Pictures from last weekend

My only nephew, Kellen, turned 4 this last week. I was able to be in town when they celebrated his birthday, complete with a Thomas the Train cupcake cake. Bonnie's totally unimpressed, obviously.
Erin and I took the kids to the Amon Carter museum in Ft. Worth. Erin wants to teach the kids how to behave when they're in a museum. They acted really good, but I just had to get a picture of them right after they spotted a bench to sit on.

K & B showing off their new moose and horse toys. On the morning of Kellen's birthday celebration, he came in my room and asked very politely if I would wake up, please. He was so excited to open his birthday presents, and I had wanted to see it, so Erin & Josh told him that everyone had to be awake before he could open them. He was so cute. He kept saying, "Oh, I wonder!" and "It's just what I wanted!" when he would open up a new present.
Another part of Kellen's birthday was going to the Ft. Worth zoo, accompanied by some friends. There were 7 kids and 5 adults, and I still felt like I was counting kids the entire time. It was fun though.

My sweet little niece Noelle.

And my sweet little niece Bonnie. The picture's out of focus, but I love the expression on her face.
With K & B at the Ft. Worth Botanic Garden. The weather was perfect that day.

I just realized today that I haven't blogged in a while. I just got back from a trip to see Erin and her family. I was originally supposed to fly to Houston, but the Joneses were camped at mom's house because they were still without power from the hurricane and didn't know when it would come back. So, I flew to Dallas instead and got to see everyone anyway. It was a good trip. I got to meet Noelle for the first time, we got to celebrate Kellen's 4th birthday, and we got LOTS of playtime in and had a lot of fun. I took quite a few pictures and will post them later. I got back last night, and went back to work today...and we are back to the routine. No more days off for a while.

Things are progressing fine with the cabin, I guess. We really haven't heard much lately. I always assume when we don't hear, it's because our builder has been busy getting stuff done, or that there isn't anything to report. We did hear that our cabinets are supposed to ship out there in a couple days, and our in-stock stuff (countertops, etc.) is ready to be picked up in Santa Fe whenever our builder goes down there. We are still waiting for the plumber and electrician to finish and the inspections to be done, as far as I know, so the drywall can be put up. Then, it will be about the finishing touches and getting the appliances there and furniture moved in. I am still hoping that we get to stay in the place at least one time before winter hits, even if it is in sleeping bags on the floor.

Can't think of anything else. Will post pictures later.

I could have a cooking show

I have decided, after watching my favorite cooking shows over the past few years and more in recent weeks, that I could have a cooking show. It seems that you just need to memorize a few phrases and use them a lot. Here is what I would say...over and over again:
1. Be sure to scrape up all the brown bits in the bottom of the pan, because that is where all the flavor is.
2. You might be surprised that I am adding salt to (fill in the blank, but usually some kind of dessert), but the salt will just bring out the flavor and really make the flavors brighter.
3. Make sure and squeeze the (lemon/lime/orange/grapefruit) with the cut side up so you don't get seeds in whatever you are making.
4. (Takes bite of whatever I just made and then describes the texture and flavor of every individual ingredient)
5. Arugula is peppery and has a bite. Cumin is smoky. Paprika is sweet, unless you get the smoky kind. Ricotta is light and creamy and makes your baked goods more moist (as does plain yogurt). Every specific food seems to have one adjective the chefs prefer to use to describe it, especially if it might be unfamiliar to the viewer.

Recently I've even started hosting my own cooking show in my kitchen. Chad is my audience, but he doesn't really pay attention. Today he told me he didn't like it when I did that, although I think he secretly likes me to give him a step-by-step of everything I make.

My heart really goes out to all those people who are without power and homes after the hurricane. I was supposed to fly down to Houston next week to see Erin and the family and to see my new niece for the first time, but I'm not going now. Here are pictures of the town that Erin and Josh live in. It looks like Liberty got hit pretty hard. She told me earlier today that they think they will be without power for another week. They're at mom's right now, and my flight went through Dallas both ways, so I just kept my ticket and will just fly the Lubbock to Dallas leg next week.

We officially have no school tomorrow. I'm staying up late and sleeping in!

We've got flooding, yes we do, we've got flooding, how 'bout YOU?

