Where Oh Where Have I Been?

I received an email from my friend Jan reminding me that I really need to update my blog. Problem is is that it just been kind of boring around here, for me anyway. I have not felt good, really good, since the end of September when I had a sinus infection that seems just never cleared up and in fact got worse. I just haven't had any energy to do much of anything except what absolutely had to get done. I've been wondering what in the heck was wrong with me, no energy, didn't want to really 'get off the couch' etc.....been wondering in fact if I was depressed...the symptoms were there. Well last week the sinuses almost exploded and the doc diagnosed a horrible infection. I have been on Z-Pak since Friday and just called the doc today to tell her that the ole sinuses are still very painful. NOW I am going on Levaquin (sp?) and if not better by Wednesday back to the doc I go. I do feel like getting off the couch though today and am happy to know that it is an infection and not depression :) So there ya have it, that's why I haven't update....aren't ya happy ya asked Jan?

Despite not feeling the best, we had a fun (but deerless) opening deer hunting weekend. Len, Kel and girls were up and were the first to stay in the new suite. Julia was excited to stay at 'Grandma's house' and we were excited to have her and her little sister. The suite is not totally completed but worked out just fine.Pictures pictures.....
Julia discovered 'Grandpa's monies'. Nope not Grandma and Grandpa's monies just 'Grandpa's monies'. And yes it was 'monies' She spent a large part of every day playing in the money basket and may even hauled some home...ya think? She really had no interest in the dollars despite Daddy trying to educate her about the value of a 20 as opposed to a nickle.
Here she is, if you look closely you can see that she found the casino chips (they weren't as fun as the change either).

And when Grandma discovered her she turned with a 'Who me' look on her face.

Uh oh...busted.
And away she goes with that little purse heavy with coins.
Julia so loves her little sister Shelby. Here she is blowing on Shelby's tummy and of course Shelby loves it.
We so just shook our head the entire weekend with the phrases this little girl would come up with, I swear she is two going on four. Wish I could remember some of the stuff she would come up with but of course I can't;(

Julia fell in love with Roscoe as long as he didn't jump up and kiss her face. All weekend long she would say, "Come on boys let's go" or "Come on boys chase me". She also let them out when they had to go potty and here she is waiting for them to finish in order to let them back in the house.
Grandma had tatoos for Julia to put on while she was here and of course Daddy was a good sport and got one as well.

Shelby seemed to have a good time as well laying on the floor watching the antics of the rest of us.
That tongue of hers has one heck of a curl in it and I caught a few pictures when she was laughing.


We loved having them but were reminded once again why we have children when we are younger. These two girls are good girls but kids just have so much energy...phew.
Speaking of Roscoe: We got about 3 inches of snow with the latest storm and because Roscoe is about 5 inches tall it was hard for him to do his business in the newly fallen snow. So I shoveled a path, in the grass, around the fence line so he doesn't have to even walk in the snow. Guess what, he does his business on the cleared part but then trounces through the snow anyway...ahhhh.

Morning Sky

The pond was frozen

The clouds were cool

They sky was pink as the sun began to show through
It certainly was a pretty few minutes this morning and a tad cold. Winter is here?????

Our addition progresses. David and Dan should be working me thinks. Chatting does not get the job done:)
Yesterday they started putting the stucco on the new living room wall. The color will not be gray, it dries lighter and then will be painted. They ran out of product and will continue the job tomorrow. By the end of the day the basement and living room walls should be complete. That is if the boys work rather than talk. David has decided that applying stucco is just as much fun (not) as taping and mudding sheet rock.

Reason To Celebrate

Five years ago today Dr Deaconson came into my room telling David, Lenny and I 'We got it all'. Yep I am a 5 year breast cancer survivor. Happy birthday to me. Thank you Doctor's Deaconson and Cockerill you saved my life.

PET scan updated: The PET showed no signs of any such nodule, fatty tissue or otherwise. To coin one of Julia's favorite phrases, "How cool is that"! Dr Cockerill is a bit befuddled about the entire thing however. He and the radiologist wonder if perhaps the nodule is too close to the heart to be picked up by the PET and he wants me to have a second CT scan end of November. If the nodule shows up on it he will refer me to a pulmonologist in an effort to ferrot out what this ononmoly may be. He did not seem worried about it just more curious I think and he is very very very thorough and perhaps over cautious. When it comes to my life I will take over cautious anytime:)
The additional "How cool is that" point is that the PET would had picked up any cancer cells in my body...there were no hot spots to be found, at all!

Closing with the joys of being a grand parent...how cool is that!

