The sweet life...

What is more fun than dressing up to be a Firefighter? He looks a lot like Bob does when Bob wears the uniform. Travis wonders if they make midget fire gear.
Location, location, location. Globe willow next to the pond. We spent a week getting the house ready for drywall. The kids has plenty of scrap materials, screws and power tools at their disposal. So while I was worried about them missing school for a week they were busy measuring, cutting and creating something of their own. That week Cody spent a few hours every day in woodshop. He had the job of finishing one of the bathroom vanity cabinets. Travis kept pointing out that we needed a lever to get those nails out. What I am saying is that they were doing a lot of on-the-job training.

Cody built a cup holder and asked if he could bring some of his school books up there to read.

This is a shared fort. Homemade swing on one side, tree fort on the other. This was a combined effort. All three of them worked on it. The only problem was that any time I needed the ladder, they had run off with it. The screwdriver would walk off with the hammer occassionally. I finally started asking them first if they knew where the missing object was before I went searching and they usually did.

Tree forts, and swings, now all that is missing is our AZ friends.

The moment we all were waiting for...

The recruits were given their station and shift assignments.

This was an answer to prayers. This is the only shift that allowed Bob to attend the Phoenix Reunion. God takes care of the little things too.

The Fire Academy pictures

Here are some of the pictures from the Fire Academy. It sure looks bad to me. Look at these crazy weights! These guys are incredible it makes my back hurt just looking at them lifting these weights. We did have to restrain ourselves during the Graduation when they spoke of the physical fitness trainers having "high expectations" and the guys met them. Travis leaned over to Jeannie Larsen and said something like, "Yeah, and they almost killed him!" My thoughts as well but he has the badge now and God worked everything out.

It sure is a pretty area for Fire Fighting. The Bookcliff Mountains look beautiful with the snow. Bob said they have had some deer walking 10-20 feet near them a few times in the last month.

They chose the best spots to put their names. Maybe it is good for crawling through smoke filled buildings or visibility at night.
They had a few days of running in snowy conditions. These pictures just make me so glad that this is over. Bob is like a new man yesterday and today. Smiling, joking, and back to his old self. He has quite a challenge in the coming months of balancing his previous experience and this Dept.'s way of doing things but I think he is up for the challenge. Bob spoke at the Graduation on behalf of the recruits, he summed up the recruit's address by saying, "And most of all we would like to thank God that this is behind us!"

Bob has graduated! If you want to watch the news and see a video check out this link:
http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/70666087.html

They were missing a piper and the drums. We are very thankful to be through this Academy. Bob got the shift we have been praying for, it will allow him to go to the Phoenix Reunion. Thanks for your prayers.

Love,
Liza

The Kitchen After and Before

This is looking from the kitchen out to the Mud Room/Laundry Room. Bob's office is the door to the Right. The Basement is the door to the Left and the Master Bedroom is to the left of that. There is the Master Bathroom door that has access to the kitchen next to the M. Bedroom door. Here is what the kitchen looked like Wednesday afternoon. It is amazing what someone can do when they know what they are doing. It does look so different and yet a bit smaller since you can't see through the walls anymore. I am very pleased with it all. The kids were amazed too. I think that for the last few months they all described it as our "junky" house we bought. It is going to start looking nice to them and they will be excited to live there.They were playing hide-and-seek.

This is the before. I still have to work on getting them in the right order.

Here is the kitchen when we started. It makes me shudder just thinking of the smell. The kitchen window, I even had to bend over to look out. That is pretty bad.

The wall to the left was removed and those cabinets on the right, the ones you had to walk around to get down the hallway, we moved that wall back so now there is a straight hallway. Those economy grade cabinets will have to go back in for a while. I am looking into the cost of new doors. They are that plastic type material, I am not sure of the name. I tried painting one and it looked terrible. That was after the Kilz primer. Nothing sticks to it. If you have any good ideas, let me know. One person suggested the vinyl siding paint. There is some kind of chemical reaction that makes the paint adhere. We shall see. Maybe we will just take the doors off?

That is the latest update on the house. Now the fun begins...painting. The whole house will need priming. I was trying to tell Bob that now he is on shift he will have more time. Besides, I need to school the children. Unless he wanted to teach them for a while? He loves painting so much. After painting the AZ house he said he wanted to burn the painting clothes. Maybe teaching is more appealing?

I am thankful for...

