The well.........

The black pipe to the left of the picture is the well. This is the tubing that we have down in the well supporting everything. It sits about 9-10 ft below the surface. The pipe is about 2 1/2 - 3 ft across, so it's pretty big! You could fall in there, but we have been very careful.
This shot is looking down into the well. If you look at the middle of the picture at the shiny stuff - that is the water. We have pumped about 10 ft of water out of it so far. It is holding steady b/c if we stop pumping then it fills up in about 24 hours and we have to re-pump it out. I am so fascinated by it - very interesting stuff. I just wish I could see what lies beneath the well. It reminds of the movie the Goonies and they come across all those hidden treasures underneath the ground. I wonder if WE have hidden treasures??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~More pictures~

Here is Kodiak on our front porch. You might notice that her hair is shorter - you're absolutely right, I am now in business for cutting dog's hair..........LOL j/k I thought that she would be much happier and cooler with short hair, so last Friday night I got the scissors out and gave her a short cut. She's my little lionness......... :)
Here is a picture of Bear. We keep him leashed up in the back and here is him on his leash.
I was wondering around outside taking various pictures and when I came to the pond - we had two ducks. I snapped their photos and they didn't even fly away - YAY!! We have had them before, but I couldn't get any shots, but here we are folks - real live ducks in OUR pond!

Here is a picture of our pet bobcat that Les shot years ago. This sits in our living room and I took this picture of the bobcat. To me it looks REAL! It's beautiful..........

Pictures - FINALLY!!

Here are various pictures - this will be mainly a picture post. :)

I took this picture this evening, so you can see where we're at with the floors. I am so excited that it is almost time to stain it!!
I like this picture - I took this picture this evening too. :)
We went to Medieval Times on Saturday and here is some of my family. Uncle Claytie "Bear", Christopher (brother in the back), Mom, and Dad. We had a very good time!!
Here is a picture of my brother and I. We're very close! He is 4 1/2 years older than I am, but people think that we're twins. When asked we do tell people that we're twins.......LOL
Here were lilly pads and I thought that this pink-ish bloom was VERY pretty! This was in the mote at Medieval Times!!

We're almost done!!!!!!

Stay tuned because we are almost done sanding! We have just a few more boards left to do and then we will be done sanding. Thank you, Kevin (my brother-in-law) for letting us borrow 2 electric sanders to finish off the final sanding. Talk about MUCH easier than by hand!! The floor is looking great in my opinion. I have pictures at home to post, so I'll hopefully do that later.

We also have our well up and running; which is so exciting too! We have made it to the water table and now the pump just runs and runs. It won't turn off because the water level is not going down. It fills in an as quick as we pump it! The water is really cold and clear, BUT I am still NOT going to drink it unless we got it tested to see what chemicals/trash is in it. :) It's neat because we can keep our pond up AND water our garden for free now!! I don't have any pictures of the well yet, but it is not pretty (I'll take some this evening and post them too).

I can't remember off hand if I posted anything about our Memorial Day, but we had a lot of fun with the family!! We got up early and worked on the well to get it complete and working. Then we were off to Les' brother and his wife's house. We got to play with our nieces and nephew. Les' sister, Amy, the one who has triplets came too, so we got to play with them too after their naps and feeding. After that we went over to Les' mom's house and spent a little time with her - she had been pulling weeds and trimming trees all day (not my idea of relaxing ;)). While we were there one of Les' friends came down and we road backroads with him for a while and then finally got home around 11 PM. I was pretty bushed by the time we got home, but it was definitely a great day and a day well worth spent!!

Jury Summons

Yes, you heard right - jury summons - YAY! Today in the mail I received my very first jury summons!!! I am so excited because I have ALWAYS wanted to serve in a jury. I hope that I get picked!! I'm not due for about 1 month, so I'll update then about this.......... :)

I'll leave you with a picture - I had this baby skunk for a few days a few years ago. I didn't know anyone that could de-skunk it (take the bag with the smelly stuff out). So, I took him to the Heard Museum and found him a home with one of the workers there. I named by baby skunk, Rave. Introduuuuuuuuuccccccccccccing, Rave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Komen - Race for the Cure

Hey Everyone,

I thought that I would put on a blog about the Race for the Cure through the Susan G. Komen. I am going to be walking in the Race for the Cure and thought that it would be fun if other's wanted to join me. It is $30 to register, but the money goes to a GREAT cause. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 years ago after already battling through uteran cancer several years before that. She is definitely a fighter and God healed her!!

