Happy Birthday to our little Breckyn!!

Well, Breckyn turned 2 the other day, doesn't even seem possible.....time just flies.

Here is a picture of her puckering up........as you can see she learns from the best!!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BABY!!

bye bye apartment!!

Well, today over lunch I met Julie and the kids at the apartment so we could do the final cleaning before we turn over the keys. I have to say, I am not disappointed one bit......BYE BYE APARTMENT!!

Here is a picture of the cleaning crew!

finally moved!!

well, we're finally moved in (not unpacked). The move went fairly smooth, I had 5 guys helping me Saturday move the apartment and storage unit and I was amazed how fast we got that done. We were finished by 2pm, but I had to go back myself to get a few miscellaneous things. Julie had 3 helping her unpack the boxes, her Gram, Aunt Jan and friend Rebecca. The kids stayed at my parents house for the weekend so we could get all this done. Kellyn ended up with an ear infection early Sat morning at 1:30am so my Mom (Nana) was up with her for a few hours. Oh, and she also had diarrhea :), lucky Nana huh? Last time we moved (2.5 yrs ago), we ended up taking Kellyn to the minor emergency ctr with a high fever. She must not like us to move or something psychological like that.

Here are some pictures while we're resting and eating lunch:

Finally started packing

Well, we figured with only 2 days til we close on the house we better get to packing. we've made a little progress as you can see but there's a lot more to be done. Amazing how much stuff you can fit in a 900 square foot apartment!


Julie has decided that she hasn't missed 95% of the junk we put in the storage unit, so i think we'll be having a rather large garage sale pretty soon and Goodwill will inherit a windfall. Our new motto is going to be simplify, simplify, simplify!

The house is nearly done, today they did touchup painting, put on door knobs, put a final coat of lacquer on the wood floors, etc. It's looking pretty good.

We have the kids ready to be shipped off to Nana and Papa's house on Friday afternoon and a crew of guys coming over Saturday morning, let's get moving already!

3 days and counting......

til we close on the house. Have not packed one single thing yet :) We are so ready to move out of this apmt.

Here are some pictures of the deck progress and also one of our fireplace they finally completed

hiking in Kansas?

Sure, why not? Julie went to a women's retreat last night and today, so this morning the kids and I went on a little spontaneous hiking trip. We probably ended up walking 2 - 3 miles, which is quite a bit for these little munchkins!! We went to the Chisholm Trail Nature Center here in Wichita and we had a great time hiking the trails and enjoying the great weather! The kids were pretty tired after our little jaunt. Here are some pictures:

not much, just workin

Went for a run this morning for about 3 miles, the first time in about 2 months due to my ankle sprain, so it was slow goin. It felt pretty good, but I could definitely tell I was favoring it. Speaking of running, Julie has been training for the annual Easter Sun Run 10K coming up in about 4 weeks. She's hoping to finish this year :)

worked on the deck last night, here are some more pictures.

have a great day!!

progress on the deck

my Dad came down this weekend to help me work on the deck, here are some pictures:

finally....ice skating pictures from last weekend

here are some pictures of our ice skating adventure last weekend


here's Julie, Preston & Kellyn gettin ready to hit the ice





me & Presto




here are the girls watchin the zamboni do its work



Breckyn was keepin an eye on the action from the game room

slow blog day.....so here's a short biking story from last summer

It was July 2006 and the temps were hovering around 100 each day, sometimes getting up to 105, needless to say very very hot. It probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to do, but our local MTB club was holding a 95 mile dirt road ride down in Chataqua County Kansas, which is a very beautiful area. It was a supported ride, so I knew if I was to get into trouble help would be right around the corner. Also, there were many bail out points so you weren't of course obligated to ride the full 95. Well, it was a very tough day, but I made it the full 95 miles in about 8 hours. There were times where I was shivering (in 100 degree temps), not a good sign. I tried to stay well hydrated which wasn't a problem until close to the end. It became hard to put anything in my stomach. If you think Kansas is flat, come ride with me down in that area, and you'll come away with a different perspective. Here is a link to quite a few pictures of the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14973939@N00/sets/72157594203510248/

footings

oh, so exciting!!! a posting on footings!!!! woohoo!!

just thought i'd post of pic of my progress on the deck, a friend of mine, Todd, came to help me last night with getting the footings poured

here is a pic (sorry for the lack of good picture, it was late when we finished)

lots goin on

Sorry for the lack of posts.....it's been extremely busy. Today after work I hope to get the footings poured for the deck on our house so that they have time to cure before Saturday. If that happens, then my dad will be coming over to help me work on it on Saturday.

