KC Vacation

I had more than two days off in a row for the first time since Jan this past weekend. We were originally going somewhere on vacation for Pat's birthday, but decided to retreat to KC instead. It was such a treat! We arrived on Friday and got to spend some time with Pat and Claudia just relaxing, I got in a great run complete with a cow escort as they ran with me down the fence! Claudia told us that we had to ready to leave on Sat morning by 8:30, but wouldn't tell us what we were doing. She and Pat had gotten the four big kids hot stone massages! It was the most amazing hour I have had in a long time, they had to pour me in my clothes after it was over!!! We headed back to the house to get ready and then went to the Richmond Mushroom Festival. It was your typical small town fair, complete with lots of mullets and funnel cakes (yes, I ate one!). After we were faired out we headed home to change into dinner clothes. Claudia arranged for two of her sisters to come watch the kids so the adults could enjoy a fabulous dinner without saying once "(insert name here) take a bite." Thank you so much Laura and Cindy for your willingness to watch the kids! After and incredible dinner we headed to one of KC's fabulous jazz bars and enjoyed some jazz before heading home. On Sunday we relaxed and spent some time fishing at Papa's freshly stocked pond. Isaac had a blast and got to reel in several! Their house truly is an oasis, I believe the grass is greener and the sky is bluer out there, you will agree after looking at the pics!


Daddy and Isaac fishing


The diva in her sun hat provided by Grammy (see what I mean about it being greener and bluer!)



Such a doll

I am not sure what was being said, but their faces indicate it was something gross! Those two crack me up!

Isaac holding a fish (I think I caught that one, but it's nothng to brag about!)

Bar Lights

Same view prior to wall coming out and kitchen being extended

Counter tops

Before if you need to be reminded of it's nastiness!

The kitchen is getting sooo close to done.

The walls are going to be painted a light green color

(dark green in top picture going away!) and then

some finish work and we should be done!!!!

The backyard transformation was going to be low on the priority list, but that was before spring arrived with all it's crazy out of control bushes lining our property! It all started with the removal of a bush in front of our house. The "all" I am referring to is Jason realizing his truck isn't as wimpy as we originally thought. Don't get me wrong, it's still a 4 cylinder when you mash on the gas on the highway, but tying a chain around a bush and pulling it out with the truck appeared to be a piece of cake (and a huge testosterone filled activity for the sexy hubby!) So, when we started planning for our friends surprise 30th bday party at our house, we decided to do some major overhaul in the backyard, thanks Hessel's for the motivation. Jason and the kids enjoyed it, and I do have to admit that it was tons of work, but well worth it! See for yourself how much nicer it looks, well, will look once we get the privacy fence up and some grass grown in the bare spots! We might have even cleared enough out for me to have a garden, woo hoo home grown veggies- at least that's going to be next summer!

Before

During

Afterish (next summer will be the final unveiling!)

The Flood

Some of you may know about my recent experiment with getting up for a workout with some great friends at 5:45 three mornings a week...it isn't fun until about halfway through, mainly because that is about the time my body stops saying, "why am I awake right now" and starts to realize that I am going to get sooo much more done in the day! Anyway, one of these fabulous mornings I awake at 5:15, get dressed, walk past an open window and grumble because it sounds like it's pouring outside and head to the truck (all in a sleepy haze). When I step off our deck onto the driveway I notice that I am standing in water and again grumble about it raining so hard...but then I realize that only my feet are wet, I am not getting rained on at all. I continue walking only to notice a river running down our driveway and sloshing at my feet...I am still confused. It is only when I get in the truck and turn the headlights on and see what is in the bottom picture (a nice little fountain) coming out of the ground under our driveway, which apparently is the water main for the street!! I shut off the truck and do what every tax paying citizen would, call 911..don't condemn, it's Webster at 5:15 in the morning, they were looking for something to do! They politely told me they would call the water company and take care of it. I then go back inside and calmly wake my sleepy hubby (who naturally grumbles) and we go to find 3-4 inches of standing water in our garage (first pic about 2 hours later and after making a barricade to prevent more water coming in!) and the base of our steps on the finished side soaking wet. We began to move stuff, which was thankfully all of pallets so nothing in the garage was damaged. Once the water guys got here (two hours later!) they told us to stop working, their clean-up crews were on the way. They took everything out of the garage, cleaned it up, put it back (in a much more organized manner) and took out carpet and drywall in the play room that was wet. We're still waiting on our check from the water companies insurance people, but all in all we came out pretty good since the water company guy said they routinely buy new cars and houses for people!!!