Video Post

Quick post today...busy, busy this week. This is a video of Madi and Uncle Jason swimming in the lake Labor Day weekend. This is her first trip into the lake (where she couldn't touch the bottom.) Of course she absolutely loved it, my little fish. I know, it's old, but I didn't get it posted earlier. Enjoy!!

Movies

Has anybody seen Wall.e? It just came out and I am wondering if it's a good one. We love all the other Disney Pixar movies but really haven't seen much about this one. Thanks for the input!!

Building

I have a theme going this last week...building. So, I'll share with you our latest project. I know, I said that we were done building. But technically, WE are done building. We don't have to work on this project (sooo excited about that!!)

Monday night the crew and materials arrived to build our new shop out at the house!!! A company out of Stillwell, OK is building a 40x64 building and they are fast. They started yesterday morning at 7 and finished at 5:30 and had the entire frame and trusses hung. And there is only three guys working! I just went out to take quick pics while they left for lunch and was surprised to see the two long sides have metal already hung. They told us they would be done today, so we'll see. Yesterday was awfully cold and windy here, I don't know if that slowed them down any or not.

It will have a dirt floor for now. We just really needed something before winter. Our garage is full with the "toys" and mower (making it awfully stinky in there). So it will be great to get all that moved out, get the garage cleaned out (again) and be able to park inside. Chris has been having to wait for his windshield to thaw out the past two weeks, so I know he is looking forward to it. Plus there will be plenty of room to park both tractors inside and a nice wind block if he needs to work on them again. I'm really pulling to have a construction buddy of Chris' come out and do the concrete work. That is going to be a much bigger job than we have ever done plus it will save his back. I was glad to hear that he did talk to the guy yesterday about doing it.



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Other news...I won something!! I've never won anything before and this is so exciting! I wrote last week about Tip Junkie doing her 12 Days of Junkie giveaway. And I won a toddler fleece hat, gloves, and blanket set. Just what I needed. We stopped in Abilene on Sunday on the way to Chapman to get a hat for Madi. Good thing I didn't end up buying one! Don't forget to go check out the Shop-a-thon.

Have a great rest of the week. I have to get busy on my Christmas gifts!!

Love, Amy

Extreme Makeover Part 3

Madi and I went to Chapman Sunday to see the work and get a little viewing experience of the process. We drove into town and I really didn't want to park and load Madi up on the bus....so I took the chance that maybe I could park on a side street and walk over. So, for the first time, I got to see the damage that is still there. The grade school and high school had windows still shattered, no roofs, and even parts of the buildings gone. Just up the street, were the trailers lined up being used for classrooms with the teacher's name in the window. There was a church that had it's sanctuary ripped open and only two walls were left standing. And homes after homes that were still in ruin or in the process of being fixed. There were still homes with spray paint on the side with the date and time of when emergency personnel checked it after the storm. It was really sad.

Driving through town it was a sea of blue shirts. They were working on a building in the middle of downtown, they had a crew working on a welcome sign when you first hit town, and then at the house, there were hundreds of people working. When we parked, their was a man, a block and a half away from the new house, working by himself hanging siding. After leaving Chapman, I thought, what a shame. This show comes in and picks one family out of over 60 homes that were damaged by the same storm. How can they do that?

I knew there were other homes being helped. Chris and Dan went and worked at another home while we were there. But it was nice to see in the paper Monday that The Extreme Makeover team and volunteers have helped in some way at over 50 other homes in Chapman. That is wonderful!! What a great way to help get the community back on their feet.

Tomorrow morning is the reveal. I can't wait to see the show and see the final outcome of the house and the community. It is supposed to air on January 25, just days before Kansas Day, a good time to show what great people we have living in Kansas!!!

I put together the video's that Chris took and added the photos that he and I took on Sunday. All the people in blue shirts are the volunteers and the guys in red are among the five lead builders on the project. The stretch limo was bringing in "VIP's" to watch. How do you become a VIP? Aren't the VIP's supposed to be the family or maybe the hundreds of volunteers? Those would be my VIP's. Maybe they were the one's who footed the bill, who knows...Enjoy!!

Extreme Makeover Part 2

It was slow going in Chapman last night. They weren't ready for the electricians when they arrived. When I talked to him at 9:00 they still hadn't gotten started yet. There were a lot of volunteers on hand, he thought maybe a couple hundred. But maybe there wasn't enough direction or leadership. A lot of standing around waiting for the next task.

Chris was supposed to be working in the garage but when he left at 11:00, the concrete still hadn't been poured. We heard this morning that they didn't end up getting anyone in the garage to work until 3:00 am! The did get the pantry/laundry room roughed in. He said it was an 8x10 room with 8 guys in there working, plumbers, heating and air, electricians. But everybody was really nice, courteous, and understanding. It took them 30 minutes to get it completed. So, they decided to head on back home since they had plenty of people and nothing else to work on.

