A long week

It has been a very long week. Tom, Tina, and their family came out and stayed with us as you know Saturday night and left on Sunday to go and visit Temple Square. Lorie invited them to stay with us as they were returning home Tuesday night. They arrived about 10:00 pm and and we stayed up and talked again as we did on Saturday night. Wednesday morning we took them out geocaching to the desert. We went to Butch Cassidy's hideout and took some pictures. Lorie read the Cassidy book we have as we drove. Tom really got into the book; Lorie even read a chapter late that night to Tom before we went to bed. After we found Cassidy's hideout, we went to the lookout on Cedar Mountain. Lorie and Tina had made sandwiches for us to eat. They were good and we all had fun. It was sad though because Nikki, Rachel, and Hailee had school all day Wednesday and could not go with us to the desert.

On Friday, Lorie, I and the girls went to Meagan and Derek's to see them and the little Sun Spot. Lorie found a stick pony and bought it for Easter. I have Lorie do these things so I can give it to Brooklyn and get all of the accolades. Lorie then took me up to SLC to look at counter tops. We are getting a granite counter top because I am a geologist and like igneous rocks. Lorie also would like on. We went to two warehouses and it was amazing, I was like kid in a candy factory. There were blue anorthosites chuck full of blue labradorite from Canada and Norway; granites from Brazil that had different degrees of metamorphism from meta granites to very foliated gneisses. There were granitoid slabs from all different parts of the world. The one she picked out is a good one and I can bore all of the relatives when they come to see us by explaining how it formed and what minerals are in the slab.

When we returned from SLC, we went out to eat with Meag, Derek, Shawna, and James. We took the little Sun Spot also as well as the three little girls. We missed Jackie very much, so we made her an Easter basket and we added a little surpise to her basket so she could go and buy a shirt or something. We went to eat at Los 3 Amigos. The food is pretty good. Everybody filled up on chips and we ended up carting out food for Saturday. Lorie, I, and the girls enjoyed spending time with the girls of Provo for Easter. Next year I think it will be Jackie's turn to have us come visit her for Easter.

Inbetween all of this, we have been installing the floor for the Kitchen-Dining Room. What a job. We finished tonight and my knees are in a bit of pain. I will need some ibuprofen to be able to sleep. Lorie racks out the floor and I pound them together and nail them down. It is fun work but it can be a pain. We worked Thursday, Saturday, and Monday, and we finally finished it Monday at about 9:45 pm. Nikki, Rachel, and Hailee feel like they have really suffered because of the clutter. Lorie has suffered the most and I am just bugged and can't wait to get the house finished. THE FLOOR IS FINISHED AND WE ARE READY NOW FOR CABINETS. They should arrive between now and Thursday and they will be installed on Thursday. That was our week and I am tired, my arms hurt, my knees are rubber, and I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

BBall, Plays, and continued Kitchen work

I am home from Wyoming and happy to be with family again. I am behind as Hailee played in a championship basketball game that I was able to see in February before I went to Wyoming. She had a chance at a couple of freethrows, and played very hard to help her team win the championship. Alas, in the closing minutes of the game they committed two or three different fouls which helped the other team get ahead and eventually win the game. She felt very bad and thought she lost the game as the coach called one last play and Hailee couldn't pass the ball, so she found herself open and took the shot. She missed and they lost the game by two points. Rachel was the manager of the team and she is seen here with her friends where she is video taping the game for the coach. She was also a great score keeper. She would rather video the game that work at the scorers table.

Nikki was one of the nuns in the Community Theater's play of the Sound of Music. She was also a girl at the ball. I didn't get to see this play but I know she was terrific. Lorie saw the play twice and took the pictures. Actually, we have a pretty good setup right now: she takes the pictures and I blog about them. That could change when she gets the bug.

We have kitchen cabinents coming the end of this month and as you see we are tearing up the original subfloor of the kitchen. There was some water damage and believe it or not, it was easier to tear up the floor than to scrape off the old linoleum. Mom and Nikki started tearing up the floor and when I got back from the dump and lumber yard, I began to help them in the demolition. We had started to lay the new floor down when Tom, Tina, Casey, and the girls arrived. Tom helped me finish the floor, it was just like old times but he is a good carpenter and he really helped me get it done. We then went out to eat with them and the girls. It feels like this is becoming the never ending project. We plan on having the kitchen done by mid April and then the ribbon cutting will occur on Mother's Day. Then we can concentrate on the rest of the house. As you can see, there is no sink in the kitchen. We have a new diet plan: no cooking equals no weight gain. Acutally, Lorie is wonderful and cooks meals in what kitchen we have and she and the girls wash dishes out in the laundry sink in the mudroom. Hopefully, the whole house will be done by Christmas. The kids are tired of living in chaos, and I am tired of the clutter. I still have to build a pony wall for the new kitchen sink and bar, build a wall to close off the kitchen entrance by the stairs and the outside garage door, and then lay the floor. Then the cabinents will be here and be installed and then countertops. Yeah.

