All in a Day's Work

So I've been putting off a lot of things on my "Household To Do List" for a while now, and finally had to get to them this past weekend.  At first I wasn't looking forward to doing them because it meant I had to put off more fun things that one can do on a Saturday, but when I had finally finished, I didn't want to stop!  I wanted to just keep going as all these new things came to mind that needed to be done.  There's something really satisfying for me in doing home improvements and creating things with my hands.  When all was said and done, here is what Alicia and I accomplished on Saturday:

1) Levi and I went for an early morning run (Levi got it easy by riding in the jogging stroller)

2) We cleaned out basement bedroom that has been used for storage and as an excercise room to get it ready for a guest to stay in.

3) After cleaning out the room, discovered that the basement window in the room lets in all kinds of nasty bugs (spiders, earwigs, etc., sick!) through open gaps in the frame, so we sprayed them all with bug killer, sucked them up into the vacuum and decided to seal the gaps in the window with caulking.

4)  To prevent any more bug problems, we then sprayed a bug repellant around the base of the foundation of the duplex (both units) outside and inside in the basement.

5) Once the bug problem was taken care of, we decided the window needed a curtain covering, so we picked up a valance and a rod and installed.

6)  The room was starting to look nice, but then we noticed the carpet was disgusting with all kinds of stains and marks, so we rented a carpet cleaner from the grocery store and after like 10 trips up and down the stairs to fill up and empty the cleaning solution (all done by Alicia while I was "suppposed" to be watching Levi and cleaning up upstairs) it turned out really nice!

7) We put the finishing touches on the room (set up and made bed, hung a picture, put in furniture) and it went from a nasty bug infested storage room to a decent guest room....who knew!

8) We recently got new windows to update the ones we had previously that were from the 70's which was a nice upgrade, but they still let the sun beat down on everything in our house which made it a million time hotter than it already would be with 95 -100 degree days, so Dustin helped us put up blinds in all the windows (6 total) and it's sooooo much nicer!  Now we don't feel like we're living in a fish bowl!

8) As if all of that wasn't enough, I got some self-tapping screws and finally put our front license plate on the front of the Maxima.  We got tired of getting tickets or getting pulled over (I think at least 6 tickets and 2 or 3 times pulled over) for not having a front plate, so it felt good to have that done.

I'm sure there was more that we did...just can't remember cause I'm too tired from it still! Haha.  But like I said, every time I see that license plate, the blinds, or the nice new guest room (without bugs) it gives me a sense of pride and satisfaction at what we were able to accomplish.

Carrying on the Skelton Name

Hi Everyone!

Alicia and I went in for the first ultrasound today for our bun in the oven where they can tell what the gender is......and it turns out we're good at making boys!  For some reason I was sure it was a girl, but I guess I was wrong.  Now that makes the current balance of boys/girls uneven on the Skelton side of the family (3 girls, 5 boys).  I guess that goes with the Skelton tradition.

Here is little boy Skelton, currently 9 ounces and healthy as far as they can tell.

Here is the evidence!  I guess he was being bashful and didn't want to give the ultrasound technician a clear shot, so the picture is a bit blurry.

Pictures of My Cheeser!

We met Katie and Corey at the zoo for Katie's end of the year field trip. This was our group and we had a good time!

Levi loves to read his books with his huge puppy. He is also VERY aware of the camera at any time. Must mean we have a lot of photographers in the family. Funny story we were at a wedding yesterday for my friend from high school and the photographer was also a friend of mine from high school. Levi found her and followed her around posing all day for pictures. It was funny, as he had never met her but loved getting his picture taken!

Asleep at lunch. So I now know Levi is part Trail! He can fall asleep eating! I had several of these pictures taken as a little kid and couldn't wait until my kids would fall asleep eating and it finally happened! Sleeping anywhere and everywhere except for in bed at bedtime is a Trail trait and so far Levi is proving to be more Trail than Skelton in the sleeping department (unfortunately!) Our house is soooo hot that if you are at our house during the day this is normally how Levi is dressed.