I thought that Sarah, the lady who watches Sam during the day, had a great idea today. When I went to pick Sam up tonight, they were out on the driveway using water and paint brushes to "paint" the driveway. The cement would turn dark where the water was applied and it seemed like Zac, Sarah's son, was very intent on getting the full driveway painted. Sam was having a great time following the older boys around and trying to get water out of their buckets to paint with.
Anywho... I guess it may only be fun when other boys are also doing it since Sam wasn't too interested in "painting" our driveway even though he was insistent on going outside after dinner. While trying to figure out what would occupy Sam, like his trucks and the bike pump, I ended up spraying a non-toxic "natural" stain, moss, mildew, etc cleaner on the walkway and one side of the driveway. I bought the stuff after reading an article that was in the Costco Connection and after investigating it more online.
The stuff is supposed to work gradually over time without scrubbing; with the action from rain and getting wet and drying, etc. The bottle says that within 6 months you should notice that the areas sprayed are not as stained and "cleaner". I thought I would try it before renting a power washer and doing it that way, which I will have to be careful about so it doesn't upset the pond.
I bought it awhile ago and just hadn't put it on anything yet due to the recommended application instructions say to not put it on in hot weather or direct sun, so when it is overcast and not raining for over 5 hours after you apply it. Not an easy task in Oregon, but not impossible, you just have to realize the conditions are right at the time you have time to put it on. I guess that was tonight for me.
I am very interested to see how well it works. The driveway and sidewalk up to the front door have gotten quite gray in comparison to how it was when we moved in. You can tell the driveway has grayed since the places where the tires are when the cars are parked are not as gray due to wear from driving and stopping in those spots. So time will tell and if I remember to report, I will do so after 6 months.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
New Roof ?
Found out today that the roof on the main part of our house is about out of life; expected to last another 1-3 years. They also said there were several spot where the roof sheeting was very spongy and the whole roof crunched when you walked on it, which I guess means that other spots of the sheeting plywood is probably de-laminating and going to need to be replaced also.
So it looks like with the leak in the garage that I keep needing to repair and the report from the roofer, we may be getting a new roof before winter sets in. Wish I could get it done right now with the nice dry, although humid, weather we are having now, but that probably isn't going to happen.
At least I can cross one thing off my list of things to do which will now be included in someone else doing my roof; I won't need to install a solar powered roof vent. I will just have to buy it. But I guess that depends on how much they quote to replace the roof and sheeting; I may end up doing it myself.
So it looks like with the leak in the garage that I keep needing to repair and the report from the roofer, we may be getting a new roof before winter sets in. Wish I could get it done right now with the nice dry, although humid, weather we are having now, but that probably isn't going to happen.
At least I can cross one thing off my list of things to do which will now be included in someone else doing my roof; I won't need to install a solar powered roof vent. I will just have to buy it. But I guess that depends on how much they quote to replace the roof and sheeting; I may end up doing it myself.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
New plants
It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but I guess it was over Labor Day weekend that a nursery south of town had a 20% off sale and we went to look around to see if we could find anything to put in the yard. We were tentatively looking for a tree for the front and back yards and some perennials to go into the planter in the front since everything we were putting there was dying or just annuals that didn't last.
So we ended up with 10 yellow lilies, that are like the ones I admire outside my work every year, and a crimson bark maple tree. We were really excited and realized when we got home that we were probably a little premature on getting the tree since we had to figure out where to put it now.
The lilies got planted that week in the front after some rework on the horseshoe shaped raised bed in the front turned it into an oval raised bed with new dirt and mulch. It looks really nice now as long as I can keep the squirrels and cats from digging in it.
The tree, on the other hand, just went in this weekend since I realized that we may lose it if we didn't get it in the ground soon. It was hard to remember to water it regularly and if it got colder all of a sudden, I don't know what we would do with it to protect it. I also didn't want to go buy another one not on discount.
