Putting our house together, Aug, 9-15, 2015

Lots of things going on here...

Dd made *blue* Percy Jackson Ranger cookies!  Over the weekend she made her first casserole--chicken breast, peas, mixed veggies, and lots of cheese! 

I finally got all the trim done on the high parts of the LR walls

We finally got all our cookbooks back together in one place!  

Since taking this photo a few days ago, it has already changed quite a bit..

Prepping the hall stairs for work

Just bought more paint, so we can finish these hallway walls

The library changes every day as I try to squeeze in our homeschooling books.  Our library in Indiana was a much larger room than this one---what a challange!

This closet has already changed quite a bit too, in the past 2 days.

I added another small bookcase behind the door to get these art related books off the floor, and another small bookcase to the end of the bed to get the knitting, crocheting, "making stuff" books off the floor.

.......

August 2015 Barred Owl and Fallasburg Park

August 2015 

Barred Owl 

and Fallasburg Park

Hello Friends!  I've spent the past two days in bed with a migraine, tough week for me.  I'm praying today will be better.  We did have a few good things happen this week--my favorite part was when Dd saw a Barred Owl in the trees above our pool.  We watched it for about 30 minutes.  We hear at least two Barred Owls talking back and forth with each other a few times each day; they are very verbal!  We didn't think we would be able to see the owls until winter when there would be less foliage.

The other good thing from this week--we met up with the local homeschool group at a picnic they were hosting at Fallasburg Park.  Dd met another 13 year old girl there.  I got to chat with a few parents too.  They have received my paperwork, and I am waiting for them to call my references so I will know if we are accepted or not.

I also should mention I saw a little group of Wrens this week, in our front yard.  There was a very interesting yellow and black bird outside my window too---and I totally have no idea what it was!  not a Gold Finch..not sure...hope to see it again!

Wednesday we made a "dry run" to Fallasburg Park, to make sure we could find the spot that the picnic was going to be held on Thursday.  It was a pretty little park, but no pamphlets to tell if they have trails or not...I will have to look more into this place and find out. 

There is a windy stream that leads into a big river.  The windy stream had gazillions of Water Striders!  Kids came to the picnic with buckets and caught frogs and crawdads.

The Barred Owl above our pool!

When ever it would call (Who, Who Cooks For You?) it would ruffle up it's feathers; as seen in this picture and the one below.  It's whole body got involved in each call!

Supposedly they only weigh 2.5 pounds...but they *look* like they must weigh at least 20!

Dd found this very big beetle-- at least one inch plus.

...................

UHaul truck and trailer Aug 1-3, 2015

U Haul truck and trailer 

Aug 1-3, 2015

We went to Indiana and got another load; and mowed/weed wacked our yard before returning back to Michigan.  Plus, we got to spend Sunday with Giz & Grampy.  We still have another load to get from our Indiana home before we've got it all!  Geesh!

The new library is starting to look like a library!

The spare bedroom is taking shape too!

Oy, the basement living space is still waiting for its' turn on being fixed up!

We need to figure out how we are going to get those ceramic tiles up, before we can get to painting this floor!  Sophie doesn't mind though!

.......

King Tut exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum 7-31-15

King Tut exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum 

7-31-15

I took so many pictures of this exhibit and this museum!  I am only going to share 16 photo's right now---let me know if you want to see more of them or ?  

We went to this exhibit with a small group of homeschoolers; and got admission for less than normal due to our all coming together as a 'group'.  Dd got to spend the day with her new friend, Lexi.

After the museum, I took Dd to the doctor.  Come to find out--Dd had an ear infection and a throat infection.  She was prescribed some antibiotics to help her get over this bug.

How cool is this flying skeleton of a whale?!!!

This is a replica of the Rosetta Stone---neat to see it's exact size; I imagined it smaller.

.....

July 30, 2015 Finished floors ("library" and spare bedroom)

July 30, 2015 Finished floors ("library" and spare bedroom)

This is the storage container we had - imagine it full!  Now it is happily empty.  We are getting closer to being moved in!

Dh bought this great new 'do-all' tool.  It did work great for sanding the floors!

You can tell by the size of the sander that it took a long time to sand all the floor in each room.  This picture also shows the wooden molding around the room after I scraped and sanded it.  It had a lot of Spackle and paint on it--that was a time consuming job; cleaning up the molding!

This is the "spare bedroom" (that was the teenage girls bedroom); it had white/cream colored carpet and two different tones of painted walls (and don't forget the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling!).  This picture shows the "STONE" color of the floors now.

Before:
This picture shows the padding that was under the white carpet.

After:
Spare bedroom, view two

The new "Library"

Before:

After:

This is the new "library", where we will be doing our lessons.  Soon it will packed down with wall to wall book shelves!  This picture doesn't do a great job of showing the "stone" color, but it is the exact same painting job as the spare bedroom--the lighting in the rooms needs help!  

Master "Before"

Master "Before"
(with Sophie!)

Master "After"

Master closet "after" (this room isn't Coconut Milk color, but Cream in My Coffee colored paint, for walls, and the floor is still the "stone" oil base.

.....