Well Huh

I hardly know how to start this post so I guess what the hell let's just jump right in. Friday was my regular oncology appointment as well as blood work and a chest x-ray. October 27th is the day that I will be a 5 year survivor however I was waiting until after this appointment to officially celebrate. Damned good thing I waited.....my chest x-ray shows a dark spot on the left mid lung. Because they could not tell for certain what it is, or is not, I had a CT scan. The CT scan was still inconclusive in regards to what in the hell I have in the ole left lung. One thought from radiology is it may be just a fat nodule...I said 'what the hell I have fat in my lung too?' Although a fat nodule would certainly be preferable to another type of nodule. Soooo Tuesday I go back for a PET scan. A PET is used to find cancer in that if there are cancer cells they will show up as hot spots on the scan. I have attached the link
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=PET
I will actually get the results Tuesday which is good. It could be a number of things such as I had an upper respiratory virus a few weeks ago and in my opinion that it likely what is remaining in my lung.
So any good thoughts you may have feel free to through em my way:)
Positive thoughts positive thoughts positive thoughts.

A Tirp To Iowa and Addition Updates

But first bragging time. Of course I made my stop at the Leonard motel to see the girls. Shelby has grown a ton in just a few weeks.
Here she is smiling at Daddy

And a touching family time reading books....

From Northern MN to Central Iowa. My cousin Shelly and her family live in Iowa and their daughter Krystin got married last weekend. Not that the wedding wasn't wonderful but the best part of the trip was spending the drive down and back (about 10 hours total) in the car with my Uncle Eddie who is my mom's brother. It was just he and I and I picked his brain the entire time. We talked about their lives as kids (they were poor as could be), about my Grandpa committing suicide (Ed and his brother found him) and just life in general. It was a great informative trip.
Here is the wedding party. Krystin was gorgeous and her husband Chad (who is behind her right arm) has been her best friend forever.

My cousin Jane and her husband Barry


And my cousins (two of Eddie's girls) Kim and Kari. Not to worry Sharon and Kelly, I wont post the pictures that I took of you guys...nice gal that I am.

One of the best moments of the night for me was to see the sincere affection that both Krystin and her brother Ryan have for their parents. They are not afraid to display that affection and it was touching to watch.

OK on to the addition. The upper walls are poured, the roof is on and the windows are in in the upper level. This past week's task was to pour the cement for the patio out back as well as color and stamp it.

Here Dan is spreading the color (he used three colors) on the still damp patio


He then uses a trowel to work the powder color into the cement
And getting ready to 'stamp' design into the cement. If you look closely you can see the color swirls.
We are using a random pattern (the basement floor is colored and stamped as well) however you can stamp cement in almost any imaginable pattern. For instance you can have it look as if it is layed brick or do a deck to look like wood planking. Yet another very interesting piece of this project.


Here it is from the back of the house. I love the retaining walls. They and the entire house will be stuccoed next spring.
Lookin nice from the side. Dear Mary notice that I have way less plants back here. They seem to have disappeared. Ah well I will just have to design new I guess.
We haven't yet opened up the wall between the existing house and the addition. We will be insulating the ceiling next week and will them be able to open it up. More as we go:)

October Is

Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the wearin of the pink month :)
Get your mammogram (mine was found an an annual mamo) and do your self checks every month.
And yes, real men do wear pink!

And speaking of 'real men'. Have ya heard that Randy Moss is back..........

A Day With Two Year Olds

Although Julia's birthday was September 23rd, she had her 'party' on the 25th so her best friends from school could celebrate with her.
She was so excited once she saw her decorations that she ran around the house with balloons (via the balloon holders) in her hands saying, "My own birthday party" over and over again. Not much gets past this two year old!

Saying cheese for birthday shots. I wonder if she has taken her new heeled shoes off yet....Grandma Bobbi gave them to her and being the shoe freak that she is she loved them. That little lady can walk in heels with the best of em!

And here they are, the threesome. Elizabeth, Macy and Julia. Not only are these three the same age but their younger siblings are all within a month or two of their friend's sibling.

Here she is putting up with her guests signing happy birthday while patiently waiting to dig into the cake.
Is this not sweet
This is when it got interesting. After opening presents it was time to play a bit. As with any other two year old everything was mine, mine, mine. However in the end there was sharing to be had:)
The gift from Grandma Sherry was a huge hit.
Get a load of that hair!
The balloons were a hit as well

Trying to catch the one that got away


And in the middle of it all little Shelby sleptThe two birthday girls sharing some cake. BTW Grandpa Dave made the picnic table for the birthday girl. When it was brought in she was so happy that she ran to it saying, "My own picnic table, my own picnic table". Who knew that a two year old could be so happy with a picnic table!


And later she shared a moment with her Grandpa Dave. This is one of my favorite pictures
This one not so much but it is nice to have a picture of Grandma Bobbi and Julia once and a while...not many of these around.
It was a fantastic day and I am sure that everyone had fun most especially the littlest birthday girl.
We now have two 2 year olds, a three year old, a 3 month old and a new one on the way. Life is good.

