Kitchen Creations

I apologize that the words and pictures aren't lining up in this post...I am not sure what is going on, but I can't get it to work right. So, we're just going to have to live with it.

Last weekend I spent most of the day on Saturday making stuff from pears. I canned about 15 quarts of pear sauce, 5pints of pear preserves, and made a bunch of little jars of pear honey. The pear honey isn't actually honey--it's pears, sugar, and pineapple juice cooked until it's the color and consistancy of honey. Yum!

Scott was in Oklahoma City last week for a conference. He left the camera at home, however, so no pictures. Highlights included a trip to the OK City bombing memorial (and a stamp for the national park passport!), and attending the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game.

I worked from home today, so I had time to make a yummy supper. I made a meatloaf (turkey and pork) stuffed with bacon, mushrooms, onions, and mozzarella cheese. It was pretty good!

Here it is, all ready to roll up:

And here we are mid-roll. I've never made anything like this before, and I discovered that when you make a meatloaf roll, the meat tends to split. BUT, you can just mush it back together!

I decided since I was making a yummy meal, I might as well set the table!

And here is the final product!

I also made some rolls and a baked sweet potato. My plate presentation wasn't very good...it looks like the food was frowning! Don't worry, it was very tasty!

I also found time to clean the bathroom. After I finished, I decided to hang up a little shelving thing I've had for a while. Now my q-tips and band-aids are easy to access!

In other exciting news, Pella Christian volleyball won their Regional final tonight, and are going to State for the 4th year in a row!!! Go Eagles!

Olivia's Birthday

Last weekend we went to my parent's house to celebrate Olivia's 3rd birthday. She got a Cinderella dress for her birthday, and wore it all evening.Garion hasn't quite figured out the "self-portrait" camera thing yet.
We gave Olivia a pair of "Barbie" dolls...one was Cinderella in a dress just like Olivia's!

Tim & Carrie came to Pella for the party, so Scott got to meet his new niece Kendall for the first time. He held her for a long time, and even put her to sleep...he's a natural, don't you think?

Uncle Jim and Kendall bonding.

Shed Finished!!!!

Scott and I spent Saturday the 9th finishing off the shed (or tried to anyway). It was about 85 degrees that day, so almost too warm, but we enjoyed the sunny weather. First we put down the metal wall tracks, making sure the corners were square and the door width was correct. Then we put down the "floor kit" that was included. Not the actual floor, as we expected; the "floor kit" was 20 black tiles that you screw down to your wood flooring platform (not included)... Then we started putting up the walls. They were vinyl sheets that slid together, but not easily! We ended up laying each wall down, lubing up each sheet with soapy water, then using all of our brute strength to slide them together. After we had the walls together, we put them up. At this point we realized that having one more person helping would have been nice, as it got a little breezy, and the walls started moving as we were putting together the gables! Scott did catch the shed one time and prevented a complete fall-apart.

After we got the walls and gable up, we began to put on the vinyl roof. Each side had 3 vinyl "shingled" tiles that snapped together, then you screw them down. Unfortunatly, we had 2 that would not snap together! after about 1 1/2 hours, we took those 2 off and laid them on the ground and I jumped on them until they went together, and then we screwed them together. It was more challenging lifting up two pieces to the roof, but we managed.

After putting on the roof, we had to put up 6 trusses on the inside:

Next we put together the doors, but unfortunatly it was too dark to see, so we had to put off hanging them until Sunday evening.

Sunday we put up the doors. The next step was only one page, and 5 lines of instruction. However, it involved screwing approximately 200 screws into the inner walls, roof tiles, gables, doors, etc. We ran out of day light again. So, this past Friday I took the day off and we got up early and with drills in hand finished the shed! We had to run to the store to get more screws, as they included an ENTIRE bag of screws that the instructions never had us use, but didn't send enough of two other types...Here is the finished product!

Lessons Learned:

1) When the package says 'floor kit included', that doesn't actually mean the flooring surface.

2) "Easy Assembly" is a relative term.

3) Recruit a couple people to help, as if we'd had 3-4, we may have finished in one day.

4) The instructions were poorly written, incomplete, not in order, and the inventory list is incorrect.

