This week in review

Not much too exciting on the picture front, so I thought I would include this shot of Aimee at ballet. As you can tell the class was small that day and Katie thought she would join in on the fun.

This week the kids finished swim lessons. They had a lot of fun and are really enjoying the water. Tyler has now started coach pitch baseball. He had his first game on Saturday. It is fun to watch the kids as they are just starting to learn about baseball. If you can get a hit you can usually turn it into a home run on errors. The kids are okay at throwing but not so hot on catching. There is usually a lot of running after missed catches. Tyler did well and got several nice hits.

Erik and I decided that we had put off large side work long enough and decided to tackle one on Saturday. We tore out a front yard that had been destroyed by the roots of a large cottonwood and replaced it with new dirt and sod. After four tandems (double axle dump trucks) of dirt and sod and one of trash, we added two tandems of new soil. We then laid 2200 square feet of sod. We finished by three and it looked really sharp. The homeowner just kept saying, "my front yard looks so big." He was really impressed.

Last night was our pioneer day celebration. We had it at a park our stake cares for up in the foothills. They had dinner and then a bunch of little booths with crafts for the kids. Of course the highlight of the night was the pony rides. Even Katie went for a ride and had a lot of fun.

Have a great week!

Brant

Our Busy Week

This is the new Living Room / Pantry area. Notice the ease of watching tv and getting snacks right in the same room.

This is the new Dining Room / Kitchen area. It works well except for the fact there is no place to sit and you have to go around by the piano to get to the fridge.

This is me working over the "hole" in the sheet vinyl. Mom tore up all the flooring while I was trying to get all the nails out.

We finally got the Explorer in to Ford to finish the work on the speedometer. The needle keeps bouncing over a 10 to 20 mph range and when you are using the cruise control it tries to follow the speedometer. The engine surges up and down trying to keep up. They put in a new speedometer head (dial) and sent us home. Friday on the way to Lewiston the new one did the same thing. So, it's headed back in to be worked on again tomorrow. They will put the old head (the new one was $600) back on and try to find the problem.

Friday afternoon Mom and I went to Lewiston to shop for the kitchen. We bought paint, floor tile, light fixture (one for the dining room too), base boards, carpet edging, etc, etc. Saturday morning we took everything out of the kitchen and put it in the hallway, the living room and the dining room. Then we started the cleaning and repair. That was a job! We cleaned every nook and corner. I re-glued several laminate strips on the counter top, caulked all along the back splash, patched nail holes, took out all the nails in the infamous "hole" in the flooring, Mom tore up all the sheet vinyl, and we pulled out all the base board rubber strips. We washed and cleaned the walls and started the new stuff. We painted the ceiling and walls, spray painted the toe kick ahead of installing new base boards, changed the light switches and plug-ins (I have to get different ones tomorrow - the new plug-ins wouldn't work - too many wires on the back). At 9:00pm we installed the new ceiling light and ran out of energy. Tomorrow we will install the new flooring and move everything back in. Mom took a load of junk, old food, etc. to the dump while I ran to the hospital to help administer to a sister who had been in labor for 2 days. It is exciting to see it all come together after 21 years.

Lacey and Seth - Eltons were in church today with their new baby girl. She came two weeks early. They are still job hunting in Boise. Jade and Ben had a baby girl yesterday - after two days trying they finally had a C-section. All is well.

The article from the paper is about the Moscow High School basketball team of 1972 being inducted into the North Idaho Sports Hall of Fame. Steve Berglund played guard on the team. He always down plays his abilities but he was a starter most of the time. It is easy to see him in the large picture but find him in the old black and white one. He is the third from the left. He looks a lot like his son Andrew.

We're getting ready for the ward camp out to Laird Park this week. Lacey and Weston will be home to go with us. Then we will head for Denver the next week. We still plan to go by way of Yellowstone and the Buffalo Bill Museum and come home by way of Provo. We'll give you a better itinerary when we finally decide.

Hope you are all well and happy. Keep those paint rollers out of the reach of children.

Love, Mom and Dad