As you can see Casey had a blast driving the Hummer around on Sunday after Stake Conference. He is all boy and he really likes all of the girls, but I think Nikki was his favorite. He even told Lorie, "I not having any fun because Nikki is asleep," so Lorie told him to go in and wake her up and he did. Nikki came out smiling. It was really fun to have them here. Isn't family wonderful?

Home away from home

I am in Newcastle, WY watching the snow fly. It is March 6 and I have been gone a week. I hate being away from my family. I thought someone at home would do some pictures, but a lass no one has the time. Lorie is painting franticaly the kitchen-dining room, I am stuck along the border of Wyoming/S. Dakota chasing oil, and the girls are working in school and helping their mother. When I get home I have to lay a floor so that on the 26 or 28 we can install cabinents. Pictures coming when that occurs. Also, I will get pics for Hailee's tournament.

Presidents Day Travel

Well, we promised Jackie that we would visit her this week, so we got up @ 4:00 am, showered, shaved, and wokeup Nikki, Rachel, and Hailee loaded up the car and headed for Logan. It was a nice day for travel, dark but with the promise of sun in the east and no wind. We picked up Jackie and went to IHOP to eat breakfast. It was OK, but I have had better for less. During the afternoon we went to The Gutter to bowl. Boy was that fun. Nikki had the high score with a 91, so you now know that we don't bowl too often. I just about beat her; I need only 2-3 more pins. When we bowl we use Disney characters for names. I am Kronk, Nikki, is Mogli, Rachel is Timone, Hailee is Pumba, Jackie was Pain and Panic this time, and Lorie was Ursala. I do not think I have had two gutterballs in one frame since I was ten. But it was really fun. We laughed and just had a great time.

We then drove home and stopped in Provo to see Meagan, Derek, and the little sunspot Brooklyn. We (Nikki, Rachel, Haillee and myself) wound Brooklyn up. She must have been going 50 miles/hr. She zoomed into her bedroom got her toys ran out and then ran behind her chair. Then there was dancing: Bright music was on in her room and in the living room, two different CDs. She went from running in circles to jumping and then after mom and dad left we got the tent out. She ran from her bedroom with her piggy slippers to the tent and would laugh and then run back to her bedroom. Meagan had Shawna and James come and sit with Brooklyn, so we hid from them and let them find us when they arrived be with brooklyn. Grandma Lorie couldn't stand not seeing her in the dress her mother made, so we also put her in her new dress. Boy was she cute.

Yesterday, we painted primer in the dining room-kitchen, so we could start getting ready to lay the floor. We must be ready for cabinents in a couple of months. That was a really great experience. I hate to paint; it doesn't hold my attention. I kept up with Lorie for the whole day and had a very enjoyable time. She is wonderful to work with. We talk, complain about each other (in a fun way), remember times past, talk about the gospel, and just have a great time. I do enjoy very much working with her.

Snow shoeing

Well, time for the weekly update. Mom and the girls are at chior and I am here blogging. I have temporarily been excused from chior because I am never around to sing. Yes, I am bad but when the travel stops I will be a regular. Rachel and I went snowshoeing yesterday up at Joes Valley. The snow was rotten. It was crusted from melting during the day and freezing during the day. The snow underneath would then pull you under: bottom line--a lot of work, not much progress. We had fun. We drove past Shaw's shower and wished we would have had a box to fix the geocache. That will get done in about a month. We are going up to see Jackie in Logan tomorrow. Let you know about it next week.

Genesis (The beginning)

This is the beginning of the J&L Family Blog. Time will be a factor as we are involved in house building, little girl activity, big girls college and family life, church, hobbies (hunting, geocaching, and gold prospecting/treasure hunting). We thought it was time to bridge the communication gap and learn to communicate in the 21st century. It is also a good way to preserve memories, which continue to flow in (too bad this wasn't available when the whole family wasn't so scattered). The little girls are always sending pictures abroad with email, so we can document it here and share it with the whole fam-damly. This is wonderful. Thank you Meagan. The goal will be to update the bog monthly at a minimum and weekly if possible.