It took all weekend to finally decide where to put it and identify how much grass to take out. I will definitely rent a sod cutter next time, no matter how much grass has to come out; grass is a real bugger to get up with all the roots. It took me about 4 hours to dig all the grass out Sunday late afternoon and til about 8 at night to get the dirt and mulch filled in around it and the landscape fabric down. I had to go get another load of mulch to put on top and fill it in a little more yesterday, but it looks pretty good now. Eventually that whole end of the yard will just be mulch with no grass and just stepping stones to the back with ferns and other shade loving plants all around to make it not so sparse.
It is a little hard to tell in the picture since there is a lot of plants around it now, but if you click on it and get the bigger picture, it should be easier to see. The rhododendron behind it is dying and coming out now that the tree is in, and the pine tree out by the street will be coming out as soon as I can get the local utility to schedule to come take it down. I figure, why take down a tree that is under the power lines and the utility will take it out and chip up the branches without any cost to me.
It would end up costing me like $10 and an afternoon to take it down and haul it to the yard debris place, so I will let them take it down at their leisure. At least it isn't a fruit bearing tree in full fruit this time; like when they took down the plumb in the backyard and left a swampy mess of mushed plumb fruit (and pits) all over the grass.
So we ended up with 10 yellow lilies, that are like the ones I admire outside my work every year, and a crimson bark maple tree. We were really excited and realized when we got home that we were probably a little premature on getting the tree since we had to figure out where to put it now.
The lilies got planted that week in the front after some rework on the horseshoe shaped raised bed in the front turned it into an oval raised bed with new dirt and mulch. It looks really nice now as long as I can keep the squirrels and cats from digging in it.
The tree, on the other hand, just went in this weekend since I realized that we may lose it if we didn't get it in the ground soon. It was hard to remember to water it regularly and if it got colder all of a sudden, I don't know what we would do with it to protect it. I also didn't want to go buy another one not on discount.
It took all weekend to finally decide where to put it and identify how much grass to take out. I will definitely rent a sod cutter next time, no matter how much grass has to come out; grass is a real bugger to get up with all the roots. It took me about 4 hours to dig all the grass out Sunday late afternoon and til about 8 at night to get the dirt and mulch filled in around it and the landscape fabric down. I had to go get another load of mulch to put on top and fill it in a little more yesterday, but it looks pretty good now. Eventually that whole end of the yard will just be mulch with no grass and just stepping stones to the back with ferns and other shade loving plants all around to make it not so sparse.
It is a little hard to tell in the picture since there is a lot of plants around it now, but if you click on it and get the bigger picture, it should be easier to see. The rhododendron behind it is dying and coming out now that the tree is in, and the pine tree out by the street will be coming out as soon as I can get the local utility to schedule to come take it down. I figure, why take down a tree that is under the power lines and the utility will take it out and chip up the branches without any cost to me.
It would end up costing me like $10 and an afternoon to take it down and haul it to the yard debris place, so I will let them take it down at their leisure. At least it isn't a fruit bearing tree in full fruit this time; like when they took down the plumb in the backyard and left a swampy mess of mushed plumb fruit (and pits) all over the grass.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sam falling on his rocker
Aimee, Sam and I were in Sam's room talking about curtains for the Livingroom, since it is the only room in the house with the curtain rod still up. Anywho, Sam was playing around while we were talking and I all of a sudden realized that he was in his little rocker, backwards, knees to the back of the seat, rocking. I no sooner said, "Aimee! grab him, when he leaned completely into the back of the chair and went head first into the corner of the room where bookcase, toy chest and lamp are. He narrowly missed the toy chest, which in hindsight would have probably been better since it would have been earlier in the decent, and landed face first on the base of the lamp.
I hate those moments!!! There have been a couple really bad ones like this where I just can't react because it is mostly over by the time I even see it. I almost exhale a big sigh before I completely understand what is happening because subconsciously I have already identified that there is nothing I can do because I didn't see or recognize what was going on soon enough.
I take pride in seeing things coming and have, on more occasions than I have missed, caught Sam in mid stream before he actually got hurt; so my pride takes just as much of a bruising as Sam does when this happens.
