Air Force Academy graduation

The AFA graduation has been a tradition for us over the past several years. It's not the actual graduation that we watch, but the performance of the Air Force Thunderbirds that follows the ceremony. We've parked on the same road for four or five years. In fact, there are countless wonderful vantage points across the highway from the Academy.

It's awesome living so close. Gliders and tow planes are a common sight year round. It's always a thrill to see the parachutist practices too. And every year prior to graduation, the Thunderbirds practice for several days in the skies above our house.

And every year, we pack up snacks and chairs, drive to our favorite spot and wait. I usually get pretty emotional . . . the freedom I feel watching the jets, how grateful I am to these and to all our military, true heroes who are out there every day, fighting not just for our country, but for others to have those same freedoms . . . It's definitely one of the "proud to be an American" times that tug at one's heart. We have the greatest Air Force in the world, don't you think? This was the first year I didn't tear up--I was too busy taking pictures, 90 by the time it was done.






We met friends there too. While we're enthralled with this once a year show, the boys happily played. I guess the field was more exciting, lol.

"The values of duty and service and sacrifice may be old, but that is because they are timeless. They may be obvious, but that is because they are true. They are interwoven into the very fabric of our nation’s past, present, and future."

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates
Air Force Academy Commencement 2007

Twilight Zone

Twilight Zone
n. An area of ambiguity between two distinct states or conditions, usually comprising certain features of both; an indefinite boundary.

* * * * * *

While at Territory Days on Saturday, Trevor and I stopped at the Army surplus store. It was quite modern, with lots of open space like a mini sporting goods store, small selection of military boots, run by a man and his wife both far younger than I, and their three young daughters were there too. I thought Trevor might enjoy it, and in fact, he enjoyed it so much that he bought a few things for a friend's upcoming birthday. His friend loves all things Army, and we thought it'd be cool (wikkid?!) to buy the real deal. We found an ammo bag and canteen and made plans to pick up a few more things this week.

We visited a second surplus store today. This was definitely a real surplus store, the kind of store you expect. Merchandise was crammed in everywhere. Looking like they hadn't slept in a few days, a biker and his girlfriend were there, checking out knives with 12" blades. The walls and counters were covered in Viet Nam and Middle East war memorabilia. The owner was an old guy, missing a couple of fingers, and what can best be called '80s stoner music was playing throughout the store.

Trevor found a few more perfect gifts and we went up to pay.

You have to get a mental image of this. These are people that I can fit in with--in my mind anyway. I KNOW these songs. I probably KNEW these people 20 years ago. (Well, this might be a slight exaggeration.) THEY, however, know the truth. I drove there in my foreign make minivan, wearing my perfect capris, Crocs, freshly coiffed, all makeup and perfume. I wouldn't even fit in across the street. I smile brightly.

My total is just under $10. I hand over my credit card. The guy behind the counter looks at my card and says to me, "Do you have an ID?" What? Do I look like a person who would fraudulently charge $10? I am a MOM. Is this a bad dream?

The sad truth comes crashing down on me. I don't fit in. In fact, I am so completely out of place that they don't even trust my credit card. Does he ask everyone for ID? Would he ask the knife wielding biker guy for an ID? Should I take this personally?

Still smiling brightly, I present my license. I collect my things, and smiling brightly, I walk through the door, clearly exiting my personal Twilight Zone.

Rosie the BBQ

My bbq's name is Rosie. We've had a handful of gas grills over the years, and that's because we don't usually spend a huge amount of money on them. Long before we got married, Robert bought a gas grill for my apartment, and I can remember him putting it together even though the directions were wrong. (He's a man of many talents, and I appreciate every one of them.)

In between, we've had a Weber or two. I'm charcoal challenged, however. With the Webers, dinner was always hit or miss, depending on if and when I could get the charcoal to light. It was painfully obvious that I'd never been a Boy Scout, and Girl Scouts weren't taught fire starting techniques.

I love Rosie. I also love that Rob is the one who cooks on her. It's like mowing the lawn at my house. He knows what he's doing, he's had lots of practice, and he does it well. I don't. And thankfully I don't have to. Since Rosie does not run on charcoal, though, I'm perfectly capable of getting her started.

