the PONDER home

Summer in Michigan.

2010-10-02T10:57:00.011-05:00

After taking a twelve hour round-trip to the beaches of Galveston, we thought it would be fun to load up the kids and head north towards Michigan on a twenty-two (22) hour road trip. Our Michigan trip was only about two weeks after the Michigan one, so the kids needed lots of stops to keep their sanity - like this McDonalds's that arches over the highway in Oklahoma. We didn't eat here, but it always a fun "historic" stopping place.

We usually do the driving trip in two days, but we broke this particular trip up into three days. We stopped in St. Louis at a college friend's house (the Rothkopfs), then the second night in St. Joseph, Michigan. "St. Jo" is a beach town vacation destination for Chicagoans. It has some nice play areas for the kids, so it was a much welcomed stop after another long day of travelling. The kids played on the beach, we ate at a great burger place right on the tracks, and the boys got to see a train come right past the restaurant, so all in all it was a fun little stop.

We headed out the next morning for a short little drive to Flint where we met up with Amanda's parents at Huckleberry Railroad & Crossroads Village. Crossroads Village has 35 historic homes, barns, shops, and trade buildings located in Genesee County off Mott Lake. There are carnival type rides and food and of course, the Huckleberry Railroad. The boys still
love Thomas the Train, so anything having to do with trains is a huge hit.

After a few hours at Crossroads Village, we all loaded up and drove the final hour and a half to Bad Axe, Michigan. We had all planned to do one of those huge family pictures when we got there, so there very first day in town we dressed in blue and met up at Port Crescent State Park on the shores of Lake Huron. The beaches are beautiful there and the lake is so big it feels like you're on the ocean. Of course the water fresh water so I prefer it to the ocean, except that it's cold year-round.

So what did we do for two weeks in Michigan? We hit as many barn sales and estate sales as we could find, we road bikes (that grandpa found on the mail route), we visited the new power generating windmills (always a hit with the boys), and visited Coffee Cup Plus at least once a day or more.

Oh, I almost forgot. We also got to take the boys to their first theatre movie while in Bad Axe. They were showing Toy Story 3. I'm glad they got to see their first movie in a classic old-style movie theatre rather than at one of the mega-super-brand-new places in Dallas. The Bad Axe theatre has a great look and feel to it. The boys each got to buy their own cup of Sprite, which was a huge treat since they're usually not allowed to drink soda or pop (or whatever you Northerners like to call it).

Ben & Eli's first movie theatre experience

Toy Story 3 - June 17, 2010 - Bad Axe, MI

Before we left, Ron and Amy threw a birthday party for Hallie and Beyla at their house. Everybody said the weather was a bit hot that day, but if I remember correctly it was in the 80's. We knew when we got back to Texas we had 100 degree days to look forward to, so I wasn't going to complain about the 80's.

Michigan was great. It was great seeing the family again. We brought home a car load of stuff from estate sales including old pitchforks, some cool metal signs, vintage material for Amanda's sewing projects, and even a cool old safe I got for only $25. We did the drive back in two days this time and even bypassed favorite stops like the McDonalds arching over the highway so we could make better time.

Next up..... SUMMER in COLORADO

Coming soon.

Playing Catch Up.

2010-09-28T20:30:00.009-05:00

It's officially fall. Now it's time to play some catch with how much I slacked off on this blog this summer. We had a great summer. Three trips to three great places; the most we've ever traveled in one summer.

MEMORIAL DAY in GALVESTON

The first trip of the summer was the Johnson family trip to the beaches of Galveston, Texas. It's an annual thing. It's just close enough to drive, maybe 6 hours south towards Houston.

The kids always seem to look forward to the beach. School has just ended. The summer is not too hot yet. It's a nice change from the normalcy of the school year.

It was Beyla's first beach experience. During last year's trip she wasn't even born yet. She LOVED getting dirty. It took forever to wash sand out of all the little baby nooks and crannies.

Benjamin and Eli went crab hunting for the first time. What little boy wouldn't like going out late at night in the dark with a flashlight looking for scary creatures. There were many to be found and the older boys even caught a few.

Benjamin also enjoyed the sand fort building and the "sand war" that ensued. We all had a great time. It was a great start to the summer.

Next Trip: MICHIGAN in JUNE

Coming soon....

Wow, May 16th? Really?

2010-09-20T23:20:00.002-05:00

Has it really been that long since I've posted on this thing?

I guess summer hit. It was a busy one.

!!! MORE COMING SOON !!!

More.

2010-05-16T20:18:00.004-05:00

The barn is moving along. And looking good.

The picture below is the west facing side. I don't think I've shown this side before. We added a "goat room" we can use for animals if needed, or it can be used for storage, tools, etc. There are no windows down this side of the barn so we could get more wall space inside, space to store tractors mowers and other stuff without running into windows.

__________________________

And now for the kids....

Uncle Eddie was visiting and decided to give the boys a lesson in shooting a BB gun. They were excited and now think Uncle Eddie is the coolest.

More Barn.

2010-05-12T23:15:00.002-05:00

We are getting close on finishing the barn. I would guess another two, maybe three weeks and we'll be done. The brick started late last week and went up in no time at all.

We had quite a bit of rock left over from our house, so we put up a three foot section of rock around the north and east sides of the barn, the two sides that face houses.

Here's a close up of the brick and rock. We weren't sure how a brick barn would look at first, but now that I see it built, it looks great.

This is the east side view, the side facing my brother's house. Notice the cupola on top of the roof. The only purpose of that is to let light into the upstairs storage area so it's not so dark. I think it looks nice and very "barn-ish." We're adding hay loft doors on the north side of the barn for easy access to the upstairs. There are also stairs inside the barn.

I Think This Is The Big One

2010-04-21T19:26:00.003-05:00

Eli finally had the big one. The big # 3. The 3rd birthday. Of course he kept telling us he was turning 4, but that's just because he wants to be like his brother.

We had to have a Thomas birthday, of course. What else would Eli have wanted? We actually didn't do all that much else in regard to a Thomas theme besides plates and some Thomas-colored streamers because all our time (or should I say Amanda's time) was spent making this huge 3D Thomas cake from scratch.

The cake turned out great and Eli's head nearly exploded when he saw it. He called dibs on the smoke stack, which was almost perfectly cupcake sized. He popped that smoke stake right off and ate it before anybody else even had a slice.

These five little crazy boys made the house very loud.

Eli was excited over his "hammy" as he calls it, which is a Zu Zu pet or pet hamster that moves around and makes noise. Benjamin also likes this toy and more than one fight has broken out over hammy.

All three kids like the Melisa and Doug cupcake set. You can decorate the icing with markers and put candles on top and all. This kids always love these wooden food sets.

A $49.99 Valentines bear that Amanda got for $9.99 has been a huge hit with Beyla. She goes crazy for this thing. Eli only kind of liked it, so this present will most likely be claimed by sister.

Aunt Vicki was very kind to bring a gift for Benjamin. As you can see, he was very to get "Kevin," a new character from one of his favorite Thomas movies.

We should own stock in this Thomas company.

And a bonus picture of two beautiful girls looking as pretty as a spring day.

Rites of Spring

2010-04-10T21:17:00.004-05:00

Spring has been great here in Texas. The weather. Cool temperatures. And lots of outside family time. We had a wonderful Easter. We've been finishing lots of our outside projects.

It had just been a great Spring.

The boys helped me finally finish building the raised garden beds. We're a bit behind on getting vegetables started, but we do our back-up mini-garden that has already been growing for a month.

We built two beds, 16 feet long by 4 feet wide. We're using a mix of Howard Garrett's Texas organic garden and the Square Foot Gardening method...though not quite a square foot since we did the whole 16 foot long thing.

Benjamin was very excited to build his first "box" which is just a mini-raised bed liner for our blueberry bushes. He helped me push the button on the drill, and as you can see by his expression, he was elated.

He has also been very excited by his new green bike. He rides in circles around our circle driveway in front of the house...circles and circles and circles...he can't get enough of it.

Benjamin and Eli climbing the mountain of cedar mulch and cow manure we just bought from our friend's feed store in Denton. They get very angry when I "destroy" the mountain by removing bags for their stated purpose...gardening. They would rather me just leave the mountain there forever.

And EASTER! It was a beautiful day.

Our beautiful little girl...

Easter egg hunting went over better this year. They still didn't quite get it, but after discovering chocolate and prizes in the eggs, they got better at it, especially Eli.

Oh, and another thing they have fallen in love with recently... the hat lights I use for work. They say it makes them into trains, because trains have lights on top. They can play for hours just pretending to be trains.

Here is a side view without the blinding lights pointing at the camera...

More to come soon. We are planting a ton of plants and trees tomorrow. We also have a bit of work to do to finish the garden. We have Eli's birthday coming up. More barn building. And surely more cute Beyla pictures.

Stay tuned!

Barn.

2010-04-10T10:22:00.004-05:00

The barn pad concrete pouring was held up last Friday due to rain. We were hoping to pour at 7am just before the rain hit at 10am, but we woke up Friday morning to a drizzling rain, so the pour had to be held off.

I was surprised to see the crew out here early Monday morning with concrete trucks arriving in quick succession. Before I was even having my first cup of coffee, the pad had been poured. As you can see below, the framing took off quickly beginning on Wednesday. It's amazing just how fast we went from nothing to a recognizable building being back there in the woods.

This all happened in one weeks time from Friday to Friday...

You can see the trusses laid out on the top of the building that will eventually make a second story, or an attic. But it will be a huge attic. That's one of the main differences between the metal barn we started with and this current wood barn. The metal barn would have been just one story with a large, open ceiling on the inside. This new barn allows us to utilize that otherwise wasted upstairs space.

Our builder found these floor trusses at a great price. They had been built for an apartment building to span a 30 foot space, so they are built extra strong to hold what would have been second story apartments. The apartment builders cancelled the order, so we changed our plans a bit to fit the 30 foot span and there you have it...we now have a huge attic space for storage. You can look at these pictures and imagine just how big the barn will be once the second story is framed. We'll probably put in some hay loft doors like you see on older barns so we can easily access the attic from the outside (we'll also have stairs inside).

Walk Like An Egyptian

2010-03-20T11:20:00.005-05:00

We have been planning our spring garden for the last few months. We are building two large, raised planters to replace the smaller ones from last year. Removing the grass, prepping the soil, building the planters, and all that has taken longer than we thought. We're starting to fall behind on getting our veggies planted.

We decided to use the small planters from last year to get a head start on some basics like tomatoes and green peppers. We needed to move them off the back porch because they never got enough sun and nothing ever grew very well. We didn't realize one thing however...

...they were HEAVY!

The boxes themselves aren't that bad, but with all the dirt inside, they are nearly impossible to move. How are we going to move them 200 feet or so down the yard near where the permanent garden will be?

I first tried my dolly (or hand truck or whatever) and nearly broke it from the weight of the planter boxes. Then we thought we might have to dump all the soil, move the boxes, and then replace all the soil.

And then Amanda had an idea. Why not move the boxes like the Egyptians moved the stones for the pyramids? One theory is that the Egyptians used wood sledges and plank roads to pull heavy stones from the quarry to the pyramid site. If it worked for heavy stones, why not for heavy planter boxes?

The Egyptian method uses round rails on a plank road. We didn't have time for all that, so why not just use the round rails. And having just built a round rail fence recently, we had just the materials we needed.

We took four of the cedar ends we had cut off the eight foot posts and used them as "wheels." Once we had two of them under the box, it was easy to roll while continuously moving the other two rails in front.

It only ended up taking about 10 minutes to move the first box. The second box went even faster now that we had a system figured out. The boys even tried to help a bit.

Final product, two boxes moved in less than 30 minutes. The two permanent rasied planters and being built right in this same area, so these two small ones will at least give us a head start until we're ready to plant the large ones.

----------------------- Triploid Grass Carp -----------------------------------

I drove out to Gainesville, Texas the other day to the only fishery I could find that stocks Triploid Grass Carp. I had to apply for three of these fish from the Texas Department of Wildlife a few months ago, but I couldn't find any fishery that actually carried them.

We need Grass Carp for our pond. Last summer we began to see lots of weeds and pond scum developing in our pond. I tried raking it out. I tried killing it off. Nothing worked. Then I found out about Grass Carp. They eat aquatic vegetation and a lot of it. But they are protected and cannot be sold on the market without an application. The reason is because if they get into the main water sources, they will eat up everythying in sight, possibly causing erosion problems and even eating beneficial aquatic plants.

I finally found two, which is better than none, and brought them home for the boys to see. They wanted to help me put them in the pond.

Fish in a bag. I was wondering what would happen if this bag popped in my car on the way home from the fishery.

We had to let them sit in their bags in the water for awhile to adjust to the water temperature. Even so, the fish just seemed to float there for a long time from shock of the new enviroment. I kind of thought they might not make it. They just floated and did nothing for about 30 minutes.

