most recent remodel pics

The new foundation was poured last week and the old porch roof was taken off.

and they tore out the old nasty shed on the side of the house. Yay! no more smelly shed! The feral cats used to live under it and you can imagine the smell. Yuck!













They removed the inside coat closet and created an inside opening to the laundry room. The outside door we used to use to get to the laundry was closed off. It's so nice not having to go out in the heat to do laundry!

our house remodel

These are the "before" pictures of our back yard and back bathroom prior to the remodel. We are expanding our master bedroom and bath, which I am very excited about!







They had to replace the old clay sewer pipes because they wouldn't hold up under the new foundation and they also had to remove the tree.




Geoff using his "new" shower, ha ha! after they tore everything out.

The tree ended up in the alley.

Gracie and Sierra and Jake had a lot of fun running up and down the big pile of dirt.

little me

My mom just sent these pictures to me so I thought I'd share. Aren't we cute? These pictures are proof that my hair was once curly and red! These were taken when I was between one and three years old. My sister Angie is 14 months older than me and my brother Danny is 20 months younger than me. My mother is a saint! I don't know how she did it, but I sure love her for it.




We are with my dad's mom in this one. She passed away as a result of a brain tumor in 1990 at the age of 60. I was only 16. It was so sad to think that my younger sisters and cousins would never get to know her. I know we'll all be together again someday and it will be a great reunion.

Training Gracie

This should be my final post for the day and I think it speaks for itself. Enjoy! Those interested in Geoff's dog training fees can feel free to contact us (hee hee!)

Stroller and Charlie

I got to watch me nephew Charlie, my sister Cynthia's son, this week. He is so cute, especially when he laughs. He loves to suck on his fingers. He has the biggest brown eyes and we're pretty sure he's going to have red hair so we'll have another red-head in the family.


Here's a picture of the infamous stroller mentioned earlier. For some reason Sierra and Jake didn't want me to take their picture. As you can see they share the same seat, which starts out all right, but it's a good thing the park is close because it's not too long before Sierra starts to complain about how heavy Jake is! I've told them they're going to have to work this problem out if they want to keep going to the park. We'll see what they come up with! Note the bottom of the stroller which I mentioned in a previous post, imagine that the seat is gone and that the kids are standing up in the bottom! Can you picture it? They thought it was pretty cool.

even more Gracie

Gracie and the slide

I trained Gracie to go down the slide one day at the park. It took me a while to do it because at first she was scared just to go up the steps to the play place. I just sat on the steps and waited for several minutes and she finally got the nerve to climb up with me. Then I picked the really small slide and went down it, waiting at the bottom for her. It took her quite a while to follow me but she eventually did and I was so proud of her! I gradually took her to the big slide and would slide half way down and let her come to me. Eventually, as you'll see on this video, she got to the point where she does it on her own, and she loves it! She tries to climb back up for more! Gracie's really cute and has really started to grow on me. She's almost house trained and is at the top of her puppy training class. The trainer even said she's ready for intermediate training, which is unusual for a 15 week old puppy. She's been really good with kids, too. She loves to play with them and let them pet her. Her new love is the dog park. The first time we took her she found a dachsund who wanted to play and they chased each other all over the park, our ungraceful Gracie biffing it when she tried to take a corner too tight! Geoff and I were laughing out loud watching those two dogs. Gracie would then go get a drink get all wet, then plop in the dirt to play again. She was filthy when we took her home and we had to put her directly in the bath. It was worth it to see her having so much fun.