Landon, Troy and Crystal's Visit

Landon, Troy and Crystal arrived at DIA on December 19th. Landon went for a ride with Grandma to see the Christmas lights while we waited to pick up Troy from shadowing surgery at Skyridge hospital.

The Deck is finished!!!!

Saturday, September 20th was an auspicious day in the Wilde household - we finished the deck! Paul was so happy that he wanted to celebrate right away so we called Pedersens, Grovers, Nottinghams, and Baduras to join us. Paul took a great shot of the deck from a ladder. We had a great time christening the deck last night.

Didder-Do and Landon Too!

I made a slide show of Landon and can't get it to load yet. We had a great time in Hatboro with Troy, Crystal and Landon. He is so cute and crawls like none other! When he talks he says Didder-Do so I named the video after this. Here is a picture of him while we were in Hatboro. There is more to come on our trip.

Ben, Aliza and Lilly

Ben had his first week of school and enjoys his teacher, Miss. Lucas. He told me that he made a book all about himself and he put his family and the dog in his book. His friends Hunter and Colby are in his class.

Aliza is not in school yet but begins school this week. She told me her room has "nothing on the walls" because Don and Sharla moved Ben back into his old room, painted it and ordered Mario stickers for it. Aliza wants pink walls - that would be something on the walls for sure. Don has been painting the living room and kitchen - a huge space!

Lilly was asleep so we didn't get to "talk" to her today.

Jonathan's Sneaky Electricity Guy

School started 2 weeks ago. This year I am trying to go mostly electronic for my classes to turn in rough drafts, peer edit, and for my edit. In order to do this I have to use a sight called Turnitin.com. Anyway students need an email account to use Turnitin. Long story short, technology can be a real pain - 35 kids-33 computers - normal computer glitches - you get the picture. By noon I had a royal headache and just needed to get out of the building. I decided to call Andrea while going for lunch. It had been awhile since I had had a good conversation with Jonathan and this one is a lu-lu!

Grandma: Hi Jonathan! What are you doing?
Jonathan: Hi Grandma, I was watching TV but the electricity went off.
Grandma: Oh that's too bad.
Jonathan: Ya, see the Electricity Guy sneaked into my house and turned off the electricity...(now his wheels are turning) See the Electricity Guy went into my closet and he sneaked and turned off my electricity.
Grandma: Oh, I see. (At this point I'm smiling - all the hassles of the morning dissolved)
Jonathan: (After a little thought) Grandma, when you were a little boy, did the Electricity Guy come into your house and turn off your electricity?
Grandma: (Now I'm trying not to laugh.) I don't recall anything like that happening.
Jonathan: Oh, well see when I was teeny-tiny, just teeny-tiny the Electricity Guy snuck into my house downstairs...but I sneeked down and saw him. Bye I have to go now. Love you.
Grandma: (Laughing) Bye Jonathan, I love you, too.

The afternoon was awesome. As usual, I shared my experience with my classes who all laughed along with me. Whenever I share I hold up a picture of the grandchild so they can put a face to the name. They can't wait for the next installment - which happened to Paul on Friday.

Paul: Hi Jonathan
Jonathan: Hi Grandpa. Grandpa I have to go play with my band. See my band we go "A one and a two and a one, two, three. Then we go, "A one and a two, and a one, two, three." Bye I love you.
Paul: I love you too, Jonathan.
Andrea explained that Jonathan watches the Disney channel and the band was counting.
I can't wait to share this one with my classes.

Jonathan's Sneaky Electricity Guy

Progress on the deck!

Mike Pedersen and Dana Nottingham came over yesterday and helped Paul work o the deck. Here are some pictures of the progress.

Elder Corrado and Elder Jacobson's birthday party

August was birthday month for both elders that are staying with us. On Saturday, Elder Corrado taught us how to make an authentic southern meal complete with fried chicken, baked beans, zuccini and parmesian cheese vegetable and I provided the death by chocolate cake.

Final picture of the deck

This was taken after we escaped the thunderstorm. The most difficult part was fitting around the points of the diamonds, Paul cut and recut several times.

Update on deck - work for August 18-23

This week's work on the deck was cut short by 3 days of rain. Thursday as we were working lightening immediately followed by thunder sent us scurring to get tools inside. It poured! Finally on Sunday we saw some blue sky. Here are the pictures of what we did get done during the week.

