They were more like guidelines, anyway...

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Yay for school being out!!!! It must feel so nice to have the summer in front of you now.

Your meals look delicious!! I love the idea of walking tacos. I might have to steal that idea this summer.

 

[lsenquiz]

Congrats on starting your summer break! Have fun hanging that siding. Can't wait to see the finished product. A change that big has got to result in awesome before and after pictures. We leave 2 weeks from today. I can not wait!!!!!!!

 

[indimom]

Congrats on starting your summer break! Have fun hanging that siding. Can't wait to see the finished product. A change that big has got to result in awesome before and after pictures. We leave 2 weeks from today. I can not wait!!!!!!!

Oh, I didn't even think to take before pictures. I'll have to get on it, we've already got the siding off on the north side.
We hope to have the old super-thin insulation board off, and get started putting the new insulation and house wrap up tomorrow, assuming the rain stops for more than 20 minutes at a time. It's been pouring off and on all day today.

Wow, Two Weeks!!! Time is FLYING by!!!
Does that mean my trip will be "Coming Soon"???

 

[indimom]

Yay for school being out!!!! It must feel so nice to have the summer in front of you now.

Your meals look delicious!! I love the idea of walking tacos. I might have to steal that idea this summer.

I have to admit, I'm looking forward to a little break. Of course, once I find out whether or not I've been accepted to the nursing program, I plan to pick up my books and start reading ahead. I've heard the first month is pretty intense as they really push you through the "book work" to get you on to the labs and clinicals.

 

[indimom]

So, I had to share another "real life" update, just because I can't believe it.

A little back story. Two weeks before school started last fall, Emily and I were heading to her freshman orientation at the high school. We parked and were getting out of the car. She was super nervous and excited... probably a lot distracted...
And she slammed the car door on her thumb so hard it latched. And she broke her thumb.
For the record, this was, by far, the most painful injury she's ever had. We had to take her back to the doctor the next day to have a hole drilled in the nail to let some of the blood out and relieve the pressure.

Well, last night, Matt and Garren ran to the store. And guess what my boy did??
Seriously... THE EXACT SAME THING!! Same finger even. The only difference was hers was just past the last joint and his is between the two joints.

I've shut the car door on my fingers before, but never hard enough to make it latch. Matt has been telling them for years NOT to slam the car doors, close them gently, etc., etc. (Not because he was worried about wounded digits, just so they wouldn't damage the car, but it probably would have helped if they had ever ...)

I'm thinking they may have learned their lesson now... But, seriously, how do two kids, two siblings, manage to get the same injury, in the same year. Sheesh.

 

[lsenquiz]

So, I had to share another "real life" update, just because I can't believe it.

A little back story. Two weeks before school started last fall, Emily and I were heading to her freshman orientation at the high school. We parked and were getting out of the car. She was super nervous and excited... probably a lot distracted...
And she slammed the car door on her thumb so hard it latched. And she broke her thumb.
For the record, this was, by far, the most painful injury she's ever had. We had to take her back to the doctor the next day to have a hole drilled in the nail to let some of the blood out and relieve the pressure.

Well, last night, Matt and Garren ran to the store. And guess what my boy did??
Seriously... THE EXACT SAME THING!! Same finger even. The only difference was hers was just past the last joint and his is between the two joints.

I've shut the car door on my fingers before, but never hard enough to make it latch. Matt has been telling them for years NOT to slam the car doors, close them gently, etc., etc. (Not because he was worried about wounded digits, just so they wouldn't damage the car, but it probably would have helped if they had ever ...)

I'm thinking they may have learned their lesson now... But, seriously, how do two kids, two siblings, manage to get the same injury, in the same year. Sheesh.

Wow gave me the chills just reading the update

 

[LadyBeBop]

I want a Skyline Cheese Coney!!!

Already had supper, and we're going away for the weekend starting tomorrow morning. So no Skyline for me until at least Monday night.

Live about 10 minutes from Skyline. However, I live in the part of the country where you're no more than ten minutes from a Skyline.

 

[indimom]

Ha Ha! I had no idea I would torment so many people with my Skyline post. lol.

We got a good start on the house this weekend. We stripped the vinyl siding, a thin layer of insulation, and old wood siding off the north side of the house; then put up new foam insulation board. Hopefully, we'll get the house wrap up this week, and can crank out some siding next weekend!

Garren didn't let his sore thumb slow him down. He wanted to help, and help he did. Luckily he's a rightie and it was the left hand he injured. So, he was ripping away at the walls right next to Matt and my dad.

I had Em grab a few photos while we were working, but I'm at work right now, so I'll have to to post them later.

 

[lsenquiz]

Glad Garren was able to power through! Can't wait to see the pictures!

 

[indimom]

Hmmm, seems there used to be another window here....

