The Awesome

First came the decision that we wanted to go out and meet Sara and Jacob somewhere while they were vacationing in PA.  Then the question was where.  Well, Google maps misled me to believe that Niagara Falls was closer to us than driving clear the heck out to Erie, PA.  Not that that was really the issue.  Come on!  It’s Niagara Falls!!  The epic family vacation!!! That apparently everyone in the world has been to except for me and Jeremy.  Nevermind.  Grand Canyon: Check.  Niagara Falls: Check.  Mount Rushmore: Maybe, maybe not someday.

It was spectacular and all those things that people would say about such a thing as Niagara Falls.  The drive was quite long with a lot of pointless lane closures for nonexistent construction.  It was very scenic, though.  We played a little “I spy,” but I really have to say TGF movies in the car.

The first night there, we met Sara and Jacob at the Anchor Bar, which claims to be the home of the first buffalo wings.  We sampled some of the wings there and then drove to Duff’s Famous Wings, which were supposed to be better.  They were.  Then we hurried to catch the last bit of the fireworks display over the falls.

Our first view of the falls was not so impressive.  I worried that it was true that you could not get a good view from the American side after all.  The next day we went and saw it from every angle possible without crossing the border, and I was not one bit disappointed.  The best views of the falls overall were from the Maid of the Mist boat tour.  Later we were immersed in the falls when we went to the Cave of the Winds.  Everyone enjoyed the Cave of the Winds the best.  I found it just a little bit scary.  Walking toward it really felt like walking toward a hurricane.  But I enjoyed it the best, too.

We were going to part ways with Sara and Jacob to go camping while they returned to Jacob’s parents, but we were spontaneously invited to go back with them.  We chose to do that rather than camp.  That way we were able to stay long enough to do everything that we wanted to.  We went to Duff’s again that evening to try some more of their wings.  They were that good.  I also got a Roast Beef on Weck, which I heard was a local specialty.  It was a very good variation of a roast beef sandwich.

It was fun to go to the Ashley home in Erie.  It was very late when we finally arrived.  We found Jacob’s parents very hospitable.  Jeremy and the Ashleys stayed up pretty late watching tv.  I could not keep my eyes open a moment longer and am pleased to say that I was able to resist Jeremy’s power of persuasion by going to bed.  We had a long drive the next day.

The next day we chilled in our pj’s all morning eating cereal (or candy, in Jeremy’s case).  Jacob showed us the beach at Lake Erie before we left, completely satisfied.

My latest house project was, unfortunately, not one of my choosing.  I was walking Milo home from school a few weeks ago when I noticed that a large piece of stucco was coming off of our foundation.  I freaked out and immediately called a structural engineer to save my house from falling down…  When he came he explained to me that it just wasn’t that big of a deal.  In fact, it was such a small deal he would like me to find someone else to fix it.  He also said that it was something that I could do myself and even explained step by step how to do it myself.  I wonder if he realized what an avid do-it-myselfer I am when he was telling me that.

All the stucco on that side of the house came off easily just with my hands.  My neighbors let me know that the previous owners had been out slapping that stuff on the wall pretty much right before we moved in.  The structural engineer had told me that the stucco is only cosmetic, so it is not that worrisome for it to crumble off in places.  I was freaking out more when large portions of the foundation blocks underneath were also crumbling.  But the SE had also explained to me that a few of the foundation blocks can be compromised without affecting the stability of the house.  Otherwise I probably would have fainted when I saw this:

A negative slope combined with the fact that this wall is North facing and never sees sunlight helped  contribute to this crumbling cinder block.  BTW, cinder block is a terrible thing to make a foundation out of.

I thought that these blocks would have to be entirely taken out and replaced.  However, I consulted with a book on masonry and found an alternative.  I was able to chisel off the faces and webbing of the damaged blocks and mortar in new blocks that fit inside.

This is after I chiseled out the blocks.  You can see the narrower blocks that I then mortared into the wall.  I failed to take a picture of any of the other in-between steps.  Sorry.  Jeremy and I then dug a trench along the  wall in order to get the new stucco hopefully below the frost line.  We covered the wall with metal lathe, attached with masonry screws.  Then we applied stucco  to that.  During this time it was raining more days than not. On days it was raining, I duct taped a tarp over the whole thing to try to keep the rain out of it.  Jeremy helped me with the first 2 layers of stucco.  After the second layer, his hands became too injured for him to help anymore.  Let the record show that I told him to wear gloves.  I did the final coat myself.  Then I applied foundation sealer.

I had 2 yards of topsoil delivered and used that to build a better slope from the house.  I ended up shoveling half of it by myself before one of our home teachers came to help.  He and I were almost finished when Jeremy came home.  I let the men do the rest.  A yard of dirt weighs between 2430 and 3375 lbs.  I can testify that doing this kind of work builds in your muscles seriously fast.

I’ve spent my time since then planting it.  Friday I placed the last brick for the edging.  Thank goodness.  Now I can do something else.

Subject: To there and back again

What a great last three weeks.  First, we went and saw the statute of liberty, then we went to DC, followed by a relaxing weekend of doing nothing. The entire three weeks was filled with awesome, which cumulated in me making the most awesome angel food cake ever.  I told Silas it tasted so good because I had added real angel wings into it.  He was confused.

