Anyhow, I think it is funny about what makes things my favorite things.  The kids’ hair-dos are not the most styled, the scenery isn’t all that special.  Still, there is something that makes me love these pics.  In one picture (somehow), I can almost see every day and every awesome memory from the day they were born until now.  Isn’t that strange?

I am not judging The Voice but I am so happy to be a coach on The Life!  The potential on my team…incredible!

How, you might ask, are the pre-teens wearing these new fangled things?  Behold:

This boy is so cool!  He didn’t mind showing off and had a lot of fun doing it.  Isaac means laughter according to the books that make up meanings for names.  He really lives that part too.  He’s a great kid and so clever and fun!  Sometimes I wonder if he will get into the teenage angst junk and stop having fun with the family.  I hope not.  I know there is a certain amount of that coming but hopefully we will all get through it just fine.  And heck, if he gets too big for his britches, I can always break out these pics and remind him of when he was just a pup!  How much are those invisible dog fences again?

We had family over for a late-ish lunch and did a little napping and otherwise goofed off.  We had to pack of course.  Santa made reservations for the day after Christmas so there was little time to waste.  Ok, so you want to know where we went?  We went to the Great Wolf Lodge near Cincinatta (That’s how we say Cincinnati here in WV).  It’s a huge indoor water park.  At first, I figured it was going to have a few lawn sprinklers and a diaper-seasoned kiddie pool.  I was soooo wrong!  The park had a wave pool and a lazy river and a half-dozen really awesome water slides!  Water slides used to mean you skidded down on your butt and had to wiggle your way down the bottom half…oh no, not at Great Wolf Lodge.  The rides are awesome and you haul butt around the curves and down the tubes.

Abigail was pretty concerned at first but I assured her that we wouldn’t die.  She agreed to go on a ride with me after that (she actually bought the part about not dying.)  I told her they had not lost anyone in a few weeks.  Once she got a few rides under her belt, we could barely keep up with her running to get back in line again.

Isaac was more diverse in his use of the park.  He spent a lot of time dumping buckets of water on unsuspecting people below.  He really made use of the entire place pretty well too.  For some reason, Isaac and Abigail never got cold.  They kept the air temperature at 84 degrees but I swear the water was 60.  Anyhow, they never got cold but my lips turned blue and my nose hairs froze and broke off.

Great Wolf Lodge - Lazy River

Great Wolf Lodge - Water Slide

The other cool part of the surprise is that Santa gave my brother and sister-in-law the same gift!  The kids had no idea they were coming so it was a great surprise.  All-in-all, it was a great trip.  We only stayed 2 nights and that was just about right.  Great Wolf is mighty proud of their place so my wallet is glad Santa only sent us for a short time.  We were physically exhausted after two nights anyhow.  I bet we burned a Christmas ham’s worth of calories in three days!

Getting ready to ride!

Just before the near-crash!

When we checked out, my brother and I were sent out into the cold to load all of our loot into our cars for the trip home.  Living up to our 13-year old mindsets (though possibly not my 40 year old body), we returned the luggage carts in typical pubescent-boy fashion!  I have to give props to my brother for using his ultra-manly muscles to prevent me from turning over.  We were absolutely hauling butt across the parking lot hoping to provide an example to my kids and all of the other kids that got the chance to see how grown-ups are supposed to act!

The 2011 Christmas tree!

Naptime with the cat!

Wait, what? It all sounds familiar except the Noah’s Ark cookies. Doesn’t everyone do Noah’s Ark at Christmas? Ever since we lost all of our typical Christmas cookie cutters, we have gone with Noah’s Ark. Santa really loves sugar cookies and especially if they are covered in super thick, rich sugary icing (yeah, he told me exactly how he likes them so I can relay that to Abigail, our decorator). Emily and Abigail mixed up the dough this morning while I went on an egg nog run. Emily, Abigail and I cut out and baked the cookies and Abigail has decorated them. She is such a trooper. Isaac is more of a bum but I am sure that he supported us in spirit anyhow. It’s hard to say as he is up in his bedroom trying to escape our over-the-top rendition of White Christmas.

A pig and an elephant cookie

That's how she decorates cookies!

Icing - extra thick! For Santa of course

Anyhow, it’s such a pleasant and sunny day that it is hard to get into a proper Christmas spirit in the usual way. Instead, we are doing our best to get all of our family traditions in a row so the kids will have proper discussion for their therapy sessions when they are adults. They might as well get their money’s worth, right? Merry Christmas and happy Noah’s Ark day!

The window view...not framed in yet

Progress

That's a long ways down!

The dastardly weatherman called for snow and rain to thwart the attempts of our heroes to get the place weathered in before the snow  ruined all of the hard work and industrial glue used to hold together the over-priced plywood and OSB used throughout.  Ok, I can’t stand the wait…no cliff-hanger here.  We got the sheathing up and put  house wrap up on about half of the place the last two weekends!

