shoe shopping ..

i have to take a break from the basketball goal installation process .. so i thought .. lets talk shoes .. ellie and i went shoe shopping the other day after our dentist appointment .. my teeth hurt and what better way to make your teeth feel better .. or your leg .. or your heart .. or any other body part for that matter .. than to shop for shoes .. we went to kathleens .. shoe heaven if you ask me .. off limits if you ask jeff .. but our teeth hurt really really bad .. ellie found several pairs that she totally loved !!  i will have to say that i liked her choices .. sometimes we don't see eye to eye on shoes .. i am not against sparkles by any means .. acutally i kinda like them on little girl shoes .. i am against heels .. heels for a 7 year old or an 8 or 9 or 10 or 15 or 16 year old .. no .. i don't think so .. kitten heels maybe for homecoming but that's it .. i know .. i hear you ..  loosen up a bit mom .. really .. i did loosen up .. remember i let her get her ears pierced !!! 

 i am seeing a theme here .. silver sparkly shoes .. cute cute with either a white sun dress or little white shorts .. so fun .. but these .. oh .. these .. i love this pair !!

oh ellie .. i vote for these .. let gets these .. sparkles ... pink .. flowers .. these are screaming .. please pick me ellie .. plus you get a free little purse and lip gloss .. my teeth feel better already .. how about yours ?

yes .. we are still digging ..

gee you say .. no wonder you are still working on the big hole .. jeff just sits there ..

oh no .. you take it back now ..

since jeff could not manuver in an almost 4 foot deep hole .. ellie .. being the so helpful girl that she is volunteered to go down into the hole and hand the rocks up to jeff ..

i hope my mom does not notice that i am wearing my new white shirt and my new sandals ..

cash has gotten involved now .. let me help he says ..

there dad .. boy those are heavy .. i need my shovel .. could you go and get it dad .. and i am thirsty to .. could you make me a pink lemonade with just a little ice ..

so this went on .. the children fishing rocks out of the hole for 30 minutes .. time to measure now .. is it 48 inches deep yet .. cross your fingers

ok ellie you stand on the end of the rock bar and let daddy measure .. cash don't bang your dad in the head with the shovel .. oh ellie .. is that dirt all over the back of your skirt and white shirt .. and you are wearing your new sandles .. we are going to have to talk about what kind of clothes you can dig in the dirt in .. yes you look cute .. but that outfit is great for school or a date night .. but not for fishing rocks out of an almost 4 foot deep hole ..

rats .. almost there .. just about 6 inches to go .. close enough some of you say .. well not according to the directions .. it must be 48 inches deep .. or what .. will the goal fall over .. will the concrete not set up right .. what happens if it is not 48 inches deep .. not sure that i really want to find out ..

the digging of the hole ..

because i am tired of seeing this every night .. i have been whispering sweet things into jeffs ear to please speed up the basketball goal installation ..

he has the started the 4 foot hole digging process ..

and to help things so a little faster .. dad helped out ..

and just in case grandpa needed some help .. cash and ellie where there as well .. so cross your fingers for good weather .. we need to dig one more foot and then we can mix concrete .. then of course it has to dry for 3 days and then we can finally install the basketball goal ..

and he passed out .. right there in the hallway ..

the other night cash wanted me to read his truck book one more time before he would shut his eyes and go to sleep .. because the 908 times that i had read it already were just not going to work for him .. one more time he says to me .. please .. with the added stress in his voice .. please mom .. since it was almost 10 .. and i still had about 74 things on my list of things to do before i could go to bed .. i said no cash .. so i kiss his dirty ole boy face .. tell him good night .. and leave .. not 5 seconds later he comes walking into the kitchen and pleads his case one more time .. ok .. i say .. you go and lay back down .. i will finish this and then come right in and read it to you .. this is code for .. he will fall asleep while he hopefully awaits my return .. so i finish my 74 things and go to turn out night lights .. lock doors .. fold a load of laundry and put another load into the dryer .. i am about to walk down the very small hallway that goes to cash's room .. when my foot makes contact with something on the floor .. i then realize that it is cash's silky .. so now i am trying to avoid kicking him in the head and falling on him .. i brace myself against the wall .. twist my back and dang near fall on him .. while shouting .. very quietly of course .. very grown up words ..

what in the world ..

