Hard Working Man

I'll start the post with a few pictures:

Sunday Selfies

Noah spent the weekend with us.

Sunday evening after church we gathered up our walking sticks and hit the trails in the woods on the back of the property.

We look pretty excited for the walk, LOL!  But it was pretty muggy!

Imagine what this is going to look like in the fall!  YUMMY!

Monday began in the usual way.....some time in God's Word with some French vanilla flavored coffee out on the deck.

After I finished reading, I headed to the church to return the folding chairs we had borrowed for our Saturday gathering.  While there, I decided to begin bringing some things back to the building from the parsonage.....crafting things, mostly.

Before I moved into the house, Mark had begun stripping up the old kitchen and dining room tile and replacing it.  Since we are hitting the house hard with clean up, he wanted to finish the job he started.  That process began on Monday.  Here's my hard-working man beginning the process of stripping the old tile by taking the molding off first.

 Now begins applying the "leveler."  I think it is a compound that basically fills in the holes and unlevel areas.  Makes sense, LOL!

He got a lot done, leaving some space for us to walk through while the rest dried overnight.

Today, after Mark got home, and before he began working on the floor again, we ran Piper with the 4-wheeler.  She loves to run!  And she is pretty fast, too!  Watch the video to see how excited she was to get started on the run.....

Then, remembering that we are going to be gone next week, Mark decided to cut the grass.  Then we went to Lowes to get some more supplies for working on the floor, including more tile.  And while we were out, we decided to eat supper at Zaxby's.  We love their salads!

After we got home, we took a quick nighttime ride back on the trails with the 4-wheeler.  Much nicer back in there at 8:00!  Saw a really cool spider's web across the trail with the lights from the 4-wheeler.....just before we ran smack-dab into it!  I want to try to get a picture the next time.

After all of that, Mark went in the house and began working on the floor again.  Fortunately, for tonight, he just wanted to finish up the areas he didn't do last night.  My hard-working man!  There's always something to do on a house!  I'm glad he takes some time for some fun, too!

Nite!

Hitting the Trails

We had a gathering of people on Saturday, some of the kids and grandkids.  Mark worked on the 4-wheelers (gas, etc) and the trails (bush hogging with his son, etc) to get ready for the gathering.  I did my part by cleaning up the house, and buying the food at KFC.  I had to go to Ilene's to get the folding table.  I went to the church to get some chairs, which Calvin helped with since he happened to be on the property working.  Thanks, Calvin!

By the time everyone arrived, there were 15 of us:
Mark's son, Michael, Heather and Dakota.
Mark's daughter, Jenifer with beau Steven, Kayden and Jaxon.
My daughter, Elisabeth, Brad, Hannah, Ryan and Abby.
Mark's "adopted" grandson, Noah was spending the weekend with us.
And, of course, Mark and me.

Let the good times roll...................

Liz drove the dune buggy.  Abby sat on my lap.  It was one of the calmer rides of the day!

Then Liz and I rode by ourselves.

Hannah is the driver.

Grandpa Mark walking with Jaxon and Abby.

Mark's daughter, Jenifer with Jaxon next to her and Kayden.  Heather is at the top on the right.

Jenifer's beau, Steven, included in this picture.

Grandpa Mark and Abby.

Who's turn next?

Mark's son, Michael, with Noah.

Liz, Brad and Abby

Ryan driving Hannah.  Ryan spent LOTS of time on the trails today!

Aunt Jessica has asked Hannah to be involved in fixing my hair for the reception next Saturday, so she practiced some.

Hard to see, but there are French braids there somewhere.

Abby playing with Dakota in the sand box.

Chillaxin' under the car port.  It was a beautiful day!  Not too hot!

Jaxon joined Abby and Dakota at the sand box.

Grandpa Mark and Ryan.

Noah on the 4-wheeler.

Say, "Cheese!"  Michael and Kayden.

Steven and Jaxon.

Kayden drove this trip.

Then Mark and I followed Kayden.

We followed Kayden on the 4-wheeler.

Things were wrapping up by this time.  Everyone was getting ready to leave.  The day was a success with the grandkids already wanting to do it again!  Which we will!

