What do we do with our time?

Lately I feel like I don't get anything done and still at the end of the day I'm exhausted and fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.

But in reality, when a friend that I haven't talked to in just few days says "what have you been up to?" and I tell her, SHE's exhausted! I know I'm not the only woman, wife and mother that feels this way...and I'm not looking for sympathy. It's only at moments like this that I realize I/we have really accomplished alot of things.

Some of the things we have been doing with our time:

Building fences with neighbors

step 1-tear down and haul off the old fence

step 2-dig hole, pour cement, set post...you wouldn't know it but behind this one post there are 12 others that you can't see. That makes for one straight fence!

step 3-nail 2x4's between posts

step 4-nail rot board to posts

step 5-start nailing pickets, one at a time

This is what it looked like at the end of day 2.

The final product: 83 feet long, 7 ft tall, worked with a great neighbor, 2 long weekends and only $440 (for 1 side).

And because we had so much fun (NOT), this week we are doing it all over again on the other side of the house!

This week...we get to work with a very motivated but not very hands on helpful neighbor. We started Sunday at 2pm and it's Tuesday and we (well, Greg, my brother and the neighbor) dug the new holes for the posts and poured cement and set all but 4 of the posts while I cought up on blogging, returned the auger used to dig the holes, picked Dylan up from his bowling activity with orchestra, ran through Wendy's to grab a bite while waiting for Ty during his guitar lessons! Plas for tomorrow are to set the last of the posts before Ty's football game so Thursday we can get the 2x4's nailed up. That leaves Friday for trick or treating and Saturday and Sunday we can do the building part of building a fence!

The 2 back neighbors we share the fence with aren't interested in helping build that section of fence so we said fine...we will fork out the money for someone else to do it as long as it is a reasonable price and good quality work...after all, we would much rather start working on our next project: building our new shed!

Trunk or treating...

with our favorite little fairy princess Alexa...I know that if we would have ever had a little girl she would have been "one of the boys"! This little princess loves to play swords and rumble and tumble with the boys. They are very protective and watchful over her and love having her around most of the time...which reminds me of a few months ago when she was getting to be quite good at walking, we had her overnight and Chad asked me if I could strap her in her car seat because she was getting into everything!!! Of course I told him I tried that with him and it didn't work so there was no use trying it with Alexa!

We haven't seen much of her the last few months because my aunt has been in Indiana. She came home after the hurricane to deal with insurance and then she came back this past weekend to vote. Both times she was able to bring Alexa over to our side of town so we could get our "Alexa" fix!

Fishing...

Last Saturday the bishop and YM president took Ty fishing with them to High Island. They go out in the Gulf in kayak's which Ty loves. Good news, as you can see from the picture, Ty caught a huge (at least I think it's huge) red fish. We cleaned it and had a wonderful dinner on Sunday. Bad news, which anyone that knows Ty can recognize he looks a little different in the picture...no glasses. Yep, you guessed it, there is a fish in the Gulf wearing Ty's glasses! If you happen to see Mr. Limpet, grab Ty's glasses! Good news...we had Ty's eyes checked last week and he needed a new prescription anyways. Bad news, he doesn't have a backup pair and the new glasses won't arrive until Wednesday. Good news, tomorrow is Wednesday and they should be here in time for his 5pm football game!

I love being busy! I'm sure it means we have earned a vacation at the end of it all!

Fences, and Roofs, and Braces...Oh My!

It's been a while and from the title of this post you may be able to figure out why. But first I have to back up to more post Ike highlights.


One week after Ike hit it was a Friday, the day after Greg had left on his annual hunting trip to California. My aunt Donna and a few of her daughters were in town because they were going with my mom and grandpa on a cruise to the Bahamas out of Miami on Sunday. I had just learned that the kids and I would be off of school the entire next week because the schools were not all ready to handle students and staff. Our school district was the worst hit...even worse than Galveston schools. 39 out of the 40 schools in the district had some damage...some worse than others. Ty's gym and locker and weight rooms were destroyed so they are using the portable buildings for the rest of the football season at least and probably until the end of the year.


Anyway, we were driving around town looking for eggs and the thought came to me and I said to my aunt Donna "tell me why the boys and I aren't going on the cruise with all of you." And her reply was "I don't know. Here, talk to my travel agent." So we called her up, they had a room that held 4 and most of all, the price was right. So Friday afternoon I bought some new clothes and Sunday morning 9 of us boarded the plane to Miami. We spent the afternoon at South Beach













and Monday at 2pm we boarded the ship. It was not my favorite cruise line (Norwegian) but the ship was newer and nice. The staff was nice but slow at meal time.












The ports we visited (Freeport, Nassau, and Norwegian's private island) were all nice and sunny.



We flew home on Friday, Greg got home Sunday, and Monday it was back to reality...dealing with insurance adjusters and hunting for a roofer, fencer, and/or contractor that 1)we can trust 2)will do a good job 3)that will do it at a reasonable price 4)that can have the job completed before the boys get out of high school. We have met with 2 roofers and 2 fencers so far. Saturday a roofer will come out and meet with us and the insurance adjuster. We do know that the one fence that didn't have any damage but still needs replaced will be built this weekend only because Greg and the neighbor are going to do it themselves. We have been talking about it for a few years and since the other 2 fences will be new we decided it's as good as time as any to do the 3rd side. I wish the other neighbors were able to help build the fences we share but that's not the case. They have said they would pay Greg labor if he built them since we would be number 1 in line for a fence instead of 431...or 243...or you get my point. It may end up that the boys and I help Greg build the other fences just to get it done! Watch for pictures of our new fence in a future post.

Now onto the braces...Greg and Dylan went to the ortho this week and November 3rd and 5th is "B" day for them! They received their "last supper" (a bag of candy and gum) from the ortho as we left. They will both be in them for 2 1/2 years. Dylan will have to have the herbts device for the first year also to force his bottom jaw to grow forward. Greg is too old for that device since he is done growing so after a year he can have surgery to correct his bottom jaw. They would break it then insert permanent extenders. He's not sure if he wants to do that yet. I'm glad they are doing this together for moral support reasons only...definately not excited about the financial side of it. Stay tuned for photos!

That's it for now...