They floated and floated and floated, but not upside down, so I guess they are okay. We haven't seen any dead fish around lately, so I'm hoping they made it.

It will take half a year to a year to see results. Hopefully it works.

FINALLY!

2010-03-15T19:03:00.009-05:00

Spring has sprung. Finally!

So, we're kicking the barn build into high gear now. Finally!

It has taken a long time to get to this point. From starting this whole project in October of last year until now, a lot has happened that has slowed this barn project down.

But now we're going. Finally!

Above is a rough sketch of the east facing side of the barn, the side that faces my brother's house and property. If you didn't already know, he is building on the lot next to ours and we are sharing this barn.

This other view, the north view, is the side that faces our house. The barn itself will sit about 300 feet or so behind our house, back in the woods a bit.

We originally decided to go with a metal barn. After a long, drawn out process with a company in Miami (never try to buy anything from a company in Miami, by the way) we had to end the contract "forcibly."

We then found a great cement board siding material that looked just like cedar shake. Price became an issue with that material, so we fell back on the good old Texas clay brick from Acme Brick Co. The brick is made just up the road in Denton, Texas so it's a fairly cheap material to use. Compared to siding and other materials, it's actually many thousands of dollars less.

So brick it is. A choice has been made. Finally!

The top picture is a modular brick we almost chose. Modular brick goes for as much as $450 per thousand, which is expensive. Acme needed to get rid of this particular brick and we were able to negotiate the price down to $214, which is very cheap - cheap for any brick really. The problem came with labor. Brick labor is priced per thousand no matter how big or small the brick, so a smaller modular brick is more expensive to install.

We ended up with this orange-ish red king size brick at $250. The labor on it saves us a lot of money since it takes about 6,000 less brick to finish the building. I had a very difficult time finding pictures of brick barns online, so I can't for sure how it will look. I did hear stories from many a person saying that brick barns look great. Cross your fingers.

And finally, the forms have been laid. We are waiting for the plumbers to come lay pipe before the concrete is pured. It has been raining and raining so it has been difficult to get to this point, but we're here. Finally!

You can see our house in the background, which gives an idea of how far (or close) the barn will be. I'll post a picture of the floor plan soon. It will mostly be barn/ shop space, but we are roughing in a small living quarters in the corner of the building for future-whatever...maybe a mother-in-law suite, maybe a dungeon for misbehaving children...or better yet, maybe a dungeon for misbehaving mother-in-laws.

FINALLY!

Hey, It's the Sun

2010-03-13T23:45:00.008-06:00

Finally, the rain and cold weather have taken a sunny turn lately. We've been having beautiful days in the 60's and 70's and we've been taking full advantage...

After dinner marshmallow roasting has become popular. Or really just any activity that involves lighting the back porch fireplace.

And bonfires out in the yard, again with marshmallows. Grandma Michigan cookies seem to be more popular than marshmallows though. The boys ate all the cookies grandma sent down in two days.

The boys found a baby rabbit outside in the trees. Unfortunately, the cats also discovered the rabbit. Needless to say, there will be one less rabbit in the woods this year.

We found one activity that little Eli does not like. Bowling. We don't know why. He just did not like it. Not one bit.

Ben thought it was okay. He made it through half a set before getting bored. I guess we'll stick to the outdoor activities.

Another beautiful sunny and cool day this past weekend, and another chance for an outdoor activity. "A Day Out With Thomas" was in Grapevine again. Fortunately for our wallets, the boys were not interested in riding the Thomas train. At $18 per person including adults, we would have spent $90 for the ride.

The boys were happy to just watch Thomas pull in the station (or back in really, since Thomas is just a fake caboose train that the real engine backs into the station - but hey, it looks real). They were also happy enough to trade the $90 train ride for about $35 in two new trains to take home.

Beyla absolutely loved this talking Thomas train, but the price made us love it not so much. She was happy enough to last until she forgot about it.

More outside time. We're back to doing family walks after dinner. There are lots of new houses going up in the neighborhood. We'll post pictures of some of them soon. And with my brother beginning his build soon, that makes four or five houses going up at once.

We'll end with some inside pictures.

...like Beyla on the potty. She just might potty train before her brother. Eli has no desire to sit on this thing. Even with chocolate bribes and promises of cake, he still won't have anything to do with it.

So for now, it's all yours Beyla.

Spring cleaning has begun around the house. So has Spring fixing. Benjamin really wanted to help fix mom's squeeky bedroom door. He hammered the hinge pin back in and fixed it all up.

He also helped build planter boxes for the blackberry bushes.

Next project on the list: Building the frames for the raised vegetable garden.

We found these pink glasses in a parking lot. And the 3D glasses are from my trip to see Avatar. A teenage kid working the theatre said I couldn't take the 3D glasses home, but I really wanted Amanda the see what the new 3D glasses looked like. He quickly went to get a manager.

Oh.... I almost forgot. The barn is finally underway. After MAJOR setbacks that took nearly four months to resolve (aka...getting totally ripped off by a steel barn company in Florida) we are finally back on track. We are now building a brick sided wood barn.

First Came the Snow. Then the Mansfields.

2010-02-18T21:40:00.007-06:00

Last Thursday, the snow came. It was actually the most single day snow fall in Texas history. We got about a foot in a couple of hours, which for our area is a lot. The boys loved it. I liked it at first until I saw that it was ripping the rain gutters off our roof from the weight of the heavy, wet snow.

It also killed most of our front window plants when it slid off the roof and fell 20 feet or so, crushing the plants beneath.

But in better news, the Mansfield family also came. They arrived Saturday from New Orleans. They wanted to get out of the city and get away from the Mardi Gras craziness, so they made the 10 hour drive to Ponder, Texas to visit.

Sunday afternoon we had a reservation for about 20 people at the Macaroni Grill. It was Valentine's Day. The kids each got a bag of candy with little gifts inside from Aunt Vicki. Way to go Aunt Vicki. That's why the kids love ya!

Monday morning we headed out with the Mansfields for Fort Worth. Loaded into two indentical Honda mini-vans (yes we are all in our 30s), we headed south towards the Fort Worth Museum of Science and Natural History.

The dinasaur exhibit was a big hit with the kids. All the bones there were from dinasaurs found in Texas. Not that the kids cared about that.

Benjamin really only cared about one thing. The fact that the museum had train tracks. I'm not sure how that relates to science or natural history, but hey, engineering is a science, right?

The dino-slide! Made from car parts and construction equipment.

This dino was found in Texas. He wasn't born in Texas, but he got there as fast as he could! Okay that's a Texas joke, but not a very good one I guess. But he did DIE trying to get to Texas. Okay, I'll stop.

I don't know why they had stuffed cattle at the museum, but the kids liked that almost as much as the dinosaurs. I think these also hailed from Texas.

I don't know why this picture is vertical.

After the museum, we played in what was left of the snow. I was mostly ice by this point, but for Texas and Louisiana kids, it's better than nothing.

Oh, and Beyla found a new friend. They loved each other.

----------- DAY TWO. TUESDAY. -------------------

We wanted to stay closer to home the second day, so we headed for the Denton Square, more specifically for 17,000 square foot Recycled Books and Records located in the historic purple opera house.

The boys loved getting lost in the huge basement area. They said we'd never get out we were so lost.

Then it was off to Beth Maries ice cream parlor and soda fountain for lunch. A few PB&J's later, we finished off fresh-made ice cream and headed down the road.

Next we headed to the D&L Farm and Home feed store, recently purchased by our good friend Rex Sanders, Jr. We knew he just received some chicks and rabbits, so we brought the kids in to see the animals.

We plan on getting some chickens of our own soon, so we thought the boys should check out first to see their reaction.

Wednesday morning came too quickly and the Mansfield's had to head back towards Nawlins. Our yearly group picture was taken to gauge the growth of the kids and the general growth of family size. The kids were interested in our pet Bobcat the entire weekend, so we added him into the picture too.

Let There Be Water...Again.

2010-02-06T16:14:00.002-06:00

We now have two ponds. Our original pond now sits slightly higher and to the west of my brother's new pond. That way any overflow from my pond will naturally run downhill into his pond, helping to keep it full.

After more than a month of digging and prep work, my brother's pond is nearly filled, on our dime by the way. We turned on our pond pump about two weeks ago and began letting the overflow from my pond fill his pond. It took a long time, but it's finally just about full.

Of course when the pond is just about full, the water well people show up to drill my brother's well. We dug two wells, one for our house and one for the pond/ sprinkler system, but my brother decided to go with one well and to run a 200+ foot pipe back to the pond for filling purposes.

And like I said, they got the well drilled right as the pond was full. Our electric bill was about $200 more than normal thanks to two weeks of running our pump.

One benefit has been that the boys have greatly enjoyed a new, larger pond to throw rocks in to and to explore.

After exploring the new pond, we went on a little adventure back in the woods of my brother's property. Here is Eli the Exporer...

We found a "treasure" back in the woods. Every time we go back there we find old cow bones (the previous land owner was a cattle rancher and this area back by the river seems to be his pet cemetery). We have found just about every bone that can be found, but never the skull. I knew there had to be one back there somewhere, and today we finally found it.

Why is it black? I imagine it's because it sat in the water down by the river for a long time before we found it.

Get Out of My Way, Lady!

2010-01-13T20:14:00.004-06:00

As I cleaned up in the kitchen tonight, I kept hearing the boys yell, "get out of my way, lady" at the top of their little voices. They were playing cars on a paper road track we had made earlier in the day from construction paper. I wasn't sure I had heard them correctly, but then there it was again, "get out of my way" and "move car, move."

It all of a sudden hit me. They were playing cars and mimicking how daddy acts in the car.

Embarrassing.

And now for some more firsts. We had a week full of 'em...

First time Eli took a bath with his clothes on.

He wasn't happy when he realized he forgot to undress.

Beyla's first time eating in the high chair.

Eli's first try at sharing a room with his brother.

Second try at sharing a room. First time it worked.

First time doing...well, I don't know what.

And, finally, one of the best things about the new
room sharing situation is that we don't have to go out
and buy a second Ikea KNAPPA pendant lamp ($29.99).
Benjamin always used this as a night light and Eli wanted one.

And the night time routine is much easier now
that we don't have to split story time and prayers
between the two bedrooms.

Christmas & New Years & Beyond

2010-01-10T20:15:00.004-06:00

I guess it's about time to catch up on some recent memories. And where better to begin than the memory of making Christmas cookies with mom...

Or decorating the Christmas tree.

The day before Christmas Eve, we had temperates in the 50's. Christmas Eve, just before mass, temperatures began to drop quickly. We had to bundle the kids up warmly. Eli seems to like the cold and never minds wearing his coat.

After mass, the weather was getting even colder and a wet, snowy rain was moving in. We decided to stop at La Madeleine for a nice little Christmas Eve family dinner. We had a lot of fun and some good food, but in the hour or so we were there, the big storm hit. The temperature dropped below freezing and the snow began to fall.

We usually get little to no snow around Christmas in Texas. If we're lucky, we see a few days of snow in February or March, but rarely in December. This year we had three or four different snow storms hit in December. The one that came Christmas Eve wasn't that bad, but the temperature being high just that morning made all the initial snowfall turn to ice, and the 20 or so wrecks we witnessed on the way home that night were evidence that Texas drivers have no idea how to handle icey weather.

But it made for a wonderful white Christmas. The house looked beautiful all blanketed in snow when we got home.

And the next morning, the kids awoke to a wonderfully white Christmas. Benjamin immediately wanted to play in it.

Christmas was awesome with the kids this year. This was really the first year they knew what was going on, and they were EXCITED! Benjamin was the first up, demanding to open gifts at the break of dawn. Eli wanted one thing only, to eat chocolate from his stocking. Beyla just kind of rolled with it and seemed sleepy. She did like her tea set from her aunt and uncle.

=============================================

My dad's birthday falls on New Years Eve, so we usually head over to the house on New Years Day to celebrate his birthday and to have the tradition New Years Day black eyed peas. Black eyed peas are supposed to give you good luck for the year, and they taste pretty good, so we have 'em each year.

Savannah came over to stay for the weekend and got to enjoy two full days of playing trains with the boys. I think she'd be happy to never play trains again. Beyla seemed to enjoy the company too.

Eli also seems to enjoy Beyla's Christmas tea set and his new ability to have coffee with mama.
And finally, in this new year, Amanda is going to attempt to perfect her blouse and dress making abilities. Now that we have a little girl it is essential that she know how to make many a cute little dress. This pink peasant dress is her second attempt, and Beyla seems to approve.

A Big Dirt Hole.

2009-12-08T10:19:00.004-06:00

A big dirt hole is being dug up near the front of our property. It's actually not on our property but on my brother's property right next to us. They are digging a huge pond and using the dirt to build up his eventual house pad back in the woods.

The digging of the hole, and the hole itself, have been of interest to the boys. Almost every day they have to go inspect the work and crawl down into the hole to look for "treasure."