If you would like to walk - please let me know! You can register online at http://www.komennorthtexas.org/.

Mom, I'm walking for you!!! Thank you for being so strong and beating cancer - I love you!!!

Medieval Times

Today we took my Uncle Claytie to Medieval Times. We had such a fun time and what a good show they put on!! I have a few pictures, so I'll post them later. I am at my parents' house and don't have any cords with me. If you have never been it is so worth the money. They have awesome food, beautiful horses, great performers, talented hawk, and an all the way around wonderful show. Thanks, mom and dad for inviting me to tag along too. :) What a great way to start off my 3 DAY WEEKEND!! Yay, for time with family!!

Also, I want to thank all the veteran's who should be remembered for their service in our military. My dad is a veteran from the US Army. Thank you, Dad!! I love you and so thankful to have the freedom that I have because of people like you!!

I hope you all have a great weekend!!!!

Halloween 2007

Here is such a funny picture that was taken at our church's annual Harvest Festival. :)

From L-R: Dad (hmm....not quite sure), Mom (The Infamous Miss Piggy), Me (Dr. Cornelius), Les (Cowboy......very original), and Christopher (California Raisin).

I have a funny story about the California Raisin suit. I wore that when I was little and I was ringing doorbells asking for candy. Well, this dog started chasing me and I was "running" as fast as I could, but the only place to go was up this fence. My mom was sitting in the car laughing because all that I could do was waddle and not run because the outfit was too big for me. I still laugh at Halloween when we bring the suit out. ***NOTE - I have never worn that outfit since......LOL***

How To Plant Your Garden

First, you come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses....

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING, PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS
1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul

PLANT FIVE ROWS OF SQUASH
1. Squash self-interests
2. Squash gossip
3. Squash indifference
4. Squash grumbling
5. Squash selfishness

PLANT FIVE ROWS OF LETTUCE
1. Lettuce respect one another
2. Lettuce be faithful
3. Lettuce be kind
4. Lettuce be patient
5. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS
1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnip for services
3. Turnip to help and serve one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN, WE MUST HAVE THYME
1. Thyme for each other
2. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends
4. Thyme for someone in need

WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE

THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

Adam & Eve

This song is really funny, but man does it have a message about the Bible too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzp0S3yO1QA

FOUND THE CAMERA!!!!!

Yay, so I found the camera AND the cord to be able to download the pictures onto my laptop. So, here we go, I'll try to put a comment by all the pics so that you know what you're looking at! I love it and even though it doesn't look the best yet - it will once we're all done. I am SOO EXCITED to see what it looks like all restored!!!!

Here is the first picture; this is part of what has been sanded so far. It has dust on it, so it's hard to see it clearly, but it really looks pretty in person.

The picture above is the whole room, well, most of it. There is part of it that you can't see. We only have about 25% left to strip and then start sanding it too. We have been stripping and sanding both to see what we have and to make sure that it is looking good to us. We had dinner in here last night and Les sat in the chair that is on the far side of the picture.

Above is a section that I wanted to show you. As you can see on the left side of the picture that part has not been touched with stripper OR sandpaper. The right side of the picture has been stripped and sandpapered. However, the part that has been stripped and sandpapered is FAR from being done. You can see my laptop in the picture and this is where I am sitting while typing this blog up. :) Everything that WAS in our living room is now in the kitchen, hallway and spare bedroom. The door in the picture above leads to our kitchen, so see below!!

Here is our beautiful jam-packed kitchen LOADED down with everything!! It has our couch in there and the couch is actually on its back. Our computer desk is in there along with both computer chairs. :)

Below is a picture of our spare bedroom loaded down with things too. We have a stuffed bobcat that Les shot in there, an old entertainment center (its for sale for $15 OBO), a table (its for sale too $10 OBO), a vacuum cleaner, bunk beds, dog crate, several dressers, etc. What I'm trying to say is," IT'S BEYOND FULL."

