They were more like guidelines, anyway...

[mommytothreeboys]

First..congrats on the acceptance! So exciting!

The house looks like it's coming right along. Such a big project!

We are finishing up school here as well. My kids don't get out until late June. My oldest, Dan, who graduates this year is finished with classes on June 8. The graduation countdown has started! His Senior Ball was last weekend. What a proud Mom moment!







Congratulations to Emily on her award! What an accomplishment! And I'm so glad to see it's not only my kids who roll their eyes and whine about getting pictures! LOL! Teenagers!

 

[indimom]

First..congrats on the acceptance! So exciting!

The house looks like it's coming right along. Such a big project!

We are finishing up school here as well. My kids don't get out until late June. My oldest, Dan, who graduates this year is finished with classes on June 8. The graduation countdown has started! His Senior Ball was last weekend. What a proud Mom moment!







Congratulations to Emily on her award! What an accomplishment! And I'm so glad to see it's not only my kids who roll their eyes and whine about getting pictures! LOL! Teenagers!

Oh, what great photos! What are his plans for next fall?
It's going to feel so strange when my first gets to that point. I'm not sure how to feel about the kids "really" growing up and moving on. Very bittersweet, or so it seems to me right now.

 

[indimom]

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.

I'll try to get on the pictures soon. I took more today while we were working, but of course, forgot to bring the SD card to work so I could upload them. We've almost got the front section sided. It's looking soooo nice. We've gotten a lot of nice compliments from neighbors and people riding bikes or walking their dogs. Makes me

I definitely want to add the shutters now, and hope we'll have enough cash flow left to get them right away when we're finished. If not, it'll wait. But, it will look much more finished with the shutters.

Your husband and I would get along well. Heights freak me out. I don't even like watching the guys working up there. I couldn't watch the final scenes of King Kong when it came out a couple years ago because the scenes looking down on the city were just too realistic. Gives me the shivers.

The roof is our next big project and I really just want to hire a crew to crank it out in a day or two when I'm not home. We've got a very steep and high roof on the north side and I can't bare the thought of seeing people working up there, least of all Matt.

 

[indimom]

So... here are the photos I've been promising for the last week:

Here, you can somewhat see the side that we finished. We're also done with this section now and have moved around the house to the final "big" side.


This is the side we are working on now. We decided to finish the sides that require scaffolding first so that we can return them to our friend. Then, we'll go back and get all the other sections that we skipped.


Today, we got all the old siding ripped off to the top of the first floor windows, the new insulation board up and the house wrap on. Sorry, I didn't take any new pictures today.

And an updated photo of Emily's flower tower. She was so worried that we had killed all the flowers when we planted. But, clearly, they are doing just fine. lol. They have exploded!


Other than work and working on the house, we haven't had much going on in our lives. But, at the rate we are going, we'll be done with the siding by the end of June. Woo Hoo! Maybe then, I can do some work on the landscaping, which seriously needs a bit of TLC.

Em and Garren will be finished with school this Thursday, so we'll be sure to put them to work a little more then. I'm sure they will love that.

I got some trip plans completed last week. I ordered my Disney rewards card and paid off that part of the trip. We've got a little over $100 left on the card, so we'll be using that during the trip + whatever we earn between now and then. We'll probably use that for our Epcot day. DH likes to try out different foods, but he's also stingy about spending on himself. This way, I know he won't hold back and will get whatever he wants.

I also located a couple debit cards I got as rebates which I was holding onto to use for the trip. I'm going to buy Disney gift cards with them so that I'll have no issues on the trip getting them to work for anything we might want. I'll probably get that done tomorrow.
They total $80 so I may give that to the kids for souvenirs. Normally, they would use their own cash, but since they don't know we're doing Disney (and have been helping so much with the house), I think I'll just provide the money this time.

Our universal portion of the trip is booked, but I can't apply my rewards to that until the billing cycle is complete in about two weeks. Once, I get that accomplished, we are all booked and paid for. Yeah!

I also got my requests in at Ft. Wilderness. Hopefully, we'll get a good location with plenty of shade. Experts on the camping board recommended putting your requests in order of importance, so I opted to make shade and pad size my prime requests. That probably means we won't get the loop closest to the pool, which would have been nice, but hey, you can't have it all.