Eli loves the tractors too. If Benjamin grows up to be an engineer or architect, I think Eli will his builder or excavator.

Here we are exploring for treasure...

Oh, almost forgot. IT SNOWED!!! It actually snowed here in Texas before Michigan got any snow. Imagine that. The boys loved it and got to build their first snowman. Unfortunately, the snow melted in less than a day.

Some plumbing, fencing and Thanksgiving.

2009-12-08T10:01:00.002-06:00

We finally got the entire fencing project finished, but in the process we did quite a bit of damage to the sprinkler system. Well it actually wasn't the fencing that messed up the sprinkler system. It was the grading we did on the west side of the house. The excavation guys dug a bit too deep in some areas and caught the sprinkler pvc piping.

And when it broke, it broke in about six places. Eli and I put on some dirty clothes, dug some ditches and got to work repairing the pipe...

Here is a section of the Michigan White Cedar fencing we put up in the back yard. The boys love going in and out of the gates, or "doors" as they call them.

We've also finished clearing and grading the foundation pad for the barn. The view you're looking at is from my brother's property on the east side of my house, but further back in the woods. You won't be able to see the barn from the road and you'll only catch glimpses of it from the house.

-------------------

And a few pictures from Thanksgiving.

Benjamin and I took out one of the old Honda 50 motorcycles I used to ride as a kid. It took awhile to get the engine started, but once we got it going Benjamin had a great time.

Eli really wanted a ride on the motorcycle but he never got a chance. Grandma tried to console him but he wouldn't take his eyes off that motorcycle...

Forecast: more rain

2009-10-27T21:21:00.004-05:00

We have had more rain for an October than I've ever seen before. All this rain is holding up our fencing project. It rained Monday and it's supposed to rain more on Thursday, so we have two days to fit in as much fence building as possible.

The fencing crew showed up at 7 am sharp and started the fence today. The ground was muddy and the pond was overflowing, but they still managed to moving at a pretty good rate.

a long Fence. a big Barn. and a bit of Tomfoolery.

2009-10-14T22:50:00.005-05:00

The cedar fencing we ordered from Michigan finally arrived. They said it would only take two weeks to mill and one week to ship. A month and a half later....but hey, what can you expect?

(I feel a "polack"or Michigan joke might be appropriate here, but out of respect for my in-laws and Michigan readers, I won't.)

We have also decided that we are building a barn. I found out about this more than made a decision about it. My brother is moving out here sometime in the near future and a suggestion was made that it might be nice to have a shared barn. And not just a backyard shed, more of a 40x60 kind of affair, a rather large barn, or at least larger than what I originally had in mind for my back yard.

We are still in the preliminary stages of deciding where it will go and exactly how big it will be, what it will be made of (metal, wood), etc.

So more on that later. Before I start on the barn, I have to get the 1,000 feet or so of fencing put up first. Anybody have a posthole digger?

--------Now for something completely different ---------------

The other night, my brother was visiting. We talked until about 8:30. Throughout the conversation I was surprised just how quiet the boys were being in the back room. We had left them to play together in Benjamin's room. And it was quiet. Too quiet.

Amanda and I went in to check on them.

I could have either cursed a lot or taken pictures. So I grabbed the camera...

The room was DESTROYED.

They had found the stash of powders, creams, ointments, and gels. There was lotion smeared into the carpet. Powder was sprinkled on countertops, in drawers, and in Eli's hair. Their toybox was completely covered in baby powder. Not just sprinkled, but drenched in it. Every toy was covered. Every book soaked in cream and powder. Doors. Walls. Beds. Sinks. Chairs. EVERYTHING had been systematically "hit."

I really wanted to yell. I just took pictures.

And later, after a fresh bath, Eli told Amanda that it was Benjamin who had masterminded the entire thing. I later asked Benjamin and he agreed.

-----------------------------

The boys have fallen in love with Meerkats lately. They watched a national geographic type of movie about the animal and now love them.

They have chosen Meerkat as their halloween, or "Holy-ween" costume this year.

And Beyla is cute as ever.

And not old enough to join in her brother's tomfoolery. Thank goodness.

more from Amanda's party.

2009-10-08T11:28:00.002-05:00

We had about 20 people show up to celebrate Amanda's birthday. We had tons of food and a lot to drink, so everyone had a great time. Surprisingly my entire bottle of Patron Tequila disappeared throughout the night. My friend from New York mixed up a Patron shot with oranges and cinnamon that everyone seemed to like, so goodbye bottle of Patron.

It was a rainy night, but the cool weather made it perfect for a back porch fire, which ended up being a favorite spot for everyone to hang out. Our last guests left at about 12:30, so I guess it was a pretty successful party. Happy Birthday Amanda! You'll have to wait for your 40th to do it again.

Birthday Girl.

2009-10-06T21:46:00.002-05:00

We celebrated Amanda's birthday this past week. We first had a little family party on her actual birthday, and then we threw her a party with all her friends. For now, here are pictures from the family party. We used Polaroid for the other party, so I'll have to scan those in before I can add them...

our Ponderhome pets

2009-09-16T01:20:00.005-05:00

Since living at our home in Ponder, we've met many new interesting creatures. Amanda doesn't like some of them, remarking that they don't have these kind of things in Michigan.

From the left: banana spider (harmless), cottonmouth (harmful), turkey (yummy), armadillo (harmless and yummy to some people), black widow (harmful)

We have also seen many deer and one hog, but those have been too elusive to capture on camera.

Just tonight I heard Amanda calling me from outside the front door. She said, "there's something scary out here you have to see."

I was trying to decide if I should run outside immediately or get my shotgun first. I was thinking there would be a bobcat dragging one of the boys off into the woods. I ran outside and she pointed to the brick wall directly in front of our front door.

And there it was, a Texas Brown Tarantula.

He was about as big as a drink coaster, or a bagel maybe, and very hairy. We caught it and let the boys look at it a bit. After a quick search on the internet, we found out that they are very harmless and actually eat lots of bugs. Amanda asked me to go drive it down the road and let it out. I let in out in the back woods.

I'm not going to let a good bug catcher go to waste.

Grandma & Grandpa Visit

2009-09-12T08:49:00.002-05:00

We had a very good visit with grandma and grandpa Michigan, as the boys call them. Grandma spent much of her time holding the new baby, and grandpa spent most of his time doing projects around the house.

You can see one of this projects in the background of this picture. As you know, Benjamin has always liked telephone poles and light poles and all those kinds of things. Well, about three weeks before grandpa came to visit, Benjamin began asking for bases to be made for his hangers. He found that if you turn them upside down they kind of look like those street light poles. So in addition to all the doors grandpa was fixing for me around the house, he also spent alot of time making "hanger bases" for Ben.

Look closely and you can also see the red bridge grandpa made for the boy's train track. They each got one made from the bathroom wall siding from grandpa's house in Michigan. Now there is recycling in action!

Happy Beyla

2009-09-12T08:45:00.001-05:00

She is growing and she is happy.

Barney & Friends

2009-08-21T21:06:00.005-05:00

We headed out Friday morning to drive into Dallas for The Great American Trucking Show, an industry trade show I usually go to every year. We were bringing the boys for the first time so they could collect all those free pens and koozies they give out at such events.

Only about an hour into the show, I got a call from my friend who happens to be one of the many directors for the kids show Barney & Friends. He invited us out to the Barney studio to see the set, so we quickly packed up and headed towards Addison, Texas - where the show is taped.

And when we mentioned that we were going to visit Barney, the kids nearly exploded...

Eli finds Texas Barney in the hall

First stop - the play house & classroom set

Benjamin checking out the hopscotch numbers
as Eli explored the Barney caboose

And here is a still shot from the Barney episode "All Aboard"

where the children use the "idea bench" to come

up with creative ideas to help others

And here is Eli testing out the idea bench for himself

Eli loved the ice cream prop, which actually weighed

about 8 lbs and was made of something

that felt like cement

As we left we saw this huge elephant costume in the lobby.

Not sure if this was a Barney prop or not, but the

boys liked in none-the-less

2009-07-28T20:30:00.005-05:00

Beyla's Firsts...

First time being held by brother

First gift

First day at church

First time brothers took something that was yours

First brunch after church

First bath at home,

in a sink,

that you didn't like

First nap on daddy

First walk

Your brother, but not your first

First brother,

playing with you for first time,

in a toy cradle made by your great grandpa Maurer

And the first time (but not last)

one of your brothers

will try to steal the show

by being ultra cute.

Beyla and the Boys

2009-07-12T21:26:00.005-05:00

The boys have really taken to Beyla, which is great because we have heard so many stories of the youngest child not liking the changes that come with a new baby arrival. Eli did show some reservations at first. We wasn't crazy about this new little creature taking his spot, but he's really starting to do better now.

Benjamin has been excited about the baby for at least the last three or four months. We started reading the book Angel in the Waters to him during the pregnancy. The book goes through the entire growth process of the baby with conversations between the baby and its angel. Benjamin loved the book and it really got him excited about the arrival of the baby.

As you can see in the picture on the right (taken today), Eli is really starting to like his new little sister. The boys still have to work on her name, as most of time they call her "boylee."

A Few More...

2009-07-08T23:35:00.002-05:00

At the request of Grandma Michigan (as the boys call her), a few more pictures of Beyla and mama...

FYI - a few people have been asking about the name Beyla and where it comes from. We first chose Isabella or simply Bella for a girls name back when Amanda was first pregnant with Benjamin. We never find out what we're having, so we always choose a boy and girl name.

Well we quickly found out that Isabella was a very popular name and everywhere we turned there was another baby named Isabella. It is a beautiful name, so we wanted to stay with that name. We found the Slavic version of Isabella is Beyla. It also seems to have Irish or Celtic roots. It is the same name as Baila in Spanish or Bella in Italian and means "by God."

So there it is. Beyla Marie.

Introducing...

2009-07-08T10:44:00.002-05:00

Beyla Marie.

...7...8...9...

2009-07-08T04:16:00.002-05:00

07/08/09

A baby is born.

Our first little girl. Beyla Marie.

6 lbs 13 ounces. 18 1/4 inches.

Born 1:22 AM

Pictures and more info to come. Check again later this morning after I get some sleep.

Pond Scum.

2009-07-07T10:33:00.005-05:00

The # 1 reason we built a pond was because we needed fill dirt for the house pad. The land naturally slopes downward on our lot, so on the east side of our house we needed quite a bit of dirt. It was much cheaper to take it out the ground than to haul it in.

And an added benefit was that we got this beautiful pond out in front of the house, a pond with a nice little steel bridge crossing over it...how wonderful.

Well...wonderful and beautiful if you have a crew of landscapers taking care of it at all times. If you don't have a landscaping staff, then it all falls on you to take care of it.

Who knew a pond could have so much maintenance. The pond was perfect for about the first year, then the pond scum started. Algae! It grows fast and it nearly covers the entire pond surface. So on go the waders and into the water I go...digging spinach-like algae out by hand.

And if digging algae out of the pond wasn't dirty and smelly enough, guess what else gets in there?

Oh yes, look at the picture to the left. Skunks! Yes, skunks. This one must of have come on down for a drink and got stuck in the mud, so when Amanda found him there in the morning he was completely tired out and unable to climb out on his own.

So I stagged a rescue operation. Notice I had to tape a long stick to an already long pole to ensure I didn't get to close to the skunk...the skunk who kept building his little remaining strength up to lift his tail at me. I eventually got him out and saved his stinky little life, only to find him head first in the water, drowned, later that day.

So yes, the pond has been wonderful, but it might be time to start taking applications for that landscaping crew.

Telephone Poles.

2009-06-22T22:15:00.007-05:00

Most of you know that Benjamin loves telephone poles.

It is a fascination that began with grandpa and grandma's clothes lines in Michigan. Their clothes lines kind of resemble telephone poles. Benjamin loves to just walk around those clothes lines and examine them. Since his last visit to Michigan he points out every telephone pole he sees and he even knows where the really good locations are in Dallas that have numerous poles (like the flyover bridge at 635 and 35).

So while in Michigan, we had bought a bunch of plastic train gage telephone poles that he absolutely loved. Being plastic though they only lasted a few months. He has been asking for new ones for a long time now...

We went as a family to Home Depot and let the boys pick out the wood dowel sizes they wanted. On our way out of the store I noticed a large pile of scrap wood, so I grabbed a few pieces to use for the pole bases.

Drilled a few holes, hammered the pieces in place. Done.

Simple enough.

Benjamin also insisted that I make a wood base for his "light pole" which is just an old hair brush. Yes, he is just about as crazy about light poles as telephone poles. And yes, he really does play with it as a part of his train set.

So far these poles are holding up much better than the previous plastic ones. I'm sure Benjamin will put an "order" in for more soon.

Picture this...

