Concrete pouring day.....

Rich and Karen got into town yesterday afternoon to spend the weekend, and help us get our sidewalk and steps finished. After some errands to gather necessary supplies for Saturday's 11 a.m. concrete delivery (yikes), we all started working on the sidewalk. On the agenda....framing. We started about four and by ten we called it quits. Then, we awoke to find dad working a little before six Saturday morning. So we all quickly got back outside to keep working. We managed to complete the last part of the framing/prep work when the concrete truck showed up fifteen minutes early (yikes). So no time for lunch or a break. Time to start pouring!

Needless to say....I immediately became nervous at the sight of that truck as I had no idea how to pour concrete. Once we got the steps poured and moved on to the sidewalk, the butterflies stopped. Dad was a GREAT leader and quickly gave instructions to mom, Adam, and I while he was working on his project. Having someone step-up and take charge was great because once that truck showed up our clouds disappeared and it got very hot (well...hot in Minnesota terms....as I think that it was only 76 degrees) so that the concrete was hardening quicker on us.

The truck driver was very nice though and instead of staying his 28 minutes and then charging us for extra time, stayed a little over an hour and helped us with manuevering wheelbarrows at times. He was very friendly and seemed laidback...which was nice given that Adam and I were clueless and everyone was exhausted at this point. Before I knew it, the truck driver was gone and we were left to even things out.

We finished after four hours straight of working with concrete, and everyone came inside for lunch, showers, and some rest. Tyler was the ONLY one going 100% and you would never have guessed that he didn't take a nap. After a good rest, mom and dad headed downtown to watch the baseball game, with Adam driving them down there so they wouldn't have to worry about parking. While they were gone, I got Tyler an early dinner/bath, put him to bed, and headed outside to water our plants/growing grass and pickup.

The MOMENT I stepped outside the tornado sirens went off! It was sunny outside, but I looked north and sure enough there was a black sky. I ran inside to check the radar....it was coming our way....ran back outside clean-up. Adam arrived right then and helped me get everything inside and then we moved the cars to shelter and ran inside right as it started hailing! Nothing like a good hail storm to smooth out a freshly poured concrete sidewalk, right? :) Will access the damage tomorrow....the good side is that now know that we have good drainage on our sidewalk since there were no puddles! ;)

Friday Night.....framing the stairs...


Saturday morning....Adam trying to figure out how to fix my cutting error.....

Here is me measuring to make the cut....looks right, doesn't it??? Somewhere....I got about an inch off....sigh...but I did get to use dad's compound miter saw and even got it to cut (once I stopped jumping back when it started up...it was a little intimidating!!

Asking Adam a question....if you see by the look on his face.....wasn't a good time to bring it up.....grin....

Us as the concrete truck arrived....

A quick-self portrait of grandma and Tyler before Tyler headed off to play in his crib for a little while...

Do we look nervous?? The concrete guy was just starting to let the concrete come down the shoot.

Dad and the concrete guy are just chatting away as the concrete comes down the shoot.....obviously....they are not as nervous as us!

Starting to pour the steps....

Adam leveling!

More leveling!

And MORE leveling!

We didn't get any "final" pictures for the day......here are some pictures I took AFTER the storm came through....so you can see the final product...it is just covered now with leaves and hail! :(

Check out the steam. It was in the upper 70's before the storm came through so everything was just warm. With all of the hail everything (shingles, the road, etc.) was steaming when we went outside to access.

this sums up how we are spending the rest of the weekend!

Adam can walk!

Well....you won't believe it....but Adam can walk! In fact, he was feeling pretty good today. His arms, back, and legs are sore but he was moving around pretty well, and even got out and moved concrete from the grass and soon-to-be sidewalk to our driveway to get it out of the way. Then he planted a Jane Magnolia in front of the house for me and put together a new wheelbarrow. Honestly, I haven't a clue how he is moving around. I doubt that I would be able to move at all after six-plus hours of jackhammering!

I didn't take any pictures today (I know...GASP ) but I do have a few from yesterday that I didn't include in the video. One is of me....yes me....jackhammering. Adam kept asking me if I wanted to try it, and all day I declined, thinking that he was nuts (because he was looking forward to doing it all week). Finally, when was at the last flat part of a step, he asked one last time. And then it hit me. This will *most-likely* be the ONLY time I can ever jackhammer. So...I caved. I took his safety glasses and tentatively stood behind the jackhammer (that he held up for me because it weighed over sixty pounds). I even put on some real shoes, instead of flip-flops. And sure enough I did it. And I even broke the concrete. So the second picture shows you what I did. I know that it is not a lot (especially compared to what Adam was done), but I was glad that I tried it out because now I can say that I did.

Here is what I did. :)

And here is what Adam looked like when he was done jackhammering. He seriously sat down in front of the steps and laid there for quite some time and commented about how nice it felt to sit down and relax. I thought that he was nuts since he was sitting ON concrete and AGAINST concrete....but I guess if I had just done what he had done, getting to sit down and rest would feel nice.

Of course, Tyler got worried and pulled up with his firetruck to check on his dad. I told Tyler that he probably needed an ambulance, but he seemed to think that just being there might help Adam get up. :)

Jackhammer Day

I thought that I would post some pictures of today's demolition. The dad's requested pictures/video of this process and wouldn't you know it...I have some. :) I put together a quick video as I have ended up with a TON of pictures once again thanks to the continuous shoot feature on the camera. Adam is still going strong. He started at ten this morning and it is almost three thirty. He has completed the main set of steps and was halfway through the second step (remember the sidewalk was destroyed last week via sledgehammer) so he is hopefully close to calling it quits. It is pretty load around here today, but our neighbors seem to be tolerating it. A few have commented about the size of his home improvement project, and the mailman Fred was nice enough to tell Adam not to kill himself (something he had not thought of prior to chatting with Fred). :) I will take a few more pictures when we (okay...Adam) are done. As for now, Tyler is napping (how I do not know with the noise) and I am *supposed* to be doing laundry (I got sucked into making a video...oops). I hope that everyone is having a great day!

