Month: July 2008

Fencing – Day 2

How does it look???? We have had several of our neighbors comment on how good it looks. We even had one neighbor want to know if Gino does fencing professionally! It looks really nice. Gino did an outstanding job on our fencing project! Thank you, sweetie! :o)

Back yard view.

Just about finished with those cut panels.

Gino cutting up panels.

All finished!

Street side. Now we only have the “front” sides
(where the gates on either side of the house will be located) to finish up.
I’ll post photos of that when it gets all completed.

Fencing – Day 1

The rails are up and now it’s time for actual fence panels.

Looking south before the panels go on.

Our first panel is complete…we have a long way to go.

North side of house is coming along nicely. Gino used a nail gun to secure each panel to the fence. In a few spots, he had to cut boards to fit, which he did after all the panel were up on all sides of the house. My job was to remove all the pricing tags and staples from each panel and then supply them to Gino and to keep things clear for him to work (i.e. rake up stray rocks, move tree branches, supply cold water, keep Isabel out of the way…).

Speaking of Isabel…
Here she is and it appears that the air compressor needs some work.
So she’ll get right on it!

Helping wherever and whenever she can; so she needs to be safe.

This first day we moved along quite well and got the north side done and almost half of the back down.

Happy Birthday Bryndee Pearl

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you, Bryndee Pearl!
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy 7th Birthday Bryndee! You were truly a miracle baby @ 5 lbs.!
(that was smaller then Isabel – and she was tiny!)
God has very special plans for you!
We hope you had a very special birthday with all your friends.
We heard that you had a Barbie cake! How cool is that!
We love you bunches and bunches! X X O X

Penne Pasta Pea Pods?!?

The other day, I happened to stumble across a build your own salad bar in one of our area grocery stores. BTW, this is our favorite thing to do – B.Y.O.S.! Yum! So yesterday for lunch we headed to the store to “load up” on the salad bar. Gino and I each got our own salads and Isabel had her own as well. Filled with pineapple, grapes, cottage cheese, a Penne pasta /shrimp salad (keep this in mind), kidney beans, peas and ham. After we load up, we think of heading to the park to eat our salad’s there but unfortunately the park only had one table (who designs a park w/only 1 table!!!!) and that was already occupied. So we headed back home. While we were eating, I got to my sugar snap peas that I had added to my salad and I hand one of the them to Isabel and ask her if she knew what it was. She held onto it and just looked at it a little weird; not saying a word. Then Gino says to her “There are babies inside” (and if you’ve read my previous postings you’d know that babies are important to Isabel!). So I take the pea pod back and bite into it and then show Isabel how to open the pod to see the “babies”. She was totally wowed by this! She grabs up the baby peas and I eat the pod. So back to eating my salad and talking with Gino when out of the corner of our eyes (we both see this at the same time) we notice Isabel is quietly working with her Penne pasta. She had managed to cut open the pasta and was filling the pasta with peas just like the pea pod I had shown her! Monkey see. Monkey do!

Post rocks!

Yesterday, Gino got down and dirty with getting the rocks out of the way for the last fence posts. The first rock didn’t take him that long to get out; a few heavy whacks with the digging bar (which Gino calls the “Intimidator”) and out it came. The second rock however took a bit more time, a lot more whacks and a great deal more sweat to get out.

The first rock. It actually broke – hurray!

The second rock; I’m guessing probably weighs around  20 lbs. or so.

Independence Day

We spent our Independence Day afternoon with our friends the Kinne’s. We had a really good time and the kids had tons of fun playing together. Jason grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, we visited, watched the kids tackle each other on the lawn, and later went out to the front yard to watch all the neighbors light their money on fire (shoot off fireworks)! :o)


Gazillions of bubbles!


Dinner time!


…really they had tons of fun!


Dump truck races.


Jayden, Jason, Marica, Isabel, Me, and Gino.


Getting ready for the show.


Being crazy!


Isabel didn’t mind all the loud noises from the fireworks.
She was fascinated by them and kept calling them “stars”.


One neighbor at the west end of the street had to have spent thousands of dollars on their fireworks display. They were out there continually lighting them off with no end in sight!


Thanks for the show!


Happy Independence Day!

Fence Posts

Today we worked on getting the posts in the ground with the cement. My job was to make sure the posts were square and level; while Gino mixed and poured the cement.

Cutting the posts down.

Post placement on the north side of house. Minus the 2 where the holes need to be re-dug.

Back yard looking north.

Gino rented a cement mixer to get the job done quicker. Very nice.

We started with these five posts along our neighbors yard and our garage.
Then we worked along the back corner over to the street and then back around to the front of the house. This first day we got 13 posts cemented into the ground. Way to go!