Week #30: A Hive in the House

This Week...

...we're showing our Zerorez love. We got some new t-shirts and needed to show our friends Tyson and Whitney that we're behind them. And Dad was working and we wanted to send him a picture to say hi after church.

...another cute face caught my eye at the realtor's office. Jason just shook his head as I paused to take a picture of the door handle.

Here's another one from the onion I was cutting for dinner.

Benjamin found this one on one of my decorative chests. It has bushy eyebrows and a mustache!

This one stares at me from my eyeshadow every morning when I put my makeup on.

...we had an object lesson for Family Home Evening. The things we say escape our lips so easily. Do we ever stop to think about how hard it is to take them back? How hard would it be to scoop this hand sanitizer and toothpaste back into their containers? It's most assuredly a difficult and messy task. Such it is with the words we speak in judgement or frustration - they are hard to take back.

...we used dice to help us in our cleaning today. We were on a roll! We used dice to roll for our cleaning jobs. I chose five jobs in the living room and kitchen/dining areas, assigned them numbers 1-5, and then we rolled. Number six was roll again. it worked pretty well. They bargained a bit to switch jobs, but they worked so much better and longer with the dice.

...we had some puppy fun with Grandma Zirker! These puppies are crazy and growing so fast. If you sit on the ground, they just jump all over you. The kids love nothing more than to just hold them, and chase them, and carry them all day.

This one did find a moment of peace

Contrary to what my kids believe, we went to Grandma's to help her in the yard, not to play with the puppies. 

I can't help but take pictures when I see such beautiful flowers. I am so grateful for flowers and that my mom has planted so many of them in her garden.

Here's a couple more faces from the garden

This one made me think of an elephant

...we went back to Grandma's to wash the house. Jason and I are getting ready to re-stain the outside of my parent's house. In preparation, we pressure washed it with a solution to clean it. The kids helped...a little.

Grandma helped straighten things up. 

We recommended that Paul stay inside while we washed the carport. It was dripping everywhere. Stain rain.

I actually enjoyed spraying the house. It was fun to see all the dirty water run off the house. And it was just plain fun to run the pressure washer. :)

This is the difference it made to clean the house. Not only were we washing away layers of stain, but layers of dirt. There has to be an analogy in this...It makes me think of repentance. It isn't always easy to clean up our lives if there are mistakes we've made or things we need to take care of. It takes a lot of preparation and careful attention to repair, but the difference is noticeable almost immediately and we are better for it. Thanks to the power of the Atonement and repentance, we can be clean again.

 As we came around to do the front of the house, we knew we'd have to deal with the bees that have been swarming the upper right corner for the last month or so. Little did we know, we were actually taking on a full blown hive. Jason was the brave one to climb up there initially and crack the board open. My dad came home at about that time and thought it would be a good idea for the man that is severely allergic to bees to climb up and take a look as well. Him! Not good Dad, not good! Luckily we had the pressure washer. I was able to keep a continuous spray of water going to keep the bees at bay. They didn't bother my dad or Jason all that much. 

Just look at that honeycomb! They were busy making honey! We sprayed it to death, scraped the honeycomb out, and blasted it with water. As cool as it was to find the hive, it's not cool to have bees taking up residence in your house!

Benjamin was a big helper during this project. He stayed around to run errands and help when he was needed. I told you the pressure washer was fun to use. ;) (Look at all those cars in the background! You'd think we were running a car lot.)

Once we got the house washed, we tackled the stairwell in the backyard. We finally decided to take care of this makeshift plywood fence around the stairwell. The plywood has been warped and dilapidated for far too long and needed to be fixed. Down came the plywood and preparations began for a nice little cedar half fence.

The puppies are sure fun to play with. Once our work was done, we took a few minutes more to watch them romp and tumble around.

Lainey found a caterpillar. I have a joke for you: What is a caterpillar afraid of? . . . A dogapillar!

...we visited Grandma and Grandpa Erickson at their new house in Finley. They have wonderful neighbors. :) Claire, and the other kids, are sure keen on the horses.

Week #29: School Supplies and a Realtor

This Week...

...I shopped the school supplies. I always love this time of year when I can get 24 count boxes of crayons and two pack glue sticks for $.50 a piece. If this was a season, it would be my favorite. What, you ask? School supplies should be a season? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I also stock up on notebooks, markers, sharpies, pens, Elmers glue, dry erase markers, and just about one of everything else. So much fun!

...we had a whale of a time swimming at Sister Haines' house. We had our cousin Grace with us for a few days. It was a treat to be able to take her swimming.

Sister Haines was taking a sample of the water and testing it. She's been having such a hard time keeping it clear. It just might cut our swimming season short. :(

She's so good to let us come multiple times a week. :)

...our lilies are blooming. Jason and I are both suckers for bulbs - tulip, daffodil, lily, etc. it doesn't matter. We love them all! We got a great deal on some packs from Costco and have been enjoying their beautiful color combinations.

...we took the kids to McDonald's. This is always a fun treat, that never gets too old for the kids. Good thing!

...we met with Sandra from Windermere and Brett Lott of Lott's Better Built Homes to get the ball rolling on a new house! Yippee! We have been blessed to be working with Leslie Retter-Sautell and her dad, Dave Retter of the Kennewick Windermere office. Leslie is awesome. We have really enjoyed getting to know her, laughing and sharing texts. She is currently out on maternity leave and so Sandra is helping us for a time. She's great too! 

You may be wondering why we're moving when we just recently bought a new house through Aho not too many years ago. To be plain and simple, it's because of the shooting. It has been such a strain on Jason to have Rick's house as his constant view out the front of our house. It's there when he walks out the door. It's there when he's sitting at the computer looking out the front windows. It's there as a constant reminder of that day. With the year anniversary just a week ago, we are more than ready for this step to purchase a new home and change the view out our front window.

We'll miss the park and Providence Lane, but it is a necessary step to moving on. 

...a few faces stood out to me around the house and as I was out and about. My sister got me hooked on this and now the faces won't stop jumping out at me.

My earrings and keychain

my hair clip

In the pavement of the Walmart parking lot.

Our sprinkler box in the yard.

...Lainey fell asleep next to me on the couch. Notice her vice like grip on my arm. This is her favorite way to fall asleep. 

...I had an oops moment with the warm burner and the bag of bread. Note to self, don't put plastic on a warm stove. 

...the Cub Scouts worked on their model airplanes this week. Sister Votaw is such  a great wolf leader. She works so hard to have engaging activities for the boys.