From the front. . .

We had a request for a picture from the front of the house to see how the addition is tied in. Here ya'r!

House Update

Here's Joel working on the roof. I hope ya'll haven't been losing sleep over our roofless state, because he did finish it. Actually, he finished it the night that it began to rain! God is good. It seemed to take FOREVER (especially for Joel), but it's done and it looks awesome!



Here's our house, complete with roof, windows, and Tyvek! Isn't it beautiful?!? Now comes the fun part: wiring and plumbing. This part isn't so easy as it sounds, and it seems to be a long process. Joel keeps telling me we'll be done by the end of March. I think I believe him. But in the meantime, it sure is nice to not have leaves and wind rolling through the house, willy-nilly.



The current job: wiring and plumbing. Crazy how much wire it takes. Seriously. It makes me think that candles are very practical. :) After this step (and the inspection) comes insulation (yay!), and then drywall. This is a very happy part for Joel, since he isn't doing it! (drywall, that is.) I guess that leaves time for siding. Alas.

Here's Joel's little workshop. It was supposed to be a garage, but our house is too close to the property line to have a real garage. At least he'll have a home for all of his tools (and my freezer). :) Aren't the stairs awesome? Much better than the paint bucket we had been using to get to the main level! Joel learned his lesson with those, though: never ask your wife what she wants when you could just google the correct dimensions. Apparently I want the railing 6 inches higher than what is considered "normal." Poor guy!!

(Now, I'm sure ya'll are going to be wondering why there are pictures on this post but not on the previous posts. Joel is now sitting by me and has instructed me in the blogger method of picture placement. Way to go, coach!)

Just the Girls

While Joel was enjoying himself down under, the girls and I headed to Portland for a week of friends, family, and FUN! We were thankful to stay with Bob and Karen Callison who graciously opened their house and hearts to us. The girls asked for some time afterwards when we were going back!

Our week in a nutshell: a visit to the Ramona Quimby Park at Grant Park, my friend Heather's baby shower with the college gang (Carrie and Mer), a fun night out on the town (no kiddos) with Mer (Flying Pie Pizza and Pied Cow), lunch and a visit with Grandma Mouser, and LOTS of Mommy/daughter time. :)

Meghan came down a week after we left (she just can't get enough of her wonderful family!), and we went to the TuleLake Fair. SO much fun! The girls went on rides, we ate dough boys (elephant ears to the rest of the world), and we even ran into family. What are the chances that Uncle Mike and Aunt Tami would be there when we were? So they invited us over for dinner and we got to catch up with everyone.

Joel didn't get to come. Poor guy, stuck in Australia with tons of wind and rain. :)

We'll put pics on Picasa. :)

So Joel wrote that he'd write more. That was two months ago. So now I've been assigned the illustrious task of updating ya'll on a good deal of things. First, we'll cover Australia. I didn't go. There really are no bitter feelings (aside from the fact that I've never left North America and I've never been to Hawaii). :) But Joel had a good time. He's pictured here with a beautiful Land Cruiser. Most of the pictures he took were of Land Cruisers. Go figure! But he also had the opportunity to spend two nights in Hawaii, see Pago Pago (or at least the airstrip), go to an awesome petting zoo (a favorite with many of those who went), and see some of the Australian coast. I'd post more pictures, but this blog thing is evil and won't put the pictures in the order I want them or where I want them. Therefore, please visit our Picasa webpage to see more of the sights. Unfortunately, it was monsoon season so he was unable to go deep-sea fishing. He did, however, make time to visit a wrecking yard where he picked up side-view mirrors, rear sliding windows, a dash grab handle, and a few other cool Land Cruiser items not available on American models. Go figure. :)