Last Saturday we went ice skating here in Wichita at the local rink. It was a first for the kids. I'll try to get some pics posted. Preston was quite the dare devil on the skates, he picked it up pretty fast, but not without many bruises. That kid fell so many times!!!!

Our closing date on the house is now set for March 16th, only about 2.5 weeks away. My my, how time flies!! Just seemed like yesterday we were moving into the apartment. Thank goodness it has gone so fast!!

everyone have a great day!!!

worked on my new deck today

the deck materials for our new house were delivered yesterday so i started working on the deck today


pretty much just got the ledger boards attached, here are some pics (yes, I am a very slow worker!!!)

Hmmm?

went out to see what was done on the house the other day and came across this:





so it looks like they installed our AC unit on a floating concrete pad, I'm not exactly sure how all that sand got washed out of there, baffling?

tomorrow I'm gonna start working on the deck because our builder is having all the deck materials delivered today.........should be a very interesting/time consuming project!!!

the weather has been so nice lately, the past 2 nights Julie, the kids & I all went to the park to play.......good times!!

have a good day

My, how fast they grow up!

The kids are growing up too fast for their own good. just yesterday Breckyn decided that she’s old enough to wear a certain “womanly undergarment” (see pic below) Apparently, she paraded around the apt like this all afternoon. she’s been adding new words to her vocabulary every day, how is it possible that she’ll be 2 next month? wasn’t she just born yesterday??

all the kids seem to be growing up in a flash. Julie and I both get kinda sentimental every year at this time with all their birthdays happening and everything. Preston turned 6 in January and Kellyn just turned 4 on Valentine’s day and Breckyn will be 2 a month from today. pretty soon they all won’t be able to squeeze onto my lap for some post-bath snuggling anymore. hope I can soak it all up while it lasts. It’s clichéd but true - why can’t they just stay little for a little while longer??

Just for reference purposes, this pic was taken yesterday (wasn’t it?)

house pictures & other stuff

Here are a couple pictures of the backsplash tile job in the kitchen (please note that I did not do

the backsplash tile, only the floor tile)

Took the van in this morning to get the inner tie rod fixed, thought about doing this myself to save some $$, but since we live in an apartment and all my tools and such are packed away in storage, it'd be difficult, plus it probably needs aligned after replacing.

Kellyn was running a fever again last night, so I stayed home from my small group Bible study with the kids while Julie went to the shocker game.......which is a whole 'nother story in and of itself. The shockers started very well this season, ranking as high as #8 in the country. However, since then they have really petered out!! Last night was senior night (their last home game this season) and they LOST. I always thought the opposing team was supposed to let the home team win on senior night, what's up with that? GO SHOCKS, as they still have a chance to make the dance if they win the MVC tourney.

Later. Have a wonderful day!!

accomplished

finally got some things accomplished over the last few days......the car is finally fixed with a new battery, thank goodness it wasn't an alternator...I might still be working on it

finished up grouting the tile over the weekend, still have to clean it up and seal it, but for the most part it is done

picked up the furniture on saturday that we purchased for the new house and got it stored, which turned out to be about a 4 hour deal since the furniture place is about 1 hour from here and I had to borrow my dad's truck

went for an mtb ride out on some dirt roads and saw these little kitty cats soakin up the sun

HA, JUST KIDDING, GEEZ!! i'd be super scared if i saw these guys by the side of the road, this pic was taken during the zoo trip on sunday with the family. kansas wildlife and parks claims there are no cougars in kansas, but i've heard otherwise (not seen yet)

got to spend a lot of time with the family over the 3 day weekend (i had President's day off, woohoo); sunday we went to the zoo with some friends after church and then out for my birthday dinner with julie and the kids.

the weather the past few days has been awesome (60's and sunny) so we've been out as much as possible so that we're not couped up in our dinky little apmt

julie's going to the shocker (www.goshockers.com) game tonight, it's their last home game, hopefully they can pull off a win!! GO SHOCKS!!

that's about it, everyone have a great day!!!

sick kids - sick car

both Preston & Kellyn have been running high fevers, other than that they are their normal crazy selves. I guess next in line will be Breckyn or Julie and I. Yee Haw!!!

