Changes

I came home from school one day to find this...
part of my deck was missing and all of these stakes were in the yard. why?
because we are making changes to our home, BIG changes.
We are adding on a master suite and a new hallway guest bathroom. WAHOO!!

Each stake represents 1 pier for the foundatoin. Those windows are from our current master bedroom. The windowon the left will be the new hallway bathroom area. The window on the right will become a walk in closet for that bedroom. The master suite will be behind all of that.


This is where my new master bathroom and closet will be. (not an interesting picture or blog post, but good to have for future reference)

This is the new master bedroom!! at the end we will have a bay window with a window seat looking out to the backyard!! The whole addition will run along side of the deck. We talked about having french doors walk out to the deck, and while it would look nice, with Ty traveling, we decided NOT to have doors into the bedroom. So maybe someone else will do it one day.

My once beautiful sun room table is now "command central." Full of plans, permits, measuring tape, and anything else my father-in-law leaves around the house (I just move it all to this table.) (My father in law is our General contractor. and he LOVES this stuff! I swear he is most happy when he has some sort of building project going on! He complains about waiting on inspectors, but secretly I think he loves it.)

First day of spring break, 8:00 am... this guy was in my backyard for 4 hours... digging HUGE holes for the foundation.

LOTS of holes!! what a mess!

More holes.

When we went to Florida, these pics were still in my camera. The 4th grade boy that we were visiting was looking at my camera and got to this picture and blurts out, "Nice hole!" Only a boy would find this picture SOOO interesting.

Then the next day this guy pulled up in our driveway!! I was sitting in the living room with the front windows opened and noticed all of the walkers staring at us! LOVE it! Makes me feel "important." Not really. But when I go walking/running and see construction trucks, I get really nosy too- so I can totally relate! I should have invited them around back so they could really know what was going on.

The holes are now filled in with concrete and steel poles. (does anyone else find this process as cool as I do? Or is this SUPER boring??)

How does that hold my house up? I don't understand.

Ahh... I see... next step- they add these cardboard tubes around the steel rods, then fill in with more concrete so that there is a concrete cylinder to support the house.

The wood around the edges is very scientifically placed so that it is level and squared off (something the rest of our 1938 home is not.)

They had to tear off the bottom pieces of siding so they could find the height of the current floor so that the addition floor is at the same level- so complicated!! When they did this, they found that the boards below our current 1938 bathroom are COMPLETELY rotted! ha! That's what I smell all of the time! So they are replacing those - actually you can see on the far left of this picture, they already replaced some of them (see the new light colored wood).

Today the framer was coming to put the floor in.
there has also been a lot of plumbing work already done... moving "clean out tubes" and "sewer lines." things I know nothing about and would never even see, but must get done.

Can't wait to see the next step!!

I am trying to take pictures from the same spot on the deck each day so that I can really see the changes.

On the inside of the house, I have been frantically relocated MOST of our belongings because eventually we will have to move into our front guest bedroom and the current master bedroom will be dusty and the worker entrance to the addition. The house was already small with very little storage, now I'm moving out of our dressers and closet- crazy!!

That's all for now!

Spring Break

Most people go to Florida to see the beaches... we went to see this guy...
Well, and the beach, but how can you pass up that adorable face??
So some of our dearest friends live in Clearwater. We went to visit them last year, and had such a blast that we went back for round 2!!

Day 1... we went to Tarpon Springs... sponge capital of the world!!

I think those things are weird!! They feel weird too! I mean, why would you shower with something that came out of the ocean? How clean can it be? I'm all for decorating with it, but not actually using it. I don't know, just seems weird to me.

Also, Tarpon Springs is home to a large Greek community and let me just say, the food is A-MA-ZING!! We went back again 2 days later, same restaurant, same lunch. We are suckers for good food :)

After our Greek food and sponge expedition, we arrived back at our friend's house to find this yummy bouquet from my mom!! YUM-O! It is HUGE, but it barely made it through the night- we all LOVE fruit! Especially chocolate covered fruit!!

Day 2... Ty and I hit the beach... and ate lunch at our favorite lunch spot from last year, Frenchy's. They have amazing grouper sandwiches. Also, we discovered their chili cheese frieds last year. But Ty was playing golf after this meal and wisely decided chili cheese fries may not be the best idea. So grouper sandwiches it was!