2009-06-10T10:49:00.013-05:00

Benjamin has learned how to push the button on our digital camera and take pictures. He's not the best at holding the camera straight, but funny enough, his pictures come out pretty interesting. For example, three different shots he took of Amanda: one was supposed to be of mama, the second was of the baby in mama's tummy, and the third is just the baby...

Pretty interesting the way the first two stack together almost perfectly. And the third is just a close up of Amanda's shirt, which to Benjamin is the best he can to get a picture of the "baby."

---------- MEASURE TWICE. CUT ONCE. -------------------

So Amanda has been asking me for awhile now to start a garden back behind our house. I don't own the right tools - flat shovel, tiller, etc - that I need to begin a garden, so I just never got around to it.

Well Amanda solved that.

She knows I'm a sucker for doing little projects. I can't stand to have projects sitting around unfinished, especially when the materials for the project are sitting around too.

SOOO, Amanda bought a few vegetable plants a week ago. Then she pops an early Fathers Day gift on me, which happened to be a Craftsman Circular Saw. Then she suggests that we get out of the house Friday night with the kids and take a run to town, which happened to be to Lowes, which happened to be to pick up some untreated wood for building planter boxes.

So the stage was set. She set it up all perfectly to make it impossible for me to not do this project.

And by the way, any of these pictures that are partially crooked were also taken by Ben.

Ben was very helpful during the building of the planter boxes. He fetched screws for me, made sure everything was measured twice and acurately drawn out, and he ven wore a hard hat for safety.

The finished product. Not the most elegant planter box, but hey, it works. At least it's square, level and plumb (I think).

This little spot on our back porch gets good sun and some decent afternoon shade to keep our tomatoes from getting scorched. We killed just about all of our tomatoes at our old house. The Texas sun makes it difficult to keep things alive.

We'll try this spot for awhile and move the boxes as needed, maybe I'll even put some caster wheels on the boxes for movability.

And hopefully this will satisfy Amanda until I get the big, in ground garden going this fall.

Life's a Beach

2009-06-09T11:30:00.010-05:00

I'm a bit late getting these pictures added, but here are a few from our family trip to Galveston beach on Memorial Weekend.

The entire Johnson family travels down to the Houston area each year to spend a weekend on the beaches of Galveston. We weren't sure if we'd be able to go this year because the house we usually rent was supposedly destroyed by last years hurricane.

Fortunately our house and many others were still standing, so we packed up headed south. We rented two houses for the 22 people who came along.

Pregnant mama. Only about one month now!

It was a great trip. The boys really enjoyed the beach this year. They weren't really old enough to like it last year, but this year the sand castles and waves and crazy cousins hit the spot.

It was difficult getting Ben used to his new suit at first. He wanted to go to the beach naked.

Eli took to his swim suit right away, but didn't like the water and waves as much. He spent most of his time in the sand.

Last year there was only two kids in the bathtub. Now there is four. Next year? Maybe seven or so?

The boys really enjoyed playing with Savannah this year too. She stayed with us the night before we left and rode down with us in our car. They liked her so much that we now have a bed in our house dedicated to her as the "Savannah bed." They are already looking forward to her week long visit later in June...and so are we. She is very good at playing with the boys which gives us a bit more free time.

Our final stop on the way home was the Sam Houston Memorial Park (he was the president of the Republic of Texas and later a Senator and Governor). One of my nephews got extra credit for the visit to a historical place. Here is Sam Houston's head (not the real one).

Fear & Loathing in Ponder, Texas

2009-05-18T21:25:00.002-05:00

My sister Vicki says Benjamin kind of looks like Johnny Depp in the Fear & Loathing movie in this shot. He does kind of, doesn't he? He's just recently started posing for pictures. Before this week he has never before let us get a good picture of him. We've always had to take a thousand pictures to get one good one.

This shot shows a bit of the lawyers cabinet my sister sold us too. We have it filled up or decorated or whatever you want to call it and it looks pretty good. It really fills that empty space we used to have in the living room.

The pillow is one of Amanda's penny patch creations from a few years ago. She's always working on some new project she found on a craft blog or in a book. She's really creating some cool stuff.

And of course whatever Benjamin does, Eli has to be a part of too. Benjamin wouldn't share his hat, so Eli grabbed the next best thing...

Mothers Day Weekend

2009-05-13T11:07:00.004-05:00

After the annual lunch at the country club for Mother's Day, we all went back to my parent's house in Flower Mound to celebrate all the mothers. Here are all the Johnson girls, Amanda and Margarita on Mother's Day...

Opening gifts ( all the guys are in the next room playing pool - not celebrating Moms Day I guess)

Mother's Day is also my mom's birthday, so everyone gave her a few gifts too. Here are Vicki and Savannah, posing in front of my mom opening gifts.

And back at the Ponder home after Mother's Day, the boys have been playing a new game of "holds hands and run around the house." Eli especially loves it since he craves any and all attention from his older brother. The stuff on Ben's face is stickers, another new thing they like to do.

Benjamin finally got to fly his kite he got from the Easter Bunny. He thought it was fun... for about five minutes. Then he kind of got bored with the idea of standing still and watching a kite in the sky. I guess kids have too many cool toys now to enjoy a simple kite.

It's Good To Have A Cool Older Sister

2009-04-10T11:19:00.003-05:00

...especially an older sister who has an eye for unique decor items...especially an older sister who goes to lots of cool sales and antique markets to find such items...and especially an older sister who is willing to give those items to her younger brother.

My older sister Vicki has always had a house full of cool furniture and unique items that can only be described as "found object decor." She started my love of all things industrial like metal cabinets and old medical furniture. One of my favorite pieces in her house was a 1950-ish metal lawyers cabinet. She had it sand blasted and stripped down to its original metal. It looked great and I always wanted it. And as of a few days ago, I do have it. Vicki was generous enough to pass this great piece of furniture down to me. It looks great and adds some needed height to the room.

And as if that wasn't great enough, she also bought this great piece for me (well actually for me and Amanda as our 2009 combined birthday gifts). It's a lazy susan for our dining room table, but more than that, it's a great art piece. Amanda likes the folk art look of it. I like it because it reminds of a Grateful Dead type cover art or something. Either way it's colorful and looks great on our otherwise empty dining room table.

Look closely at the top picture and you can see both the lawyers cabinet and the lazy susan together. Thank you Vicki!!!

2009-03-30T09:21:00.004-05:00

A DAY OUT WITH THOMAS

Grandma and the boys riding in Annie and Clarabell, Thomas' coaches...

Eli doing what he does best...

-----------------------------------------

We took a walk out in the woods to enjoy the beautiful 60 degree, sunny weather this weekend. The neighbors are building a house back in the woods, so the boys like to walk back there and see the progress.

As always, wherever we go, the boys love to throw rocks into water. We walked down into the river bed at the back of our property and found plenty of rocks and plenty of water.

We found a wild animal in the woods...

---------------------------------------------------

And us at the Bishops Pro Life Dinner ...

Amanda looking beautiful at 7 months...

2009-03-18T09:51:00.002-05:00

The boys are growing, and they're starting to slowly act like brothers, which means they play together a little and fight a lot. But the cute moments in between are worth everything...

In February we drove down to New Orleans to visit our friends. This was our first time being in "Nawlins" for Mardi Gras week. We got to go to some pretty good parades and see some interesting things...

The Zulu Parade on Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras)

Hanging out on Canal Street just before the Derek Trucks show

Double Decker Parade Float

Eli enjoyed the seeing the King and Queen with mama

Some of the "friendly" nutria rats that live in New Orleans

Growing Familes

2009-02-10T10:03:00.003-06:00

We've never really been bumer sticker people, but recently I've been looking for a good pro life message to put on the cars. With all the FOCA craziness and everything going on lately, it just feels like the right time to finally "fly my colors." I bought a few stickers off a site that had good messages but no real design to them. They were kind of boring to look at.

But just last night I came across the site Pro Life World . Take a look at all the great items they have for sale. What I like about these is that they still have the pro life messge but have also had someone put some decent design thought into them.

Anyways, a few of my favorites...

This last one is my favorite. I ordered a few items with this design.

2009-02-10T08:55:00.009-06:00

The boys love exploring in the woods, especially when a new pipeline appeared and enticed us to follow.

Grandma and Grandpa Michigan sent some trains. They were quickly claimed by Eli.

Eli has been loving boots lately. Rubber boots. Cowboy boots. Any boots. He likes the "clickety-clack" on the concrete floor.

Boots...and stickers on his face... he loves 'em. And in a somewhat rare moment, Benjamin loves his brother.

The Ices came for a visit. Gianni wanted to try a "suck" haircut, also known as a Flowbee haircut. This is the only way we can give Ben a haircut, and it seems like other kids like it too. Just turn on the vacuum and cut away!

And sweet little Adriana (our goddaughter) is just precious.

We found a little friend nesting in my engine.

The size of this nest makes me think it was a possum.

Wintery Windmill Wonderland

2009-01-02T20:34:00.005-06:00

While visiting Bad Axe, Amanda and I wanted to go see all the new windmills that have been erected recently to generate energy up in the "thumb" area of Michigan. They have built quite a few more since we were here last in July. The project seems to be going well, so many more are planned.

The farmers get something like $3,000 per year per windmill to have these things on their land, so there hasn't been any problem getting these things erected exactly where "they" want them. I think they're actually kind of pretty in a modern-against-nature kind of way, especially when you add in an old farm with red barn and silo here and there. It really makes for an interesting horizon.

And of course Benjamin absolutely loves them. We may have to put on up on our backyard now.

Missed the Boat, or the Sail, or the Sale

2008-12-23T17:06:00.002-06:00

I missed the Herman Miller sale. I logged on Sunday night to buy the two chairs and the annual sale was over.

Oh well. It's probably better to save money anyways.

--------

Amanda and the boys are up in Michigan for Christmas. We drove up there last week, I stayed a few days, then had to fly back to Texas for business. It was cold up there. And snowy. It's cold down here. And wet.

Herman Miller on Sale

2008-12-11T09:45:00.003-06:00

Herman Miller is having their annual "sale." I can't call it much of a sale because their stuff is overpriced to begin with, so the sale is really just a "bringing it closer to reality event." It's especially overpriced when you consider it's just molded plastic.

Either way, we do need two more side shell chairs for the dining table, so I guess a sale is the time to splurge for them. We currently have six and our table was made for eight, so it kind of looks funny with the empty spaces where two chairs should be.

Oh, we have to pay a few bucks extra for the "eiffel tower" legs pictured, so there goes the savings from the "sale."

Christmas Lights...

2008-12-11T09:39:00.003-06:00

...or "stars" as Benjamin calls them.

We finally hung all our lights. The tree in front of our house was very difficult. I might just cut down the tree rather than take down all those lights. The colored lights in front are on the bridge, then you turn the corner and the tree in front of the house is all lit up, then the house itself.

2008-12-02T10:04:00.006-06:00

The landscaping project turned out nicely. It really makes a difference adding a few trees here and there, especially some nice Eastern Red Cedars which are evergreen. The evergreens were strategically placed to best cover the views of other houses and roads and such. Our landscape guy really put some time into finding just the right place for each and every tree.

Now the trick will be keeping them alive when the summer heat hits again.

Another trick has been keeping the trees upright. We've had some incredible wind come through this area lately. It blew one of our trees completely over. I've since staked that tree to give it support. A few others have shifted slightly, so now I have to get the tractor out and pull them back into position.

I just hope I don't have to end up staking all of them because it looks tacky and more than that, it's a lot of work driving stakes into this thick clay Texas soil.

We've also noticed a few Willow trees naturally growing around the pond. They are growing fast and luckily, they are growing in good locations that will accent the pond nicely (like this one below that is growing right up front of some rocks).

--------------------------------

The weather is cooling down to about the 50's during the day and 40's in the evening. It makes for cool evening walks. Eli still loves the cats and is delighted when they take walks with us...

And Benjamin's new love is telephone poles and light poles, which he is very quick to distinguish between. He will not stand for a telephone pole being called a light pole, or vice versa...

Oh, and I can't forget the boys other recent love... the train tracks. They play with this more than anything else lately and when they're not playing with it, they want to watch Thomas the Train videos. Trains, trains, trains...

Frank Buck Zoo

2008-11-23T18:22:00.006-06:00

We went to the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainsville, Texas the other day.Fr ank Buck , by the way, was a hunter and "collector of wild animals," as well as a movie actor, director, writer and producer. I just find it funny that a big game hunter has a zoo named after him. Wouldn't that be like naming Sea World's whale exhibition after Captain Ahab or something?

Anyways, we unfortunately decided to take the kids out on the coldest day we've had this year. The wind was blowing incredibly hard (so hard that it blew over one of our newly planted trees). The cold weather also kept most of animals indoors, out of sight to us, so most of the time we were just looking at empty fields.

But besides that it was a beautiful day.