I remember when I first laid eyes on Rosie. Our old bbq had died, and we knew we'd have to replace it. The kids and I were out that morning, came home, and pulled into the garage. Holly noticed her first. Robert had dropped her off and left her in the middle of his parking spot in the garage. I certainly didn't notice her. I am completely oblivious to things like this, even if they are the size of a small car.

I named her Rosie immediately. You'll see the resemblance. I've always been a Jetsons fan. And I've always wanted a Rosie to call my own.

Weekly menu

Yikes, I need to work on this tomorrow. I've been better prepared!

tuna sandwiches (we went out for lunch), veggies and ranch dressing, chips

YOYO (Trevor will be at a birthday party)

spaghetti, salad, bread or breadsticks

????? Thursday?

Romano's Italian Restaurant?

breakfast burritos (Holly requested we have these when she's gone, lol)

???? Sunday

On the back burner:

turkey and avocado subs, chips, fruit
(I'm waiting for a really nice day so we can take these to one of our lovely parks for dinner.)

pasta salad and fruit

manicotti

considering Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti Casserole . . .

And of course, I have to include that Marlboro Man Sandwich here, or my family will revolt!

Kelly's White Cake & Buttercream Icing (oh, this looks so good, but I'm having second thoughts. Do I really need this?)

Memorial Day

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

Saturday/Sunday

We bought an ant habitat for Trevor last week and found ants nearby to put into it. Many died within the first few hours. The rest were unimpressive for several days.

Meanwhile, Trevor and I found a big anthill while out walking. The ants were slightly larger, and we went back with Robert a few days later. We were prepared to attack, and I'll say that the ants weren't too thrilled with our plans. After gathering 2-1/2 dozen in the larger container (and me guarding against escapes), they all escaped when we tried to put them in the habitat. The second gathering and attempt was successful. While we've had no accidents, I wish the lid on the habitat was much more secure.

The ants have been very different than the first ones. To begin with, most are still living. They've been very active, and they have started their own tunnel 24 hours after moving in. It looks like mission accomplished!

Trevor and I decided to go to our town's Territory Days today. Territory Days celebrates Old Colorado City (now a small section of Colorado Springs) as the first capital of the Colorado Territory in 1871. (I always thought Golden was the first capital.) Mostly, of course, it's an excuse to walk around and either share or stare at odd tattoos and body piercings, and eat through your choice of mega fried foods or turkey legs.

I'm not good at this stuff. I can't parallel park and I refuse to consider porta-potties under any circumstances. But we found a good parking spot, not too far away, and at the end of the corner. It's different going to something like this with an 8 year old boy. They don't want to look at the various booths or shops, unless there's a stray Spiderman toy to catch an eye.


Although Trevor initially resisted, I encouraged him to try the FREE gold panning. This might be his last chance to give something like this a shot. It doesn't take a genius to realize that boy + water + rocks = good time.


Lucky for us, we were panning next to an amateur geologist. She quickly pointed out various items of interest in Trevor's pan: turquoise, amethyst, iron pyrite, gold flakes, shark teeth. WHAT? Yep, shark teeth. It was a huge favorite of the kids (ya think?!), and Trevor found several by panning.

(Disclaimer: I don't know if they put things in the water/dirt, or dig it all up and bring it along. I'm just there, and I didn't ask!)

The next stop was to find food. There were loads of great bbq places, but Trevor decided he didn't want to stand in line. We settled for nachos, a steak taco and gatorade, and we found a shady place in the grass to eat and watch people walk by.

"Mom, will you please wait til I'm finished eating??"

We headed back to the gold panning, where Trevor searched out more shark teeth. He bought a wooden gun at a stand where he'd bought a similar gun last year. And we were done. I'll have to make it a point to do more things like this. I don't know why I dread it so, because when I actually GO, I enjoy it.

As we walked back to the car, I persuaded him to check out the Army surplus store. I don't know why he didn't want to go in, but once he got there, he certainly didn't want to leave!

I really enjoyed spending time alone with Trevor. Holly had planned to join us, but changed her mind last minute. She ended up going out to lunch with Robert and running errands.

I made Kathleen's Orange Muffins tonight. They were wonderful, and we'll definitely be making them again. This recipe made a nice big batch too. Dear Kathleen. All I will say here is Happy Birthday. Muhahahaha!

The Air Force Academy graduation is Wednesday. It's a tradition of ours to find a great viewing spot nearby to watch the Thunderbirds fly. They began practicing tonight. They fly very close to our house. Do you remember the feelings of the jets flying overhead at night immediately after 9/11? It's an amazing sound, an amazing feeling. They'll be practicing more extensively tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.