Day 3... was actually my 30th birthday!!

We went BACK to that Greek spot, and had this delicious Greek salad and gyros. In Clearwater, they all put potato salad on the bottom of their Greek Salad. Fattening? yes. Delicious? yes. Worth it? absolutely!

I finished this meal with a piece of rocky road fudge from the fudge factory across the street!

Then Ty and I headed to the golf course to watch the PGA Transitions Tournament. Ty is a HUGE golf fan and over the years, I have seen my fair share of golf on TV with him. I really have grown fond of watching it and I really enjoy the tournaments. I mean, being outside, in a beautiful well manicured place... with snacks every where you turn?? what could be better? And now that i can recognize some of the golfers, I love it. my favorite part is watching the interaction between the golfer and caddy- what a special relationship that must be. One golfer had his wife as the caddy- what was weird is that she carries the HUGE bag. And as I thought about it, I thought "they must have a GREAT marriage for him to allow her to be a place to make suggestions at his place of WORK." Not a position I'd want to be in. Not that Ty and I don't have a great marriage, just no need to add that much tension!!

We ate dinner at our friend's place... I wanted a picture of myself on my 30th birthday, so I had the 2 oldest boys take our picture. I told them it was a competition to see who was the better photographer...

Grant (4th grade) took this pic.

Cal (6th grade) took this pic.

I told them I liked them both (and bonus- I get TWO pictures of me on my birthday!!)

Dont I LOOK 30??

YUM!! Birthday Dinner (sorry for the sideways pic)- we had taco "stuff" to place in a bowl "chipotle style." Chicken, beef, fajita steak, cheese, lettuce, homemade salsa, chips... I'm getting hungry!!

wil...love him.

Cookie Cake dessert!! (from Sam's, and let me say- amazing!)

This was a nightly activity for Ty and Wil... lots of puzzles!! That is 1 smart 3-year old!!

Ty's birthday!! day 4... we spent the morning at the boys' basketball games. Then lunch at their house... followed by LOTS of March Madness watching... then late afternoon we hit the beach.

Grant made a podium to stand on.

Landry (2nd grade) and Cal made a ramp and tunnel for a ball to roll through.

Wil just ran around ... a LOT.

Kelley and Ty on HIS Birthday!

Dear Dear Friends!! The whole gang!

Chris is a pastor at a church down there... (and he married us 3 1/2 years ago)
So Sunday morning, we went to church and then hit the road!

But this guy had a surprise for us first!! We had the honor of watching him be baptised!! Man, did I cry! I love that moment! so sweet, so special, so sincere!!

We returned home Sunday night and THIS was waiting for me!! Birthday week just keeps going!!

I'm back in school now (sad). But Ty has a big 30th birthday party planned for me this weekend! yay!!

Fun spring break... wish I was still there!!

Let the Birthday Celebrations Begin

My birthday is March 18th... during spring break. So my class just HAD to celebrate before we left for spring break... and that means the party was today!!

I got to school at 7:15 and found this~

So of course I wore my crown all day! Proudly displaying my age!! I am excited to turn 30!!

How creative! The balloons make a flower!!

They even changed the message on my little white board! It does not get more detailed oriented than that!!

My birthday banner! (don't judge me if I'm saving all of these decorations for the birthday party at my house which my sweet husband is throwing me because I told him I wanted him to throw me a birthday party. I have realized men are not mind-readers, so I just took it upon myself to let him know that turning 30 was a big deal to me)

The parents in my class brought a HUGE breakfast buffet! Cranberry muffins, blue berry muffins, sausage balls (reminded me of my dear friend Lauren all day long)

Donut holes, and LOTS of fruit!! My favorite! pineapple, honeydew, strawberries, apples!

Look at these flowers- I have never seen anything like it! so beautiful!!

I really wish I could be a florist, but I could never dream of something like this!

It was a fun day! the kids were a little on the hyper side... so after lunch I took down all of the decorations. It's funny, that really did help calm them down.

oh and we had DELICIOUS cupcakes- but those deserve their own post!! Coming soon...