I am SO tired. This will be short. I just wanted to update you and tell that we have almost finished the shed. We have been taking pictures on the whole process so Soon I will be able to do a entire post devoted to the shed process.
I only have one more class on Thursday and then I get a summer! YEA! I still have to write two 3-5 page papers for my final assignment. Fun- NOT!
Well, it is getting late and time for bed,
Later...
Friday, July 3
Tuesday, June 30
1 Down, 1 to Go
Greetings All,
I promise that I will post pictures of the shed and deck soon. My wife is taking pictures of the whole process, so they are being taken.
Tonight was the last night of my Tuesday class. I am pretty confident that I got an A in that class. YEA ME! Dr. Johnson is a pretty amazing teacher. I still hated writing papers for him, but what do you do. I did learn a lot, however, I am excited to continue on in the program and see what other classes bring to my knowledge base.
Our yard is sure coming together.
Yesterday, I was able to round up my father and a friend and we got the floor built. That alone was a 4 hour project. I was shocked that it takes so long to build things. (Side note for those of you who don't know me very well, I am SO NOT handy it is sad. So nothing in this department should shock you!) Today I was hoping to get all 4 walls pounded out. I was able to get all the lumber for the rear and two side walls marked and ready to cut before my father was able to come with his saw. He cut the wood and I was able to help him get the rear wall built before I had to get ready for my class.
Class only went for 2 hours tonight. That was nice. I was able to see almost all of my son's little league game. He did so good. He got a run, was able to pitch, play outfield, and cheer for his team (he only gets to play about 1/2 of every game).
After the game we came home and I laid out and created one of the 20 foot wall frames. The other wall is ready to be nailed, I just need to get it done. That is my goal for tomorrow.
It has been so HOT and HUMID that I am dying. It is after 10pm here and still the temp. is in the high 80's. YUCK!
My paycheck came in today and we were able to pay bills. That is a love hate thing for me. I love to get them paid and know that we are actually staying in our budget. I hate that when we are done, we are done for the month as far as money to spend is concerned! That gets very frustrating. I was able to start the process to get my lane change for my pay schedule at school so that extra little bit will help and I am thankful for that.
I think I have a 2 new companies to add to my Companies I Hate list. These candidates are shocking additions, even for me. The first company on the chopping block is none other than American Express. I was just the recipient of a 3% interest rate increase and was told "it was across the board and there is nothing we can do about it". There reasoning is "due to the economy, we felt we needed to raise the rates!". Hello- really?
Company number 2 on the block is SUTHERLAND'S. Not only has the lumber from my $2000 shed been brittle, it is warped, cracked, and crappy! We are taking pictures so I can e-mail them and share how wonderful their lumber is and tell them thank you for taking such great care of me, as a customer. Also, their shed plans leave much to be desired in the way of information. I guess they expect an expert carpenter to be on hand to decipher what they have written. If you have already forgotten, see the note above about my amazing skills in this department!.
Anyways, I've not made my final decision about these two yet. We (my wife and I) have to decide if we are going to cancel our AMEX card and keep our current rate to pay off our balance, or just eat it for now and work on getting the rate lowered in a few months to a year.
Well, now that I told you way more than you most likely cared to know, I will end this and head to bed. More exciting adventures coming your way tomorrow!
Later...
I promise that I will post pictures of the shed and deck soon. My wife is taking pictures of the whole process, so they are being taken.
Tonight was the last night of my Tuesday class. I am pretty confident that I got an A in that class. YEA ME! Dr. Johnson is a pretty amazing teacher. I still hated writing papers for him, but what do you do. I did learn a lot, however, I am excited to continue on in the program and see what other classes bring to my knowledge base.
Our yard is sure coming together.
Yesterday, I was able to round up my father and a friend and we got the floor built. That alone was a 4 hour project. I was shocked that it takes so long to build things. (Side note for those of you who don't know me very well, I am SO NOT handy it is sad. So nothing in this department should shock you!) Today I was hoping to get all 4 walls pounded out. I was able to get all the lumber for the rear and two side walls marked and ready to cut before my father was able to come with his saw. He cut the wood and I was able to help him get the rear wall built before I had to get ready for my class.
Class only went for 2 hours tonight. That was nice. I was able to see almost all of my son's little league game. He did so good. He got a run, was able to pitch, play outfield, and cheer for his team (he only gets to play about 1/2 of every game).
