Beware of Rogue Marker

F had a little too much alone time last night and came out of the den looking like he had been attacked. Thankfully it was an attack from a washable marker and the evidence was only on F and not the walls. Washable or not, that would not have been fun to clean up.

Basement Project Update

Our basement project is coming along, though much slower than we had expected. Originally we were told it would take 6 weeks. We knew from previous home buidling/renovating experience that that was not a realistic time line, but we were thinking 8-9 weeks may be possible. Well, this past Sunday was 9 weeks since the start and we still have a little ways to go, but they are getting there. So far the floor has been completely ripped out and removed. It was lowered about 7 inches and repoured. It is so nice and smooth now!! The "dry system" has been installed around the perimeter of the foundation. This is a tile drain system to prevent water from coming in from the walls. They also installed a sump pump into the floor to keep the whole basement dry. The studs are up. New windows have been added. All the electrical and plumbing has been installed. The ceiling has been painted. And the new stair case has been built. Now they need to sheet rock the walls and finish the bathroom off. Hopefully 2 more weeks???

The new laundry area (in front of the studs)

The bedroom.

The bathroom.

The view standing in front of the laundry area.

Early Summer 08

We are having a great summer so far this year. It is much better in comparison to last year when we were stuck without water activities thanks to Aidan's broken arm. We have joined a local cities' pools and the boys are having a great time going to each of them. A and C started their swim lessons today and they have come leaps and bounds from last summer. Susie said they were both (especially C) dreading the lessons, but they did great. C was completely submerging himself while swimming even though he only had a put his face in the water. A was learning to do the freestyle stroke while holding one arm on the noodle. With the lake house and our time around the pool in Texas, it is very important to us that the boys be good swimmers. We are so happy to see them enjoy it too.

Aside from swimming we have been doing some fun activities around too. We went to the opening of this show called "Walking with Dinosaurs." We didn't actually see the show, but got a sneak peak at the characters. The kids were none too excited to see anymore dinosaurs after meeting this baby T-Rex. Scary!