Spring Break, Oxford Meadows

Day 3 of spring break we spent outside, trying to get some more stuff done outside.  It didn't work out well.  Not at all.  And we came to the conclusion that we had to get more help.  So we left that until we could figure something else out.  Thursday morning we spent cleaning a bit more of the house.  We had done the big stuff earlier, so this was dusting, vacuuming and bathrooms.

Thursday afternoon we headed to a place a friend had recommended.  It wasn't as super great as I wanted it to be, but that may have been because I didn't spring for the guided tour, and we weren't using it to its full advantage.  But, we walked around outside for a minute or two.  Excuse me for a second.  Gotta put my shoe back on.

Princess of dirt.  It never fails to amuse her.

Alright.  There we go.  Back to walking.

The kids enjoyed walking on this thing.

Makes me think of Peter Pan.  "We're following the leader, the leader, the leader...."

Before we went inside, they had this great bench with a cool background.  I tried to get a good picture of the kids.

You are probably familiar with the way things like this go.  One's hair band breaks.  One needs a hair cut.  One is looking the other way.  One isn't smiling....  Eh.  With 4 kids.  It is a miracle if you get a good one.

There were a few animals, the kids liked the alligators.

And some fish tanks.  Which gave us some ideas for some outing later.

Yup.  Definitely going to have to go to an aquarium with this little princess :)

Spring Break, The Park

After we went and painted pottery, we went to the park.  I had thought ahead enough to bring a pic-a-nic lunch with us, so we ate and played.

Little Miss Thing here doesn't understand that she isn't as large or accomplished as her siblings.  She only gave me a heart attack 3 times.

My middle girl child.  Who is mostly toothless right now :)

And who also likes to climb on things she isn't supposed to.  Question for the group: Do you guys tell your children not to climb on the outside or do you just let it go and hope they don't hurt themselves?

There was some eating going on as well as the playing.  Not at the same time though!

I am trying to rack my brain to see if she has ever been on a swing before.  I don't think she has. 

 But it is clear from her face that she seems to enjoy it :)

I know he has been on one.  But we are working on pumping.

I don't know exactly what this is.  But all three kids loved doing it.  Kelsey tried to do it also.   Heart Attack #2.

It was starting to get warm apparently.  Note the red cheeks.

Again with the climbing :)  Love this one of her!

After my heart attack, Kelsey and I went back to the swings.  Did I mention that she likes them? :)

She has also recently discovered slides.  She still just goes right off the end, but...  we're working on it.

Kari had tons of fun there.  But she looks like she is too cool for it now :)

Dylan favored the rock climbing wall.

Kaitlyn had lots of fun on this slide...  But, she bumped down it quite a bit, so...  I didn't try it.

I mean, just look at this smile!  

I was, like, the best mom in the world for a few hours!  Yay Spring Break!

Spring Break, Bare Ware

Day one of spring break I had hoped we would be able to stay inside all day and do all the cleaning.  And I mean: cleaning.  I wanted to do closets, and drawers and dust things I don't dust, and move and vacuum under things.  I know!  You are impressed, right?  Unfortunately, that ended up being the day that Joe showed up to finish his work, and between hubby being home for 3 hours, and trying to watch the back yard, we didn't get near as much done as I had planned.  The children mostly stayed in their rooms, and worked pretty well.  But without my influence, they occasionally got distracted, and we just didn't get through everything.  At the end of the day (Monday), after our disappointing news from Joe, we decided that hubby would take a day off work on Wednesday, and we would go out and rake things and seed it.  So, since I knew we had another work day ahead of us, I decided Tuesday would be a fun day.  

I got this suggestion from a mom at church, and was kinda excited to go.  It is a pottery place where they have all the bare pieces ready to go.  The price includes all the glaze colors you want, and baking them in the kiln, so they are ready to be picked up in a few days.  Some of the pieces are quite large, and also, quite expensive.  So I let the kids pick out a few small ones and get to work.  Once they had wandered the store, and made final decisions (which, was, like, super difficult man) they sat down to pick out their colors.