Didder Didder Do and Landon Too

Landon has grown so much! He is a real talker, usually he says "didder didder do" when he is interested in something. I couldn't resist using the title Didder Do and Landon Too for the slide show of our first day in Philadelphia with Troy, Crystal, and Landon. There is more to come on the trip - Troy and Crystal took us on a great tour of the whole area! Thanks for the wonderful time!

Progress on the deck.

We finished the first decorative design on Friday evening. On Saturday Elders Corrado and Jacobsen helped Paul put in the support for the second design. Milt Grover joined us and helped lay the rest of the planks. I went over to help Carol Grover paint her living room. I thought that was a fair trade, I worked in the air conditioned house while the guys toiled away on the hottest day of the week. No fun.

Finished patio

These are the before and after pictures.

Update on the patio and deck.

I had help from several boys on the patio. Alex and Layne helped me compact the rock/soil, put on the boundary and sand and place the flagstone - all on a day in the 90's! I kept them cool by spraying them with the hose!

Friday and Saturday's progress on the deck

Mike and Ann Pedersen came over again to help us put up the posts and work some more on the deck. I prepared dinner for all of us and then we set to work. We put up some lights so they could work in the dark on Friday because Paul has a company picnic and then has to fly out to Salt Lake on Saturday. Here's where they got on Friday and Saturday.

Aliza and Ben's Birthday March 2008

I just finished this slide show of Ben and Aliza's birthday party. Hope you enjoy!

Aliza and Ben's Birthday March 2008 Slide Show

Last March Dad and I flew to Haslet to celebrate Aliza and Ben's birthday. Here is the slide show I made.

Wednesday's Work on the Deck

Dad and I have been working on the deck every night. We have most of the facia up. Mike Pedersen helped us tonight. It really picked up the speed.

Jonathan and Ethan Summer 2007

I am in the process of making slide shows of all the grandbabies/kids. This is a slide show that I made yesterday of Jonathan and Ethan(although Ethan is in only one picture - he was asleep in the stroller the entire time) at the beach. Dad flew in for Ethan's blessing and during that time we spent a day at the beach - it was wonderful, the beach is down a hill in a beautiful area surrounded on one side by houses. Jonathan played near a stream that fed into the ocean and we relaxed, flew a kite, and just enjoyed the day together. Hope you enjoy the slide show.

Dad and Uncle Brent last Saturday

Here are some more pictures of Dad and Uncle Brent working on the deck. We needed to rent an auger to dig the holes for the casings for the portico. Also, we rented a cement mixer to finish the job. Sorry about the picture that is sideways, I can't figure out how to delete it.

Preparing the ground for the flagstone

Last Friday I asked a landscape professional to give me advice on how to lay the flagstone in the area on the side of the house. He told me that I needed to even out the ground(it was on a slope) and keep the area low near the fence for drainage(we are in a flood zone). So Taylor Shapiro came over this morning and helped me by stacking all the flagstone and shoveling the rocks into place. I still have to compact the rock and maybe even add more. Then I need to put landscape boundary and sand on top of that - long process but it will be beautiful when it is done.

The new flagstone terrace

Earlier this week we inherited quite a bit of flagstone from our friends Milt and Carol Grover. The missionaries, Elders Williams and Corrado, helped me move the heavy pieces to our house. I plan to create a fountain out of some of the larger pieces (these are not pictured here). The pictures show the layout that Elder Williams made as we handed him pieces over the fence. You can see that I have my work cut out for me on this project. Well, the deck will be first and then Dad and I will work on the terrace. In case you aren't sure where this is, it is outside our dining room window. This space has always been an eyesore and I have planned to spruce it up "one day" so here I go! I plan on putting plants inbetween the flagstone and planting some bushes and flowers around the area.

Building the new deck.

Dad and I have been working on the foundation for the deck since May. I am the Gofer -and general holder-upper of the heavy beams so Dad can place them properly. (Dad really misses his boys help!) Yesterday (a hot - thus the umbrella - July 4th)we accomplished quite a bit. All the beams are in place and now we are on to the facia and end pieces. We still need to make the holes for the posts that will support the arbor. (That will be next year's project.) Brent came on July 5th to help Paul use the auger which we will use to dig the holes for the posts. We rented the auger -the rep thought I was going to help Paul with it - we all had a good laugh. He told me that I would be off the ground in an instant. That was quite the mental picture! I'll add the pictures of them usig the auger later today.