Here are some videos that I took on the 18th of August where we ran Piper, the doberman, back on the trails, which she loves after being in her kennel through the day.  These are some of the trails the kids enjoyed.  Some of them are really rough from tree roots crossing the trails and from tree stumps still visible.

Happy Trails to you all!

Clean Up, Clean Up!

Everybody Clean Up!  So says the purple dinosaur from the 80's!  I wish he were here to help me now!  Trying to clean out the outbuildings, along with the house, add to the overwhelming task, for sure!  But, yesterday, we made GREAT headway!

Here's the second load that I took to Goodwill, all from one of the outbuildings (just about all of it being Christmas stuff).  The car could hold no more:

The back was full!

The passenger side of the back seat was full!

The passenger side of the front was full!

The back seat behind the driver.  The only place left was the driver's seat!

It felt really good to get rid of all of that!  And, with these being moved, now there was room in the outbuilding to move the 2 trail bikes from the house to the outbuilding!  WOOHOO!

I said that was the second load.  The first load I took earlier in the day was clothing and miscellaneous stuff from inside of the house.

Today, I took Ilene for her pre-op appointment for her cataract surgery scheduled for the 29th.  After we went to the appointment, I brought her back to our house to show her how much progress I have made in cleaning out the clutter.  She was impressed!  I have worked hard!  But there is still LOTS to do!  BUT, we are getting there!

Next, we went to Ilene's drug store to fill the prescription the doctor gave her today and then had lunch with the ladies Ilene used to work with and used to go to church with her, too.  After lunch I dropped Ilene off at her house and I returned to ours to begin some more cleaning.  When Mark got home he mowed the yard, took his shower and we went to Wendy's for a salad and then went to pick up his new-to-him truck.

After we got back to the house, we loaded up a couple of containers and took them to Mark's daughter's house.  After visiting for a bit, we came back to the house, did some more work and then settled in to play Skip-bo.  I had never played it so Mark read the instructions out loud.  It was really fun!  We each won a game!

I don't think I ever showed you our new adjustable bed that was delivered last week.  We got it so that, hopefully, when my sister comes to visit she won't have to load up her wooden version of a craftmatic bed.  We are going to pull a queen bed frame from storage in one of the outbuildings for the spare bedroom, but a new mattress and box spring and when Kim is in town Mark and I will sleep in the spare bedroom and let Kim have our bed for the duration of her stay.  That's the plan, anyway!

It is hard to tell how much valley there is.  But I was expecting the foot to raise higher than it did.

I will have to lay in it and get a picture to show how much adjustment is made.  Hope it is enough, Kim!  I think it should be, even if you have to put pillows under your knees!

Tomorrow I'm going to have to catch up on laundry and dishes!  Thanks for stopping by!

Projects

Finally!  A Saturday we could sleep in!  And we didn't!  We had lots we wanted to do today!  Some projects around the house.  So we got our showers and got ready to start the day with breakfast at the Towne Center Diner up the street.  You can't go shopping on a empty stomach, right? 

Then we went to Lowes with a list. We wanted to look for a closet rod for my closet, an extra long towel bar for the bathroom, fencing to build a fenced-in area to move the doberman outside, sink plug for the kitchen sink, sink plug for the bathroom sink.

We realized we needed to know the width of the closet, so we couldn't buy the closet rod.  The stopper for the kitchen sink was too little so the water would not stay in the sink.  And we didn't know if we would hit studs for the towel bar in the bathroom or not which would require anchors if no studs. 

We took the measurement for the closet rod after we got back home and then headed back to Lowes.  And we did need anchors for the bathroom towel bar.  And we returned the kitchen stopper and got a different one that worked.

New towel bar.  Mark is removing some old screws.  We will have to patch the holes in the plaster.

Drilling for the anchors for the closet bar

Its hard to tell, but he is hanging from the bar, all 230 lbs of him!  I think it will hold my clothes!  :D

We got a lot accomplished today!  Got lots of stuff moved to the basement.  I even started putting some things into my building that I will use to set up the crafting area.

This evening we went to Conn's Home Furnishings to look at dressers and couches and flat stove tops.  We came away with a sweeper!  :D

Tomorrow is our day of rest and I am so looking forward to it!  Have a blessed day!