It's raining.

Pictures of the deck without the railing

Latest picture of cabin

The cabin is coming right along! The builder says he is pretty much finished with his part. Now we have to wait for the electrician and plumber to finish (builder says he hopes they will be done within the week), three inspections, and then the drywall can go up. Directly opposite this side of the cabin is the large deck, which is waiting for a railing. We really hoped he would send us a picture of the other side! Also, the siding has not been stained. We are waiting to see exactly how much money we have left to decide if we want to stain it ourselves or have our builder do it. I am leaning towards having him do it because I would like to enjoy myself the first time we stay up there. :) The roof is a dark red. Seeing the picture of the almost finished product makes me really want to go up to the cool mountain air for a getaway! I am sure there will be lots of that in the years to come. Oh yeah, I almost forgot...as of today I have lost 6.4 pounds. Last week I didn't lose any so I didn't post. Must have been the lethargic weekend sitting in a cabin at camp and riding around on a 4-wheeler and not walking anywhere that did it. This week I was a bit more active.

Miscellaneous happenings

Not a whole lot has been happening here lately. It's been busy around our house, but not with anything monumental. Chad has become a lot more busy lately with teaching the high school Bible class on Sunday mornings at church, co-leading a small group at church, working, and studying for his clinicals. I've just been settling back into the routine of waking up early every day and going to work.

So, a few weeks ago I mentioned that we were upgrading our entertainment at home. Yes, we now have satellite TV, DVR, and a new TV. It's awesome! I come home every day and watch my favorite cooking shows...Everyday Italian (yes, she shows a lot of teeth and other body parts, but I like her recipes), Barefoot Contessa (so snobby and uppity, but I like her recipes), and Paula Deen (I like to live vicariously through all the butter and cream). It's wonderful! I don't really think it has increased the amount of TV I watch, but now I'm always watching something that is a show I actually want to watch instead of watching the TV because it is on. So, there's that update.

We also hosted small groups last night, so Chad and I spent the entire afternoon cleaning the house. I think I need to make a public confession that I am somewhat of a slob. Maybe you don't think so (and maybe you do). But if you don't, it's probably because I knew you were coming to my house and cleaned before you came, because that is the only time I clean. People come visit our house just often enough that it doesn't become a complete pigsty, but it is still no small task. I have been thinking about this aspect of my personality a lot lately. What does it say about me that I am more concerned about my house being clean when others come over rather than enjoying a clean house on a regular basis? Am I a people-pleaser? Just super accommodating? Is there anyone else out there who only cleans their house every month or so? Please tell me I am not the only one.

Also, we spent a lot of time at Lowe's last week. We decided to move our patronage to the only other big-box home improvement store available to us, thinking it would be better than Home Depot. It's still too early to tell, but at least the folks at Lowe's were pretty helpful. We designed cabinets for the cabin on Thursday night, and the poor lady's computer kept freezing up on her, so we went back and ordered them, the countertops, the bathroom vanity, the kitchen sink, etc. on Saturday. Apparently we were the first people ever to be at one Lowe's store and want to order items to be picked up/delivered at another Lowe's store. Or at least that's what it seemed like, because the idea of having everything available to our builder in Santa Fe seemed like a bit of a pickle to the people that we were dealing with. But, by yesterday (after 3 hours at Lowe's on Saturday, a call put in to the cabinet guy in Santa Fe and waiting for the guy to get back to us yesterday) we had ordered all that stuff, AND we got 10% off our cabinets and a free sink base cabinet. Yay! Anyway, like I said, it's still too early to tell if Lowe's was a good choice to work with, because we'll need to see if the order was done right and everything gets delivered in a timely manner. I'll let you know.

Also, Chad reminded me that I had not posted that the roof is on the cabin. Our builder says it looks really good, and I am hoping he will send me a picture. Also the electrician and plumber are working, so as soon as the wiring and plumbing is done then the sheetrock can be put up. We're hoping that the ditch for the water line can be dug this weekend and that our place will be hooked up to water soon.

