Sometimes You Gotta Do Cookies

Sometimes a girl gotta make stacks of sugar cookies,

a big bowl of icing, and invite a friend over so they can stay up REALLY late decorating and talking about, you know, stuff!

Hey no judging. I didn't want to mess with colorflow so we did them the old fashioned spreadable way. We rock.

 Jamison, I can totally see those heart eyes. You nailed it.

Derby Year 2

Again, our "Almost No Rules Pinewood Derby" was a hit. 

Adam hid a pound of nickels inside our entry this year. (Totally legal and allowed.) 

And again, we had to rush to build and paint it the day of the race. Can you tell what it will be? 

Now can you tell? 

I think you probably guessed it. 

There were two categories to enter this year. Gravity Driven and Power Driven. Below are some gravity driven entries.

Below: This was the power driven entry that exploded apart last year. The driver made some modifications and placed a padded box at the end of the track. I tried to take video but was too slow in getting it ready. It literally blew the other contestants off the track and slammed into the box, tipping it over.

 The whole thing was custom designed and  3D printed.

Below: Judson's entry. Quite a fine piece of work. He's our resident wood worker and quilter! (The same Judson who let us go shooting on his property a few years ago for a Dr. Pepper slushy.) 

Below: A friend's entry. 

After drawing names and going three rounds, we open it up to call outs. This is when all the kids gather 'round Adam to put in a request to race their favorite nemesis.

It was fun to see the entries. Everyone was asked to work on their car together as a family. So of course we got all kinds of cars. One family put a brick on top of their car to make it a brick house and give it extra weight.  

This box was full of gun powder and was the only gravity driven car to beat ours. 

This car is made mostly of metal. They would have beaten us if they'd greased the wheels. (Again, totally allowed.)

This continues to be a worthwhile activity. We hear good stories of how the families came up with and created their entry and then couldn't wait until evening so they could race. ("Is it time yet? Is it time yet?) And that's the goal.

I can see this happening a third time. I doubt I'll be the activity specialist any more by then, so I hope whomever takes my place will keep the new tradition going!

The Thing No One Will Ever Notice

"Wow! What a great job you did on the fascia and gutters!" Said no one ever.

In case you were wondering what the least satisfactory and eye catching home renovation project is, we have discovered the answer for you.

"Wait a second," you say, "I thought you were going to do your kitchen?"
Yeah...that WAS the plan but remember the mention of "emergencies emerging," in one of my previous posts? This is one of them.

During a particularly heavy storm on the last day in February, Adam discovered a second water leak in the garage. So he climbed into the attic and discovered two more above the living areas that hadn't soaked through yet. Naturally he sped out to purchase a giant roll of plastic and ended up stapling it to the roof during the storm in the dark.

Those leaks forced us to move several things up our written to-do list. 'Get a new roof' was of course a no brainer. But before we could get the roof, we needed to install a cricket. Click here to view one.  This helps move rain water around the chimney so it doesn't sit in the crevice. The plywood was soft there when we bought the house and we were able to get a bit of the price knocked down because of it.

Below: Chimney Sweep. Ha ha. I've been holding on to that one forever.
Installing the cricket.

The guys BARELY finished installing the cricket before another storm rolled in...we ended up retreating to the garage to watch.

Consequently, also bumped up on the list was new fascia. It needed replacing. It was rotten in most of the corners, coming apart and looking bad. And because a new drip edge is installed with a new roof, we realized we had to replace the fascia NOW because it goes UNDER the drip edge.

So off it came, along with the soffit in all the corners as well.

(In the end, it took two FULL truck loads to haul everything off to the dump. I got a great workout that day.)

I HATE doing fascia. For two people who have never done it before it was a learning curve, and of course took forever. We had to trim down the wood (Adam ordered the wrong width) and make sure all the angles were cut correctly. Each angle was different, and it's even more difficult when you're working on an old house where things aren't exactly square anymore.

Then there's filling in holes, sanding down holes, priming the holes, applying caulk along EVERY corner and crevice...! Up and down, move the ladder, and up and down, move the ladder, ....if you guys are wondering what I did with my spring season....

But wait wait...do we get a new roof yet? Not quite. There were also the trees to consider.

It was the right time of year, plus branches were too close to the roof, and we'd rather have the arborists climbing around on the old roof rather than the new. So 'trim all 3 trees' come on up and join us at the top of the list.

Below: With permission, our arborists also took some limbs off the neighbor's tree that were hanging over our power lines. Later that evening we got a text from our neighbor Bill who was NOT HAPPY with what our tree guys did, he said our guys "went too far" and then took his firewood too, and that was what he gets for letting people into his yard. (We like Bill. He looks like Santa to me, a Santa who likes to go shirtless. Ha!)

But here comes the sick feeling in your gut when you realize someone is upset and you have to figure out how to make-good in a way that counts.

