Remodel Update

We have been working hard to try and finish some of OUR tasks, the doors are hung, the painting is done and we've moved back into the office. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The electricians have been here and finished most of the the electrical, they still have to do the outside light and outlet as well as the bathroom fan cover. The stucco guys were here and are done, the outside looks great. Bill has been here working on the tile so the laundry room is done, the closet floor is done and he is mostly done with the shower. Hopefully Bill will be back this weekend to finish the bathroom shower and floor.

Here are some updated pictures

This weekend we are also going to celebrate Ryan's birthday which is on the 31st. He invited a few friends, 5 of them, and we are going to the movies to see Journey to the Center of the Earth. Chris is going with me to chaperone the kids and we're going to get Mc Donalds, the kids fav, for lunch to take into the movies with us. At the local AMC you can take food from the food court into the theater with you. Ryan is very excited and can't wait until Sunday.

Love to all, Kim

Jonas Brothers Concert

Sunday July 13th was concert day for us...................................................

We gave Lauren tickets for the Jonas Brothers concert in Anaheim for her birthday. 3 tickets - mom, Lauren and a friend. Lauren asked her best friend Katie (who is also a Jonas fan though not as obsessed as Lauren). We arrived very early, a few hours, with the hopes of landing some meet & greet passes. Unfortunately none were to be had but the girls still had fun just hanging out. Radio Disney was outside of the venue before the event so they joined in with them for some Cha-cha slide dancing, trivia game, hot potato game and just listening to loud music. They both won little prizes for the trivia and Lauren was the runner up on the hot potato game and won a National Treasure 2 DVD which she gave Katie since we already had it.

We all had a fabulous time, I'm sure they won't forget it for quite a while. It was sooooooooo loud that my ears were still ringing when I laid down in bed. We got home just after midnight and had to be up at 6am since the girls had summer school today. They were troopers, got up, ate and were at school on time.

Here are some pictures: the girls with their poster prior to the event and in front of the tour bus that all the fans sign.

Here they are during the concert where they were standing and dancing the entire time.

This is Lauren's favorite Jonas - Nick, and a picture of all three of them - Nick, Joe & Kevin


So the only negative thing that happened was Friday night while Lauren was dancing to Jonas Brothers music in her room she bumped her bed, tripped, fell landing on her hand in a fist and fractured her right hand. Saturday gave us the doctor visit, x-rays and the orthopedic referral. Sunday we couldn't miss the concert, no way no how, so we went to the concert. Then today, Monday, we had summer school and the orthopedic visit which gave us a fiberglass splint with a re-check for more x-rays in a week and a scare that if the fracture shifts out of place then she could be looking at surgery for pins. We'll make sure to keep the splint in place and I'll help her wash her hair :-). Tomorrow we'll have to talk to the soccer coach and see if she can work on defense since she definitely can't goalie which is what she has been doing.

There is our weekend in a nutshell. Oh yeah, the construction is going well, all the doors are hung, most of the painting is done and we've started on the trim work. The tile should get started this week with a shower pan inspection scheduled for Wednesday.

Thanks for checking in. Night all,
Kim

July 4th Weekend

The long weekend is unfortunately over and it's back to early rising for work and summer school, the 5:30am alarm was definitely not welcomed on Monday morning.

We spent the weekend at home, Alan had some work to do on Thursday and over the weekend so we just hung out. On the 4th I went and bought a water slide for the kids, we set it up on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was lots of fun and we'll be able to use it all summer and for some years to come.

Here are some pictures of all of us on the slide, Alan and I even went on as well as the dog.




Here is a little video of Sammie going through the small slide.........no doubt that she loves water.......oh yeah, that's me jumping through the slide first with Sammie following.........



The whole weekend we also worked on the remodel. We took down all the plastic, cleaned up from the drywall work and started working on painting. I think we used about 12 rollers so that means we switched paint 12 times since we just pitch the rollers after each color. Of course a couple of colors we had to do two coats so it was two rollers, like the ceilings needed two coats which was horrible. Poor Alan, he does all the rolling and I do all the cutting in. We work great together.

So here are the before and after painting pictures of the bedroom wall and laundry room.....




I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Thanks for checking in and love to all, Kim

Cancun Vacation

Alan and I just got home from Cancun Mexico last night. Alan got an all expenses paid trip for four days to Cancun from work for exceeding his sales quota, thank you HP. The kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for the long weekend. Thank heaven for Alan's folks, Ruth even had to take Lauren to summer school two of the days by 7:30am now that's one wonderful grandma.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and went to the Casa Magna Marriott Resort. This is our room, yes there were two double beds. We thought of going back to the lobby to get a room with a king size bed until we looked out of the window. Wow, we were on the end of the building so we had a direct view of the ocean so we opted for the view over the king size bed.
This is the view looking to the right off our balcony. Isn't it just spectacular? We were on the 4th floor so we had a great view.
This is the hotel looking back from the beach side. Gorgeous.
The first night we had a cocktail reception outside and then a wonderful mexican buffet dinner in one of the banquet rooms. Then on Saturday, Alan went golfing while I backed out of the golf since his buddy, Ken, was golfing too and I just hung out at the pool in the morning. Then I met up with Ken's wife, Veronica, we went to lunch, chatted, got to know each other and then went shopping. We laughed sooooo much while we were together. It was great fun to hang out together. Saturday nights dinner was a choice between 4 restaurants, we of course picked one of the steak restaurants over a seafood one. It was a very nice and definitely tasty dinner for just the two of us.

