Monday, June 12th

More storms today but we weren't caught outside in any of them. We had many people working on the house today and they all seemed to get caught out in the storm and I just watched, thankful that I was inside.
It was so nice to have so much progress in one day. Our gutters (the covered ones that Mike won't have to stand on top of the house with his gasoline blower to get the leaves out and won't have to climb the ladder holding that blower at the same time - it's well worth the money to have the peace of mind) are up and went up in just 3.5 hours after the lightning stopped. It was pouring when the doorbell rang at 7:45 this morning but they still worked hard. I think we have had more rain in the time that the gutters have been down than we had the last 4 years with gutters. The real test will be when the 10 billion leaves on our "pin oak" trees come down in the fall. If they get clogged all we have to do is call the gutter people and they will fix it. The guys working on repairing the basement came back and got more work done today. We are getting close to being done and it will hopefully be no later than this week. Next will be to get carpet down and then move a lot of toys down there (for both the kids and Mike). Chris came back to work on Mike's backyard "condo" as I lovingly call it. They only got a couple of hours in before the bottom fell out of the sky and they called it a day. Each day Mike has new ideas and new toys to go in his condo and I am thinking since it will have a front porch that maybe I can finally get a porch swing. He hasn't heard that one yet - so let me know your thoughts when you read this :-)

There are two more progress reports today - Landon drank some juice and said he liked it and Ella drank milk - soymilk but still milk. We were at Costco and Landon wanted snacks, so he tried a very spicy italian sausage then asked for his milk which I failed to pack. The only thing to drink was OJ and he kept sticking his tongue in it like a little puppy but eventually downed a whole 1.5 ounces. We will see if that carries on or if it was just a momentary "it's a sample at Costco so I like it" and then I buy the warehouse size of it, get it home, and he won't touch it. As for Ella - she has refused any type of milk I give her (skim, whole, warm, cold, formula, etc.....except for chocolate milk which Nannie gave her). So today I bought some soy milk thinking it may be a little sweeter and she actually drank it, she didn't down it like the chocolate milk but I can't imagine anything would be as good to a 1 year old as a little milk added to a hershey's bar. So I am feeling good with all the things that have been accomplished today and think I will call it a day and pray that tomorrow is met with the same enthusiasm on my behalf. The picture for today is one that my sister-in-law Kathy took of us at Ella's birthday party.