion. My kids love it and it is soooooooooo huge, these pictures are of only one small piece of it.

We go at least once a week (just thinking tonight would work great!!!) if not twice. The kids love it. Yeah Marion!!! Keep it up!!!!

A stolen Afternoon

Here are my three monkeys enjoying what might be one of their last swims for the season in our friend's backyard pool.

Monday I woke up and by 10 am I had that "got to get out there and enjoy the day " feeling. My agenda of course had homeschooling and several chores listed on it, but one thing I have learned these last few years is you got to cease the moment when God creates it.

By lunch time I gave into it. I called up a friend and said, "hey lets meet and go for a swim". She was game and we went, and I don't regret it one bit. Not even when I was cleaning up the house at close to 9 pm when the rest of the household was sleeping. (remember for me thats late, I am a early bird rising at 5 a.m. most days, and sometimes as early as 4:30, don't worry though I sometimes sleep-in to a sinful 7 a.m!!!!!! (lol) )

Thats one thing I love about homeschooling, I have so much more time to enjoy the kids. Sure we have educational goals to meet, but we can meet them on our schedual not on someone elses, which means we can take full advantage of those last warm days of summer, as well as those perfect bike ride days of fall, and those perfect tobbogan days of winter, and lets not forget those awesome puddle jumping days of spring ( yep even at 33 I still take time to jump in puddles, with my children, I even have my own flowered printed rain boots!!!)

Oh how fast summer flies is it really Labor day weekend already!!!!!!

Speaking of Educational Goals

To all you parents out there with children ages kindergarten to grade 2 I just tried the best educational computer software to date. Its called "Jumpstart World" and it is great. I had to ask Aiden to get off the computer after a solid 2 hours of him playing it and he is itching to get on it again tommorow. And the problems they have to solve to go on in the game meet state standards for education.

A bit of Flipping News and a Bit of this and that!!

This week in flipping I managed to de-staple and strip three window frames only to have more staples put in them due to thunderstorms and heavy rains causing us to need to cover all the open windows with plastic till our new windows arrive. Oh well at least they are paint free. Of course I have 4 windows and all the moldings around the floor to go, but hey progress is progress.

Jack has been working on the wiring of the home. Just the kitchen and bathrooms and 1/2 of the last bedroom and I think he is done (nope now I remember him mumbling something about the dining room and formal living room still to go too) But we are getting closer.

The family room has insulation and wiring. And this weekend it will get its plastic bearer put in and then we are ready for drywall (well okay just in that room really, but at least one room is getting close to the drywall stage) So we are feeling pretty good right now.

Here is Courtney modeling the dresses that I made for her this summer. I finally got my sewing machine out again, after years of it sitting on the shelf. Each of these dresses took one evening to cut out and two to sew. I am working on a four teired one right now, but with soccer season in full swing as well as homeschooling (for you Canadians, American's start school early to mid August) and oh don't let me forget our reno home, I think it will be a while till it gets done.

Boy does she love them though I finished the first one mid week but she hung it in the closet till Sunday. At first this kind of bothered me as I wanted to see her enjoy it right away, but Sunday she bounced out of bed and into her dress and when we got to church she stoped everyone she could and said "MY MAMA MADE ME THIS" with the biggest grin on her face you ever did see. So I guess I am a winner in her eyes when it comes to sewing.

Here are some pictures of my little helpers. We had an early game one afternoon and afterwards all five of us headed over to the reno home for a family working bee. I once again had nail pulling duty (but it was for the last time!!! Yeah all the nails are gone!!!) So Aiden and Courtney joined in and helped!!

Don't ya love Aiden's rainboots and I think it was in the low 80's that day so you know his feet had to be hot but he insisted on wearing them.

Courtney is my little dress and skirt wearer, evening doing reno work she insists on wearing a skirt. In winter though she changes to jeans (she is like her mom, she does not like tights much so would rather just wear pants when its too cold to be bare legged).

I know some of you are probably wondering where Thomas is. Well he was out in the back shed watching a movie. He is not really enjoying this reno thing as much as his brother and sister. He prefers instead to help me out around the house (which I don't mind I could use it) . I am thinking a one on one day with dad at the reno house might help. So we are waiting for a day Jack could use an extra pre-teen hand and they can drink pop and grab a fast food lunch and crank the radio for the day and that hopefully should change Thomas' mind (well maybe)

The last 14 days of Flipping!!

Well another two weeks have flown by, and a lot has happened. Jack and I were just over there tonight with the kids and I think we put the last of the stuff in the dumpster and we now finally have moved on completely to building the place back up.

Well actually I did not throw things in the dumpster, I got the mind numbing job of pulling a million and one staples from the trim work around the master bedroom window (okay maybe not a million, but believe me there was at least 100+)

While the boys enjoyed their day camp at the local state park last week, I found Courtney a few playmates to stay and play at while I put in some hours at the house (and I was by myself too I might add, I finally kicked that fear of intruding rodents). I knocked all the plaster off the last bedroom walls and then stripped the outer bathroom wall of all its lathe and then nails so it can be insulated.

I am now moving on to trim work. I am going to pull out all staples (and there are a lot of staples, I am thinking the previous owners loved using plastic on the windows in winter) Then go at it with a paint scrapper and then an orbital sander, making them all smooth and ready for antique white paint.

Jack has been working on redoing the wiring, and he also took out all the existing outdated light fixtures and the junk fom the attic and dumped them in hopefully what will be our last dumpster for a while.

