The mancave waterproofing system..

I have a few minutes before we need to get ready to head to my FIL's wedding. So I thought I would post some pics of the mancave being that it is rapidly heading to being finished.

For the waterproofing system, we chose Woods Basement Systems for the work. Some men came and jackhammered the concrete away from the perimeter of the basement on the inside. They then laid what reminds me of gutters down in the space that they jackhammered away and covered it with gravel.

They were running short on time so they came back the next morning and covered up the waterproofing system and gravel with concrete. You can hardly tell anything is there other than there is a half inch gap between the edge of the "gutter" and the wall. Oh, and the concrete is still wet in these pics.

They also installed a new sump pump motor at no cost to us :)

And when I have time again, I will post pics of the lighting!

The mancave before....

Many of our family knows that we are starting the process of finishing our basement. We are so looking forward to adding more liveable space to our house. I'm sure that in the years to come, the kids will appreciate the (watchable) privacy that the basement will provide for them. Given that we have already taken a few steps in the finishing process, I thought I would give a visual of the process!

For now, I'm just going to post the "Before" pictures. Please ignore our junk - we have done some serious cleaning (trashing) since these pictures were taken!

Since these pictures were taken, we have had a waterproofing system installed and recessed lighting put in the basement. I will post pictures of all that later. Today our buddy Marshall is starting the process of finishing the drywall and boxing in the support beams. After he is finished, our list of things to do are as follows -

• putting an "orange peel" texture on all the walls
• painting all the walls
• having doors installed for the 2 storage rooms and the bathroom
• carpet!
• tv and furniture
• decor :)
• then at some point in time, we want a toliet in the basement bathroom - don't know why the previous owners didn't put one in there???

Thanks for looking!!!

Back to School

As promised, here are some back to school pics for the kids!

Here are pics of Delainey on her first day. Notice Eli is still in his jammies for the trip - he went to PawPaw's that morning.



Here is a pic of Eli that afternoon. We had his "bear hunt" that day. I really struggled with getting a descent pic of him out in the sun. His eyes are very sensitive.



Then here he is in the classroom. I played around in Picasa with the second one :)





And here are before and after pictures from the first full day of school -





Oh and here is a picture of a pie I made. The recipe is on www.thepioneerwoman.com It's mmmm mmmmm good! Shawn absolutely LOVED IT!

He's a big boy now!

Well, the first full day of kindergarten wasn't as bad on Eli and I as I thought it would be. I do believe that is fully credited to his attitude this morning.

He was SO EXCITED! Shawn got him dressed and he was all jumping on the bed with little boy energy! He picked out an apple for the teacher (hope she doesn't think he is a suck-up?). Then he wanted to leave as soon as he was ready - which was 35 minutes before it was time to go and I wasn't even ready yet!

I had asked him yesterday if he wanted me to walk him into the gym the first day or if he wanted Sissy to take him there. He said SISSY! :( Little independent dude. It made me sad but I didn't insist. He needs to pull away sometime. In a way I'm glad though.

And that was just what they did. I drove up to the school, let them out and they went skipping inside all happy and stuff. I have pics but they aren't downloaded. I will post them later.

Now, I was prepared for a scene just like I had from Delainey in K, 1, & 2nd grades. I walked her into the school, she cried, and cried, then cried more. She didn't want me to leave. I would tell her that as soon as the teacher came to get them, I would watch her go and then I would leave - and that I did. I watched her little blotchy tear streaked face walk down the hall. In K, Delainey cried a lot when she missed me. In 1st she cried some. In 2nd not so much. Now, she is happy to be there in 3rd grade.

Eli - he had no tears. I hope that he doesn't at all.

And then there were 4....

RIP Callie Sue - 10 years, 2.5 months old

We noticed she was acting a little weird but, she was a weird cat. Then last night, I noticed her breathing was a bit labored and she just looked rough. Shawn said he would take her to the vet in the morning. But she didn't make it that long. I found her this morning in the basement jacuzzi tub. Poor girl.

I believe we are going to keep this a secret from the kids until the weekend if at all possible. Lainey will be super upset because she was "her cat." Eli just doesn't need any more stress.

As if his day couldn't get any worse...

Poor E - he just can't catch a break today!

After we had supper, we went over to my parent's house for a while. We played outside and E had fun. Right before we left, I needed to run to Kroger to pick up a prescription. In the time that I was gone, Eli had managed to nearly choke on a mint.

Now, I have no idea where this mint came from. I don't know if he found it and decided to eat it or if it was given to him. We don't let the kids have hard candy for THAT reason!

From Shawn this is how it went -

Eli starts to choke then coughs super hard and sends the mint flying (thank the Lord).

The he looks at Shawn with his big teary blue eyes and says "Daddy, I think I'm dying"

(Now we have taught the kids not to give Cait small things because she could choke and die....I know it is harsh but it is real and gets the point across.)

So Shawn has to explain to him that since the mint isn't in his throat that he isn't going to die. They say a little prayer and all is fairly well.

Then tonight he says his throat feels funny and gets teary again with me. I'm such a sucker to his big blue eyes :(

Poor guy. I hope tomorrow is a better day for him....

Two down, none to go...

Well we have survived the "first day." We got there a little early for Eli's bear hunt and just sat to wait. E was getting quieter and quieter the more people that came into the foyer. He was also switching back and forth between, cuddly and don't touch me. So, he was starting to get anxious.

But, once we got to the classroom he was ready to get down to business. He wanted some scissors to cut with....then wanted to go to recess. It was funny. He did really well finding all the things that he needed to find. Then before we left, we did a dry run of him arriving there for the day. He took me to the gym where he lines up in the morning. Then he took me to his classroom. He did really, really well.

