Even more pictures!

All the pictures!

The Big Catch-up Post!!

School this semester is incredibly busy! Currently, I am placed in the 7th grade Language Arts class at Benzie Central, where I am a "Teacher Assistant" for 20 hours each week. I never thought I'd say it, but 7th graders are FABULOUS! In addition to those 20 hours, I have four classes (12 credits) where the goal of the instructors seems to be, in a few cases, to see how much busy work they can assign. Assignments for Student Teaching (when I will be in a classroom all day, every day) have not been announced yet, but I am hoping to be placed in the High School at Benzie since both Glen Lake and TC West have informed the coordinator that they don't want any student teachers this year. Past those two schools, the next closest that I can think of are Kingsley and Suttons Bay and both of those are long drives to have to make in the winter.

As for the boys, Evan is turning into a true toddler, complete with the attitude. Whoever coined the term "terrible twos" didn't have a three-year-old! Ethin is scooting all over the house, still doing the army-crawl, but he's already showing signs of being a climber. Matthew's brother, Michael, and his wife are watching the boys while I am at the Middle School and tey had quite a story for me last week! If everyone can picture the fence that Mom and Dad have around the fireplace at home, this will make more sense as that is almost exactly what Michael has at his house separating the living room from the kitchen (less baby-proofing needed!). It seems that Ethin scooted his way over to the fence, pulled himself into a standing position, and stepped up onto the bottom slat. Holding the top of the fence, he tried to get one foot onto the middle slat and when he was unsuccessful, started yelling about it. He was mad that he couldn't climb higher!! Again, that was ETHIN, at 8.5 months.

The house is as far as it will get this year; we finished the block, put the sealer stuff on the outside, got it inspected, and have put the sill-plate on. Hopefully we will get started on the rest of it this spring. Matthew has hung a stand to bow hunt out of over there as well and hopefully he will take a deer this year.

I've got a tooth....

Well, actually Ethin does! After approximately 2 weeks of finger chewing, it broke the gum-line some time last night. Thank goodness he teeths (so far) like Evan: lots of finger chewing and very little fussing.

Our June update!

This is Evan's cool new "yummy hat" from Mackinaw City!

It's been a busy month! I started my online class (Michigan History), we switched cabins, and went on a weekend trip to Mackinaw City/Island. The car ride up North was interesting, mainly because Ethin doesn't travel or sleep nearly as well in the car as Evan did at that age. We stayed at the Mill Creek Campground, which is very nice and affordable. We also crossed the Bridge and went to the "Deer Ranch" in St. Ignace. Evan LOVED all the "yummies" and the fact that he got to feed them crackers. He even decided that he could hold the crackers through the fence rather than just throw them from 3 feet away! I have some pictures of that. Ethin's 5 month pictures are also in here.

Progress on the basement

These pictures are old, and I promise to remember to take the camera with me next time I go over to the property to get new ones! We are officially done laying the block, and all the anchor bolts are set. WOO HOO!! The next step will be to put the water sealant on the outside and get it inspected. After that, we are done working on this for this year. If only we had a money tree somewhere on that property!

Ethin's 4 month pictures!

Wow. Where did the time go? Our little baby boy is already a third of the way to bing one! Anyhow, here are some pictures to enjoy!

More pictures!

Here are a few pictures of the guys working, and their progress. Yes, that's the stroller you see there! Ethin came down to help!

I'm waaaay behind now!

All of the events of the last 2 weeks has put me way behind! So here's the abbreviated version of what happened. On the 10th, our blocks were delivered and we got about half of them down in the hole that same day. Matthew and Michael have been hard at work getting the walls built, and as of today, we are almost half done (pics of this weekend's work to come when I remember to take the camera over there!).

Just in case you wanted to know what 1400 blocks looks like when it gets delivered:

We have footings!

Today's big news is that we passed our first inspection (of the hole and our footing forms) and got cement poured for the footings! It's pretty amazing that we have gotten so much accomplished in 3 days! Tomorrow the real work will begin as our block and mortor mix will be delivered outside the hole. That means that we will get plenty of exercise carrying blocks into the hole....all 1400 of them!! I will probably end up with more exercise than I want since I'm also trying to get rocks out of the hole for future landscape use! I have to get them now before we have walls to try and squeeze around with the wheelbarrow.

A hole in the ground

Pictures of our boys!

A few pictures of our property

Construction is about to begin!

As some of you may know, we are starting the construction of our future home! After completing the permit process, we are ready to "break ground." Tomorrow morning the excavators will dig our basement. The man who owns the company actually lives across the road from our property; how handy! We are paying for things as we go at this point, so the process will be slow. In an attempt to save money, we are doing as much as we can on our own. With the help of Matthew's brother, Michael, we will be laying the block for the basement ourselves.