I was sort of thinking I would fill this last dumpster mostly by myself while Jack moved on to electrical, but between the hot hot heat and the dumpster arriving a day later than planned and then me putting my neck and shoulder out for 3 days (kind of embarassing but I was taking off a rubbermaid lid and pulled a muscle, very wierd and painful) my kid free time was gone, and the dumpster would be gone before my next babysitter time slot. So he did it once the weather finally cooled off a bit.

Hopefully by the next time I write, we will have our ordered windows in and our heating and central air installed as well as a new electrical pannel and working lights!!!

Oh and by the way, for those of you that are like me and are not that computer savy!! you can click your mouse on any of the pictures below and it will get big!!! ( I discovered this on accident, so I thought I'd pass it on, cause it exticted me)

Our Nieghbors!!!

In case our picture of our reno home made you wonder why it was just $10,000 here is what one of our nieghbors homes looks like, and really this picture does it too much justice!!!

This is a picture of a days hard work for me a room full of knocked down plaster. YOu should have seen me I looked like a coal miner, I used that shower head up the nose trick that day and still it felt dusty. (and yes for those saftey consious folks I did wear a ventalation mask)
This is our lovely claw foot tub sitting in the master bedroom right now. It needs a paint job!!
This is a close up of the flowers that someone lovingly painted on and really thick too, can't do just a primer and a paint job on this thing. But I really want to save it I am thinking sanding. Going to research it a bit.

Yes!!! I do, do more than just Reno's for Fun!!!

Here is a picture of my friend Letha getting the royal treatment at one of the mexican restuarants in town. Thats whip cream they are scooping in her face, its a birthday tradition around here. Letha is the first of my friends to hit the big 40!!!

We had such a fun time celebrating it. Our friend planned a whole treasure hunt for her, and we each waited at a certain location around town with gift certificates and presents in our hands as well as a clue to the next spot.

We had a blast!!!! Happy 40th Letha, I love ya!!!!

The last two weeks of flipping!!!

Well, it is now August and we are entering month three of our flip. We are still tearing down, but we can now see light at the end of the tunnel right as I type my hubby is putting down the new sub floor in the downstairs bathroom and kitchen.

I am staying home today as it was a surprise early day for Jack and it is too hot to put the kids outside even in the shade and too late to get a sitter. But I am itiching to be there, I love helping it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something towards our goals. I know that what I do here at home is important too, but I think all you women would agree that it gets frustrating at times when you find out you have to do most of it all over again the next day!!

This week the last dumpster (that would be number 4) is coming and I am actually going to spend my first full day by myself at the house.(aren't you proud of me I am facing my fear of rodents for the sake of our time linefilling the dumpster up so that we can spend our Wednesday together building the house up. It feels so good to be almost done with tear down.

No live rats have been found, but we did get infested with fleas again. Don't know where they are coming from there is not anything left of the house!!! No curtains or carpet, just bare walls and floors.

The huge furnace is out of the basement and I do mean huge it was bigger than some of the space shuttles that I have seen go to the moon. You should have seen Jack after he knocked it out he was wet from head to toe with sweat.

The basement actually looks really good without the furnace and junk. We are thinking of redoing the concrete floor down there and painting the walls,( and thanks to vandals it is also getting new windows) , doing so would make it look all fresh and perhaps give the next person the idea that they could add to their living space by renovating it further.

I have been busy with nail pulling duty and plaster knock down and lathe pull down. I like the plaster and lathe stuff better than nail pulling, that is so boring!!!!! Although plaster knock down sure is a dusty job, even with a mask dust still manages to somehow get in your nose (here is a tip though if you should find yourself with a dusty inner nose, take your removable shower head and shoot it up your nose it really works!!!!) But it is almost done just one more bedroom to complete and we can then move on to putting up insulation (the house had none their heat bill must have been through the roof) and then finally drywall and paint.

Well I got to go, soccer season started this week and I need to get dinner going before practice. The boys schedual is hectic this time, I think I have 5 free weekday evenings from now to mid october, and that is only if Thomas's coach does not book any more practices. I love being a soccer mom though, it is such a great sport to watch, and it requires hardly any equipment so its inexpensive, and hardly any violence either. Rainy games are the best, nothing like watching mud fly!!!! I guess I am still a kid at heart really.

Just a few pic's!!!

Our little workers

Its a hard life, watching TV outside in the shade while Mom and Dad work and lots of time Aiden too (he loves to help).

Still no toilet so they are all getting to be experts at peeing in the corner of the yard. Courtney at first kept on getting her shorts wet, now she takes them off and then leaves them far away from the pee corner and then returns to put them on again. Soon however we will have a spot for them to sit inside and a working toilet.

Don't worry though they are not stuck outside for hours at a time. We hire a sitter for Jack's day off and one evening a week. So really the children are only with us here and there when Jack get a surprise short day of work, or he gets told he can come in later than normal.

And during this heat wave we are experiencing, well I am just staying home with them when jack gets surprise time off, its too hot even to be sitting in the shade watching movies even for a short few hours.

Aiden our best helper he just loves to get in on the action. You should see him in a face mask and work gloves, he looks so gosh darn adorable, and when he has a hammer in hand and starts pounding with all his might at the walls, well I just glow with mother pride.
Here it is our $10,000 dollar wonder. The front door is off to the side, and down on the bottom the previous owners walled out the front window but we plan to bring it back and add black shutters and a red door. You will notice that thanks to vandals we now have to replace the upstairs window too!! The other week they broke in through the basement ones, but still nothing taken or even moved. Don't know what they are after but obviously we don't have it.

Our Flipping Family