I Tried...

Didn't quite get it done though... I'm an optimist though... I'd rather shoot for the moon and get halfway than just shoot for getting a thing or two done... :)

I nearly got the backsplash done on the other side...

That's an "Oh shit!" look there, because I thought I had the thing in the bracket, but didn't! I caught it though, and it is now hung and working like magic!! Carolyn had to help me though because I tried and could not quite get it. Carolyn and I though got the thing hung finally and it works like a charm!!

Yeah, I still have a LOT to do, but whatever, one day at a time!!! I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We did! We did go out to eat though, so there were no dishes to wash, and no slaving over the stove! Cory and Jessica came over and Cory brought us a cooler full of deer meat. I can't remember the last time I ate deer meat, but we have a freezer full of it now, so I guess I'll soon find out what it tastes like again... :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I LOVE this time of year, and we have SO much to be thankful for!! Even with the problems and issues we face as a Nation, we are still without question the Greatest Nation on earth, God has truly blessed our Nation. Some would wonder how long He will continue to do so, I'm of the opinion that we should continue to offer thanks to the Almighty God for the prosperity and abundance that He has blessed us with! Not that we shouldn't fight to stop those who want to continually whittle away at the very foundation that this Great Nation was built on, but giving thanks is something we should certainly do!!

THANKSGIVING DAY 1789
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PROCLAMATION

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor - and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

George Washington (Full text here... )

THANKSGIVING DAY 1864
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – A PROCLAMATION

…Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed

Abraham Lincoln (Full text here... )

THANKSGIVING DAY 2001
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION

…During these extraordinary times, we find particular assurance from our Thanksgiving tradition, which reminds us that we, as a people and individually, always have reason to hope and trust in God, despite great adversity. In 1621 in New England, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God, in whom they placed their hope, even though a bitter winter had taken many of their brethren. In the winter of 1777, General George Washington and his army, having just suffered great misfortune, stopped near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to give thanks to God. And there, in the throes of great difficulty, they found the hope they needed to persevere. That hope in freedom eventually inspired them to victory.
In 1789, President Washington, recollecting the countless blessings for which our new Nation should give thanks, declared the first National Day of Thanksgiving. And decades later, with the Nation embroiled in a bloody civil war, President Abraham Lincoln revived what is now an annual tradition of issuing a presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving. President Lincoln asked God to "heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union."

George W. Bush (Full text here... )

Kind of interesting reading all the Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations... I hope that everyone has a great day and gets to enjoy time with family and friends, while pausing to give thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us!

I'm thankful that I'm not in the kitchen right now slaving over the stove! Although I suppose I'll BE in the kitchen later slaving over getting the rest of the tile up... :) Still, I'm thankful that I have the ability and the resources to do the work, I'm thankful for my wonderful family and I'm thankful that I live in this Great Nation, and most of all I'm thankful that God has seen fit to bless me as richly as He has!

What Was I Thinking????

I OBVIOUSLY wasn't! Yeah, let's do the backsplash diagonally?!? Okay...

Turns out it is a freaking nightmare!

I did get all the hard pieces done though... I made an error that is so glaring to me, I wonder if anyone will spot it... I'll correct it of course... :)

So yeah, that's been my life for the past few days. Thanksgiving dinner? Yeah! That's going to happen!! The funny thing is, Carolyn and I went out last week and bought all the food to cook Thanksgiving dinner, but now that I've ripped the kitchen apart, we have decided to go out to eat on Thanksgiving day. LeRoy and Timberly are coming over Saturday, so we MIGHT cook then, we'll see! :) We did find a range and an over-the-range microwave/convection oven on craigslist today though, the people bought it 11 months ago at the Home Depot for 2 grand but got transferred, so we went and picked it up today. I had to remove it myself, but it was such a deal, I didn't mind (luckily they lived about two miles away from us). We also went and got a dishwasher to replace the one I threw in the trash a day or so ago, so I guess I'll be installing that tomorrow or the next day... Why I start crap like this right before the holidays I have ZERO idea! I still have to drag all the Christmas stuff out of the attic too, the kids WON'T let me not do that, nor do I not want to, but man... So anyway, that's what I'm doing... :)

I Didn't Finish...

NOT that anyone thought I would of course!! :)

I got that counter on that side in, the sink put together and installed...

We decided to put tile up for the backsplash, so I got the tile and got most of the pieces cut (I'm going to install them diagonally), so hopefully will get that up tomorrow, along with the trim around the windows... We'll see how that works out, I DO have to work tomorrow you know... :)

Why Matt, Why??

So I decided to paint the kitchen... Then I was like, why not just slap some new countertops in while I'm at it, how hard can that be? Off I went to get the new countertops, and of course one thing ALWAYS leads to a freaking other thing, so now I've TOTALLY destroyed the kitchen and I'm wondering if I'll get it back together this weekend or not?!?!?

I took the sink out, ripped off the countertop and am trying to get the damn dishwasher out...

