Thursday, September 22, 2011

Tidbits while Scraping Paint.

I've been busy getting ready to paint our house.  I dont believe the house has been painted in about 25 years.  The paint isn't really that hard to scrape but it does take a long time because our house isn't small.  I worked on it all day without any help.  My mind is always going a mile a minute so here is some of the things I thought of today....


Sure wish I could wiggle my nose and the painting was finished.

I really need safety glasses for this job.

I wonder how many times this house has been painted in the last 150 years.

Holy cow those nails are square!

I really hope a bat is not hiding out somewhere.

I wonder how long it took to build this house. 

Did they have a "good ole house raising?"

Wonder how many kids the first family who lived here had.

Sure hope the sun stays behind that cloud a little longer this time.

This is a lot easier than all that wall paper Missy and I scraped.

I think I may be a little like my grandma.  She would be doing this if she could.  She would also unclog a drain if she needed to too! 

Sure wish I had more tomatoes to can. 

I need to find out how to can Jalapenos.  I have a lot.

I miss visiting my Grandma Sarie in between classes when I was in colloege.

I wish my arms were like my grandmas when she was young.  I guess thats what you get when you milk cows everyday since you were 6.

I wonder if there are anymore wasp nests aournd or did Matt get them all.

Sure wish he would let me paint the house yellow.  We already ordered white.

Can't wait to put siding on this house in another 5 years.

We really need to get new windows.

Holy cow they used a lot of calk on this house.

Hey I can see the top of the little house next door.

Hey the sun is going down and it's before 8:00.  I don't like that.

I wonder who else I could invite to the painting party without feeling like I'm asking for help.

Why don't I like to ask for help?  I like to help others...

I wonder how many more pets Josh could possibly want. 

Can't wait to knock down the shed.  I need to get my jugs out of it first.


Yup just a few of the things I was thinking of as I scraped away today.  There were a lot more, but these were the ones I could remember.  I've been working on it for two days.  I enjoy working on the house, but sometimes I think it's going to kill us.  The changes we've made are great but the really hard ones are still to be done.  Maybe before Matt retires the house will be finished. I guess I should never be bored huh!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Our "bird" problem.

So remember when I mentioned bats the other day???

A few weeks ago I had a baby shower for my sister-in-law.  I went up to the attic to get out my antique baby bottles, as  I pulled down the ladder and saw a few droppings so I figured we had a mouse.  As I was getting the bottles out I looked up and saw bats.  EEEEWWWWWW!!!

So now what?!?!?!

After the shower I googled how to get ride of bats.  Did you know that they are protected?  I remember seeing that on Billy the Exterminator.  We called a company that said they took care of this and they said it would cost anywhere from $600 to $2600 to have them come out.  WHAT!!!!  Matt told them he would take care of it himself.  Of course they said that it took a professional and that they didn't think he could do it.

I googled some more and then came across the same method I saw on Billy. You hang bird netting on the house and they come out but can't go back in.  You leave it up for a few days and then seal up the places they were coming from.

We get all the supplies we need. We tell the kids that we have a problem with birds. After talking to a few people, we find out that this little problem is more common than you'd think.  People just don't talk about it.  I guess it's like that head lice thing and you don't want others to know. People think that if you have bats than you must have a dirty house. I don't have a dirty house.  Ok so maybe a little messy at times but I don't really know anyone who's house is perfect all the time.

So Friday came.  My parents took the kids overnight.  We hung the bird netting.  We got some beer.  Called some friends.  We watched as the bats came out.  We then went to the bar with said friends.  At the bar we talk to more people who have had trouble with bats.

After 4 days we start to seal the cracks that they were coming from.  Our house is very old and we find out that the metal roof that we just paid someone to fix last year was bad.  I guess he never really fixed it, he just painted it.  UGH! 

