Another tag

5 things on my to-do list
1.Clean my bathroom
2.Clean my kitchen
3.Clean my bedroom
4.Clean my boy's room
5.Clean the living room

5 snacks I enjoy
1. Mint Oreos
1a. Sour Patch kids
2. Cold Stone Ice Cream
2a. Fruit fresh off the tree, vine, bush, etc.
3. TCBY's frozen yougurt strawberry and white chocolate swirl. They don't have TCBY's in Utah
3a. Doritos Nacho Cheesier chips
4. Original Chex mix
4a. Betty Crocker Funfetti frosting refrigerated by the spoonful
5. Crackers (especially Ritz and Triscuit) and Colby Jack cheese
5a. Mother's Pink and White frosted animal cookies
(I couldn't pick just 5)

5 things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire
1. Hire subcontractors to speed up the construction of our house
2. Buy Troy a 450 race bike in every brand: Honda, Yamaha, KTM, Suzuki, Kawasaki, a new 650 to replace the one in AZ, a Harley, and a mechanic to come on every camping trip, so Troy can spend every minute riding, and a diesel semi truck to haul them all and our camping trailer.
3. Attend pilot's school, get a license and buy a small airplane to fly to AZ whenever we wanted
4. Hire a maid to clean my house every day.
5. Go on a cruise with all of my family and all of Troy's family (minus all the babies)

5 places I have lived
1. Phoenix, AZ
2. Peoria, AZ
3. Provo, UT
4. Salt Lake City, UT
5. Holladay, UT

5 Jobs I have had
1. Cold Ctone Creamery (gained 10 pounds at that job)
2. Substitute Teacher (decided not to become a school teacher at that job)
3. Cake decorator (ironically, I don't like to eat cake)
4. Retirement home caregiver (makes baby diapers seem like cake)
5. Tupperware Lady (now, and love that I can do it as much or as little as I want, and I get a great discount!)

5 things people don't know about me
1. I love to wear lingerie. It makes me feel sexy, which can be a challenge for a stay-at-home mom.
2. I have been diabetic since I was 5 years old. I tool insulin shots until I was 17, and have worn an insulin pump ever since.
3. I enjoy doing family history research, but don't get to do it as often as I'd like
4. I will walk up to perfect strangers and inform them that my sister in-law or friend thinks they are attractive. I have done this for many different people, and 4 that I know of led to a relationship. At the time, they were mortified and embarrassed. They all got over it.
5. I have a passion for games of any kind: board, card, mind, solitaire, numbers, ANY! I will play any game I have the chance to.

5 bad habits
1. I sometime cheat when I play games. (Only sometimes)
2. I like to sleep in as late as possible.
3. I mumble, especially if I am tired or have a blood sugar
4. I am a slow driver
5. I procrastinate, then get stressed out at the last minute.

5 people to tag
1. Tasha
2. Gretchen
3. Rachel
4. Alisa
5. Shalaun

Let the Construction Begin

The "Before" pictures:
Another "Before" picture of the bathroom- notice how you could walk from the bath to the closet, to the bedroom. Alas, 'tis a thing of the past.
The "After" picture of the bathroom. Hmmm...

Out comes the cabinet and sink
Spencer helping to solder the new tub plumbing. (They actually used pex, a flexible plastic pipe- it's blue for cold and red for hot, so there was very little soldering to do.)
Looking into the bathroom from the backyard
Looking into the backyard from the bathroom. Hi Pa! Goodbye to my gorgeous green tile surround.
Timmy is always happy to help swing a hammer
Pa, Troy and Timmy surveying the damage. That was a live wire dangling from the ceiling until they switched off the power.
Spencer wondering why the bathtub is out on the lawn. Can anyone answer that for me?The walls start closing in... One last glimpse into the sun
Help! the walls really have closed in; there isn't even a window any more.
Troy and Pa putting up the new plastic surround onto the new "tiny" tub.
The boys discover the new tub and mini sink the next morning. It's not so bad after all
The next weekend
The walk-in closet goes the way of the bathroom. Here comes the sheet rock, watch out Brad!
A view of the back yard from the bedroom doorway.
Out comes the carpet...
This is the door Timmy escaped out after the nail polish incident. (details to follow)

The title might be a little misleading. We are still waiting on our building permit, but we began demolishing the additions we made when we first moved in. In order to dig our basement adjacent to our existing house, we had to take out the walk-in closet and the part of the bathroom with the jetted tub. It was a sad, sad day.