The guys had to burn a few extra minutes restructuring this area so the siding would lay properly and to provide some structure to nail the siding to. Not a big deal. But just one of those things you run into whenever you are updating an older home.


I stuck to photos where my dad's back is turned, since I didn't ask permission to post his photo on the web.

We were working in sections because we were expecting rain that day. Which never came, of course.

We had removed all of the old vinyl siding at this point.
The bottom white sections are wood siding (which we found under the vinyl siding, and which we hadn't removed yet. The holes are where blown insulation had been added previously.

I'll try to get more pictures soon.

At this point, the entire north side is covered in the blue foam board insulation. Tomorrow evening we are going to get the house wrap up. And by the weekend, we should have a good amount of siding up.

It's going to be grey when it's done. And if we have enough cash left at the end, we'll be adding black shutters to the windows. As you can tell, the house is a little bland/boxy, especially on this side, so I think shutters will dress it up a bit.

 

[indimom]

More food photos. Sorry if I'm making everyone hungry.

On our Saturday arrival day, we'll be getting into Orlando very early. Like around 8 or 9 a.m. early. But, we won't have our site yet. So, we'll probably stick to a simple cold breakfast.

Sunday is our DHS day. Since we don't have to be at the parks for EMH, we'll have time for a nice sit-down breakfast. Something like:

Stock Photo

Monday is our Blizzard Beach day. Again, we'll fill up with a big hot breakfast, probably:

Stock Photo

Tuesday is our Epcot day. Again, we should have time for a filling breakfast before we head out. I'm thinking:

Stock Photos

Wednesday is our Typhoon Lagoon day, and we'll have our last hot breakfast of the trip. Probably leftovers from the three prior days so we can clear out the cooler as much as possible for our stay at RPR.

For lunches, we'll stick to picnic type food. Deli meats and cheese for sandwiches. Chips. Fruit. Veggies and Dip. Maybe some store-bought potato salad or slaw. Items we can grab on the fly and do not have to cook.

A couple other staples we typically bring on trips includes:

Stock Photos

IF it all works out, and we have room to pack all of this, I will probably make a few homemade items to add to the list:

Chocolate Chips & Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Stock Photos

And, of course, homemade beef jerky. Matt and the kids love the stuff. Not something I really understand. (Actually, it's not bad tasting, but the smell of the marinated meat in the dehydrator is overpowering, so I'm usually pretty sick of it after making it...) But, hey, it's good protein, right?

Stock Photos.


And that's the end of the food porn for today...
And hopefully forever, or at least until I start cooking for our trip.

ONLY 66 more DAYS!!!

 

[KathyRN137]

I'm so glad that I just ate!

Ouch on the thumb accidents!! My kids are "slammers" too.


Kathy

 

[indimom]

We got a start on the new siding last night. It should go pretty quickly now that we're past all the odd cuts (for the faucet, exhaust vents, etc). Hopefully the rain will be mild or avoid us completely so we can get this side done by the weekend. Then, we'll have to move the scaffolding to the next side.





We would have gotten more done, but we had to quit early to take Emily to an awards program at the high school.
The Jaycees recognized all the students who had maintained a GPA of 3.8 or higher.



I tried to get a picture in the auditorium, but I was too far away and didn't have a tripod so they were blurry, but I made her pose for a photo in the yard before we left. See how happy she looks about it.

Hope everyone has been enjoying this lovely weather we've had. It's beautiful this morning, but the rain is on it's way...

 

[lsenquiz]

I have been trying to do this update for three days and keep getting interrupted.

The progress you are making on the house is impressive. We have never tackled a project as big as yours so I can't wait to see the finished product.

All the food pictures look great. I never eat breakfast normally but love it when I am on vacation.

Congrats to Emily! Her picture is beautiful!

 

[indimom]

I know what you mean about the updates, I keep trying and it's not happening. Maybe I can get something done now. lol.

We had a crazy busy weekend. We got the siding on the north side 90% complete. We just have to finish the dormer, but that involved adding another section to the scaffolding and we just didn't have the man power to get that done (I'm too chicken to climb that high AND try to lift scaffolding pieces into place. )

We also ripped off the old siding on part of the west side by the garage, and got the insulation board and house wrap up. That will be a quick side to put siding on because there are no windows or doors.

No pictures yet. I just didn't have time to think about it.

Saturday morning, while Matt was at work, I went to a 5K hosted by our church, with my sister and the kids. I didn't run because I haven't been doing any training (ugh) and I was wiped out from working overtime this week, . But, they all ran and it ended up being very exciting.

Garren has never run a 5K and hasn't done any training, but he was determined to outrun his big sis. He's pretty fit from other sports and just being an outdoorsy boy, but I didn't know if that would hold him for over 3 miles.

