Wrestling and SNOW!

Cole wrestled in his second tournament and, again, did very well.
He had some other spectators this time, which really made him smile and want to do well. Uncle Todd, Aunt Corri and Derian along
with Aunt Tricia and Hannah joined us in the loud, sweaty and stinky wrestling gym. Cole pinned one of his opponents and lost
the other two matches by points. Impressive how fast and knowledgeable some of these boys are at this age. Cole received a second place and once again he was very happy.

!!!HAHAHAHA….WE HAVE SNOW!!!

7:45 am – outside before breakfast and creating the first prints in the snow for the day.

We built a jump in the snow and with the help of Sheila, Oma and Momma the kids would catch a little air. Jo thought it best when she would wreck…wreck on spinning around or jumping or even just running through the snow. Wrecking - it’s where it’s at!





The neighbor boys created a ramp and were sliding down it on a skateboard deck. It’s as close to snowboarding Cole has ever come and he rode it over and over and over again! Maybe next year we will take him up to actually try snowboarding.



Might have jinxed our snowfall by saying “HAHAHA” but we do not usually get a lot of snow so this is one of the few snow times that we get to say “HAHA!!!” Plus Oma got her no school notice already, on a Sunday night, no less.

Home Work – still and Family Goings On

Well, our remodel and or leak fixes are wrapping up, thank goodness. Sheila (friend/contractor) has just about finished up her work in the house, and in our opinion done a fabulous job! Now it’s time to wrap up our work: mudding, sanding, texturing and painting. Oh, how we do not like this part of the process, mostly because neither one of us is very good at the mudding and sanding part to make the walls look seamless. Texturing and painting…actually fun and easy but the sludge before this part? It really basically sucks with a capitol “S”!
It will get done but it’s a little slower than the rest and mostly because I can procrastinate with the best and especially when it comes to things I don’t like or want to do. One day soon I will tackle it and the pain…Oh, how it hurts…the pain will be gone. Are you feeling me? I know you are.

Here, Sheila taught Cole how to shoot some nails. He thought that was neat. I, on the other hand, was a little nervous sanding where I was to take the photo. (not really)


Oma and I textured and she wanted to know if it was going to be “OK” looking when it was dry. As anyone who knows her knows she likes the destination, not the journey, the plate of food and not the dinner atmosphere, the point and not the explanation. Gotta love some one like this because they get things done…a mover and shaker so to speak. So here she is hurrying the texture to dry so she can either add more texture or start painting.

We ordered new carpet for the living room so our door had to be moved up. Some of you might think that cutting the bottom of the door off would have done the trick but it would not have solved the problem. So hey…it’s winter, lets cut the dang thing out and move it up. Must say that it was chilly that day, inside and out. It works GREAT now!
Cole enjoyed using his Heelys in the living room before the carpet arrived. He has been banned to the outside again but he actually got lots of good practice in this past month with only sub floor in that room.
We all took part in putting the living room back in order, cleaning and organizing a bit as we went. The kids helped quite a lot and the new carpet is a hit! In fact as I typed this up they have been wrestling on the floor and laughing again. It’s a lovely sound!

Family Goings On

The kids received gift certificates to Build-a-Bear from Gma Marie and Gpa Norman. We finally made the trip so the kids could build their new friend and they really had their own visions for their friends. Cole just went for a standard bear and focused on the outfit where as Jo had to have a princess/fairy from start to finish.
Introducing our new family members.Jo adopted Kalarina (yes, this spelling is correct)
Cole adopted Spiderbear

The older Artemis gets the more he asks for attention from all of us but especially his Mother. A first for him was this…Oma working on her computer and Artemis just climbed on and that was that. Just thought it was funny.
Cole participated in his first wrestling tournament of the year and did very well. He pinned his first opponent, won by points on his second match and during his third match was taken down hard by the other kid and Cole’s wrist was hurt. Cole was turned over and pinned before he knew what really happed other than he was hurting (he is fine by the way). He earned a silver medal and went home happy and looking forward to his next tournament.
We needed to make a trip to the snow, and as winter moves on we were not making it happen. So we loaded up and drove till we found a good spot for some sledding. The spot we found is actually a turn around with a pile of road rock covered in snow. It has been so dry and cold that it was all iced up so the kids chose not to even use the sleds but to just slide on their…well they just slid every which way.