Anyhow...this sealing the cracks was way more work now because a lot of the wood was rotting.  We rented an arial lift, and started to replace the facia (not sure how to spell that) boards.  The lift was a piece of crap and should NOT have been for rent.  Matt got jolted by some bare wires and the stupid battery would not take a charge!  When we took it back the guy only charged us $70 instead of $200.  Just a heads up here but don't ever rent anything from A&E on Lewis.  We only got half the house done and then the rain started.  It then rained the rest of the week that we had to finish our little project.  Yup we still have half the house lined with netting.  I don't care how it looks I just don't want those critters back in the attic.

I still haven't went to check my stuff thats up there.  Most of my little treasures that I found in my house are stored there.  I have Better Homes and Gardens from the 60's.  There is vintage baby clothes, old valentine cards from the 30's, old books and more in the attic.  We have two attics.  The one the bats were in was the one that we just finished about 7 years ago.  We opened it up when we updated the big part of the house.  I will be heart broke if my treasures are ruined :(

On a good note the bats are gone!  I no longer have to worry about them.  Of course there was one night that I didn't sleep at all because of them.  They never got in the house but I was so worried that they would.  I kept thinking of a blog that I follow.  The women who writes it had a racoon in her attic and she wrote about how she couldn't sleep because she was afraid it would fall though the ceiling.        

Oh and one more thing, the other day I was folding clothes and noticed that the tee shirt that I got from Mammoth Caves had a bat on it.  I never even saw that when I bought it and I've worn it a few times.  I saw it and started laughing like a crazy person.   Not sure if I'll be wearing that shirt anymore!  :)

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The End!

So Thursday was the day that Jen had to leave.  They had to drive to South Carolina.  They left around noon.  We were not in the mood to sit around or to go out on some big adventure.  So we went to the fish hatchery.  Joshua really enjoyed it.  There were these long cement pools were they put the fish.  After they grow they release them into the river that runs along the hatchery.  It was again about 105 degrees.  Josh made Matt walk all the way down one side and up the other.  It was about the lenght of a football field.  We then went down by the river.  The temperature dropped a good 25 degrees and the water was cold.  Later that night we went to dinner were Josh told a group of young girls they were all "beautiful ladies."  It was an eventful day.

On Friday we went to the spring and the guys swam.  It was fun.  They had a rope tied and they could swing out and jump.  Of course my dare devils did it!  Adam didn't want to try but enjoyed the swimming.  Here's a picture of Ben swinging. 






This was a county park and you didn't have to pay anything to go.   The kids had a great time and I think Matt really enjoyed swinging from the rope also!  Wonder if Grandpa could hang one of these babys up for the pool!   

This was our last day in Arkasas.  We decide to take two days to go home.  Smart idea, maybe I will give better directions if we are well rested on our drive home. 

We leave at about 9:00am on Saturday.  We  plan to only drive for 5 or 6 hours.  We make it to Illinois and stop at the rest area.  Maybe all rest areas are like this but we loved this one.  We went in and there were two ladies working at the desk.  I don't really go to rest areas, so I was surprised that they were there. One of the ladies asked Matt if she could help him find information on anything.  He asked if she had any on campgrounds.  She showed him the info, called the campground and booked us a site.  We got a discount at the campground because we booked from the rest area.  Holy cow talk about service!  I was releaved that we were not going to be looking for signs for campgrounds along the road.  So this is a big shout out to the Illinois rest area people...THANKS FOR SAVING MY SANITY!!!

Now with a map to the campground we head out to Effingham.  Ok so that is a pretty funny name for a city.  We still laugh about our stay in Effingham.  The campground was very easy to find.  They had a great little playground area for the kids.  I was pretty happy with the showers.  Other than being at our Aunt and Uncle's I've been taking a shower in the camper and it's not that big.  I was happy to have a good shower after a long day on the road.

We make it home the next day and I tell you I was so happy to see the Pure Michigan sign on 23!  The best part of the last 10 miles was the boys doing the aaahhhhh thing over the bumpy part on 23.  Matt and I now do it every time we travel that part of the road.