I was surprised and pleased both by how well they worked, and how long they focused.

Even the Dyl man got in on it, picking two of the exact same little planes.

I didn't get a picture of Kelsey painting, but she did alright :)  Here are our pieces before they were baked.  Dylan did the two planes on the left.  Kari did the horse and train in the middle.  Kaitlyn did the dragonfly and the sea horse on the right.  I did the teacup and penguin on the outside of the bottom row, and Kelsey did the flower in the middle.

Of course I don't have a picture of the finished pieces, because that was days later, and....  well, I just haven't gotten all the pieces back together once they went their separate ways.

But the kids had quite a bit of fun, and would go back and do more anytime I offered.  I am pretty sure I want to take hubby back there at some point too.  I quite enjoyed it, and maaaaay have spent more time painting than the other four children.  If I am any indication, I think hubby would have a blast!

Nakie Baby + Horse

Kelsey is growing daily.  And I constantly underestimate the things she understands.  I forget how they progress when they are this age.  And, since I want to keep her as my baby forever, I tend to not look too closely anyway.

The other night, it was time for prayers before bed.  Kelsey had taken her clothes off (she is so "helpful" when it is time to get jammies on) and I usually put the three olders into bed before I focus on the little one.  So, this is how she came down for prayers.  With no clothes on.  And a toy horse.  However, she folder her little arms and closed her tiny eyes and was just as reverent as she could be, while laying next to daddy.  (For the record, I was reverent too...  I just made her stay there to go get the camera).

And thus ensued a cute little photo op.

Of a nakie babie...

... lovin' on a horse.

Cheese!

Aw!  We love Mr. Skinny Saddle!

Alright Stinker.  Time for bed!

I'll just let you close your eyes and imagine how smoothly that went....  *sigh*

Neat Trick

I don't even know how it started.  I have no idea how we got onto this subject, or how hubby was able to convince me to use my dishes, but here it is.  Somehow, we got onto the subject of balance points, and how sometimes it is weird/off center.  Google fork trick toothpick and you will come up with all kinds of stuff.

Here they are!  2 forks, stuck together, balanced on the end of a toothpick.  But a BURNING toothpick.  Check out that teeny tiny flame.

Once the flame went out, the forks stayed there.  With nothing on the other end to keep them balanced, even though a toothpick isn't a lot of weight to begin with.

The kids were enthralled. 

It may not have been so much about the balance, but the burning of a toothpick in the house.  But, yay for science anyway! :)

Backyard, Day 4, Part 2

Well.  Ok.  The machine is stuck.  That sucks.  Perhaps literally in this case.  I know they have to get it out.  While I wanted to restyle my yard, I hadn't intended to have a big metal art piece in the middle of it.  Plus, that would put the project over budget. :)  So we have to remove the machine.  I get that.  What I wasn't so thrilled with was why the rest of the guys were standing there, doing nothing.  There was fence line to be cleared!  Dirt to be retrieved and then spread!  And now hubby is home for lunch.  To watch nothing and talk with no one.  Great.  Apparently, it takes the better part of an hour to get to the office from our house.  And during that time, it became time for lunch.  So, hubby came home at 11, and around 2 pm, Joe shows back up with the big truck.  Um...  What.  The.  Heck!  Did I just pay hourly for his guys to stand around and smoke cigarettes?  And what about hubby, who stayed home the entire 3 hours to make sure he could talk with Joe and see how this changes things?  

At this point, it is getting a bit ridiculous, dontcha think?  To make a long story somewhat shorter, and to gloss over some of the details you don't care about, Joe and some of his guys stayed and semi finished the job.  Not to the original specs, but done to what he said he could do.  He refused to go to the bottom of the yard until it dried out.  Can't say as I blame him.  And even though I suppose he was on the clock for over 8 hours, that is all he charged us for.  Which was nice of him.  Sorta.  Of those 8 hours, we felt like he only worked about 6.  And, if hubby and I were running the job, we would have done it quite differently.  In the end, the fence line wasn't cleaned, but the sheds were moved.  The top layer of dirt was scraped, but not completely, because he ran into water issues at the top of the yard too (where we have NEVER had issues before, but can clearly be seen).  And he did kill all the weeds, so we could start fresh with grass seed, but didn't smooth the yard particularly, so I didn't feel like I could seed it at all...  Here are some pictures.

