Screwed ????

Yep, that's right, dad spent most of the afternoon screwing up the drywall, and no we don't mean messin' it up, we mean using the drywall screw gun that Tim at dad's work let him borrow.

The long wall got done. Mid-way between those outlets you see there in the picture is the pantry. Dad still has to cut the opening for it, but he said he was gonna wait until the morning to use the cut-out tool, because it makes a lot of noise and dust. I jumped in and gave dad a hand so he could finish the one wall before we went to bed.

With this screwgun, anybody could put up drywall.

Who Framed Who ?

Dad Did !!!!

But he didn't frame anybody, he framed the basement. After getting the compressor from Uncle Russ, he was able to make short work of the basement framing. He finished about 3:00 today. Now he's cleaning up down there. Tomorrow morning he's going to Home Depot for the insulation and the new electrical boxes and outlets. He expects to have the new outlets wired, and the insulation up by the end of the weekend. After that, it's drywall time.

Uncle Russ Rocks

That's not to say that our other Uncle's don't rock, it's just that Uncle Russ was home when dad called. As you may know, dad has been working on the basement for a couple weeks now. hen he and mom went to install the laminate wood flooring, they found that the walls were leaking. a bunch of water had come in and rotted the wood. Dad had to tear out everything and start over. He finally got everything torn out, and was ready to start the new framing. Mom had got dad an air compressor for Christmas, dad got it out, this was the first time he was going to use it. A couple things happened, first it looked to dad that the air compressor was used, there was Teflon tape already on the fitting. Next the included air hose wasn't there, and last, there was a 6" kitchen knife at the bottom of the carton. Dad hooked it up anyways, but as the tank was coming up to pressure, dad heard it leaking. Who ever bought it the first time broke the regulator fitting on the outlet. So dad boxed it back up and was going to return it. But, even if they let him exchange it, it would still kick on and cycle a lot because of the heavy duty nailing that dad was going to do.

Enter Uncle Russ.........

Dad called him on Wednesday night and asked if he had an air compressor he could borrow, Uncle Russ did have one, and said dad could stop over Thursday evening to pick it up. Dad was happy cause it would be much easier with a bigger compressor. Thursday morning Aunt Kris calls for dad, he needs to call Uncle Russ, which he did. Turns out Uncle Russ had a compressor and would bring it home at lunch time.

Mom had a doctor's appointment, so dad loaded up Jenna and I into the mini-van we headed over to pick up the air compressor from Uncle Russ. When we got there, dad helped Uncle Russ load it into the back of the van. Uncle Russ said something about the compressor being a virgin, but neither Jenna or I know what that is. What I can tell you is that the compressor was brand new and had never been used.

When we got it home, dad fired it up and started to work on the framing. He blew threw the boards he had in no time, and later we went to Home Depot to get some more.

Thanks again Uncle Russ, dad would still be swinging the hammer if you hadn't let him borrow the new compressor.

3 and 9

3 and 9
No, that's not the Browns' 2006 record (their not that good) it's the difference between Jacob and I (I know there are a lot more differences) But it's 3 inches and 9 pounds. Mom took me to the doctor the other day because she thought I had some type of infection, which it turns out I did not have, and the doctor asked Jacob to step on the scale after I did. I'm now 3'6" Tall and weigh in at a petite 36 pounds. Jacob on the other hand, weighs 45 pounds and is 3"9" Tall.

Who's Schoolin' Who

Wow, is it that time already ? Yep, it is, we're getting ready for Kindergarten this fall. Mom has been getting all the paperwork together and recently took us up to Millridge Elementary School to get us registered. It's a cool school. We liked looking around and seeing all the neat stuff they had there.

At first, we thought we'd be going to Lander Elementary School, which is less than a mile from our house, but we found out that since we live on the north side of Mayfield Road, that we'd be going to Millridge instead. Millridge is just over 2 miles from home.