Book Review - The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelain

Ah, The Marketing of Evil is another book where I wish I knew what prompted me to choose it. David Kupelian is managing editor of World Net Daily, and this book jacket is adorned with praises by people such as Dr. Laura, David Limbaugh, Dr. James Kennedy, and Michelle Malkin. It was very informative and reminded me a lot of Mark Levin's Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America.

The premise: "Millions of Americans today accept ideas and behaviors that would have horrified all previous generations. Why?"

I had such mixed feelings about the book. It started off with a bang, describing the "marketing techniques" behind the promotion of a variety of social issues. This was fascinating to read, and I could easily see how these techniques have been used to gain significant public sympathy and support in so many different arenas in today's culture.

For example, I'll apply these to my personal current hot topic, illegal immigration. (Although there are laws against this, you wouldn't know it in the sanctuary state of Colorado where there are written policies in some cities forbidding police officers from turning over illegals to ICE.)

Desensitization. There are so many ways in which we've been desensitized, I can't even begin a comprehensive list. We've been listening for several years how illegals commit crime after crime, are sent back to Mexico, only to reappear here to commit more crimes. For many years, canned goods in our grocery stores have both English and Spanish labels. We hear prompts for Spanish in voice mail hell. Forms at dr.'s offices are bi-lingual. By now, it's routine. We roll our eyes, thinking, "Here we go again."

Jamming. At the point people finally get fed up, we're called racists. I don't get this one AT ALL, but hey, that puts one on the defensive and gets away from the "illegal" topic. The big guns come out to silence and discredit any dissenting opinion. (Why else would two Border Patrol agents be sitting in prison, apparently with the blessing of our President?)

Conversion. Why do we hear comments such as, "How can we fault those who want a better life?" "Your relatives immigrated." (Both true, but there are LEGAL ways to obtain this, and that's what the whole issue IS.) If you repeat something enough, you can get people to believe it. The terminology has changed. "Illegal aliens" become "undocumented workers." And how can we forget that idiot state senator from Florida who proposed banning the term "illegal alien" from government documents because it reminded her of someone from "outer space"? (She gets paid for this??)

But after this great beginning, the rest of the book doesn't follow through. It's terribly disjointed, more like a series of opinions, but there's no connection, no flow between chapters, and no consistency. Many of the points and topics were good, but there was no continual story. The bok took a truly bizarre turn for the final 1/3, wherein the author compares the MSM to the computer program in the movie The Matrix.

Reading through the chapters left me with an overwhelming sense of sadness at the state of our country. It wasn't a bad book, just not well written. I wish the author had included significantly more source references for many of his claims. It's not that I doubted them, but I wished for more information. Recommended? Sure, but don't get your hopes up, this book is not all it's cracked up to be.

Book Review - The Sword and the Sundial by Phyllis Prokop

This originally began as a read aloud to Holly and Trevor, but they could not get into it. It didn't help that I felt rushed to read. It's an ILL with a very short turn around time. But I was interested enough to continue reading it on my own.

I found this as a supplement to the Beautiful Feet curriculum. The Sword and the Sundial is built on the Biblical account of Hezekiah, covering events from his childhood through adulthood, c. 732 -701 BC. Judah and Israel are divided, and Hezekiah's father Ahaz rules over Judah, and threats of Syrian invasions last throughout the book. Child sacrifices continue to be offered to Molech. We already know that Ahaz refuses to trust solely in God and continues to worship false idols. When Ahaz dies, Hezekiah becomes king, determined that Jerusalem will worship only the Lord.

I enjoyed the book and immediately scanned the Bible to read about Ahaz and Hezekiah. I appreciate reading more about the division of Israel, which (no surprise) has been difficult for me to tie in with Story of the World. I bought God King a while back, which Holly read, and I've been wanting to. Since it takes place at the time of Hezekiah, I'll definitely have to put it on my "read" list and see what similar events are covered in both books. I'm also looking forward to reading Isaiah again in my Daily Bible.

The first three chapters were a bit slow, but it definitely picked up after that, and if I would have read one more chapter out loud, I know Holly and Trev would have been hooked. I hope to come across this hard-to-find book and buy a copy for our home library. If your kids are studying ancient history, I'd definitely recommend this book.

