I've Already Told, Now It Is Time To SHOW!!!

Okay, so here is the after pictures of all the projects I have been telling about. This first set is of the shelves I added to the pantry. I forgot to take the before pictures, but use your imagination. This space was occupied with small store bought plastic shelves with our food stuff stacked everywhere. I was very proud of myself for adding these shelves. It was much easier than I thought it would be.







So, I have to share this funny story. We have been buying boxes of Cheerios lately and the ones we have been buying have had this promotion of a cash card in the box. It is a 1 in 10 odds. We hadn't won anything in the 8 boxes we had opened. We bought 4 more boxes and I opened them after dinner. In the 10th box I found a silver packages at the bottom. Everyone came running. I felt like I was Charlie and had found the last golden ticket. We all guessed at what the value of the card would be. It was going to be $5, $10, or $25. You can see in the picture what we got! What a funny experience. Oh, and the last two boxes had nothing in them either.



Now, back to the tour. This picture if of our newly made fire pit area. The benches were just steel frames until the past Wednesday. They were my first project with all my new toys (power tools). Right after I took this picture I went to work staining and waterproofing them. They are a beautiful walnut brown now. We are excited to spend several fall nights enjoying a warm fire (too hot right now).


These are the axles from our house. We are planning to sell them. If anyone is interested let me know. Otherwise we are hauling them to a scrap metal yard. They aren't going to be FREE, but I think for $25 an axle I would part with them. Anyways, this isn't a sales pitch.

Okay, next stop. You can see the trim towards the top of the shed. We added those to the front AND back. And, even though you can't see it, we added a 1 x 2 and added it over the door. We are attempting to keep the rain out. It is the only place that leaks in the entire shed. I think this may have helped to fix the problem.

These next pictures are of my amazing work on the shelves. Please ignore all the junk that is filling them up, and just notice the shelves themselves. :) I am proud of the fact that this is ALL of our "stuff", including the house and our storage unit. We can see everything, and almost all of it is labeled. So we count it a victory. That was today's project. YEA!
Next stop back screen door. This was a Wednesday project as well. I wasn't planning on doing it that day, but heck, what a day. Of course the wind picked up and it had to rain a little to add to the mix. But we got it in. It had been wonderful as well as a challenge for the kids to remember they still have to shut the solid door when they go outside. Check. Another project down.

Last stop on our tour is the new location of the gate. I moved the fence out and around the shed. The yard looks so big and spacious now. We love it.

And that concludes the picture tour of our summer of projects. Thanks for coming along!

Later...

Updates on the Boys!

So our little Z finished t-ball. Here he is with his T-Ball trophy and he is SO proud of it. It is his first trophy and he carried it around with him all day the day he got it. The baseball at the top spins around. He thought that was especially cool!




Here is our little Z holding E for the first time. He is SO excited- I LOVE this picture!




My wife will kill me, but I HAVE to share this picture. She was changing his diaper and suddenly she heard a sound on the couch next to her. She inhaled quickly and grabbed the blanket. As you can possibly see in the picture, we have an amazing shooter! He arched all the way over her head and onto the couch. A couple days later, he made it from the love seat to the couch! You go boy!



This was the outfit our little E was wearing today. I love it. It has a little picture of a shark on the front. The hat is cute too. Check out the front and then the back! We love this one.



Our oldest just returned after spending three days at his aunt's house enjoying time with his cousins. We sure did miss him while he was gone, but I doubt very much that he missed us much. He played video games, computer, and watched TV/movies with his cousins for 3 days!

This afternoon we got the hallway all cleaned up and what food storage we had put in the cupboards. It is going to be so nice. I think the best part is that now the counter is mostly clear (power tools and paints supplies still there) and hauled out a TON of totes filled with decorations.

Tomorrow is clean the shed day. After that monumental task is complete, we will have completed every single task we had set for ourselves to accomplish this summer! YEA! GO us! Today was also payday and we had the fin job of paying bills. I hate that part of life- Money is direct deposited and then less than 24 hours later all the money is gone and on to some bill or other. But, we will have our van paid off next month and within 2 years (barring a major disaster) we SHOULD be able to be completely out of debt (minus the house)! Keep your fingers crossed- or send me lots of money- ha ha.

Well, it is time to read to my children before I send them off to bed.

Later...