We had an amazing time on our trip.  I think I said thank you to my husband just about every day over those 18 days, with the exception of the few travel days.  We were so blessed that everything worked out and God made it possable for us to do this vacation.  I have an Uncle who often says there is no greater artist that God and I was so very happy that my children got to see what a beautiful land He gave us.  Thanks for reading this story of our first big National Parks camping trip.  I hope that you enjoyed reading it.  I'll leave you with one more picture of the trip.



Ben took this one when we were on our over priced train ride.  Not a bad picture for an 8 year old.  We look kind of worn out but we're still smiling.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The wedding, Dam, and Branson.

So the rest of our vacation went like this...


Saturday Rebecca got married!  We had a great time and we taught those in Arkansas how we do it in Michigan!!  They don't dance.  I was shocked when I heard this.  My thought was that maybe it was Bobbys family that don't dance.  Not really sure, but the DJ said it was the first time they ever saw men dance the dollar dance with the groom.  Boy did we ever show them how we do it!  Joshua "taught" his cousins grandma how to dance.  Everyone had a great time.

As planned we moved the camper to Uncle Rob and Aunt Tammy's house on Monday.  On Tuesday we went to see some of the area.  We went to Bull Shoals dam, and to the state park.  That night we had a fish fry. 


On Wednesday we went to Branson.  Yup, back to Missouri.  We wanted to take Adam to the Titanic museum.  We looked up some other attractions and planned to go on a train ride also.  It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there.  We went with Matts parents, sister and niece.  We got there got our tickets for the train and found the museum.  We ate lunch at Shoney's.  This is the first time my kids have ever been to a buffet other than a chinese one.  They loved the fact that you could get your food and not wait. I'm not really a big fan but it was fast and everyone was happy.  We went on our train ride.  It was nice but not worth the $115 we spent on it.  We then went to the museum.  That was worth evey dime we spent on it!  It was much cheeper than the train and so much more enjoyable.  My son Adam LOVES  Titanic.  He saw the movie when he was about 5 years old.  He has seen the original black and white film.  He loves the documentary films.  His gramdma gave him the sound track to the movie last year for his birthday.  He was really excited to go to the museum.  We spent about 3 hours going through it.  This was one of the few things that I really wanted to do on this vacation and I was so happy that he got to go!  We were not allowed to take pictures in the museum but I did get one of the building.  



Pretty cool huh!

When we got back to Unce Rob and Aunt Tammy's we found out that Jennifer had to fly back home unexpectedly the next day.  The kids were not happy about this at all.  They had just met their cousins for the first time and didn't want to say good bye yet.  The good news though was that they are going to be in Utah now and not England.  We can roadtrip to Utah ( they have National Parks) but we couldn't pull the camper to England. 


to be continued...

Arkansas or bust!!!

I've been busy getting the kids ready for school, and with bats, both subjects for next week maybe...anyway here's the next segment of vacation.


Remember how I said we were going to start no later than 8am.  Yeah so at 9:30 we head out.  Crap we got a late start.  Well it's a 10 hour drive so 7:30 will be our arrival time.  We get back on the expressway and head west.  This is the day that we've been dreading.  This is going to be our long drive day.  The others were just preping us for this drive.

I got the directions from google and our gps is now fully charged.  We don't use it much so that the battery won't die on us.  We plan to just stop at the rest area to eat lunch.  We don't plan on any stopping or site seeing on the way.  We know that when we get to Arkansas we'll just set up camp and go to bed. 

So we travel the same road that we took from Nashville to Maryville.  We see the same giant cross along the road.  We pass the power plant that I say we should look into moving by.  We really enjoy the ride.  The kids are doing great again with their games and movies.  After about 4 hours we stop to eat lunch.  It is again over 100 degrees out.  We make our sandwiches and eat as fast as we could.  We do not want to sit at the picnic tables or in the camper.  We eat and are on our way again.