Miscellany

My first order of books from Chris came this week. I already know it--I'm addicted. I put most of them away, but not before Trevor sorted through them. You know it's good when an 8 year old boy is pulling out a bunch of books to read, but I only let him take one for now. (I figure the more off limits they are, the more appealing they will become.) Holly snagged one too and spent the day reading the whole book. The majority of these will be extra readers for school. Just reading through these titles gives me a thrill!


Holly's kitty Pumpkin has been wild this week. After I went to bed last night, she stayed downstairs and meowed loud enough for me to hear. When I came back down to see what was up, she ran from me. Once again, today, she hunted down Trevor's super stretchy lizard. She'll find this thing anywhere, literally digging through Trevor's dresser, closet, or Lego box to find it, then carry it around the house, and play with it endlessly.


Vader, on the other hand, continues to hold out hope for the real thing. Silly cat. He clearly needs professional help.


We have a fox that shortcuts through our yard frequently. Sometimes we see it every day, sometimes we don't see it for a few months. He was around quite a bit a few weeks ago, and today I realized we have at least two foxes. This one is considerably smaller. While it usually runs down our street, I've seen it/them travel through the backyards just trotting along the stringers at the top of the fence. Their balance and grace amaze me.

This one stopped for a drink in our "stream" before jumping the fence in their usual spot. They live in a nearby park/pond area, much of which is still a natural habitat. I love watching them run through.

It's not been a busy week, and I'm enjoying that.

Springtime in the Rockies

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. We have wonderfully wild weather, most typically in the spring.

Yesterday morning was lovely.


In the afternoon, it began hailing.

Okay, so it really didn't hail. But it rained. Robert threw some ice cubes outside and told us it was hail.

But the temp dropped from low 60s to mid 30s and it began to snow. And I'm not kidding this time! I don't remember seeing snow like this so late in the season.


It didn't freeze down here, but the Peak was covered this morning, and you can see how low the snow came.


Later in the morning, it was already beginning to melt.


And by early evening, clouds rolled in again, giving Pikes Peak an ethereal look.

Whether you like the weather or not, if you wait ten minutes, and it's sure to change.

I've been really wondering what kind of sunrise/sunset I'll see when we move. I'm not even positive which direction the house faces!

:)

Book Review - Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult

Friends have recommended Jodi Piccoult's books in general to me before, and for some reason, I thought this book would be a great place to start. I wasn't paying attention to the topic at the time, obviously.

Still in the dark, I was immediately hooked into this book and couldn't put it down. But then I got to the school shooting, a mass shooting at a high school by a student. This is a subject too close to home for me, and it won't be of any benefit (or entertainment) for me to continue with this book.

Personal opinion: Not recommended.

House update . . .

Our realtor in Virginia has been working to put together a contract that clearly shows our commitment to the house we want. We've already been told that the seller "never takes" a contingent contract (and a week prior to our offer, we understand he declined an oral offer from someone else).

BUT we believe we have reached a tentative agreement with the seller. I don't want to say much yet, since nothing's been signed. BUT he's not only agreed to take our contingent contract, but also is giving us more time to sell our house than we'd asked for . . .

We have felt an incredible amount of peace about this house since we first found it quite a while ago. It was the reason for the trip Holly and I made. If this is the house we're meant to have, then we know that God will work it out for us.

(Outwardly I'm pretty calm, but inside I'm thinking YES!!!!!)

Standing in the river of Grace . . .

Homeschoolers in the news

A 14 year old girl from Washington state won the National Geographic Bee today. As I read through the article, my attention was caught by the quote, "Recently, her interests have been particularly captured by Greek and Minoan pottery..." That was my first clue that she might be a homeschooler, lol.

You can read the entire article here.

Our wedding anniversary

Today was our 14th wedding anniversary.

A few days before our anniversary each year, one of us will tentatively ask the other, "Did you buy me anything?" It's a question to dance around. "Well, did YOU buy ME anything?" "How about a card? Did you get me a card?" (You can be sure that the person asking this question is wondering if THEY should run out and buy a card.) It's always a bit of relief when one of us finally cautiously asks, "Uh, no . . . should I?" It's taken awhile, but we eventually settled into this routine of no surprises.

Besides, I always tell Robert that every day of being married to him is a gift.

(Awwwwwww.)