Hmmm...what else...oh yeah. My friend Amanda gave me this idea to sign up for something called e-mealz (yes, with a "Z."). Anyway, I signed up for it, and it is basically a subscription to do the work I was already doing by making weekly menus and shopping lists. The only difference is now I don't have to do it, and they follow the weekly sales at the store to help you save money on your groceries that week. It has been good so far, and I did save money on my grocery bill on Saturday, so if you're interested you should check it out. Takes all the hassle out of the never-ending "What will we eat?" dilemma.

That's it for now.

Lots of pictures

As promised, I took lots of pictures this weekend to document progress on the cabin. I took over 100. I spared you about 75 of those. Here they are, in no particular order because I got tired of putting them in an order. The first ones are of the road immediately next to the cabin. It's a small private drive that is off of the main road. A regular car can get up here. Proof that we're doing this legally...our building permit. :)This is the first sight we saw when we pulled up. Our builder has started on the log siding. Also you can see that the windows have been installed. This is the view from the other side, the side facing the ridge. I could practically stand under the house without bending much, it is that high off the ground. Here is when you first walk in the back door (which is the door on the right side of the above picture). You are facing the stairs which go up to the loft, and to the right of that is the bathroom and storage closet. Straight ahead is the bedroom, and to the left is the living area/kitchen. The bathtub is in! Now let's just hope we can get some running water in this place!View of the hallway and staircase from inside the living area. Under the staircase will eventually be a washer and dryer, although that will probably come down the road. Here is the beginning of the road up to the canyon. You can see on the left tree the signs people have posted for their cabins. This picture doesn't really do justice to just how muddy and torn up this road was after the rains. This is the reason some of the trucks aren't willing to come up there to bring materials. They will slip and slide or get stuck. Believe me, it's really muddy and really rutty. Speaking of those signs, Chad and I decided to go to the "old dump" behind camp to check out the scrap wood for our signs. Here is Chad making the important decision of what pieces of wood to pick. Life-altering stuff. Here is a prototype of a sign that Chad made with a wood burner when he was bored on Saturday night because it was really rainy. We are trying to get Emma to make some prettier signs. Not that Chad didn't do a great job. Okay, back to the cabin. Here is the view of the living room when standing in the kitchen. That wide sliding door is awesome. It will go out to the front deck.
We bought all the lighting fixtures before we came up there. Thanks Home Depot for messing up our order on our wood floors, making us wait 6 months, and then giving us a gift card for messing up. That gift card paid about half the cost of the lighting, which wasn't a cheap expense, especially with all those lightbulbs.

All right, here is a view of me standing in the doorway to the hallway and the loft above. This is before the staircase was put in, which would be behind me.
More treasures we found at the old dump. Couch from the '70s anyone? Old rusty truck? The possibilities are endless.
Chad is in the back bedroom. He is facing what will be a closet.

Here I am checking out the bathroom. Chad took this picture from standing in the kitchen. The window on the right will be directly above the kitchen sink.
A view of the kitchen area. Refrigerator and stove will be on the left, then the sink and cabinets on the facing wall, then in the right side of the room, a dining table. It looks bigger than this in person.

Another living room view from kitchen.
The view out of the sliding door.
View from the balcony. We have decided not to put a banister to give it a more "open" feel, and just to be more adventurous. Good idea huh? Those of you with small kids will just have to keep an eye out. :)
Here's our little loft. The very corners will be areas of more storage space.
And here is our holding tank. Just thought y'all might like to see where "it" goes when you flush "it."
The bedroom. It's actually a pretty good-sized room.
And what would a weekend at BH be without some nature pictures?The sunflowers were in full bloom this weekend.

The weekend was so relaxing and a lot of fun. Chad and I have decided that every Labor Day weekend from now on, we will go to the cabin if we can for a little vacation. It was the perfect time of year to be there. I'm hoping we can make it up there one more time before winter hits, and hopefully the cabin will be pretty much done then. I'm sure I'll post more pictures if anything else happens. Enjoy!

We are here at camp. The weather is 70 right now, at 3:00 in the afternoon. We have taken about 40 pictures of the cabin so far. Some of the siding is up and our builder is building the staircase to the loft today. The windows are in. The bathtub is in. The roof should be delivered and put on sometime next week. It has rained a whole whole lot in the past month and the trucks are having a hard time getting up the muddy road to the site, so they might have to hold off delivery on the roof. We are ready to get the house wired, and we brought all the lighting fixtures up this weekend. The septic tank is in. I will post the pictures when we get home, but maybe I can take some right before we leave because more stuff is being done every day.

