Everything going quickly now that the plumbing is done

A couple of weeks ago it was finally dry enough for the plumbers to come out and lay down some new pipe from our laundry room and kitchen out to the sewer. Unfortunately they just showed up without calling (Chris is still upset about that).

Once that was done we finally had the landscapers out to fix up our sprinkler system and get a bid for laying sod over the area that the plumbers back hoed to lay the pipe (they will be back next week to sod the yard). We had 3 leaks (I knew of two of them) I thought we had three zones out but only one needed rewiring - the others were just the controller misbehaving. I am replacing the controller when the landscapers are out next too - I wanted a controller that could be controlled over the internet but I could not justify the extra $500.

A brick layer was out today to look at fixing up a hole in the kitchen wall the plumbers had to knock out to lay the new line and he will be out tomorrow to do the job.

During all the rains a large section of track for the Texas State Railroad was washed away - we had purchased tickets for late August and they called us and refunded the money. So Saturday we took Nate and Lexi on the Grapevine Railroad and ate at Risky's Steakhouse. I just posted the pics in our photogallery.

BTW - before I forget we switched over to AT&T U-verse as our internet provider and TV. A little bit faster for a little less money - I wished we had Verizon FIOS though. To keep from losing my webpage everytime we change internet providers I bought the conwayfamily.name domain and it is being hosted by a company called 1on1 for $5 a month. Our new website is www.conwayfamily.name and I can be reached at scott@conwayfamily.name

:)

Busy weekend

Friday I took a half day off so we could take the kids to get there passports (in case I ever do get sent overseas again Chris and the kids could go too). The weather Friday was good enough that I actually got to mow. Saturday I went and got a new grill and cooked up some ham, sausages and chicken on it - I burned some hotdogs but hopefully next time I will do better.

Sunday we went over to our neighbors house to swim. The kids really had a blast.

1995 miles - four days - finally home

Last week Mom and Dad came over and took care of the kids while Chris and I drove the minivan up to Minnesota to pick up the desk that used to belong to her Dad. We did the whole trip up to Minnesota in one day - and it rained all the way to Kansas City.

I posted some pictures of the road trip on our photo page.

The thing that surprised me was that Minnesota was having a drought - three months of rain in Texas and its surprising to get to an area that has no rain. Still its very beautiful up there in the Summer.

On the way back we stopped at Oklahoma City to spend the night at the Wyndham Wingate. While it was rated at three stars it was one of the nicest I have stayed at for a long time - even Chris could not find anything wrong with the hotel.

We got in on the first of July and got the desk set up. On the fourth we took my old Desk to Chris' brother in laws and had lunch with the family.

Memorial day fun

Well we had a fun and productive memorial day. Saturday I got all my stuff unpacked on my desk (that freed up a couple of bins). Then we went to Jamie (my cousin) and Paul's (husband) for Paul's 45th Birthday! They live out in Greenville, which makes for a killer commute to Dallas but the view is awesome. Jamie and Paul have a pair of horses they have trained, and I mean trained - Jamie would point to a part of the exercise pen and the horses would go there. The kids loved the horse ride and they were so wired from it that they did not go to sleep until 11pm.

May update

Well I took the kids to see my parents two weeks ago (first road trip in the minivan) and we got to Tyler when we got the call that Chris' aunt Gail passed away. I went ahead and spent a couple of days with my parent, and the kids got to see their great Grandmother and great, great Grandmother. Both the kids got sick afterwards so I stayed with them while Chris went to the funeral.

Nate had his pre-school graduation last week. All the age groups sang (Lexi was a laugh riot). I posted the videos on google and will try and get them linked with fotki today.

This week we had new floor reinstalled. I am still tired from being up until 2am unwiring all our computers. The good thing is that by starting over I was able to replace three power strips and two extension cords with three squids. The floor looks nice. The kids hated being cooped up for a couple of days and, of course, made us share their pain. but afterwards they liked running around on the new floor.

April-May update

It's been a very month.

We put together a play set for the kids. It took the two of us about nine hours over two days to put it together. Two of that was just labeling all the wood and parts and putting them in separate piles - which really sped things up. Both of us got a real bad sunburn out of that but the kids really loved it.

Then I took the second row seats out of the minivan and got wood for a new gate (see below) then went to WalMart and picked up a new picnic table and umbrella for outside where the old play set was. The kids really love eating outside now.

We got the DVD player in the minivan and the kids do love it. The problem there is with the wireless headphones. Lexi has a tendency to pull them off and back on but when she does that she keeps hitting the on/off or the volume wheel. I am considering getting a normal set of headphones for her.

We took the Corolla over and signed it over to Carol so she as a newer car now :)

We bit off more than we could chew the last couple of weeks. I built and installed a new gate in the back yard to replace the ones that were rotting. And I cleared off the counter tops and sealed the granite. We just finished both of those today.

I am also trying to clean up my desk area and rewire it. We are having the floor replaced on the 21st and the 22nd and I we will be swapping desk so I want to get all the power strips, USB hubs and routers that are attached to my desk attach them to the wall so it will just be a matter of switching desk and plugging everything back in. Then when we get Chris' fathers old roll top desk (old as in the printer drawer has a slot to feed a dot matrix printer ) we will only have to move/remove one desk instead of two.

Right now I am typing this outside while the kids are playing in the sandbox. The weather is a little warm but there is plenty of shade and a small breeze makes it comfortable.

I will try and get some pictures of the kids on their swing set posted tonight. :)