One more sleep

Whenthe kids were very little, we would translate time into "how many Barney shows" or "how many sleeps" so they could understand how long until whatever it was they were waiting for would happen.
Well...it's just

one more sleep

until Papa comes home.

More funny business

The girls are getting funnier all the time. I recently found this note that Amy wrote to Sarah. She was teasing Sarah about how much she fusses when her hair isn't just right. While I certainly don't promote making fun of someone else, this was pretty funny, especially the way Amy said it.

Now we laugh about it all the time and Sarah joins in.

Aunt Shelia came to visit!

and we had a great time together!
She brought Iowa geods to bust open
They played "Mary Memory"
More geo busting
We made goo and had a lot of fun with it.

Thanks, Le-Le, for making the trip. We really enjoyed having you here!

While Matt's at the Boy Scout Jamboree,

we are having a demo/redo party here at the house. Can't give details because it's a surprise to Matt, but later I'll have a complete recap.

Isn't it just too funny that Matt is at Boy Scout Camp??? American Water is providing water and wastewater services for 35,000 boys at Fort AP Hill in Virginia. They actually thought he would stay in a tent--but that idea got nixed pretty quickly and the corporate staff have RVs now. Sounds like a pretty intense time--I'm glad to be here rather than there. You know, 35,000 boy scouts he is not responsible for---4 kids I alone am responsible for.......sounds about equal to me.

Took a picture for you all yesterday; it was

on our deck at 6:30pm.

Weather guy said it was hotter today but we wouldn't know--

we didn't go out!

2 days down; 12 to go.

Yep, I built that

This is the bookcase I built for the boys' room; the first of two.

The back is bead board, though you can't tell in this photo.

Here you can see the bead board better

(a new tongue twister!).

The whole thing is on it's side here, so I could paint the bottom.

It is too hot and humid to paint in the garage, so the dining room

has morphed into a studio of sorts.

I have also finished a book rack for a baby shower gift and a picture frame for

our bathroom today. Theo is drawing a picture for my frame.

I'll share that when it's done.

I am loving my new hobby! Learning carpentry has long been a dream of mine,

and I am happy to be working at it.

Watch out, Matt; I'll be pushing for that move to Alaska soon.

There, I can build my own house without any codes or conditions.

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Everyone likes to help open gifts.

(It looks like we have a rare, poodle-headed female in our family).
Here is the happy 49 year old, with his loot.
Notice the kids are wearing hteir swimming suits--
they swam twice today!

For Le-le to see

If you are on Facebook, you may have already seen this, but I know Le-Le is not on FB, and I wanted to show her how the pictures came out.

I really like having them all together on one wall for the first time. Usually we haven't had enough wall space to hang them this way.

At first I was unhappy with the space difference between the boys' and the girl's frames. However, I have lowered my standards and am just happy that they are on the wall, and done.
It took a while to get Marty's photos done and framed, but the gal in Fayetteville found the exact same frame as Theo's even with there being a 8 year separation between framings.

The only thing I would do differently (but I didn't think about at the time) would have been to have Marty's large portrait on the right side of the frame, to make it a mirror image of Theo's. This way, though, I can hang them anywhere and it won't matter. Any more kids and the whole arrangement will have to change!

My Mother's Day gift

Here she is!

I think I should name her, like we always name our favorite appliances.

How about Maude, or Penelope, or maybe Hortensia.

I'll get back to you on this....