Wednesday, November 28, 2007

A Thanksgiving to be remembered

Thanksgiving this year was fun and relaxing. Tanya, Alan, Addison and Bailey drove up on Wednesday and we spent that evening celebrating Caitlin's 16th birthday. We celebrated a day early because Ray and Caitlin were leaving on Thursday to go to Raleigh, NC to play in some soccer games. Caleb came over earlier in the day on Wednesday to spend the day with her, so he joined us when we all went to Red Robin in Owasso to eat. She opened her gifts there and at the end of dinner, the staff sang a birthday song to her.

Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday was delicious. I never before enjoyed digging out the leftovers and eating over and over again as much as I did this year. I'm not sure what it was but it could have been that I spent Thanksgiving with family that is accustomed to eating leftovers through this holiday and I haven't had that in a long time. Getting Ray to do that and understand that you can't let food go to waste has been difficult. It was just plain nice and very enjoyable.

We watched a lot of HGTV and Fine Living television and curled up on the couch with blankets since the high temps outside were in the 40's the entire time.

All of the kids played guitar hero, video games and stayed up late together. I heard lots of laughter coming from down the hallway.

It was a special time.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Drivers beware!

Caitlin drove to school today for the first time on her own. After a couple of hours of waiting at the DMV, she drove out of the parking lot with the evaluator and returned with a seal of approval. On the way back home, all I could think of was how my life would benefit from this new licensed driver. She'll be more than willing at first to make trips to the grocery store and take her brothers to school but I'm sure that in no time at all, she'll become a bit whiney about her new responsiblities.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Concrete done!

Work continues on the pool and although I haven't posted anything on it the past few days, I've been nonstop talking about it to Tanya. I'm sure she wishes I would just shut up.

Getting the rebar laid was the first step in having the concrete started.






The guys showed up this morning and started pouring the "mud" as they call it.






And here is the finished product, at least as far as the concrete goes.



Sunday, November 18, 2007

Oh the pain!

Terrible migraine last night. I was in bed at 7:30 because there was nothing else that I could have done but sleep and let my meds kick in. I got up at 9pm and it was much better but still noticeable. So I went back to bed after shutting the house down and making sure everyone was ok. My phone rang a few times but was ignored. Much better this morning. :-)

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Pool cleaning

This past week has been busy with calls to contractors to hook up electric, pour concrete and add a gas line to the pool heater. It's been a hassle but I'm sure by next summer I won't even remember how time consuming this has been. I would have to suggest that no one have a pool put in during the colder months because when you are having to stick your arm in the water to hook up the hose for vacuuming, it's a mighty cold experience.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

No carbs whatsoever... not so easy

I made an attempt at trying the Atkins diet today but everything went out the window when I returned home from Cody's soccer game and spotted Tex-Mex pizza on the stove top. I was prepared to follow it strictly to the tee, for at least a week, just to see how it goes. I might make another attempt tomorrow. Maybe it's something that I need to ease into slowly.

Friday, November 09, 2007

White Beast

We had to put Abby in the utility room last night because she has been on a mission to kick some "black cat ass". The utility room doesn't have anything in it that she can mess up, just a tile floor, a washer, dryer and a laundry basket. Or so we thought. When I opened the door this morning an ironing board was laying across the floor with two air filters laying on top of that and the laundry basket was also thrown to the floor. She was able to open the doors to where we keep these items, stored alongside the heater and hot water heater. I guess we had forgotten that this is the cat that can open some doors to come find you and greet you kindly. And opens cabinets to find towels to snuggle up on.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Oooooooklahoma!

I went to Cody's 4th grade production of Oklahoma last night and was pleasantly surprised by the two main characters of the show. I think the songs in this play are difficult to sing and they did a great job. I have a small snippet of Cody's portion during the song The Farmer and the Cowman. I'll add it later.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Clay soil + septic systems = problems

I had our septic service come out yesterday to check on our new pump station because it has a puddle that sits above it. I figured it was a leak or that something had come undone. Nope... it's just something that can't be helped due to the dirt, or what is commonly referred to around here as "clay". But the pump station is working beautifully so we are still free from backups.

Today is going to be much cooler and I can't say enough about how much I hate that. We still have work to be done in the backyard starting tomorrow so hopefully it warms up a bit and the wind stops blowing. Brrrrr.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Pool-Day 3

There weren't very many changes taking place ABOVE ground today. Most of the work was Dave laying the plumbing in the ground and connecting it to the pump, filter and heater. It took the biggest part of the day. You can see the filter, heater and pump sitting in the background of the second picture below. We are still filling up the pool with water and it will take a full two days for it to be completely filled to the top. I don't know what day 4 holds for us, but I think it's going to be just as busy.

That iron rod that you see laying across the pool is there to keep the pool from moving inward from the pressure of the sand and water that surrounds the pool. The water is actually pumped into the sand to pack it and then vacuumed out immediately afterwards.

It was a really neat process to see what all takes place.