Our newly improved back screen door :-)

      Our front storm door has 'glass' on the bottom and in the winter it has 'glass' on the top. In warm weather we take that out and put in the screen for on top. The back storm door use to be set up the same way. But then the window on the bottom had gotten broke. And then the screen on the top got ripped. It was in sad shape. But the saddest part was that due to it's condition, we couldn't leave the inner door standing open. That meant that a whole lot of wonderful breezes were no longer entering the back entry and sweeping into the kitchen. A sad state of affairs indeed!
      We debated, while we really liked the idea of screens for both the top and the bottom window parts of the door, would a screen on the bottom really work? How long before Boo's inquisitive nose pushed through the screen? So we should probably stick to 'glass' on the bottom and new screening for the top. But wouldn't it be nice if .....
      Brent brought home some chicken wire that perhaps we could attach over the regular screening ... They tried to come up with an idea for a way to make that actually work...

     When Brian went to Menard's to buy the materials, he came across the PERFECT solution! It's a metal frame with the equivalent of 3-D/sculptured metal screening, that you attach to a door over the regular window screen. It came in both white and dark bronze colored frames, so he called me. Which did I prefer?  The white. I thought that with the dark screen in the window and the dark screening that is in the middle of the 3-D screening, more darkness would just be too much. Brian bought the white one along with screen framing for the lower window and a roll of screen material.
      Brent first assembled and then attached everything for us :-). New screening in the old frame on top. Assembled the new framing for the lower window and put screen in it, then put it in the door. Then he found screws and attached the metal screen over the lower screen (the frame didn't come with screws).
     Brian and Brent had both asked me if I thought the metal sculptured screen framing, should be put on the inside, or the outside of the door. I thought the inside. Boo is already use to scratching on the bottom of the outside of the door when he wants in. But most likely, with the inside door now being able to be left open, he would go peer out and thus the extra protection should be on the inside. (does that make sense?)
    So it was installed on the inside and has already proven itself worth it's purchase!
    We would recommend the screen guard for anybody that has dogs, or young kids, or both!!! I had saved the receipt so I could tell you how much it was, but Sat. when I was again attacking piles I must have shredded it with other receipts. Sorry. Brian 'thinks' it was around thirty dollars. More than 'a couple of bucks', but far less than frequently making new screen panels! As well as less frustrating!! A-n-d, this way we are getting breezes through both windows!!! :-D
     Brian, thank-you for such a wise purchase!! Brent, thank-you for doing the manual labor part!!
     Seeings how some of you are 'visual learners', I did take a couple of pictures to help you see what I'm talking about ;-)

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I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:
~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/). 

things ....

     Yesterday, while wearing one of his full impy smirks, Brent told me that from now on when somebody asks him what's been going on in his life, he is just going to tell them to go read his mom's blog. 
     Later he recommended to his brothers that they do likewise.
     I get no respect.  o;-p

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      I made a mistake on the posting I did about our backyard.... we had spent Memorial Weekend working on it, not the 4th of July weekend. Sorry!

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      I had forgotten one incident that happened last Sunday and thus had omitted it from the posting about our weekend.
      Sunday afternoon after everybody had arrived home from church (and some from their stop at Sam's Club) , we were all in the living room when there is this loud noise out front and Boo started doing some serious barking. We thought that it had sounded like there had been a trailer with nothing on it being pulled up the street by some vehicle. You know how they hit any little bump and make such a clatter. So we were telling Boo it was okay, but he would not be convinced. grumble, grumble.  Turned out that we should have payed attention to what Boo was trying to tell us!!! As we went out to load up to head to Brian's folks, it was discovered that somebody had hit the rear view mirror on the drivers door of Brandon's suburban. Much more grumble grumble!!!!!!!!!  The thing was, at the time, there wasn't even anybody else parked straight across the street, so there was way more than ample room to get by!!!
      The police were called, we waited, the officer made an incident report. Yesterday we learned that since the incident was caused by another vehicle, it's considered a collision, and thus not covered by PLPD with comp insurance. The grumbling continued.

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      Yesterday Brent went to the bank. He came back out to find that a good sized hole had broke free in the bottom of his gas tank, thus emptying his half tank of gas all over the parking lot.
      He is less than happy that the song  o/~ "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" o/~  seems to have chosen him as it's current poster child!

our weekend -

        Last week Brent and Kayla had gone to Byron and Cyndi's to help with a particular project. That project ended up not happening due to ... well, anyways .... but they did do a few other things. On Friday they took the Jetta that Byron had been buying from Brent into a place to get the emission testing done. In the state of Ill., your car must pass an emissions test before you can get a legal license for it.  The car did not pass. En-route home, Brent was calculating in his head how much it would cost / what all needed done to get it passable. And then this happened.

