stuff

I see that it's been almost a month since my last post. Oops! Again, I plead busy.

The play set still isn't 100% done, but is fully usable. Just needs the roof and the rock wall. One of these days, I'll post some picts. Chad is working nights this week, so it's kind of like old times--back to blogging at 10 o'clock at nite!

Chad's dad isn't doing so great right now. He's in ICU and has some unknown infection and is on a vent. We've been focused on that for the last couple of weeks. There's more to it, but I'll just say he's really sick.

On a more positive note, my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Mike are adopting the cutest little boy from Vietnam! Congrats, you two! Get your sleep now, 'cause you won't be getting any after that baby comes home!

Our boys are doing good. Alex is saying more words now. More just repeating than saying them on his own, but I'm still very excited. He's been a little delayed in his speech (which is a little amazing, since he's my kid) but looks like he coming along fine. Jack baled hay with daddy today. He loves helping out at the farm. He even napped in there!

That's all for now; not sure when I'll be back, but hang in there. When Chad works nites I'll have time to blog!

lots of stuff...

Ok, so only posted about the zoo trip on the last blog because if I sit and write too long with pictures to post, something goes wrong and it gets lost so whatever. Here's another post.

Play set update:

Not completed yet. Lots of stuff going on here that it's getting done a little at a time. We were supposed to finish it up on Sat. but the rain came and came and came. I will post picts later.

Chad's new job:

In case you don't know, Chad took a new job with Best Energy Bio Diesel in Cashton. It's the first of it's kind in the state if not the US. The make bio diesel (I guess). It's a little top-secret (proprietary rights) so he can say what they do but not what they use. His last day at Cummins is tomorrow-Friday the 13th. Perfection. This will be a change for all of us, but I think it's a great change.

The flood:

In case you don't own a TV, radio, read a newspaper, or live in a hole in the ground you've heard about the flooding in our area. Crazy. We got a little water in our basement but was nothing compared to what my Grandparents had happen to their house. The hillside behind their house let go and all the mud and rock came down the hill and slid their car into their house and moved that 2-3 feet. My mom and Dave came over and "rescued" them and all stayed with us for the night before heading back to Milwaukee with G&G. Such a mess. There is literally disaster everywhere. Roads are gone, houses are destroyed, crops ruined. 100 year flood, my ass. Twice in 2 years! The water was shooting out of the storm sewer 2-3 feet in the air because there was no place for it to do but up!

I guess we should all be thankful that everyone is OK and it's only things that were damaged. Roads can be re-built, crops can be re-planted. I think our crops are OK. We haven't gone to inspect them yet, but what can you do? Chad's going down with the skid steer and diging G&G out this weekend, so hopefully everyone can get back to life as usual.

put me in the zoo

With Chad taking a different job (YES!!!! FINALLY OUT OF MUFFLER!!!!) he had a lot of time to use so we decided to take the boys on a mini-vaca to the zoo in Mad Town. Jack had a great time and Alex too, but he didn't like riding around in the stroller. Jack loved everything except the birds. They started squawking and he started to cry. Mad dash out of the bird house.

Alex's' fav. was the giraffes and the ice cream sandwich we had. Here's a few picts from the day...

It was a good time. Jack said several times, "I had fun with the animals at the zoo." He's so cute like that. He'll usually say at bedtime that he had a fun time doing whatever fun thing we did that day. It's nice to know the little thing you did to make his day a little more fun was a hit with him as well.

backyard project--part 4

See Dave, I told you I had a bunch of posts worth!

The first two pictures are of the back wall being put up on Sunday. We had to dig a trench in order to put drain tile down to ensure proper drainage so my Dad offered to come and help. That was a huge help, too because I don't dig dirt very well. This dirt was packed hard and clay. It went so much faster with his help.

We filled behind the blocks and on top of the drain tile with gravel. Initially, we were going to put dirt ontop of that and sod on that, but we ended up with way more gravel than what we needed. So Chad came up with the idea of putting gravel all the way up to the top of the blocks and back to the fence. I still say that was the best idea of the whole weekend. Now we don't have to dick around with a tiny strip of grass and we used the rock. The rest Chad scattered around because next weekend we're going to wheel 11 yards of limestone chips (like pea gravel, but cheaper) for a base for the swingset. More fun in store. Stay tuned!

This is what it looked like on Monday when Chad finished up... Not bad if I do say so myself!

backyard project--part 3

Saturday was a busy day of working. Chad brought the skid steer over from the farm and did a lot of the dirt work with it and moved some of the retaining blocks into the backyard. Less to wheel back in the wheelbarrow. I'm all for that.

Chad rented a sod cutter and rolled up all the sod from the "site" to re-use it on the lower side where we had to build up the yard. Dave helped us roll all that out while Mom took G&G back home. That was a huge help. Those rolls were way too heavy for me to help with so that was a great help. The last picture is what it looked like Saturday night when we called it quits for the day.

backyard project--part 2

More progress. Saturday night, Mom, Dave, Grandma, and Grandpa came up to the house and grilled chicken for all of us. That was great to have the visit and the dinner. Of course Grandpa can't just sit and relax, so he grabbed a shovel and helped Chad with the screenings. I swear, the man doesn't act a day over 85! :)

And of course we had our little helpers...

backyard project--part 1

Ok, so we've started our backyard project this last weekend and actually made quite a bit of progress. Because I can't figure out how to post more than four pictures in one post, I'll have multiple posts a day of progress. Here it is:

We were outside ALL weekend. The TV was only on to check the weather and a little at night before Chad and I almost fell asleep on the couch before 10:30! It's so nice to be outdoors and to be doing something other than cleaning the house and watching television. By Monday night, the house was a disaster and it was obvious that I was not inside doing any sort of cleaning! That's OK, I got it all done today. Thats the beauty of being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). I'm not limited to the weekends to get my stuff done, I can do them any day of the week.