The New Kitchen Floor and the Visit

In the middle of our chicken coup project, Mom and Dad decided that they would like to put new tile in our kitchen.  So for a few hours on Friday, we ripped off the old tile stuff.  Mainly me (Jaime) and Will, because Court had gone with Mom and Dad to the store.  Well, after me and Will had done most of the floor, I called Dad and told him jokingly to bring home icecream.  He just laughed and said that was funny.  

Well, Mom, Dad, and Court got home and they seemed surprised at how much we had done.  Then Dad said, "Jaime, we got something for you," and pulled out two tubs of icecream!  I gave him a huge bear hug and then Mom and Dad did the rest of the floor while me and Will sat on the counter eating icecream (the table had been taken apart and moved to the other room).  It felt kinda nice watching someone else work.  Plus, Will had driven a paint scraper into my finger and my hands were scratched up from the pieces of tile.

Then, on Saturday, our cousins came over, which was a COMPLETE surprise because they live in Delaware.  And we kids played the whole day--Rodney, Tyler, Will, and Court played with airsoft guns, me and Rebekah played baseball, and Trevor switched back and forth, mostly playing basketball with himself.  Taylor wasn't there--she had gone to play with some friends.  We kids also went for a bike ride, but some people had to ride on the pegs because we only had five bikes, and we had seven people.  And then on the way back I tried to get off the pegs and fell because my shoe lace was stuck.  But the bike was practically stopped, so it wasn't too bad.  Then, Aunt Beque and our cousins were waiting for friends to pick them up for a few hours.  Then, it was already 6:30, so we didn't get much done.  Mom and Dad managed to put this blue primer on the floor.  Then Annie tried to walk into the kitchen and Mom freaked, saying "I don't want blues clues all over the living room."  Mom and Dad also put concrete leveling stuff on the floor, but that's all.

And today, I woke up at about 8:30 or 9:00am to the sound of talking and pounding in the kitchen.  After a few minutes, Mom and Dad pop into the room and say "wake up, we got breakfast".  Then Dad starts waving a sausage egg mcmuffin in front of me--only it had no egg, because with the egg the sandwich cost $2.80 and without the egg it cost $1.00.  Breakfast was grand.  It was a nice change from having cereal for breakfast Friday, cereal for breakfast Saturday, no lunch, and cereal for dinner Saturday.

But then it took forever just to get one corner of the kitchen  tiled.  And then the tile cutter kept breaking the tiles rather than cutting them.  Then, the drills we were using to mix the mortar all died.  Then, we had to grind down several parts of the kitchen floor because it was uneven.  Then, the mortar dried!  So we had to throw away a ton of mortar and a bucket because the mortar was stuck to the bucket!  And when I say stuck, I mean stuck.  With all my strength, I couldn't pull the mixer out of it.

And now, we're going back to it.  Sorry I don't have any pictures, but Mom and Dad probably wouldn't want me to take any.  The job, with all the bad stuff listed above, was pretty unnerving.  =)

-Jaime-

Michael, Michael, Motorcycle

Mikey is leaving soon.  He stayed with us about seven months.  Now he's leaving.  He'll be leaving on Sunday, March 28th, in the afternoon, just before his 2nd birthday.  He's going to Texas to live with his--grandma?  Yeah.......sad.......

Our Aunt Caren  offered Mikey's dad a home, cooked meals, partially payed-for child care, and more.  Sooooooooo, he couldn't say no. 

But, of course, I think the saddest part is, Mikey'll remember little to nothing about Jai Jai (Jaime), Weel (Will), Corny (Courtney), An Mizzy (Aunt Missy) sometimes called Annie for short, Utta Beel (Uncle Bill), Annie, and Leetle 'un (Little One, our bird).  Oh well, I guess I'll get over it.

I hope everyone remembers to practice Mikey's animals and sounds and things.  Mikey learned the sounds of ducks, dogs, cats, snakes, birds, chickens, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, donkeys, and lions.  He can recognize elephants, giraffes, sharks, octopuses, fish, turtles, crabs, dolphins, seals, whales, and starfish.  When Mom sweeps, he says "Dirty, dirty, dirty", and when he brings us Bibles, or cleans up toys, he says "helpin'".  He knows head, nose, teef (teeth), eeurs (ears), hair, hand, foot, toe, sock, shoes, and pants.

Well, I can't tell you of everything, so I'll stop there.  

-Jaime-

Family Reunion

We went to the family reunion yesterday. It was pretty cool. Got to see the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We went for a picnic in the park.

After we'd finished eating, we went over to the merry-go-round for a bit. Jaime, Will, and I spun all the kids around. Went a little too fast for Trevor (he's our 6 year old cousin); he kept falling off. Silly kid thought he could hang over the edge and not start to fall off. Luckily he only really fell off when we slowed down. I had to pull him up one time.

After that, we all headed down by the water. There was this little wall that you had to climb down (it was slanted). Aunt Becky was freaking out about Rodney (he's about 12 now). Even when he was just on the rocks below, she was freaking out, telling him he was "going to fall". Lol. Funny thing was, she didn't seem to pay too much attention to Taylor (6), and I hear she's the clumbsiest of them all!

Pretty soon, we headed back to the house and went swimming in there pool. Taylor (6) wouldn't go in the water though because she didn't "want to be splashed". Will thought it was actually because she didn't want to wear her floaties. He might be right about that one.

Still, we wore our floaties when we were that little. That reminds me of the time we were there many years ago when I put on like four (heavy duty) tubies (I was like 6 or 7), and then leapt into the pool expecting to go under a bit and then shoot up. What happened was the bottom tubie went under about and inch, and I just sort of floated there, deflated by my failed experiment. Haha. =)

Trevor (5) was so funny at the pool. He walked up to the water and looked into it like he was scared, then, all of a sudden, just jumped on in. Then he burst out of the water waving his arms around yelling, "I'm swimming!! I'm SWIMMING!!". Haha. He's a little drama king if you can catch my meaning.

After drying off, we kids decided to go over to the neighbors' house to jump on their trampoline. Our grandfather said it was alright, so we went. It was pretty fun. No net though, so we had to be careful.

Pretty soon it was time to leave. The drive there and the drive back, I can tell you, were horribly loooooong. And the traffic! Well, it's over now. Tired....

-Courtney-

Family Reunion

We're going to go to a family reunion in New Jersey tomorrow... We're going to have a picnic in the park, and HOPEFULLY it won't rain. It's not supposed to, but you never know.

There's only going to be close relatives: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. So that's good.

Our neighbor is going to look after Annie while we're gone. It's only going to be tomorrow until night, then we're heading home.

I'll write more on it later...

-Courtney-