Construction update

Sorry I meant to post this earlier in the week, but it's been a tough week in the Geddis household, and needless to say it just didn't happen. But here is where the greatly anticipated pantry is at. Drywall finished, texture sprayed, and primed. Now waiting for time to paint the inside then and some shelves and fill 'er up! The wall will remain primed until we do the rest of the kitchen which will be soon? Maybe. But we have a bust couple of weeks coming up. Vacation is just a week away now and this weekend is filled with big state races so we are otherwise occupied and the construction will just have to wait! So close yet so far away. All in good time though.

BMX Weekend

What a great weekend we had! The sun finally decided to come out and play for the entire weekend. It was gorgeous on Saturday with the temps i the low 80's. We spent the entire day out at the BMX tracks getting some much needed racing in. Nick had such a great weekend and looks so ready for the big state qualifiers next weekend. The rest of us, well we look like little lobsters because we forgot the sunscreen on Saturday. Too long without having to worry about sun I guess. At least we remembered for Sunday!

We raced at 2 tracks on Saturday and he got a 4th in Newburg where he raced 4 experts and a couple of novices. Of the 4 experts (a class above his) he beat one of them to finish up 4th. He held hs own very well against some of the fastest boys in the state!

We then headed down to Salem to race there in the afternoon. He ended up racing against another expert & a novice who was a year older and twice as big.
Here is a video link to those races: Nick's races at Capital City BMX
He ended up 2nd after some pretty tricky maneuvering in the final race. Almost went down, but managed to stay up and pass the guy. It was great.

Sunday we headed out to our home track in Molalla from some more great racing. They had been working on the track all weekend for the big races coming up next weekend so the track wasn't in tip top shape, but it didn't seem to bother Nick much at all! Here are some photos from his race on Sunday.

Here is the start of the race Nick is pulling ahead! (Photo by James Thrash)

Halfway through:

While this photo makes him look like he was all alone on the track,

This photo shows the same place from a different angle. Our friend & fellow teammate James Thrash took this photo.

Another great photo by Thrash.

On the final stretch, he has quite a lead here.

Success! 1st place trophy! Great reward for all that hard work!

It was a great weekend with some great racing action and time spent with our BMX family. How we love those fellow racers! This week will also be filled with more BMX action while we get ready for the big races next weekend. The 29th annual Governor's Cup series is Father's Day weekend so we will be spending it out at the tracks. 2 tracks on Saturday followed by 2 more races on Sunday. We can't wait!

Here is the video of his 1st place finish at Molalla. He's only in the 1st and last race because he qualified in moto #1 and didn't have to race the other 2 qualifiers. Nick's Molalla Race 6.13.10

And tomorrow I'll post about the other exciting thing that is close to completion at the house! The pantry!

Summer is finally here!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy around here. School is out the end of the week which means there are last minute parties and homework assignments to wrap up. Not to mention Nick's 6th Grade send-off tomorrow morning! No more elementary school for us! Yeah!
They were supposed to be out of school on the 16th, but because of the ever present budget shortfalls they cut 3 days off the schedule. Fine with me, I thought they were in school a little later than usual anyway. The kids are looking forward to a summer full of sleeping in and no homework. I'm looking forward to a cleaner house since their chore lists are doubling since they will be the ones home and able to clean the house!

Our summer weather should actually be starting this weekend as well which is something we are really looking forward to. Hasn't really felt like summer around here with all the rain we have had. We should actually hit the 80's for the first time this year. The weatherman said that is a record of latest showing of the 80 degree temperatures. I'm looking forward to cleaning up the outdoor table and being able to eat outside on the deck. Having BBQs with friends, making s'mores while hanging around the fire pit in the late summer evenings. My favorite time of year is finally here!

We plan on doing lots of this:

 

And some of this:

And I'm sure some of this as well:

As long as I have time to do this:

I'll be good.

Something is missing

Nick has been gone to outdoor school all this week. The house has been very quiet without him. Even Gabi has been missing him! No strange random noises coming from downstairs, no yelling and making random noises in the morning as he comes upstairs. No nagging anyone about making sure the back door is locked. And nobody home to take out the trash. My trash can is full and needs to be emptied.

I can't believe how fast he has grown up! In just 1 month he will be 12 years old. What happened to my camo loving little sweetie? That boy used to LOVE dressing all in camo and thought it was so funny when we pretended we couldn't see him.

He also used to be the ruler Bryan used to measure the sturgeon they caught because he was the same length as the keeper sized fish. He still loves to go fishing with dad, but he's now much bigger. In fact his foot is as big as mine now, but I still have a few inches on him!

Look how sweet they were! He used to really like his big sister. He still likes her when she isn't annoying the crap out of him! But now it's next to impossible to get them to take a picture together.

Now he's a big soon-to-be middle schooler. Just a few more days of 6th grade and then we say goodbye to grade school forever. Gone is my little boy who always called Buzz Lightyear Buzz Year Light. Here to stay is the active boy who loves anything involving the outdoors. His quad, his bikes, skateboards, hiking, fishing, anything to do with the river & water. He loves life and there is so much more energy in the house when he is around.

Can't wait to have him home again. It just isn't the same around the house without him.

