A Boy and His Tie...

Jack will sit and "fiddle" with Legos for hours.
Sam builds his Legos according to the directions and then displays his Legos.
Jack builds his Legos according to the directions, then takes them apart and creates his own thing.

Last night he came down and says, "Hi, mom."
That is code for...Look at me mom.

I looked and he had created his own Lego tie.
How cool is that?

 Then he showed me the back and how he created a clip on for his tie.
I dig this kid's imagination.

He then went off and I heard him say, "Hi, Sam."

 

STINKY!!!

Ever heard of a stink horn?
If not, I have some pictures for you.

This is a stink horn.
It looks like a carrot with nasty, nasty brown slime on top.
Slime that stinks.
Slime that flies love.

Stink Horns last about a day and then wither.
Which makes them smell even worse.
Which draws more flies.
The only good thing about Stink Horns is they are very easy to pull out of the ground.
So easy, that it's kind of creepy.

This is what Jack thinks about Stink Horns.
I agree.
 

ISU Basketball Camp...

Warning: I am going to brag!

Sam attended ISU basketball camp last week.
HE LOVED IT!!
I never went to camps...I didn't want to be away from home.
And confession... I didn't want to use a public restroom.
So I stayed home...no camps for me...and I was good with that!
I digress..

Sam was awarded best sportsmanship for his division!
Proud mom moment!!
Fred Hoiberg (the ISU head basketball coach...in case you didn't know) is in the maroon, giving Sam his medal. He is so dreamy...I am referring to Hoiberg.

Each attendee received an ISU basketball. So after the award ceremony, the participants could go around to the different players and get their autographs on their shirts or basketballs.

Sam went right away to Freddy.
(No, it had nothing to do with me pushing Sam up to Hoiberg!)
Sam wanted to get a picture with the cuttie coach and at the last minute, Jack jumped into the photo, too! Sam was not pleased!

Off we went to get an autograph and picture with BooBoo (really spelled BuBu) Palo.

We had to wait in a line to get Tyrus McGee's autograph.

McGee came to the camp to help players with their shot...how cool is that!

Oh..Jack jumped in again!
Jack actually ended up with quite a few autographs on his shirt.

Off to Georges Niang.
He was on his way out, but stopped to give Sam an autograph and a picture.
I was VERY impressed with all the players...so polite and willing to give autographs and smile for a picture. But, again, that ISU for you!

Through this entire process, I had to listen to Sam complain that Jack got in his picture with Hoiberg.
So, I reluctantly, (heehee) told him to go back and get another picture taken with him!
Problem solved and everyone left happy!

 

Oh...while Sam collected some other items, Jack took the opportunity to appear as if HE had attended camp, too. Though, Sam left him with strict instructions NOT to dribble his new basketball!

 

Sam wore his medal all the way home.

And, held onto that basketball, with all his treasured autographs, all the way home.

 

Major Progress!!

OK.
Major progress last week.
You are almost up to speed with our addition.
Once they laid the floor boards, the pictures were pretty dull. I won't go down in the basement, too creepy...no lights and I bet there are things living down there, too.
So I just waited for some other indication of progress...

Last Tuesday, when we drove down the driveway , WE HAD A WALL!!
Huge progress!!

Yep, the wall is very tall.
Or Jack shrunk.

These are the steps to the basement...I KNOW...pretty exciting!!
I won't be going down there for awhile!

Then on Wednesday, when we drove down the lane, we HAD MORE WALLS!
This is actually going to be our master bedroom. The "open" areas are where our windows will be placed. So, we have three window at the top of the wall, then two large window. 

This shows the other windows in our bedroom.

This will be the living room area. you can see that there are gong to be floor to ceiling windows. To the right will be some sort of door (I can't remember what kind) to the three season porch.

This is a closer look at the door that will lead to the three season porch.

It's so exciting to actually see the house coming together...even if it won't be ready for another three months...or more!

A Door in the House!

At the time I took these pictures, we were about two weeks behind schedule.
All we wanted was to see SOME progress!

This was progress...the workers came to backfill the dirt. Since they dig the whole larger than the basement, they have to fill the area on the outside of the wall with dirt...backfill.
Well, they didn't backfill this area by the bushes.
I don't know why.

