catch up again

I see that people still visit me occasionally. Old habits die hard, I guess. Anyway, a brief recap of the last two months.

Bob has been working with a friend, paid by the hour as a self-employed or independent contractor. They do construction, mostly; repairs and remodels as well as new work. The friend also has lawn mowing equipment, but he does those jobs by himself. We are using that money to make improvements on our own house.

... We are enclosing the carport (3 bay) to make a living room. The 1 car garage will be a library, but that will come later. Meanwhile, we knocked the rock siding off of the house/garage wall inside the carport and emptied the garage into the metal building. Then, since Bob's tools and photo equipment are now in the building, it became imperative to get electricity down there. The electric company has been called, and we bought the wires and boxes to fix that up. Bob also put in some insulation and hung pegboard in the first available corner.

In the carport We are going to pour concrete to raise the floor and keep it dry, build a couple of walls with a bay window and a new entry door, put insulation in the ceiling and walls and finish them on the inside; wire for plugs, lights, and fans, put siding on the outside... It will be a lot of work. But as our current living area is 9 1/2 by 19 feet (and 5 + of that 19 is entry/walkway), we need the space. We may also include a closet for our bedroom as well as an entry/coat closet.

We had a yard sale at the house a few weeks ago, and did o.k. on Friday, but nothing on Saturday. Then this weekend we took our stuff to Anna Mary's Cakes parking lot sale along with 4 other families and their warehouse sale. Friday we did well, and Saturday was slow but still sold some. We didn't keep track of our sales, but spent what we earned on other people's stuff and had some left over. What was left was packed up and donated to two charities.

I had a really nice birthday, where Bob conspired with my friend to have a surprise party. SSon even called to say Happy Birthday. I had two cakes and got some new clothes as well as a new canner, kitchen timer, coupon for babysitting, and chocolate.

We've had a couple of interesting dining experiences, such as the time at our Huntsville Sonic, where we ordered a cheeseburger with mustard, they rang up a hamburger (which isn't even on the menu), and when it arrived it had bacon on it, but the Jr burger which we requested plain, with bacon (it rang up correctly) came with only ketchup. Then another time we ate at Colton's Steak House in Fayetteville for the first time. They had a big banner up that "kids eat free". We asked and were told it was 2 kid's meals for each adult. As Taryn is an adult, we would get 6 free, and come out just right. Bob and I shared a combo plate and appetizer, and the waitress said she'd have to charge full price on the appetizer (it was on sale) so it could count as a meal to get the free kid's meals. We thought that was o.k. But when the ticket came, she only took off the price of 4 kid's meals. ugh. If she'd said from the beginning it was 2 meals for every entree, we would have found another entree to order, but we asked first and were told... Anyway, they were the best ribs I've had in a LONG time, and the cheese fries were good, too.

Daniel got his first molar a couple of days ago, and has been randomly screaming throughout the day. He also persists in learning new things, and exploring with all his might. He can open the child safety lock on the kitchen cabinet, and easily climbs into any chair and on the table and piano. He is interested in the fire, but so far has not burned himself. He likes to hand me a stick to put into the fire. He can say several of our names, including his own, but always at full volume. He really just likes to yell, and yelled joyfully, without stopping, for a whole trip through Lowes while we priced flooring, lights, and siding. He's starting to get predictable in his bowel movements, so I put him on the toilet a couple of times. He grunted away when I told him to go potty, but nothing happened. He does still like to play in the toilet water (or whatever else might be in there, thanks to older siblings who don't always flush). We moved his bed into the boys' room this week, and he slept all night last night.

O.K. Enough for now. :)