What have we done?

We are now in the process of tiling the rest of the house. What a great idea we had? The work before the work. We have major furniture pieces all over the house, it looks like a war zone. The pool table slate is in my bedroom, I've been lucky so far to not kick it during the night., Hutch in my office, entertainment center in the garage, the base of the pool table leaning on the guest bed. I try to ignore it all. The tile is ordered and should be here this week. I know it's going to look great when we are done, but until then.

I'm cleaning up after pulling out the carpet. It's amazing what hides nasty stuff lies under the carpet.

We rented an EDDY to remove the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathroom. It made the job a little easier than hand scraping, but it still was WORK.

The Deck

The first of March, Larry & Dave started our deck. The original plan was to build it 12' by 12'. I kept having Larry add sections to it. Now it goes from the porch to the fence on the south & east sides. Larry did a nice job putting it together. It sits a little higher than ground level and seems to really catch the breeze that we usually get. Now I need to stain it. Just trying to decide the color...at first I was going to have it match the fence, off white/gray, but now I'm leaning toward a brownish.

I reworked(recycled) the planters in back too. We had a wood one that was rotting and looked terrible, it is now brick. We also made a sandbox for our grandsons to play in. Oscar & Diego haven't outgrown it yet, & Axel has already tried it out.

Larry had to move twelve 60 pound bags of sand 3 times to fill it

Our next project is putting tile in the living areas of the house. Today we removed what was left of the carpet.

Family Game Nights

February game night was at Brody & Stephanie's. We played a pig game. You roll 2 pigs like dice & depending on how they land you get points. Last Saturday was game night at our house. We played old fashioned BINGO. The only person who didn't win a game was Stephanie. the prizes consisted mostly candy. We all look forward to game night. April is at Kelly's. I wonder what game she will have. We also had Tommy burgers and chili fries. When we went to Ca in Jan we brought home 2 quarts of Tommy's chili. Everyone enjoyed the treat.

Spring Flowers

My spring bulbs bloomed. We purchased this hyacinths & tulips last year at the Washington Tulip Festival. They did cost a bit more than my usual Costco bulbs, but they were a little reminder of some of the things we enjoyed while on our mission last year. Next year it will be Costco bulbs again.

GEORGIA

A few days after our friends went home, we went to Georgia to visit my mom, brother & sister and their families. The night before we left I got sick with a stomach thing and slept most of the 14 hour drive there. We went to lunch at the Blue Willow Inn. Great Southern food. The next day we we went to the Uncle Remus Museum. It was a few old slave cabins full of stuff about the author Joel Chandler Harris. He wrote the Brer Rabbit and Friends books. It was a nice drive. We saw a couple movies that we all gave thumbs downs to. "Green Zone" & "Alice in Wonderland." We got to see our old nephews & our newest nephew, my brothers step-son Jackson. We also met Stephanie...my brothers wife. They married while we were on our mission and had never had the chance to meet before. Unfortunately she was sick while we were there & didn't see much of her or get to do anything together. Maybe next time. Larry said the trip going home seemed faster to him, maybe because he had company. I thought it took longer since I was awake this time.

Friends Working Together

Dave Grant help Larry layout and start our new deck in the backyard. We met Dave & Linda at Morningside Farm on our mission. Dave & Larry worked on several projects together at the park. Dave enjoys building, even on vacation. Linda & I went shopping.

Friends from Washington

Our friends, Dave & Linda Grant came Mar 2 to visit. We spend lots of time talking, playing games and sightseeing. We went to Central Market...if you haven't been there it's a real treat. They have the best BLT sandwiches.We then walked off some of that sandwich at the Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth. We also played wii Fit. And just had an all around good time.