Projects Projects

There are always projects going on here but a couple of mine have been sitting way too long and I have finally gotten one done, this one happens to be a Christmas present for one of the grand daughters:) This playhouse was more difficult than I thought it would be but it was a learning experience and were I to make another I would do it so much differently. But alas 'she' will like it I am sure as she will not notice the oops that Grandma made. I made this from a photo only, had no pattern thus made my own way. Oftentimes my own way is through the back door, around the block and back again. David put the frame together with PVC pipe and it can be easily disassembled. The walls and roof I made out of Thrift Store sheets (remember getting these Mary)? The ruffle is a bed skirt.
There is a window on one end

And a door with a welcome sign on one side. No peeking Abigail, not until Christmas.
And then my friend is going on a cruise in December and wondered if I could make her a few 'frocks'. Jan and I had a blast, spent way too much time in the fabric shop and in the end Jan realized that it may almost always be less expensive and less hassle (it takes forever to choose the just right fabric when there are so many - or not enough choices) to just go buy what you want. But alas, I love to sew and sew I did. This was an easy project really, so damned easy that I may make one for myself one of these days. It is on it's way to you Jan, let me know if we need to size it before I start the next one.
And the biggest project of them all. This is one that I only have to give my opinions on...at the moment. My turn for real work will come with the interior. Our addition/storm shelter. This has been the most interesting project because we are trying something that neither of us are used to and is still a bit alternative I think for most. We are not 'stick' building nor are we using block for the basement. We are pouring not only the basement walls but the second floor walls as well. We extensively priced using block for the basement and then stick building the upper against using poured walls...it was a no brainier for us. This way is less expensive to not only build but in the end will be cheaper to heat and to cool and a lot less work for David to 'put up'. Once the walls are poured and the roof is on you are pretty much done with the 'frame'. No insulation to wrestle with, no walls to nail together and heave up etc etc etc. It is air tight and very cheap to heat and to cool. Oh it will be wonderful. Besides that we have met two of the coolest people yet. Onward...
David started the project by digging out the basement. And yes damn it I had to move lots of my plants from my back garden in order to make way for the new addition. He says I may in fact have to move more to enable him to get the bob cat in some damn place or another to pour some sand or something. I am at the moment ignoring him on this one.
So, by chance we ran into Frank at a garage sale. His sale was in a pole shed that he had sprayed insulation on the walls. David was talking with him about the insulation and then asked Frank if he knew of anyone that did poured walls. Well I'll be darned....Frank has done poured walls and owned his own construction company before the economy went to poop. He also knew the guy who is in the form business, the forms that you put up in which to pour the cement. Frank and Dan Yokum (form guy) came over to talk with us about the idea of pured walls for the basement. Not only did we decide to pour the basement walls but the uppers as well after this get together.
Here are Dave and Frank constructing the footings
And on another day pouring the footings.
The forms for the basement wall on their way up. These forms are much like Lego's in that you just put them together like you do Lego's. Of course you cut out where you want windows and doors but it is just that easy! Once they are up re-bar needs to be put in to ready for the cement etc.


And then there is Dan Yokum. Dan is one of the coolest people you could meet. He is an old 60's hippie type of guy...self acclaimed in fact. He has been in the construction business for 40 years and has lived all over but came back to his roots here some years back. He began by building log homes and has since stopped doing that and is now doing these only. Dan was on the front end of poured houses coming to be. In the beginning in fact he traveled all over the states teaching others how to do the process. He also invented some danged thing or another to make the 'leveling' process easy. Dan is also an artist, a blacksmith, a woodworker and an all around cool guy. Can you tell that I am enamored with this fella! (enamored..that is a word yes?)
Here are Dan and Frank installing the re-bar and look oh look who the 'go-fer' is down below. It was too danged funny watching David being the one that is bossed around as opposed to him bossing you and I Kelly!


The basement walls are put together and are ready to pour. And to the right is one of my gardens. The one that I am having to slowly dismantle...I wonder if Dan has a way to get around that? I think I will ask:)

It was wet the day the cement truck came. Heck it has not been dry hardly a day around here. Anyway they parked the pumper truck quite a long way away, used the boom and walla pumped the cement without getting the truck stuck in the clay.


The cement going into the walls and David is tapping on the sides in order to encourage the cement to settle.

This fella had, in my opinion, the most boring job of the process. He watched the cement come out of the truck into the pumper...oooooooo huh? I suspect it is a necessary job for some reason or another. I fed him a sandwich and a cookie to brake the boredom.
Dan aiming the boom and Frank smoothing the cement out
The master eyeing it up to assure that the walls are absolutely straight.
This week the boys (Frank and David) are putting the floor on the second floor and putting up the forms for the upper walls. Be ready...more boring posts to follow!