It turns out that he was fine, even with the big, purple, swollen cheek he ended up with. Aimee took a lesson from the weekend we went to the beach where Sydney, one of the little girls who was part of the 5 families that went, took a dive off of an elevated bed face first. They put some what I can only describe as "bruise preventing" gel, because I don't remember what it is called, on it and it really reduced the black eye that Sydney had over the short weekend we were there. It worked the same for Sam and, even though I don't know what it would have been like without the gel, it sure seems like it could have been much worse than the slight discoloration, purplish, that he has under his left eye and on the ball of his cheek.
We did get Sam to let us put some ice on it for about 15 minutes so I am sure that helped with the swelling, but the swelling was gone for the most part before he went to bed. After the initial crying/screaming, he didn't even complain too much about touching it; although he did say it hurt to push on it. I didn't want to hurt him but, with as well as he was taking it, I did want to make sure he didn't have any fractures, which would have hurt to push on. We gave him ibuprofen to help with the swelling and some pain management, but he really hasn't needed anything since the day after he did it, which was probably more for our comfort than his. He was even hamming it up when we were trying to take pictures of it.
I guess it just proves how helpless we are as Parents to protect our kids from every hurt and how we must trust in God's provision and protection of them when we fail. He is one tough kid, though; he even took a nap after we did the ice and made sure his eyes were dilating. It totally amazed me how quickly he really recovered from it; I hope he is not getting used to it now.
I hate those moments!!! There have been a couple really bad ones like this where I just can't react because it is mostly over by the time I even see it. I almost exhale a big sigh before I completely understand what is happening because subconsciously I have already identified that there is nothing I can do because I didn't see or recognize what was going on soon enough.
I take pride in seeing things coming and have, on more occasions than I have missed, caught Sam in mid stream before he actually got hurt; so my pride takes just as much of a bruising as Sam does when this happens.
It turns out that he was fine, even with the big, purple, swollen cheek he ended up with. Aimee took a lesson from the weekend we went to the beach where Sydney, one of the little girls who was part of the 5 families that went, took a dive off of an elevated bed face first. They put some what I can only describe as "bruise preventing" gel, because I don't remember what it is called, on it and it really reduced the black eye that Sydney had over the short weekend we were there. It worked the same for Sam and, even though I don't know what it would have been like without the gel, it sure seems like it could have been much worse than the slight discoloration, purplish, that he has under his left eye and on the ball of his cheek.
We did get Sam to let us put some ice on it for about 15 minutes so I am sure that helped with the swelling, but the swelling was gone for the most part before he went to bed. After the initial crying/screaming, he didn't even complain too much about touching it; although he did say it hurt to push on it. I didn't want to hurt him but, with as well as he was taking it, I did want to make sure he didn't have any fractures, which would have hurt to push on. We gave him ibuprofen to help with the swelling and some pain management, but he really hasn't needed anything since the day after he did it, which was probably more for our comfort than his. He was even hamming it up when we were trying to take pictures of it.
I guess it just proves how helpless we are as Parents to protect our kids from every hurt and how we must trust in God's provision and protection of them when we fail. He is one tough kid, though; he even took a nap after we did the ice and made sure his eyes were dilating. It totally amazed me how quickly he really recovered from it; I hope he is not getting used to it now.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Free OMSI day
Last month I went up to my parents with Sam to let Aimee have some time to study for her last CPA exam. My sister and her family were also there for a stop over the weekend before heading to the coast the following week. The ulterior motive for the trip was to get firewood for our camping trip later that month. It was good I ended up getting more wood than I thought I would need since we used it all.
Before we left, I found that OMSI had sent a note through Facebook that there was a free day there that Saturday, so we packed up the three kids, Sam and his two cousins, and went. I had thought that I wouldn't take Sam since he was either getting over a cold or looking like he was getting one; I don't remember which. I finally talked myself into it and I am glad we did, cuz it was actually pretty fun for Sam.
Here are the pics:
We went through the first Physics section and Sam had a blast playing with everything. He unfortunately didn't want anything to do with the cool ball room, where they had conveyors and other ball transport devices that were moving the balls the kids put in various places in the room to the ceiling or shooting them across the room. I would have liked to explore that a little bit more.
