October 24th through October 29th:

October 24^th through October 29^th:  My wife thinks I am getting old.  Last week I said she was at Washington Elementary School and that that is where most of our kids went to school.  She was at Washington School, but our kids went to Wasatch Elementary School.  Hey, they both start with a W.  It is an honest mistake.  My days have been filled with working on the kitchen.  I usually get up between 5 and 6am. and start doing things that don’t make a lot of noise, like hand sanding the sheetrock and putting more mud on the joints or painting or like today, blogging.  The kitchen has been primed and has 2 coats of paint on all the walls along with the wall in the front room.

 

This is an accent wall at the end of the new kitchen.  Cabinets will die into this wall on both sides.



The hall still needs the final coats, but I have a problem with a bump in the wall where I extended the wall into the front room.  I will have to add more mud to make it disappear.  I have reinstalled the crown in the front room and hall and added new base board molding in the front room.

  

New extended wall into the front room.



I have installed the new French doors to the pantry and starting building the shelving and roll outs in the pantry.

 

New French doors and pantry.  I still have to build the roll outs.



The ceiling in the kitchen still needs to be painted because I have had to perfatape two cracks and will have to retexture those joints before the final coat.  I stop working and take Chris to work about 7:30am and when I get back I can do things that make noise, such as use the nail gun and compressor or the chop saw.  I stop again and go and get her from whichever school she is at about 3:00 pm.  This week she taught Kindergarten twice and 2^nd grade twice.  One of these was in the Spanish immersion program and she was supposed to speak only Spanish.  She said it was a good thing that most of the kids spoke English, because she had to keep asking them different words.  At the end of the day, one of the little boys said, “My other teacher speaks real Spanish.”  She says she likes doing this, but she often receives a good dose of humility. We usually come home and I shower and change and then we go and have an early dinner together and she then drops me off at Home Depot.  I get home between 9:45 and 10:45 pm and then fall into bed.  Sometimes I am exhausted and ache and need a dose of Ibuprofen, but in the morning I am ready to go again.  Chris spends her evenings doing laundry or this last week she cut pumpkins with Charlotte’s family and last night she took Evan to the Scout Celebration at the Conference Center.

Working on the pumpkins.



 

The finished pumpkins on the front porch.



They rode Frontrunner into town and then Traxs to Temple Square.  On the train they started talking to a guy and when he found out they did not have tickets and were going to stand in the stand-by line, he gave them two tickets.  She must be living right or something.  They had a nice time and made it back just in time to pick me up from work.

  

Mom and Evan at the Conference Center.



Sunday was the Primary program in John and Jill’s ward, so we went and saw their 4 children.  They are getting so big.

  

We were early for the primary program. John has 4 kids and he calls them his blonde haired beauties.



In the afternoon, we and our children were invited to dinner at my brother Van’s son, David’s, home.  He cooked 16 lbs of pork in a hot water bath for 36 hours and it was so tender and delicious I had 3 helpings.  It was fun to see his kids and get caught up on everything.  Van works at the Salt Lake Temple and we went to the 6 am session on Thursday with our son John.  It brought back lots of good memories.  They have done some beautiful remodeling of the locker rooms.

David on the left and three of his daughters and a son in law on the right.



  

L to R my son John, Alex, Charlotte, Jill and my brother Van hiding.



October 16th through October 23rd:



October 16^th through October 23^rd:  Wednesday I finished the framing and started to do some rough electrical.  New outlets above the counters and stuff like that.  We decided to have the plumbing and electrical bid out.  Chris says I can’t do plumbing because I lose my cool and have to make 20 trips to Home Depot for parts.  We got a couple of bids on Thursday and the plumber we have used was low and got the pipe out of the way that afternoon.  The electrical was all over the place and since we were adding new appliances and outlets it was determined that we needed a new service and some space for some new breakers.  We settled on a electrician that would start that right away and said he would be back tomorrow if I would get all the holes cut for the 21 new can lights we were going to add in the front room, hall and kitchen.  So you can guess what I did the rest of the day.  I had all the holes and even had the wire pulled so all he had to do was wire them.  Thursday and Friday was UEA and all the kids were out of school. Thursday; Mom went with James and his family to Heber to the train.