Les and I have decided that when we start to put things back in place we're going to get rid of things too. We have too many things in the house that we never use, so we'll have another garage sale and get rid of several things that we do not use or do not need anymore. :)

Overall, I would have to say that I wasn't definitely skeptical about taking on this project, but once we have started it - I have really enjoyed it! This is my first thing to really "restore." It's been very different and fun at the same time. I'll keep updating to let you know how we progress!

Till then............

Wood Floors

So if you remember from a previous post you'll see that we had burned our carpet and besides that there were various pee stains from a few dogs. We decided that since the carpet was getting nasty; then we would rip it up. Les knew that there were wood floors underneath in the living room. He hadn't seen it in about 10 years, so he was not sure of the condition. We ripped up part of the room and it looked pretty bad (see below).


See the stain above is from the carpet padding, but the stripper is making it come off so easily and then we're sanding afterwards. It's so neat to me to see it coming together!!!!

Now we have been working and my hands/fingers hurt, but it is starting to look GORGEOUS!! The hardwork is really paying off and the life of the wood is coming back. After all the wood is almost 60 yrs old!!! Our house was built in 1950. ;) The 3rd picture you can see the couch and part of the carpet that has not been removed yet. That has now all been removed. It is amazing what some TLC, stripper, and sand paper can do. :) I am planning on taking a picture of where we're at right now, but since our house is all disorganized right now I can't seem to find it. I am so happy with it and I think when it is all done the floors will resemble an old wood cabin. I am LOVING the floor!!!

Favorite pic from PA

I decided to post a picture of mine that I took in PA - I just love it. Les asked me why I liked the picture so much and I don't know. I just love it and the all the things in it: horse, tulips, silo (sp?), fence, etc. Very cool and I actually took this picture while we were driving - I think I was in the backseat for this shot!!

No We're NOT Pregnant, BUT

we have been talking about baby names!!!

This has probably been one of the funniest moments tonight though that I had to write about.

We were looking at this website that a friend sent me (http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/).

Well, we came across the name Chloe and Les said," there's no way that we're naming our child Chloe (ch-low is how he said it). I am still laughing histerically!!!! It was soooooo funny!

Just had to share the funniest moment, okay, well now we have even a funnier moment. There was a spot next to Les approximately 2 inches and Kodiak hopped up in the spot and for those who know Kodiak - she needs a LOT more space than 2 inches. SO, now Les has Kodiak sitting on him in the 2 inches and SHE STINKS!!! She went swimming in the pond!!! hahahahahahahaha

Hill Country

We had a great time in the Hill Country this past weekend! We got up around 6:45 AM on Saturday and we were on the road by 7:15 AM. We stopped to fill the gas tank up and we were on our way. We went backroads and had a nice drive until we somehow missed a road.....LOL We ended up in Austin on 35 and well, you know how that is. They are always doing construction, so we were all detoured off of 35 on the South side of Austin, but honestly it didn't take long at all and our journey continued. We made it to the Hill Country Resort and rested a little before we went downtown. It was pretty hot down there, so we waited for the heat of the day to pass. We got to downtown around 5:30 PM and walked around. Since I had lived in San Antonio before - I knew my way around pretty well! We parked and off we went. We went to the Alamo, the riverwalk, the market, rode the trolley, ate dinner at The County Line (BBQ), and of course rode the riverboats. We got back to our room around 10PM or so and we were pretty tired! We got up on Saturday and started our day. We wanted to go to Guadalupe River State Park (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/guadalupe_river/) and that was beautiful. We hiked for several hours before lunch and then had a picnic overlooking the river. The place was packed with families grilling, swimming, and fishing. We then left there and went through Fredericksburg and continued on till we arrived home last night. We had a really good time even though it was only for 2 days!!! It was definitely worth the 2 days!!!

***Sorry, I only took like 5 pictures the whole trip, so nothing to post***
However, all the places that we visited are online and all you have to do is google them...... :)

TEN YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!

Holy Cow, so today in the mail, guess what I received?!

