Not quite finished with our last entry...

I am repenting, mostly to my husband. I didn't get to finish the last post that I had made, mostly just because I was so tired and didn't want to blog anymore, and also because I hadn't taken a picture of the "finished" result. The month of May didn't end with just a bunch of traveling and fun adventures...unfortunately and fortunately. When we returned home from our trip, (a trip to San Diego included - to get our boys from Russ's parents - THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH GRAMMI AND PAPA!!) Russ got on some sort of KICK to do something about everything that I have wanted done for the last weeks, months, years...I have to take a moment and brag about my husband for a minute, especially since I know he will be reading this sometime, and I know his feelings were secretly hurt a little bit that I had put nothing about what he has been up to for the last few weeks.

As he has put it, he did a couple months of work in a couple weeks, and I have to say, he is RIGHT. We got back from San Diego Sunday night late, and Monday (Memorial Day) he not only cleaned out and re-organized the entire garage, but he ripped apart my coat closet downstairs and built shelves in it, so that we have a little bit more room for food storage items. (I have VERY limited space in my kitchen and my pantry, as most of you know!) I was very impressed. Tuesday and Wednesday, he raked out all the rocks out of our backyard and is getting it ready to pour a patio - which will be a blessing to everyone in this family if we ever get something back there for the boys to run around in - no matter how small it may be! Thursday he ripped out all our flooring and baseboards downstairs, Friday we cleaned and swept and scraped and got the floor ready to be laid on Saturday.

Before I go any further with pictures, I have to also say this...we are SO blessed with so many good friends who are willing to be called on and give up their time and their familiy time on a Saturday to help us with our project. I could not believe how many men volunteered to come and help, though most of them had NO idea how to lay the flooring. THANK YOU to everyone that gave of their time, gave us tools to use, made us meals because my kitchen was torn up, took my kids, etc.!! I do not take any of it for granted, and I know Russ was very touched as well. We are so lucky to live in such a good area where there are friends who are so willing to help us out.

So there you have it...Heavenly Father's hand really was in all of this as well, because we have been wanting some of these things to happen for a long time now, and He has overseen and overwatched the entire process. We had been looking at flooring for months now, and how we ended up with what we did at the price we did at the right time is beyond me, but we have truly been blessed. Russ, when you read this, I hope you know that I am SO thankful for you and how hard you have worked. Russ always makes fun of me when I say things like, "well, my dad could do that if you need him to..." and I don't say those things to hurt his feelings, I just know that my dad is more than capable, and he is such a handy man! He's a builder, a fixer, etc, and I had NO idea that Russ really is as well. He is more than capable, and I am so proud to tell everyone that HE did it! He had great help, yes, but he was the one from start to finish in getting it all done. Thank you babe, I love you!!


oh yes, did I mention that while my downstairs was being done, we had up to seven children in one bedroom upstairs??!! Our upstairs had most of our furntiture from downstairs, so fitting us all into one room or the hallway was a little challenging!