Tearing out, putting in and fixing up!

When you are dealing with an old house (110 years old to be exact) you are always going to run into problems when remodeling!  We have all but two windows and our window replacement will be finished.  "Ron" got rained out on Friday so he will be back Monday to finish up on the windows.  Robert was knocking down the old plaster and came upon a problem with some water damage... so you will see some pictures of Mark peeking through a hole in the wall as he was repairing the outside for a "temporary" fix before a rainstorm!

Happy Birthday Amber

Amber is my youngest of two girls.... and today is her birthday....  Doesn't seem possible that it was 31 years ago today that Gary and I went to the hospital to have our second child just 14 1/2 months after our first child (Jala) was born!  We had taken Lamaze classes and were "prepared"  everything happened pretty fast... got to the hospital (Utlaut in Greenville, IL) and Dr. Clark came in and broke my water, when he came back to check me in about an hour or so things were going pretty strong and he said "wow" can you pant through the pains till I get back? I have my kids in the car and need to run them home... (might I just add I wanted to choke him at this point?) so I panted through with Gary helping and he almost passed out from hyperventilating!  When the nurse finally said alright we are going to the delivery room with or without the dr. I said oh get my pillow I have to have my pillow she said "honey you don't have time for a pillow"  and she was right... as they were taking me to the delivery room, here comes dr. clark running down the hall jumping into his "greens" and one push and out comes Miss Amber Lane Wyant.... What a blessing she has been to me!  I am thankful for the Godly woman she has become... and know that her Dad is looking down with pride at his daughter.  I am proud of both of my daughters but it is Amber's birthday!  But since this is the only picture I could find quickly you get to see both of our lovely daughters!

Amber and Jala

Headbands for my girlies......

Mark got up early to go into work to catch up on some things and I couldn't sleep (guess I have a lot on my mind.... the dumpster is full so #2 is coming today.....) so what can you do at 3:00 in the morning?  Well I decided to make a bunch of flower head bands for the little girls in my life!  (allright I got carried away but they were so darn cute I couldn't stop! ;)   I must give credit where credit is due.....  this is an awesome website   http://www.makeit-loveit.com/

Cut out circles each being slightly smaller than the previous I believe my biggest is 3 inches across..

Take a lighter and on the shiny side of your satin touch the lighter to it to make it curl....
***disclaimer**** I am NOT responsible if you burn your house down, burn your fingers or anything else!!!

Then use your hot glue gun (with caution mine is low heat and I still burn my fingers!) and start glueing the layers together... put a dab of hot glue in the middle and put micro beads, or  a button on it

I used ribbon for the leaves....

Ta Daaaaa

then glue the flower onto a headband

a few of the head bands I made smaller for a couple of new babies I know!

This one is out of my "other" flowers I made

Demolition

Today, since Kevin and Megan were here visiting Mark took the day off to spend time with them... we wanted to make sure we took advantage of the dumpster while we have it and they were more than willing to lend a hand...

So Kevin (Mark's son in heart) helped him begin to tear out the old sink and counter top and cabinet that is in the room between our house and Sylvia's apartment... we will put my front loading washer and dryer in this area... on the other side of the wall is a broom closet, a 1/2 bath, and a huge walk in pantry.  So it is a pretty good size area.

Here are the guys working on this... they originally were going to put the cabinet into the basement but the sink weighed a ton, so they thought they could use a sledge hammer to break it up but that didn't work either.. so they ended up carrying it out to the dumpster!  Robert was here a lot this past week and was great help to his dad and it was so appreciated!  We appreciated all the help!  We couldn't have done it without all of them!

Megan looking on at Kevin and her Dad

Trying to bust up the sink......

They finally decided to carry it out!

Robert and Kevin working on the cabinet!

As far as the dumpster diving goes we still have visitors as we put more stuff out!

Dumpster Divers

 When you live in a town with only 140 people in it the whole town knows what you are up to!  I am not saying that is a bad thing...  But this is actually kind of funny ...We had some cleaning out that needed to be done, like the basement, and some outbuildings!  We got this dumpster delivered on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning Mark had a few things in it and had taken his mother to her Doctor's appt.. when they returned the gentlemen in the plaid shirt is a neighbor whom we will leave nameless ;) he  was in the dumpster and he has been back everyday and usually all day long!  I guess it is true "one man's junk is another man's treasure"!!  Mark said I missed a good picture... right before this one there were three people diving for junk!

This one there is a lady on the end she works at the sports bar across the street!

Sisters

Aunt "Toots" and my mother (they are sisters)

On the way to see my mother I picked up her younger sister Dorris, and took her along so they could have a visit... I always enjoy seeing my aunt and we always have something to talk about...I only see my aunt a couple of times a year... My mother (she is seated) her memory isn't so good... she still knows who we are she just cannot remember things like what is going on in the present... She can talk of years gone bye but as far as remembering what she just had for lunch, she cannot remember that!  Every time you tell her something it is a surprise!

My grandmother had two sets of twins and both were boy and girl twins.... My mother is Fay and her twin was Ray ... Toots' whose real name is Dorris her twins name was Morris!  These are the only two out of seven kids left from their family...  My mother was the only one who had twins and of course they were girl and boy.... Jean and John!  Mom is 88 and Toots is 84!

Bushes

I keep getting requests to "see" where I am living... (as Abigail says, "but Nana we don't even know where you live!") Here is our house... it is a 110 year old 3 story home... Mark and his family have lived in this home for 20 years... so there are a lot of memories here.  There is an apartment on the back which Mark's mother lives in... "Sylvia" is a delight to be around!  The downstairs windows are ordered and should be installed in the next week or so! Yes that is insulation you see in the dowstairs windows wasn't Mark clever?  We are having a dumpster delivered on Tuesday so that will help with the rest of the remodeling...

the following pictures are what we worked on yesterday the bushes needed a serious hair cut and well let's just say they hadn't been trimmed in ummm a few years.... next spring a new fence may appear along with some landscaping...

The forest that took a chain saw to get through!

A bird's nest that Mark found in the process.... Might I just say that we sweated our socks off as we trimmed, hauled and burned we were tired when we finished!!

Taaa Daaaaaaaa!