It's interesting to hear what really goes on there. On TV they make it look so easy and seamless with no problems. But that sure isn't the case right now. They've had some pretty big issues, nothing that can't be fixed, but I sure wouldn't want to be around during all this. If that was my house, I would be going on vacation too! And don't tell me anything that happened, I just want to enjoy the finished product!! After building our own home and experiencing the ups and downs of building over a 6 month time, I can only imagine what goes on when building a house from the ground up in 7 days. It's very cool what ABC and everyone involved with each of these homes is doing. Keep up the good work!!

Here's a couple of pics of the progress from last night!!
(And only one celebrity sighting, Michael Moloney was the only one that Chris saw there, maybe we'll see more on Sunday!!)

Christmas Cards

Since our lives are so hectic right know and totally revolve around a very busy business, we are having a terrible time getting our family photos taken for Christmas cards. But my favorite crafty lady at Skip to My Lou is having a great giveaway that may solve (part of) my problem.



At Skip to My Lou, get registered to win one of FIVE digital files to print your own Christmas cards and some really neat postage stamps to dress up those cards. How exciting, more freebies!! Plus, check out the rest of her site, she has awesome crafty ideas, recipes, and holiday tips.

All this holiday talk, I'm going to go join Madi in "Jingle Bells" (her new favorite song this past week!!!)

Headed to Chapman

If you haven't already heard, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is building a house in Chapman, KS for the Tutwiler family who lost their home in the tornado last June. Along with the new house, they are also building a new community center and refurbishing the city park. Chris and Ryan are headed there tonight along with a dozen other electricians in Salina to start the rough-in phase of the project. They are supposed to start at 6:30 this evening and have 6 hours to complete their jobs. Chris and Ryan will be working on the garage and pantry. I am sending the camera along with him and hopefully will have some pics to share tomorrow.

Sunday, they have to be back in Chapman at 5:00 am to do the finishing trim work which they have 8 hours to complete. I think that morning Madi and I will head over and check it out. It's pretty exciting stuff. There are a lot of contractors and tradesmen from the Salina area that have gone over already to help.

Check out the Rebuild Chapman website for pictures and a link to donate.

***Update***
Chris just came home to get some rest before going tonight. They are currently 6 hours behind on building. They are on call as to when they will actually be starting tonight (more likely early in the morning).

***Update...again***
This should be a fun night, they decided to go ahead and have everyone report at 6:30 anyways. Hopefully they don't have to wait around for too long. It's one thing to wait during the day, but not in the middle of the night.

Holiday Shopping

Need help getting ideas for all those special people on your holiday gift list? Check out Tip Junkie and the Mom-prenuer Shop-a-thon. Tip Junkie's Shop-a-thon features women who are selling their own products. What a great way to support women and small businesses.

Did I mention there are also prizes to be won? Tip Junkie is also doing 12 Days of Junkie and two winners will be chosen each day for the next 12 days!! Like Tip Junkie says, "Buy from women this holiday season!"

It runs!!!

We finally got our new tractor running. Well, it isn't new, it's a 1957 John Deere 720, but it's new to us. We got this tractor in trade from a neighbor and it had sat for quite awhile. It wouldn't start and Chris rebuilt the carb and put it back together yesterday and it started!! He was so excited and proud of himself.

This tractor is much bigger than our other tractor. When we bought our land, the guy who farmed it before was supposed to come out and get his implements. Well, he never did, so we inherited them. But they are so large, we didn't have anything to pull them with. Now all we need is a bailer and to find out if the swather that was also left behind works. We can then cut our own alfalfa instead of having a local farmer come over and do it. (I'm pulling for just getting goats and letting them eat it!!)

Our week

Sorry I didn't post this week. It's been a hectic week.

Jason and Tabatha were in town last weekend. Everyone came over for supper Sunday and to hang out for awhile. The guys (and Madi) went out and did some target shooting out back. They were all walking out and Madi comes running in the house, "I got to get my gun!" If you look close in the picture, Madi is also shooting "her gun", it's a squirt gun! She is too dang cute. I wish I had been closer to get a better picture. Later on all three were shooting and they were just shooting as fast as they could...Madi was the puller and was pushing the button as fast as it would launch!



Us three girls stayed inside and cooked supper while the boys (and Madi) played. Madi eventually made her way back up to the house and played with Aunt Tabatha.





Madi had to sit with Uncle Jason during supper. Poor Jason had to share the chair with her the whole meal, she wouldn't sit in her own chair and she wouldn't eat off her own plate, so he had to share his meal with her too. I have a feeling he didn't mind though ;)

Monday we went to Beloit for my dad's uncle's funeral. Uncle Tom passed away after battling cancer for the last 13 years. It was nice to see all of our family but a sad reason to finally get together. A lot of them we haven't seen in 8 years (since the last funeral). But there was talk of a family reunion this summer and that will be fun.

Tuesday morning was spent at the shop getting paperwork done. That's always a fun trip with Madi. I have about 3 hours that I can kind of keep her occupied with toys, a movie, and stopping to play ball or give snacks and then she is ready to go. So, I have started splitting it up. Doing bills and paychecks one day and invoices another day.