James and Family in Heber.

Then on Friday mom took Badger and a friend to Boondocks.  On Saturday we took Ellie and her choice Miles to McDonalds and then to Chucky Chess for her birthday and then to Orange Leaf for yogurt.

  

Ellie at Chucky Cheese.

Ellie at Chucky Cheese.

Yogurt at Orange Leaf.



These cousins are best friends.

Sunday we got together at James’ home and had Sunday dinner.  

Kirstin made sugar cookies for Sunday Dinner.



Waiting for dinner to be served.

Monday I got the rest of the electrical done and everything sheet rocked and I started taping and mudding.  What a job.  That is all I have done all week is put a coat of mud on and then sand and then more mud.  I have used over 100 pounds of mud.  Where the brick was I had to completely coat with mud to cover the missing paper that had come off with the brick.

Where the fake brick was on the bottom of each wall.



 

Almost ready for primer.



I also picked up the granite for the new counter tops. I am going to fabricate the seams and cut to length the tops. Tuesday; Mom went with Kimball and Stanford to McDonalds for lunch and we took Badger to Pizza Pie Café for dinner, mom did not have time last Friday to take him and his friend for his birthday.

 

Stanford and Kimball at McDonalds.

Badger and his Papa in Pizza Heaven.



Mom has substituted a couple of times this week.  She is at Washington Elementary today.  This is where most of our kids went to school.

October 11th through October 15th:

October 11^th through October 15^th:  Thursday

I got a call as I was driving home from dropping mom off at Kate’s home.  She spent the day tending her kids while she was at a conference in Provo.  The cabinet parts were ready.  So I went straight there and they lent me their trailer.  2000 lbs. of parts would not fit in the back of the Extera.  I spent the rest of the day assembling cabinets.

  

The drawers and roll outs and base cabinets.



Friday was much of the same, although I did get John’s door picked up.  Saturday morning I assembled all the drawers and rollouts.  The rest of Saturday was spent installing John’s door, 

John's new door.

going to Ellie’s birthday party, 

Ellie's birthday party.


Mom was the glitter queen at Ellie's birthday party,

going to Badger’s last football game, 

Badger's last game and pictures.

and taking Moose and his friend, Harrison, to Boondocks for Moose’s birthday present.

  Harrison and Moose at Boondocks playing roller ball.



Lunch at Pizza Pie Café.



We also stopped at the wedding reception for Vanesa Rada. We had never met her, but her mother, Teresa Prudencio, is one of our temple workers from Cochabamba.  We promised Sister Prudencio that we would take some pictures and give her daughter a hug from her.  

 

Teresa Prudencio's daughter's wedding.



We were dressed quite casually because we were on our way to a cabin up by Peoa.  We gave a fireside about our mission to the High Priest Group of our old ward in Salt Lake.  Sunday was teaching SS about parables and we took about 20 everyday objects and passed them out and they had to make up a parable about their object.  They were very cute and fun. Monday was demo day.  It went well except that we found a vent pipe in the wall I am moving.  Now we have to get a plumber in to move the vent pipe.  Alex stayed home and helped.  He did all the hard stuff like taking a layer of thin brick off the walls that had been covered by wainscoting and then worked for hours taking up the old linoleum floor.

The Before pictures of the kitchen.



What the kitchen looks like after day one.

 



Some of my helpers.





My biggest helper, Luke.

Tuesday;

I spent the day finishing the demo and starting the framing.  I also picked up the cabinet doors and picked up the new stove and then went to work.  Mom substitute taught at Northwest Middle School.  It was a resource math class and she was administering a unit test.  She said it was very humbling because she would have failed the test if she had to take it.  She wasn’t even sure how to use the calculator.  She hopes to stay away from math classes.  Our Extera started acting up so I took it in.  Ouch, it needs about $1000.00 worth of work.













