Great friends...

What our house looks like today. Lots done inside! Tub is framed, all upstairs is framed. All arches are framed. I love my house ... just can't wait until it's "really" mine.

What wonderful wonderful friends we have. Love you guys, Lins and Sore (and baby beans!).

3/8: Walls are up

3/8: Southwestern view

3/14: All walls up, trusses started

3/14: Facing our house.

Very productive week!

Monday

Tuesday (if you notice the plywood Nate is standing on is marked "iLevel" - when he worked for Weyerhaeuser, he built some of the software for the iLevel company within Weyerheauser, so that was neat ....

Friday

This is our picture window in the living room - you can see what our view will be ... the wooded nature reserve! We lucked out with a great calming view! And, note our 12ft ceilings here. So tall compared to 6'1" Nate!!

More play time at the property today ... and snacks, too!

View from the street

View from the backyard. Nate is standing in our covered patio.

This will be our concreted slab for roller skates, basketball, sidewalk chalk, etc. It is on the East side of the house. This week will bring plumbers, the flooring will go down, and the walls will start to go up. Its moving fast, now!

two less pedals

“I just can’t do it, mom. I’ll fall off!” is what came out of Maysen’s mouth as I looked into his terrified eyes when he learned his Training Wheels were coming off. I reassured him that we’d be right there and that daddy wouldn’t let go until he said so. He whimpered as he bravely climbed up, looking back multiple times to make sure his security blanket was still there.  

“Push real hard with your legs, buddy,” Nate said and with wobbly legs he pedaled forward. Within literally 5 seconds Nate just let go and away he went. I yelled, “You’re doing it buddy!” and he looked over with shock. Insecurity set in and down he gingerly went but got right back up exclaiming, “MOM! I did it! Did you see!?” I could only smile as I thought, “Did I ever, buddy. Did I ever.…”

As his legs grew weary, so did his little patience. As he kept trying to turn around he wasn’t understanding the concept of continuing to pedal while turning. He’d get to the curb and over he’d go. This little image captures what a Drama King we have in our little growing man. This is just one more step I dreamt about you making as I held you when you were first born. So distant it seemed and although I'm so happy for you mastering this growing up thing, I'm a bit resentful at how fast this really is going. I love you and am so proud of you, little buddy.

 

 

Shallum is building the fence to where this 30yr old oak tree is in our backyard! 

 

this is our neighborhood view from the front door.

  

This is the last picture you'll see of our property without some sort of "house" on it. They are going to start pouring our foundation next week. We met some of our neighbors today, Denise and Steve. They seemed very nice. They are a young couple but already have 7 grandchildren. They informed us that they are the chocolate-givers of the neighborhood to all the kiddos. I let them know if mine are still vibrating at 3:00am they'll be getting a ding-dong from 2 little boys who want to spend the night! Already feeling like a very comforting neighborhood.

This next week is going to be another full week for me. I'm doing Triage Monday-Wednesday and then Friday Jenn will be in town to come with me to mom's follow-up with her neurologist. I'm excited to talk to him about the new FDA-approved drug, Ampyra, which has a pretty good success rate of improving ambulation (walking). That would be so great for mom.

I think I'll go take a nap before the marathon of football known as Superbowl starts .... I'm already excited, can you tell?

Broken Ground

It was an important day for the Scovil family today. We finally broke ground on our new home!! Maysen got to see the gravel truck bring in our gravel for the foundation today and explained why the gravel was used. It was just a neat thing to see. It sounds funny, but the thing I can’t wait the most for is when they pour our concrete. I can’t wait to put our little family’s handprints and the date. Then it’ll be … HOME for a very long time. I feel very very blessed to have been given this opportunity to watch my home be built, custom for our family, from the ground up. I’ll forever be grateful for yet such a blessed opportunity.

Lost at Sea..

Maysen,

Yesterday was kind of a hard day for our little Mr Bean. First you pooped your pants (poor guy) and while you were washing your hands, Griffin came right behind you, picked up your poopy underwear (StarWars favorite, btw) and flushed them down the toilet. You just couldn’t believe it!! I was not only amazed that a) he flushed your underwear but that b) it actually WENT THROUGH. I was envisioning a huge clog of sorts, but it just sailed right down!

You had a melt down because (courtesy of “Finding Nemo”) you just knew that all drains and such lead to the ocean. And now your pour undies were somewhere out there, lost at sea. But rest assured. I informed you that there are other little boys out there that have this happen to them, too. So, when all the underwear finally float to the top of the ocean, they gather in an underwear pile near the shore. PHEW! You knew there had to be an explanation, and there it was!

After such a long day, you finally had it and rested cozily up in your little personalized toy box. I knew that thing had another purpose. Sleep tight, my Bean.

Future site of the Scovil Home 2010

This is the future home of the Scovil Family June 2010. What I love about this lot is the fact our backyard will be backing up to the trees, for the most part. It’ll be so beautiful (and shady) in the summer. Our neighbor, whose house is pictured here, is our builder’s mother-in-law. She’s single so nice and quiet neighbor and of course we don’t have a neighbor on the other side of us yet.