We bought that dishwasher not too long ago, but it doesn't work right, so I thought I'd see if I can 'fix' it!! LOL!! I'm NO dishwasher mechanic it turns out, so I suppose I'll just throw the damn thing in the trash and get another one... I'd take it back, but the place I bought it from went out of business (I wonder why?)...

So I'm sitting here eating, trying to get the strength up to go back and try and get the kitchen put back together before Carolyn kills me! :)

Our First Real Fire...

As amazing as it may be, this is actually the first time we have ever had a real fire...

The kids had a great time though, I taught them all how to make a fire, and they each wanted to start it... So I went the democratic route and had them choose a number from 1 - 20... Chance won, so he got to start the fire! We've lived here for almost 7 years, yet we have always burned those 'fake' logs... We did have a bit of an alarm, we all started smelling something burning, so we ran outside to see if anything was amiss, then ran up to the attic to make sure nothing was burning. Seems like all is well! :)

Fall...

I actually love this time of year, with the exception of the weather!! Although, it is supposed to be 75 degrees here today, I think that is going to quickly change though!! It is kind of nice to just be able to step outside and see all the color that fall brings though, a few pics:

Cory finished getting all those plants in the ground on that bank, and put down pine straw. Turns out I am going to have to build yet another retaining wall on that corner by the shed though as it is too steep and too close to the fence and those trees to slope it any, unless of course I just cut the trees down... Hmm!! :)

What Am I Doing??

You might ask...

Or maybe not, who cares... I actually paid someone else to do this, I am finishing it myself though as it never got done!! I started yesterday, hopefully I'll have it done in a day or so. I've decided that I HATE remodeling and once I finish this house, that's IT for me!! Will be nice to get it all done though, and hopefully it will be SOON!!

I may take Andrea's lead and drag down the Christmas decorations early!! :)

Happy Veterans Day!!

The Kids...

Just messing around, I have YET to find any type of DVD making software I like, any suggestions??

Weather And Holidays...

Well, it's that time of year. It's bitterly cold out in the morning and somewhat bearable in the afternoon only to get bitterly cold again! Of course my definition of 'bitterly cold' may differ somewhat from anyone reading this... I have four definitions for weather: preferable (anything above 70), bearable (60 - 70), barely tolerable (50 - 60) and what am I doing here (anything below 50)?. I know everyone wanted to know that, so glad I could explain that for you... It's currently 'barely tolerable' outside, so I've got the heat cranked up and have pretty much been inside for the past few days.

I have gotten some things done, I've started finishing Cory's room and am thinking about putting slate down in the office and Cory's room, which are the last two rooms in the house that need flooring redone... We'll see how that goes! Being forced inside due to the inclement weather (yeah, I consider cold weather to be inclement weather) I see all these things I need to 'finish', so I've been trying to do that! For some reason though, I've not taken any photos... I'm actually freezing right now, perhaps I should go start a fire??

How about the holidays? Or Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years as I call them, I get tired of the whole "Winter Holiday" thing... Thanksgiving is literally a few weeks away?!? Of course the kids are counting down the days until we drag down all the Christmas decorations, which we always do on Thanksgiving weekend! I know that the decorations have been out for weeks now, the Christmas decorations start coming out now BEFORE the halloween decorations do?! Of course why anyone would buy a lot of that stuff at the prices they go for now when you can get it all for ten cents on the dollar in January, is beyond me... I wonder if I'll decorate the outside this year? I say I'm going to every year, but I NEVER do, even though we have all the stuff to do it with, and I'm ALWAYS glad in January that I didn't, because they don't have to be taken down!!

As you can see, I have a LOT to say right now!

27 DAYS, 12 HOURS, 03 MINUTES, 56 SECONDS!

"Until what?", you may ask... Days until Imus is back on the air and TV!! Luckily DirecTv carries the channel, although I'm not sure if we get him on the radio here, we'll see... Slow week! :)

Verdict Is In... :)

Got bales of hay for the trailer, so I will haul them around the neighborhood... The trailer with hay seems to be popular, I think more people are coming over to ride along... :)

Hmm... I posted that before we left, but now that we are home the post wasn't up?!?! Oh well, we tooled around the neighborhood like that, Carolyn and Doris sat in the trailer with the kids and some other kid went with us... I had put a light at the front of the trailer and Doris and Carolyn sat there and chatted and I'd drive around and then stop and the kids would all pile out and run to whichever houses had their lights on... They each got like a pillow case full of candy?!! We heard a few people saying there weren't many kids this year, and I think people just wanted to unload the candy, because normally there are like four times as many families out in our neighborhood, so the kids lucked out!

How It Works...

Still Doing Landscaping...

Carolyn did most of the mulching...

Kids were cleaning out their pumpkins while we did the landscaping, Chance and Tanner carried up all the mulch before they started though, so that was a huge help...

Starting to shape up, but WOW, there is always so much more to it than I think!!

