A few pix

Hey all, here are a few pix ...

The cabinets (dark on the bottom of the island, white everywhere else)The beach when Mom and Dad were here.
Dad patching some drywall.
Emma and Timmy with Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Getting Closer!

Wel, we're getting closer to dry wall in the kitchen. Cyndie has been working on cleaning out the cabinets (the old ones) and I'm finishing up the wiring. I'm almost there, I just have to split the 220V line into 2 110V lines (a friend is coming over this morning to help with that) and then position a few of the under cabinet feeding lines to come through the drywall in the right place. The friend (Jim's dad Stan) is also going to make a final check of all my wiring to make sure it looks good (he's a retired electrician and inspector). Then I just need to get up the sheer wall. I think we'll wait until Monday night to pull the counters out so that we have the sink a little longer. The drywall guys are not coming until Wednesday now due to a scheduling conflict. Although they are coming today to start the stucco (it takes 3 or 4 applications). We're planning on the first round of cabinet installation for March 2. I've enlisted Paul and Dan to help! Unfortunately, I may not be as productive this weekend as my help has backed out. (Sorry Lee, I just had to get a little dig in -- Lee was going to come, but then got a free ticket to the races!)

Yesterday Cyndie and the kids went to Disneyland. They brought Coco, and ended up coming home with a new outfit for Coco and for Spot (Timmy's leopard). Coco now has a fairy outfit and Spot is Buzz Lightyear. Timmy slept in his big boy bed again, so that is exciting. Hopefully he's almost fully adjusted there.

Paul should be here anytime for the Liverpool game, so so long for now, and have a great weekend.

Quick Friday Note ...

Hey all,

Just a quick note today ...

Yesterday was pretty much a downer. The kids were crabby all day for Cyndie (including a trip to the doctor for Cyndie and Emma for Emma's ear infection) which made for a long day for her. I had to stay late at work for a lame meeting! Needless to say, Cyndie was in bed by 8pm and I wasn't much later.

Today and through the weekend is the big push to get the kitchen done for drywalling on Monday. I think the kids and Cyndie are going to Disneyland.

Neal

Thursday Update

Hey all,

There is not a whole lot different happening around here than normal.

There is progress happening all the time in the kitchen ... the window is in, and the drywallers are coming next Monday so the pressure is on to tie up the loose ends before then. I've also scheduled some friends to come over on Friday to start putting up the cabinets!

Yesterday Cyndie and I went on a date ... after dinner we looked for rugs for the family room to no success. We also decided to go with a single basin sink and ordered one online. We still need to pick out a hood.

Emma brought home a stuffed bear with a bunch of different outfits from school yesterday. The bear ("Coco") has a journal that the kids are supposed to write in and put pictures in. Emma is really excited about that and is making all kinds of plans to take Coco different places.

Last night Miss Ashlee, the babysitter, finally got Timmy to fall asleep in his big boy bed, so that is exciting.

That's about it on our end!

Monday Happenings

Good morning all,

Here's a quick update from yesterday ...

A pretty normal day. Emma was off from school, so Cyndie and the kids ended up spending much of the rainy day over at Monique's. Timmy really enjoyed getting rides from Mavric on Mav's big train that runs throughout the house. Emma and Macy always have a good time playing together. In the evening we had Bible study. This time was more of a social gathering to say "good bye" to Stu. He's going to a different church to work as a counselor, so that's a bummer! The kids had a fun time there playing with new toys and, of course, didn't want to leave!

After Bible study and getting the kids to bed (Timmy didn't want to sleep in his new bed again!), Cyndie worked some on the Easter service announcement for church, and I more on electrical. Today the new window should go in between 1 and 3 pm!

The big news of the morning is that Timmy again had a dry diaper and again asked to go pee-pee on the big boy potty, with success! We're not there yet, but hopefully we'll have a fully potty trainied kid by summer!

That's it for now,
Neal

Weekend in Review

Things didn't go exactly as planned over the weekend, but hey, that's life.

Saturday was beautiful. I think it finally ended up being in the 80s!

The main movement on the kitchen was that Stan (Jim Zone's dad) came over and gave me some advice on the electrical. He is a retired electrical contractor and inspector, so I value his advice a lot, especially given how much electrical we're doing. So the bottom line with that is that he pointed out one thing I had done wrong in wiring all the recessed lights (I needed essentially a cushion so that the wires wouldn't wear out on the metal boxes). He also gave me some very helpful advice to use in understanding how my circuits should be powered. As of last night, I've almost fixed all the recessed lights. I have the lights in the family room and over the fireplace working, and I'm just waiting for Stan's help to change some things in the breaker box (to split the 220V line to 2 110V lines) to complete the rest of the electrical. The window is installed tomorrow, and then the drywall will most likely be the week after (to give me a little more time to ensure that I have all the electrical done like I want it).

Cyndie and the kids played outside a lot on Saturday. Sunday was church. In the afternoon a friend from church came over with her kids, and we also babysat a different little boy from church while his parents were at a church class. We had the bounce house up both afternoons to enjoy the beautiful weather. Dad, your roof "patches" have not leake yet, and I also installed the outdoor light in "your" electrical box ... it worked great! It rained both Saturday evening a bit, and then last night again. It was really windy yesterday afternoon, which was causing the plastic over the window holes to rip, so Cyndie spent some time stapling cardboard over the holes. Now it looks like we live in an alley!

Last night Cyndie and I were both pretty tired, so we took the night off from the kitchen work and Cyndie cut my hair. I think I'm too used to the desk job because I was beat! I had a pretty sore neck from working over my head all day.

Timmy is beginning to really resist taking naps (and didn't take one on either Saturday or Sunday), so I think that's pretty much the end of that. He tends to be a little crankier as a result at night, but not too much so. The big challenge will be in teaching him to stay in his room during quiet time (so that Mom and Dad can still take a nap)! We finally got a mattress up into his tree fort bed. He really enjoyed laying on it a lot, but when it came time for bedtime and I put him up there he asked to go in his crib. We'll see where that ends up going!.

Emma has been very cute recently, spending a lot of time "reading" books to Timmy. They've been playing pretty well for the most part. Emma is also wanting to try to spell a lot of words and sound out words to figure out what letters are in them, etc. So that's exciting. I'm sure she's going to love kindergarten next year!

We're working a lot this week on helping the kids understand that their actions have consequences, which is interesting because Timmy has started doing two things that he learned from Emma, slamming doors in her face, and hitting her! Too back she has selective memory and doesn't really recall or acknowledge that she may have contributed to this development!

Well, that's it for now. Have a warm week everyone, especially those of you in the midwest!

Back with Progress

Up bright and early today ...

The kids and I are watching Franklyn while Cyndie sleeps in a bit. We're planning to walk over and get some donuts after this. I was already out this morning to put some trash in the garbage and it was already in the 60s ... it looks like we're heading for a beautiful day.

Yesterday lead to some productivity on the kitchen. I got home from work early. Cyndie and the kids went to the park, and I worked on hanging more lights. Now all of the light fixtures are up! Cyndie and the kids brought our friends Sheryl and Samantha and Ben home from the park for dinner/pizza. After dinner and playing a bit, it was bedtime.

The plan for today is for Cyndie and the kids to go looking for a rug for in the family room, and for me to keep working in the kitchen!