Sunday was a mellow, no scheduled activity, day. We had breakfast in the restaurant and then met up with Ken and Veronica to head into the city to Mercado 28 (Market 28). It was like a swap meet shopping area. We had lots of fun shopping though I think the guys were done way before the girls were, they ended up at a table having a beer and cigar while we girls finished shopping. This is Alan and Ken at Mercado 28.
Sunday night was the awards dinner for the guys, jacket and tie for the guys and cocktail dresses for the ladies. Here we are with Ken and Veronica. We actually clean up ok when we try...........................................
On Monday our flight left at 4:15pm so we had breakfast with Ken and Veronica then we went down to sit on the beach for a while. That's Alan smoking a cigar in the beachside bar area while I was sitting on a chaise under an umbrella in the shade. The water was just beautiful, the most amazing blue colors. I only went in up to my knees, I'm not real fond of the beach - just can't get past all that sand stuck on me and the sticky skin you get from the salt water (I'm just a wimp). The water was so nice, not cold, just the perfect temperature.
These are some pictures of Ken & Veronica and Alan & me at the pool on Sunday afternoon.
We had a wonderful time. It was nice to get away just the two of us but it was also great to come home, see the kids and sleep in our own bed. The humidity reminded me of why I'm happy not to live in Florida any longer :-)

Love to all, Kim

Construction

LOOK, LOOK, LOOK ------------ we have drywall, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh.....................

Here is the laundry room, backdoor on the right and office door on the left.
This is looking at the office door from inside the office, look there is a solid wall, you can't look through the shower anymore, pretty cool huh? That's the little closet Alan has left in the office, currently filled with hanging wires for our computer network, phones, modems, routers, etc.
This is looking into the bathroom, the vanity will be on the right, the toilet will be on the right closer to where I was standing in the doorway and the back (where the insulation and studs are showing) is the shower.
Tomorrow is the drywall nailing inspection, then the drywall tapers come on Thursday. Once they finish we can clean the office and move back into it (I think) since after that it's all painting and hanging the door and baseboard which is all us, no contractors for that stuff.

Once the taping is done, we'll get Bill over to start on the tile work.

Thanks for checking in with us.

Night all, Kim

Ryan's Class Party

Ryan had his end of the year class party for 2nd grade this week. I can't believe he will be starting 3rd grade at the end of August. Here he is with some of his friends playing a game, there was a carnival theme for his party..........................
This is his friend Everett.................................
This is Miss Hanika his 2nd grade teacher, she was amazing. I made her a cookbook from the class. I saw the idea in a Family Fun magazine and emailed all the parents. I was able to pull the whole thing together in 6 days. Each child wrote a note and drew a picture on an 8x8 piece of cardstock and each parent emailed me a recipe which I formated and printed on an 8x8 piece of carstock, everything was put into a scrapbook. Cerene, Miss Hanika, loved the cookbook. She said she was going to make every recipe in the book, there was everything from jambalaya to smoothies to chocolate soufles. I also made copies for each person in class, that's 21 kids. My printer seemed to print non stop for about 3 days with all the color copies, about 400 pages on cardstock no less.
I had to get a picture with Ryan and Miss Hanika, always thinking of the scrapbooks :-)
See you soon,
Kim

Lauren's Graduation

On Wednesday we had Lauren's 8th grade graduation. Seems kinda silly to me, we just got a pat on the back and sent on to high school, but she got an actual graduation. It was at her school and it was ridiculously hot, over 100, and we were all sitting outside in chairs with umbrellas for shade. We were there an hour early since Lauren had to be in her class early and with the gas prices we didn't want to take two cars, so there we sat.

Here she is walking back to her seat after getting called up on stage.
We went back to the house afterwards to BBQ dinner for everyone. Here she is with her grandma and grandpa, Ruth & Ernie..............
Here she is with her little brother, Ryan.................
This is the posed picture outside, I had to have one of just her to put in the scrapbooks.............
Here she is all dressed up in her "dancing" dress. There was a dance for the graduates in the school gym from 9pm - 11pm. A little late for my taste but it was only one night. She looks so grown up in this picture................
So next she has 6 wks of summer school to take one of the classes from next year, getting a head of the curve and she will also have 6 wks of summer sports camp for soccer at the high school as well. She is going to try out for the soccer team when she starts high school at the end of August.

Thanks for checking in.
Kim