The rest of the week has been so stinking windy around here that we have hibernated in the house. The wind was so strong, Madi couldn't even walk against it. Our metal chairs and our barbecue grill have been moving all over the back deck, very noisy. I'm really surprised our little pine trees are still in the ground, it's been awful. Thursday we watched them harvest milo across the road from us. Madi loves tractors and combines so it was nice to watch them from the living room window. They probably lost a good quarter of their harvest transferring the milo from the combine to the tractor and then into the semi trucks because of the wind.

We have been going out in the evenings driving around and looking for deer. The other night we had an awesome night, we saw 17 deer! We had a big buck run right in the road in front of us, it was great. In another field we saw two massive bucks. They were well into this field and they still looked huge from the road. We saw them about two miles west of our house, we need to drive them closer!!! We have quite a few that come into our alfalfa field at night. We see them late though with our spotlight. Last week we had two bucks fighting and we could hear them butting horns from our back deck, pretty cool!!

Friday was play day. Kenley came to spend the day with us. The girls ran wild most of the day. I tried to lay them down for nap in Madi's room together, but that didn't work so well. Two minutes after laying them down I could hear them talking and giggling. I went in and Madi's sitting up in bed jabbering and Kenley's sitting up in her bed just giggling away. I told them to lay down and go to sleep. Two minutes later they are doing the same thing. I went in again and they both laid down real quick and Madi closes her eyes like she was sleeping, so ornery. I eventually had to separate them, it was not working! Here they are reading books, it was about the only 5 minutes of quiet we had all day, besides nap time. It was fun though and they get along really well.



This was from a couple weeks ago. Madi said she was going to school! She talks about going to school all the time now. We pick up Wyatt (Ryan's son) on Friday's from school and Madi loves it. I keep telling her she can't go to school until she potty's on the potty and wears big girl panties. Hasn't worked dang it! Question for all the mom's: Madi is totally not into wanting to even try potting on the potty, she flat out says no and doesn't want to. Do I keep talking about it everyday and asking her if she will go on the potty or do I just let it rest and try again later? It's like banging my head against the wall, and maybe it's like that for her too.



Last night was fight night again. This time we had both Quentin and Ryan fighting. Ryan won!!! His very first fight, it was awesome and of course they were all pumped and on cloud 9 last night. Chris and I were so stinking nervous before hand, I'm sure Jenny probably was too. Quentin
lost :( His guy gave a great fight and just would not go down. Quentin ended up breaking his hand halfway through the fight and wasn't able to throw many more punches. He finally ended up getting knocked out. We saw him after the fight and he looked pretty bad and then we saw the other guy and he looked just as bad, so it was a pretty good fight.

That's what we have been up to this last week...that was a long one (sorry!) Need to get busy, Chris has to work some today and is going to try and get our new tractor working and I need to go get Madi picked up from Grandma and Grandpa's. Have a good week!!

Love, Amy

The Day After...

What a day yesterday turned out to be. Chris went to work and ended up back at the house an hour later. He was simply bending over to pick up a piece of wood and his back went out. Not as bad as last time but he came home and got some medicine in and relaxed instead of making it worse and pushing on.

After Madi's nap, we tried getting her ready to go trick or treating. Lately she is very particular with what she wants and doesn't want to wear. So, I wasn't surprised when she threw a royal fit and didn't want to wear her cowgirl shirt (very cute button up plaid shirt), she didn't want to wear her cowboy boots. We went to get her picture taken at Forever Images, they were collecting food and money and you get a free 4x6 picture, but she was scared of the decorations and didn't get her picture taken. She was finally happy once we started trick or treating. We didn't go to too many places but she had a ball. She knocked on the door and would say "Trick or Treat" before they even opened the door. At Chris' grandma's apartment building an older lady invited us down to her apartment for candy.

Madi: "Trick or Treat"
Lady: "Here you go, do you want to give one to your Mommy?"
Madi: "Okay"...takes the candy and puts in her pail "I need one for my Daddy too."
Lady: "Oh, of course!"
Madi: takes the candy and puts in her pail..."Thank you"

Madi had no intention of giving us that candy. I think the only thing she saw the whole night was all the big bowls of candy, she wanted as much candy as she could get her little hands on.

Once we got to my parents house, we stayed for a bit to let her run around. She was so high on candy, she was running laps and literally would just fall over, she couldn't even stand or walk straight. She hadn't even had that much...yet!! But she had so much fun handing out candy to their trick or treaters. It was so cute! The doorbell would ring and she would run for the bowl on the table saying "I'll do it, I'll do it!" We would open the door and she would say "Trick or Treat" and put candy in their bags. As soon as they would leave she would run for her bag and have to get more candy out of Mom's bowl for herself. And she must have started at least four suckers and then want a different one.

After Mom's we stopped at our neighbor's house and Kenley (who is Madi's age) stopped shortly after and they both just ran and screamed and had a ball. It was too funny to watch. They probably won't want us back next year!! We finally made it home at 10:30! WAY past bedtime.

It was a little disappointing at first and I really didn't think we were going to end up doing any trick or treating, but it turned out to be a great evening and we really enjoyed ourselves. Hope everyone had a great evening!

Love, Amy


My little cowgirl!