Cute kids

A and F hanging out.

Besement project

After 3 delays, our basement refinish is set to begin tomorrow. We are very excited and very ready to have this started (and completed!). This was originally to have started 2 weeks ago, but because of all the rain we have had around here, other projects have not been completed and our contractors are playing catch-up. Hopefully they will show up tomorrow and we will be on our way. They promised us that once they start, they will work daily until it is completed (no breaks). It should take about 6 weeks, but we are planning on 8 weeks, so we don't get too disappointed when they are not done in time.

Here is the plan:

1. Tear out the back window and create an egress window into the new bedroom.

2. Tear out the floor and drop in down 7 inches and pour a new floor.

3. Add full bath

4. Bedroom

5. Play room

6. Laundry area

7. Add sump pump and tile drain system to keep the whole basement dry.

It should be very nice. The worst part of the whole experience is that we will be without laundry during the renovation. Thankfully it is lakehouse time and we will be up at the lake most weekends and can take our laundry. Here are some before pictures...

This area will be the bedroom. It will have the egress window and a closet.

This will be the full bath.

This will be a small storage area with the laundry in front of it.

This will be the play room. All those nasty windows will also be changed out for new ones.

Cold Spring

Growing up we vacationed at a resort in Minnesota called Cold Springs Resort. I am thinking of that place often lately, not because it was truly cold there, but because it is so cold here, now!! This Spring has not been a pleasant one. I have been a horrible blogger lately. Not much to talk about I guess. The kids have all taken their turns with a feverish virus this weekend, which has kept us cooped up in the house. Susie is also not feeling great. We were able to get out on Friday night and enjoy an Elder's concert up at the kid's school. That was great, as expected! I was also on call this weekend which is typically awful, but this weekend hasn't been too bad. Only about 7 calls so far! Here are some pics of the kids from the past month or so.

St. Patrick's Day 2008

What a wet and rainy day! Yuck! We did enjoy a wonderful Irish breakfast at our friend's house this morning, but that was the only good thing about today. We had a great time this past Saturday at our neighborhood parade and our pre-parade party. The day started with snow and that had us all worried, but it stopped snowing and raining about 1 hr before party time. We were able to get tents to cover our deck and some heaters for the back patio and that solved all our worries. I was very nervous some people would ditch out (and they did!), but we still had around 120 people show up. I think that is pretty good for a cold, snowy day! Thank goodness they don't all come at once, but it did get pretty crowded in the house at one point. Many of those people are children and it becomes a bit of a madhouse, but a fun one and I love it! I don't love cleaning up afterward, but it is all worth it. It is weird having Easter so close to St. Pat's this year. We already took down all of our St. Patty's Day stuff yesterday and put up all of the Easter decorations.
Nothing else exciting has been happening lately. We did get two new birds to replace Oswald. Both of them are blue (Oswald was green/yellow). A named his "Oscar" and C named his "Blue." They are far less tame than Oswald was, so we really need to work with them to get them used to people. Okay that is all for now.

We have a Parakeet down!!

Oswald died last night. It was the most dramatic death I have ever witnessed--not that I have seen many deaths, but it was very movie-like. Susie and I were sitting in the living room, watching TV when all of the sudden, Oswald fell off his perch and started wheezing. It was awful sounding. We ran over to him and he was struggling to take these very painful sounding breaths. Then he raised his head up and took one long last breath and dropped his head to the floor. Susie picked him up and tried to open his beak and see what happening, but there was nothing obvious to see. It was so sad. We were very worried about the kids and what they would think when they woke up and saw that he was dead. We told both A and C separately and both had lots of questions about why it happened. They both wanted to know immediately if we could get another bird (obvious attachment disorder there!). I talk to a lady at work whose brother raises birds and she said parakeets are known for just dropping dead. Apparently they do not show signs of illness and just fall over and die. That is very disturbing. I feel awful for poor Ozzie!! We will miss him.

Disney World

We survived Disney World and have a great time. Our trip started out a little rough as a huge snow storm hit on the day we were to leave. We boarded our plane being told, "so far there is just a little snow on the runways and we can take off once they get the runway plowed." SEVEN hours later we were on our way. As miserable as that was, the kids were great. We did have the option of exiting the plane if we needed to, so that was nice. We were very thankful to be on the plane, as the terminal was jammed with the entire airport being closed. Anyway, we made it to Orlando, but unfortunately lost our first day of swimming and lounging :( Monday we headed to Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios). This was fun, but mainly shows to watch and very few rides. The kids liked it for the most part, but kept asking, "when are we going to ride something!" I don't know that I will return here on our next trip. Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Magic Kingdom. This was just great. The boys loved it and we had a magical time!! (barf!, I know, but it is true!) I convinced (forced!) A to ride Splash Mountain. Though he didn't like the last plunge, he did like the rest of it and it is the one ride he brags to everyone about riding. We all loved Buzz Lightyears's spin ride and we rode it 3 times! On Thursday we went to Epcot. I love Epcot, but it isn't the most exciting for kids. I ended up leaving a little early that day with C and F as they were about spent on waiting in lines. F ended up going down for a nap at 4:00pm and never woke up the entire night. That boy was worn out!! Friday we went to Animal Kingdom. This has a great Safari ride which is so realistic. We left after lunch to get some good pool time in before leaving town! We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside resort, which is abosolutely gorgeous!! We loved the whole atmosphere. The rooms are nothing spectacular, but very nice. The only downfall was the long bus rides to all the parks. I think the next time we will plan to be at a monorail resort to decrease travel time from resort to park. Anyway, the whole trip was great and exhausting. We tried to take advantage of every minutes and the kids had a wonderful time. A was throughoughly depressed last night because he wanted to move to Florida!! We are already planning our next trip to Mickey!

Ozark boys

Well I think the boys would fit right in if we decide to move to the Ozarks anytime soon. On Monday night F was attempting to stand on A's back (who was lying on the floor) when he fell off and chipped off his front tooth. He also did some trauma to his upper lip, but that is healing up nicely. I took him to the dentist on Tuesday for his first cleaning. He did really well and made it through the whole cleaning, flouride treatment and x-ray without a peep. The dentist said his tooth will most likely turn dark in a few weeks to months. She give us three options. 1. Do nothing and let nature take it's course. 2. Come back in 3 weeks and she can file down the tooth to make it look a little nicer, but it will still change colors and look a little odd. or 3. Come back in 3 weeks or more and they can place a crown on it. This is definately the most invasive option, but would look the most normal. We are going to think it over the next month or so and see what we want to do. I want to wait until his lip swelling goes down so we can see how bad it really looks. Here you can kind of see it, though he is a bit reluctant to have me photograph it. The other picture is of C and F reading a book together (a rare moment of friendliness between the two). C had decided to dress in cowboy gear today.