Ashley and Chunk getting ready to go boating.

Well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!

We had a little scare. We got the prop down but then  she quit working. So Bill got out

the book and figured out that it may be a breaker. YEP!!! Woo-hoo!

Boat sounds AWESOME!!

I'm ready to go.

Bill let Ashley start the boat. She was our good luck charm.

Rain rain go away

I was sitting here relaxing and Ashley yells "It's raining Mom!" Oh Crap. I didn't put the boat cover back on. It's really hard to put the cover on by yourself,was waiting for Bill to come home. I quick grabbed Bill's gortex jacket and ran out to try and cover the boat. I know, I know boats are supposed to get wet,but we really need the seats to be recoverd. Don't want to make them any worse. It took me like forever to get it on,once was backwards. AHHHH Anyway long story short,with the help of a pool skimmer I was able to get it on. I came in soaking wet. Ahsley asked if it was really raining that hard. YEP. AND OH YEAH best part of this story,10MIN later the rain quits. Just my Luck. Too funny not to share this. Glad the neighbors didn't witness this.

Now it feels like summer!!

Last night we went and got the boat from Mamaw's. She looked like a diamond in the rough. She is old after all, and winters are hard on her. I just spent 2 hours washing and scrubbing her down inside and out. She looks fantastic now and ready to run!(Keeping fingers crossed on that one. haha) Definatley need new interior. I'm hoping I can talk Bill and Tim into doing it soon. Tonight Bill is going to start her up and get the cobwebs out. Sorry neighbors. I'm hoping we'll wax her too. I'm resting right now,and here in a bit going to mow grass. I'm so excited that summer is fianly here and I can't wait to get out in the water.

We played with the tile and decided on a pinwheel patteren. Of course we can't lay it tonight due to we need special T spacers . Lowes and Menards doesn't carry them. Bill called a friend and he told us where to find them. Of course place closed already. So I'll go tomorrow. You can turn an X spacer on it's back and have an I spacer so we got close enough to show you what we  are going to do. We wanted to make sure was going to lay good and tweek it if we needed. That of course we got right on the first try. Finally something went right. We painted already and that stuff worked really well. Mental note for next time. Live and learn, Bill said other tile jobes we'll do in winter. I told him that it'll go faster now that we know what to do. Keepin that ball rollin. We've done so much around here, I don't want to stop till done.

Yesterday 4 baby foxes snuck out of the woods to play. They were right across the gravel road outside our house. Bill just came in and told me they were back so I got to see them too,plus the mama. She laid down and watch them run around acting like little puppies. TOO cool!!!

About bathroom.......... Painting it again,cause if you look just right  you can actually see roller marks. SO...At Lowes they have this additive(Which I said we should get the first time around) to add to paint for $7 that promises NO roller or paintbrush marks.  Getting ready to paint here in a bit. Looked at wainscotting and can't make up mind,so we walked away. The white chair railing did not match the wainscotting, and couldn't find anything that would work unless you painted it. Didn't need it today anyway.  May run up to Indy. Thought we'd have bathroom done by end of week. Still hoping to get tiling  done. Ashley informed me this Friday was field day. So gotta go do that. Maybe the week after we will totaly have it finished. Who knows. No wonder contractors make so much money. They have a very stressful job.

Hardybacker board is laid down now.Yippee!!! One little section needs thinset put down,but other then that ready to tile next week. Probably end of next week for sure we'll be done. Keeping fingers crossed anyway. Still have lots to do in there. Putting waincoating,chairrail,floorboard down too. Probably a tall cabnet for storage,and maybe a new countertop to spruce things up. We'll see. Bill wants a new toilet too. He wants a black one, it of course is the same price as the fancy dancy one that has a massage,butt wiper, all the stuff anyone could possably think of. Seriousally I can't even remember all it does. I just want it to flush. May pay extra for it to squirt air freshner. Hahaha Anyway didn't do too much today. Weeded garden and cleaned house a bit. Nothing too interesting. Wanted to mow really bad,everyone else was doing it,but they were really messing up their yards too. If I did that, I'd never hear the end of it. At least with the neighbors ,I can't hear them complain how tall our grass is.