Got the walkway done, the forms up for the concrete so the flagstone can be put down and all the mulch, etc done...

Still a TON of things to do, but one day at a time!! :)

The Devil's Holiday...

So I'm sure anyone who has read my blog for any length of time will remember my post last year about Halloween (I'm not sure why I capitalize that)... If you don't remember, feel free to puruse the archives!! :)

Anyway, my kids have taken a turn on it... They have been doing it for days now though, so what will I do? Chance was like, "Dad, I know that it is the Devil's holiday, but we know that, so as long as we know that, does it matter if we just go to a few houses and get some candy?" Tanner and Taylor both soon chimed in with the same thing! Hmm! A dilemma of sorts I suppose. I go back and forth in my mind. My children are getting to the age where they have their own beliefs, so am I to shove mine down their throat and tell them to hell with theirs?? That's what my parents did. Of course if they decide that 'It's only about the candy and the fun', then I will HAVE to be a willing participant! Who else will take them? Then there are the pumpkins, etc... So my position is still that it is the Devil's holiday, and I'm sure many disagreed with my original stance anyway, but whatever... The holiday is Wednesday, so I wonder what we will do? Do I allow my kids to dress up and then take them around the neighborhood even though I disagree with the holiday? Even though they have all told me, "Dad, we know that the holiday is wrong, but does it matter if we just dress up and go get some candy?"

Interesting dilemma... I can see their logic. Of course then you'll have the people who will be like, "You have to stand firm!". Well, they didn't live my life, so screw them!! I had shit crammed down my throat all my life, and NEVER did my own opinion count. My kids opinions count! We'll see how this little saga pans out...

Of Course I Didn't Finish...

It wasn't for lack of trying though... :) I got up and finished using that tiller, then took it back and got an auger to dig the holes for the bushes, etc...

I used the auger to dig all the holes, Cory was coming over and was going to plant everything...

Cory finally made it and started planting everything, I started building the forms for where the walkway is going to go there. I'm going to have Enrique come over again and pour concrete and then I'll lay flagstone on top of all the concrete... Had I been THINKING, I would have done all that dirt moving BEFORE I put the fence up, oh well, live and learn... :)

Brutal!!

Note to self: NEVER rent two tools from Home Depot on the same day!!

I did however! Got up this AM and went and got the aerator, started that and then took it back around 1:00 and picked up a tiller to shape up all the areas where all the plants go...

I mainly got the tiller to work on that bank behind the pool, but thought, why not just do the front first! So I started on that...

Of course, one thing turns into another, so I figured, well, while I'm at it, I'll just get the drainpipe behind the retaining wall and fill it in with dirt...

I used the bobcat to bring the dirt over, but I'm having to move it by hand because the fence is there... I suppose I should have hired a few illegal aliens, but I didn't! Now it's time to eat, then back at it until dark I suppose, ugh!

Fall Festival...

So tonight was the Fall Festival at the kids school, and AS usual, we got drafted to help out... :( I think I'm going to STOP volunteering for stuff next year, we'll see how that works out though... Although tonight, there were actually two other dad's who helped out, and of course I drafted Carolyn and the kids again to help, but I was glad when it was over! Luckily it was only 5:30 - 9:00, but we ended up leaving at 8:30 once we were 'pretty sure' everything was taken care of! :)

Tanner and Bo...

Carolyn took a few pics of the Fall Festival, but they didn't turn out, which is unusual for us, we usually take tons of photos!! Yeah, I know my front lawn there where Tanner and Bo are is in sad shape! That's what we'll be doing this weekend though, I've got to aerate the yard, put lime down and reseed... Then there is the whole planting thing, we ended up going back today and getting more plants for around the pool, so that will be a chore! Cory is going to come over Sunday and help us, so that will be good! He was going to come tomorrow, but decided to go hunting instead! So it should be a FUN weekend, not! Has to be done though... :)

Landscaping...

So I am VERY tired of having to constantly clean the pool deck, but I have to so the kids don't track the red clay into the pool!! So we decided to spend the weekend doing the landscaping around the pool so we can get all the dirt covered up! LUCKILY the Home Depot Landscape Supply companies in Atlanta are going out of business, so off we went to take advantage of the 50% off sales! (We went there a few weeks ago, but luckily didn't buy anything as it was only 20% off then!!)

Of course once we got home with the plants, I was thinking, that is a LOT of digging there Matt!!

We started spreading out the plants around the pool...

Turns out we need about TWICE as many as we bought today!!! So I suppose we'll go get them tomorrow...

I'm NOT however going to be digging THAT many holes by hand, of that you can be sure... So I suppose I'll have to go rent that auger again, but let's see... Rent an auger and dig the holes in a day, or spend the next three weeks digging holes, umm... Yeah, rent the auger!! We'll see how it all turns out, but I'm sure anything will look better than what it looks like now! I'm sure I'll be tired come Sunday evening as well, we'll see... :)