I'm still working on my "change jar" and it's going well, so we may have a bit more petty cash for the trip than I anticipated. Bonus! A little piece of me says we should just save that cash and not use it on the trip, we've got a pretty good plan in place without it. Another part wants to use it to fund extras like putt putt golf and one meal a day in the parks. I guess I'll see how I feel about that when the time comes.

And that's where we stand now. I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer. Our weather has been pretty fabulous. Hopefully it keeps up! I need to get our annual pass to the local pool so the kids and I can get some swim time in.

 

[KathyRN137]

Oh, that flower tower is so pretty! It would fit right in at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival!

Kudos on the debit cards -- it's good to have a finite sum planned for souvies. If you're not careful, you can spend a small fortune on them!

Happy Start-of-Summer!


Kathy

 

[indimom]

Oh, that flower tower is so pretty! It would fit right in at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival!

Kudos on the debit cards -- it's good to have a finite sum planned for souvies. If you're not careful, you can spend a small fortune on them!

Happy Start-of-Summer!


Kathy

Ahhh, thanks! I wish I could pass on your compliment to Em, she'd be tickled pink. But, seeing as we're not going to Disney this summer, then I can't possibly have shared her photos on a pre-trip report.... Ah, the web I weave with all these lies...

I'm very happy how well this trip is turning out as far as the budget goes. It's worked out so well and I don't have to feel guilty taking a trip when we're budgeting for school and home repairs and everything else we've got going right now.

In fact, I'll share another tip, just in case it will help out any of you all.

I was on the attractions board and someone posted a link to a coupon for a free water park locker if you show your rewards visa! So, I printed off two. One for Matt's card and one for mine. Now, we don't even have to pay the locker fees on our water park days. SCORE!

And this is why I LOVE the Dis!!!


On the subject of those rewards visa cards. I thought of another possible use for them... and now I'm a bit conflicted. We'll have a decent amount of Disney rewards and we'll have the ability to eat at our campsite cheap during that part of the trip.

But, I've got none of those options for Universal. So, now I'm thinking I should purchase Universal gift cards with the rewards cards. It would cover a meal or two or souvenirs for the kids at those parks. I think I'll have to check on the Universal board how many locations accept their gift cards. If they are accepted anywhere, I'll probably go that route and spread out my "free spending money" between Disney and Universal.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Great job on all the budgeting! What a good idea to have hubby use the card for food at Epcot...I have a husband who won't buy things for himself either.

The house looks great! I can't believe how fast it's getting done! Way to go! My husband is afraid of heights as well and really tried to gut it out and help on our roof 2 years ago. It lasted the first day and then he stuck to ground work! LOL! Our roof is steep as well so I can see why you would not want to be around to watch. It is definitely hard on the nerves!

I agree with spreading out the rewards cards. If you have good options at Disney and feel good about the amount of souvenir money you have there, definitely look into the Universal cards!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Oh...I forgot to answer your question about Dan's plans in the fall. He is planning to attend Eastern Nazarene College to double major in History and Education. He wants to be a History professor. The school is the same one Jeff and I met at and graduated from, so it kind of feels like home to us. It's a very small school just outside of Boston. We were very concerned about how we would be able to afford a private school, but thankfully, Dan got a large scholarship based on his SAT scores as well as a large grant from the school. Now it's up to him to keep his GPA up so he can keep those funds! (They are only renewable if he maintains a certain grade point average.)

It is definitely bittersweet to watch them grow up and get ready to head out on their own!

 

[indimom]

Oh...I forgot to answer your question about Dan's plans in the fall. He is planning to attend Eastern Nazarene College to double major in History and Education. He wants to be a History professor. The school is the same one Jeff and I met at and graduated from, so it kind of feels like home to us. It's a very small school just outside of Boston. We were very concerned about how we would be able to afford a private school, but thankfully, Dan got a large scholarship based on his SAT scores as well as a large grant from the school. Now it's up to him to keep his GPA up so he can keep those funds! (They are only renewable if he maintains a certain grade point average.)

It is definitely bittersweet to watch them grow up and get ready to head out on their own!

That's awesome that he got the scores to make his private school work. I've been told many times that you shouldn't eliminate private schools from your application pool for this very reason. It's going to be a very exciting summer at your house, I'm sure!

 

[indimom]

We're getting closer...
Although the photos don't show it, we are officially finished with the south side of the house. The only parts we have left are the back side by the garage, and the front porch (which is torn off, insulated, wrapped, and ready to be installed).


