Weekend passes
-- 14 August 2006 [Monday]
Another work day, nothing special so far. Rode the Moto Guzzi into work again today. 89F. Nice. Suppose to get hotter the next two days and then cool back down, but just a bit. It's been a real treat the last two days or so to have the air off and the windows open. Got downright cool at night, requiring a blanket or two. I love it!
Amanda picked up the cabinet hardware at Lowes today for our bathroom makeover. I let her choose whatever she wished as I want her to like it. Anything will look good to me as that dark bathroom cabinet is gone now with the Navajo White we painted it. Speaking of Navajo White (the color we choose for the cabinets), the wierdest coincidence happened this weekend. At night after the kids went to bed Amanda was watching one of her CSI recorded shows and part of the crime scene clue was the color "Navajo White" - man, what are the odds of that?! We had never even heard of the color until we picked it up on Saturday at ACE.
Had McDonald's for lunch today. Haven't had it in about a month I would say, it tastes good, but then an hour later I wish I wouldn't have had it! Had to get some candy in the lobby store to change the 'taste' in my mind.
Nothing special at night. I just ate quick as the kids had already eaten and they all played outside until bedtime. We talked with Dawn while the kids were playing with Alex and TJ as well.
-- 13 August 2006 [Sunday]
We started off the morning putting our first coat of paint on the doors and base cabinet. Looks good. Feels good to get started too. it's turning out a bit more yellow than I would like, but I noticed it only when it's shaded.
After painting I made up PB&J sandwiches and we all headed to the park - "Todds park" - as we like to call it, because of our neighbor Todd Weiss who told us about it first. We don't go there much but when we do we have a good time. We went on the 'secret trail' - a path Keegan and I discovered on a previous visit. I like to pretend it's only our secret, but Keegan keeps telling me, "No dad, everyone knows", and I say "but how? I didn't tell them, did you?". He just repeats his 'everyone knows' response. :) We stayed a good two hours and the kids played their acorn game, where I gather all these acorns from the ground and they roll them down the slide while one person is at the bottom and tries to catch them without allowing them to bounce past them. Kept Keegan and Carson busy for at least an hour.
When we left we headed over to check out one more nearby subdivision - Breckenridge. Nice homes but the yards are much too small for us. We also found a couple of subdivisions we didn't know about, but the houses we could afford in that area again had yards much too small.
We headed home and played some, and I finally balanced as best I could the new rear tire I put on for the URAL, but didn't mount it up yet as I want to pull the final drive and inspect it for wear and grease it. Then we made dinner. Bath time was up next and kids really enjoyed it and didn't want to get out, but Amanda said they could wax their hands as earlier in the day she dragged out her wax machine, and Keegan and Carson dipped their hands in wax as did we. It was hot to my touch, but bearable. I'm suprised the kids did it without fuss. Then it was off to bed for a quick book and story as it was well past their 8pm bedtime by now. While laying quietly after story with Ian trying to get him to fall asleep, Keegan said the sadest thing to me, that just broke my heart... basically he said something along the lines of "Dad, you never spend just time alone with just me anymore." I about cried I felt that bad. But I talked with him and layed with him in bed and told him we'll make one day a week - just his. Just him and me go out and do something - anything he wants. Movies, parks, dinner, etc. He also said he wants me to take him to the birthday party this Saturday that he has for Emma and on Sunday to see Gina (our next door neighbor) sing at church. He especially enjoys that and I am grateful he does. He got so excited talking about it, and he explained to me how we can sit aywhere we want and that "we get to eat afterwards!" - that last bit he seemed especially excited about. It made me smile a huge smile talking with him in bed like that. Of course I'll have to give Carson his one day a week as well and eventually Ian when he gets a bit older. All of those will be fun for sure. I just wish there was more of me to go around to them. I hate work solely for this reason I think.