1. Heat!
I have some great news! The furnace is running, our house feels warm! The best part is that it doesn't smell like a skunk or cat. Just a pleasant sawdust smell that by tonight should smell like drywall. The Electrician shot down that joy a bit by asking me if I had light fixtures yet. So many decisions and not enough money to pay for them. I am thinking harsh, white bulbs in each room.
2. Customer Service
I am not sure if it is the recession or what but I am getting some great customer service. We needed to get some sub flooring for the house. I took the kids, the trailer and off we went to Sutherlands(like Payless Cashways used to be. I love drive-thru lumberyards.) They know my name at Sutherlands. I pulled up for the third time that week and the employees say, "Hi Darlin' what can I help you with?" Then the two guys proceeded to put everything on my trailer and handy Cody put all the straps on tight. I didn't have to do anything besides pay for it.
Then I went to Auto Zone. I was driving Bob's car and his old, dried out AZ wiper blades just seemed to be smearing things around and making it worse as we drove through the rain. I went in thinking I could just look up the make and model but all the wiper blades had measurements. I started to head out to see if I had a tape measure or could take them off when an employee offered to look it up for me. I couldn't remember what year so I asked for a tape measure and one of the other employees headed out and measured them, took off the old ones and since he was looking so handy I asked, "Do you just want to put the new ones back on for me too?" And he did! I love this kind of customer service.
I am not sure if both of these times were because I was a female and they don't get too many in their stores, perhaps it could have been the three kids that are with me? Whether it was pity, great customer service, or just being gentlemen, there are other stores out there that could use this kind of service.
3. Bob Graduates!
Bob is taking his Fire Dept. final today. I think Thursday is the skills test. He takes the state test on Friday. Friday afternoon around 4pm he should be graduating. They told him to prepare for Media interviews. Small towns are great, Bob has been on the news once already. At 5pm was a glimpse of someone that might have been Bob and the 10pm news was an actual interview. One of the other recruits was on the front page of the newspaper for 9/11. We are just not in Phoenix anymore.
His kidney function is back to normal and he took a physical ability test and he did more than he was able to do when he started the Fire Academy. They haven't released him completely to full duty. The Occupation Health Dr. wants to do a test to check and see whether for sure it was Rhabdomyolysis or something else. (A little late in my opinion if he is back to normal function.) They are paying for it so I guess better to check.
4. Technology
The sad news is that the house we bought is very rural. All that is available is dial-up or Satellite. I will have to do more research. We maybe able to do wireless since we are on a hill overlooking the Valley. It is good that I am looking at this stuff because it means we are closer to living there.
5. Reunion
I am looking forward to reunion in Phoenix. You can't even imagine how much. I am sure we will have a difficult time leaving again but we can't wait to see all our friends and family. Most of all to worship and praise the Lord. There is one shift that would allow Bob to be at the Reunion and that is also the shift that is short on Paramedics. I am praying for the "red" shift (They don't do A, B, C like Phoenix/Mesa.) so that Bob will be able to attend. I know he would really like to be there as well.

I have many other things that I am thankful for but those are some of the big ones on my mind right now. I look forward to being able to catch up with all of you and appreciate all the posts and pictures, it is almost like I can see your families grow.

My prayers are with you today as you fast for the Reunion.
Love,
Liza

Meleah's Favorites

I love mommy!

I like swimming with friends.

It was fun at Legoland with Laura.
We fought Darth Vader really good.

It made me tired.

Michelle had a party for me. It was fun. I love her spiral staircase and loft. It is awesome!

Some of my favorite people were there.

We played Mad Libs and laughed so hard.

I have fun with my cousins, really fun with Alex and Aidan and Alli and Me.

My sweet kids!

This is the bike track. You start at the road, 34 Road to be exact. Then it is all downhill from there. You can get going really fast! (Travis is wearing the t-shirt that says he does all his own stunts.)

"The Fantastic Meleah. It is fun riding my bike." according to Meleah.

Right behind Meleah it drops off very quickly. The kids also used the dam side of the pond to go sledding down when it snowed.

Those sleeveless Arizona dresses don't cut it here in Colorado. Thankfully, Sam's Club had some affordable dresses. Don't forget the boots or it wouldn't be Meleah.

What can I say?
Insert your own caption here.

Travis sure has an imagination.

Cody is studying Greek Myths. Here is Bionicle Atlas, holding the earth on his shoulders. I love it when they apply what they know. Five years after reading Greek Myths the first time to my kids and still I couldn't handle it. I was thankful Cody read them on his own, stressing that these were MYTHS. Then after studying Greece, we get to learn about the same myths with Roman names!

I don't have a picture of Cody to put in. I get a lot of text messages from him in the other room. Maybe if I had him send a picture from the phone, then I might have one to share.