If you look in the background of that last photo, you might notice Emily lounging in the driveway...

My cousin stopped by and said she needed to get up and start helping.
Her answer:

I Am A Vital Part of This Team! Go Team!


She did help a little, but she's too chicken to go any higher than the first set of deck, so there was no way she was going on top or carrying anything up on the ladder. She's way worse than me on the issue of heights.

Luckily we are finished with the worst, the scaffolding is down and ready to be returned. The only high parts left are above the porch roof, and above a lower level addition on the back side (between the house and garage) so we will be able to work from the roof of the lower level and only use ladders. It will be nice not having to move scaffolding again. That just feels like it slows everything down.

I think we've settled on shutters at this point also. (I was going to include some pictures, but photobucket is being a pain, so you'll just have to imagine, ha ha.) I was originally thinking of black shutters and painting the front door bright red. But, DH doesn't want to have a boring black roof when we redo that (maybe next year?) so we went back and forth for a while and finally settled on Calvary Blue.
It's a dark blue, kinda like this guy: And we'll paint the front door the same color. I think I'll be happy with that.
One bonus of using this color is that no one else in our neighborhood has that color. There are two other gray houses close by and they both have black shutters. So, at least, we'll stand out a little bit. I was worried about looking too much like the other two homes.
I hope it looks like we "think" it will.

Other than working on the house, summer is rolling along here. My dad's been putting out the garden (we usually help, but not this year), Emily's been tutoring and babysitting, and the kids have visited the local pool once. I'm getting a nice tan going thanks to working on the siding from about 10-3 every day. I thought I had gotten too old to get this tan, but I guess it was just all those years of avoiding the prime sunning hours with my day care kids, because I'm getting brown quick this year. lol.

Tomorrow, Em goes back to the retinal specialist again, and Thursday she sees the optometrist. Hopefully things have settled down and she doesn't need a shot or new glasses. That would be a nice finish to the week.

Oh, and now I'm certain that Emily knows something about our trip plans. I think she may have seen something on the computer that confirmed her initial thoughts. But, Matt and I are just playing it out. He doesn't want to come clean and says she won't know all the details or even be certain until the bitter end... And I know she won't tell Garren because she'll enjoy lording it over him (when the time comes) that she knew and he didn't.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Feel free to share what you've been up to, I'd love to hear about it.

And that means you lurkers too!!! Come out of hiding!

Happy Wednesday!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Yay for being done! Whew!! Nice work!

I think I want to be on Emily's team....I like her kind of pitching in!

 

[KathyRN137]

Oh! I hope the big surprise hasn't been spoiled! Kids are just too darned smart these days...


Kathy

 

[indimom]

Yay for being done! Whew!! Nice work!

I think I want to be on Emily's team....I like her kind of pitching in!

Yeah, she had a nice set-up going there.

Oh! I hope the big surprise hasn't been spoiled! Kids are just too darned smart these days...


Kathy

Yeah, they are. Although, I've got to admit, I just generally suck at secrets. They never seem to work out for me. I saved for two years to surprise my husband with our two-week Disney vacation in 2010. Six months out, he starts planning a vacation to Williamsburg (a timeshare presentation deal ) and I was forced to spill the beans cause he was just NOT giving up on the idea.

On a side note, we saw Em's retinal specialist this week and he thinks the spot is drying up! Yeah! After only three injections! Not bad! She's due to go back the week after our trip, and I hope, hope, hope we are done for good!

Her injection this week was not a good one. They left us waiting in the room for an hour (a first for this location, I've got no idea what was going on, we are usually in and out), and by the time they did the injection she was so tense she jerked and ended up with some pain. A few hours and some Tylenol later, it was fine, but the ride home was not fun.

She also saw her orthodontist today and was informed that she'll be getting most of her braces off just before her birthday and our trip (she may keep a few on the sides a little longer). But, she'll have braces-free pictures for the trip! Also saw her optometrist today and got new lenses ordered for her glasses. Luckily, she's resistant to change, so I didn't even have to talk her out of new frames. lol.

It's been a crazy busy week at home. Em's been tutoring and babysitting most of the week. She, Garren and the kids made it to the pool two days, even though it's pretty cool yet. Garren is going golfing with my dad and his cousin tomorrow. They're trying to get some playing time in before a church golf tournament in two weeks. Needless to say, we haven't gotten a lot done on the house since my last update, but the porch is coming along. Shouldn't be long now.