As the finishers started to cross the finish line, it was the typical well-trained guys crossing first. But, at the fourth man crossed the line, I could see a smallish sized person in the distance. At first I thought it was the first woman finisher, but as they got closer, I realized they were smaller than that.

Yep, it was Garren. Fifth place overall and 2nd place in the under 29 mens division. His time was just over 25 minutes. I was floored. I didn't expect him to do that well!

The first girl across the finish line was another 13yo, who I heard through the grapevine, had never run a 5K either. She runs track, but not distance, that may change now. lol. I think she was 9th overall.

My sister, Deb, was the 4th woman across the finish line, 15th overall, and was 2nd in the 30-39 women's age bracket.

And Emily, who ran with her best friend, was the 6th woman across the finish line, 17th overall, and the 3rd in the under 29 women's bracket. Her friend was just behind her (so 7th woman, 18th overall, and 4th in their bracket).

So, by the end of the morning, we had racked up three medals. It was pretty fun! The kids have never won anything before, so they were pretty excited.

We got home just after the mailman arrived, and I got some exciting new also. My acceptance letter was in the mail! So, I guess I better enjoy the rest of my summer, because the hard work begins in August.

I actually got a small scare when the letter arrived. As I was reading through the information, I got to a line that mentioned a MANDATORY meeting in July, and for a split second, I thought it was going to hit on our trip. Luckily, it's two days before we leave, so All Is Well! No trip interruptions and I really have something to celebrate!!!

So, that's all the updates I have for today! I hope everyone is doing well! Please chime in and tell me your updates and what your up to. I'd love to hear about it. I'm running out of trip plans to share, so I need some gab to keep me going.... Please??

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

What an exciting weekend you guys had! Congrats on the acceptance!!!

 

[golf4miami]

Holy crap it looks like things are moving quickly on your house and it's only May! That's awesome that everyone did so well in the 5k!

 

[indimom]

What an exciting weekend you guys had! Congrats on the acceptance!!!

Thanks! I think it's finally sinking in about now. lol.

Holy crap it looks like things are moving quickly on your house and it's only May! That's awesome that everyone did so well in the 5k!

Yeah, it's rolling. I really, really hope we're done before July, but that might be pipe dreaming.
The kids were excited! Hopefully it will keep their interest up. I like that they are keeping active.

 

[indimom]

Oy, what a crazy busy week. I'm looking forward to the weekend.
Well, maybe not, since I got wrangled into three shifts when I'm typically off until Sunday night...
But, the overtime will be nice, so I'll cut the complaining there.

The house is really moving along. We finished the entire north side. I've got photos, but not with me at work, so I'll try to post them tomorrow when I'm home. It looks great! Matt also finished the small west section by the garage.

And today, we tore down a large portion of the front (east) side of the house. I don't have any photos of that yet. I'll have to try to get some taken.

If we keep moving at this pace, we'll have it done before July, which makes me very happy!

Another plus, I've picked up some sun already working on the house. At this rate, I'll have a nice tan by the time our trip rolls around and I won't have to worry about getting burnt to a crisp in Florida! Bonus!

Em and Garren are nearly at the end of their school year. Last day is Thursday, so they've been pretty busy with end of the year projects, tests, and exams.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the end, so Em will quit fussing about her grades (the kid's anal, I swear) and so they can both start helping a bit with the house. Garren helped about two afternoons, but none since, and Em hasn't been out there at all. Just too busy right now. And I'm too old for this. lol.

Matt's reveling in the work. He always loved working construction, and this is a lot of fun for him. The only thing he hasn't enjoyed is how many bee nests they've discovered under the old soffit. My dad thinks it's funny that my manly man is more scared of a bee than of being 30+ feet off the ground standing on an 8-inch board. Matt just can't seem to NOT swat madly whenever one flies around his head. Which is funny right now, when I know he's safe at home in bed, but gives me a coronary when ever I see him up there doing that.

I've been doing a lot of the cutting with the power saw, and not too bad, if I say so myself. I really only messed up one cut. And some of those angles and corners were . I'm better with my feet on the ground. I can handle the ladders which are pretty stable and secure, but that scaffolding MOVES when you're up that high. Gives me butterflies when I'm up there, so I avoid it like the plague. I'd much rather take my chances with the power tools on the ground, thank you very much.

Ha Ha, I wrote a book. Sorry. But, that's where I've been hiding this week! Hope everyone else has had a great one! Take care.

 

[lsenquiz]

on the acceptance letter. What a huge deal!!

Cant wait to see more pictures of the house. Your story about preferring to be on the ground makes me laugh because with my DH and I it is just the opposite. I am usually the one 60 feet in the air and he is the one on the ground. Not because I love it but because he is petrified of heights.

We'll be getting on the road in a couple of hours but I will check in while we are gone.