5) The best way to get to know everyone in town is to build a shed in your back yard. Especially if you are the corner lot with the "Welcome to University Park" sign in your yard and an alley along the back edge.

In other news, I have not yet posted pictures of our twins. Here is a picture of the old washer and dryer:

And here is one of the new dryer (the washer looks exactly the same, so I didn't post a picture).

Now we just need to take down wood paneling, re-drywall, paint, and put down new flooring, and the laundry room will look as good as the washer/dryer!

In other, other news, my friend Sara and I drove down to Louisiana, MO for an evening to hang out with our friend Jana. The trip involved supper, chatting, and some trips to antique malls. I bought a pie bird:

I also bought a set of 6 lovely glasses. I have discovered that my taste in decor is very different than Scott's. I like 70's retro, he does not. So I always ask myself, "Will Scott like this?" If these glasses had been red, orange, brown, green, or mustard yellow, I wouldn't have bought them, but I decided Scott could live with blue.

Today we went to church, then had our class at church in the afternoon, and got home around 4:30pm. We quickly changed and went outside with the goal of building the platform. All our pieces of wood were cut (and nothing was stolen overnight or during Sunday, which was nice), so we just had to hammer away! Here is Scott hammering in cross pieces. We did pretty well, in that all of our pieces fit exactly where they were supposed to go.

Here is Scott nailing in one of the stakes.

After we got the 4 stakes on, we were going to flip it over, and that thing was heavy! We couldn't flip it right-side-up without another person and keep the legs intact. So, we recruited our neighbor from across the street...he also brought over his sledgehammer so we could pound it into the ground.

The building across the alley is a small church, and they had their evening service while we were working out there. I wondered if our hammering would bother them; fortunately, during the service we were mostly working on flipping over the platform and using the sledge hammer to get it into the ground. After the service, the pastor did come over to chat, and also thanked us for not doing all the hammering during their service. :)

We hung a spotlight from a near-by tree, and managed to nail on all the flooring before 8pm--that was our goal, so we didn't keep any small children awake with our hammering. We finished around 7:45pm, and took a couple pictures.

This is what a lot of couples might feel like after working their tails off for 3 days:

Not us! We are just as in love as always:

So, next Saturday we will be setting up the shed!

(you've never heard THAT before, have you?)

The Shed--3 or 4 steps back?

This morning we got up on time and decided to rent a plate compacter to flatten the gravel. It worked really well, and we used our full 2 hours worth, then threw it back in the aveo and returned it to the store by lunch time, all ready to start on the shed!

Look, I'm tough enough to use this manly tool...

Here is the lovely compacted gravel.

After lunch we officially opened the shed. We got out the instructions, and the first thing they said to do was take everything out and inventory. So we did! Then we turned the page, and...

...the next page said "Before you take out the shed pieces and do inventory, you need to build a wood platform. Materials for platform are not included." Ok, the packaging said that the flooring kit was included, but now we know that just means the thin vinyl tile flooring. But you have to screw the vinyl to a wood platform! And why in the name of Abraham Lincolm did the instructions tell us to inventory BEFORE it told us we had to build a huge wood platform? And how were we supposed to know that since we had to open the shed container and take stuff out to even get to the instructions? Anyway, by this time it was after noon, when every lumber store in town was closed. So we called a friend and he was wonderful and allowed us to borrow his truck and and his table saw, and we drove to Ottumwa to buy lumber (after I had a short cry, but hey, at least I didn't swear or break anything!).



We bought the plywood and all the 2x4's, and began to cut all the pieces. Here is Scott doing a bang-up job of cutting a spike to go into the ground:

And here he is cutting plywood with the circular saw (which is my sister's and is being used for about the 2nd time ever). You may notice that Scott is doing all the sawing--normally I also like to use the tools, but by this point it was just easier and less stressful for me to just stay as the measurer, and Scott to stay on the saw.

After about 100 gazillion cuts, we finally had all the pieces ready to go...by then it was dark and we were exhausted, so we did not build the frame tonight. I guess we will be doing that tomorrow evening, and the shed will go up next weekend. I was hoping to make pear sauce and can it next weekend, as it is that time of year, but that might have to wait...unless it really is an "easy assembly" shed, and it goes up quickly once you have the foundation and the wood platform done.

