Paneling the Ceiling

The work weekend got started early Friday morning with a bunch of hauling.

Gabe and his dad had to go out to the mill in Iron to get all the paneling. It took 2 trips with John's huge trailer that he made for the car he's working on restoring. Thank you for all the driving John!

Screen porch trusses (pictured), siding, shakes, gutters and panel were all brought over on the barge.

Lanny left his house super early in the morning to meet Gabe at Timbuktu at 10 am on Friday. They spent the day working on getting set up for the paneling.


I came up with the rest of the work crew (Crep & Krebs) late Friday night. Nana & Papa kept the kids all weekend so I could help the guys. I had signed on to be the cook, but ended up being a runner too. I was the go between John & Garet working 2 saws outside and the guys up on the scaffolding inside. Not that I would have wanted to be up on scaffolding all weekend, but I worked hard - if I do say so myself! I hauled almost every board that went up inside.

Garet & John working the saws.

 

A lot of work each time the scaffolding had to be set up/adjusted as the guys worked their way across the ceiling.

First side done!

Steak dinner after a long day's work.

Sunday breakfast. Getting started on the other side.

Gabe and his dad making the trim pieces for the peak.

Last piece over the living room ceiling done! Horay!

Aunt Judy, Uncle Jack, Sophia & Chloe stopped by late Sunday afternoon to see the progress and bring us freshly made buns. They even helped us haul some boards inside.

After all the great help from the guys over the weekend, we just had a few feet of paneling to finish the peak. Gabe, John & I worked late into the night to wrap up the paneling and get the rest of the wood (about 3500 board feet) inside the cabin. We packed up and we headed into Virginia around 9:30 pm. and at this point we still thought we had to pack up the kids and drive back to Minneapolis so Gabe could get to work on Monday. (Gabe had called his boss earlier in the evening to request Monday off when he realized he needed more time to get the project wrapped up, but hadn't heard back.) Luckily, Gabe got the message on the drive into town that it was ok to take vacation. What a relief....I don't know how we would have made that drive - we were both completely exhausted. We got a good night's rest in Virginia and headed back home Monday morning and Gabe went back to work in the afternoon.

That's a lot of wood left to put up.

Ceiling looks great!

And on the 13th Weekend

...we actually stayed home! We have been out of town for the past 12 WEEKENDS IN A ROW! It felt strange being at home. We've been in the routine all summer...packing up and driving North on Friday night, spending the weekend working on the cabin, getting home around midnight on Sunday, Gabe going back to work on Monday while I unpack and have a lazy Monday with the kids. We make a good road trip team. Gabe does 99% of the driving, and I'm responsible for keeping the kids happy.

Apple Orchard

Once again this year, we had a great time at the Apple Orchard with our friends the F's. We started out the day at J & R's house with a delicious breakfast which included R's special Bloody Mary's. We did all the typical apple orchard activities...

Feed the animals.

Stick heads thru a cut out and get picture taken.

Climb up a giant hay pile.

Drive a tractor.

And ride a CAMEL?!?!?!?!

And no, I didn't forget to put in a picture of us picking apples since I haven't figured out if you can actually do that there. 

M, A, Campbell & Blake climbing the fence after lunch.

A & Campbell in the same spot - 2 years earlier. So little!

Stats

I finally conqured the pile of paperwork that I'd been hiding in the cabinet for who knows how long. Hidden in the depths, I found Campbell's 3 Year & Blake's 15 Month Wellness Check sheets from the doctor:

Campbell:

Weight: 39 pounds / 97%
Height: 39.75 inches / 90%
Head: 20.5 inches (I asked what percentage that was and they said they usually don't measure head size anymore.)

This was the first appointment that she had her blood pressure taken and interesting it's when they start telling you BMI.

Blood Pressure: 82/56
BMI: 17.3/60%

Blake:

Weight: 25.1 pounds / 60%
Height: 32 .25 inches / 75%
Head: 19.25 inches / 90%

Crazy he was a little premie peanut. 