What bathroom looks like now. above. Below is tile that is going in our bathroom and entryway.We have small decorative tiles too. Will get pictures of all that later

This is bad picture of tile going in Ashley's bathroom It's darker with teal veining. 

                         

Back to the drawing board

As Grandpa says "If it aint broke,don't fix it." Well, we may be keeping our bathroom vanity for now. As much as I loved the beautiful vanity at Lowes, it just won't work. For some reason I got to thinking about Ashley's height and whether or not she can spit in the sink. So last night,on yet another trip to Lowes we had her stand by it. In order for her to be able to spit in the sink,she had to stand way up on her tippy toes and still had to pull herself up some to get over sink area. (No actual spitting was allowed) So unless we want to clean toothpaste up all the time,or get a stool,that vanity just won't do. Most everything else is just too dang expensive. We are getting ready to finally lay the hardybacker board down. Bill's reading up on that as I type. Hopefully we'll at least be able to get tile layed out and finish this project next week.

Before we got started we ripped everything out of the bathroom. Well sort of,technecely the toilet is still there,just in the tub.

We stayed up till 1:00AM this morning painting. Bill wanted me to wait till he got home from work to paint. I spent the day with Grandpa. We went out to eat at Cracker Barrel ,then to Home Depot. Out of curiosity I checked out the tile. I found some blackish tile that looked really nice clearenced for 97 cents. It  doesen't  look like the tile we chose,but it over 50% cheaper.  I'm thinking do, I tell Bill? Nah I like the tile we have, and it'd be another couple of trips to the stores. So SHHHH. I think the paint color turned out real nice. Can't wait till this is all done.

 We bought some strawberries the other day that were ginormous, Must have been planted by nucular power plant. They were very yummy.

Haven't blogged in a few days,cause doing house renavation. Looks more like destruction,but when it's done it'll be beautiful. We are tiling. At least that's what it started out being. We laid out our tile that we bought a long time ago,then decided,not what we really wanted. Looked like Mamaw's bathroom tile,but also had blue dimond tiles every now and then. If all white,it would have been OK,just decided didn't want to force that bathroom always have to go with blue decore. So bought orangey stone looking tile.  Decided duck  decore didn't really go, so stripped that all last night and am going to paint the walls a smokey blue color.Today we decided we also needed a new sink/cabnet combo,cause the one we have is cheap and no storage. Well we found the perfect one at Lows. Cherry with black granet top. Bill can get it for a little over $500. Smoken deal,but orangey tile didn't look so good with it,so yes we changed tile opotions yet again. Embarresing when the check out lady says. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" Yeah it's because I've been here like four times in last couple of days. Bill mixed up some stone patina looking tiles with Small copper orange looking tiles. Looks really cool,even though doesn't sound cool. You'll have to wait till next week to see pictures. Hoping to tile Tuesday and Wednesday. Hoping to still prime tonight and paint Monday. Cabnet is special order and takes 30 days. We are still looking to make sure it's what we want, but so far can't beat the cost and look. Ashley wanted a monkey shower curtain, We'll see about that. Told her may have to pick out a more grown up one. Bill says he's afraid to do any more tile projects,cause turning into a total renavation. Taking so long to paint cause Bill had to fix a place above tub,and sand entire walls. He's a perfectionest,and it will look fantastic when we are all done. Have to go now ,getting ready to put primer on. Yippee. Have been waiting all day for this.

A Mothers work is never done, and it the hardest most rewarding job out there. Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Forgot to blog about Ashley's Topsy Turvy tomato plant.  Papaw had the right idea way back, when he put tomato plants in buckets.  We'll see how well this actually does. Was going to do a bucket too,but really don't have many places to hang them. No big old trees around here. Bill says the deer and rabbits will probably get these tomatos,due to them hanging so low to the ground. The swing set is the highest thing we have. Sad huh? At least we don't have to rake much in the fall.

Me feeling like a million bucks after working all day on the garden and getting a shower. Did not look or smell so pretty before shower.