This weekend, I work two doubles, and we have two graduation parties (which I'll be missing, I may make dinner at one) so the week is flying by and is going to continue flying...

Next week (Monday), my mom, Em and I are creating another flower fountain for my sister's birthday. She really liked it, and since her b-day was coming up soon, mom suggested we pitch in and surprise her. Hopefully, it turns out as nice, and she likes it since we had to pick the colors without her. Crossing my fingers that we chose well.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

 

[golf4miami]

That's great news about the braces! I'm sure she is more responsible than I am/was but make sure she is wearing her retainer otherwise stuff will go back to normal and it doesn't take much. I wore my retainer and was religious about it until my orthodontist said I could go to the once a week regimen and then it all started to slowly slip away.

I know being crazy busy is a good/bad thing. Time is moving quickly for you before the trip happens but you're also losing out on time to get other stuff done. Hopefully it continues to fly by for you, not that long from now you'll only be a month out!

 

[indimom]

That's great news about the braces! I'm sure she is more responsible than I am/was but make sure she is wearing her retainer otherwise stuff will go back to normal and it doesn't take much. I wore my retainer and was religious about it until my orthodontist said I could go to the once a week regimen and then it all started to slowly slip away.

I know what you mean. My son also has braces (his teeth were a lot worse than hers) and two of the front brackets came off about two weeks ago. It took about ten days to get in to the office and both teeth were already shifted a quite a bit. Luckily, Em's pretty much a control freak so I know she'll be careful about wearing it.

I know being crazy busy is a good/bad thing. Time is moving quickly for you before the trip happens but you're also losing out on time to get other stuff done. Hopefully it continues to fly by for you, not that long from now you'll only be a month out!

We got one step closer to the trip tonight. Matt ordered the hitch and "trailer" attachment for the car. It looks like we'll be able to put two coolers and all four folding chairs on the carrier (and possible a little more), so that will clear out a lot of space in the trunk for everything else. Hopefully this will make it much easier to lug all of our stuff. AND, we won't have to lift a fully-packed cooler in and out of the trunk.

It looks similar to this one (I was too lazy to search for an exact image, lol):

Stock Photo

I think it also came with a zip up bag and cargo net, but I'm not sure we'll need those for this trip. Unless we decide to do our loading differently or put more on there than just the coolers and chairs. We'll see how it works out once we've got it.

Not much else going on. The house is slowly moving along. We didn't get a lot done this weekend thanks to weather and graduation parties, but we're still trucking along. I've got to order the dumpster tomorrow because we're going to get the last of the old siding off this week and we'll be able to truck it all out of here. Yeah!

I'm sure my poor neighbors will be thrilled. We've been stacking up all the lumber and old siding on the pea gravel pad where my day care play yard used to be because we didn't want to pay for a dumpster for two months. While we've got the dumpster, we're hoping to dig up the pea gravel and trim a few trees to clear out that play area. I can't wait to have my yard back!

 

[lsenquiz]

Back from our trip and all caught up. Awesome progress on the siding. Can't wait to see the finished product. I know you are glad that you will have this big project behind you before you leave. Just 5 more weeks

Isn't it great to have the kids out of school. I love, love, love the summer. Gabriel is going to a camp but it does not start unil 9am so we are getting to sleep in now.

 

[indimom]

Back from our trip and all caught up. Awesome progress on the siding. Can't wait to see the finished product. I know you are glad that you will have this big project behind you before you leave. Just 5 more weeks

Just read you first day report. You're back in the action FAST after your nice, long trip!
I need to get some pictures taken. We officially finished the destruction part of the job yesterday and the last side has been insulated and wrapped. Only thing left is siding!!! Yeah!
Well, that and the dumpster arrives tomorrow. Blech. The kids and I are going to be busy loading all that trash for the next day or so. But, once it's done, it's DONE!

Isn't it great to have the kids out of school. I love, love, love the summer. Gabriel is going to a camp but it does not start unil 9am so we are getting to sleep in now.

I am definitely a summer person. I come alive when it hits 80 degrees. I've been really enjoying it, even with all the work we've been doing. I will admit, I'm looking forward to some pool days once the siding is complete. The kids have gone three times without me. (Pity Party)

 

[indimom]

Is CRAZY huge!