Our next job will be to go home and order cabinets, sinks, flooring, etc. at Lowe's so it can be picked up in Santa Fe.

Time to go read my magazine on the porch.

4 week weigh-in

Today I weighed myself, and I wasn't supposed to for the last 4 weeks but I cheated quite a bit and did so anyway. As of today, I have lost exactly 5 pounds in 4 weeks. Yay! That means I get to stay on the first phase, which means I don't have to change anything that I'm already doing.

Good but tiring

Well, the first day of school is now under my belt. Only 180 or so more to go. It was tiring as usual. I know in the last post I mentioned that I was pretty emotionless about starting school, and that's true. My first year I was so nervous to set foot in that classroom and have all those eyes staring back at me, and then the second year I was just dreading having to go back, then last year it was nerves again with having to start at a new school, and now it's just become part of the routine. I have caught myself a couple of times not really looking forward to going back to work this year, but then I remember that I like my job, I like the kids, I like the school, and I feel very blessed to have the job that I have. So, no complaints, even if it does mean no more summer.

And, only four more days until another trip to Blue Haven! I'm excited about that too, especially with it being a long weekend. I don't know if I mentioned this already or not...but we are babysitting camp while the caretakers are out of town this weekend, and there's also going to be a youth retreat going on there. Hopefully it's not too much responsibility, because we will need plenty of time to go sit in our unfinished cabin and fantasize about it being finished. It'll be great to be up there again. Maybe we'll be able to take one or two more trips up there after the cabin is finished and before everything is inaccessible for winter.

That's it for now.

More pictures of the cabin...and it actually looks like a cabin now.

Here are the latest pictures of our little cabin in the woods. Our builder sent us these. He said the power pole is up, meaning we should be on the grid as far as electricity goes. This is good because he was having to use a generator for power, and we all know that fuel is not the cheapest thing these days. The first picture is the north side of the house, that faces a neighbor's lot. There is actually not going to be an entrance on this side, it's just open for the builder to get materials through. The opening is where the bedroom will be. On the top inside here is the loft. This is the south part that faces the ridge, with no cabins on this side. On the left there will be a sliding door that will eventually lead out to the deck (depending on if we have enough money to do it, otherwise we'll do it ourselves eventually). We wanted to have one of those big triangular windows underneath the roof but are not getting one for various reasons.
Inside obviously, looking at the loft.
And a further away view of the north side of the cabin (same as picture #1 but further away).
It's going to be cozy but nice to have. I can't wait for it to be finished. I still can't believe this place is ours.

Our roof will be delivered in 8 days, and we chose a warmer finish for the wood than what a lot of cabins out there have. Our siding is pine, and a lot of people decide to just keep it that piney color, but we chose a finish called warm sequoia or something like that. I can't remember. I wish the siding and roof were already finished so I could get pictures of that this weekend, but I guess I'll be leaving that up to Shawn and Emma to get pictures of everything in late September. Thanks in advance Shawn & Emma. :)

In other news, school starts tomorrow. I am pretty emotionless about it...not really sad, or excited, or nervous or anything. It's a different feeling when you are not starting at a new school and when you have a lot of the same students you had the year before. Life is good.

Update

Chad is doing much better today. Thanks for all of your concern. He was actually able to go to work today, but there wasn't much to do so they sent him home after a few hours. Figures.

