A Reader

UPDATE: with the encouragement from my hubby Golden Boy decided to take an AR test on this book. HE GOT 100%
100%
we were all so excited and thrilled for him!!!

573 

573!
That is how many pages are in this book that Golden boy chose to read.

Chose!

I didn't choose it for him.

I didn't ask him to read it.

He chose it ALL on his own and then powered through it.

I am so amazingly proud of him. over the past 10 plus days he has been head deep, head down, intently focused on THIS book. I don't know if he wanted to prove to himself that he could read a 573 page book or just if he just wanted to enjoy the process. Either way i love the joy he is having in actually reading (a true love of mine)

AR this year for him is pretty much over but we have been encouraging him to at least try and take the test on it and to see how he does. regardless of the outcome of the test, i am beyond proud of him for accomplishing the goal of reading a 573 page book.

A goal no one set for him but himself.

He is brave and pretty much amazing.

Book Launch post 1

I still can't believe that I was chosen to be part of this book launch.

From the first moment that I saw the Book, the cover, the title, I knew that i wanted to read it and hoped that I would get to be a part of the launch.

The day i found out i would get to be part of it I was thrilled. So now I am wading through the words and the stories and how it can help my family. I am excited to share more of it with you guys over the next couple of months. Be on the look out....

Smokey Joe

we are well past the 99th day, from one of my last kitchen posts.

and while the kitchen is fully functional we aren't fully finished with it yet either

remember the wood burning stove that we had in our kitchen?

well that little stove, that we lovingly call our smokey joe, has yet to be put back into the kitchen. the smokey joe was pretty much the selling point of the house. there really were no other redeeming qualitles about the house but the smokey joe and the wood floors that were under the carpet everywhere. now don't get me wrong, I have grown to truly love this house. so currently smokey joe sits on our back porch. it is a beast of a thing to lift, not that I have tried, but come on, it is made of cast iron......it's heavy.

the stone veneer around the smokey joe before it was removed looked like this.

the shape of it doesn't bother me but the fact that it went all the way to the wall was really weird to us. we just lived with it for the last 10 years because really we didn't know what else to do with it or even why it was like that.

now we are at the decision in the kitchen process where everything is done and functional but the smokey joe still isn't installed. 

I have a whole pinterest board for the wood burning stove with lots of ideas but we just can't decide what exactly we want.

this is what we know and want: we don't want it to look like it did before

we want the footprint to be small (the area that the stove sits on)

we want it to coordinate with the rest of the kitchen

we don't want to be too high off of the ground

here is my pin board of the wood stoves that we have seen and saved so far

and there are so many other choices to go with too.

Easter Sunday

Little girl wanted to try and take a picture. i showed her how to look through the view finder and then where to press to snap the picture. she practiced with one of me.....

and then took one of me and the hubby

we set the camera on a bench to get a family picture of us.

you can see the past few years of Easter pictures here: 2016 (scroll to the bottom to see the pic of the kids and the family picture) 2015

Full

Multiple views of the kitchen throughout the process

I made a video and then posted the pictures below as well

Day 99

Day 99 happened to be last Thursday

They came in and did some touch up painting

added the thresholds

and added the vent under the cabinet

i have a full view of the kitchen but am planning on making another post on that

the movers also came to move everything back into the house.

Hopefully i can continue to get everything unpacked and put where it needs to be and get a picture of Little Girls room all set up. It looks so cute.

we made it to day 99 with everything functioning but the Smokey Joe still needs to be installed and the Buddy Box needs to be hauled off.

Closet Doors

remember when I posted about Little girls closet door back on Day 45

on Day 61

they opened it up

Day 77

they were painted

Day 78

frame was put up

Day 88

the doors were installed and painted

with their cute little knobs (they probably thought I was neurotic making sure the knobs went there and not in another place)

Day 98

can you believe that we have gotten to day 98?

98 days!

NINETY-EIGHT!

98!

it is crazy to me

today our long awaited (okay like a week and a half) faucet and dishwasher was installed

you can see the original instillation here 

(leaks caused us to have to get new ones and wait for them to get here and then reinstall)

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i am thrilled to say that now........EVERYTHING WORKS!!!

sure we still have some more little things that needs to be done around the house but the kitchen is now FULLY FUNCTIONING.

now to move the table in the start using it.

Going back a bit...

Back on day 85, when the electricians finished up, after they left i was going to put out microwave in the microwave cabinet. when i opened the doors i found the back of the cabinet and the plug looked like this. i was shocked. how in the world was this going to get fixed.

i snapped a picture of it and sent it to Mark our cabinet guy, asking him if that was what the cabinet looked like when he installed it (which i knew the answer was probably no but wanted him to see it hoping maybe he could help get it fixed)

our contractor just so happened to come by that day so i showed him.

he also took a picture of  it too. i have no idea if he showed the owner of the electric company but he asked our cabinet guy if he could fix it.

so on Thursday, Day 91 he was at our house when I got off of work. he had put the molding on the lower cabinets (on the floor) and fixed this on the microwave cabinet.

it looks amazing and i was thrilled that he was able to fix it.

we are still waiting on the sink faucet to come in (hopefully today, which is Day 95) and it will be, hopefully installed tomorrow) and the dishwasher has been sitting in the middle of our kitchen since Wednesday.

Soccer Game #2

Saturday was another great day for soccer. a bit chilly but beautiful.

Golden boy played the whole game.

Have i said how much i am loving watching him play soccer?

Well I DO!

Us on the sidelines watching him. There was a time in the game where Golden boy got smacked in the face by the ball. the game stopped of course as he hit the ground. it took everything in me to stay planted on the sidelines and let the ref and coaches take care of it. it wasn't too long that he was getting up off of his knee and ready to play again. 

Little girl saw it all too and came over upset saying that she wanted to go and give him a hug. I told her that i did too but i was trying to stay on the sidelines and let the other adults take care of in unless they needed me. teaching patience and how to not be too controlling and i am still learning all at the same time.

WE WON-in quite a few different ways. 

and Golden boy scored a goal at the very end.