I was working on this for a while now. And, hopefully, I haven't forgotten anything important. It is such a huge list that it's very possible!


The Campsite:
Tent
Easy Up
Lawn Chairs (4)
Extra Large Tarp
Extendable Tent Posts (6-8 minimum)
Rope
Stakes
Hammer
Small Tarp
Two rugs (one big, one small)
Hand Broom and Dust Pan
Knife
Fans (2)
2-3 Extension Cords
Multi-cord Adaptor
Electric Lantern
2 Flashlights
2 Coolers
Picnic Table Covers
Coleman Stove
Gas Cartridges
Griddle for use on grill
Electric Skillet
Pancake Flipper
Wooden Spoon/Serving Spoon
Hot Pad
Kitchen Knife
Can Opener
Large Pot/Skillet
Garbage Bags (5?)
Stacking Shelf (for in tent storage)
Pop up hamper
Laundry Pods
Quarters
Bungee Cords

2 shower caddies one guys/one girls
4 wash cloths
2 liquid soap
2 shampoo
1 conditioner
1 leave-in conditioner
1 face soap
2 deodorant
4 toothbrushes
2 toothpaste
Straightener
Brush/Comb
Headbands/Ponys/Clips
Lotion
Chapstick
Bug Spray
QTips
Packing Blanket (to insulate coolers?)

Electronics and Park Supplies:
Garmin
Kindle
Ipod
Jet Pack
Cell Phones (2)
Camera (2)
Beach Bag
2 Disposable Underwater Cameras
8 beach towels
3 Hats
4 Sunglasses
4 Dramamine
1 Tylenol
4 Sun Block
1 Mole Skin
Quart/Gallon Size Ziploc Bags
Fanny Pack (2)
Bags (2)
4 Lanyards (Universal)
Gift Cards

Grocery List:
Pop Tarts
Frozen taco meat
Brauts
Hamburger Patties
Corn
Frozen Pancake Mix
Sausage
Bacon
Hash Browns
Eggs (Egg Beaters?)
Texas Toast
Shredded Cheese
Diced Ham
Ketchup
Mustard
Taco Sauce
Potato Salad
Cheese Slices
Deli Meat
Carrots and Celery/Etc
Veggie Dip
Prepped Spaghetti Noodles
Skyline Sauce
Grapes
Bananas
Fritos (For Walking Tacos)
Baked Beans
BBQ Roast Beef
Hamburger Buns
Hot Dog Buns
Syrup
English Muffins
Salt and Pepper
Apples
Applesauce Cups
Single Serve Chips
Homemade Muffins
Graham crackers (?)
Granola Bars
Fiber One Bars
LOTS Beef Jerky
Trail Mix
Marshmallows
Hersheys Chocolate Bars
Juice (OJ, Cran Cocktail, Apple)
Water
Gatorade
Homemade Cookies (CC, PB, Oat R)
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Bread
Cuties
Paper Plates/Bowls/Cups
Plastic Utensils
Paper Towels

(Most food we will pick up in Orlando after we put up the tent and have emptied the car. Obviously, we cannot fit all of this in our Impala. lol.)

Clothing:
Swim Coverup
Swim Suits
6 outfits
2 PJs
2-4 Shoes/Sandals/Crocs/Flip Flops

 

[lsenquiz]

Wow if I ever go camping I am using your list

 

[indimom]

Wow if I ever go camping I am using your list

Better wait until I give it a trial run. We usually forget at least one important item on every camping trip. One year it was the hammer. Let me tell ya, it's hard to hammer stakes into the ground with a piece of firewood.
Our neighbors (after a good laugh) had pity on us and let us use their hammer.
Of course, they were long gone when we needed to pull the stakes back out of the ground at the end of that trip.
Another trip, I remembered the coffee pot, but forgot the mugs. Matt and I do not DO morning without a hot cup o Joe. But, pipin' hot coffee in a red solo cup is painful! (I'm now the proud owner of two Yogi Bear Campground coffee mugs.)

Ahhh, camping. Good times, Good times...

So, let me tell ya. You learn to make a list and check it twice (or thrice in my case). You don't want to know how many times I've gone over that list looking for the holes in my plan. I walked myself through pitching the tent mentally, looking for flaws, misteps, obvious oversights. I went through every single meal and noted whether I had the right cooking utensils, etc.



And I'll probably still end up being forced to buy a ridiculously priced spork or something.