I hadn't even considered "the day" when I planned my dinner menus for the week. BLTs were the plan tonight, but we ended up taking Holly's suggestion of cheeseburgers. (Hey, at least they were homemade.)

So it wasn't overly exciting. We did a little grocery shopping and were kicked out of the house for an hour this afternoon for a showing. But from the very beginning, we've never needed much outside excitement. I'm far too private to get mushy here, but I wouldn't trade one single day. :) "[Love] burns like blazing fire."

Fourteen years ago.

Ten days ago (we really need to get a few decent pics of us together).

* * * * *

Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

Songs 8:6-7

Second week of "summer vacation"

Trevor's karate started today. He did great! They are all kids from co-op, though not all from his same karate class that he took earlier. I was happy to see a friend of mine there, and we ended up being the only two moms who stayed, and we blabbed the whole time.

We stopped at Target on the way home and found a gel ant farm. I'm not patient enough to spend $3 and wait 2-6 weeks for regular worker ants to be delivered. It's against federal regs to ship queens, so what's the point? We collected ants outside. It was easy; I'm quite sure our entire block is sitting on a giant anthill. But within a few hours, most seem to have died. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow; maybe we'll have to order ants anyway.

For the past few years, my goal during summer vacation has been to keep the kids on at least a regular waking up and eating breakfast on time schedule. This year, Trevor has karate at 9 a.m. two mornings a week. Holly will be riding every week at 9 a.m. My new goal is to be ready to go at 8:30 on these mornings (which I'll have to do to be on time).

It's not an unreasonable goal, it's just that I haven't had to do this for several years. I'm used to waking up early enough (6:15) but reading the paper, getting on the computer, blah, blah, blah. I get "ready" in steps, and I'm rarely pulled together by 8:30. I can look at the positive side, I can get myself back on a reasonable schedule--and really enjoy ALL of the summer days. I guess it won't be so bad after all . . .

:)

This week's menu

Kathleen's Orange Muffins (not as a meal, of course, but I want to make these!)


YOYO (You're On Your Own)

pork chops, sweet potatoes, applesauce, green salad (still haven't had this yet)

bratwurst with peppers and onions

turkey and avocado subs, chips, fruit
(I'm waiting for a really nice day so we can take these to one of our lovely parks for dinner.)

spaghetti, salad, bread or breadsticks

Kate's Peanut Chicken on SHS "awesome chicken recipe for Lisa"

BLTs, cottage cheese, chips


On the back burner:

cheeseburgers

breakfast burritos (these are such a big hit and make great leftovers)

pasta salad and fruit

manicotti

considering Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti Casserole . . .

Kelly's White Cake & Buttercream Icing (how can I not make this? It looks fabulous, and we all know Kelly's reputation as an awesome cook!)

Creamed Cucumbers

I don't know if this is a regional recipe. Growing up in California, we never had anything like this. In fact, I don't even remember eating cukes, which means my Dad probably doesn't like them.

Robert loves Creamed Cucumbers. His mom? dad? (can't remember which one used to make these!) never used a recipe, so I had to learn on the fly. I've gotten pretty good at it, although I'm still not a huge fan of them. Robert and Trevor eat them up, though, and I usually make enough to have some leftovers. For awhile, I would always make extra for Robert to take to one of his managers at work.

CREAMED CUCUMBERS

Peel cucumbers and slice thinly and evenly. For this batch, I used three cukes.

Layer them in a bowl, heavily salting each layer as you put it down.

I'm always asked how much salt. I don't know. Use the salt shaker and salt them, more than you would normally salt your food.


Cover and let the salt do its work. Drain off the water occasionally. Let them sit at least four hours, and drain again one last time. I just use the lid of the bowl, nothing fancy. The cucumbers will shrink to about half of what they were originally.

Pour in enough half and half to almost cover. How much? I don't know, it depends on how many cucumbers you have. I probably used about a cup here.

Pour in cider vinegar, about 1/4 as much as the half and half. I'd guess I used 1/4 c. Don't be shy with the vinegar. I've only once ever used too much, and it was easily fixed by adding a little more half and half. (The truth is that THIS is the time that I used too much vinegar, probably because I was busy taking pictures!)


Toss cucumbers in the sauce gently; the vinegar will sour the half and half.

Ah, perfection. Leftovers will be good for a day or two.

This is a great recipe to make ahead of time, minimal work, nice and cool for summer.