October 2nd through October 10th:



Yes it snowed in the valley this last week.

October 2^nd through October 10^th:  Each day seems like a blur and I get to the end of the week and have a hard time remembering what we have done.  Chris has some interesting stories to tell about substitute teaching.  She now has subbed at East High, health, and she said that there are a lot of Pacific Islanders there and they can be quite intimidating.  Then she subbed at Northwest Middle School, ESL, she quite enjoyed that.  I think that was Thursday and Friday of last week.
  

Northwest Middle School



Mom and Abdul

Then this week Monday she was at Meadow Lark Elem., in Glendale, 1^st grade.  She enjoyed that day also.  Tuesday found her at Backman Elementary in Rose Park. She said they got their monies worth that day.  She doesn’t want to go back to that school.  Yesterday she spent the day with our daughter-in-law, Kirstin, James’ wife.  I have now finished John’s garage except that he wants to have the passage door replaced.  So I have taken it off and it is at Colonial Lumber waiting for the replacement to come in and then they will machine it.

His new storage in his attic.

  

John's shelves.



More shelves.

More shelves.

More shelves.

I think we have everything ordered for Charlotte’s new kitchen.  I should get the parts next Monday and then I will be really busy for about 4 to 5 weeks.  We have spent a lot of time helping shuttle grandkids around and just enjoying them.  I played with Charlotte’s kids and some fake blood, just getting ready for Halloween.



Miles, Charlotte's middle son.

Luke, Charlotte's youngest son.



Am I ready for Halloween?

Sunday we tried to go to Conference for the last session.  We ended up watching it in the old tabernacle.
  

We tried to get in.



It was better than sitting at home.

Home Depot does not seem like a second home yet, thank goodness.  It’s just a job and most days I come home with a sore back.  I have continued to post old family photos to Facebook to share them with my parent’s grandkids.  They all seem to have enjoyed seeing them.

Christmas 1952.  My mom is holding me.

That's me with my hand in the turkey.  Thanksgiving 1957.

September 26th through October 1st

I had to put in at least one photo of eating.

  

September 26^th through October 1^st:

  Thursday’s big news was I started a part-time job at Home Depot.  I have my own orange apron and everything.  It is only 4 hours a day in the evening.  That should keep me busy during the day on all of my kid’s projects and at Home Depot during the evening.  Friday mom had an interview with the Salt Lake City School District to be a substitute teacher.  Monday we learned she is on the list and now she gets calls every day to substitute, but if she doesn’t want to work she can just say no thanks.  Saturday was filled with soccer and flag football games and I got to help Evan with his pine wood derby car for Cub Scouts.

Moose our other grandson is the blond with #5 on this back.



Badger, our grandson, is about to throw the ball. 



  

Me relaxing and watching flag football.



That's Ellie and Jake in the tree.



Evan's pine wood derby car before we start.



Mom took front runner to Lehi to help Kirstin get ready to go to Las Vegas.  She and James are meeting her parents there for a couple of days.  Sunday we taught our class and had another wonderful pot roast.  I really didn’t realize how much I missed a good Sunday dinner.   Sorry all you missionaries still in Bolivia. In the evening we all went to a “Walk-About”, that is just a fancy way to say a neighborhood get together to eat treats.

 

The Walk-About.



Monday:  Charlotte and I went looking for tile for her new kitchen, and then it was off to work at Home Depot.  Tuesday: we went into Salt Lake to look at counter tops, back splash and more floor tile, and then she took me to lunch at Moochies, a great sandwich place on 8^th south.  In the afternoon I finished Charlotte’s garage hanging the bikes and ladders, and then I was off to work.  Bob Cardon said reading our blog was like watching a reality show, but there are no scandals and all our children are legitimate.  Then why is it still compelling?