could he not make it all the way back to his bed .. could he not manage to walk the 6 more feet to his room .. did he just kerplunk right there onto the floor .. and if he did .. why did i not hear it .. i mean really why is he all stretched out on the floor .. and if he did this on purpose .. why .. was he watching me from around the corner .. waiting for me .. but then he got so sleepy that he just laid down to watch for me .. and then passed out .. really .. can anyone explain this to me ..

what you can not see is that under his balled up silky is his truck book and his flash light .. i know this because when i picked him up .. the book and very heavy metal flashlight fell on my foot .. the same one that jeff dropped the basket ball pole on .. so now i am hopping on one foot .. carrying a very heavy and passed out kid upside down .. please don't let me bang his head into his door i say to myself ..

what cash did while jeff worked on the basketball goal .. day two

OH dad ... are you sure you should be doing that by yourself .. why don't you get mom to help you with that .. it looks really heavy ..

oh how i love styrofoam and cardboard boxes .. these are all mine ...

cash worked on his boxes for a good 30 minutes .. getting them all emptied and stacked up just the way that he wanted them .. again he is in his pj's .. to my defense it is still before noon ..

see how proud he looks .. he put all his little pieces of styrofoam into his boxes .. and look he is wearing shoes .. ellies shoes .. but still shoes ..

thank you bits of styrofoam for making cash so happy for the last 2 days .. but i do not really care for you so much .. so come thursday my friend you are going to the trash .. so live it up while you can ..

what cash did while jeff worked on the basketball goal .. day one

in true cash fashion .. he had picked a booger out of his nose and was wiping it onto his hand .. so so so very gross .. you will notice that he has pulled every piece of styrofoam out of our garage and has brought all his tools out of the house so that he can do some "work" like his dad ..

WOW .. dad that is a huge box .. is there any styrofoam in it .. there is .. oh .. can i please please have it (his eyes are rolling into the back of his head he is so overcome with excitement) .. i am going to saw all these big pieces into very tiny pieces .. yes .. i know that he is in his pj's .. if i told you that it is 6:30 at night .. would that make it better .. i didn't think so .. the kids lives everyday in pj's .. loves loves loves his pj's .. won't take them off without a fight .. and you know what .. i just didn't want to fight about pj's that night .. my front flower bed looks pretty nice though doesn't it ..

so this is what he did for the next 60 minutes .. thanks to uncle greg who saw fit to buy him a saw for his birthday .. he sawed all those BIG pieces into very tiny pieces while at the same time making very tiny tiny pieces as well .. there will be styrofoam in our yard all summer ..

Basketball goal installation .. day 2

we start tuesday morning like this .. hey babe ... babe ... babe ??? .. jeff holllars at me to come out on the driveway and see .. look .. cash is saying awesome dad .. i am saying .. i am pretty sure this is where people #2 - #6 come in .. that is pretty tall .. and heavy looking .. awesome dad .. cash keeps saying .. cash move back .. what if it falls over .. you better stay out of the way ...

ok .. so now the big pole is standing up on it's own .. what's the next step you ask .. gosh since we are not reading the directions i will consult jeff ..

got to put a very long bolt in the top of it .. it was my suggestion to go and get the tall ladder .. it would make it so much easier .. see the directions on the ground .. i was secretly following them ... we are getting ready to install the tempered glass back board .. now jeff is hollaring at me to put down my camera and come help him lay down the pole ... sure i say .. because you and i are equal to 6 people right .. this is where he drops it on my foot .. and then i lay down on the ground in misery because my foot is throbbing and starting to swell ..

oh thank goodness .. dad is here to rescue to me .. they have a discussion about how the directions are all wrong .. that the washers/bolts/little rubber things are not in the right order .. that just doens't make sense dad says to jeff .. i know he says .. so .. we .. i mean .. dad and jeff  manage to slide the glass under the very very heavy black pole and slide in some bolts and washers/little rubber things ..

oh sure .. now lets read the directions ... we are almost done ..

ok so now dad is holding the directions and they are going to try the way that they think that it should go .. after much debating they got the bolts in the correct way .. but did not screw them down real tight .. the directions did say that .. why .. i wonder .. why would you not screw all the bolts and nuts down nice and tight .. won't something fall off .. like while i am walking under it ..

so .. now the 4 foot hole that has to be dug .. in 1 of the boxes was a bunch of rebar .. dad and jeff are measuring it .. dad just happened to have a tape measure in his ranger .. you never know when you are going to need to measure something .. so the hole is step #3 .. seeing how jeff is going to nebraska on wednesday and then back to work on thursday i have a feeling this is how things on my driveway are going to look for awhile ..

yes .. the card board boxes are still there .. those are cash's .. and they CAN NOT be moved .. that is a whole other post ..

