More garage photos

A little action at the end of last week on the garage.


Here's our big trench that was dug in the backyard for the beginnings of the new foundation. It's 3 to 4 feet deep.


Here is where all the stuff from our garage is currently residing, with a BIG thanks to Dad for helping Jim and me with this when they were visiting.


Our contractor has a clause in his contract that he is not liable for damages to either driveways or landscaping. I thought we'd escaped unscathed after the demo didn't damage anything, but that was before the truck came to pick up the dumpster full of old foundation rock. Nice big chunk out of the driveway now.


Here is the view from our driveway, looking back to where the garage used to stand. Note the driveway hole in the left part of the picture - it's directly outside my kitchen window so I get to see it all the time.


The old garage started right about where that yellow tape is appearing to cross the remaining porch area outside the gate. The new one had to get pushed back to be code compliant and will probably start about where that little bush/tree is growing on the other side of the fence. Only about 5 or 6 feet back, and it's going into what was essentially dead space in the back yard.

They poured some concrete in the trench today, so if it's not raining tomorrow I'll get a couple more shots.

Introducing Miss Ulysses S. Grant

Grace's teacher has her class do a "Living Presidents Museum" as one of the big projects every year. Each child chooses a President to research, then on Museum Day they show up in costume. Each child stands with head down with a sticker on his/her hand. When you press the sticker the "statue" comes to life and proceeds to tell you about the President. When done with the facts the "statue" returns to the "sleeping" position. It was VERY cute.

Grace chose Ulysses S. Grant because according to Jim he is a however-many greats grandad to her. I took a movie of her doing her speech, but it's hard to hear her with so many other Presidents talking in the room at the same time, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works.

Down goes the garage

A little excitement here today with the demo of the old garage. Our contractor discovered that the base of the structure was almost rotted through, and instead of collapsing into itself when being crushed, it started falling outward. He was a little concerned that he'd have to replace some fencing and deck posts, but I think everything is turning out okay. Apparently we are lucky it didn't collapse on us at some point - good thing we never parked the cars in it.


If you can see the tiny tree to the left of the garage, that is what kept us from taking out part of the neighbor's fence.



Too bad both kids are in school right now and only the dog is here to share the excitement with me (and hearing her repeated barking I bet she wishes she weren't here).

Sledding fun

We got about 4 inches of snow between last night and this morning. So we headed out this afternoon to try out sledding at a park across town (across town being relative in our tiny place - it takes maybe 10 minutes to get there, even with driving through downtown). Lots of fun - we thought we'd waited too late because you could see the grass sticking up through the snow. But the sledding was a nice step up from the smaller hill at the school across the street.


Alex and Jim ready to go down together.


Trudging up the hill again.


Sweet Gracie.


Alex won't smile with his teeth showing any more for some reason.




Best was toward the end when the kids started sledding together. This is them coming back up the hill. It's a little deceiving because I zoomed in on them as they were walking up, so you can't see how far the trip actually took. (NOTE: I reloaded a slightly smaller size video - maybe it will pull up easier).

What the kids like

First off, who knew the last post was #500 for this blog! I feel like I should have done something more than just dump pictures from my phone onto it.

I realized I could title just about every post "kids." Sometimes I veer off that topic, but since they are pretty much what my life revolves around these days I can get a little fixated on them.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what personalities my kids have developed and what they have discovered interests them. And much to my happiness both the kids have really developed a love of science. I sometimes have to defer to Jim in this area - science was the one subject in school I never really cared for. But Grace's main gift she asked Santa for this past Christmas was a microscope. She originally wanted a telescope until we convinced her that living in the most densely populated state in the union didn't allow for many dark skies at night.

Alex is on his second round of science enrichment classes at his school (they are once a week for about 6 weeks). And his two new favorite shows are Sid the Science Kid and the Magic School Bus, both of which teach kids about various science topics. Plus he will tell you he wants to be a "robot maker" when he grows up, which if he wants to hang on to that dream for the rest of his life that is totally fine with me.

As I mentioned, science was never my strong suit, but if my kids want to get into it then I'll be right there with them along for the ride.

So I don't go a full week between posts

Here's some pictures from the phone.


Alex and one of his best buddies Henry at gymnastics today. ("Mommy, look - I'm being a worm in the picture." - whatever!)


Alex attempting to practice his cartwheel. He will tell you he can do it, but really this is about as much air as he gets with it.


Grace takes a lunchtime enrichment class for the next few weeks where she is learning origami. Today she learned how to make these hats, which she promptly did for her brother and stuffed animal upon arriving home today.