Who loves summer?

We do, We do!!


It's hard to believe that summer is already 1/2 over. It seems like it just got started! We've been busy (as a whole) but we've made sure there's been plenty of time to just chill out (which happens to be one of my favorite activities. I'm pretty sure Jeff likes it too, but don't want to assume anything... ha!)



We had a good visit in June with Jeff's Dad (Papaw) and Cheryl, his wife (Grams). They timed their visit so that they could see the boys play baseball and we could go together to Branson, Mo. for a weekend. They got to see the boys play baseball (an exciting event, at any rate) but we didn't make it to Branson. There were some complications with babysitting (we were originally thinking about leaving the kids behind-- but couldn't find a sitter!) then travel (we don't all fit into one vehicle-- and renting large passenger vans are quite spendy!) and although I offered to stay behind with some little girls-- that didn't turn out to be a good solution for everyone. So, long story short-- we stayed home.


As a result of that-- the visit here I think turned out to be longer than Papaw and Grams would have ultimately liked. Let me stress that in NO WAY did they say, imply, or otherwise indicate they felt, say, trapped here. :) But there was a little certain something called "stir crazy" that I think Papaw, in particular, was suffering from. See, he likes to keep busy. And, unfortunately, Jeff was gone traveling on business for quite a bit of the time they were here. Which kept him away from the fabric store, which is one of their favorite father/son bonding places.


So, we all cooked up an idea that Papaw needed a project. And we, well, we needed (?!?) a bathroom in our basement. So I casually mentioned it. And Cheryl said how wonderful it would be to have a bathroom downstairs. And Jeff kept on saying how much work it would be. Papaw disagreed. Jeff disagreed with his disagreement. And so on. But.... gosh darn it, if there isn't a bathroom in our basement now... almost completely finished:



(From the main doorway!)






(From the storage doorway!)



(Another angle...)



(The back wall)





(The shower and ceiling)



(Wishful thinking on our part...)



So.... Jeff has done an incredible job on all the finish work! There's really just a couple of minor little things to do (another light/exhaust fan, clip off the terlit bolts, get a handle on the pocket door... I think that's it.)
He says that now that he's had more experience he's doing things faster and making less mistakes. This bathroom is really a LOT (maybe I shouldn't stress that...) more professional looking than our basement and the basement bathroom he did in Illinois. Funny thing is, at the time, I didn't know that he hadn't done a lot of this stuff before and I kinda (I'm going to get myself in trouble here) just thought he was a little sloppy. Not that I really minded.... I mean, I can't do ANY of it myself, so I was just happy that he knew how to do stuff. But now he's doing this handyman stuff AWESOMELY. Gotta love that!

Next up, Skylar's birthday pictures and recap!