The petting zoo was a big hit with the kids. Those animals were indeed out despite the weather, and they were ready to be fed handfulls of the 25 cent feed that hung from dispensers besides these little openings...

Eli was only mildly entertained by the goats. He mainly just stood in one place and looked annoyed by the constant cold wind blowing in his face. He just kept saying "car, car."

By the time we left the zoo (it only took about 30 minutes to walk through since most of animals were not out) we noticed that there was a little train running in the park beside the zoo. For $1 each we got to take a 20 minute ( a long, cold 20 minute) ride with the kids.

The Ponder Steak House

2008-11-08T11:41:00.003-06:00

Ranchman's Steakhouse

This place is famous, and not just around these parts. I've heard of this restaraunt many times since we moved to Ponder, but we had never tried it until last night. Ranchman's has been serving fresh cut steaks and scratch made pies since 1948. My dad said that he even used to drive all the way from Dallas to eat here when he was a teenager (back then the restaraunt didn't even have a bathroom).

As we walked in we immediatley noticed the numerous signed pictures they had on the celebrity wall. Everyone from Cindy Crawford to Chuck Norris to Richard Petty to Meatloaf has eaten in this place. And if you don't know, Ponder is a very small town about an hour from Dallas/ Fort Worth, so it's not like it's right around the corner from anything.

The atmosephere was very "rustic Texas" with wooden floors, guns and jack rabbit mounts on the wall, and old newspaper clippings hanging on every square inch of wall space.

They also make their own handmade soap from the grease left over from the steaks. The owner gave us a sample bar as a welcome gift since we are new to Ponder.

Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves silly on steak, burgers, potatoes and, of course, some homemade pie and cobler.

Landscaping Woes

2008-11-07T12:59:00.003-06:00

The sprinkler guy showed up today at 6:30am to fix the pipe we ripped up with the Bobcat. 6:30 am? Who does that? We had already fixed the pipe in the front, but the back one we ripped into was a junction of four pipes, so it required professional help.

I haven't received the repair bill from the Bobcat rental place. I can only imagine it's going to be expensive.

The kids are staying away from the pansies, but the cats are killing the ornamental grass by playing in them too much. The cats just recently started catching mice and rats, so I'll forgive them this time, but if it wasn't for that then we might be having cat stew tonight.

We are spending about 2 hours each morning re-aligning the trees. The soft, wet soil and high winds of the last few days have made many of the trees start to shift off center. Amanda and I have invented a system of ropes and Toyota 4Runner to easily straighten the trees, so it's all good.

2008-11-05T19:23:00.004-06:00

Our last evening walk before a very busy weekend, and before Daylight Savings Time hits on Sunday, which always makes it too dark to do after-dinner walks.

The boys wanted to do what they always want to do...throw rocks in the pond from the bridge.

We had twenty-one trees, forty-something lorepetellum, and tons of other grasses and shrubs and flowers to plant on Saturday. I rented a mini-excavator and hired a few guys to help me so that I could get it all done in one day. That was naive (we didn't finish until late Sunday evening).

Here are some of the Live Oaks and Eastern Red Cedars we planted around the entrance. They look great and really help make the pond blend in to the landscaping instead of looking so "lonely" out there by itself.

We quickly got the center driveway planter and the planter in front of the house finished. We planted Mexican Feather Grass in the circle. We ordered one gallon grasses which ended up being too small, but they should fill in and grow together within one growing season.

And here is the lorepetellum and grasses in front of the living room window. Finally, everything is starting to come together...

Benjamin immediatley noticed the Pansies we planted in the circle. We've been teaching him to pick every wildflower he sees every since we moved here. Now we have to help him discern between pickable and non-pickable flowers so we can enjoy these for more than one week.

The boys wanted a "ride" on the tractor, which didn't seem very safe. We let them sit in the Bobcat, and they both buckled up for a quick dig in the dirt before I shut the machine down.

The result of the weekend....

1) A broken Bobcat

2) Two busted irrigation pipes

3) A cut phone line

4) And some great looking landscaping

Pumpkin Patch & Birthday Bash

2008-10-26T16:27:00.004-05:00

We woke up early on October 23rd to the little voice of Benjamin saying "balloons."

It was his 3rd birthday, and he wanted to play with the decorations hanging from the living room ceiling.

Eli immediately noticed them too, and he also wanted them.

We got their minds off the balloons by quickly whipping up one of their favorites, Tubby Toast (which is actually just waffles, but the name comes from what the Teletubbies eat for breakfast).

After breakfast we loaded up the car and made a quick stop by a local estate sale. Amanda has been on the look-out for vintage fabric. She made a great garage sale find a few weeks ago and bought like 7 pounds of vintage fabric for dirt cheap.

Being that it was Benjamin's birthday, we decided to stop by the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. Besides the thousands of pumpkins, they have lots of fun rides and bounce houses and hay rides.

The boys absolutely loved the bounce house. I think this was the first time they had ever been on one. They were in there for at least 20 minutes.

LATER......

After dinner we decided to go on a family walk back into the woods. Benjamin, as seen below, just had to bring three hangers with him. Despite all his toys and new birthday gifts, he still likes plastic hangers better than any other toy.

It was his birthday so we let him bring the hangers.

We found a huge catepillar too. It has since made a cocoon. We will watch its progess over the next few weeks.

Many evenings outside end with a crying child. This time it was Eli's turn. Mom made it all better.

Then it was birthday cake and gifts...

Eli liked most of Benjamin's gifts better than Benjamin did, especially the little Teletubby cake toppers.

And Benjamin immediately dropped his Teletubby toys when he saw the tractor that grandpa and grandma had sent him.

Feeling More Like a Home

2008-10-03T10:16:00.005-05:00

The house interior is starting to come together bit by bit. We finally own our first real bed after six years of marriage. No more just using a frame and box springs. We went with a kind of mid-century style to the bed (I know you can't see it to much in the picture). The bed and side tables came from Room & Board. The curtains came from Anthropologie and really helped finish off the room, and it gives us much needed privacy.

We also finally moved Eli out of the "art room" and back to his own room near Benjamin. He will eventually share a room with Ben, but we'll wait another six months to do that. We already went to Ikea and bought another single bed ( a bunk actually, seen here ) to go in Ben's room. Now there is room for both boys and a friend to spend the night - or room for a third Johnson boy.

Moving Eli out of the art room gives us the chance to actually use it now for its intended purpose. Amanda has been sewing more, I've been able to do some painting, and we're starting to search for some interesting little pieces to fill the room.

This is an old drafting table we found in an antique store in Justin, Texas. There was a photgrapher officing out of the antique store who used this table to display his albums. I asked him if he would sell it and $35 later, I owned a cool little project table for the art room.

He also had this stool that he used for portraits. He absolutely did not want to part with it, but after a little haggling, he also parted with his stool.

Here is Amanda preparing some curtains to be hung in Eli's room. We bought the curtains from Ikea, but they were a bit too thin and didn't block enough light. Amanda bought some lining and sewed it on. Now they are much better.

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AMANDA'S BIRTHDAY !!!

Amanda had her birthday recently. She is fearing the closing in of her 30th birthday, but she still has some time to enjoy her 20's before that happens. Of course I can't say the same. I hit the big 3-0 this year. It's all down hill from here, right?

Instead of a cake we tried an assortment of French Pastries from Ravelin Bakery in Denton. Very good, as evidenced by Benjamin's face below...

And Amanda"s...

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And as always, a few more for the grandparents.

Eli is always after the cats...

Benjamin still loves to throw rocks in the pond.

Is Eli a trucker or a train conductor?

Oh, I almost forgot, a few of our largest toms are missing. Someone has been hunting our little friends.

Landscaping & Lunch

2008-09-18T09:34:00.002-05:00

It won't be long now before we start the landscaping project we've been planning all summer. We're going to put quite a few Live Oak trees and Eastern Red Cedars around the pond, as well as some large ornamental grasses and boggy water plants.

Before we start the landscaping, we wanted to get a second round of Hydromulch sprayed onto the lawn. The original "liquid grass" spraying that we paid for in May came with a respray to cover up any spots that didn't grow grass. We thought they were only going to spray a few spots, but they actually resprayed nearly the entire lawn.

And the backyard...

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LUNCH

And here are some new pictures for the grandparents. The kids have had fun recently having lunch in new places, like lunch in the loft...

Or lunch with cool glasses...

Lunch on the playground....

And lunch outside in the finally-not-so-hot weather...

Tulix Stools

2008-08-23T13:47:00.003-05:00

We've wanted to get bar stools for the kitchen counter ever since we moved in, but up until now we couldn't find just the right look (or price). Bar stools can get very expensive.

While looking through one of our favorite specialty catalogues, called Sundance (check out the furniture section for some unique, southwesterny-rustic pieces), we came across some cool industrial looking metal stools made by a French company called Tolix.

Sundance, unfortunately, only had the 27" height stools, so we had to order our 30" stools from the not-so-in-reach store Design Within Reach. We like a lot of the stuff at Design Within Reach, but as I said, it's only within reach if you make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

They were an immediate hit with Ben. He liked sitting up higher than normal.

That's just one more item we can cross off our list. Now we're just waiting for the bed and nightstands we ordered. They should delivered from Minnesota some time in early September. After that we need curtains and then we're stopping for awhile.... to let our bank acount heal.

Today

2008-08-11T20:43:00.004-05:00

Today was an interesting day in Ponder. We woke up today to at least 7 or 8 turkey walking around the front yard. Before today we had only ever seen two at any one time. The first group of three (seen below) were all males, or toms. Another group of four or so hens later joined them and they all foraged around the pond for awhile.

Later in the day we also saw a nice buck and six other deer roaming around in the back yard. It was a nice day for wildlife viewing, probably the most animals we've seen in one single day.

----------------

We've finally decided that our eight Texas Red Oak trees are dying. I thought at first that they might be getting overwatered, then underwatered, then I finally came across a picture on the internet of oak wilt. Oak wilt is a fungal pathogen carried by beetles from an infected tree to the wound of a healthy tree. It starts with the browning of the outer edges of the leaf, as seen here...

The fungus can kill the tree in as short a time as one month. We've only lived here now about six months, but already the mysterious oak wilt has arrived. I guess I should have paid attention to the fact that not a single other Red Oak lives in this area. You see them everywhere else only miles from our home, but there is a noticable absence of many oaks here.

After only a short time, you end up with a tree that looks like this...

DEAD.

Very sad. And there's no "cure" for oak wilt. So I guess this just has to be counted as a loss.

But as you in the picture, a beautiful rainbow came out this evening and made us forget about the dying trees. We loaded the kids up in their wagon and went for a nice evening walk. For now, we'll forget about the trees and the loss of all that money. And hopefully Jose, the local tree guy who sold us these bargain priced beauties, will make good on his "one year tree warranty." I won't hold my breath for that.

Eli is already standing by the front door, ready and waiting to go outside.

All Good Things Must End

2008-07-24T11:49:00.005-05:00

We enjoyed the last few days of our Michigan trip just relaxing and taking in the quiet and serene beauties of the state. We spent a night deep in the Michigan forest at the Maurer Cabin near Glennie. We took the kids up to the beautiful beaches of Lake Huron for a swim. We drove around the open countryside and looked at the new windmill farms. And we spent lots of time in grandma and grandpa's back yard.

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What does Benjamin like best about the cabin? The same thing all the kids do: the banging of the screen door...

Lake Huron with its white sandy beaches and fresh water...

And lots and lots of seagulls, as Benjamin points out below...

Benjamin LOVES picking (and instantly eating) the neighbor's raspberries...

And Eli loves picking (but not eating) the apples...

And then it was done, all over too quickly, and we had to take the 23 hour drive back to Texas.

And back into the heat!

Island Get-A-Way

2008-07-15T14:41:00.003-05:00

While on our vacation up here in Michigan, Amanda and I decided to drive north towards the tip of the Lower Pennisula. We were headed for Mackinac Island and we were kid-free for three days.

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge and "landed" on the Upper Pennisula, the U.P., where Michigan's proud and Canadian accented Yoopers live. Our first stop was the Mystery Spot, a strange unexplained phenomenon where all things lean slightly towards the east.

Wow!

We aso had to a make a quick stop by the Totem Village to see the worlds largest collection of indian artifacts. Little did we know that so many "authentic" indian artifacts are made in China.
I think we'll cross the U.P. off our list next time we head up north.

After crossing back over to the lower, more normal side of Michigan, we parked our car in Mackinac City and headed for our ferry boat, bound for the island of Mackinac. The island was a stronghold for both the British and Americans during the fur trading years early in our country's history. It was also important in the wars between America and England. In the late 1800's it became a prime vacation spot for those brave enough to travel the waters of our Great Lakes.

The island allows no motorized vehicles on its shores, so to get around on the island you have three choices: walk, bike or ride a horse drawn carriage.