Our lot that we bought is along the bottom, last sold one if you're looking left to right. We have made some plan modifications, the biggest one being 12ft ceilings in the foyer and living area. Because of that, the front elevation of the house had to be changed and so we should be getting those plans back this weekend. Can't wait to see!

What Happened!?

Where did the last 4 weeks go? I mean, seriously? I spent 3 months preparing for the last 4 weeks and it’s gone in a flash. And every year goes faster than the year before it. Life has been an absolute blur since August. We’re still adjusting but we have some exciting news … we’re building a new house! We got our approval last week and we meet with the builder on Monday to review our house plan and pick our lot. Nothing like starting out 2010 with a bang! Hopefully we’ll be breaking ground in January and having it finished right up when our lease here ends in June.

Christmas Eve Day Nate had to work, so the boys and I enjoyed some together time and finished up making Christmas cookies for Santa. Most of the frosting went toward the boys' mouths than on the cookies but it was a great time for Momma and boys!

We started off with Christmas at Nate’s mom’s house. Maysen did the usual helping with handing out of presents. Griffin had fun this year as he was ripping presents open left and right. He was getting frustrated at not being able to play with the toy he had just opened! Maysen did so good being patient awaiting his turn at opening another great score!

Christmas morning we had homemade cinnamon rolls (a new holiday tradition) and opened presents. Jenn and Mom were here. By present #3 Griffin had enough and was done opening presents. We kept the rest for his birthday, which was right around the corner in 2 days!

Griffin turned two on December 27th. We had a Barber Shop-themed birthday party. It was filled with family and friends. We had presents, followed by Griffin’s first hair cut by Grandma! Cake was soon to follow and BOOM .. he was TWO!

This is a "before" picture above.

"After"

 

The next day we headed to Redmond for a get-away to the snow! It was wonderful! The house we always stay in is equipped with everything you might need and we barricaded ourselves in for 4 days. We played games, watched movies, played in the snow, built snowmen, swam, soaked in the hot tub. It was amazing!

We’ve had a great vacation. Maysen goes to school on Monday while we meet with the builder, and Nate goes back to work on Tuesday. Time flies when you’re having fun!

I have made a resolution to not make a resolution this year. It’s going to be another wild wild year and I can’t wait to see what it brings. But I know one thing it will bring … A NEW HOUSE! I can’t wait to move … the last time for a VERY long time.

Polar Express, Etc 2009

This last week represented another action-packed weekend of fun at the Scovil House. Maysen had his Christmas Program where he was in the choir as a singing Snowman. He did very well, of course, belting out made-up words that sounded right (Sophen Sleigh?) but kept at it for the whole hour the program went on.

Friday night we headed to Portland to see the Imagination Movers LIVE at the RoseGarden. We went with some friends of ours, Tim & Tiffany and their two little ones Austin and Karaline. T&T hit the ice storm as they were leaving town, but luckily we made it out of Eugene in time. We did hit a wreck on our way to the hotel and met them at the Rose Garden just in time as they were announcing the Movers. Since we had an aisle seat, Rich actually High-Fived Maysen twice! He was sure awe-struck. They had just about had it toward the end, but even Griffin was getting into the dancing/singing. It was a blast. The worst part was the Portland Public Transportation Max ... GERMIES!

We woke up, dinked around and had lunch with Jenn on saturday before braving it out in another ice storm - this time on the way to Hood River. I-84 closed down right when we got to Troutdale, so like the rebels we are, drove through town to the other side where they had yet to put up the barriers and kept trucking (slowly of course).

We got to our hotel and went right for the pool. The kids enjoyed swimming in the warm pool. Maysen is quite the swimmer with his arm floaties. Griffin tried to jump in the pool to me, but jumped straight up, scraping his back on the way down. Bummer! We joined T&T for ice cream, pizza, and then returned to our room to change into our special Polar Express jammies! It was Tiffany, Austin, and Karaline's first train trip, so it was extra special. As noted above, Maysen started to have a real bad attitude when we got there. Stinker!

We couldn't have had better seats! We were in the very last train car at the very back (almost a private seating area for us) so the boys were actaully able to lay up in the back by our table and see out. That was super exciting for them.

What exactly did that conductor punch in my ticket?

By 9:00pm, we were having a GREAT time ....

.... and it only got better ...

... this took some prompting and softening up. Once he started talking to Santa there was no shutting him up. Some things he asked for were: new train set, Space pajamas, new books, and new Hot Wheels. Once hot chocolate and the Santa chat were over, Maysen and Griffin laid down and slept the rest of the way back.

... I don't think they even woke up once we got to the hotel.

Maysen slept the whole 3.5hr ride home. He didn't look so hot and sure enough by the afternoon on Sunday he had 103 temp. Unfortunately, it has remained. Went to the doctor today and awaiting culture results but probable strep throat. Remember that Public Transportation I mentioned above? Yeah ...