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!