A Tribute Book To My Aunt Sue

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Viola we have floors!

I posted a few days ago about the floors but the post is missing? I noticed blogger was down and well I figure I would just post again. Back in January, Zach did a trade with our buddy Ryan. Ryan put in the living room floors for Zach doing some graphic work.

We have so many projects to do that it is hard to pick which ones to start first. We had a rough winter with no flooring and no insulation. Here in Texas we only have electricity and it cost over $400.00 a month to heat the house at a comfortable 69 degree's. We went many days cold because we could not afford to pay the high cost of electricity. Of course we will be more prepared next winter for sure! We wanted to get the floors in so we could get our Parlor(wood burning stove) Stove in. We didn't happen to get the stove in but the floors are now finished in the living room.

We have no cement driveway and when it rains the clay on the ground turns to complete mud! I did not want the hassle of carpet so we opted for wood laminate floors. I also didn't want cheap flooring and you can pay as little as 66 cents a square foot or all the way up to 10.00 a square foot. So we got a mid grade floor that was on sale. It is oak and a beautiful color. It is really easy to clean and has a 20 year warranty. It is very durable and I would recommend it to anyone with rowdy boys. The brand is switch lock and it is made in Switzerland. I try to buy things only made in the USA but sometimes I have to go with the sales and deals I can come across. I refuse to buy junk from China because it never fails when I do, I'm disappointed at the quality.

Zach just recently put the flooring in the school room and plans on doing the boys room this weekend. I didn't have any current pics but I will take some after he finishes the boys room. We also will be getting the stove in in a few months, it is a must for this coming winter. For right now the stove is holding my knick knacks. On the top of the stove there are two cooking burners. I plan on using a lot of cast iron and avoiding as much electricity for cooking as I can. On some of the survival(self sufficiency) blogs I'm learning techniques. I won't be able to practice until the stove is in though. For example you can cook a pot of beans in an ice chest after you warm it up on the stove! I can't wait to experiment!

Lunar Eclispe/Winter Solstice and Ringing in the New Year 2011!

We put the kids to bed at 8:00 p.m. sharp and woke them up at midnight. We were able to see the start of the Lunar Eclipse all the way until it ended about 2:30 a.m. We met up over at Tiff's house and all my nieces and nephews got to watch it too it was spectacular and all the kids really enjoyed it. What was cool too is knowing that this hadn't occurred on the start of Winter Solstice for 378 years. The next Eclipse will be next year but only those in Asia will see it. The one that we will seen again in the United States is July 2015. I hope to have a telescope by then.


We had a great Christmas and New Years. We spent both days at my sis and brother in law's. We trade off so each of us gets a break from hosting the parties. My Mother in law and Father in law came out for a few weeks too. It was nice to enjoy them during the Holidays. We also got to shoot some guns when they were out which I had a lot of fun with and technically it was my very first time since I was small shooting a gun. I always watch the guys but this time got to jump in. Of course the twins used the rifles for the first time and hit the bull's eye right on.. I can tell you I missed each target and need to practice my aim,lol I would have to give credit to some of the video games for the boys aim. I'm amazed with their dexterity and you only could imagine if I let them play those darn games all the time what their aim would be,lol. That wouldn't be healthy but gives me a good chuckle to think about.

We also rang in the new year with instruments. Zach's family has some great musical skill.  Zach's Dad played the sax and his sister played the clarinet while Zach and I  played the guitar(well I tried but am way out of practice). We all sang to Christmas hymns and John Denver tunes. We also sang some other Political songs and a few songs that Zach  has written and it was a lot of fun. All of us are out of practice(except Zach and Tiff) and we plan on polishing up the music skills and recording a family album. We hope to have it in the making soon. It seems time is really going by fast because I'm writing this in March. I needed to catch up the blog without skipping some of the fun we have had the last few months!

I'm either really happy or really Chinese!