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Jeremy had to go to DC for work, so we decided to make a family trip out of it.  It was about a 4 hour drive.  I was very surprised when we first arrived in the city because there are no very tall buildings.  Most of DC looks like the downtown of any city.  Of course in the national mall, each building could probably be confused for the White House. Read the rest of this entry »

We went to the Statue of Liberty for Memorial Day.  I have heard many people say that the SOL is not the most fun in the world for kids.  I think my kids would probably agree with that.  Of course they only wanted to stay home and play video games.  We tried to persuade Silas to go by telling him that we were going to see a giant robot lady.  He agreed as long as it was a giant zombie robot lady.

We parked too far away.  So we walked and walked.  We stood in a very long, slow moving line.  At the end of that line was the pier, where we waited even longer for a ferry.  With better preparation and timing, I could see it going better than it did.  Nevertheless, none of it was my kids’ cup of tea.

We wandered around the museum on Ellis island.  Because there’s nothing in it that is geared toward young children, we mostly had to chase after them and try to keep them with us.  We only skimmed over the exhibits and missed many of them entirely.  Jeremy and I both agreed that what we saw was very interesting and we would love to go again without the kids or perhaps with the kids when they are older.

There was quite a long wait for the ferry to Liberty Island.  We talked about staying on the ferry and going back to New Jersey so that we would not have to wait for another ferry if we got off.  But we figured after so much ado, we better see the statue.

The line for the ferry to get off the island went on and on.  We got in the back of the line and then got on very promptly.  Our timing was perfect that time.  Every other time we were always at the front of the line, waiting forever.  Lesson learned.

Yeah, so last weekend we were those parents that dragged their kids to see some boring thing when they would rather be playing video games.  Wa-ha-ha.  It was all part of our evil plan.

Subject: In which we go camping

Apparently, this journal is going the way of all of my other journals that I have ever kept – I write in it a few times and then completely stop.

This MONTH has been one of excitement.  Amber’s mom came into town, Milo went to a whole slew of birthday parties, and we finished the basement.  Can I get a big Huzzah? That’s right – our basement has been rendered livable thanks to the hardwork of Amber.  Now we just need to make sure the entire house doesn’t fall down.

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I took all the “before” pictures before I got my new camera.  So I think they may be on one of the disposable cameras that I haven’t developed.  I took lots of “during” pictures that I think give a pretty good idea of what the room originally looked like, but all of them are after the room had already begun to be deconstructed.  If I find those original pictures, I will put them up.  Removing the lally column changed the room quite a bit, which you don’t get to see without those pictures.

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After working on it a couple hours here and there, I finally began working on the basement relentlessly for about two weeks in order to finally finish the stupid thing. The carpet was installed the day before my mom and grandma came on April 30^th. This way we were able to move quite a bit of furniture in order to move the tv room to the basement and the guest room from upstairs to the former tv room on the main level.

All of that was obviously a great deal of work and stress, which abruptly ended when my mom and grandma came. We had a restful day the next day after they arrived and on Saturday we drove into Manhattan to watch Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was our first time ever driving into the city and since it was late Saturday morning, the traffic was very light. I was very irrationally afraid of the Lincoln tunnel and the streets of NYC, as it turns out. Milo protested going to the theatre and threatened to behave poorly if he did not receive large sums of candy. He and Silas both behaved very well and enjoyed the show quite a bit. Large sums of candy were received, but would probably not be required to persuade them to come with us to another show in the future.

My mom and grandma went on their own on a tour of New York, so I was able to take Milo to school and keep our normal routine. On Tuesday I excused him from school and we all went to the American Museum of Natural History. We all enjoyed it and saw many things that I think none of us have seen before and learned some things we never knew before. The kids especially like it. Silas liked the dinosaurs the best, of course. I was very surprised that Milo said he liked the exhibits of the Native Americans the best. We were unable to see everything. It is probably too big of a museum to fully explore in one day.

My mom drove in New York that day. This time we drove 3 miles through the heart of New York and even merged into the Holland tunnel during the worst part of rush hour. Besides taking a very long time, it was not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be. I am mostly afraid of all the pedestrians, but I dunno, maybe I would give driving in New York a try, myself, someday. We even found reasonably priced parking at only $26 for the day, if we are willing to do a bit of walking. Only about $41 if we are unwilling to do much walking. It’s just the parking on the street that costs $40 per hour. We get better at maneuvering the city each time we go there.

I was pleased that my kids were as big of fans of my Grandma Miller as I was as a kid. She is very liberal with treats and toys and fun things for kids and she has a very good sense of humor.

My mom played board games and video games with Milo and Silas, which is an easy way to gain their favor. She also brought crafts to do with them. Milo can be occupied for hours with some paper and a glue stick. Silas less so, but he ate many of the popsicles that they made. They also painted some t-shirts that Milo showed off to his friends the next day and Silas had to wear his sunglasses all day with his new shirt to make himself look even cooler.

They were both very sad when their grandmas left. Emo was also very sad that Grandma Miller left. My grandma is fond of little dogs and was very nice to her. Emo cried and cut herself a little that night.

Subject: RE: Work

Three weeks since my last update.  I’m getting worse.  This last week was Amber and my anniversary.  We went and saw Monsters v. Aliens in 3D with the kids.  They loved it.  I thought the 3D was really good, but the overall show was only okay.  BOB was very funny but the rest was more lackluster. Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t believe that I am sitting at my desk writing a blog again.  It’s been so long.  Well, today is a special occasion.  I got a memory card reader for my camera in the mail.  It works!  I can put pictures straight onto this computer now.  I celebrated by making bagels. Read the rest of this entry »