-- 12 August 2006 [Saturday]
We started off the day looking at new houses. We visited the Martha Stewart houses built by KB homes in Morrisville. Beautiful. I'm not a fan of Martha Stewart, but I couldn't help but like these houses. Every single one of them. They even offer five ranch models which we both like. Problem is they are quite expensive. We could afford the base models, but to option them out how we would like would quickly put the price in the $300's range which we don't want to get into. Beautiful homes though. Perhaps in another five or seven years or so we may look again. At that point we should only have about six years left to pay off the house thus we'll have a lot more equity built up for a down payment. We'll see.
After the homes we headed over to ACE Hardware by our house. I really like that place. Yes, it's more expensive than the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes, but service is immediate and good, and everyone is always so friendly when you walk in there. Makes it feel like a small town mom and pop hardware store, which I like. Anyway on this day they had a .25 cent lunch cart outside offering hot dogs and a drink. Both included for .25 cents!!! amazing. They had the whole range of condiments available as well including chili. It seemed like quite a success based on the traffic flow we saw while we all sat outside on the brick planters and ate our ten - yes TEN - hot dogs between the five of us. We'll really four, since Ian wasn't fond of them. We got Keegan to try one finally and he liked it, so much so that he ate two of them. After lunch we went in and got our paint for the master bath cabinets - Navajo White. Looks more yellow in the shade as we soon found out after the first coat, but we still like it better than the dark brown wood that was there before. Ian got very crabby so Amanda took him out to the truck while we waited for the paint to be mixed. Keegan and Carson had never seen this and they were both fascinated by it, especially the machine that shakes the can around.
We headed home and applied a quick coat while the kids played out front. Feels good to get started that's for sure. I'm lucky Amanda is such a big help on projects. Most women would leave it all to the men. I don't mind, but the project would take probably five times as long if that were our case.
After dinner we went for a nice walk to the YMCA to play at their playground. We ran into Dawn, Todd, Alex and TJ there. It was nice to talk with them while the kids played. By the time we headed home it was near dark.
Great day overall. We all had fun doing a variety of things.
Another work day, nothing special so far. Rode the Moto Guzzi into work again today. 89F. Nice. Suppose to get hotter the next two days and then cool back down, but just a bit. It's been a real treat the last two days or so to have the air off and the windows open. Got downright cool at night, requiring a blanket or two. I love it!
Amanda picked up the cabinet hardware at Lowes today for our bathroom makeover. I let her choose whatever she wished as I want her to like it. Anything will look good to me as that dark bathroom cabinet is gone now with the Navajo White we painted it. Speaking of Navajo White (the color we choose for the cabinets), the wierdest coincidence happened this weekend. At night after the kids went to bed Amanda was watching one of her CSI recorded shows and part of the crime scene clue was the color "Navajo White" - man, what are the odds of that?! We had never even heard of the color until we picked it up on Saturday at ACE.
Had McDonald's for lunch today. Haven't had it in about a month I would say, it tastes good, but then an hour later I wish I wouldn't have had it! Had to get some candy in the lobby store to change the 'taste' in my mind.
Nothing special at night. I just ate quick as the kids had already eaten and they all played outside until bedtime. We talked with Dawn while the kids were playing with Alex and TJ as well.
-- 13 August 2006 [Sunday]
We started off the morning putting our first coat of paint on the doors and base cabinet. Looks good. Feels good to get started too. it's turning out a bit more yellow than I would like, but I noticed it only when it's shaded.
After painting I made up PB&J sandwiches and we all headed to the park - "Todds park" - as we like to call it, because of our neighbor Todd Weiss who told us about it first. We don't go there much but when we do we have a good time. We went on the 'secret trail' - a path Keegan and I discovered on a previous visit. I like to pretend it's only our secret, but Keegan keeps telling me, "No dad, everyone knows", and I say "but how? I didn't tell them, did you?". He just repeats his 'everyone knows' response. :) We stayed a good two hours and the kids played their acorn game, where I gather all these acorns from the ground and they roll them down the slide while one person is at the bottom and tries to catch them without allowing them to bounce past them. Kept Keegan and Carson busy for at least an hour.