One gable end framed in!

The high parts are done!

Red Riding Hood

House wrap, it turns out, is some weird stuff.  It blocks water from the outside.  Water vapor can freely escape the other direction though so moisture from inside the house can get out.  The problem is that if larger water particles get behind the wrap, they are held in place…only water vapor can escape.  Sometimes that makes things rot as water usually does.  I read a bunch of stuff on the internets about whether house wrap was a good idea or whether old fashioned tar paper was better.  It seemed like I found a pretty mixed story about it.  Most people said tar paper was really good and that it lasted forever and has been used successfully for a long time.  House wrap is only popular because it goes up fast which is important to home builder.   That fact is also popular with my wife so we (she) finally decided to use house wrap.

The first of the house wrap

About half of the house wrap is up!

We have about 4 months to get the house wrap covered with siding before UV rays from the sun start to ruin it.  If anyone remembers my other remodeling experiences, you will recall that a 4 month deadline is pretty tight for me!  The kids have really enjoyed hanging out with their great-grandparents as we do this final push to get things done though.  Another few months would suit them just fine I think.  Great-grandparents, it turns out, really like to spoil great-grandkids.  Apparently it is in the Constitution or something.  Anyhow, as this year (and probably the nice weather) wraps up, I really owe a lot to all of the family and friends who have helped in various ways to get this place under cover!  I am so tired of wrapping so your Christmas presents are in the mail!

See all of the progress on the cabin

Both of us...at the same time...6 years ago, the last time we got dressed up I think!

Sometimes, I suppose different dress is required. I always said there is only one reason to get dressed up – to honor the end of a life…like at weddings and funerals. For those occasions, I have exactly one suit.

I think he actually liked the tux...or is that a scream of pain?

Isaac has a band concert tonight and he had to wear something a little more special than the usually middle-school-wear of jeans and a hoodie. He had to wear a collared shirt…gasp! Of course, he forbade Emily to buy him anything with a collar in August when we bought school clothes so they had a shopping trip yesterday to prepare for the band concert.

His usual outfit...

For me, clothes are a nuisance. I am not ready for the nudist camps but I just don’t care about wearing the best designer clothes or anything but my one pair of brown shoes. Isaac is much like me though he had definite opinions on what new clothes he needed. He was so proud and excited to wear something different I think.

He is such a great kid, though it is nearly impossible to get a serious shot of him

You might think we are cheap-skates by how he justified his new clothes, “I can wear them at Easter too Dad!” I know better though…he is growing far too fast for those clothes to fit at Easter. Still, I appreciate his thrifty suggestion.

So, the boy turns 12 on Friday. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been 12 years since his beginning.  He is about the same height as Emily and wears bigger shoes than I wear (my brown shoes are safe!)  I think the only other occasion, besides the band concert, for which Isaac can wear his new fancy clothes is his birthday party.  He is a fantastic kid and I am so proud to be his Dad and to watch every minute of his journey to adulthood.  I think I have the perfect birthday gift for his 13th birthday.  My suit will probably fit him just fine by next year…

I looked over at Emily and then at Abigail and I guess she picked up on my discomfort.  ”Did you hear all of those cuss words, Dad?”  ”Yes Abigail, I heard them.”  ”Don’t worry Dad, I already knew them.  Isaac taught me most of them.”  That’s a relief…I guess.  My gaze turned to Isaac and he had the sudden need to go study…something.

So, we still have tv and the kids still get to watch it.  They can watch any channel they like so long as it is the Weather Channel.  The kids still yell at each other, but I don’t mind.  ”Hey Cumulonimbus face, your occluded front is running down your chin like the Noreaster tears across New England.”  ”Oh yeah, well  the barometric pressure is making the dew build up on your weathervane of a nose!”

The ridge board that supports the rafters at the top end

So, I became a city boy and all that friendly stuff had to be put on the back burner.  It’s not that people in a city aren’t friendly once you get to know them… it’s just that you have to find a way to get to know them first and sometimes even neighbors aren’t interested in getting to know one another.

So, fast forward a bit.  The folks from whom we bought the property still live on the land they retained the next hillside over.  Larry, Granny Sue’s husband, delivered some scaffolding he had over at his place a few weeks back.  He showed us how to set it up and use it and has let us keep it up there as long as we need it.  And then last weekend as we were working on setting up our rafters.  One of the boys (they are grown men but we call the brothers that live near us, “the boys” and I think they would be ok with that) came by on his 4-wheeler to ask if he could hunt on our property.  I told him that any of the boys and their family could hunt but I didn’t want anyone else who didn’t live up there hunting.  I would have never known whether they hunted or not during the week but I am really glad he asked.