Oh, and you may have noticed the large pile of gravel still in the pictures. That is not being used for the foundation, so we will now be graveling our neighbor's driveway as well as our own. We should be in that show on HGTV "Curb Appeal: the Block." Only in that show the experts come in and do everything for you...

Shed--Two Steps Back

We didn't get the shed set up last weekend because it rained all day Saturday. That was ok, because it allowed us to watch football ALL DAY LONG...until about 9pm, when I took over and we watched "Return to Snowy River."

Yesterday, Scott and I finally decided that there is just waaaay too much gravel, and that if we put up the shed as is, the gravel will shift, and it will tip. So we have decided to take a couple giant steps back, and basically start over. Scott moved almost all the gravel OFF the area, and today we built a box for our gravel pad.

This was a bit exciting because neither Scott or I have a lot of experience actually building things! We have watched a lot of HGTV, but not actually done it. We borrowed a circular saw (we don't own one because we have no place to store it...yet), and this morning went out and bought supplies, then came home and started working! My mom came over as well, and spent part of the day working on some writing on her laptop inside, and part of the day outside working with us.

Step 1: Level on the lowest area! Sorry about the fuzzy picture...Mom came out and used our camera, and didn't realize it was set for extreme close-ups.

Step 2: Level the sides, keeping the corners nice and square, so the high side of the yard almost falls even with the top of the gravel pad. Pound in 18 inch rebar with a sledgehammer to keep everything in place. Go Mom!

Step 3: Eat Casey's Pizza on the card table in the yard for lunch.
Step 4: borrow neighbor's 18v impact drill to drill in the 6 inch screws when your wimpy battery powered drill can't handle it.

Step 5: shovel gravel back INTO the pad and tamp it down! We ended up wrapping up before the gravel was totally replaced, as we had supper plans with friends, and we were all exhausted. We'll be getting up early tomorrow morning to finish up putting in gravel, and then to FINALLY set up the shed.

We are working in our yard, but it's nothing compared to what went on in our neighbor's back yard! They are putting in a "man cave" in the basement, with a screened porch on top. Here is what was going on next door all day:

They offered to build a tunnel to the man cave connecting to our basement, but we declined. Couldn't afford the $50,000 price tag!

Kendall Carolina Klinge

Carrie finally had her baby by c section on Thursday evening. It was tough on her--they tried to put another IV in (which is very difficult on Carrie), and during that 45 minutes process, Carrie started to have a siezure, and her BP went up to 180 over something! They rushed her to the OR, and about 20 minutes later, Kendall was born...8lbs. 7 oz. and I think just over 19". I actually had to leave shortly before the c section took place, butsome of Tim's family and my mom were still there. The baby was perfectly healthy, and Carrie survived thanks to the grace of God and modern medicine.

Here is daddy Tim with the new baby! I think she has Carrie's face but Tim's mouth.
Here I am holding her on Friday. I came to visit over my lunch break. Lynn and Mom were also there, and were fighting over who got to change her diaper...I let them duke it out. :)

Carrie had to be on Magnesium sulfate because of the preeclampsia and because she was so swollen. She was still on that all day Friday, and had massaging sleeves on her calves. She was also on painkillers for the c section. So, she laid on her back in the bed and couldn't move much. But, the baby did start nursing Friday with no problem, and Carrie got to hold her a little bit.

As of this evening, Carrie is off the magnesium, and was able to stand and hold kendall for short periods of time. She should be able to go home tomorrow, and we are praying for a quick recovery.

In other news, Scott and I had to go out and buy a new washing machine, as ours leaked so badly, last weekend Scott had to shop vac up water every 5 minutes. We went to the store and after looking at the options, we decided to buy a Frigidaire front loading washer/dryer set! It is being delivered and installed tomorrow, so look for pictures of that!

Incidentally, if you live anywhere near Pella, I recommend shopping at Bruxvoort's. We bought our sofa there earlier, and got the washer/dryer there also. They offer free delivery, free installation, they take away the old ones for free, and they even sent over an employee this afternoon (who lives near us) to check out our setup and see what equipment they will need to bring. And, they didn't make us pay the repair bill from our old washer!