We sent a photo text of the tree to the tree boss and asked if he could get in touch with Bill and explain things. To his credit he was actually eager to do so and did it promptly. THANK YOU for great customer service! (Maybe he noticed Bill's trees could use some help too.)

He explained that the limbs were SO dead, a couple of them broke off the second the chainsaw touched them. And they were incredibly dry—they broke apart when they hit the ground and went "poof" in the chipper. There was no good firewood to be had.

Bill felt better, we felt better. But to make sure we did a little extra lovin' on him, we took a couple bundles of firewood and a case of beer over to him and his wife and apologized for the initial angst he'd felt regarding his tree. It all worked and he's good. Happy neighbors are the right kind of neighbor to have.

And can you see the lovely result below as seen from the street? Our tree guy mentioned we should consider putting lights in it. I agree it would look lovely.  (In case you have trees and were wondering about ballpark numbers, the price for us included three trees and 4 men: $1,700.)

Two great things about manicured trees:

1. Before, the squirrels have had unlimited access to our roof. Every morning at 7:30 we'd hear the first squirrel of the day thumping as he landed on the roof and then scampering across to jump off and onto the the next tree...let the morning traffic begin.
The day after the trees were done I heard a "thump." And then a scamper...and then a pause, and then a scamper in the opposite direction...back and forth. The squirrel had gotten himself into a tight spot. He couldn't figure out how to get off the roof!
And guess what? Not a single thump or scamper have we heard since. Sleeping in has been delightful and long.

2. A "clean" tree is a a lovely thing to look at. The yard feels more airy, less claustrophobic. And the trees seem more magnificent.

And then one day a crew came and we FINALLY had our new roof. (Covered by insurance because we claimed it within 1 year of a bad storm, which could have caused the damage.) But of course we weren't done yet.

The fascia and new drip edge needed painting. We picked Sherwin Williams, Zurich White: slightly creamier white than the original house color—and spent EARLY weekend mornings spraying the fascia before it got too hot for the paint to behave appropriately. Then we'd wait for the evening and start work again.

Adam became a pro at moving ladders so all I had to do was step across to the next one. Excellent teamwork. Bad Osha followers.  

Then were we done? Nope. Gutters. We primed and painted those too. Oh my goodness. The fun never ends. Especially when you discover almost all of them are defective and you feel like crying. Long story. Won't tell it. Might cry again.

Issues with the sprayer overheating? First, put it in the freezer to cool it down. Then, shade it with an umbrella and haul out the window unit. One good thing about Texas...it employs real life situations to help you develop your creative thinking.

But look how pretty! It's okay if you roll your eyes. I told you this is the least glamorous home project in the history of DIYers.

The back of the house has never had gutters and much of the dirt has been washed away over the years. I'm sensing that the house is pleased with us. (And now it's ready for landscaping! Eeee!)

Before:

After:

Glad to have some of that dark green gone. And we have some lovely plans for the rest of the exterior and landscape. But it's simply too hot to continue working outside. Now that this phase is done (5 months later!) maybe we'll finally get to the kitchen, where we get to pick out finishes, and a sink, and pretty backsplash? Instead of fussing over caulking and style of downspout fasteners....

July 4th

Waking up and looking out my window on a national holiday makes me happy. There's always a flag stuck into our lawn by the Boy Scouts of America (a way for the boys to raise funds for activities.) And I enjoy its gentle reminder to be grateful for where and how I live.

On July 4th we went to the church to participate in a potluck breakfast. The night before I'd done just a teeny bit of decorating with balloons on sticks in white vases, tablecloths, balloons on the floor and my giant flag hanging above the food tables. I enjoy finding ways to use this flag given to me years ago. It's a beautiful flag, a casket flag, not printed but pieced together with embroidered stars.

The kids had a blast playing with the balloons which I knew and hoped would happen.

Our Missionaries kindly volunteered to handle the drink table. In all, it was successful with a modest turnout...but with all the different breakfast foods available to make or buy, I am secretly  (but with no judgement) disappointed how many donuts showed up (and no bagels and schmear?!?).

To kick breakfast off we had a short flag ceremony, which I appreciated. The older I get, the more patriotic I get. I was glad to have a reason to put my hand over my heart and declare my loyalty to this nation under God. Is it perfect? Are WE perfect? No. But I hope as we continue to try to do what is right and good and just, (and ask for the Lord's help to know what that is) we will find our way through difficult issues and politics.

And then, because it's melt-your-face-off hot here, Adam and I went shopping for a kiddie pool to put our feet in and I got talked into this:

The Blue Blob. Ugh. It's ugly. But then again, so is our yard right now. So I told the Mr. as long as I can't see it from the living room window...whatever.

 And it's been a fun blob. We look forward to a dip after working outside...if the water isn't too warm of course.

Happy 4th!