More uses for duct tape

On Tuesday I had surgery to fix two pinched nerves and a problem with the tendon in my right arm. Everything went well and I am recovering nicely. I cannot straighten my arm yet so everyday Joe or Brian help me to stretch it out and try to straighten it a little more. Since I cannot hold it straight for any length of time Brian has offered to duct tape it down to my leg for me. Thanks Bri!

All in a days work

Joe built a lookout tower in the tree for the kids to play in awhile ago but Tyler wanted a fort, so Brian decided to build one in the backyard which would attach to the lookout tower. The result? A castle of course!

Brian, Ty & Kevin hard at work. Although she doesn't appear in the pictures Kaitlin was hard at work on the other side of the building.

Ty trying to hide inside

The ladder to the second story

Ty wanted trees outside the door and flower boxes on the windows. Katie and I will make him a flag to fly on top but we have not been able to convince them that it needs flower curtains on the windows. Papa and daddy are trying to figure out how to make the drawbridge go up and down without electricity. So far they have not found a way to make it feasible for a 3 year old to manage by himself.

More Craigslist Finds

Here are a couple of the free items that Joe has found for us on Craigslist.


8 person hot tub. We had to completely reside it but it was worth it.

Redwood gazebo. Brian & Joe had to completely disassemble this at the previous owners home and then reassemble it in our backyard. Lots of fun but since it was free they were okay with it.

Joe brought home this concrete culvert from work and turned it into a firepit. Slowly but surely we are getting the yard done. Now if only someone would give away some sod!

About time

After four years and three months of dating Brian Carson finally proposed to Amanda. We are thrilled! They will be sealed in the San Diego Temple this summer. The year is off to such a great start! New furniture, new paint, new carpet, a new son-in-law, a new grandbaby, I mean really - what more could anyone ask?

More paint

One of the changes in the living room was new carpet. The carpet that came with the house was poor quality and was pretty worn even though we've only been here for 4 years. Along with the living room we decided to replace the carpet on the stairs, in the loft and upstairs hallways. Brian & Katie also replaced the carpet in their bedroom & Tylers room. We've been wanting to repaint the upstairs for several years now but had been putting it off. There's nothing like replacing the carpet to motivate the painting. So we once again began the discussions of what color to use. Fortunately for us Brian & Katie had bought more paint than they needed for their room & Tylers room so we used the left over paint and redid the entire loft and upstairs halls. The carpet arrived at the end of February and was installed right away. It was quite an adventure having the guys here all day installing carpet and Tyler thinking that he was one of them and should be allowed to help. One of the installers had his nose pierced and Tyler asked him why he had a staple through his nose. The guy replyed that "It seemed like a good idea at the time" to which Tyler responded that he should be more careful with the staple gun and that he (Tyler) could use a staple gun without getting a staple in his nose. We all had a good laugh. Thankfully the guy was a good sport and did not get upset. The walls are much lighter than they were before and I love the contrast between the light walls and the dark carpet. It is so nice to walk on soft floors! It is amazing to me how much difference there is now between the old and new carpet. With all the changes and rearranging of things we have teased Katie about spreading her "nesting" to the rest of us. She is only 4 weeks from delivery and while I really love the changes in the house I do hope we are done for awhile.

My how time flies!!

Ok so I knew I had not posted for awhile but over 3 months - that was a shock to see! As always life is never dull in the Shoehouse. Christmas came and went with lots of joy and love, was that really 3 months ago? January brought many changes in our home. First off I have to say that Joe has an addiction to Craigslist that I just cannot understand. I guess it's the thrill of finding a bargain - or better yet a freebie. Despite my forbidding this behavior (like I can forbid him anything!) he continues to search the list daily. I did ask if he was going to search the list would he at least look for things we really need instead of just finding things for fun. We ended up getting a new set of sofa's for our living room which was really nice. We moved the old living room set to the family room - much to Tyler's dismay - and I finally got rid of my mismatched couches in the family room. The first morning Tyler came down and saw the living room furniture in the family room he cried "I want the old ones back! I can't play on these." The fun began when we realized the new sofa's did not match the wall color or the drapes in the living room which set off a chain reaction of events resulting in an entirely new room. Katie knew that one of the ladies at church was getting a degree in interior design & suggested we call her. We bartered her design services for Katie's photograhs of the finished product for her portfolio. So after Amie's first visit we spent several days - or maybe it was weeks - trying to agree on a new wall color. After having sample cards taped to the wall for several days we narrowed it down to four and bought sample sizes of each one. After painting them on the wall we scrapped them all and started over. I lost count of how many colors we actually looked at but we finally found one that we could agree on and the work began. Removing all the furniture, cleaning walls, taping baseboards & crown moulding, windows, etc. While we were busy painting Amie was busy trying to find accessories and drapes to match the new furniture. It was a great agreement. I destest shopping and Amie loves it. So she did all the shopping and brought everything over. All I had to do was choose what I liked and she returned the rest. With her help and gudiance we have a room that we absolutely love and thanks to Katie, Amie will have another set of photo's for her portfolio. Here's the finished product photographed by Joe on our little camera since Katie's are not done yet.