Life Without Preston

We are living with one child less for about a month this summer. Preston is working for Uncle Paul in Oregon. Preston is my great negotiator between Keaton and Winston - so his lack of presence is felt deeply. I don't know how we'll manage when he goes away to college. The picture above is one of the rare moments when the other two boys are getting along. I think it's because I've dosed them with maple bars (a rare treat) so they are occupied with that for the time being.
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We've been slowly working on getting our bathroom done. It's crazy, but we thought the tile and tub would take the longest time and be the hardest thing to do. It seems all the little things, cosmetic things, are taking a painfully long time to get accomplished. We thought faucets would be the easiest thing - go pick a couple out at Home Depot and put them in. Well, we've found that if you have antique tubs, the new faucets don't fit. We've had to 'mickey mouse' things together to make it work. Then the sink faucet we bought is too big for the sink - UUUGGGGHHH! Home Depot is 60 miles away! It's like we have to plan a major trip just to get the hardware that we need for this project! So the bathroom is on hold, again, until we can get back into town. Sometimes living in the country is a little rough on the pocket book when you have to fill the gas tank to get anywhere.
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In other news - for those of you who knew about our little 'friends' living in the plum tree in the back yard, the male squirrel died this weekend. I was very sad. I became quite attached to the little fellow. The female is still there, but I'm sure she's very lonely. We don't know what happened to him. Tom just found him on the ground and buried him. It's very sad.
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For the 4th of July, we'll hopefully be working on the bathroom again. I hope we can get it finished, finally. We'll probably roast marshmallows in the back yard firepit and let off some fireworks. When you live in a beautiful area like we do, spending time in the back yard is a lot like camping - and it's free (sort of, if you don't count the mortgage). We hope you all have a great Independence Day Weekend! Until next time...

Some Coast Pics...

Keaton and Preston take a little evening stroll on the beach with Uncle Levi. We were able to get down to the beach a few times. We found lots of sea life - star fish, little crabs and anenomes. Uncle Jeremy even found a dead sea lion - yuk!

Back at the house there were lots of card games - 4 square, Sevens and Catan. Some of us enjoyed a little time reading. The kids had a blast playing on the 'playground' in the back yard. We also had lots of yummy things to eat. We love being at the Oregon Coast!

4th Annual Chick Reunion

This year's family reunion was at the Oregon Coast. My brother Levi & his wife, Kadie, were nice enough to find a great big house for the whole family to stay in. We had a great view of the ocean and just a short drive down to the beach. The kids had a blast running, laughing and playing together. It was really great to get to see everyone. It's the only time we all get to be together at once. I hope the tradition will continue for many years to come. I love my family, love getting to be with them during these times - and even though we all have our own ways of doing things and seeing things in this world and this life - my love and respect for all in our family will never change. I'm thankful for my parents and grandparents, who have made great efforts for all of us in present times and in times past. I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters and their spouses and the fact that it is important to them to do what it takes to keep close as a family. I'm thankful for my little nieces and nephew and the joy they bring to us all. What a wonderful thing it is to be together - even if it is only for a day.

Tough Boys

Don't they look like tough little men? They were having a great time with the camera the other day. They got pictures of Winston riding his bike - with help, of course. One picture shows Winston running over Keaton with his bike. It's great to have three brothers who enjoy being together and have fun.
Tomorrow is our anniversary. Tom and I will have been married 19 years. Some times it seems like just yesterday. Tom made the comment that time doesn't seem to have passed until he looks at how old his kids are getting. I notice it when I look in the mirror - gray hair, bigger waist-line, wrinkles - oh, my! We will be spending our anniversary doing finish plumbing in the bathroom and hanging wainscoating. Yay!

This is June???????????

We had a really rainy week last week, and this week started out the same. Then on Tuesday I looked out the window and it was snowing! Big, fat, fluffy snowflakes - that turned to slush when they hit the ground. The whole ground ended up covered in slush. It snowed for a couple of hours. Then the sun came out and melted it all and steam came pouring out of the ground. Our back yard looked like it was sending up smoke signals! Steam was billowing out of the wheat fields, too. Won't Summer ever get here?