Trying on mom's shoes.

I left my sandals in the middle of the kitchen floor and today Tyler found them. At first he put them both on (i.e. stood on them) and was grinning and chatting up a storm. I quickly ran to get my camera because I thought that it was cute, but he was never able to put them on again in the same way.

Just can't get the second one on.
Maybe if I take the other shoe off I can do it.

Mad at me when I told him that we were "All Done" so I could put my shoes up.

A quick smile with a head tilt and everything. He was hamming it up and I have a ton of these head tilt smiles (which is new). Also, after this picture he came running over to see the pictures on the camera. He is learning way to quickly.



I am also posting a few pictures of him playing his piano (it was THE thing to do this morning) and a couple from lunch.



Deciding what to practice playing.


Practicing is hard work.
But there is always time for a photo shoot.



He was refusing to eat the lunch I made (a baked potato with a pureed topping of red pepper, Lima beans, cheese, and carrots). I know it sounds gross but he LOVES this topping on pasta so I thought I would try it with a baked potato. But no go today. And in my attempts to get him to eat I tried spoon feeding him myself (he usually feeds himself) and with the cheese being all gooey I lifted the fork HIGH above my plate to wrap all the cheese up.....and out came the most carefree chuckle I have ever heard out of him. So...it became a game. And it got to the point where he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe....and you guessed it....lunch didn't get eaten because he just wanted to play and we had a play class to get to at noon. I did snap a few pictures of him laughing since I already had the camera with me. Too bad I didn't get video......



Giggle
Fest



And no worries.....he did eat.....just after play class.


I hope that everyone has an excellent Memorial Day. We are supposed to have weather in the mid-70's with scattered storms. So the temperature will be perfect....and we are just hoping that Adam can work in enough jackhammering to finish out the stairs in between rain showers. :) I will try to take a picture of that for everyone as well. I can't even imagine using one of those things....

May 20th

Here are some pictures that I took yesterday. Tyler was being so goofy during his bath and then afterwards that I snapped a few pictures of him being a "dog". He loves wearing the towels that look like animals. You can see by the pictures that he is pretty beat up. :( He took three big falls yesterday and then had a scraped up chin from the weekend. He doesn't seem to notice, but it sure does impact me. I just hate seeing him get hurt. I also wanted to include a picture of Adam's progress last night. He tore up the final slab of sidewalk and now has the two sets of stairs left. He also dug up the ground (we are widening the sidewalk) so I could get an idea of what it will look like.

Just missed his big smile. He did sit there watching me take pictures of him for awhile though and just kept saying "dog" over and over.

Telling me to stop taking pictures and play with him.

My poor boy is beat up. :( Doesn't seem to phase him though.

Here is where Adam finished out the sidewalk yesterday by the other steps.

This picture is pretty blurry. It was dark here and Adam wasn't holding still (too busy working) so not a great picture...but you can see the steps that are before him.

Tyler can say apple

This afternoon Tyler and Adam were in the kitchen. Tyler kept signing apple to Adam so Adam handed him an apple from the fruit basket. Tyler walked around with it (proud of his treasure) and it wasn't before long that we noticed he had taken a bite out of it. He was very happy with the apple and Adam taught him to say "apple" too, which made him even happier (probably because we were clapping and smiling when he said it). He ended up eating half of the apple with lunch and was upset when we took it away (he was done eating it....but still wanted to hold it).

Here is an updated picture of our birds nest. I took the picture early Sunday morning and am now glad that I did. When Adam and I checked on them in the afternoon, they had all left the nest. Later in the evening we discovered one standing in our yard with Ellie about five feet away. Adam went to get Ellie and she never noticed what she was so near to.

Here are two pictures showing you Adam's progress today. He managed to get all of the sidewalk demolition completed and a good portion of our front steps. These pictures are before he completed his work on the steps (which now look like a big concrete slide). Needless to say, he is pretty sore and called it a day before dark this time. I still can't believe how much he got done in just a day. Just amazing. And I am hoping that he can get out of bed tomorrow.

Here is a picture of Ellie. Clearly, the day of loud noises has worn her out.

Guess what project Adam started at 9 on Saturday night....

So after going to the driving range with Matt, and spending the afternoon with Matt, Angela, and Grant we got home a little past Tyler's bedtime. With a little bit of sunlight left, Adam grabbed his sledgehammer and crow bar and set to work on the steps. It took a little while for Tyler and the girls to get used to the banging, but soon they were all settled in bed. They all had a big day playing with Grant and Sasha (Grant's puppy) and all went without naps, so they were all pretty tired.

I thought that I would take pictures. Adam made a ton of progress in just the time it took me to get Tyler to bed. I was so shocked that I ran and grabbed my camera. His thought was that if he could knock some of the demolition out tonight, it would make tomorrow easier. Since Adam has to work during the week he is hoping to get the demolition done this week, framing the next, and then maybe pour some concrete the week after that. He is having to use our recycling container for little pieces of concrete because I currently have our wheelbarrow full of grass and dirt from digging a garden this week. So tomorrow I need to empty that out so that he can use the proper equipment to save some lifting time (since I would bet concrete isn't something that our recycle service accepts). Needless to say, now that some of our sidewalk is gone, we have to do something or our mailman might boycott us.