Handy-Woman is not the Life for ME!

Our electric bill last month was very high....around $250.00. I was completely freaked out and started stressing over high bills and summer had not even started, well not officially! The worse news was that we were having record high temperatures and my ac unit would not cool the house down lower than about 82 during the day. My handy-dandy brothers suggested we first check around our ac unit to make sure the shrubs had not grown too closely. If the unit can't circulate the air around it, it will not work effectively. Matt went to work and made sure the shrubs were all trimmed. Done...next check your insulation. Matt trudged up to the attic and discovered that we have about 6 inches of insulation. The problem there is that we should have between 15-18 inches. YIKES....okay, call the insulation people. The price for installation and supplies from Home Depot...only .99 a sq.ft. That is where the problem starts and my life as a Handy Woman began....instead of paying about $1,500 we spent about $250 and installed it ourselves...Matt did the real work...I just got to keep the "machine" full of the insulation fluff stuff. It was not hard work in terms of manual labor hard. It was hard in terms of lots and lots of dust. Fortunately it cleaned up easily and was not itchy at all!

Keep your fingers crossed that this helps. The next step suggested would be windows and there is no money for that project!

Happy Father's Day

I have been blessed with a great father. He is a man who is very generous. He has always provided for our family. Even now, he never visits without bringing goodies of some sort and special snacks for the boys. When the pantry/freezer gets sparse around here, I know that all I need to do is tell Dad and he will quickly fill the empty shelves for us. His example of generosity is a trait of his that I have worked to make a part of my life. I always try to help others out when they are in need. Thanks for always being there for me, Dad!

We had the opportunity to spend the day with my family and honor all the men in our life. What a great way to spend the sabbath! Big brother and his cousin got to go to primary with Aunt Nora and Uncle David....they always LOVE to visit Nanny and Papa's ward when it means getting to go to primary with the world's best teachers!!

Celebrating our love for fathers would not be complete without taking the time to remember Ray (Matt's dad). We lost him much too soon when he passed away in July 2005 after a brief fight with esophageal cancer. We will always treasure the example of love and tenderness that we learned from Ray. He loved his family and always put there needs before his own...the result is that his sons grew to be great father's themselves.

To the men in my life...I love you!!

Fun in the Sun....or not!

We had great plans to spend the day at Crazy Lisa's house for an afternoon playing at the pool and grilling out burgers for Saturday night. The weather had other plans....we try real hard not to complain too much since we know first hand how precious rain water is for our part of the world. We still had a grill master undeterred by the rain who cooked up mighty tasty burgers for us to enjoy inside while the weather continued to dampen the pool party. Thanks to cartoons the kiddies played while the ladies chatted.

The rain did stop that evening at dark and we ventured outside. The baby was ready for bed but big brother was having nothing to do with going to bed without swimming. Out we go...all of us....we made sure the house was secure while we swam...well, maybe a little too secure as we realized we were locked out of the house. The good news is we couldn't break into the house. The bad news is that a child with a key was 1 hour away! Luckily the weather turned nice and everyone (minus me and the baby) got to enjoy a nice long night time swim!

All in all it turned out to be a good day and if we get invited back, we are up for another attempt at our day for fun in the sun!

Hooray...I did it..

Okay, I am officially joining the blogging world! I have been reading several friends blogs for weeks now and it is the highlight of my day! It is great to know that I am not alone in my day to day challenges of motherhood. I have been waiting for a digital camera to add pictures. Thanks to Grandma Maggie, that is now possible. Pictures will follow once Matt shows me how to get them from the camera to the computer! Stay tuned because there are sure to be many adventures to follow!