The side of the house.  He tilled up the weeds, and shoveled away all the gravel.  But didn't smooth it out particularly.  The timbers are a temporary dam until we can finish the grading and fix the water issues.  Then they will turn into a flower bed edge.

 From the top of the yard down.  You can see a bit where he hits water.  You can see the fence line not cleaned.  And you can see tire tracks everywhere...  Not exactly ready for seed.

 My one lonely shed, in approximately the right place!  Problem (discovered by hubby after Joe had gone) being that the shed is braced on wood.  You don't put wood on the ground and expect it to last forever.  It just doesn't.  Especially in the south.   To the left you see a bit of the dirt he started pushing, but never finished smoothing or moving completely.  And to the right you see a bit of a hole that needs filling as well as draining somehow.

More of the dirt pile.

 Up the yard.  It isn't particularly visible in the pictures, but the yard DOES look bigger.  Which was part of the point.  The pictures also don't do justice to how bumpy and rough it is.  Tire tracks, hard clumps of dirt.  Not ready for seed.

 And the hole. Now, my swimming pool.  It is about 4 feet by 4 feet, and probably 2 feet deep.  Filled with mud and water.  

So, here's the thing: I don't think he was trying to take advantage of us.  Hubby had expressed concerns to start with that hourly is not a great way to go.  He prefers to bill by project.  That way, regardless of how many weather delays or snafus they run into, it doesn't change what you pay.  Makes sense.  To be honest, Joe probably lost money also, based on how many hours he was not working on someone else's job and how many hours he billed me.  So it was nice of him to stick with the 8 hour "day".  

Here's the bottom line: 

1- While I think Joe is a nice person, I am not particularly fond of his work ethic.  Or, to be more specific, either his fellow workers work ethic or his direction (or lack there of) to allow the job to move forward at a decent pace.

2- I am sad that the job didn't get done.  Like, completely.

3- I am sad that now I not only have to do the work, but have to dump more money into it.  Because, make no mistake, it has to get done now.  I can't leave it the way it is.  

Our only question is when?  Do we wait until the area is all dry and do the whole thing?  Do we do the top half and then come back and do the rest later?  We are still trying to find someone who can maybe move dirt for us, faster and easier than we could if we, inexperience graders and machine operators that we are, rented the machine.  Not having good luck with call backs.  We have found a cheaper place to get dirt though.  So I guess that is good.

Far be it from me to speak ill of someone.  If you know me, I rarely do.  I am not a gossip.  And I do my best to only speak positively of people, or not at all.  I think Joe is a very nice person.  However, our continued calls to him to remedy the situation, although being answered, have brought no satisfaction, as Joe still has not showed back up.  So, would I hire him again?  Probably not.  Would I have a backyard BBQ with him?  Maybe.  I'll update you as soon as something worth updating about happens.

Backyard, Day 4, Part 1

The gentleman we talked with, lets call him "Joe", said he worked on a per hour basis.  Which was cause for concern with hubby, who writes million dollar contracts for construction on a daily basis.  He never does things by the hour on his job, as he says it is basically just "an open ended ticket."  However, of the 15 people I called, only 5 said it was something they ever do, only 3 said they would show up to look at it, and only 1 did.  Guess who got the job?  Now, to be fair, Joe is a nice guy.  I mean, he spent probably an hour with me the first time, looking at the yard, and playing with the kids, and having a good ol' time.  And he came back again and spoke with hubby, in depth, about everything we wanted. Joe is a very nice, laid back, southern....  Bubba.  I was pleased with his people skills and he seemed intelligent and experienced enough to do the job.  He also thought we could get done what we wanted in about a days worth of work, so long as we were willing to do some of the prep work (which is what we had worked the previous 2 weekends on).  So we scheduled the start date.