We had a big day today. I voluntered to go on the third grade field trip, to the Vernon Historical Society Musuem. It was really fascinating, looking at all the cool old stuff there. Did not see any ghosts, which have supposedly been sighted there quite frequently. Ashley was able to weave on a loom. I thought it was really cool that they let the kids actually take part in weaving a rug. We also visited a Blacksmith. The kids just thought he was so cool. He made three things for the class and at one point asked the class a question and Ashley answered him correctly,so she was able to go up and bend a piece of steel. She was on cloud nine. Of course I forgot to bring my camera for these awesome expierences.

After our field trip,we had an award program to go to.  It was called the B.U.G program. Bring Up Grades. More then just grades are involved in choosing a kid. One kid per class. Ashley improved her Math grade from a B to an A.  She also is an excellent student,who takes school seriously.She was recognized and will get a plaque when she gets her awards at the end of school. She is very proud and honored to have been chosen.

She got all dolled up for the occasion.

Getting called up to be recognized and getting this lovely T-shirt.

Yesterday we went over to Mamaws. Andy and Bill put the loader on Mamaw's tractor. And we had a nice visit with  Mamaw,Terri, Becky and the boys. Mamaw fixed a fabulous spaggatti dinner.  While there we walked over to the horse barn and dug out some of tomatoe cages that Papaw made. I'm hoping some of Papwa's magic helps my tomatoes grow.  He grew the best tomatoes ever. We knew a storm was comming in, so as soon as we got home 9:30 we put the cages around the tomatoes. Just before we finished it started lightnening in the distance.  We also picked ruhbarb lastnight,enough for about 4 pies. I'll be cutting that up and freezing later today. I told Bill we didn't need pies and he said we'll eat it in the winter when we don't have to be on a diet. Evedently he thinks were going to loose a bunch of weight quickly.

I think I did a fairly decent job of keeping the rows straight. Not bad for an amature.

My lilac bush in bloom, and boy does it smell wonderful around here

                  

I'm sooooo excited. Bill right now is tilling up the area down by the garage that was over run by wild flowers. We are going to put a small  garden in it's place. I have some tomatoes, peppers, onions, sage,mint,lemon balm, blueberry bushes and strawberries. Not sure if going to put strawberries down there or not. Don't know where else to put them though. So far we have eaten three yummy small ones off the plant. I can't wait till we have bunches. May just plant the herbs in large containers. I don't want things to go too crazy down there.

Deck is done. We're on a roll.

Yesterday I saw the dog out in the yard playing with something. When I called her she refused to come , so I went out to see what she was doing. She was trying to flip a turtle back over. She was probably the one to get it upside down in the first place,but she was determined to get it back on it's belly.

I took it up to the pond,hoping thaat's where he was going in the first place. Jack came up to see what all the excitement was about.

Bill is now done tilling so I'm heading out to start planting. More pictures to follow. Hopefully fruit and veggies too.

Ashley Isims

Kids are too funny. Last week Ashley kept cracking me up, so I thought I'd share.  I went over to Grandpa's last week to give him a new cell phone and put in old info. On the way home we witnessed a gruesome deer VS car moment. I swear the deer went up 15 feet in the air, and did at least 4 rotations before landing.  Ashley has talked nonstop about this. Anyway a few days later,she pulled out Grandpa's old cell phone. Claimed it accidently got in her backpack,and that she was using it for an emergency phone. She said,"Don't worry Mom,I haven't had to call the police yet." After giggling,I said ,"That's good."
Then Friday, Bill and I were out working on the deck. She came to the door with two dresses. Said"Mom, which one?" I pointed to one and asked what she was doing. "Amy is going to Prom and I don't know if I'm going too." (The babysitters daughter) Not yet baby. Too soon I'm sure. I asked her this morning if she got all dressed up,she said no and was a little dissapointed she couldn't go. I asked if the Paynes  knew she had brought a dress,and she said she didn't get it out. Too bad, I would have loved to have gotten a picture with her and Amy. I told her she could put the dress on and dance around here. Not the same I guess. I can't help but smile and thank God how lucky we are to have her.