Living Room

Everyone painting the living room! took so long!




I really wasn't ready to start a new project. I still hadn't finished my Kitchen, and I'm still working on paying for my kitchen! I suppose I was thinking of opportunity for Jon. I really liked the idea from Switzerland of learning trades in your last years of school. So when the drywall lady offered to teach Jon drywall while she was working I thought I better take her up on it.
Jon has been learning well and doing much of the work. He's quite good at it, and I'm really proud of what a good worker he is. When I think of all the teens and college students that end up with minimum wage jobs, compared to even a basic skill like drywall. I think most drywall people make $15 per hour.
So the problem is that all these projects take time and money! Always more then you think too.
We thought we would be ready to paint this weekend. No way! The ceiling is textured though. Now she can't make it back on Mon, so we wait till Tue. Well to be realistic it will be another week before we can move back into our living room.
I'm actually quite excited about having a clutter free house. With all the clutter in the garage and our sorting boxes lined up, I'm quite excited to get at least the main floor clean, organized, labeled and pretty.
We must decide on a color to paint the living room.
Many different opinions in a large family.
But I think we better stick to the neutral colors. Tan's and such. I might try a darker tan on 2 of the walls.
Well it's going to be beautiful.

Silverwood

living room project

Here is Jon and Linda working on covering the beams. Mark was learning right along with Jon.

our weekend

Rick and I went to a marriage encounter this weekend.
It was so good. They always are. It's like you put everything in life aside and have time with out any responsibly. They feed you, give you a private room,ask you to turn off your phones and even take off your watches if you want.
They give you questions with time to think, pray and discuss. amazing the things the Lord brings out from the crevices of our hearts.
I would recommend these for anyone.
So we finally drove up to the house at about 11 pm. As we pulled up to the garage there was a skunk in the garage.
It gives you a very stuck feeling. thankfully in a few minutes he waddled out of the garage.

Years ago, Joe was spending the night in the little cabin (storage room). It was hot so he left the door open. Next thing he knows there was a skunk in there with him! What a laugh we had!

more kitchen

and Gareth. He's such a cutie with his big brown eyes. He's crawling everywhere now.
This is a picture of one of our beautiful new walls with a hole in it. I never had so many boys before. I had 3 girls, one boy, then 3 girls one boy and a girl and two boys. So now with Gina gone so much of the time, it's Monica and 3 boys. What a switch!
So boys! They were playing, chasing, etc. and a broom handle went though our beautiful wall. Ugh!
Jon is going to learn how to fix it. Rick just thought we could put the telephone there,but I don't think it would look right in the middle of the wall. What do you think? I wanted to put a phone above the light switch, but I guess it's not good to put them close to the wiring.



Well the rest of my appliances are black. My white fridge is standing out like a sore thumb. Oh well!

more kitchen and my new curtains.

I found some really nice fabric in the Philippines. I just was guessing at the color so I bought 3 different shades. It is really good quality, and was only about $1.30 a meter (over a yard). So I bought a bunch that I can use for seat cusions or something.
Mishael sewed up a curtain for me.
I'm planning on putting a table in this corner. I've been thinking of a counter height. This way the chairs will fit under the table or under the bar. As you can see I still don't have edges or my baking counter done. I have to wait till I can catch up on my finances. But in time I hope to truly have a finished kitchen. Hopefully before it starts wearing out!

This is the hall and entrance way.
Up until the beginning of this remodel my washer and dryer was right here where the piano is. When people would come in my front door the first thing they would see was my "laundry room" At the end of the hall where this beautiful book case is, there was a shelf made out of press board, with lots of junk and papers, and what ever people didn't know what else to do with. So the laundry room was moved up stairs (quite a project) and the junk, well, .... we are still working on the junk, but it's not usually in my entrance way anymore.
It's not near done yet. All the trim still needs doing, my hall closet needs some shelves, but we are getting there, very slowly.

Mark's Birthday

Mark is 10 years old! The double digit's!Monica made a snow board cake for Mark. She did a great job.

This was Mark having to get his birthday attack! he was giggling like crazy!


A closer look at the great snow board cake.
You might have guess Mark cannot wait to snow board again this year.
I'm afraid this is a common seen in our house. Jon seems to think it's his job as big brother to keep his little brothers tough. I think the boys think it's fun in all reality, but mom doesn't think so.
Monica with her master peice
Flying James!

Our field trips

June, April, and the girls joined us. This is Monica with Dayton.this is the Conrad Mansion.
They didn't let us take pictures inside because the flash can damage the antiques. It's like living history in there.
The Conrad mansion was one of the first house in Kalispell built in 1891. The family was very well off. They say Mrs Conrad was a pack rat. Even had all the receipts, so they could tell us the price paid for each piece of furniture. They have 8 fire places.
Teddy Roosevelt stayed here quite often as he was friends of Mr Conrad.

The next pictures are of the chocolate factory. We loved this place.
Pictured here is our home school group from Libby.
Above is Gracie watching chocolate!
This is a machine that melts the chocolate and keeps it the perfect temperature. Temperature is the trick to great candy.
This was a neat funnel, that has a plug in the tip. this way you can fill molds without drips in between.

I learned that the cocoa bean grows only close to the equator. This is why Cocoa was so cheap in the Philippines. I guess they don't know how to make the beans into decent chocolate though.

what a week!

Such a week. Gina had to get down to Bozeman on Sunday night along with Masha and Shannon. I knew I had a horribly busy week, but I had to go, so I took Jon and Monica and headed down . I got to see where Gina is staying at the school, meet her teachers, dean and friends. See what kind of food they eat, ( this is a seventh day Adventist school, so it's vegetarian) lunch was great, they had a salad bar as good as any restaurant, but dinner was really weird, it was a sandwich, but the filling was your choice of hummus, zucchini or lentil stuff. I got home Mon night about 1 am.
these are the dorms where they live.
Tuesday I hear of the sudden decision to for my mom to move back to Colorado tomorrow! She had begun to plan to move back and we were all expecting it. She had been up here a year after coming for a visit, getting sick and just sort of being stuck here in a way. The sudden decision was based on an infection she has on her foot. It needs surgery right away and she felt like she wanted to use the doctor in Colorado. So I took a quick trip to Kalispell on Wed for a quick goodbye, a birthday party for June, and Mark’s asthma testing. Then to pick up Kendra and Nettie, as Maria flew off to Germany on the same day.

Paul and Uncle Mark. They are only months apart and they are best of friends.Mark getting his allergy testing done. He's allergic to all sorts of stuff. Mold and ragweed were the worst of them.

So the week went on, I stayed in Kalispell Thur and Friday, we went on a couple of great field trips, did our shopping and managed to get home with Kendra and Nettie included by 8 pm with a VERY full car.