Camping - Memorial Day 2010

We went camping and riding in Florence for Memorial Day weekend. The weather turned out to be perfect for most of the weekend which was wonderful. We are so tired of the rain we were glad to get some much needed sunshine. Here are some highlights of our weekend:

Our group on the beach taking a break & enjoying the beautiful weather.

The water had such a beautiful blue-green color to it. Haven't seen the water so beautiful and calm in a long time. Almost felt like it wasn't the Oregon coast!

Climbing the hills are fun.

The little energizer bunny never stops. He doesn't back down from any challenge.

Sometimes climbing hills doesn't work out so well. He didn't quite make it up the hill and got himself wedged against a tree stump. Of course I took photos instead of helping get him unstuck. I'm helpful like that!

The energizer bunny up close. Such concentration on his face.

There is nothing the kids love more than jumping.

Nick's friend Riley is just as brave as Nick is.

Gabi is not to be outdone by the boys.

She shows no fear on a quad, but bicycles are scary. Go figure.

The boy can jump! Look at that air.

I love the little humps of sand all over covered by sand grasses. Very cool.

Love the yellow scotch bloom (or is that Scott's Bloom?) It was all over the place and blooming like crazy. Such a bright yellow. It was pretty.

We rode in the annual poker run which is always a blast. A poker run involves riding around trying to find different checkpoints. You then draw a card for every checkpoint you find and attempt to create a great poker hand from your cards. Prizes are awarded for highest hand and lowest hand. We never seem to draw very good hands, but we scored on the raffle drawing. We purchased 8 tickets and won 5 things. Not bad! 2 of our prizes were the matching yellow hats. We won them at different times. What are the odds of actually winning matching hats?

One of our favorite places to ride. There is a quiet secluded lake set back on some awesome trails. It is always so beautiful back there. We always mention how we'd like to go swimming there sometime. 

You can access the lake from a short hike at the campground too, but riding the quads there is so much more fun!

Nick almost went swimming here - quad and all. He hit some tracks when riding around the edge of the water (About halfway up on the photo) and they caused him to bounce and head straight for the water. He barely stopped in time. It was a little scary for my poor heart. It's fairly steep and I wasn't sure how we would have gotten him out of there, but luckily that boy has some serious skills and prevented a major catastrophe! You can see the tracks I'm talking about. They are on the right hand side of the photo in the upper 3rd of the photo. They look like 2 lines heading from the top straight down to the water. Then the little squiggly lines along side the water are from him taking off and getting out of there. I think we'll leave this area alone until some of the water disappears again!
 

This is Oz. The boxer who thinks he's a lap dog. He's pretty cute but seriously thinks he fits in your lap like he did when he was a puppy. Did I mention he weighs around 70 pounds? Good thing he's so cute!

Project update

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I was hoping to have some finished photos of the laundry room, but apparently we have jumped onto the next project first. Bryan got the dry wall up for the pantry and is working on mud now. Unfortunately the weather has been so cold the mud isn't drying fast enough so this might take a while. This is after the first coat. The pantry is only 14 inches deep I think so that makes working inside the closet a bit difficult, but it will be awesome once it's all finished. Can't wait for that!

 

So on Sunday while he was working on that I was hanging artwork in the Living Room. BY MYSELF! Usually I'm not allowed to wield a hammer in the house because I tend to eyeball it and we end up with lots of little nail holes in the wall. Well this time I actually measured everything and ended up with perfect straight and even artwork! I'm so proud of myself. Now I just need to go get some more candles to finish the look.

It looks kind of weird to see something on that wall when it has been bare for so long, but now it's starting to look more finished. I just love that wall, and all the iron and scroll patterns match the light fixtures in the rooms perfectly. Love it!

Now if I could just get my nerve up to hang the dishes I bought for the dining room wall. And I need to finish accessorizing the hutch too. It finally found a permanent home, but I'm not happy with the stuff displayed on it yet.

I need new flowers, baskets for above, and more color for sure. It will be a work in progress that I'm sure I will be picking stuff up for as I find it. That's it for now. Not much work going on this week since Bryan has a meeting tomorrow and we will be getting ready for the holiday weekend. Can't wait for all that fun!

On to the next project

Came home from work to this. Actually the front door was opened with an air hose was running up the stairs and behind the mysterious curtain. Just what is behind the curtain you ask?

 

The wall that will soon be hosting my new pantry! Bryan started on the next project before I could get good before pictures, so this is the best I can do. All my pantry items used to be in the cabinets down in the laundry room. Extremely inconvenient when cooking and I constantly had to run downstairs to get something from the pantry. (Actually the kids had to run up and down the stairs to bring me things. I'm not crazy, that's what I had them for isn't it?)

Anyway, since we took all the extra cabinets down in the laundry room I needed a new pantry. I have been wanting to move the pantry up in the kitchen for a long time, just hadn't figured out how to do it yet. We decided we no longer needed an eating area in the kitchen when the dining room is just on the other side of the kitchen. So that's where my new pantry is going. Then at the end of the wall by the french doors will be a recycling center with a built in cabinet to hold the garbage can & pop cans. 

Hopefully it will be a quick project and then we can tackle the rest of the kitchen. The rest of the kitchen includes new flooring, new countertops & backsplash, and reconfiguring a couple of cabinets to get more counter space. Fairly easy and inexpensive I hope!