As you can tell, they basically pushed mud around while backfilling.
This was also the night that they pulled out our temporary power line AND cut our phone lines.
So much for progress!!

The next day there was a little more progress.
The workers cut the door that will go from the new basement to the existing basement.
Progress!

It was starting to look good!
Unfortunately, the left side of the wall is not backfilled at all.

The framers started their work.
They framed some of the basement and started to put the floor boards in!
Progress!!

But, since the entire area wasn't backfilled, they were having a terrible time getting the lumber in the corners and basically working in the area.

What took them three days, should have only taken them one day.
So they went on strike.
Yep.
The framers wanted better working conditions. they wanted the house completely backfilled and a power area that could handle their tools.
Progress stopped.
So after a couple of days...the remaining backfill was completed and the framers were back at it!
Progress once again.

It's true..it's the little things that make you happy!!

An Amazing Race!

Jason was asked by a friend to participate with him in a local Amazing Race!
Jason was all over this!
The two of them talked a little smack before they saw their competition.

Once the contestants took off, we were given a list of the stops, so off the boys and I went to chase down the Amazing Racers.

We missed Jas at the first two stops (they were SO fast!! It had NOTHING to do with me being directionally challenged!) We finally caught up with them at the cafe where they had to eat a HUGE pancake in order to receive their next clue.

The best part was that the cafe was air conditioned!!

The worst part was the pancake came HOT of the griddle, which made it a bit challenging to eat. I thought the BIGGER challenge was going to be the running after eating that gut bomb!

Off to the aquatic center to go down the water slide and then off the diving board.
When Jason left here, they were in third place.  Impressive!!

The boys and I got to the repelling station before any racers had arrived. We were waiting and suddenly Jason and his friend came through...in FIRST place!!
 NO WAY!!

Jason volunteered to do the repelling.
At this point, I think I heard Jason say, "oh. not comfortable."

There he is at the top. Jason has never repelled before so the boys and I cheered him on! It was a change to have the boys yelling, "YOU CAN DO IT!!"

It took a bit for Jason to finally take the fist step, due to nerves.
Later he told me he kept thinking, "If I fall, my kids are at the bottom. That is not good."
"Good positive thinking," I told him.

But  once he got going, there was no stopping him!
It was fun to see and hear the boys cheering on their dad!

After the repelling, it was a 3 mile run to the bowling alley.
Teams could choose to bowl 75 pins or three strikes.
The boys choose three strikes.
Jas teammate threw a strike the first frame!!
Then...it took about 20 more frames to get three strikes.

Here are the kiddos watching the bowling part of the Amazing race!

At the finish line.
Yep, they finished in first place!
The only team to finish under 4 hours (3:45) which was their goal.
AMAZING!!!

What wasn't amazing, was the way Jason walked for two days after the race! 

We Have a Basement!

When the workers came to pour cement, they were welcomed by mud and more mud.
So they started to pump out what water they could...and they stood around to watch water pump.

 

Eventually, the plumbers were able to install our sewer lines and our sump pump.

These are the lines to the new bathroom.

Due to the mud and trucks getting stuck in our yard, the workers already knew that they wouldn't be able to bring the dump truck of rock to the basement. So plan B. The dump truck dumped the rock in the yard by the lane. Then this bobcat would bring a load over to the basement and dump the gravel into the wheelbarrows. SLOW work!

Then the workers would attempt to wheel the wheel barrow...through the THICK MUD and dump the gravel around the basement. It was nearly impossible and ,again, SLOW work.

Eventually they got a" layer" of rock around the entire basement.Notice how they tried to "scoop" mud over the walls?  They didn't quite make it at times!

It wasn't a pretty sight!

The next day, we followed our cement truck back to our house.
I know..I am a rebel. You shouldn't follow large machines into work sites!!

After finishing the gravel work, they covered the entire basement with plastic. Interesting!

I didn't get to watch the actual pouring of the cement...had to go to work!

So when I got home, we had a beautiful new cement floor!

A perfectly smooth floor that looks like the walls have s@#* on them!

When Jason got home from work, he immediately went to the basement!

The boys planned out the man cave...what a happy night for ones with testosterone!!