Mini Olympics 2009

For all you non-Calvinites who check out my blog.  Mini Olympics is a Calvin event that is basically just what it sounds like.  The kids are on teams designated with a color and a country.  The teams are made up of first thru sixth graders.  The Eighth Graders run the events, the Seventh Graders are the team leaders.  They compete in all sorts of events, ending in a huge relay race!

Madison was on the grey team, which was France.  She seemed to be having more fun than this picture shows.  It was a beautiful day, unlike last year which rained!

Sophia was on the red team, which was Holland.  Here's Sophia running the relay race smiling the entire way.  She seems to take after her Dad, lucky girl.  She has much more coordination than I do.  She even got her National fitness award this year for the first time.  The only thing she didn't qualify for Presidential in was sit ups.  Sit ups have kept her from getting the award every year until this one.  Way to go Fia!

I had to stop taking photos of her, she kept stopping to smile at me!  This is her during the middle of the obstacle course!

Great action shot!  This is Sophia at the standing broad jump.  PS I love my new camera.  I was able to take six pictures during this one jump!

Sadie can never be entirely left out.  She gets a piggyback ride from Madison.

Madison's Standing broad jump.  Look at her go.  I can't believe how tall she's getting.  Look at those long legs.

Day 50 (catching up)

Ok so currently were way past this, but this is the only picture I have of the new cabinets as they were going in.  So here it is.  This picture was taken while Mr. Tom was in the process of installing, mainly the lowers.

Day 49 (catching up)

Not much to say in this post other than check out my awesome sink!  Jeremy took pictures of it this day to send them to Julie and Jon to figure out the best way to template around this sink with the marble we choose for the countertops.  It's not a great picture but you get the idea!

Day 43 (Catching Up)

Since I haven't blogged in many a day I'm catching up with the few pictures I've taken to show what's going on with us.  Here's the kitchen with no paint or cabinets but new electrical!  This is the view facing my window over the sink. ( Jeremy took these at night with no flash for some reason?)

View of what will be my refrigerator, oven and pantry wall.  Again no paint with electrical.

View from the kitchen towards the entry way, paint cut in around the edges.

This is the view of my eating area from my kitchen, nothing but electrical done.

Day 38

So for me this week I've picked out my backsplash (sort of) worked on hardware and all around feel like I've gotten almost nowhere.  My only job is to pick out stuff, but since I want it to be perfect, well it seems to take a while.  Better luck next week.

Not too much change, but Jer is out of the walls.  Here is the dining area...
Here is Leon the drywall guy. Yea! getting rid  of my swirly celings.  He'll also be patching op all the walls and texturing them so they match the parts of the walls we tore up.  He's really good at walking with that bucket under his feet.  He just scoots along with out climbing down.  I would absolutely kill myself.  I guess that's why I sit at a computer instead of putting up and texturing drywall.  It was my second carreer choice, after taxi driver, landing zone for throw up, incessent whine listener toer.
This is the main area of the kitchen, by the end of next week it will look ton's different.  The lowers will be installed and then we'll be waiting for the granite, or marble we can't decide which.
The office looks the same.  Jeremy still has to put up the drywall in here, then Leon will come back and texture this room.  It'll be sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Another view of the kitchen.  The sink goes Monday, I'll miss you sink!  I think I'll be doing dishes with a garden hose!  Just for a few weeks, hopefully, an adventure!  That's it for today, I was just excited.  These are technically the first guys other than Jer to come in and do anything.  Of course the cabinet guy has been working on it, but since he's not here I don't think of it that way.

Day 35

Yesterday Jer didn't have as much time to work, he played golf with some friends, but when he got home and finished up his "real job"  He put the drywall up on one of the  old entrances to the craft room. 
This is a picture of the skylight.  I think he's going to be putting the drywall on that today.  So I wanted to make sure I had a good picture of it, before it got all closed up.Here's the girls having breakfast at what's left of the kitchen counter.  It's a sink, a dishwasher, and a bank of small drawers!  As you can see Jeremy got out the rest last night!  Today we're hopefully picking up and installing the door (it came in yesterday, a week early!)  The kids are getting freaked out by the mosquito eaters that seem to have full rein of the house right now.  Sadie is scared to death of them, but she won't let anybody hurt them either.  So when she goes to bed we have to quick run around and kill them all!

Day Thirty Four

This is what the entry looks like right now.  It's a little hard to see but you can see (on the right behind the drywall) that Jer has framed in the existing dining/office room doorway.  Mainly the only other thing that will change is the floor.  Which will be the same wood that will go in the rest of the remodel section.  Were also adding sconces and changing out the closet door, and the solatube.
Here is the new opening into the dining/office room.  The view is from the kitchen.  Jer has finished all the electrical in the office.  He has been working for weeks on the electrical there are a lot of changes to the existing and it is all way too complicated for me to get but he and Scott seem to be doing a great job because everything works!
This is the view of what used to be a little eating nookish area that went out to the deck and had a huge slider.  Jer has put in the framing for the new door, which should arrive next week sometime.  You can also see one of the skylight opening.  Jer has framed that in as well, but not drywall yet.  You can also see that he took down my uppers.  I still have the use of my sink, my dish washer, and my range.
Here is what the kitchen looks like.  Jer has framed in the new window, the other skylight, done most of the wiring and all the can lights.  He's been a busy guy.  I'm so thankful he knows what he's doing.  We'd never be able to afford the kind of kitchen I'm getting if he couldn't do so much himself.
Not much has happened here, but really not that much is changing.  New window, new lights, floors, baseboards, and of course no more swirly ceiling texture.  Right now this is where we keep the Fridge.

The appliances arrived a couple days ago.  I haven't seen them yet because they're still in boxes.  I'm still working on the pendant lights, tile, what color to paint the cabinets.  So it hasn't changed all that much because the in the wall work is slow going.  Soon Jer will be patching up the drywall and the drywall guy will come in to texture the walls and ceiling.  I'll post more pictures when things change a little.  Still enjoying every minute, I know that sounds weird, nut after waiting so long to do this I still smile every time I walk through this mess.

Lisa