On the up side, however, my dad came up for the weekend, and we had a wonderful time with him. He and Troy spent all last weekend, Friday and Saturday, taking down the bathroom walls, the glass block window, un-installing the jacuzzi tub, sink, counters, and cabinets. Then, they installed a new, standard size tub (Timmy calls it a "tiny tub"), a miniature sink and essentially non-existent cabinet.

Then they re-framed the wall, minus the window and put up a temporary shower surround. The boys, especially Timmy, have a very hard time adjusting to change. (Troy said it's not their fault; it's in their blood.) On Sunday morning when I started filling the new "tiny tub" with water, Timmy started bawling and crying, and yelled, "I don't want this little tub!" Once he was in the water with Spencer, he promptly forgot and enjoyed himself.

As usual, Daddy had lots of helpers. In addition to Pa, Timmy and Spencer were always trying to get their hands into it.

This weekend, Troy's brother, Brad, surprised us and showed up with Skyler, one of his boys, to help rip out the walk-in closet.

Timmy and Skyler loved watching the sheet rock begin to crack, break, and ultimately come crashing down. They were so proud of their rough 'n' tough Daddies. They also loved standing in the closet with the walls off, but the carpet and interior doors still there. We had to make room in our tiny master bedroom for all the hanging clothes, shoes and dresser that were in the closet, as well as some junk we stored there for lack of a better place.

Thank you so much for all your help Brad and Pa! We couldn't have gotten it done as timely as if Troy and I were doing it ourselves. You're the greatest.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, after the demolition, we went out to the shed and started packing up our boxes and moved them into Troy's parent's basement for temporary storage until our basement is dug and the foundation and flat work finished. So I guess you could say we're moving!

Daddy's Little Helpers

When we were camping, Timmy must have run over a thorn with his bike because when he went to ride it, the front tire was flat. When he discovered it, Timmy was distraught, and just had to call Daddy at work. When Troy answered, Tim's message was short and sweet, "Daddy, when you get home, [will] you help me plump up my front tire? It got soft and flat." So, true to his word, Troy plumped up Timmy's tire when he got home and we went for a family walk so Tim could test out the plumped up tire. (It's one of those cute mispronunciations that we couldn't bear to correct, so we adopted his word as our own.)

However, a few days later, the tire was flat again. Timmy asked me to plump it up and I explained that it had a hole, and it needed to be fixed before we plumped it up. So, on Saturday, Daddy took everyone to buy a tube patch kit, and they spent a little male bonding time patching and fixing the tire. Timmy was eager to help, he got out his "Bob the Builder" tools and tried to do everything Daddy did. Spencer wanted to help, too, but was mostly a detriment to the fixing. The first step in fixing it was to remove the tire from the bike. It was cold outside so we broke the rules, and Mommy let the bike come into the house. They turned it upside down and began to take it off.

Once the tire was off the bike, there was a mini-crisis.

It was at this juncture that Tim decided Daddy was just breaking his bike even more, not fixing it. "Put it back on, Dad, don't break it! Just fix the tire! Don't take it off!" It took a moment to calm him down and explain that it had to come off to be fixed. Then when Troy pulled the tube out of the tire, Tim came unglued again. He recovered quickly this time. After finding the hole, patching it, testing it, plumping it, and putting it back on the bike, Tim was ready to ride. He grabbed his helmet, and rushed outside. Dad followed to be the spotter (we still have a crash almost every ride), and Mom was close behind with the camera. Spencer followed as fast as his crawlers would take him, and before we knew it, the whole family was outside. As soon as Spencer found a big stick, he stopped the chase, and was entertained with his new toy.

Hopefully, his tire won't need plumping for a while.

Finally! Some New Pictures

We're ready to go play in the snowEnough pictures, already. We want to go outside!

Spencer is happy to help Mom unload the dishwasher. Unfortunately, he isn't tall enough to reach the shelves, so the silverware is all going on the floor. Oh, well.

Can you see my 4 teeth?

Whew! Tromping around in the snow sure is tiring. Timmy taking a rest on his snow chair.

No matter how long we stay outside, he never complains of being cold-even though he's got bright pink cheeks and a cherry red nose.

Spencer waving good-bye to all of you.

It's a good thing he's so adorable, or else throwing all the clean silverware on the floor would get him in trouble.

These pictures were taken in January, but I hadn't downloaded in over a month. Call it Lent. :-) I haven't felt like getting out all the stuff, so I temporarily gave it up.