Joe came out on a Thursday afternoon to move some dirt and push things around.  We were going to get half a days work on Thursday afternoon and half a day Friday morning, which would leave me time to seed the yard, and get the grass growing.  Done!  Thursday they showed up, and I was pleased.  What we had worked for hours to do, they had done in about 10 minutes.  They pushed some dirt, and moved the sheds, as well as loaded up the one we didn't want.  I was excited!  This was looking good.  Remember, we were going to come out on top of this financially as well as doing less labor, and the first half of the work was going swimmingly well.  I was ecstatic.  They moved their big machines and hand tools over to the side of the yard and left for the night.

Friday morning dawned cool and rainy.  I figured they weren't going to show up.  It was raining after all, there was very little they could do.  But they never called to confirm.  Not a deal breaker.  But, not the most professional in my opinion.  It rained all day Friday and a little bit into Saturday.  Sunday was dry all day, but I waited Monday morning to see if they were going to show up.  My yard has drainage issues.  That was the point of doing all this, right?  He KNOWS this!  

Monday morning I waited for a while.  I wasn't exactly sure when/if they would show up.
Since their tools and machine was here, I figured they would have to at least show up to gather equipment.  Around 9:30 I heard some noises.  Like a shovel.  I looked outside, prepared to see the truck and ready to go talk to him, but I didn't see anything.  I figured it must have been from another yard, or my imagination.  30 minutes later, I still hear the same noise, so I go outside to investigate.  Low and behold, one lowly worker is on the side of the house, digging up the gravel by hand.  He said the rest of the crew would be along soon.  I expressed my concern for the soggy ground, but knew it wouldn't do a whole lot since the big machine was there and it wasn't up to me anyway.  Sometime after 10, Joe shows up.  I figured I would let him work for a bit (I was inside spring cleaning with the kids for the first day of spring break...  I know, I know, I am a super nice mom), and would go check on him in a while.  I also called hubby to let him know Joe was here.  Hubby was going to come home for an early lunch to check on the progress and make sure everything was mostly done since "half a day" would have been done around lunch time.  Hubby got home at 11, and I exited the house to greet him, prepared to go around the side of the house to talk to Joe and see how things were going.  I am greeted on the side of the house with a not so pleasant sight.  The machine Joe was using is stick.  Like, wheels deep, 18 inches in mud.  And his other 4 workers are just standing around.  We ask where Joe is, and were told he had gone to get a bigger truck to pull the machine out.  

Thus being the problem with hourly work.  

Backyard, Day 3

The second weekend, we prepped for the guy to come and do the work.  There aren't any picture of that really.  We finished the wet well, bedded it in gravel and covered it in dirt.  And we spend half a day trying to cut vines and a tree.  It was difficult, and boring.  And we gave up, figuring since the guy we were hiring was a "tree service" he could do the rest of that work quickly.  So, here is where we left it.  3 sheds.  We were keeping the small one, giving the big one away, and tearing down the tiny, dilapidated one.

This is the area at the top of the yard.  We had cleared some of the trees and vines, but we wanted him to finish pushing it back across the back of our property line and scrape the top couple inches of dangerous debris.

The side yard.  We wanted the gravel scraped away from the side of the house, and then the yard smoothed and leveled a bit.

And "the drainage basin".  This is the area that needs the most work.  We had previously dug several trenches in trying to find our non existent rear septic tank.  We also had removed the clothes drying lines, which left gaping holes.  And there was quite a bit of standing water.  Our design was to bring in dirt, to raise the level of the yard a tiny bit, but also to fill in the trenches and holes and smooth everything out so the residing lawn mower (that's me) didn't twist an ankle.  Also, to clear out the fence line of miscellaneous small trees and vines.

So we moved everything to the side yard and prepared to look like white trash for a few weeks.