Something happened after we left the school though. The overwhelmed grouch took over my boy and he developed this 'tude. And it kept going and going.......

Then finally after tripping on the asphalt when picking up sissy from school, a good cry, and then a timeout....we get to the bottom of it. He is overwhelmed from his day and was acting out because of it. Poor guy....but that doesn't give an excuse to act the way he did. That is going to be a difficult lesson to teach.

So, in correction to my last post - he is off tomorrow, goes all day Wednesday, is off Thursday, then goes all day Friday. Then next week, it is the school week as normal!

One down....

Well, I have one kiddo off to school this morning. I took Delainey in, we found her place to line up in the gym, she kissed me goodbye, and I left.

WOW! This is the first year that we haven't had tears with blotchy face...woohooo!!! I was all geared up for the drama and didn't have to deal with it!

NOW....this afternoon I have to take Eli for his "bear hunt." For kindergarten they have half the class go in at 8am and half the class go in at 12pm on Monday. We are in the 12pm slot.

We will go in this afternoon, meet the teacher, see his room, put up his school supplies, hear all the rules, then go around the schools and hunt for bears that are located by the important parts of the school for a kindergartener....like the bathroom :)

Then those kids that went at 8am, go all day on Tuesday. Lucky Eli was in the 12pm slot so he gets Tuesday off but gets to go on Wednesday all day. Then on Thursday, it is everyone.

I think Wednesday will be hardest on me. My little guy is going to kindergarten :(

I might regret this later......

But I am soooooo getting rid of the clothes that are too small for Delainey!!! She (and Eli) have grown so much in the past year that both of their closets have been taken over by too small clothes.

Getting rid of Eli's clothes doesn't bother me because unless Shawn has a change of heart, or the Lord suprises us - there won't be another boy. But Delainey's clothes - I keep thinking that I should save them for Cait. But then I think that 7 years is a long time to be keeping clothes. Fashion changes, Cait's body is built way different than Delainey's, and do I want to look at those clothes for 7 years????

When I say getting rid of, I'm not trashing them by the way. Well, I do pitch any that have stains. I told Shawn that if I was a "crunchy" Mama, that I would cut up those old clothes into squares, serge the edges, and use them as homemade baby wipes. But I'm not that crunchy.

I take our too small clothing to a consignment shop in town. I've actually been able to make a descent amount of money there in the past year or so. Then I usually turn around and spend it in the store so it is almost like a just have a credit there.

Yesterday we took up a huge rubbermaid that was overflowing with fall clothes - mostly Delainey's. Then in the afternoon, I cleaned out Eli's closet and had a handful more of clothes to take there. WELL - today I got into Delainey's closet even more and have ANOTHER overflowing rubbermaid of clothes that she wore 3 sizes ago that were tucked away. I think I'm going to give it a week or so before I take them even more clothes! Oh, and we haven't even went through Cait's - her closet is packed with too small clothes.

I'm very, very tempted to take all the baby equipment up there. As I said before, it is highly unlikely that we will have another child - atleast in the traditional way. We would both love to do foreign adoption. But just as soon as I sell the equipment - you know what they say happens......

This week's crazy plan....

Summer has went by entirely too fast!!! I so do not want to give up the lazy mornings, lazy bedtimes, and no homework nights! Ok, so I didn't get to take advantage of the lazy mornings - someone had to work around here! Although I will admit Shawn's job of watching the 3 munchkins while I mosey off to work is much harder than my "real" job.

So we are planning on getting everyone back on schedule this week. We are all getting up at regular school year time, getting ready,......and then what??? I've been doing this mostly all summer. I get to leave in the morning for work. But Shawn will be home with 3 fully dressed children with no where to go at 7am! Is this crazy????

Shawn's gift...

I forgot to mention what I got Shawn for our anniversary!

I ended up getting him hockey tickets for he and I to go to. We will be seeing a St.Louis Blues game on October 10th and will be setting 3 rows from the ice! He is pumped! So I guess I did well too!

Our 10th Anniversary!

Shawn and I celebrated our 10th anniversary last night!!! Shawn was totally responsible for all the planning and he really outdid himself!! We had a great time :)

Here is a pic of what I got before we left the house...I was instructed to wear something that went with "this" as the black box appeared.....

 

Here is where we ate - The Giant City Lodge. I had been here before but Shawn hadn't. We had the family dinner of fried chicken, corn, coleslaw, biscuits, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, and chicken & dumplings. Yum!



We stayed at the Davies School Inn. It is a old school building that a young couple bought and opened as a bed and breakfast 4 years ago. My dear husband splurged and got us the honeymoon suite!



Here is our suite....








When Shawn proposed to me 12+ years ago, he said that he would get me something "bigger" when we celebrated our 10th anniversary....and he was true to his word!!! I thought that the necklace was my gift and I was completely happy with that - boy was I suprised!




I do have to say that I also love my engagement ring even though it doesn't fit at the moment. My Grandma, who passed away the year after we were married, gave me her engagement ring to be reset into my own engagement ring. So, it has special meaning to me :)

We had a great night spending time together WITHOUT the kids - big thanks to the Hill girls!! Our bed was a tempurpedic matress...can you say we need to start saving the money for a new matress!!!

As part of our package, Shawn ordered breakfast to be served in our suite. We woke up 7 minutes before it was to be served - at 9:00am! Yeah for sleeping in!

Our breakfast was amazing! We had a glorified omlet, fried potatoes, bacon, watermelon, apple stollen, and OJ. Then I had to have coffee...




Here is a pic I attempted to take of us before we returned to "real life"!





And here is a pic of a little planter that was in the hallway on the way to our room :)

This is what I do!

We had an article ran on us today in an area paper!! It was about a clinic we did a last week :)


http://www.murphysboroamerican.com/news/education/x702557859