Parties, dormers, and surgery!
Make-up and all....pretty sure Adam's not going to like this one. You have to admit, he makes a pretty little boy though.... Since this is our first summer here, I don't really know what plants we have in our yard and what's going to bloom next. It keeps us guessing. We are loving the hydrangeas right now!

Last Thursday Emma had her birthday party (late, since she was in Utah last month). First we ate pizza, then went ice blocking on our sledding hill at the middle school down the street, then presents, icecream/cake, played 7-11, then a movie and then out to the tent to sleep. I left Duchess in charge of security, and went to bed....reports were that half went to bed at 12:30 and the other half at 1:30, not too bad. No fights, crying, or drama, so it was a success!!

The next day Adam and I got started on 2 more dormers. First we had to clean and rearrange all our storage to the other side of the room. That was a project in itself. Doesn't he look excited to get going?

The next morning I was in charge of a primary pioneer day activity for church, so took the kids and left Adam home to cut 2 gaping holes in our roof.

The party turned out well. My girls LOVE any chance to get dressed up in pioneer attire, and dress their brothers up too. In fact, they had been begging forever for me to make them "real" pioneer dresses, so I finally broke down a few weeks ago and took them to Joannes to pick out fabric. I told them I wasn't doing it though, it was going to be their project. They each made a skirt and matching apron. I'm not sure why I don't have a pic of them together, but they turned out really cute.

The activity was a "trek" from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley, with stops along the way at "chimney rock, Fort Laramie, Sweet Water, and Winter Quaters", where we pulled taffy, told stories (around my red bulb fire that looked great till the camera flash drowned it out), learned a fiddle dance, played games, and had homemade icecream. It turned out fun! And got me out of working on the dormers for a few hours.

When we got home the girls got to help babysit, and I got back to work. It was a scorcher!!

We worked all day Sat, took most of the day Sunday off, back at it hard Monday, took Tues off (since Adam's car died last week and we needed to car shop---thought it was a good day since I did my long run that morning and was pooped!! We drove to Boston to look at one.) Then back at it Wednesday, with light showers all day--nothing too incredibly bad, but did have to inflate the kids pool and use every tarp in the house!! Then finished up yesterday. We kept having to take breaks for little storms, none that lasted too long though---but didn't really want to be up on the 3rd story w/lightening. Then just as we were finishing it started POURING, we were soaked to the bone when we came in....but we're DONE!!! No more projects!!!

Ok, so that pic is not the final pic, I need to take more, we put windows in of course.

Then recovery on the house last night before Adam's parents come in town tonight. You can only imagine how the house looked.....

This morning Adam and I left at 6am for my Endovascular Laser Treatment. It was a little more fun than I had imagined. 2 Valium helped though. If you want details, keep reading....

first another ultrasound, then threw in a catheder right above my knee into my greater saphenous vein (no numbing, just shoved it in, ouch, but at least he got it on the first try), then gave me shots of novacaine all the way up my leg, then he inserted the wire up my vein all the way to my groin, then gave me another series of shots of a saline/numbing mixture all the way up my leg (didn't feel these though, thanks to the novacaine), but I could feel my leg expanding (the saline was to protect my tissue around my vein from burning), then he turned on the laser and pulled it out slowly, about 1cm every 10 seconds when the machine beeped, until it was all the way out, and my greater saphenous vein was burned! Oh, and I sucked on a cough drop so I coudn't taste the burn in my mouth. It did the trick! The doc had the ultrasound on the entire time so he knew exactly where he was at and what was going on. Anyway, it wasn't a picnic or anything, but definitely beat getting them stripped, like my mom had done. I just remember her in a ton of pain and wrapped up like a mummy in bed for a week. They wrapped my leg up tight and I have to wear support hose for about a week, and I'll be black and blue and on Ibeprofin for a little while, but technology has come a long way!!! Oh, and while I was there he also let me know that I'll need the lesser saphenous vein done as well in 6 weeks. Yeah! More fun to look forward to. And then we'll give that about 6 months really see the full effects before they do anything else....probably a little stripping and injections as well. I'm in it for the long haul I guess. I was hoping to post before and after pics today, but I don't think I'll be posting any after pics for about a year!!! Oh, and I'm curious to know what valium does to other people, if you have taken it before. It relaxed me quite a bit, not so I didn't care or anything, but it helped, and then after it was over I laughed a little w/the doc and nurses, but then when Adam came in I started crying for no reason and couldn't stop! I cried half the way home!! Weird. I did get to come home and sleep it off for 4 hours though. When do I ever get a 4 hour nap? It was almost worth the whole ordeal just for that alone!

A little bad luck....this morning on my run. At about mile 4 mother nature started to kick in. I couldn't find any decent cover to use for 2 miles. Finally I found some thick trees to dive behind, although there were two houses that could have seen me if they'd been unlucky enough to pass by their window at that moment. Then I felt the pain, and noticed this..........

We love to have visitors!!!!! My little brother Eric, and his girlfriend Melissa came to visit a couple of weeks ago. We had such a great time. That is one thing that is definitely hard about living here....I feel way too far away from family. I don't really feel any closer than Japan, except that I can call them during the day and it's not the middle of the night for them.

The first pic is at the Breaker's Mansion, and then these two of Castle Hill light house. We had so much fun w/them here. My kids fell in love with Melissa and have their fingers crossed that it will work out....

My little Kit Kittredge......
Sarah's been counting down the days for months, and yesterday was finally the day the Kit Kittredge, an American Girl movie came out. Just she and I went out for lunch and then to see the movie. It was such a fun girls afternoon out!!!

For any of you who don't know what a tick looks like (my brother Will). This is enlarged of course, the fabric behind is a small gingham.

I found this on a pillow next to Sarah yesterday morning. It's time those keets (baby guinea fowl) start earning their stay!!! Hopefully soon they'll be old enough to free range!!

Re-shingling the roof is going to be the next BIG project on the house. We won't get to it until Adam gets back next spring, but seeing that the price of shingles is going up every day (like everything else), we're going to get them now.

This is our roof now.......

This is what it'd look like w/the chateau green shingles I'm thinking about......what do you think?? We were already going to paint the doors red, this is basically what it would look like (minus a chimney, garage, and a few windows).