Campbell-ism

This morning I was awakened by Campbell calling to me from her bathroom. She was calling to me very calmly and spoke very slowly.

"I'm in big trouble. My stool tipped over & I'm hanging." I found her holding onto the sink and her feet dangling. She had been washing her hands and the stool tipped over so she needed help getting down.

Couldn't help but think of the 'I've fallen and can't get up' commercial. 

Sniffles

Campbell said: "I'm so excited I get to go to school again!" last week as we were getting ready for her 2nd day of school.

Here's our conversation this morning getting ready for her 3rd day of school:

Campbell: I have the sniffles....(thinking).... What are the sniffles?
Me: They are when you have a runny nose & you sniff your nose like this (insert sniffle noise here).
Campbell: I have the sniffles and can't go to school.
Me: I haven't heard you sniffle. Where did you hear that from?
Campbell: From (insert a string of made up words that I can't remember).

I don't know where that came from. Are the fake excuses starting already on her 3rd day of school?


She says she likes school whenever we talk about it and she bolted into her class today & didn't look back. Who knows!

First Day of School

Campbell had her first day of preschool today. Weird to think it's her first ever day of school - she'll be going to school for at least another what....17 years?

She has been talking all summer about going to her "speaking Spanish preschool" (it's a preschool where the goal is by the end of the year to be teaching the class half in English & the other half in Spanish) but today she seemed pretty subdued about it. I, on the other hand, was really excited about it and kind of stressed - I'll admit. The only thing she was concerned about this morning was what type of snack they were going to have. And last night before bed, she asked me what they were going to do at school, so I ran though all the things...play outside, eat snack, sing songs, do art, meet new friends, etc.

Drop off went great for Campbell. She took off her jacket & backpack and hung them up by herself & then ran into her room and started playing. I don't know if she even noticed when I gave her a hug and kiss and said good-bye. Drop off for Mom was a bit sad, I did cry when calling Gabe to tell him how it well it went. I was proud of her for being so grown up, but at the same time I felt weird leaving my baby there - should I just wait in the parking lot in case she needs me? :)

Campbell had a good first day. When they let the kids out of the classroom, Campbell ran by me (with my arms open for a hug) and went to get her back pack and put it on. She showed us her art and told us she had snack and played. She told us she learned the Spanish words "rojo" (red) & "abeja" (bee) "and there were a lot of other words I didn't know." I explained that is what school is all about, learning new things & how it takes time to learn new things. She then said "I didn't learn any new English."

We'll do it again on Thursday!

On the way to school

After I took many pictures of Campbell, she asked me if she could take my picture. I think that's a polite way of saying, "Enough pictures, Ma!"

All ready!

After school Campbell got a picture with Miss Lacey.

And her other teacher, Miss Melissa.

Showing Daddy her artwork.

We picked up a special treat on the way home to celebrate a successful first day.

Art from the first day...at this rate we're going to have A LOT of art!

3 Year Pictures

I changed things up a bit and for Campbell's 3 year pictures, I went with a photographer I met thru ECFE last year. I am so happy with how the pictures turned out - so much personality was captured.

Leann has a cute studio set up in the loft of her home. For $75 I got over 100 edited digital pictures. I really like getting the digital files because I'd go broke if I had to buy the prints that I wanted to keep.

 

Images taken by Leann Manning of Honeybee & Peony, LLC

Bike Marathon

Campbell rode her trike all the way to the park and back. About 1/3 of the way there she wanted to stop, but she made it there with a lot of encouragement. Good thing there is a handle on the back so I was able to give her boosts and help keep her straight on the sidewalk -  a little tricky since I was trying to push the stroller at the same time.

She promptly passed out on the couch when we got home. Needless to say a nap from 5:30-8:00 makes it hard to go to bed at night.

Football Fan

We went out and got the kids new shoes on Thursday night. Campbell is excited about her new fast shoes and Blake looks old in his first pair of bright white sneakers.