       While they were driving down the street, the hood lock broke free and the hood came up and cracked the windshield. (No, the testing place had not opened the hood.) The hood came up far enough to break the windshield! In automatic response, Brent had put his arm up to block his face. His arm got cut bad enough to bleed. Other than that, they were okay. Scared!  Shaken!  'In need of clean pants'. But okay.
       After pulling to the side of the road, Brent was able to get the hood down. The rest of the way home he was trying to see clearly, plus figuring if the car was worth both the cost of a new windshield and fixing the emissions part ... $.  They are still debating all of it.

      Also Friday, Cyndi's car went from occasionally making this weird noise, to seemingly having troubles with one tire. Brent took it for a drive, took the tire off trying to determine if it was a tie-rod going, or just the tire itself, and if so, what about the tire, etc.. It seemed to be the tire itself, and yes, he thought it was safe to drive here.

       Both of those things had happened Friday, and Cyndi had to close at work, and then ....  They ended up not arriving here till about 5 a.m.. After unloading the car, most of us gathered in the living room. Analyse had been visiting with different ones of us. At one point she was with somebody on the brown couch. But she decided that she wanted her daddy whom was sitting on the little couch closest to the front door, so she started walking towards him. She got about three fourths of the way there and realized that her "mum!" was sitting next to him. She decided to change course, and by taking one side step, then headed excitedly towards her mom.
        All of us started laughing!! Byron was wearing a look of combined shock and impreesedness. He could not believe what had just happened. His young daughter, whom is tottering in her walking, had just clearly took a side step and changed her course. Impressive! Amazing!
       Analyse was ever so proud of herself for getting to "mum!!" (her one clear word)

   (this picture is one I hadn't yet posted of her from her B-day party o;-) )

       We only got a few short hours of sleep before it was time to get up and out. Cyndi, Analyse and I were heading to Jeannie's bridal shower. The 'guys' had been going to attend our block party. Now they were trying to figure out whether new tires had to be bought, if a tire could just be put on a different rim, etc..
      Thankfully, between what we already had and the help of Kayla's dad, they were able to get everything switched around for the price of lunch at Wendy's and a pack of cigarettes. :-)

        Sat. afternoon all of the 'kids' hit the pond for awhile before we went out to dinner to sit in some air conditioning.  Sunday everybody but me went to church and did a grand 'show off the baby' time after the service. We then headed down to Brian's folks for the rest of the day.

       Well, that's what's been happening here .... what's been going on in your life?

the back yard project -

       When Brent had told us that he was enlisting in the Navy*, Brian told him that yes, we would keep Boo while he was away, but that Brent was going to have to enclose the backyard for us. Boo is a very active, very strong dog. Keeping him on a relatively short leash in the backyard (so that he can't quite reach the alley or the neighbors driveway) was not really being fair to Boo. Also, we had had to replace said leash on different occasions due to his having broken it. Brent totally agreed with the whole idea and set his tax refund check aside for that plan.
     ( * it now looks as though Brent will not be able to join the Navy due to his medical condition. As some of you know, back in the 4th grade he got hit by a car. Due to the hole in his lungs and rip in his spleen, they were not able to tape up his ribs. Consequently, his ribs did not heal quite right. Most of the time they don't really bother him. But in high school wrestling, they affected him to the point that both his Dr. and the coach removed him from the team. The Navy thinks they would probably end up giving him a medical discharge ...).
     The weekend of the fourth of July, we had dubbed 'do the backyard' weekend. After much discussion, and figuring, and scouting out pricing, etc., it had been decided to put in a tall wooden fence most of the way around the yard. The only area not to have said fencing, would be along the neighbors yard where there was already chain link fencing in place (behind the overgrown trees, flowers, etc.).
     While all of that might sound easy enough, there were of course a few projects that had to be done first. Things such as removing most all of the extremely overgrown bushes and 'trees' that were along part of the alley side of the yard. And digging the holes for the fence posts in ground that is overflowing with rocks, large stones and boulders, besides root systems from years ago.
     The 'plan' was to take out all of the bushes, etc. Friday night, put the fence in on Sat., attack the rest of the overgrowth on Sunday, and lallygag on Monday. R-i-g-h-t ... .
      I forgot to take a picture of everything before Brent got started, but this picture shows about 1/3rd of the bushes removed.

