In This Crazy Life...

Long before Kev came into the picture, I would go camping with my friend M, her sister and her husband. Most of the time we camped on an island in the middle of Lake Ouachita. We would take a generator to run lights, music, and charge phones, but other than that we roughed it. There have been a few times that I have camped at sites with electrical hookups and showers. When Kev and I started dating, he took me to Lake Winona. His dad took him there to hunt growing up. You are literally 30 minutes from the nearest country store that may or may not be open. There isn't any cell phone service unless you drive 10 minutes up the mountain and there is not any electricity. This is the site we camped at Sunday night after we left the Caddo River. We didn't have a generator this time but had a converter for the truck, so we were able to blow the air matress up and charge our phones enough to listen to music. I was kind of disappointed that it wouldn't run the coffee pot, but oh w

Back in April one of Kev's friends asked if we wanted to go floating/camping Memorial Day weekend with his wife and a group of her friends. We weren't real sure but said yes. I kept begging Kev to get details. What campsite? I wanted to research it before we got there. We are use to camping in the wilderness or on an island in the middle of the lake. No rules. He never could get a straight answer from B, in his defense he really didn't know. So, Kev tells me to relax and just go with the flow. If you know me, you know that is hard for me to do. I'm a planner. I want to be prepared. Especially when I am in the woods. I spend the day getting everything we would need together. We left EARLY Saturday morning just so we would have time to stop and get gas, ice, and water shoes (for Kev).  There was no need to do any of that. We were literally camping across the street from a 24 hour Valero and McDonalds!!!!!!! Less than a half mile from a grocery store!! You can barely se

We floated the Caddo River with some friends Saturday. The scenery was beautiful and the water was flowing nicely. It took us a little over four hours and we only flipped the canoe once.  We came to some quick rapids and very low trees. While trying to duck under the trees, so our heads didn't get knocked off, we both leaned too far and there we went. Luckily everything was in dry bags and tied down. Well, almost everything. Kev was trying to put his phone back into the dry box but didn't get to it fast enough. His phone got wet, but seems to work ok after sitting in a bag of rice for a few days. I didn't have my shoes strapped tight so they slid off. A friend in front of us managed to grab one shoe and one paddle. We carefully walked the canoe across the rapid and dumped the water out. I will admit I was pissed off about my shoe. I didn't talk to Kev for awhile. I know it wasn't his fault, but I wanted to be mad at someone. He promised he would replace th

They finished the roof up today! Back of the house. Front of the house. They use these to hold the plywood together.

Saturday I went wedding dress shopping!! It was very quick and lots of fun. My mom, aunt (who is doing the planning/decorating), Kev's mom, and one of my best friends from high school went with me. Yes, I know... I took a small entourage. Oh well.  The consultant asked if I'd been dreaming of this day since I was a little girl. I could honestly say that I have not. I remember a time in high school where I would look through bridal magazines and see what dress I wanted, but not since then. Instead I always dreamed about building a house! I already knew what I wanted. Nothing sparkly and with ruffles on the bottom. I absolutely love all of Vera Wang's dresses!  I picked five dresses to try on. Three were my choice and the others were for my aunt.  So I got the ones I wanted to try on and went to the dressing room. Lynn, the lady helping me, handed me a bra and a slip. The bra goes to my waist and the slip to my boobs and it's the kind I material that doesn't breathe.

I started collecting pictures for this post last Monday. So here it goes.  Monday they started putting up my frame. They got all but the bedroom and garage done.  The back doors and windows will go in this ginormous hole. They will have the blinds built into the windows.  The bedroom sliding door hole. It will also have blinds built into the windows.  Tuesday they finished the frame and started putting the plywood up.  Wednesday they started the roof.  It rained Thursday. So no work.  Friday they worked on the roof. They got the outside boards up. I found out yesterday, when they were up here to finish the roof, that they messed up Friday so they spent time fixing it yesterday.  Rain again today! Ugh! Hopefully they can finish the roof tomorrow and we can get the plumber and heating and air guys out there. Rain or any bad weather is a real pain when building a house. I can't wait until the roof is on and rain doesn't hinder us

Since there is not much I can do to help right now, besides keeping trash picked up, I've been picking up rocks. Rocks grow like crazy on that ridge. I didn't get much done the other day. After about six small loads, (the wheelbarrow is too heavy to push if it's full) the wheelbarrow broke again. I'm going to have to take mine over there so I can continue my rock collecting.                    My pile so far. 