When we got back from the store, Gabe turned on the TV to watch the Viking's season opener. Blake caught sight of the TV and backed up to the couch and stood there in total amazement. I'll be the first to admin, Campbell watches her fair share of TV, but Blake is on the go and doesn't usually pay much attention to it. But, FOOTBALL got his attention & he was GLUED. Gabe definitely has a buddy to watch football with now!

Gabe started doing the Vikings mascot call.....baa-roo....not really sure how to type that out. But anyway, he got Blake doing it too, which was pretty hilarious.

I let Blake stay up late to watch some of the game, but then took him off to bed. After he went to bed, Campbell said "I'll watch football with you, Daddy." They snuggled under Campbell's pink and green fleece frog blanket (from cousin Alex), and Campbell talked Gabe's ear off so Gabe barely got to watch any of the game until she went to bed. 

Enough is Enough

I'm so far behind on my blog. I'm trying to summon the motivation to get started. Enough of reading other people's blogs. I'm catching up on my own.

Update: 10 posts tonight! Woohoo! I only have a couple more to do before I'm caught up. But time for bed. It's almost 1 am. And big day tomorrow. We have an "Early Listening Conference" at Campbell's preschool tomorrow morning. Not sure what it will involve, but I'm guessing we'll meet her teachers & Campbell can see her classroom. 1st day of preschool next week!

Hot to Freezing

I haven't posted the progress on the cabin lately. Or have I done it at all? I had the best intentions of keeping track of what we (Gabe) had done on the cabin each weekend, but alas, twas not to be. I'll do my best to summarize what's been going on. With a couple exceptions, we've been there every weekend this entire summer. Gabe has been working on the wiring, plumbing, venting, hooking up to the septic, and getting the water pump set up (and actually working which ended up being several weekends of work because various things kept going wrong).

A couple weekends ago, we arrived to find the deck built (thanks to Donny!) We're still waiting on steps, until then, we've been using the yellow bucket you can kind of see off to the left in the picture above to get up - not that easy with the kids.

I got brave a few weekends ago and took the kids over to Gabe's parent's cabin in the boat so that Gabe could get some work done with us out of his hair. I am comfortable driving a boat, it's the landing that makes me a bit nervous. Especially while trying to keep a hold of Mr. I Don't Sit Still for a Second Blake. When I arrived safely back to the cabin Gabe said that I had "never looked hotter". Pretty sure he said that because it was 85 degrees and I was trying to wrestle Blake while trying to not smash the boat into the dock with a uncooperative wind.
 

Boats loaded down with insulation

Wiring, wiring, wiring. Gabe has built quite the maze of wires.

Last weekend was HOT. A couple days of 85+ and humid, which was uncomfortable. Especially for Gabe trying to do wiring in the loft - it was gross hot up there. And then this past weekend it's COLD. Around 55 both days. Down to 35 degrees at night. We were cozy in the insulated/heated bedrooms, but cold, especially for the kids in the early morning out in the main (uninsulated) room.

Bundle them up!

The back pit at Grammy & Papa's cabin is heaven for Blake. Tractor, Skid Steer, snowmobile, 4 wheelers and all sorts of other things that make noise.

One weekend Gabe worked on putting up paneling in the master bedroom. He got 1 wall completely done, a second almost finished, and half of a closet done. He also hung closet doors. It looks great!

We had 4 days at the cabin over Labor Day. We had a good routine going of me bringing the kids over to Grammy & Papa's after Blake's morning nap. Campbell stayed to entertain her grandparents and play with her cousins and I brought Blake back for his afternoon nap. It felt good to get some little projects done while Blake slept (cleaning out under the cabin & clearing everything out of the kitchen/living room and into the bedrooms so that it's ready to insulate). Gabe got the wiring very close to being completely done.

The plan is that Donny will build the screen porch (on the left half of the deck looking at the cabin), get siding up, and put up insulation in the next couple weeks. I'm hoping he can do the porch railing, too. Then Gabe is planning a bunch of guys to come up for a weekend of paneling. It's pretty exciting for us!