When we left we headed over to check out one more nearby subdivision - Breckenridge. Nice homes but the yards are much too small for us. We also found a couple of subdivisions we didn't know about, but the houses we could afford in that area again had yards much too small.
We headed home and played some, and I finally balanced as best I could the new rear tire I put on for the URAL, but didn't mount it up yet as I want to pull the final drive and inspect it for wear and grease it. Then we made dinner. Bath time was up next and kids really enjoyed it and didn't want to get out, but Amanda said they could wax their hands as earlier in the day she dragged out her wax machine, and Keegan and Carson dipped their hands in wax as did we. It was hot to my touch, but bearable. I'm suprised the kids did it without fuss. Then it was off to bed for a quick book and story as it was well past their 8pm bedtime by now. While laying quietly after story with Ian trying to get him to fall asleep, Keegan said the sadest thing to me, that just broke my heart... basically he said something along the lines of "Dad, you never spend just time alone with just me anymore." I about cried I felt that bad. But I talked with him and layed with him in bed and told him we'll make one day a week - just his. Just him and me go out and do something - anything he wants. Movies, parks, dinner, etc. He also said he wants me to take him to the birthday party this Saturday that he has for Emma and on Sunday to see Gina (our next door neighbor) sing at church. He especially enjoys that and I am grateful he does. He got so excited talking about it, and he explained to me how we can sit aywhere we want and that "we get to eat afterwards!" - that last bit he seemed especially excited about. It made me smile a huge smile talking with him in bed like that. Of course I'll have to give Carson his one day a week as well and eventually Ian when he gets a bit older. All of those will be fun for sure. I just wish there was more of me to go around to them. I hate work solely for this reason I think.
-- 12 August 2006 [Saturday]
We started off the day looking at new houses. We visited the Martha Stewart houses built by KB homes in Morrisville. Beautiful. I'm not a fan of Martha Stewart, but I couldn't help but like these houses. Every single one of them. They even offer five ranch models which we both like. Problem is they are quite expensive. We could afford the base models, but to option them out how we would like would quickly put the price in the $300's range which we don't want to get into. Beautiful homes though. Perhaps in another five or seven years or so we may look again. At that point we should only have about six years left to pay off the house thus we'll have a lot more equity built up for a down payment. We'll see.
After the homes we headed over to ACE Hardware by our house. I really like that place. Yes, it's more expensive than the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes, but service is immediate and good, and everyone is always so friendly when you walk in there. Makes it feel like a small town mom and pop hardware store, which I like. Anyway on this day they had a .25 cent lunch cart outside offering hot dogs and a drink. Both included for .25 cents!!! amazing. They had the whole range of condiments available as well including chili. It seemed like quite a success based on the traffic flow we saw while we all sat outside on the brick planters and ate our ten - yes TEN - hot dogs between the five of us. We'll really four, since Ian wasn't fond of them. We got Keegan to try one finally and he liked it, so much so that he ate two of them. After lunch we went in and got our paint for the master bath cabinets - Navajo White. Looks more yellow in the shade as we soon found out after the first coat, but we still like it better than the dark brown wood that was there before. Ian got very crabby so Amanda took him out to the truck while we waited for the paint to be mixed. Keegan and Carson had never seen this and they were both fascinated by it, especially the machine that shakes the can around.
We headed home and applied a quick coat while the kids played out front. Feels good to get started that's for sure. I'm lucky Amanda is such a big help on projects. Most women would leave it all to the men. I don't mind, but the project would take probably five times as long if that were our case.
After dinner we went for a nice walk to the YMCA to play at their playground. We ran into Dawn, Todd, Alex and TJ there. It was nice to talk with them while the kids played. By the time we headed home it was near dark.
Great day overall. We all had fun doing a variety of things.
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