Basketball goal installation .. day 1 ...

this looks promising .. jeff never and i mean NEVER in the 20 years that we have been together .. has ever actually sat down and read the directions to anything .. when he put ellie's crib together we had left over parts .. so if at all possible .. i buy things assembled or .. pay to have it done .. so the fact that he is actually sitting down and reading how to assemble his mammoth basketball goal .. this looks good .. it may just turn out to be ok .. of course ..

do you see the part of the directions that says .. at least 6 adults required for assembly .. well all we had was jeff .. me .. cash .. and my dad who came down later .. just in time to help with the really really heavy part ..

so lets get all the pieces out and unboxed and get organizied ..

you would think that this is the really heavy piece but it is not ..

so now that i am feeling overwhelemed .. if he isn't then he should be .. because i totally am .. he needs a bucket to sit down on .. to ponder how he is going to put this together .. because turns out .. those directions that he was reading are all wrong .. he is going to do it his own way ..

hey ... wait a minute are those my brand new .. super sharp .. and not so cheap scissors .. you better put those back mister when you are done .. so it ends here .. the end of day one .. i woke up the next morning and all the basketball goal parts were still laying on the driveway .. i can't wait to see what day 2 is going to bring .. and then there is the whole digging of the 4 foot deep hole .. really can't wait to see that .. !!

after school ...

today after school ... it was just to pretty to do much of this ..

i mean really .. it has been rainy and cold and gross out for what seems like a week .. we had to celebrate the sunshine and warm weather .. we needed to be outside making vitamin D .. so .. i picked ellie up from school a little early and .. we did a little of this ...

we sat outside and colored and played .. what we really wanted to do was this ..

jump into the boat and hit the lake ..

and be like this ..

and do this .. but that is for another day ..

the trucks have moved outside ...

yesterday cash and i went thru all the heavy equipment that was in the house .. i swear there were bulldozers and backhoes in every closet .. even the pantry .. we rounded them all up .. put some in buckets and put them up high .. for later .. when there had been a heavy equipment accident and a bull dozer had to be totalled .. i had a back up .. the rest .. got moved to the sand box .. where they really belong ..

granny and cash hauled them all out there .. and got them all organizied .. lined up and ready for any job that will be thrown there way ..

can i just tell you tonka truck that my son loves you .. i mean really loves you .. he likes me alright .. afterall i am in charge of the oreos .. but he really really loves you .. he dreams about you at night .. takes the smaller version of you along with him in the car and to bed .. ocassionally you even get run thru the wash because you were stuffed in a pocket in a pair of shorts .. you come out all clean and ready to dig .. i have a feeling that by the end of the summer .. you will show signs of extreme love .. but that is ok with me .. we will hose you off .. polish you up and let you spend the winter in the house .. so until then .. bring on the sand .. because we are ready ...

Happy Birthday Jeff ..

jeff's birthday was friday .. we celebrated last night with a cookout and cake ...

matt .. sammie .. kali .. and her friend taylor .. luke and mom and dad all came over ..

luke and ellie

kali and taylor ..

dinner ... yummy .. we made sliders and hot dogs .. we also had cheetos and orange pop and root beer .. who do you think helped me with the menu ... cash !!

after we ate the crazy children thought that it would be fun to swim in the very cold pool .. they swam and jumped and swam some more .. we turned on the hot tub as well .. so they would swim in the pool .. turn blue and then thaw out in the hot tub ... we bribed them with cake and ice cream to get them to come out ..

it was a great time .. ellie got jeff a nba size basketball goal .. uncle matt was reading the directions .. it seems that we have to dig a hole that is 4 feet deep and almost 2 feet wide .. i will keep you posted on the progress of the basket ball goal installation .. matt says the directions clearly state that you do not need to hire a professional contractor to do this .. the average homeowner can whip in out in 3 hours or so .. right .. this job has larry's name all over it if you ask me ..