After the game we came home and I laid out and created one of the 20 foot wall frames. The other wall is ready to be nailed, I just need to get it done. That is my goal for tomorrow.
It has been so HOT and HUMID that I am dying. It is after 10pm here and still the temp. is in the high 80's. YUCK!
My paycheck came in today and we were able to pay bills. That is a love hate thing for me. I love to get them paid and know that we are actually staying in our budget. I hate that when we are done, we are done for the month as far as money to spend is concerned! That gets very frustrating. I was able to start the process to get my lane change for my pay schedule at school so that extra little bit will help and I am thankful for that.
I think I have a 2 new companies to add to my Companies I Hate list. These candidates are shocking additions, even for me. The first company on the chopping block is none other than American Express. I was just the recipient of a 3% interest rate increase and was told "it was across the board and there is nothing we can do about it". There reasoning is "due to the economy, we felt we needed to raise the rates!". Hello- really?
Company number 2 on the block is SUTHERLAND'S. Not only has the lumber from my $2000 shed been brittle, it is warped, cracked, and crappy! We are taking pictures so I can e-mail them and share how wonderful their lumber is and tell them thank you for taking such great care of me, as a customer. Also, their shed plans leave much to be desired in the way of information. I guess they expect an expert carpenter to be on hand to decipher what they have written. If you have already forgotten, see the note above about my amazing skills in this department!.
Anyways, I've not made my final decision about these two yet. We (my wife and I) have to decide if we are going to cancel our AMEX card and keep our current rate to pay off our balance, or just eat it for now and work on getting the rate lowered in a few months to a year.
Well, now that I told you way more than you most likely cared to know, I will end this and head to bed. More exciting adventures coming your way tomorrow!
Later...
Sunday, June 28
Victory Is MINE!
Tonight I won a huge victory! I finished all my required papers for this semester. In fact, the only assignment I have left to complete is the final in one class. I can not describe the excitement I am feeling. What a joy to know that I can start spending time with my kids instead of reading non-stop and writing papers for hours on end.
We let the kids swim today. That was entertaining to say the least. Well, I sat on the bench and read Tuesday reading assignment while my wife watched the kids. I love my little ones so much. They are growing up WAY to fast.
After swimming, we finished the back patio. We have added all we can until our shed is built. It looks SO nice. It goes around the new deck and makes the entire project finally looks complete.
After helping a friend move a deep freezer I returned home and enjoyed a nice dinner with my little family. We had fruit pizza. The kids had never had it before and they LOVED it. That was fun. In fact, in order to get the pizza finished, I had to run to the store and I took my one-year old with me. He is so funny. I love that he has started talking. He was naming everything was saw: cars, dogs, pop cans, food items- you name it!
The rest of the evening was spent finishing up my papers. Tomorrow I will submit the final 2 and be done. Then I must await the grading of all three papers. I am also awaiting the grading of 3 assignments in my other class. All I know is that I need to get my grades in and my reimbursement from the district. We were upset that our credit card just informed us they were raising our interest rate by 3%. We have been members for over 8 years and NEVER had a late payment. I am very frustrated by the whole mess. When I called to ask why they are raising our rate, the customer service rep. informed me that it was due the the slump in the economy. Hello, everyone is struggling to make ends meet so let's raise everyone's interest rates. Make sense to me- NOT! Duh!
Anyways, our car will be paid off in the next couple months and then we will attack our credit card debt. With-in two years we plan to be debt free (ha, ha- since something ALWAYS goes wrong- but it is a nice goal!)
I guess that since it is now almost 1am and I have meetings early in the morning for church I best be heading to bed.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,
Later...
We let the kids swim today. That was entertaining to say the least. Well, I sat on the bench and read Tuesday reading assignment while my wife watched the kids. I love my little ones so much. They are growing up WAY to fast.
After swimming, we finished the back patio. We have added all we can until our shed is built. It looks SO nice. It goes around the new deck and makes the entire project finally looks complete.
After helping a friend move a deep freezer I returned home and enjoyed a nice dinner with my little family. We had fruit pizza. The kids had never had it before and they LOVED it. That was fun. In fact, in order to get the pizza finished, I had to run to the store and I took my one-year old with me. He is so funny. I love that he has started talking. He was naming everything was saw: cars, dogs, pop cans, food items- you name it!