Today was take-your-wife-to-work day at the hospital Chad works at. Only no one else knew about it, and Chad was the only one who brought his spouse, and he was a patient instead of an employee. Yeah. Late last night Chad started to get really sick, and I was kind of hoping (and not hoping at the same time, for pride reasons) that it was food poisoning from last night's dinner--not one of my best efforts. So I woke up early this morning to run to the store and grab all the essentials--Gatorade, Saltines, 7-Up, you get the idea. I came home to drop off the stuff and went to work. I hated leaving Chad, but there's not much one can do to help an adult when they have a bad stomach bug except to stay out of the way. Well, I got one call from him around 10:00 saying that he hadn't been able to keep anything down of the few sips of Gatorade and 1 1/2 crackers he had eaten. Then, a little over an hour later, Chad calls to tell me that he thinks I'd better come get him and take him to the hospital. Not a great sign when a medical professional admits they need to be taken to the hospital. We get to the ER and they admit him really quickly, and take blood work and an x-ray, and give him a liter of I-V fluids, since by this point he's quite dehydrated. I just feel sorry for the guy, because he hasn't been able to keep anything down but at the same time is extremely thirsty and can't differentiate between hunger and stomach pains, so he's cautious about trying to eat anything at all now. After giving him the I-V fluids, the doctor wrote him a prescription, and 4 hours later, we are home and Chad is asleep. Thankfully the drugs made him drowsy and he's able to get some sleep after being up pretty much all night last night. They said all his blood work was normal, so it is just a bad case of stomach flu. Still, not much fun. He's feeling better now, and hasn't gotten sick in a few hours at this point. So hopefully we are on the downhill of this.

A few miscellaneous pictures

First of all, look what Barbara can do. If you think that's easy then you try it. It's NOT! And in flip-flops to boot.
Second, we have a new pet. I found him (her?) yesterday when I went outside to put my running shoes on.
Friendly, huh? Our pet actually stays out in the yard, and we don't really know where it is ever. In fact, by the time I got back from my run, it had crawled off the porch. I tried to give it a crouton, but it left the crouton behind. I guess it's on a no-carb diet.
By the way, don't forget it's tax-free weekend in Texas. Chad and I both got some new running shoes today at Academy in honor of the occasion (Chad's were 50% off!).

Summer reading and food

This summer was particularly spectacular because I was able to read multiple books during my vacation, and I wasn't hindered by having to go to teacher workshops, teaching summer school, moving, going to summer school, or those other pesky things that tend to get in the way of summer vacation for so many of us teachers. It was actually a vacation. I read four books. They were...

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This book is awesome. I recommend it highly. Hosseini is an exceptional writer and storyteller.
2. The Kite Runner by Hosseini. Same thing. But I liked A Thousand Splendid Suns better. We also got this book on audio from the library, and it was fun to listen to the author read his own words, especially with all those pronunciations.
3. Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins we Tolerate by Jerry Bridges. A must-read for all Christians; I know I could identify with pretty much everything this guy said. It was very convicting. I would love to read this book together in a small group Bible study. It was that good.
4. The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene. I talked about this in another post. I just checked it out from the library, but I'll probably buy it because it has a lot of good recipes in the back. Mostly I like that I don't really have to count calories and it promotes a healthy lifestyle that includes activity and a variety of foods.

I liked all of these books, but obviously for different reasons. I'm not one who really prefers fiction over nonfiction, or vice versa. Just a good book.

And speaking of books...I love cookbooks. I have a whole cabinet of them. I even subscribe to a cooking magazine that I get recipes out of to use. Problem is, it's a lot quicker and easier to get on the internet and go to a website where you can type in the ingredients you have in your pantry or freezer and figure out what's for dinner that night that way. I love looking through my cookbooks, but when it comes time to go to the grocery store I rarely feel like going through every cookbook to find the recipes that sound just right for the next two weeks. Does anyone else have this problem? Better yet, does anyone have a good system of how they use their cookbooks or recipes from magazines they subscribe to? I used to just go through my magazines (the ones I get that have recipes are Southern Living, Real Simple, and Cooking Light) and look at the recipes and think, "Ooh, that sounds good, I'll have to come back and get that later." Which of course I never did. So now as I'm going through the magazine I will actually rip out all the recipes and put them in my recipe keeper, which is a binder that my mom gave me that has different partitions for different types of recipes...main dish, side, you get the idea. That thing is busting with recipes I still have not tried. So they make it that far...I need another system to get me to get them out of there and actually use them.

A few posts ago, I showed you the pickles that Chad made using all those cucumbers from our garden. Well, we opened up a jar, and they are soooo yummy! My favorite ones are the thicker slices; they are still crunchy, and the thin ones have gotten floppy. But the canning worked and now we have pickles to last us a while. I'd give you some, but they are just too good. Sorry.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. I for one will be sleeping late in the morning.

We have a date!