It was a good afternoon; sliding down our private hill, picnic on a blanket and back to sliding.
Cold, but sunny and warm. Good family time.

Cole Pulls First Tooth!

We thought he should get his own post this time.
If you can't handle watching a loose tooth,
just close your eyes and listen to him.

Tooth Fairy tonight? How much does the Fairy pay these days?
I heard one kid say she got $5 per tooth.
We think the TF will be dropping off one gold coin per tooth.
Should be a fun morning!

Christmas & New Year & Home stuff!

Christmas eve was a quiet night, the kids opened the gifts to each other again and both got some thing they were asking for. Both were happy going to be that night.

Jo and Cole had to have a stocking for Artemis this year and were worried that he would not get a gift. So a stocking was hung and Santa did not miss the cat this year. Mom and Oma were in bed not quite sleeping when the Old Man showed up with gifts. He put the cat’s gift under the tree with all the others, as soon as he left , Oma and Mom had to get up to figure out what the noise was. Well, Artemis was in the middle of the packages trying to get at his! We opened his new scratching box and placed it on the floor for him and he loved on it and attacked it for at least the next hour! It took Oma and Mom a while to fall asleep, with the happy cat just down the hall.

Christmas morning Oma was able to warm her tooshie by the fire, thanks to our new tv (and a wall heater close by) we had a gianormous roaring fire just like all mornings should!
(we actually had a good laugh seeing two tv stations displaying hearths that morning)

After opening gifts we called Dale & Francis to see if they would join us for breakfast. Their daughter Kristy joined us as well, and as Dale would say it, we broke bread as a family that morning.

We then headed to the B side of the family for the afternoon, the drive was not bad and we all just had an enjoyable day all the way around. A couple days after the big day Oma drove the twins to the S side of the family for a few days and more presents. I hear they had a great time, I do know they all came home quite tuckered out. Momma stayed home to continue the remodel, or fixing of the house, and just trying to get as much done as possible before the family came back home.

Well you might agree with some of our neighbors that we like to remodel, and remodel often. Oma and I would have to disagree even though we are again knee deep in remodeling…again. We had a leaky roof that apparently had been going on for quite some time, so after we got our roof fixed we had to tear into our hallway wall and floor to fix a molding and rotting problem. Jo thought it was neat to take a hammer to a wall. Timid at first she really got into swinging the hammer after a hole or two were made by Shelia. (a friend and our contractor). This part started just before Christmas and well…it’s still going on. Hoohum

We will have to take more photos of the housework but here are a couple shots of the kids helping. Oh, and as most people know on a house fixes, one thing leads to another and another and another fix or update or…DANG…more work!

We cut an exploratory hole in the kids closet for mold; it butts up to the bathroom as well. All good to go there, whewh. Since the closet was completely empty, why not paint it and update it as well? Both kids took a hand at painting, Jo got a little upset that Oma would not let her try the roller, so she didn’t last too long.

We had to tear open the wall in the hallway. Hey, why not put in a pocket door for the bathroom? Here is Jo helping put the last coat of finish on the new solid wood door.

And hey, since we have to tear out the floor in the hallway why not remove all the linoleum in the hall and kitchen for an update as well? Oma said we can get carpet again in the living room so hey, lets move the wood floor from the living room onto the kitchen and hall? But hey, with carpet in our living room the front door wont open, that’s ok, we will just cut the door out and move it up. Is it winter? Have we touched every room yet with our leaky roof problem? Wait, nothing has happened yet in the laundry room or our bedroom. Hmmm…we must be missing some thing I guess, it will probably hit us later.

Happy New Year by the way!

p.s. My folks are snow birding finally again this year. If you want to see what they are up too or at least nice weather photos check out "Marie & Norman on the Road".
There is a link to your right under "Other Sites".