Anyhow, we agreed that he could hunt so I figured he would go on to do other things with his day.  Instead, to our surprise, he asked if we needed help.  I was thrilled because Emily and I were trying to maneuver 16 foot long 2×8 boards around by ourselves on the second story of the deluxe shed.  It was going to end up with a bout of intense negotiation.  So, our friend climbed up and we started to work.  We worked an hour or so before we had to head home.

That’s about half of the rafters done!

Now that’s one thing, helping a guy for an hour, but the next day we got up there and my friend came over and brought his brother with him!  We worked together all day long and got half of the faters in place and secured!  They were a huge help and I was delighted to get to know them a little better.  We had met on other occasions, but we hadn’t really talked or goofed around before.  Aside from their tremendous help, I absolutely loved the sense of community and belonging that we have felt up on the ridge.   The neighbors across the way (she’s a sister to the brothers) came to visit the first day we showed up.  Our kids have played with their kids every time we are up there.  They invited us to a potluck dinner one night where we talked about all sorts of things and may have solved the world’s problems.  The brothers who helped with the rafters along with Larry and Granny Sue have been so kind and helpful as we work on the new place.  With the utmost respect I say that I am so glad to have country neighbors!

See all of the progress on the cabin

Early on when we we installing the beams, we discovered that the wood we were using was not all cut the same length.  Ten foot boards are supposed to be 10 feet long, end of story.  We got burned on one of the beams, the hard way.  I hate the thought of having to measure every board I use but it almost seems necessary after we discovered another board-length issue this weekend.  These “shortages” are not obvious until something farther down the line just doesn’t work out.

This is the floor of the sleeping loft

So, we had to rip up some stuff and make it right which slowed our roofing progress.  Our goal this year is to get the roof up to keep the snow out so any screw-ups this late in the year hurt.  Still, we should be ok if we can get clear weekends.

The subfloor laid in the sleeping loft. The extra height of the exterior walls gives us a knee wall for added headroom

So, it’s hard to see the rooms but we have a living room, kitchen and bathroom on the first floor.  The second floor is a sleeping area.  With the floor in place, I think it is a bit more obvious why we made the outer walls 10 feet tall.  The extra 2 feet of height before the roof cuts in should give us a little more room in the sleeping area.

Another view of the subfloor...the view is going to be so cool!

The stairwell into the sleeping loft

Abigail stayed with her great-grandparents this weekend while Isaac, Emily and I worked.  We taught Isaac how to measure precisely and he even ran the chop saw quite a bit.  He understands sixteenths better than a lot of adults I have seen so he did a really great job cutting boards for me at the exact length I needed.  He knows about “leaving the line” and “cutting the line”.  He knows when I say, “cut a board a skinny 77 inches” means I need a sixteenth short of 77 inches.  It surely saved my knees a lot of up and down the ladder.

Learning to measure a board

Measuring solo!

Isaac using the chop saw solo

We probably won’t get much done beyond weathering in the place, but I do plan to close in the area under the building.  I am considering doing a cord-wood wall structure around the base but I am not yet sure.  Anyone have any opinions?   Luckily, I think it won’t hurt if we don’t get to it until Spring.  In the meantime, I will probably work on getting stairs in place so I can actually go up stairs to get to the upstairs part of our deluxe shed!

See all of the progress on the cabin

Reading as usual...

Ok, so I usually have only good things to say about Charleston.  WV is awesome and I never enjoy saying anything bad but the hospital we were in had no private rooms unless you were dangerous.  Apparently, if you are a kid, there is no place in Charleston that has private rooms.  That sucks!  So, Abigail was miserable and the 4 year old they admitted right after us was also.  Two sick adults may be able to share a room because they typically don’t cry and scream and pee the bed.  Kids, on the other hand, are not known for their restraint when feeling terrible.  So, between the roar of the interstate that passes nearby and the whining roomie-kid (poor thing…her mom was nice.  It was just a bad situation ) and the double-the-usual-number-of-nurse-checks-because-there-are-two-kids-instead-of-one interruptions, no one slept the first night.  Healing usually works well under those conditions, right?

I agree...

Ok, enough whining…after 4 different antibiotics, Abigail’s fever finally came down although she gained a lovely full-body rash.  She came home after lunch on Wednesday.  Honestly, she was not whiny or nasty through any of this, thank goodness.

Usually the pudding goes inside the puff, but as the chef, I took liberty and covered my first one all over in pudding!

So, creampuffs…why that title?  During the pre-pneumonia-diagnosis time, one day while I stayed home with her, I got a wild hair.  My Mom used to make creampuffs every now and then and I absolutely love them.  I had a hankering for creampuffs so while Abigail was sleeping, I started cooking!  It’s pretty rare really.   Anyhow, Abigail was an absolute trooper through all of this, so she proved that she was no creampuff.  However, I was needed a creampuff, to stay healthy of course…for science!