The Natural Sciences section was a little less engaging for Sam, but he liked looking at the bugs and snakes. I tried to get him to sit in front of the globe so I could take a picture, but he didn't seem to like that too much. The thermal image camera was pretty cool, although Sam probably didn't get what it was about; it would have probably made a little more sense had I known there was a hot and cold block you could use on the wall to make patterns that would show up on the camera after they were removed.
Sam seemed to have the best time in the little kid themed area, for obvious reasons. There was a lot more there that was engaging for his age and Tyler and Isaac even had a great time in there. Sam really liked the bear cave with the flashlights and little tunnel.
Sam always has a good time with his cousins and he and Isaac get along especially well. Isaac really looks out for Sam and helps him find toys and plays with Sam very patiently... it is pretty cool to watch. And of course they both love reading with their grandma B.
Before we left, I found that OMSI had sent a note through Facebook that there was a free day there that Saturday, so we packed up the three kids, Sam and his two cousins, and went. I had thought that I wouldn't take Sam since he was either getting over a cold or looking like he was getting one; I don't remember which. I finally talked myself into it and I am glad we did, cuz it was actually pretty fun for Sam.
Here are the pics:
We went through the first Physics section and Sam had a blast playing with everything. He unfortunately didn't want anything to do with the cool ball room, where they had conveyors and other ball transport devices that were moving the balls the kids put in various places in the room to the ceiling or shooting them across the room. I would have liked to explore that a little bit more.
The Natural Sciences section was a little less engaging for Sam, but he liked looking at the bugs and snakes. I tried to get him to sit in front of the globe so I could take a picture, but he didn't seem to like that too much. The thermal image camera was pretty cool, although Sam probably didn't get what it was about; it would have probably made a little more sense had I known there was a hot and cold block you could use on the wall to make patterns that would show up on the camera after they were removed.
Sam seemed to have the best time in the little kid themed area, for obvious reasons. There was a lot more there that was engaging for his age and Tyler and Isaac even had a great time in there. Sam really liked the bear cave with the flashlights and little tunnel.
Sam always has a good time with his cousins and he and Isaac get along especially well. Isaac really looks out for Sam and helps him find toys and plays with Sam very patiently... it is pretty cool to watch. And of course they both love reading with their grandma B.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Labor Day Hike ...err Climb
We decided to try and do something fun for Labor Day with Sam, so we went to Mt. Pisquah Arboretum for a hike and to have lunch. We evidently didn't do enough research about the trails cuz we ended up scaling a small mountain, Mt. Pisquah. There evidently were rolling hill, mostly shaded trails, but we decided to hike straight up the steepest, full sun, hot trail we could find.
It took us over an hour and a half to get to the top and it was pretty steep. You can kinda tell in the pics where you can see where there are people walking way up the slope. Anywho... it was a fun time but we got home way later and were all exhausted when we got back... Sam even fell asleep in the hiking pack for the last 20 minutes or so coming down.
Aimee carried Sam up the first part of the very steep path and was having a harder time with it than she expected. So I took Sam for the rest of the assent and we still went pretty slow. We let Sam out to walk about 3/4 of the way up so we could have a snack and he wanted to walk. But when it proved to be even slower going with stops every 3 steps to pick up more rocks, we decided it was time to put him in the hiker pack and get up to the top so we could have lunch.
The top was fun and gorgeous, even with it being a little hazy. It was an awesome 270 degree view. We took some rest in the shade of the trees at the top and had lunch we brought... it was like 1:30 at this point since it had taken us 1.5 hours to make the top. It was a welcome break to have lunch. We even had a praying mantis visitor that started crawling up my leg after we started eating.
The decent was much quicker and Sam was able to actually walk a lot and just held our hands when the slope was a little too steep for him to keep his footing in the gravel. We made pretty good time but he started really slowing down and figuring he was getting tired we put him back in the hiker pack about where we had taken a snack break on the way up.