After about an hour we get to where we need to turn off the expressway and head northwest to Arkansas.  The whole reason for our Arkansas trip is a wedding.  Matt's cousin was getting married.  Matt's uncle moved to Arkansas about 5 years ago after retiring from the Air Force.  They traveled across America at that time and found that they loved Arkansas.  It really is a beautiful place.  We planned to spend the rest of our trip there.  The part that we were really looking forward to was spending the next week with family.  Matt's cousin that we haven't seen in a long time was going to be there.  The last time we saw her was before Adam was born.  It was the summer of 2000.  Matt couldn't wait.  She had never seen our kids and we had only seen her oldest boy who was only 3 months old at the time.  We planned to stay at a campground for the first four nights and then go to Unlce Rob's for the rest of the week. 

On one of my phone calls with Uncle Rob he had said how there are no expressways in Arkansas.  I guess I never really paid much attention to it or that it didn't really matter at the time.  So we finally get to the Tennessee border and cross into Missouri.  Missouri ?!?!  Yup Missouri.  We will only be in Missouri for 1 1/2 hours then we'll go into Arkansas and then back into Missouri then back into Arkansas.  WHAT?!?!?!  I had read these directions a few times, but I guess I must have just "looked them over" because that's just plan crazy!  We stop to get something to eat at Pizza Hut in Missouri.  It's about 5:30 now and I figure we have about 2 maybe 3 hours to go.  Ok so maybe I was wrong and we'll be there by 8:30.  So as I said it was over 100 degrees out that day.  We go into Pizza Hut and one of the AC units are broke.  Good times!  It was about a cool 98 in the dinning area.  We ate as fast as we could and got out of there fast.  We were back on the road in about 45 mins.  We were all still in very good moods and was enjoying the ride.

So picture being on M50 or 223 for about 4 hours.  Up hills, down hills, around curves and though some flat lands.  The drive was nice until we left Missouri, entered Arkansas, and left Arkansas and entered Misslouri.  By this time it was 8:30.  We were now back in Missouri and not sure why the heck we left Arkansas once we got there.  Hey Unlce Rob said that the roads were crazy down here and  they looked like the men were drinking when the made them.  Yeah that's exactly what it's like. You drive for 4 hours and only go 150 miles.  The thing that really gets you going is the fact that you go though one little town and the speed limit goes 60 to 45 to 25 in all of a mile.  You leave that little town and you do 25, 45, then you see 60.  Ten minutes later you have another little town and it goes back down again.

We've now been on the road for over 10 hours and we are really starting to get tired.  Matt and I start to talk about how great it would've been to live in the country and have some animals.  Then our conversation startes to sound a lot like it did on our drive to the Smokys.  It's starting to get dark and Matt is getting upset because he don't want to have to find the campground in the dark.  I call the office and leave a message only this time the man calls me back.  I tell him where we are and he says to call him when we see the Welcome to Arkansas sign.  So after about another 45 minutes and me becoming a "dream killer" for my husband, We turn onto the road that the campground was off of.  I call the guy back and he stays with me untill I see the sign for the campground.  I tell him that we turn and he says "ok now it'll be about another 9 miles and about 40 minutes."  WHAT!!!!  I hang up and Matt is really mad now.  Not only am I a dream killer but I can't give directions or pick a good campground.  This sounds just like the last few miles of our last day long drive.

We make it in about 30 minutes and the guy is waiting with a flashlight to help us get in our site.  Matt asks if there is a pull though.  No they only have four sites.  The guy goes up to the window to talk to Matt and smells like a bar.  He is trying to give Matt directions on how to back into the spot but keeps saying you got to go this way or that way.  I get out because I don't want my husband to kill the crazy drunk man.  I get us backed into the site and we get set up.  It is now 10:20.  Our 10 hour drive was really 13 hours.  We were very tired and Matt really didn't like any of us by this time.  He wasn't happy that I got a campground that was so far away from everything and everyone.  We did what we could that night and went to bed.

Want to see what we saw the next morning???






These little guys were right in front of our camper.



This was the firepit.  There were only four sites and they shared the firepit. 



They rented out these cabins.  We didn't spend any time at the campground so this is really all the pics I have.