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!