The Grand Hotel is a beautful five star hotel overlooking Lake Huron. Unfortunately we did not agree with the $500 to $5,000 per night rate, so we headed for one of the island's other historic, and cheaper, hotels.

Fort Mackinac is located on the island overlooking the harbor. It was this fort that made the island so sought after by the Americans. They were never able to take it by force and only ended up with possession of the fort after a political treaty.

We were able to overtake the fort for $10 per person.

Scouting the island from the viewpoint of the fort blockhouse.

We then rented bikes and headed on the island's freeway (the only Michigan freeway that doesn't allow cars). It was a beautiful lakeside ride passing through peaceful forests and alongside hidden beaches.

We headed into the interior of the island and biked through the old Victorian neighborhoods. The island is just beautiful, and the lack of cars and normal rush of life adds to the peacefulness of the island. Only 500 people live here year-round, and if have any say in the matter it may be 504 people soon (as if we can afford the multi-million dollar homes).

And of course we had to sample some of the famous island fudge.

The final night we were there we rented a carriage and took a 35 minute ride deep into the woods. There is a great little restaurant there fashioned in the Bavarian Chalet style. It's appropriately called "The Woods."

The building was actually built as a playhouse for the kids of a weathly family in the early 1900's. There is even an old bowling alley inside that guests can play after dinner.

We relunctanly had to leave Friday morning to head back and relive the grandparents of their babysitting duty. We took one last stroll through town before leaving....

...and then boarded the ferry to return to the mainland.

Freedom

2008-07-06T19:55:00.006-05:00

We had a great Fourth of July up here in Michigan. The weather was great. The sun was shining. The food was tasty and plentiful.

And best of all, we are in America and we are free!

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Free to drive wherever we want, like 22 hours from one end of America to another...

Free to celebrate our independence by driving old tractors down main street...

Free to decorate our vehicles in any fashion we so choose...

Free to watch the parade from the shade of the car...

Free to play funny games in the backyard with the family...

Free to have as many kids as we want...

Free to tease the goats (they're not free as you can see)...

Free to form an impromptu drum circle out of old buckets in grandpa's backyard...

Landscaping

2008-06-24T10:02:00.003-05:00

We've begun the landscape design process. There's no way we'll be able to do it all now, or even a year from now, but we're at least going to do a master design on the entire property so we have a solid plan to guide us over the next few years.

For now we're going to focus on the approach to the house from the street. Everything looks beautiful as it currently is, but we want to add a bit of landscaping around the pond where things look a kind of empty.

Here is an entrance approach collage showing what you see as you enter the property and approach the house...

As you can see on the above picture (moving from the bottom of the picture up), I think there are two main "empty" spots. The first is at the very bottom of the picture where you first enter the driveway. We definitely need some plants to fill out the area between the road and the pond.

The second area is right after you turn past the curve in the driveway and begin heading towards the house. After you pass that large row of existing Hackberry trees, the house again looks "empty."

It's too hot to begin planting now, so we have the summer to plan things out and prepare for a fall planting. About 90% of the trees we planted are doing well, so the property is looking great. They help accent the existing trees and bring the landscaping up and away from the house to meet the huge established trees that already existed on the lines around the house.

Playtime just got better

2008-06-14T08:58:00.006-05:00

The boys, especially Benjamin, have been asking about slides a lot lately. They discovered slides at a local park and now they can't get enough of them. Benjamin kept trying to make slides out of everything, including mom and dad, so we finally started a Craigslist search for a used slide.

Amanda finally found one after weeks of searching. As you can see, Benjamin not only plays on the slide at all times, but it looks like he even sleeps there too...

Since we are using the small slide inside the house, we thought we should get an outdoor playground too. We were looking into some very small Little Tykes type models until my mom found a local store in the Dallas area that had a huge sale on large metal units. Supposedly more people want the wooden play units, so they had their metal playgrounds marked way down. We would rather have a metal one anyways. It has a nice epoxy coating on the metal parts so it doesn't get hot to touch.

Eli loves to just lounge on the swings. I wish someone would do this for me.

Just as fun as playing on a slide...playing in the sprinklers.

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And in other news...

Phil asked if we have been seeing any more wildlife out here. Well, here's you answer Phil...

Yellow Bellied Water Snake: A non-venomous water snake that mainly eats frogs.

Armadillo: Spanish for "little armored one" is a mostly blind mammal that digs for roots and bugs

Those Lazy After Dinner Walks

2008-05-18T19:41:00.002-05:00

We love our after dinner walks. It's one of the highlights of moving away from the crowded neighborhoods of Lewisville and out into the country.

Tonight's walk was especially peaceful, sunny and warm. Perfect napping weather as Mr. Eli proved....

A Visit From Walter. And Mothers Day.

2008-05-12T10:16:00.004-05:00

Uncle Eddie, formally Walter E. Johnson just like Eli, came to visit over the weekend. His wife is visiting El Salvador for a few weeks, so we wanted to take advantage of some guy time. He drove out to Ponder on Friday and stayed the night. We spent the two days installing some cameras on the house, doing some various house wiring, we watched a movie, and we woke up early Saturday morning to go shooting in the woods back behind the house.

Eddie bought a new pistol called The Judge that can shoot both .45 calibre AND .410 shotgun rounds. We took it back to the river to try it out. I know what I want for my birthdy now. It was a very fun gun to shoot.

Here are the two Walter E's:

Benjamin loves the cats. Eli just loves the cat food.

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Mothers Day was a beautiful, cool and sunny day. We took a nice family walk after church before putting the boys down for a nap. We always go to the Denton Country Club with the entire Johnson/Burke/ Fisher/ Ice clan to celebrate Mothers Day, so we wanted the boys to be rested up before a long day of activities.

The boys love the wagon Amanda found at a garage sale

Benjamin likes how his sunglasses can instantly turn day into night

After lunch, we all headed out to the grandparents house, or just "umma's house" as Benjamin lovingly calls it. And as always, we headed to the park to play on the slides and swings.

Benjamin and Eli playing in a shower of bubbles

The new motor driven trucks grandpa bought were a hit

Turkeys, Cats & Green Goo.

2008-05-05T09:40:00.003-05:00

We've been seeing lots of wildlife around the house recently. We see deer outside Ben's room window every week. We've seen many rabbits chasing each other around the backyard. And most recently, we saw this turkey walk right up to our living room window and take a look inside.

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The cats, Boo and Lawn Boy, are getting bigger and bigger. Ben loves holding them, or at least trying to hold them. He always wants to give them hugs. I don't think the cats like it too much.

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We have been preparing to have the property hydromulched for weeks now. We were supposed to be about two weeks out before our yard was done, but the company called us and told us that they were coming early.

So this Saturday we had a crew spraying green "goo" all over the yard. It kind of looks and smells like seaweed. Here is a small patch I found where you can see the difference between the regular ground and where they sprayed.

They use a huge water hose, almost like a fire department hose, to spray the goo everywhere. Now we just have to keep the area wet and within a month we should have nice, thick green Bermuda grass.

2008-04-23T19:16:00.002-05:00

Two more of the birthday. That's it. I'm tired of fighting this internet connection. I'm calling the internet tech guy back out tomorrow.

2008-04-23T06:51:00.002-05:00

A little bit at a time.

We're still having problems uploading pictures, but I was able to load these three this morning. I'll get more up soon if the internet will stay working.

Eli's Birthday

2008-04-19T11:15:00.001-05:00

Eli celebrated his first birthday this week. I think Benjamin enjoyed the cake and presents more than Eli. Eli's favorite thing was having "Happy Birthday" sung to him over and over again.

Pictures will be up soon. Our internet is running slow again. I'll try to get them up later today or Sunday.

Cats. The Zoo. And Grandparents Visits Too.

2008-04-01T09:17:00.006-05:00

We picked up three new kittens last week. They are barn cats from a local farmer, so they should be accustomed to the dangers of country living. They get food and shelter out of the deal and we get highly trained mice catchers.

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Amanda's parents came for a visit. They came bearing gifts for Easter and for Eli's birthday. I think Eli liked playing with the empty eggs more than anything. Neither of the kids really cared about the candy and chocolate inside. They've never really been into sweets.

Eli turns one year old this month

We also took a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo on Thursday. The kids slept most of the way through the zoo, but they did get to see a few of their favorite animals. Benjamin didn't care for some of the animals, but he did like the monkeys and apes.

2008-03-18T12:50:00.002-05:00

The dining table arrived last week. It's nice to finally put the plastic card table away and begin using a real table. It's quite large, but I think it fits the space nicely. I'm glad Amanda suggested that we cut it back to only eight foot long - yes, I said "cut it back" because I originally thought it needed to be nine foot long.

The table has a bit of a rustic farm table look. The simple, white Herman Miller chairs make for a nice mix in styles, though we're going to need a few more of the side chairs.

While out and about last week we came across this fun retro looking fabric. It was actually being sold as a thin bedspread, but Amanda is going to cut it up and sew it into curtains for Ben's room.

It's always a struggle to get kids to eat nutritious food. Recently, and somewhat out of the blue, Ben starting asking for apples. He doesn't want them to be cut up or anything. He just grabs ahold of the entire apple and goes to town, barely leaving even the core when he's finished.

Let It Snow

2008-03-08T10:31:00.008-06:00

Just last week we were having 60 and 70 degree days. And then Thursday came along and dumped more than 7 inches of snow on Ponder, Texas.

That is unusual for Texas. Especially how quickly it fell.

Here we are at about 12:30 in the afternoon. The rain is just starting to turn to wet snow...

Then by 1:15 PM I was returning home and took this picture...

And by 2:45 PM we had 7 inches and couldn't see our driveway anymore...

Like I was saying, snow is somewhat unusual for this part of Texas. We get a lot of ice with maybe an inch or two of snow, but it's mainly just ice.

Amanda and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful snow and take a walk.

Not many pictures of me. We found out that the stripes on my Fedex parka are not flash friendly. Well at least I won't get hit my a truck back here in the woods.

And sadly, today (Saturday) the snow is quickly melting as we rise back towards 50 degrees. At least we had a few moments of wonderful snow to remind us of Michigan (for Amanda) and Colorado (for me).

Soon to be Delivered

2008-03-05T22:59:00.002-06:00

The house is coming together more and more. The large rug for the great room should be here within the next week. We are very excited for that since little Eli is crawling all over the place and we only have a small Ikea right now. He quickly finds his way off that rug and onto the concrete. So the larger rug (very large actually...18'x22') will give him more room to comfortable roam around.

The dining table is also nearly finished. We ended up buying two 8' sections of maple butchers block material from Lumber Liquidators. We are joining those pieces together to create one long table that's approximately 96" long x 42" wide x 30" high. We'll stain it a dark brown and then place the Herman Miller chairs around it to create a nice rustic modern mix.

We've also been installing curtains and door handles and such in preparation for the arrival of two important guests, the in-laws, or my in-laws at least. They're coming to inspect the house...or should I say "visit" in a few weeks. I know it truly going to be a mother-in-law inspection to make sure her daughter and grandkids are being taken care of.

Sorry for no pictures. We'll get some up when the table arrives.

Deadening The Echoes

2008-03-01T08:31:00.002-06:00

As you can see from the picture below, we have a large open space with high ceilings, concrete floors and lots of glass. All that equals one thing: echoes. We've been looking at acoustical panels and other solutions to the echo problem, but first we're going to try using a large rug, and by large I mean 18'x22', to cover from in front of the entertainment center to a foot or so behind the couch.

We're also going to try to find some nice window coverings for these large windows in the living room. Maybe a sleek looking, greyish toned linen panel curtain or something. But we before we make the final decision, we need some design help from Cousin Kolenda in Seattle (hint, hint). We need you to put those interior design skills to work...but no pressure.

We especially need to correct the echo problem before Benjamin learns to play this...

And for no other reason than to show off to the grandparents, here is Eli...

Time to Relax

2008-02-15T10:26:00.002-06:00

Some time in the middle of all the work we have been doing to make this house livable, somewhere in between putting on door hardware and moving furniture around and unpacking boxes, we have found a few moments to relax.

Our good friends from New Orleans came to visit during Mardi Gras weekend. They needed to get out of the New Orleans party scene, so they drove up to Ponder for a quick visit. It was a great opportunity for us to see their family, and it was also a good opportunity to test the house out and find any problems.

Problem # 1: The house has a huge echo problem. Especially once you pack four adults and four children into a large room full of glass windows and concrete floors and high ceilings, you get a lot of echo.

So who's dumb idea was it to put these concrete floors in? We are definitely going to have to buy a large rug and some window coverings. If that doesn't work we'll have to look into some acoustic ceiling panels. Most of them are ugly but we did find some good looking acoustic panels from MIO (see them at http://www.2modern.com/modern-furniture/Wall-Applications )

We have taken many a wonderful walk in the evenings. The outdoor beauty, peace and quite is one of our favorite things at the new house.

And Benjamin's favorite feature (besides the pond) is spending time outside, especially in the backyard. He would stay out there all night if we let him.