UNDER DESTRUCTION

Tom and I decided to put the little present we got from Uncle Sam to good use and started working on our bathroom. This whole process started about a month ago. We finally sat down and decided on a floor plan that we both could live with. Then came demolition day. What a mess. Getting the bathtub and toilet out were easy in comparison to all the old walls that needed to come down. We uncovered the old window that was in the wall behind our toilet and now there is much more light in the bathroom. Then Tom totally insulated the walls - a much needed thing as our bathroom is always cold in winter and the pipes to the shower would freeze regularly. He also fixed the ceiling so it is all the same height - put in recessed cans for light. We chose to go with the stall shower, so that is in, too. All the plumbing is done. Now we are sheet-rocking. Today is tape and mud day. Then if it dries by this week, I get to spend the week priming and painting.

The plan for our bathroom is to go all neutral browns. This is because I have a hard time deciding what color I like my bathroom to be. The blue thing just wasn't working. We picked out a light tan ceramic tile that we will put on the floor and around the bath tub. Then we picked out a dark oak vanity for the sink, with a multi-toned counter to go on top. Then we will stain wainscoating to match and put it around the lower perimeter of the bathroom. The upper walls will be painted a light tan to match the tile. The shower, bath tub and sink are white. I thought I'd off-set the whiteness of them with drawer and cabinet handles of white ceramic - the antique kind. The idea is that if everything in the bathroom is tan, the color can come in the form of curtains, towels, vanity items and rugs. That way if I want to change the colors all I have to do is change out the curtains and rugs. I think it will work nicely. We have decided to use the old clawfoot bathtub that is out at the barn. We bought a finishing kit to make it look like new again, then we will drop it into the tile frame we've built. All of the water fixtures and light fixtures have an antique flair to them with chrome and white ceramic-glass-enamel.

We had to move the china hutch in the kitchen over about seven inches so we could slip the shower stall in next to it on the bathroom side. Then Tom built a cabinet to finish off the wall where the china hutch invades into the bathroom wall. That cabinet will be a giant medicine cabinet (floor to ceiling) with mirrored doors. We should have plenty of room for all that junk that kept falling out of the old medicine cabinet into the sink. Our new sink and vanity will go in front of the existing window and will take up that whole side of that part of the room. Lots of counter space! The toilet will stay where it is. The bath tub will go where the old bath-shower combo was. The yukky shower doors are gone - YAY! And where our old sink was will be a linen - towel closet. We will have used about every usable space, but we will have much more storage and it will be much more functional for us. Sorry about this being so long winded. When we are done, maybe I'll be able to post pictures!

Movin' to the Big House...

Keaton graduated from 8th Grade last night. The word around his school is that they're movin' to the 'Big House' - the High School. It's across the street from the grade school. It was a really nice and fun program that the school put on. They had a 'syncronized swimming' skit done by 4 junior boys from the high school. They also had the Blues Brothers perform the 'Junior High Blues'. Then instead of handing out certificates, they had each student come up on stage and say their name into the microphone. After the ceremony we all went to the cafeteria for the Luau reception. Keaton had fun 'hamming' it up for the camera. We went through a lot of pictures just trying to get one serious picture out of him. SUMMER VACATION IS FINALLY HERE!

Mr. Toothless...

I finally got my stupid computer to download pictures again. Maybe you'll see more of us. As for now - this is our latest, the gap-toothed kid.

Toothless!

I was having a nice afternoon, typing up some notes into my computer when Winston came in and said "Hey Mommy..." I turned around and looked at him and noticed a big "hole" in the middle of his bottom teeth. I yelled "What happened to your tooth?" He looked at me in a very surprised and somewhat terrified manner and said "I don't know!" I had visions of him falling down - chipping his tooth out of his mouth - biting into something and pulling it out... Winston isn't very good at explaining how things happen to him. I asked him where the tooth was and he said "On Mommy and Daddy's floor." So we went into the bedroom and I began the search. It was a very small tooth - but we found it in the carpet. I looked into his mouth and sure enough, there was an adult tooth just starting to come in. I can't believe my BABY is old enough to start losing his teeth.