The first glimpse....

It is laid out like this now, and they are rolling on the glue and fitting it in just right. It looks SO good! Yeah!!!

kitchen progress

The sub-floor is going in, and the yucky floor is going away for permanent!

Then they filled in the cracks with stuff and then left for lunch to let it dry.

Here is the finished paint. It turned out nicely - despite doing it twice! :)

Yeah!!!!!

And this: this is our custom made (from the finest Cherry wood around!!!) T.V. stand.

Our friends from church build furniture, so we supplied them with some cherry boards from the mill, and I gathered parts of different things and told them what parts I liked, and they came and measured and we talked about what we wanted, and last night, they delivered this.

It is beautiful. Its exactly what we wanted! It will darken with time into the traditional cherry look, but even now, it is so pretty. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo or not, but the drawer fronts across the front are all from one board. Its such a nice detail, that makes me happy!
The knobs he thought he had, he didnt, so he stuck some on for us until the others come in. That is why they dont match, and why there is only one on the middle drawer.

Duet

Suzie and Michael are home and they stopped over for a bit last night. Shelby and Michael played a duet on the piano together. It was cute.

Kitchen project...

The girls began removing the grout from the entry way with screwdrivers. They thought it was a great deal of fun! And when they were able to pop out a tile ~ they were thrilled.

After a while, all the easy ones were done, and they were growing tired, so Matt brought in a crow bar and really went to work on them. Colesy was quite impressed and thought Daddy should have brought in the 'machine' sooner.

I painted 2 coats of primer, then 2 coats of the paint and then went around some more touching up little spots. I'm sick of paint! :)

Last night I figured the paint was dried enough, and I put up the tape to block of the stripes that we are going to do. I have a friend who is coming this afternoon to help me with that - some special technique that I dont know yet! :)

More pictures to follow....

Shelby's new retainer

This is Shelby's new retainer. It is really small. It is called a spring retainer and it just pops on her top teeth. Mr. Bucky is gone now, he is where he is supposed to be, but her other front tooth is pushed back, so this new little thing is supposed to push it forward. Then she'll have a perfect little smile!

This new one is quite painful. She does not like it. And since it is so small, she has to take it out to swim and play so it doesnt get lost or get swallowed!

Silly Girls...

They picked me a bouquet of flowers...

They eat ice-cream in the rain...

with sticks....

They play guns in the car...

with paper umbrellas in their hair...

and then they crash...

The Golden Kitten

This is a story that Colesy wrote the other day.  I fixed most of the spelling so it would be easier to read.  :)

The Golden Kitten

by Colesy Brownlee

age 7

favorite thing to do is eat

Once there was a cat and she was pregnant and the next day she had her kittens.  she had 3 boys and 2 girls.  she named the boys patch, cocoa and smoky. and she named him patch because he had one special patch on him and she named cocoa cocoa because he was the color of cocoa.  she named smoky smoky because he was the color of smoke.  and she named her girl kittens angel and punkin she named angel angel because angel was all white and she named punkin punkin because punkin was a golden kitten!!! and when the kittens were big enough to play outside by themselves punkin wanted an adventure so punkin went to the river with patch and angel.  then punkin saw a box.  it was beside the river so punkin jumped in the box and it floated away. punkin was so scared.  punkin cried and cried then punkin realized that the water was getting faster and faster then right when punkin was about to fall down the waterfall she jumped on a rock.  punkin was okay but she was stuck on the rock.  then she saw a turtle.  punkin jumped on the turtle and the turtle swam to shore.  punkin thanked the turtle and ran away from the water where it was safe.  But it was not safe where punkin went. punkin went to death valley!!!!!!!  where no animal could live but birds and frogs.  then punkin got out of there.  she went to a valley where people lived and punkin became famous.

The End

Spelling by Colesy:

pregnate - pregnant

speicil - special

she spelled all the punkins pukin!  cracked me up!!!

scard - scared

cryed - cried

realived - realized

ware - where

phamus - famous

I also liked how she added her favorite thing to do at the beginning with her name! :)

More Jack

Sleeping on Papas chest.

Shelby and Jack

Colesy-Bug with Jack

Colesy

Okay, so the girls had a pool party this past weekend, and Colesy thought these goggles were the greatest thing!  And for the pool, I'm sure they are!  However, I've had a hard time getting her to take them off.  She insisted on taking them with us to Pittsburgh, and well, you can see how she looks in them:

I have my own personal Erkle!

What a nut!!! :)

We went to Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon with Gram and Papa to see Val, Jerry and baby Jack.  It was a nice afternoon. 

Here is Shelby wearing a thing.  It was around a glass container with a candle in it. She thought she looked like an African queen or something!

My Peanut.

She is so pretty!  Can you believe she is already 9!!!

They get along really good most of the time.  

I took Shelby for her post-op yesterday. Her ears are GOOD!  Her hearing is 'perfect'.  

And she has hit 65 pounds!

Last Sunday

Matt and I are on the missions committee at church.  One of the biggest tasks we have is to meet with the missionaries as they visit our church - and we meet with them, eat and then pray with them.  (I really enjoy meeting with them.  I like to find out they are normal people, with a passion that puts me to shame.  I've really enjoyed getting to know these people on a more personal level.)

Last Sunday, we had missionaries from France.  Several years ago, Matts parents went to France on a mission trip to visit and help some missionaries.  They didnt stay with this particular couple, but they did see them some on their trip.  Anyhow, John (the guy) and Matt were talking about that visit. Colesy was sitting on my lap listening to us talk.  John said, I remember them coming, I think it was '95.  It was longer ago than I had thought, but Colesy heard him say that is was 95 years ago that they were there.  Poor kid! We laughed at that too.  Not at her, but that her brain would process it that way!   

Silly Shelby

Last week at church, Matt was on sound so we were all sitting in the balcony.  Shelby found an old bulletin from before Easter, when we had an insert to buy flowers in memory of who ever you wished.  Anyhow, she filled it out, and it looks something like this!

In loving memory of:  Shelby L Brownlee (Dead Shelby L Brownlee) maybe alive

Given By: Family and friends maybe commoners maybe neighbors

I laughed til I cried (silently cuz of church).  maybe commoners would leave flowers for her - even if she is maybe alive.  

I love how kids heads work!