Lots of time outside this week

We've had a string of nicer days. Holly rode a different horse this week, and Scarlett's friends were very interested in what was going on.


Robert cleaned out the pond and SURPRISE!!! He found this guy swimming around. Is it a salamander or bullfrog? Two years ago, we had little tadpoles that were eaten by a garter snake who took up residence in our pond. We took him to the big pond nearby. We also had a couple of koi fish, and something got them when we were on vacation. A few weeks ago, as a joke, Robert put in little glass fish. Birds kept grabbing them, then dropping them on the lawn, until they broke.


Trevor's been playing quite a bit with his remote control car.


And Robert's been playing with the motorcycle. My boys. Sigh. (snicker)


Robert bought a "dragonfly" RC toy this week. Trevor's mastered it. It's pretty cool, both sets of wings go to make it fly. Holly had fun flying it too. It's hard for me to get pictures of it!


That's about it. I'm still recovering from my cold (wimp). I spent most of the weekend reconfirming our next year's curriculum choices. It might sound boring, but it is FUN for me!

Saturday

No time to really post. I am sick with Trevor's cold (YUCK!), and I'm catching up with a bunch of SHS blogs tonight instead of my own. :)

I went to the library book sale this morning. They acted surprised when I only bought two books. But hey, I'm being picky, and I don't want to pay to move more books than I need to. They were both living history/Sonlight type books for a grand total of . . . $.43!!! I only wish they had more that I could really use.

During another showing today, we walked the fancy "outdoor lifestyle" mall. I found a pair of jeans at Eddie Bauer on clearance for $15, yippee! (Unfortunately, they are "fat" jeans, so should I hope they don't fit me for long?)

Current house update: Three more showings this past week. On the plus side, our realtor said that she has quite a few listings, but we are one of two she expects to "pop" any day.

New house update: We've done a little negotiating with the seller, and they will be making a decision sometime in the new week.

I'll have to catch up a little more here tomorrow.

Thursday Thirteen - things Robert's done to our house

These are thirteen of my favorite things.

1. When we moved here five years ago, this house was terribly dated, with lots of dark wallpaper with tiny print right out of the '70s. The entry hall, which is narrow already, had dark chair railing topped with dark maroon swiss-dotted wallpaper. To open and lighten it up, Robert replaced it all with a very light patterned paper. He also replaced the dark brown closet doors with mirrored doors.


2. He removed a cabinet above the stove and installed the microwave. He did this in our last house too, and I appreciate the extra counter space.


3. He replaced the banged up kitchen sink with cast iron. (Yes, I have a dishrack, but we've hidden it away until the house sells. The coffeepot gets hidden away for showings too.)


4. And like in the last house, he installed undercabinet lighting for me. The lights run over three sides of the counters, with two different switches.


5. There's another wall on the left side of the fridge here. Proving his point, "This new refrigerator WILL SO fit!," Robert later repaired the wall, and if you didn't know the cutout was there, you'd, well, never know it was there.


6. He replaced all the light switches in the house with either dimmers or rockers.


7. He replaced all of the country blue bathroom counter tops.

This main floor powder room had blue and orange striped wallpaper, identical to the dining room. Eeek!!


The kids' bathroom had one sink but plenty of room for another. When he replaced the counter top, he installed a second sink, and rewired the lights, replacing the fixtures.


8. He installed glass doors above the tubs instead of using shower curtains. (This was also something he did in our old house.) The "rain" pattern on these means you can never see the water stains. You can see the kids' door in the picture above, and ours in the picture below.

9. In a moment of boredom a few years ago, he tore out a row of our bath tile and replaced it with a contrasting color.


10. In another moment of boredom, he decorated our closet. He put up border wallpaper, installed canned lighting with a dimmer switch, and shopped for all the decorations.


11. He planted hundreds of new plants and flowers outside. He poured 1000 lbs. of concrete to make a waterfall. There's also outdoor garden lighting all along the backyard that I didn't get a picture of.

12. He replaced all the uneven wooden vertical retaining walls. The walls in front are now brick; the longer walls in back are horizontal railroad ties.


13. He put up several brackets across our front porch for hanging flower baskets. He even maintains them. :)
I am SO grateful to have a husband who can do this. We never could have afforded the tens of thousands of dollars that we would have to pay someone for all the things that Robert has done. Thank you, honey! You ARE my hero!!!