A Shout Out to my Husband

My husband. Where do I begin. This man is like no one else I have ever met.  He is an amazing father.  With our children he is a teacher, encourager, expert, and explorer of all things slithery, creepy, crawly, furred and feathered.  For this I am thankful!  Without him my kids wouldn't know how to catch crawdads, identify dangerous snakes (you mean they aren't ALL dangerous??), hit a whiffle ball, or love and care for furry animals of all types (who knew guinea pigs would be good pets for little kids).  And, somehow, he can magically get fussy babies to stop crying by holding their feet (seriously, it worked like a charm on our babies so we've randomly tested the theory on our friends' fussy little ones with 100% success).

I could go on and on about the enrichment he provides for the kids. But the kids aren't the only ones benefitting from his genuine love of life. I had NO idea what I signed up for when I said "I do."  I couldn't have predicted that he would teach me to use power tools, drive lawn mowers, pull trailers, demolish and rebuild bathrooms, edit video, and change my brake pads (let's hope I don't have to put that last one to practice).  He also pushes me to test my limits and pursue my dreams. He's the swift kick in the butt I need when I'm losing sight of my goals. And let's be honest, sometimes he just flat out drives me crazy.  I'm sure the feeling is mutual.  

So when he started showing me pictures of hand-crafted teardrop trailers I thought to myself, "here we go again."  Then he got his hands on an old busted up camper.  Next thing I know, we are hauling the camper home and he is disassembling it on our driveway.  I used to worry what the neighbors must be thinking...  Now they just come over and ask. A nice lady from down the street stopped on her morning walk to inquire and was very optimistic that it will turn out great.  Whew.  I still can't quite wrap my head around how it's all going to come together, but I am confident that Ryan has thought of every last detail and can visualize the entire blueprint in his mind.  I'll have a better understanding of it all as it comes together.  

You can read more about the trailer project on Ryan's blog: http://ryanvanzant.blogspot.com/2013/09/trailer-project.html

Enjoy this beautiful Saturday!

 

Brick Patio; We're Getting Closer!

After many many hours sweating in the sun and near 100 degree temps, the bricks are almost complete!  Wahoo!!  It took about two and half hours to power wash the whole thing. 

We have a couple different brick varieties. 

We still need to break more bricks to fill some little spaces along the edge and fill the cracks with sand and mortar. Almost there...