Yes folks, I procrastinated a few things over the last few months… And now I'm here to make ammends. In the following post you will be updated on everything from Halloween to "the flood" to Christmas to my new remodeling project… So sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Halloween 2006 and Ethan's 8th Birthday!
My second born son Ethan turned 8 on Halloween 2006. I've already blogged his baptism, but failed to blog the trip to Arizona we took to celebrate.
The trip to Arizona was special in many ways… #1 we took "Monkey" along with us. I won't say his name for his privacy, but for those of you who didn't meet him, Monkey was the foster child we had in our home for 8 months. See my "rants" category to see how that turned out for us. He appears in one or two of the pictures below… see if you can find him. 
We stayed at Grandma Jackie's while we were in the valley of the sun. As you can see, we hacked up a few pumpkins for Halloween… and you can see my children new they were back in Phoenix and decided to "dress the part" by reverting back to their old ways and wearing nothing but their underwear.
Hannagan Meadow - on the way home:
On the way home from Phoenix, we stopped by the Hannagan Meadow Lodge where my parents are the Innkeepers. On the way up, we picked up "another pathetic lifeform" in the Showlow K-Mart parking lot. I actually got the pleasure of naming her - Agatha. Yup, Sage wanted a "brown puppy" for her 32nd birthday and wouldn't you know it!? We found her. Now Toby has a friend to beat on when he gets bored. Actually she is bigger than him in every way (including crap size) EXCEPT height. She has short little stubby legs and Toby has long legs.
The Flood…
I decided to flood my basement in December by not shutting off the main valve to my sprinkler system out by the street. We had Niagra Falls coming through our window before I was able to locate the valve under the snow and shut it off. I also had trouble finding the "tool" to shut off the valve. Neeldess to say, there was a TON of water in our basement. The neighbor across the street helped me suck 60 gallons of water out of the window well… and then we had the professionals come in and take care of the rest. Sage and I had to hustle and move all the furniture (entertainment center included) before the flood waters ruined them.
Cleanup took about a week … 3 days of 10 fans and 2 de-humidifiers at about 100 decibles was the worst part. Thank goodness for insurance! Speaking of insurance… the adjuster who came out went to the same high school as me! Only he graduated a year earlier. Small world.
Christmas - 2006:
Christmas was a smaller event this year… mostly because the house was torn up something fierce (see next section below). However, the kids got something that they wanted and DAD got his XBox 360. Mom thought she would be funny and give them all a gag gift of Barbie or Ken… The twins actually fought over who was going to keep Barbie. Should I be worried?
Ian was down for a visit and went skiing with Avery and me. He even helped put up some drywall and rewire my light switch. Good times! Skiing was awesome at night up at Brighton Ski Resort. Here's some goofy photos to prove it.
Before Christmas, we decided to have a family home evening to build "ginger bread" houses… except ours were made from graham crackers. My first attempt was an example of poor engineering… the candy was too heavy for the joist hangers (frosting) and the whole thing caved in (me crying). The boys loved it… hopefully, next year we can improve on our designs. And maybe my children will have some clothes on!
The "Project":
Sometime (shortly) after the flood, we decided we hated the fire place (and a few walls) in the back room by the kitchen… So we tore it out. It took me 3 days to A) Sledge hammer B) Hammer Drill and C) Jack hammer out all the bricks and concrete that went into building the fire place. WHAT A PAIN. The walls came down a bit easier, and really opened up the space. We also ripped out the boring tile in the kitchen, as well as a row of cabinets (that are now in the garage) that were taking up waaaay too much space in the kitchen.
After the drywall was put back in place with about 7 gallons of mud (seriously) and the walls were painted, I laid about 1000 sq ft of Pergo "Hand Scratched Hickory" flooring upstairs… since Sage is "anti carpet". It looks awesome if I do say so myself. The final touches were new baseboards, a big mirror and some furniture (a couch and chair).
Here's a few "before" shots… for those of you wondering… These were actually taken before we bought the house, way back in July of 2005.
… And then I went to lunch with my grandfather today, just like I always do. We were sitting in his favorite "soup joint" (Paradise Bakery) when I looked out of the window and saw the most BEAUTIFUL site accross the street! (See photo). I told my grandfather we are going to have come to Paradise to get his soup and then I'd have to run accross the street and get a burrito.
