Goodbye trees

This summer has been an interesting one for us. We have done four big home improvement projects but only one of them was our choice. First was the sidewalk, then the new oven, then painting and then this one, cutting down trees. Last summer our neighbors cut down their aspen trees. They also put root killer on them so they could remove the stumps easier. Well, if you know anything about aspens, they are connected to each other. So when our neighbors put root killer on their stumps, it also killed two of our trees. Today he and Darren cut the trees down.


















I put this picture in because you can see the neighbor across the street watching. Projects like this always draw attention.

Sidewalk changes

Soon after the 24th of July, the city came and tore up the sidewalk leading to our driveway. I guess I should back up a little. Last summer we got a letter stating our sidewalk didn't pass and had to be fixed. The city would pay half of it and we had to pay the other half. We were given the option of doing it ourselves or hiring our own people to do it but no one was available at the time and we were only given a month to find someone. A few months later we got another letter saying we had a few more months to find someone. We didn't even try that time because it was too much of a bother. We just decided the city could do it and we would pay them. So this summer it all started around the 24th of July. It happened in small steps with big time distances between each step. This past Monday we finally got to drive into our driveway again after 6 weeks of parking on the street. Here are pictures of the progress.















All torn up.















This is with the new pavement put on the road.















The sidewalk poured but still wet.
















All done!!!

Home Improvement

This weekend we have been doing some home improvement. Carl came up on Thursday morning and helped us work until Saturday evening. Tracie came up Friday night and helped until we were done on Saturday. They were both a wonderful help and we accomplished a lot. We "home improved" our bedroom, hallway, and bathroom. I only have before pictures of the bedroom. Carl also fixed a water damage spot on the ceiling in the living room and now you can't even tell it was there.
















Before shot of the bedroom















Another before shot of the bedroom.















Carl hard at work.















After shot of the bedroom - done in "Cinder gray" on the bottom and "Whitecliff" on the top.















More bedroom















Kevin's comment: someone stole all are books and now we are poor

The bookshelf in the hallway and one other part of the hallway is cinder gray. The rest is whitecliff.















Kevin's comment: ethan is crying because we have no books to spare

More hallway















Kevin's comment: someone stole our favret towle

Bathroom done in "aerial view"















More bathroom















Kevin's comment: the t.v. was blank we had to fix it.

More bedroom

Dad time

Friday night Darren was photographing and I was home with the kids. They wanted me to play games with them. Ethan chose Candyland and Kevin wanted Spongebob Life. We played Candyland first and I won. Then we played Spongebob Life and Ethan won. Both games went pretty smoothly so I let them talk me into a second round of Spongebob Life. My patience died halfway through the game. (It takes a lot of patience to play board games with 4 yr olds.) Just at about that same time Darren got home and offered to take over. Was I ever grateful. I don't even know who won that round. He was very thoughtful that way. He also took the kids to the county fair Saturday morning and I got the house to myself for an hour. Right now he and Ethan are out photographing. I think dad time is important, don't you? I sure appreciate it. (I know this photo has some bad lighting going on and is unfocused but it was the better of the two so that's what I have to use.)

Doorknob

Darren was on a photo trip for the past 5 days and it seems whenever he goes anywhere for a length of time something goes wrong at home. This time was no exception. Jacob and Ethan were in my room and had shut the door. I went to open the door and it was locked. We haven't been able to get the door to lock for several months now. I don't know what trick the boys used but it was a good one. I told Ethan to unlock and tried to talk him through it but he couldn't make it work. So I proceeded to take off the door knob. That is something that I've had to do before and it was easy. But this time I couldn't get it off. Kevin was trying to help but I felt like he was getting in the way more than anything else. After a half hour of this, Ethan was starting to freak out and had to go to the bathroom. I tried pushing a pull-up under the door and told him to put it on but he wouldn't do that. Kevin disappeared for a few minutes and then came back. We had gotten the actual doorknob off -- it was the inside of the doorknob that wouldn't come out. Kevin did something and out it came. I guess I won't doubt him anymore. He said he went downstairs to the other doorknob that has just the inside showing with no outside knob and watched how it worked. Then he came upstairs and tried it on that one and it worked. Maybe he'll be my fix it guy. By that time the old door knob was ruined so I went and bought another one and installed it. I had to drill a little bigger hole so the picture below is of me being a handywoman.

Kevin's last soccerr game

Last night was Kevin's last soccer game. It was also the first night I had brought my camera so I was glad they took a group picture. Who is that nerdy kid pulling the face?

Our new oven

For some reason, since we got this new computer, I can't figure out how to get the pictures in the positions I want them. So, you'll have to guess which pictures I am talking about.
Anyway, we have been having problems with our oven for over a year now. It would work well for a while and then not heat up when we turned it on. We would jiggle the heating element and then it would work for a while longer. About two months ago it decided it wasn't going to work anymore. It was done. We had the Sears repair man come and he said they did not make parts for this oven anymore since it was 30 or more years old. He gave us a coupon for $65 dollars off a new one and that was that. New wall ovens are not very cheap so we would rather have fixed the old one. Since that wasn't possible we started researching new ones. We found that, because of all the computerized panels in the new ovens, they were too tall for the spot our old oven was in. We thought we would have to take out the cupboards above our oven and build the opening bigger. Luckily, we have a guy in our ward who does handyman things on the side of his full time job. He helped us figure out we could still fit the oven in if we lowered it instead of building it higher. He also sheetrocked the wall on the side of the oven and got it ready to be painted as well. (And he installed the oven, too.) So now we have a working oven again and it works much better than the old one did. So I'm glad we have it now, even with the extra expense. Some good things you have to be forced into.
Below are some pictures of this whole process. First, there's a picture of the old oven. Then there are a couple of pictures of Darren and Ethan taking the brick off the wall. (Kevin helped a little, too. They thought that was pretty fun.) Next is the wall, waiting to be painted when we paint everything else and last is the new oven.

OCD

I'm afraid Jake has a little obssessive/compulsive disorder in him. Several times I have found him gathering similar objects (cars, toy animals, minature shampoo/toothpaste containers) and lining them up in a row. He gets mad if they are messed up. Yesterday he came out of the bathroom carrying some items and this picture is what he did with them. My other two children did not do that. Anybody else have kids like that?