Both mom and dad went to the PTG Meeting for New Kindergarten Parents. The PTG is the Parent - Teacher Group. I guess they did away with the PTA because "Association"sounded too snooty ? Well either way, mom and dad found out all about our day, and met the kindergarten teachers. There are 4 teachers, but we won't know til just before school starts who will be teaching us. They cap the registration at 100 kids, so that way there isn't any more than 25 kids to a class. During the meeting, they said that already 72 kids were registered, and most of those parents attended the meeting. What's amazing too, is that there are already 7 sets of twins registered. The principal likes to separate twins, but mom is going to call and make sure that we're in the same class. I think a few of the Twin parents will do the same, cause the dad who asked the question during the meeting sounded like he didn't want his twins separated either. We'll see how it goes.

Date Night (near) Disaster

Dad has been telling us that we were going to have a sleep over this coming Saturday because he was taking Mom out for a date night. They dropped us off at Gramma's house and headed back over to the east side where they were going to get some dinner and see the new movie Ghost Rider. Dad said they were about a mile from Applebee's going north on Brainard road, the roads were snowed covered, and it was still snowing a little bit. All of a sudden, a young girl going south on brainard lost control of her car and starting fishtailing across into dad's lane. Dad hit the brakes, but even with ABS he wasn't going to be able to stop because of the snow covered roads. The girls car was now fully in dad's lane and still spinning. Dad, still with his foot on the brake, said poop a couple times and then turned the wheel to the right and clipped a snow bank at the end of someones driveway. This is the first snow bank daddy plowed through

The girls car was now turned sideways blocking most of dad's lane and sliding closer to him, he was still moving at a good pace, and not wanting to t-bone the girl in the car, opted to drive into the next snow bank. The van bounced a bit, and came to a stop. Dad tried to put it in reverse, but soon found they were stuck. The girls car was now facing north, along side dad, who was up on the tree lawn stuck in the snow.This is where the van finally came to a stop. dad had to miss the girls car on the left, and miss the telephone pole on the right

Both mom and dad got out of the van, the girl pulled up and into the next driveway. She got out and asked if everyone was okay, dad and mom said yes, but that they were stuck. The girl wanted to leave, so dad asked mom to get her name and phone number, along with her plate number. Dad started to use the ice scrapper to dig out the snow around the wheel well. A nice lady stopped, she lived right around the corner, and asked they needed something. Dad told mom to ask her for a shovel, she left to go get one. A guy from across the street, who must have seen what happened, walked over with a shovel and let dad use it. Dad started digging out the van. Kevin, or at least that's what the name on his shirt said, told dad that the same thing happened yesterday when his neighbor backed out of her driveway and made an oncoming car plow into the same snow bank that dad was stuck in. The other lady returned and both dad and Kevin shoveled the snow away from the van. After a bit, they were able to get enough snow moved and dad managed to get the van rocking enough to get it backed out. We're glad mom and dad are okay, and that they didn't wreck the mini-van, cause we like our van. Dad took mom to dinner and then to the movie, they both liked it, and we had a good time tonight at Gramma's playing with our cousins Nick and Emily, who were sleeping over too. Well it's way past our bed time, so I've got to go now. Have a good night and Drive Safely.

Just another Snow Day

Last night dad talked about when he was young and papa used to build a sled chute in the back yard of there house on West 52nd Street. SO this morning, dad when out and piled up some more snow on the deck (he said there was alot already) and made a little chute. Before we went down, mom took our picture.

Jacob got to be the test subject, after a little bit of wiggling, he made it to the bottom.

Now it was my turn, I had to wiggle a little bit too.

Remember the big hole that dad made by jumping into the snow, well I thought it would be fun to crawl into it.

I needed some helpin' to get out. it was bigger than me.

Jacob took his turn in the hole too.

Dad grabbed the shovel and a bucket and dug out the hole and made it a tunnel to the driveway.

There's been several stories on the news about kids out playing getting stuck when a tunnel or fort collapsed, so dad used some plywood to reinforce the top.

I really like using the tunnel instead of walking all the way around and through the garage. It's much easier to get to the backyard now.

Jacob really like crawling through the tunnel, he tried to sneak up on dad, but got caught.

Whew, we had fun playing, but it's time to go in and eat lunch. We're supposed to get another 3 inches of snow, and it just started as we were going inside to warm up.