Yes, an invitation to my high school reunion. I knew it was coming because I actually helped plan a little bit of it. Our get togethers are going to be in September and we're going to have 3 events, so I'll have to try and make it to at least 1 of the events.

pics - FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a variety of pictures, but here we go:

Here is when the carpet got burned - this doesn't really make it look that bad, but in person it looks more burned. :(
Here is Les & Kodiak asleep on the couch. Les was sick and got up coughing one morning and he then fell asleep on the couch with Kodiak.
Here is a really cute picture of Bear & Kodiak!!!
Here is Les in the boat in our pond and Kodiak swimming out to him.
This looks like they are both in the boat now in the pond.

Hill Country............

............watch out!

Well, we're going to the Hill Country this weekend. We're excited and it'll be just the 2 of us. As Les said," sort of like a mini-honeymoon!" Which is so true b/c we're going to leave early Saturday morning and then come home Sunday night. It'll be a nice mini-vaca!!! :)

It's already Wednesday and the time is FLYING by!!!

Almost Forgot!!!

So, we have a full pond and we have ducks and thousands of tadpoles and frogs. I'm not kidding when I say thousands of tadpoles. If you go out to the pond in the middle of the day while they are basking in the sun under the water - you can see them. They are big, they are small, they are medium! It's crazy, but so cool too!!! Our pond is now inhabited by living things. We knew that we could hear them, but wow, to actually see them was so cool. I can't imagine WHAT it will sound like once all those tadpoles are full grown frogs!! We're going to have our own frog tourist attraction.........LOL If you stand out there for a few moments - a frog will actually float to the surface and float at the top of the water with its head out. Oh, also the tadpoles swim around a lot; they are very busy swimming, eating the insects that are on the water, etc.

We now have the well uncovered b/c the bricks were slowly starting to fall in and we wanted to do something. So, Les and his friend David pulled the 2 big brick coverings off and we have a board deep in the hole covering it in case something living falls in and our john (sp?) boat sitting over the hole to help even more. We bought this big heavy plastic pipe to stick in there and we're hoping that it will keep anymore bricks from falling in. I think I have pictures of the well, so I'll have to take some the way it is now and then the ending result. We want to build something pretty to put over the well to make it look cute and go with the house (I have a vision in my head as to how I want it, but we'll see what we end up with!!!). :)

Just thought that I would share in our fun times!

Oh wow!

Has it really been 2 weeks since I last wrote on here?!

On Sunday we went to a Cuatro de Mayo party (I know, it wasn't Cinco de Mayo) and had a BLAST! Our Sunday School class (ABF) had a party and we had fajitas (beef and chicken) and all the fixings. I took queso with hamburger meat in it and it went FAST! I do have to say, it was VERY tasty. I used this mini crock-pot that is supposed to be used for hot dips - I got it as a wedding present and it worked very well. Althought it got really hot on the outside - it still worked great and kept the cheese nice and HOT!!! :) There were a few little girls (Ella & Olivia) and Jen (http://jenleforce.blogspot.com/) got a great shot of them eating those really big iced cookies - you can follow the link and see the pictures - they were too cute!

I tricked Les into eating a chocolate cake that someone made - well, it wasn't the chocolate that he would have not eaten - it was the mayo (yes, you heard right, MAYO!)!! So, he totally missed the conversation that the cake had mayo in it to keep it moist. He tried a piece of cake and liked it. After he ate it I told him that it had mayo in it - he got the most disgusted look (yes, I am laughing as I type it) on his face and he said," you're supposed to tell me these things." I said," well, I knew you wouldn't try it if you knew it had mayo in it." I laughed and laughed and laughed some more! Poor Les, BUT he did like it. :)

I know that I promised pictures from our trip to PA, but I have STILL not downloaded them from my camera. I am terrible, but I promise to do that soon. We're going to go out of town this weekend and I want to have my memory card cleared so that I can take LOTS of pics! We haven't decided where we're going to go yet, but these are our thoughts (what do you think?)
1. The Hill Country and see San Antonio too
2. Beaver's Bend & camping & hiking
3. Granbury - rodeo and drive-in movie theatre
4. Galveston

I'll let you know what we decide as soon as WE decide..........LOL :)