Home Sweet Home

Why is it that the house even looks crooked in pictures. Probably because it is! I had to hang our Christmas wreath, it looks so much better. We spent the last week, the kids and I, working on the house so that it would be ready for drywall this week. It kept us pretty busy. We all learned some new things. I think I have carpel tunnel, my fingertips are going numb, especially in the morning. Using too many heavy power tools can be bad.

This is being called the mud room. It will hold the washer, dryer, freezer and all the coats, jackets, snow boots, etc. It isn't the front door entrance but will be the most used. That tiny little metal looking rectangle in the corner was my breaking point. After a week of working, not sleeping at night because my brain was going through all that needed to be done, that crazy rectangle wasn't going to fit. I ran back to the metal supply place and got back and it still didn't work. I broke down and cried. It is a silly heat vent but I had reached meltdown. I felt much better after taking the afternoon off, while Bob continued to get things ready.

This is my lovely kitchen. It looks, smells and even feels so much more open. I was trying to find the original picture but I think it is on the other computer. I will post it with the picture after drywall. You can see a small line down the floor, that actually is like the peak and it slopes down to the front door and down to the mud room door. The hope is to plane down(shave off) the high spot so our floor is more level. We will see how that will go.

Here is my air duct baby. I put most of it together myself. That was after taking apart some of the old nasty ones. It is like a whole new craft material! Laura called it 'folk art'. I am proud of it. This baby goes to heat the main bathroom.

Now here is the biggest pain. We could see daylight coming through the outside wall. Not a good sign. We tore up the floor, Uncle Johnny and I, Travis and Meleah helped pull nails. We also discovered a dry, 10 foot deep cistern. After sealing out the daylight and insulating it well we needed to make a air duct to fit under these floor joists. A two inch space. The red tape and shiny silver stuff create an air duct that goes all the way to the wall, where it then uses the floor joist space as the air duct. That was a real creation, just especially for this house. Something I don't ever want to do again and I sure hope it works to heat Bob's office and the mud room. At the wall I am taking the picture, the duct goes into the mud room, that was the meltdown spot. This room is next to the kitchen.

Here is the small duct with the two that feed it. The one that is rectangular is made of a shiny, silver cardboard, lots of silicone caulking and tape. I am so glad that all of this is covered up with floor now.

Here is one of three loads of gravel for the new driveway. It is nice.

This is what you think it is. A fiberglass outhouse. It sure beats using the barn. Bob used Johnny Bell's tractor to move it, spread gravel and just play in general. I think he is hoping for a tractor someday.
One of the things we found in the walls was some insulation. It was newspaper. I tried to find a date but it must have been at least in the 1950's maybe 40's or earlier. It was back when they sold patterns instead of dresses. We know that part of the house was as early as the 1920's.

We will head back up today to finish up some of the things that still need to be done for drywall.

It is quite an adventure that I am hoping will be less exciting in the coming weeks. The furnace still isn't running so look for that story in the coming days. I am thinking warm, skunk smell...there is no place like home!

Dead deer and funerals

The kids and I were on our way to church-Bob was delayed at work and would meet us there- and saw a deer someone had hit and it sparked an interesting discussion, with topics ranging from human rigor mortis, caskets, funeral costs, cremation, the use of urns to hold a loved one's ashes. The discussion ended when I told the kids, "Just so you know, when I die when I am an old lady, I would prefer cremation. It's cheaper, I would be dead so what does it matter." I knew what their response would be but I do think it is important to know that we all die and it could be a decision they would have to make. I think it may have been a premature discussion. Travis plugged his ears, Meleah said, "I don't like you saying 'old lady'." The rest of the night Cody kept hugging me throughout the night-just because I may not always be there.
Would I have the discussion again? Yes. But I am the kind of mom that wants to discuss everything with my kids so that they aren't afraid to talk to me about things. It also started a little more appreciation for mom and thankfulness for her being there. That is something that my pre-teen boy hasn't been showing much of lately.

I love moments like this!

We were in the car driving, something we do a lot of now, and the kids were discussing the things that each other did better than they did. Travis thinks Cody can do so many mechanical things, he is like a whizz at computer stuff or tv stuff. Then Cody pointed out that Travis is so good at organizing that if it weren't for him their room would be a mess. He is also good at making games, he has a good imagination. Meleah is good at making jokes, even if they don't make sense. Meleah is also very good at keeping her room organized, at least she is good at getting Travis to help her.
I just really appreciate the times when they are so good to each other. I think this move has made them become better friends with each other.

Aww...so cute!

I don't know which is scarier, the skunk or the furnace. Meleah says, "I like this skunk because it is cute! Russell was feeding this skunk. My mom didn't like it. Then the skunk went to its family." Let's see what she says when we start up the furnace because the duct going into her room still has faint hints of skunk. I can't even imagine what the heat will do to this smell.