But the time to relax is over. We still have lots of pictures to hang, more hardware to install, paint to touch up, more boxes to unpack, a dining table to make, landscaping to plant, trees to trim........the work is neverending.

In

2008-02-10T17:05:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but things have been busy.

We ARE in the house now. We've had our first guests stay over. We've had our first round of flu. We've had a few bad storms. We've discovered what we love and dislike about the house.

And we have lots to do before we feel like this is truly our new home and not just a new house.

Hours Turn Into Days

2008-01-24T08:26:00.000-06:00

We're heading out today to move some more of our stuff over to the new house. This is first day we've been able to find somebody (grandma Johnson) to watch both of the kids. So we're using every bit of today and Friday to get all the small stuff over to Ponder.

And then Saturday will be the big push to get moved in.

Let's hope this Saturday turns out to be more successful than the last one.

Down to the Final Hours

2008-01-19T09:13:00.000-06:00

Well if you look at the poll data, it seems like the majority of people don't trust that Jim the Builder will finish the house my tonight. If that's what you voted for then you're correct. Jim says he needs until the end of the weekend to finish up final details. He hopes to be done late Sunday night. So is it just that houses take a long time to build or are Michigan people really just slow?

We haven't had internet access for the last three days, so sorry about the lack of postings. But we do have new pictures. Amanda and I took the boys out on Friday to look at the house. So here it is...

Eli stays warm next to the fireplace.

The lights from Hi-Lite Manufacturing finally came in.

The bamboo floor in the master bedroom.

The stairway got its final coat of sealant.

After a few mishaps with broken tile, we finally got the tub installed.

And finally, the front door walkway was finished on Friday.

Dime A Dozen

2008-01-12T20:17:00.000-06:00

We have trees! And lots of 'em.

Twice now a nice little Hispanic family has driven up to our house and sold us some great trees for next to nothing. At first I was skeptical, but then my builder said he knew this family. They own a tree farm about 30 minutes west of Ponder. The father has owned the farm for 20 years and is now going back to Mexico and his sons are taking over the business. Each Saturday they load up a bunch of mature trees and drive around our area planting them for new homeowners.

And the best part, not only are they much cheaper than any nursery in the area but they also have a one year warranty. He's already come back since the first trees we bought to check up on the newly planted trees.

Well today he came by again and had five large Red Oaks on his trailer. The trees were all about eight inches in diameter, and that size tree normally goes for $800 or so. He sold and planted all five trees for $1,300. That makes nine trees we've bought from him for less than $2,000.

He carries his entire family with him. Him and his wife dig the main hole and then their seven or eight year old son helps them set and bury the trees. The two young daughters run hoses around watering each tree. There is even a young 1 1/2 or so year old child in the car who quietly waits while his family works.

They are all very nice mature trees and add a wonderful finishing touch to the house.

Elkton, MI

2008-01-09T21:36:00.000-06:00

Welcome newest visitor from Elkton, Michigan. Who do we know from Elkton?

In other news, my builder and I agreed on next weekend to be finished with the house. Will it happen? Anybody willing to make a wager? $10, do I hear $20?

Amanda has started to pack like mad.

Lights and Plumbing

2008-01-07T09:06:00.000-06:00

It seems to take a long time to finish up all the final details like lighting and plumbing. We are moving at a snails pace, but at least we're moving forward. Last week about a 1/4 of the lighting fixtures went up. Most all of the plumbing is finished except for the toilets and showers. But it still seems like we're about two weeks away from moving in.

We never liked the idea of having hanging fans in the living room due to the different heights of the ceiling. Instead we found these old looking wall fans that push out quite a bit of air. We have
two of them mounted in the living room.

You can also see the Artemide Tolomeo lights under the fan. We liked how these lights have a task light feel to them. They can easily be extended downwards in the areas where we'll have a reading corner.

The art room with plumbing and fan in place

The Moen faucets that my friend got for us look great in the master bathroom

The rock and glass floor in the nursery came out nicely

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Over the holidays we took some family pictures. My parents are now up to 12 grandkids, and my sister is about to have #13. The average is three kids per family, and my youngest sister has now broken the record by having a fourth. Amanda and I need to have another one to keep up I guess.

A Few More Weeks...We Hope

2008-01-01T19:32:00.000-06:00

We are getting closer, much closer. We have just a few more major things to install like exterior doors and bathroom tile and we'll be able to move in. Everything else I can finish up after we move in.

I was able to get a bit of work done around the house during the holidays. After spending hours and hours cutting all the travertine into smaller tiles before Christmas, I was finally able to tile the backsplash in the kitchen and get us one step closer to moving in.

The tan, off-white tiles look pretty good against the dark colors of the wood and counter tops. The grey walls aren't exactly what we originally planned, but the color contrasts well against everything else. As you can see below, the appliances were also delivered last week (the dishwasher and fridge at least). The fridge, unfortunately, should have been ordered as a counter depth model to make it look more like a custom install, but we got such a good deal on this one that we're not going to complain too much about it sticking out a few inches past the counters.

Speaking of the fridge, I had never heard of a Samsung fridge before. I thought Samsung just made televisions and such. But as we searched around and did a bit a research on fridges, we came across this Samsung QuadroCool. There is this one Sub Zero out there that divides the fridge into four sections, each capable of cooling at different temperatures. We wanted that fridge, but for $13,000+ we quickly changed our minds.

That's when we found the Samsung Quadrocool. It does the same thing and has a similiar look. You can program the four sections into any combination you want: three freezers and a fridge, three fridges and one freezer, or whatever. And it gets great ratings on JD Power and Associates and Consumer Reports for efficiency and quality.

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We visited the house the Sunday before New Years and took a hike back in the woods. One of our huge trees fell down about a month ago and it left a huge trunk (about 15 feet high, big around as a car) that we are going to use as the base for a tree house some day. It sits on a hill and overlooks a flat area near the river and would be perfect for a tree fort. I wanted to show it to Amanda and the boys. The only thing I have to figure out is how to preserve the tree from now until we build the fort. Anybody with ideas on how to preserve an old hollowed out tree trunk, please pass on the ideas. Should I treat the outside of the tree and the bark with some kind of spray on urethane? Should I fill the hollowed out part inside the tree with cement?

We also took a drive down a few miles past our house. It quickly turns to wide open fields and old farms. It's a very nice drive any time of the year.

A Few From Christmas

2007-12-25T20:32:00.000-06:00

Here are just a few quick shots from Christmas day for the Michigan-ders.

The balloons were a bigger hit than the gifts.

Benjamin and Eli "shared" each gift, which means Ben kept them all from Eli

The airplane was Ben's favorite gift

Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T22:52:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve.

A wonderful family day. We spent some good quality family time together today, but we also had plenty of work to do. I had to spend the morning cutting the remaining boxes of travertine into backsplash tiles for the kitchen. The 16 x 16 tiles Home Depot had on sale look great once you cut them into 2" x 16" tiles. It creates a good looking modern tile for way less than the Ann Sacks travertine we looked at (nearly $30 per square foot compared to our $3 per square foot). We'll most likely put those up in the kitchen on the 26th or 27th.

I did, however, buy some great looking Heath Tile from the Ann Sacks moving sale. This oval pattern tile is usually outrageously expensive at $70 per sq ft. We unloaded everything they had for just $50. The Ann Sacks worker didn't seem to appreciate my constant bargaining, but in the end he let me go with cheap tile and a great deal on a mirror they had hanging on the wall.

Amanda had to run around town doing all her Tuesday errands early - like getting milk and eggs from the co-op group (gotta have fresh milk for all the Christmas goodies we'll be eating).

3:oo PM quickly rolled around and it was time to head out for Christmas mass. Mass started at 5:oo but if you don't get there by 4:00 you don't get a seat. You can get decent seats at midnight mass, but that's a thing of the past now that kids are in the picture. Life now revolves around their schedule, not ours.

Eli seemed to be okay with the 2 1/2 hours we spent there. Benjamin, as seen below, did not seem to be okay with it.

The Weather Outside is Delightful

2007-12-21T21:51:00.000-06:00

As the Christmas song goes, the weather outside is frightful, but December in Texas is just the opposite. The weather outside is just perfect, and we are using every warm day we can get. The concrete work has been finished over the last two days, and now we have our concrete driveway, a masterpiece or monstrosity depending on how you look at it.

Inside it's also delightful as everything gets finished up. The paint is finished. The countertops are in place. The carpet was installed today. We have all the sinks purchased. I just bought nearly 30 door handles and hundreds of square feet of tile from Home Depot. The Artemide lights have arrived..... everything is in place to be finished.

Amanda reviews the kitchen workmanship

The finished driveway in all its uber expensive concrete glory

Eli doesn't care which house we live in as long as he has a place to sleep

Benjamin definitely prefers the new house because of this one feature

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And back at our current house, work continues to prepare the house to be sold. As you can see below, Benjamin is ever helpful in getting chores done.

2007-12-18T22:55:00.000-06:00

We are finally getting a break from the rain. It actually warmed up to 70-something degrees today, which is kind of weird for December, even in Texas. But the warm weather is a welcomed change and gives us the perfect opportunity to finish a few exterior projects, like completing the driveway.

You can see below where we're laying out the outline of the landscaping circle that the driveway will wrap around. I drove my van around it numerous times today. If the big old Dodge van can make it then our tiny Toyota and Honda can easily make the turn (the did not make it by the way). We modified the turn many times and finally got it right.... I hope.

The interior paint will be done by tomorrow. The painters are pulling an all nighter to get it done. In the pictures below we are trying out a grey color on the kitchen and entry. It's difficult to see the exact color in these pictures, but it looks pretty good against the white and tan walls elsewhere. If nothing else, it matches the rock.

By the way, I hate picking out colors. I know what I like, but when you go to choose the color, there are 50 different greys, 150 different whites, and too many shades of red to know what to do with. I was tempted to go all white. It might have actually looked good against the wood and rock we have everywhere. But for now we'll try this color scheme and see how we like it.

The kitchen is still a mess, but once we get the tile and countertops and all that in place, it should look good.

Staining & Raining

2007-12-11T17:30:00.000-06:00

Inside we're staining. Outside it's raining. Those are the two main happenings out at the Ponder home lately.

Even though the rain is slowing down the work a bit, it's not necessarily a bad thing. We've done a lot of site work lately to prepare for final grading. We've brought soil up in front of the house and the rain is helping the grass pop back through the dirt already.

It took all of last week to spray the stain and do a couple of layers of sealer. There was tons of stuff to stain: book cases, stairs, wood beams, cabinets, desks. The painter said it was a much larger job than he had anticipated.

The stain is looking good. We're leaving a large portion of the house white, so the all the stained wood really helps bring out some nice warm colors against the white walls.

Here are the book shelves under the stairs in the reading nook, newly stained.

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And in other news, the garage sale went well. We sold just about everything, so as you can see below we are now using a card table as our dining table. We sold the Heywood Wakefield table and chairs, so we had to pull out and assemble the Krueger chairs to use with the card table.

It was a tough choice to sell the Heywood Wakefield table. That was one of the best antique finds we've ever made - only $79 for a dogbone Heywood Wakefield with both leaf extensions and all six chairs! You can't beat that. But with my limited knowledge of refinishing, and with a going price more than five times what I paid, I had to sell it.

If you've never seen the Heywood Wakefield M197 "Butterfly" table, here it is. It's has a great looking retro design from the 1950s. Maybe we'll come across another one some day.

Memories for Sale

2007-12-04T21:02:00.000-06:00

Well, our big garage sale is coming up this weekend. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather.

We've been digging through all our stuff from our first years of marriage and chosing which stuff to keep and which stuff to sell off. We have to narrow down much of our furniture and decor, especially since it is all a very eclectic mix of styles: cottage style, traditional style, Sante Fe style, mid century modern, danish modern, etc that we have purchased and collected as hand-me-downs over the years. We've decided on the mid century/danish modern/ found objects style for the new house, so everything else must go.

But somehow we are finding it hard to let things go. For example, for me, the weird and brightly colored Sante Fe bedroom set we "inherited" from my parents, I'm feeling strangely attached to it. Not only does it remind me of childhood in my parents home, but it also holds many memories of the not so distant past, memories of my family, my sons, visits from the in-laws, visits from friends who stayed in the guest room. We have no place for it in the new house, but I'm reluctant to let it go.

And there are other things too. It's seems difficult to give any of these items away that hold memories from our first five years of marriage. But I guess they have to go. There are new memories to be made. Maybe I'm just too much of a sentimentalist.

So on with the garage sale, and on with the next five years and new memories.

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Out in Ponder, the house continues to grow. The stairs and railing are finished, and thank goodness because we went back and forth on these stairs. We originally had this stairway completely walled in, then we opened it up and decided to go with metal railing, then we changed and decided to go with glass panels, then wood panels, then back to metal then...... needless to say, you can see in the pictures we ended up with wood posts and metal railing.