I still haven't had a chance to get back to the new house to get the car running and get it tested out at the auto store. I'm hoping to do that tonight after work. And hopefully it'll just be the battery.....much easier and less time consuming to swap out as a opposed to the alternator. And if I get all that taken care of, I might drive back out to the house to get all the tile laying tools and tile scraps cleaned up so I can get a fresh start on the grout tomorrow.

here's to hoping.......

Happy Birthday to Kellyn - 4 years old

Happy Birthday to Kellyn, our middle child. She turned 4 yesterday on Valentine's Day.


Here is a picture of one of her birthday presents, a Snow-White Princess dress.......she loved it so much she had to sleep in it last night :)

more on the car

so yesterday Julie and I drive out to the new house so that we can jump start the car, then drive it to the auto store and have the battery tested. As I pull up to the house, I notice the car seems to be leaning to one side, sure enough, the front tire is very low, but not flat (yet). So I get it jump started and running and back it out, but then I stop to ask Julie (following in the van) if she has any quarters for air at the gas station, then I start to take off and the car doesn't want to move. So I get out and look and sure enought it's completely flat now. Ok, I take a minute to think of all the logistics, then decide that I will put the spare on, drive to the tire shop and drop off the tire, then head to auto store to figure out if it's the battery or alternator. So I dig out the spare from the trunk and guess what??? IT'S FLAT TOO!!!! No wonder I like to ride my bike all the time, it's much less maintenance and hassle!!! I'm guessing at this point that the Lord doesn't want me to drive this car today. Plus on top of all this we were supposed to get our van fixed today (inner tie rod is loose), so Julie was going to use the car to run Preston to school and run errands, so I had to cancel that appointment. We decide at this point to take the tire off and run it to the shop to get it fixed. I couldn't go back out to the house to fix it last night cause I lead a small group Bible study on Tues nights at 7pm. Anyways, the car is still out there at the house with the flat spare tire. I'm hoping to get out there tonight to at least get the tire back on. Won't have time to do anything else cause today is Kellyn's birthday (middle child), she's turning 4, and we are taking her out to dinner. Then after that we've got Preston's make-up basketball game at the YMCA at 6:30pm. My guess is at this point, I will not be able to get the car fixed til Friday night, I'm taking Julie out to dinner tomorrow night for a belated Valentine's dinner (much less wait time) and for the fact that we've got 2 functions tonight.

carry on

floor tile and house progress pictures

master bathroom tile (spacers still in)

hall bathroom tile(spacers still in)

entry way tile (spacers still in)

I'll be applying the grout this weekend. Also, here is a picture of the kitchen and hearth room fireplace.

my commuter bike

here is a pic of my beast locked up at work......notice there are no other bikes. I guess the -1 degree wind chill is a deterrent for other bike commuters :)

dead battery + tile work = late night

last night I didn't get to bed til 2am. Julie and I are having a new house built and I am doing the tile work myself to save a few dollars. I worked on the tile over the weekend, but still have quite a bit left, so after work yesterday we head out to the house, Julie and the 3 kids in the van, and me in the car with all my tools. Well, I hop in the car and it doesn't start......dead battery, great, so I jump out and start waving my arms and whistle as Julie is heading down the road, she doesn't see me. I get a hold of her on the cell and she comes back to give me a jump start. Since I know I will be working on the tile very late, I decide to take my bike with me so that I can ride home if my car doesn't start again. I ended up working on the tile til 12:30am, go out to start the car....nothing. It's been raining all day and now it's turing into snow. Luckily I had all my rain riding gear with me in my backpack so I suit up and can barely move. It takes me about 40 minutes to go 7 miles into a heavy north wind and snow at 1am. The few cars that I did see probably thought I was one of the stupidist people ever. But I actually had a good time, and was way too warm with too many layers plus the rain gear which doesn't breathe at all. I'm always up for a challenge, although after reading about the www.arrowheadultra.com, my little 7 mile jaunt in 25 degree snow with a head wind was nothing at all.

new blogger online

well, this is my first post, I am now officially a blogger. I read tons of blogs daily, so I finally decided to become a blogger myself. I am sure no one will ever read this, which is fine, but this is just another way to document the happening in my life. At least I will read it and maybe I'll send the link to Julie (wife of almost 10 years) so she can make fun of me. And by the way, please ignore all bad grammer.