The rest of the evening was spent finishing up my papers. Tomorrow I will submit the final 2 and be done. Then I must await the grading of all three papers. I am also awaiting the grading of 3 assignments in my other class. All I know is that I need to get my grades in and my reimbursement from the district. We were upset that our credit card just informed us they were raising our interest rate by 3%. We have been members for over 8 years and NEVER had a late payment. I am very frustrated by the whole mess. When I called to ask why they are raising our rate, the customer service rep. informed me that it was due the the slump in the economy. Hello, everyone is struggling to make ends meet so let's raise everyone's interest rates. Make sense to me- NOT! Duh!
Anyways, our car will be paid off in the next couple months and then we will attack our credit card debt. With-in two years we plan to be debt free (ha, ha- since something ALWAYS goes wrong- but it is a nice goal!)
I guess that since it is now almost 1am and I have meetings early in the morning for church I best be heading to bed.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,
Later...
Thursday, June 25
Deck AHOY!
Well, yesterday my father and I started building out 4' x 8' deck with 4' wide stairs and after 13 hours we almost completed the project. It turned out SO amazing. My wife is mucho pleased as she has been wanting that done for a long time. The scary part was a we went to disassemble the current stairs, the stair boards just lifted off. The stringer was also broken. I am so surprised that someone has not had a serious accident on those old stairs. The new stairs however are AWESOME! They have toe-kicks so your foot won't get stuck under a step causing you to fall, and the deck itself is big enough to feel spacious, but not so big as to overtake the patio below. I was so exhausted (it was well over 90 degrees yesterday) that I feel asleep when I was supposed to be watching a movie with my munchkins. Only thing left to do now if finish the patio out back. Now that the deck
Then at 2:30am this morning, I awoke (temp. still around 75 degrees- yuck) to thunder. We had left car windows down and our canopy up in the back yard so my wife and I jumped out of bed and got the windows up and the canopy off the frame. I never really slept well as it was so hot!
My father returned this morning at 7am and we finished the steps. So the deck is officially done! YIPPEEE! Now if I could just get my shed up and done we could move ALL the crap we have n storage into it and not have to drive to the storage shed every time my wife needs to get out the bigger kid clothes. (Love you dear!)
Tonight I am doing the 30 minute presentation with Ms. D and I will be glad when it is done. In fact as soon as I done typing this post I have to read over my part of the presentation and make notes so I know exactly what we were trying to say with each slide. Our teacher has already looked at the slides and commented that they looked nice. And shockingly enough, I also have over 50 pages still to read before 3pm today. We'll see. I can only do what I can do.
Guess that is about the extent. I have have also given a voice lesson this morning and now I need to sign off and get to work on my classwork. I have either a 3 or 4 page paper due Tuesday (I can choose which to do first) and NO PAPER Thursday! Tonight I will type my last reflective journal entry and e-mail that in. Next week is, I believe, the last week of classes! I am SO ready to have a summer :).
Well, best go. I will try to get a picture of the deck on here soon.
Later...
Then at 2:30am this morning, I awoke (temp. still around 75 degrees- yuck) to thunder. We had left car windows down and our canopy up in the back yard so my wife and I jumped out of bed and got the windows up and the canopy off the frame. I never really slept well as it was so hot!
My father returned this morning at 7am and we finished the steps. So the deck is officially done! YIPPEEE! Now if I could just get my shed up and done we could move ALL the crap we have n storage into it and not have to drive to the storage shed every time my wife needs to get out the bigger kid clothes. (Love you dear!)
Tonight I am doing the 30 minute presentation with Ms. D and I will be glad when it is done. In fact as soon as I done typing this post I have to read over my part of the presentation and make notes so I know exactly what we were trying to say with each slide. Our teacher has already looked at the slides and commented that they looked nice. And shockingly enough, I also have over 50 pages still to read before 3pm today. We'll see. I can only do what I can do.
Guess that is about the extent. I have have also given a voice lesson this morning and now I need to sign off and get to work on my classwork. I have either a 3 or 4 page paper due Tuesday (I can choose which to do first) and NO PAPER Thursday! Tonight I will type my last reflective journal entry and e-mail that in. Next week is, I believe, the last week of classes! I am SO ready to have a summer :).
Well, best go. I will try to get a picture of the deck on here soon.
Later...
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