Chad finally got word today that the date for his CPNE will be November 14...in AMARILLO! This is great news...he could have had to go to Wisconsin or Kansas or something. We are excited about the idea of Chad finishing up school soon! If everyone could just start praying now that he passes that'd be great!

Cabin update

I guess the framing of the floor and walls went as planned, because we received this email from our builder today: "Starting on loft tomorrow."

He's a man of few words...which means he gets the job done!

Long post, lots of words, no pictures

Well, I'm officially back at work. It's good, because I'm not the new person this year, and I'm teaching all the same classes this year as I did last year, something that hasn't happened in any previous school year. I actually feel prepared, and that's a great feeling. The first day of school isn't until the 25th, so I have a lot of time to make copies and organize bookshelves and make sure all my cameras work and figure out a way to spend the money that we made from yearbook profit (!) last year. Does anyone remember how when I started at Bradshaw the yearbook was $15,000 in the hole? Yeah, this is definitely a different place. Where people actually buy yearbooks.

I'm sure everyone has been watching the olympics over the past few days. Last night we watched some of the girls' gymnastics competition, and I had a hard time watching the girls from China because they were so skinny. They all looked like they had eating disorders. Or maybe they just haven't hit puberty yet. I know there's a question of whether or not some of them are even old enough to be in the competition. Can't they do carbon dating or something to see how old they are? I mean if we can do it with inanimate objects, surely they can do it with people. Just a thought, scientists.

Speaking of watching things, Chad and I have decided it's time to take the plunge into the 21st century, or step over to the dark side as my mom calls it. Yes, that's right, we have officially signed up to be slaves of satellite television and its just-as-"necessary" twin, DVR. Of course, you can't watch that on any old 19-inch TV, so we got a new TV to go along with it. We ordered it online from the same place I got our camera from a year ago, and the bonus was free shipping, no tax, and cheaper than any of the stores we looked at. Now, I know some of you might be disappointed that we've decided to take this step in our lives, since we've made it almost 5 years of marriage with a little TV and no cable, but I'm sure all that disappointment will vanish when you come to our house and don't have to watch channels that are tinted green while we turn the dial of the antenna. Don't worry Shawn and Emma, it should be up and ready to go for "The Office" season premiere when y'all are here in September.

I didn't get a chance to post any words on the last post (maybe you're grateful for just the pictures), but I wanted to explain a little bit. We got a call last week from Scotty Witt, who founded Camp Blue Haven (he is an amazing person and it is an amazing story if you don't know it...but that's for another time) and also has a cabin in the canyon. He noticed that they had started work on ours, and called to ask if we wanted him to send us the pictures he had taken of it. Um, yes please! It's been wonderful to have this community of people who have been so helpful and welcoming to us since they have found out that we will be their neighbors. Another couple who has a cabin out there noticed that their neighbors were getting rid of a stove/oven and a microwave, both in great shape, and he salvaged them for us and is storing them at his cabin until we have a place to put them! Scotty also sent us a note with the pictures and has apparently named our cabin. The tradition out there is to come up with a cutesy name for your cabin and then make a sign for it and post it at the gate entrance. Plays on words and alliteration are both popular--for example Scotty's cabin is called "Witt's End." Anyway, he deemed ours "Montandon Mountain Mansion," and I like it.

I've started a new diet. I'm telling the world that reads my blog so you can hold me accountable. It's called the Best Life diet, and I started about 2 weeks ago. You've probably heard of it because the guy goes on Oprah quite a bit, although not as much as Dr. Oz. I have lost a little over 3 pounds, but I'm already cheating because you're not supposed to weigh yourself for the first 4 weeks and I'm just too curious. So...be looking for updates on how much weight I have lost, and if I don't say anything about it, don't be bashful to ask. I might need the help. I've also promised myself that I can only buy new clothes after I have lost at least 10 pounds.

Okay, that's about it for today. Talk about a post about nothing. See y'all later.

Progress

Noelle Marie Jones

My sister Erin just gave birth to Noelle today. You can see pictures and her stats on Erin's blog.

Thanks to Josh for keeping us all updated through Erin's blog while she was in the process.

Congratulations Erin, Josh, Kellen and Bonnie! I can't wait to see her in person when I go visit in September.