             First they attached the brush with chain saws.

               And sword.

Which is better, the sword or the chain saw? Dueling brothers ... (nobody got hurt :-) )

      Next came using shovels and axes to loosen the dirt around the roots.

      Then they tied a chain around the roots and pulled them out with a truck. Easy, right? Another 'yeah, right!'! One root system was so far in there, that it actually pulled the truck sideways! Eek!

     All of the brush was then stacked in the borrowed trailer to be hauled away. 'The boys' then stomped it down so more could be added. And then stomped again. We took full advantage of the fact that it was a dump trailer, thus meaning we wouldn't have to pull all of it back out of there ourselves!  ;-)  (Thanks for the loan of your trailer Don R.!!!)

     It had also been decided that spending money to rent an auger to dig the post holes, would be worth it considering the elements/makeup of our yard. That became known as an understatement!!!  That was money more than well spent, and were we ever glad we went with the two person type!!!  The guys muscles were still tested mightily!

    

       Finally the holes were dug, and one by one, a post was inserted, dry cement poured in and the water was added. Whew, part two was now completed.

    [our neighbor Jim couldn't stay away ;-p]

         The suggestion was made to start on the trimming of the other side of the yard while waiting for the posts to set, but by then the guys were so-o-o tired, and I was weaving (vertigo), and it was late...getting this far had taken till about 8:00 Sat. evening! And then that night it rained ... so they took a break, after all, things did need to dry a bit first.
    Sunday afternoon they were back at it. And bit by bit the fencing went up. See, the alley runs along a hill, making leveling everything more than a bit challenging. 

         By Monday night, 90% of the fencing was in place. It took another week and a half for the rest of it and the two gates to go up, because of course Brian started working ten hour days and manditory Sat.'s (which the checks from have been ever so helpful, but there went the list of projects we were tackling ...), and Brent was having vehical issues, and Brandon was helping the catereer... and while Benson was good at helping dig, or hold up fence sections, etc., this type of work is not his strong suit. So yeah, life.
     So all of the fencing and the gates are in place,

          and it's so nice to be able to open the door and just let Boo (who of course was grand overseer of the whole project ;-p) out.

 We still hope to do more of the work out there ... I'll post about it if we do ;-)

on the sink ...

   As I entered the bathroom Saturday morning, this is what immediately caught my eye ...                              

                       
            {Cyndi and Analyse's hair brushes}
                        
         The 'out of state kids' were here for a short visit
                                :-)
 
    They have returned home. But oh the smiles, and love, and laughter, and hugs, and kisses .... Thank-you Lord!!!!! Thanks for coming Byron, Cyndi and Analyse!!!!!!!!!!!!

"only a mom ..." o;-p

      During dinner last night, Brandon started talking about something he is hoping to buy. I interrupted him to say, "Just inserting a reminder here, that you've mentioned needing ___, ___, and ___ for your truck, and those are all things that you really should take care of before the bitter cold months get here again. Believe it or not, they aren't that far away, especially when your talking money wise."
      While Brandon was giving me this 'I'm long enduring mom' look, Benson chuckled in with, "A mom is the only one who would bother to remind you what you need to do before the next snow storm - on - a - 100 - degrees - day! chuckle, chuckle."
      Brian piped up with, "Careful....."

     I tell ya, I get no respect ... o;-p

beautiful 'quilt' gardens

    A while back, my R.A. (FRIEND!) from college had looked me up. That was such a heart warming fun surprise!! Once in awhile we chat via emails and we of course are friends on Facebook.
   She just posted some beautiful pictures of an outing with a friend. The thing about this outing that really captured my attention, was that they had been visiting / touring 'quilt gardens'. Her pictures were beautiful!!
   She had commented to a different friend that they hadn't yet finished all of the gardens due to there also being so many fun shopping opportunities.
    You guessed it, I was more than intrigued! While Rebekah does live a ways from me, it's a few hours drive trip, not a multiple days type. May-be, just may-be I could go visit with her AND see the gardens. So I asked her where they were. She sent me a link and an invite to come see both them and her. Now all I have to do is get over this vertigo stuff so I can go .... please, please, please!!!

    But I knew that many of you would enjoy learning about and/or seeing the gardens too, so here's the link: http://www.amishcountry.org/quiltgardens/