Pictures

Girls playing around Fun with Fire






Look closely, there really is a fish on the end of his hook.








June 30, 2009

Please check out an Ken Ham's (Answers in Genesis) 2009 State of the Nation.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/media/video/ondemand/state-of-the-nation/state-of-the-nation

We went out to my parent's cabin Sunday. We had a great time. Tyler did some fishing, and I got to read an excellent book, Standing Firm through the Great Apostasy by Steve Gallagher. It's about how today's church is producing false converts. The book is an eye-opener.
"Scripture makes clear that there is no salvation without repentance" p. 26. This statement makes me think of the seeker-sensitive movement going on within churches that don't want to offend so there is very little talk of sin or repentance. Typically they are just feel good messages.
Mr. Gallagher goes through an entire list of what he calles evidences of true faith. Faith proven by childlikeness, change, obedience, and by fruit. I find myself often thinking of the last. What kind of fruit have I produced? I typically equate this last to telling other's about Christ, which is somehow terrifying to me. At least to strangers and those that I know who have a differing view. What does it say about me, if I am not willing in this life to "rock the boat", for fear of... what? If I really love someone, should I not be more concerned about where they spend eternity vs. whether they like me or not?
Can I be a silent witness for Christ? Can my actions be a witness all by themselves? That can't be. I'm a sinner. A big one at that. What do my actions, my speech really say about me?

June 26, 2009

Happy Birthday Aunt Laurie!

Day 2 1/2 with no air. Last night was a long night. We went to a friends house, who is on vacation, who has a great pool. It was a nice cool off.

The guy for the water softener is supposed to be here from 1-2. Maybe after he leaves we can go to the pool again. Though the girls may be going to the cabin with mom. Lucky girls.

We had another mouse in the house last night. My dog is a better mouser than both cats put together!

So, Michael Jackson died yesterday. I get that he was a popular celebrity, but the media is covering this story too much.

I survived the roof adventure. I needed to get the "whirlybirds" out of the gutters. We were growing trees. I used the porch off of our deck to get onto the roof. I didn't fall!!

I set the tent up in the front yard. It's really the only place where I should have shade most of the day. I figure it's got to be cooler than in the house.

Off to clean.

June 25, 2009

ARG!
We had the air and furnace looked at 2 days ago. Nothing was wrong with anything, Terry just thought it was a good idea to have them looked at and see if they were in need of service. Plus, it started as a friend of his started up a new business in heating/air/decks and other home maintenace stuff. The verdict... the furnace was old and prone to cracks, and very dirty. But otherwise looked ok. The guy wanted to come out with his snake camera and take a look. Terry said that had been done about 2 years ago, and we have installed carbon monoxide detectors through out the house, so we felt we could let that go.

The guy also checked the air conditioner. He said it was in excellent shape. No service needed. That was 2 days ago (remember, we had no issues with either). So, we are going through a heat wave, and the air has been set at 72 degrees for the last several days, and starting last night, the air won't drop below 81 in the house. The air coming out of the vents is NOT cold.

Looks like it will be movie day in the sunken family room. Good thing NCIS came in the mail through Netflix! :)

Last One







I just finished the classroom flooring. Had to get rid of the dog smell. We found a cheap temporary way to do it. I tore up the carpet, treated the subflooring and laid vinyl tile. It was on sale. We spent very little between the 3 floors. The previous owners left about 6 boxes of tile from the kitchen. Then a few years ago we had the idea to redo the floors in one of the bedrooms, but never got around to it. So, I had all the flooring for the dining room.



Menards had a great sale on the vinyl tile. We spent less than $40! I had to repaint the walls in the classroom, but I used left over paint from the kitchen and hall.






All Done!!

I finished the flooring today. I just need to figure out what to do about the thresholds. I'm too cheap to pay $40 for the correct trim, but not sure it would be wise to place trim down that has a lip to it. Knowing Ky, she would trip everytime she went in the room. :)




Tyler's Spanish program is causing an error. I had to contact the company only to find out I have to uninstall the program and start over!? That stinks. I'm pretty sure that means he loses everything he has completed so far. Guess it will be review.

We were going to start back into the swing of school work this week, but due to the mess I have created with the flooring, we are going to have to wait a while. The kids are just heartbroken. NOT! :)

I found a great website for classes on DVD. I am going to have Ky take the Brit Lit class and "Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition" I plan on watching the video's with her. Her Brit Lit textbook covers nearly every author mentioned/discussed, so she will have some reading to go with it. I should get the discs on Tuesday.

I am still waiting to recieve her curriculum for Bible. It's been nearly 2 weeks since I ordered it. I'm looking forward to that one too. I've already read most of her Human Anatomy and Physiology text book. I forgot how interesting that class was. I was tempted to get the DVD's from the "Great Courses" website.

I did select a math class for Tyler to watch. Most of it will be over his head, but he enjoys watching anything on the subject. It's titled the "Joy of Mathematics". I'm looking forward to watching the episode on Fibonacci, as is he, thanks to the TV show "Numbers."

Day 1 of Dining room floor

Over the weekend we pulled up the carpet in the dining room. Tyler was a big help with pulling out staples. Tomorrow I hope to go to Lowes and pick up the rest of the panels for the subfloor. I'm thinking 3/8" will be plenty thick. I may pick up extra in case we decide to do the classroom as well. I hope the steps I took to rid the floor of pet smells works. First I sprayed the damaged areas with bleach and water. Then I put 2 coats of KILZ, then a very thick layer of polyurethane. (supposed to seal in odors) I still have another layer of subflooring and foam underlayment to put over top of it.
Day 2

Eat-In Remodel




I decided I wanted the tile extended to fill in the room called the "eat-in" room according to the previous owners. I don't get why the carpet was extended into that room from the dining room. Nor do I understand why someone would put in light cream colored carpet in a dining room.

So began the eat-in remodel. Here are during and almost after pics. I still have to put in the grout.




The next project will be to rip out the carpet in the dining room and put down "wood" laminate flooring.


June 10

Back from camping. Even though it was cold and rainy we had a good time. We lost the fly about 2 years ago in a wind storm, so we I had to get creative with covering the tent. The tent is so large that the smallest tarp I could find that would be large enough to cover all of it (tent is 16 x 14) was a tarp that was 16 x 30.
My sister joined us for one night. She didn't make it long though. I think their air mattress lost air and the coyotes were making a lot of noise. Fun having her.

The kids decided they wanted to go canoeing and paddle boating. Ky and Ry did the canoe. Mary, Ty and I went on the paddle boat. I had no idea how much work it would be. Afterwards we stopped and had dinner. The brats were good. On our last night, there was a threat of thunderstorms. I pulled my tent in under the tarp. It worked through the day on Saturday (rained off and on) that night we decided to begin packing it up and I ended up sleeping in the vacation home, with the 4 kids. It was a bit cramped. I missed having a tent all to myself.

The tent is now set up at home in the backyard. It needed some airing out. Tyler and I slept out in there last night. As did Nicki and Chloe.