Our project is coming along although rather slowly. We started to strip the old tar paper residue off on Friday night and worked several hours on Saturday. There is still some work to do and hopefully we can finish it up tomorrow. Then we can sand it down smoother and get it ready for the finish. We think that it might be best to have the professionals do that part of it. There is about 1500 square feet to do and that is more than I want to tackle. Here are a few pictures to show you what we have been up against.

The carpet on the south wall is going to stay and we will display our beds there. We haven't decided for sure what we are going to do with the mezzanine area you can see above. If anyone has any great ideas we would love to hear them.

My time for working on the project is limited now because I am again playing my clarinet in the community theatre musical. We are doing Sound of Music this year and orchestra practice is every Tuesday and Thursday night. It is a lot of fun but it does cut in to my time.

My posts would not be complete without some pictures of the grandkids. I have Brooklyn every Wednesday afternoon and this last week she thought it was pretty funny to try to put her hat on the dogs. I helped her out a little bit and then we took some pictures. Sadie wasn't too thrilled with the whole thing but TJ took it in stride. For some reason Brookly decided it was time to put on her boots, coat and hat and to tell me bye-bye. She wasn't even dressed.

In a little over a week I will have both of Krista's girls while her and Scott take a little vacation. They will be here from Tuesday night until Saturday. Kayleigh shouldn't have any trouble but Keira is only 5 months old so it could be harder for her being away from Mommy. I will have to rest up before they come and remember what it is like to have a baby in the house. She is a good baby though and sleeps really well at night so it shouldn't be too bad. They were all here a few weeks ago and I got some pictures.

Craig and Joc are in Orlando, FL this weekend for our semi-annual buying show and convention for the store. We decided they could go and have a little vacation before the new baby comes. It will be a whirlwind trip but I am sure they had fun along with getting some business taken care of. No doubt Jocelyn will be posting some pictures of their time at Magic Kingdom. Sounds like they were pretty impressed with the fireworks display last night.

Our local junior college basketball team is hosting the regional tournament for the first time ever. They had to win their sub-region to win the chance to host the tournament. We got to watch them walk all over their opponent last night to advance into the quarter-finals. Tomorrow night we hope to go watch them again. We started going to the games a few years ago and it is amazing how it has helped our business. Guess in a small town it is important to show up at community events and do some "networking".

JUST AN UPDATE

In late November we brought Evan home with us to spend a week with Grammy and Papa. Because of the snow, ice and bad roads he ended up staying about 4 days longer than expected. We had a good time and he didn't seem to mind too much that he had to stay longer. But I do think he was ready to get home. When we took him home his Mom and Dad were in the process of moving in to their new home so he was also excited about his new bedroom and a much bigger house. Brooklyn sure did have fun playing with her big cousin and now whenever she sees his picture she tries to say "Evan". We know what she is saying but probably no one else woud understand it.

They spent a long time playing with the Tinker Toys. Evan got quite creative building cars and airplanes. Brooklyn was good at taking his projects apart.

The "Little People" toys were also a hit and Brooklyn was intent on listening when Evan explained how everything worked.

Evan and Sadie played in the snow, trying pretty hard to pack the dry stuff together enough to make a snowball. Sadie was always ready to chase anything he threw, even if it fell apart within a couple of feet of them.

After about 45 minutes in the cold snowy fresh air Evan had to rest and it wasn't long before he was sound asleep. TJ thought that looked like a good idea and took her own nap.

We have Brooklyn at the store on Tuesday afternoons and Friday's. Her and Evan had to "help" Papa when he was trying to fix a washer. I wonder if he was getting anything done or just enjoying the time with the grandkids. Evan did get to actually help fix a dryer while he was there. Maybe he will be the next appliance mechanic in the family.

Krista and Scott sent me this picture of Keira via cell phone picture messaging. It isn't super clear but shows that we have ourselves a little thumb sucker. All three of our kids were thumb suckers so it doesn't surprise me that one of the grandkids has this little habit. Actually it makes for some pretty contented babies.

Kayleigh's 4th birthday was in November and since she is in love with horses Krista and I made her a horse cake. I think about every other present she got had something to do with horses so she had a GREAT birthday.

Don't have any pictures to post right now of our big project with the new building. Jocelyn is the one that has been good about taking progress pictures. Maybe one of these days she will post some of the before, during and after pictures of what we got ourselves in to. Our upstairs renter will be moving out this coming weekend so we will be up there cleaning again and hopefully get someone else in there soon. We haven't even started work on the the other apartment because we have been trying to get the main part of the building ready for the expansion of the existing business. It is a big project and unfortunately the most of the work needs to be done during ice fishing season and the guys think ice fishing is a priority. I still have a hard time thinking anyone can enjoy sitting out on the ice, in the cold and wind, trying to catch a fish. I will stick to my nice warm house, a good cup of hot cocoa and my computer or a good book.

If any of you are in town in the near future stop by and we will show you around the new building.