We got to a crossroads where two trails met and decided to take the slightly longer, 1 mile, trail that was much less steep compared to the way we came up, which would have been murder carrying Sam. Aimee did a great job carrying Sam all the way back down; I think she wanted to prove to herself she could do it.
There were three hawks, or maybe eagles, that flew over us almost one right after the other. I think this was the first one since the other two went over really fast and were out of sight before I could get the camera back out.
This tree was pretty cool with the moss growing on it; Aimee and I both commented as we went by so I decided it warranted a picture.
And the end of the hike, where we all feel like Sam, but just can't show it yet.
Anywho... when we got to the bottom about 3:30, our neighbor, John, from down the street was just getting there with his dog Turbo and his Son, Scott, and his dog Taser. It was kinda strange to see someone familiar up there.
It took us over an hour and a half to get to the top and it was pretty steep. You can kinda tell in the pics where you can see where there are people walking way up the slope. Anywho... it was a fun time but we got home way later and were all exhausted when we got back... Sam even fell asleep in the hiking pack for the last 20 minutes or so coming down.
Aimee carried Sam up the first part of the very steep path and was having a harder time with it than she expected. So I took Sam for the rest of the assent and we still went pretty slow. We let Sam out to walk about 3/4 of the way up so we could have a snack and he wanted to walk. But when it proved to be even slower going with stops every 3 steps to pick up more rocks, we decided it was time to put him in the hiker pack and get up to the top so we could have lunch.
The top was fun and gorgeous, even with it being a little hazy. It was an awesome 270 degree view. We took some rest in the shade of the trees at the top and had lunch we brought... it was like 1:30 at this point since it had taken us 1.5 hours to make the top. It was a welcome break to have lunch. We even had a praying mantis visitor that started crawling up my leg after we started eating.
The decent was much quicker and Sam was able to actually walk a lot and just held our hands when the slope was a little too steep for him to keep his footing in the gravel. We made pretty good time but he started really slowing down and figuring he was getting tired we put him back in the hiker pack about where we had taken a snack break on the way up.
We got to a crossroads where two trails met and decided to take the slightly longer, 1 mile, trail that was much less steep compared to the way we came up, which would have been murder carrying Sam. Aimee did a great job carrying Sam all the way back down; I think she wanted to prove to herself she could do it.
There were three hawks, or maybe eagles, that flew over us almost one right after the other. I think this was the first one since the other two went over really fast and were out of sight before I could get the camera back out.
This tree was pretty cool with the moss growing on it; Aimee and I both commented as we went by so I decided it warranted a picture.
And the end of the hike, where we all feel like Sam, but just can't show it yet.
Anywho... when we got to the bottom about 3:30, our neighbor, John, from down the street was just getting there with his dog Turbo and his Son, Scott, and his dog Taser. It was kinda strange to see someone familiar up there.
Monday, September 06, 2010
The State Fair 2010
This is the second year we took Sam to the State Fair. He had such a good time and he wore his grandparents and us out. He loved the petting zoo and tolerated the pony ride but was pretty amazed with all the other large animal exhibits, especially the small animals: chicks, bunnies, chickens, and other foul.
The third pic, with all of us, is at the show in the next picture, the "Let's Pretend Circus". We didn't stay too long since Sam wasn't sitting still and watching. It was kinda boring if you ask me.
We also saw Smokey the Bear there. At first Sam wouldn't go up to him and was just circling as other kids came up and were hugging on him; I guess he liked his hat also since he is signing hat in the first pic. Sam didn't want anything to do with Smokey until I picked him up and we both posed for a pic. He was kinda interested in him after that.
The third pic, with all of us, is at the show in the next picture, the "Let's Pretend Circus". We didn't stay too long since Sam wasn't sitting still and watching. It was kinda boring if you ask me.
We also saw Smokey the Bear there. At first Sam wouldn't go up to him and was just circling as other kids came up and were hugging on him; I guess he liked his hat also since he is signing hat in the first pic. Sam didn't want anything to do with Smokey until I picked him up and we both posed for a pic. He was kinda interested in him after that.
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