I have a recipe for you today. Mexican Cornbread. We ate it a lot growing up. It was one of mom's go to meals. I was making it tonight and decided to take pictures so I could share it. There are two parts.  You start off browning about a pound of hamburger meat (I used turkey this time). Drain any grease and add a can of Rotel. ( I used fire roasted tomatoes because that's all I had.) Add a little salt and pepper.  The corn bread mix is  1 1/2 cups of corn meal mix 1/2 cup of oil 1 cup milk 2 eggs 1 can creamed corn  A few jalapeños  Mix together. Should be the consistency of cake batter.  Pour half of the corn bread mix into a greased pan. (I used a square pan this time but I usually use a rectangular one. It was very very close to overflowing today.) Anyways. Spread the meat mixture over the cornbread and then top it with cheese. (My favorite is a hot cheese.) Finally, pour the rest of the cornbread mix. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  I didn't get a final picture. Oh well,

So technically they were suppose to start framing Monday. Dad ordered the lumber early last week. When they didn't have it up here last Friday he canceled that order and placed one with another lumber company that assured him it would be there by Tuesday. Well it wasn't. Supposedly they had a blowout on their way from H.S. they finally got it there Wednesday. My brother and his friends were ready to come up Thursday morning but it was raining. They didn't want to drive the hour up here and get rained out. Completely understandable. So as of now, they will be up here Monday to start putting up the walls.  We're having bad luck with material. The concrete truck broke down. The lumber truck had a blow out. What next?   I picked out the front door, back living room doors, and the sliding door for the bedroom this week. Super excited that they have the blinds built in. I hate regular blinds on doors. 

I've been wanting a weight stand and Kev got me one for my birthday. Don't they look pretty? Now we/I just need to get back into the groove. I ran regularly for about two weeks with no P90X. Last week I did NOTHING! Kev has been working til dark lately. In the winter that's only til 6:00 but this time of year it doesn't get dark til 8:00. Ugh!! Hopefully we will be able to get back into the swing of things and I can use my new grip pads. They are hanging out on top of my weights.

This weekend was CRAZY busy! Saturday morning we woke up way too early for the weekend, but decided to be productive since we were up and moving. Neither one of us eats a lot of fast food, but for some reason we both woke up craving Burger King croissants.  After loading two weeks worth of recycling into the car, we headed to Burger King and the recycling place. Kev had a little work to do and I had to go take the wooden form off the foundation. So we went our seperate ways.  This is what I was taking down. You have to take all the nails out of the wood and pull the stakes out of the ground and then pull the boards away from the concrete. Sounds easy. Right? Well most of it was, but several places were concreted in. The right side of the house is on the very edge of a slope, so that side had at least three feet or more of concrete. Kev met back up with me to help. We were about half way finished when a man from the neighborhood across the lake drove over to take a picture of hi

Lilly and Hatfield love cuddling on the weekends. They always want outside really early, so by 7ish they are usually ready to home back in and get in the bed with us. All I can say is I can't wait to move and get a king sized bed. Right now I have 170 pounds of dog on top of me!! We've had a busy busy weekend and more to do today. Guess it's time to get moving.

Kev brought home an ice cream cake for my birthday. I love him! It's made with cake batter ice cream. We've devoured almost half of it already. The man sure does know me.

Tuesday I played hooky from school. One it was my birthday and I prefer not to deal with my crazy kids on my birthday and two they were going to pour our foundation and I wanted to be there. I made it over there around 8:30. The concrete trucks hadn't made it yet. Supposedly they broke down. They ended up being three hours late and the concrete place is only five miles away. Anyways dad and I had the chance to go over plans. I showed him where we wanted lights and switches and he mapped them out on the house plan. After that I ran a few errands. By the time I returned about 10:45 the concrete truck was there finishing up a load. It took seven trucks!I was able to stay all day and visit with my dad. He answered all my questions about concrete and how they finish it. The boxes are filled with sand and they pour the concrete around them. this is where the bathtub and shower drains will be. They attached chutes onto the back. How many depended on how far into the sp