I think it looks great. Jim the Builder and his two sons did all this themselves. We are very happy with it. You are talented Jim!

Jim and his sons also started putting the ceiling beams up in the great room on Sunday. This will be a very cool little detail. It leaves the room with the open feel it had before while also giving it an interesting look, kind of cabiny but with a modern twinge.

And like many times before, Benjam's was not happy. We wouldn't let him go into the great room due to all the saws and dangerous work going on in there, and as you can see he let us know that he didn't approve of our decision.

Git -R- Done

2007-11-29T09:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was an exciting day out at the house. There were no less than 10 different trades out there doing work: electricians, painters, cabinet makers, A/C guys, roofers, garage door installers, road builders, Jim the Builder doing trim work, and me planting trees. The weather also warmed back up to the 60's, so we're in a mad rush to get any last exterior painting and road work done.

As I drove up to the site, I was surprised to see that most of the driveway has already been prepped. They should be pouring the road today. We've decided to go with more of a cement driveway than we originally planned. The rock driveway (to do it the right way) seems to be very expensive, so why not do it in cement?

It was also exciting to see the kitchen cabinets finally being installed. They look very cool. The cabinet maker did an amazing job.

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And another picture of Eli that Amanda wanted to share with her mom and aunts. We especially thank Aunt Theresa for the cute little cowboy outift. Eli seems to like it much better than Benjamin did.

Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow

2007-11-28T08:26:00.000-06:00

A Bit of Ponder History

As we were driving out to the house on Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law shared an interesting bit of Ponder history with us. The notorious depression era gansters Bonnie and Clyde began their criminal, bank robbing career right here in Ponder, Texas. The Ponder Bank building (below) was the site of their first attempted bank robbery. Supposedly there is still a bullet hole in the wall from the incident. Unfortunately for the infamous duo, the bank had failed just the week prior to their robbery and so there was no money to be stolen.

The scene below is also recognizable from the 1967 Warren Beatty-Faye Dunaway movie, Bonnie and Clyde.

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Eli has started to play with Benjamin more and more recently. He wants to do everything his older brother does, including playing with the trains, which is Benjamin's nightly ritual. Here is Eli sitting on the tracks and playing with Benjamin the other night.

a Happy Turkey day

2007-11-24T10:18:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving was wonderful. It finally got cold down here, which always makes Thanksgiving much nicer. It had been 75 degrees just the week before, so we were very happy to see the 40 degree weather blow in.

But as I said, Thanksgiving was wonderful. How could it not be? We have two great children and a house on the way. We feel very thankful.
We actually had a chance to visit the Ponder home on Thanksgiving day. My sister Staci and her husband wanted to see the house. They live a good distance away in the Dallas area, so this was a good opportunity to take them out to see the house.
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Back at the grandparents house, Ben had a great time riding this two person swing thingy. I don't even know what it's called. He did not want to get off and took numerous rides with cousin Gianni, once with dad and a few times with Savannah.

My sister Vicki had her dog out at the house and Benjamin thought it was just the best thing ever. He kept trying to hug it, but out of fear of him getting bitten, my sister had to hold him off. Eli seemed to just enjoy being inside where it was warm. There were plenty of people to pass him around, so he enjoyed the 100% attention he got.

I didn't get a picture of Eli from Thanksgiving, but here is one of the boys just before Thanksgiving on our family outing to Southlake Town Center, which is just a fancy outdoor mall kind of affair. As you can see, they aren't wearing jackets, which shows you just how warm it was just days before Thanksgiving.

We missed the traditional trip to Michigan for Thanksgiving. I guess we'll have to wait till next year. We are especially jealous of the snow y'all are getting up there ( ha, I made you say "y'all" ).

I Can See Clearly Now...

2007-11-14T20:38:00.000-06:00

Our new camera arrived in the mail today. We ordered a free one from our credit card Thank You network to replace the stolen camera. I thought I should update the blog with a few new better quality pictures.

The back porch looks great. All the masonry work is completed and the paint is going up this week. This is definitely going to be one of the most used areas of the house.

We have lots of stone left over from the build, so we decided to finish out a few areas in stone. One area, for example, is between the back porch and the master bedroom. This was planned as a landscaping nook, but it now looks and functions great as an additional porch area. We are also adding some landscaping beds in the front of the house with the leftover stone.

The loft area above the kitchen is taking shape. We roughed in plumbing for a future bathroom just in case this room is ever used as a game room or bedroom. This is one of Amanda's favorite spaces.

And the stairway leading up to the loft...

You can see the future location of the reading nook under stairs

More cabinets are benig installed. These are the built-in units in the kids closets. It ended up being cheaper to build these custom birch dressers than to buy new furniture at a store. And in the end, now that we have these, I think they are much nicer and better built than most of what you find in the stores.

The pond took just about a full week to fill. So far it looks like the extra work we did to seal the pond is holding the water. We've had the water turned off for two days now and the water level has not dropped an inch.

We all have our favorite rooms and nooks inside the house, but I can tell already that this pond is going to be a family favorite. Benjamin already loves to throw rocks into the pond. Amanda and I love the peacefulness of it. It's such a nice bonus to the property that we never expected.

Family Date Night Part II

2007-11-10T08:57:00.000-06:00

Part II

So after looking at the rest of the cabinets and stuff - you can see Ben here trying to help with the installation of one of the desks in the kids room - we headed outside to see the rest of the house.

It's hard to see in these pictures, but the roof is completely finished on the front of the house, minus the awnings. The roofers should be done early next week. The site is slowly starting to get cleaned up and we've even planted a few small trees (Lowes had a huge sale on trees in October, $5 each for Live Oaks and Elms).

Benjamin of course had to go visit the pond and throw more rocks into the water. I bet it will only take a year or two for him to have every rock on this property at the bottom of that pond.

It was getting late and way past the kids dinner time, so instead of trying to make the 45 minute drive back home, we decided to stop by this little restaurant in Justin, Texas called the Lonesome Spur.

The Lonesome Spur has a great country atmosphere, built inside the remains of an old warehouse just off the town's main drag. It has the perfect mix of wide open spaces for kids to run around, plenty of seating so we can get the noisy kids away from other guests, and concrete floors for the occassional spill (which did happen - Eli grabbed Amanda's tea and dumped it all over the floor).

They even have a kids play area. Wow, the perfect restaurant! And our bill came out to only $25, which for the entire family is a good deal.

So it looks like The Lonesome Spur is going to be a regular stop for the Johnson family.

Family Date Night

2007-11-09T20:24:00.000-06:00

Since it's often difficult to find a sitter and go out on a date night by ourselves, we decided to have a family date night by going out to Ponder and then to dinner.

We were very excited seeing the house. Most of the cabinets were installed today. It looks so much more like a house as the cabinets start to go in.

Here are some pictures (and forgive the quality, we're still taking pictures off the phone since our camera was stolen):

The unstained birch cabinets in the nursery

And here is the other side of the nursery with the rock wall finished

The master bathroom cabinets

And the rest of the house looks great too. The baseboards are being installed. All the interior doors are now installed. All the interior rock is finished.

Here is the entry area with the rock walls. The upper beams that will span this side of the living room will go up next week.

We'll post more about family date night later...

Exploring

2007-11-04T08:44:00.000-06:00

I've been back in the woods numerous times since we bought the property in Ponder, but Amanda and the boys have never been back there, primarily due the thick vegitation and hundreds of spiders back there during the summer months.

But now that it's fall, with much of the vegitation died down and most of the spiders holed up for winter, we decided to take our first family trip back into the woods. Amanda loved seeing the river and Ben just loved everything back there.

As you can see...

We didn't originally plan to go on a hike in the woods. We weren't really dressed for it.

As for the house, there is a lot going on right now. All the interior walls are up and textured. The masons are finishing the inside stonework. The exterior is nearly finished being painted. The roof is being installed.... and much more.

On any one day there seem to be 30 people or so working on site.

Here is a sample of the glass and rock showing through after

Pal's first few cuts on the diamond cutting machine.

The roof is going up and should be finished by the end of the week.

There it is, a metal roof.

ETA - December 25th

2007-10-30T15:53:00.001-05:00

Jim the Builder gave us good news the other day. He plans to have us in the house by Christmas. As long as no surprises arise, he thinks the interior finish out will be done by mid-December.

What a great Christmas gift!

We've begun the mad rush to pick out tile and wood and carpet and lighting fixtures and all that fun stuff. There is so much to choose, and so little money. We just purchased our fridge and dishwasher yesterday. We also ran into an old friend that works for Moen and he's setting us up with a great package of faucets and sinks (for a greatly reduced price). The cabinets are being made. The floor is being cut and polished. The site is starting to get cleaned up. It's all moving so fast...

Making the Cut

2007-10-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

Today it finally began, the event we've been waiting on for a long time, the diamond cutting of the concrete floor. We originally thought the floor was going to be cut immediately after the foundation was poured. We built ourselves up only to find out that it was going to be held off until much further into the build process.

But today Pal Currey arrived with his diamond cutting equipment and began the first cut of about ten cuts he'll have to do.

The machine has three round discs, each with numerous grinding surfaces, that slowly remove layers off the top of the concrete. As Pal completes his eight to ten cuts ranging from 80 grit to 3,000 grit, the floor will become highly polished and sealed.

You can begin to see the stone and glass we broadcasted into the concrete after just one cut.

Also today...

The masons are finishing up the remaining exterior brick work. This is one of the "wing walls" coming off the garage.

They also finished the brickwork on the back patio.

Leave us a comment

2007-10-22T14:23:00.001-05:00

I have enabled comments at the end of all posts which means that you can now leave us a short message. Remember that your comments are viewable by anyone who logs on to the site.

We'll try it out for now and see if we can get by without spam or other inappropriate comments.

So leave us your thoughts, tell us where you're from or whatever.

(click the "comments" button under this or any posting to leave a comment)

Miscellaneous

2007-10-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

A family visit to Ponder over the weekend.

Benjamin always seems to find the muddy areas.

Eli sunning on the back porch.

Benjamin inspecting the kids room.

The sheetrock is completely finished now. It's really starting to look like a house now. At this rate, Jim the builder thinks we could be in the house by Christmas. What a great Christmas gift that would be.

I couldn't show you our new "security system" last week since my camera was stolen (and yet to be recovered). All the pictures I had on the camera are now lost and gone forever. Our neighbors let us borrow their camper, which is now parked on site as a theft deterrent. It has been working great so far.

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And finally, yesterday Amanda, Eli and Ben drove me to Peterbilt to help me pick up the new truck. We toured some of the trucks on the lot before driving off with the new Pete 387.

As always, Ben had to inspect the truck before I bought it.

Back in the Black...Blackberry that is

2007-10-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

We were never able to find our camera and nobody has fessed up to stealing it, so we've been without camera up until now. This weekend, my friend from New York sent me a very nice birthday present, a new Blackberry. I've always had cheap simple little phones that can make calls and nothing else, and now I have a Blackberry that can makes calls, email, search the web, schedule meetings, play music, AND TAKE PICTURES!

Now you have to understand that the pictures aren't going to be as good from a phone as they were from our old camera, but at least we have pictures again.

So without further ado, some new pictures...

Sheetrock and insulation going up in the great room.

The back of the house is nearly finished.

The back porch fireplace.

Here is the back corner of the house where the master bedroom is.

Pictureless

2007-10-11T08:32:00.000-05:00

pic-tur-less (adj) : without pictures, the state of being without camera

So, I lost my camera.

After an entire day on site yesterday, and after taking many new pictures to update this blog, I seem to have misplaced our little red camera. Or maybe someone picked it up. Who knows.

So now I have nothing to show you. No pictures of all the new work going on. No family pictures. Nothing.

Until the camera can be found, these will have to suffice...

Stick drawings.

Here is Jose stacking more rock on the exterior.

And here the insulation is being sprayed on the interior.

How exciting!

So Far...

2007-10-06T21:16:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick animated photo of the build process so far. I'll update it as we go and by the end it should create a fun little "flip book" of the house going up.

Click on the photo to start the animation, then press the refresh button on your browser to watch it again.

Date Night. Thursday Afternoon.

2007-10-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I dont' often get to go out on a date night (though thank you sister Vicki for the recent night out for Amanda's birthday), so we decided to take an afternoon off and head out on a date afternoon.

We dropped Benjamin off at grandma's and headed out to the Dallas Museum of Art.

We enjoyed a walk outside through the Nasher Sculpture Garden.

We enjoyed the above piece called Walking to the Sky, a 100 foot sculpture with figures that were, well, walking to the sky.

Eli came of course, and he seemed to enjoy the fresh air. He enjoyed all of the outside exhibits more than the inside ones, and he became especially vocal during the inside visits to the Picasso and Lichtenstein sculptures. Was it being inside that he didn't like or does he just share his mothers distaste for those artists?