Living room with Foyer beyond arch

The drywall started going up. Every day I stop by to check on progress and this week has been a good week. Drywall will all be up by end of week, and they will start tape and mud of seams Monday. Ventless firebox arrived today for installation. Things are really taking shape. In addition to that, the dirt around outside is spread and looks complete from the road.

CoreBond Foam insulation in front rooms

To insulate the house, we used CoreBond insulation. It is applied as a foam, then the excess beyond the stud cavity is shaved off. The drywall will go up next. The drywall has been delivered and will start to go up on 2/13. It is getting closer, but never close enough until we are moving.

Send in the Clowns.....

Carly wanted us to attend the Fun Fair at her school, so we loaded up the crew and went. She had lots of fun playing the games, got the last clown nose available, and enjoyed showing Matt where his room will be next year for Kindergarden. We made it through without getting thrown into the Fun Fair Jail, although we never thought about it until after that we could have put the kids in there as a babysitting service.

Margaret is just here for the cake!

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Matt turned 5 in January, and just happened to be suffering from Pnuemonia the same day. He wasn't eating much for a few days, and the Doctor said we had to get food in him, especially stuff with sugar. This calls for a birthday cake with plenty of frosting.

The Little Flowers of St Mary

Carly is in a school group of girls called the Little Flowers. They meet every few weeks after school to talk about a virtue, and a saint that exemplifies that virtue. After 4 virtues, they held a Badge ceremony where they got up in front of the audience, sang a few songs, told us about the saints they studied, and then answered questions about the saints. We all learned something, like the saint with 12 children whose virtue was 'Self Control'. Carly is enjoying this group and it provides a great alternative to the more prominent 'scouting' groups.

Margaret and Polly enjoy their Tea times.

Margaret has had a new baby since Christmas. Mom and Margaret have named her Polly. Now Polly has her own cradle, and Margaret will demonstrate how to put Polly to bed and even cover her. With all this attention you would think Polly would be satisfied with her lot in life, however, you would apparently be wrong. I have seen Polly hiding under couches, behind beds, under tables, even crammed in the toy bucket. She must not like her cradle because I have not seen her there in days, if not weeks. I seems poor Polly is a problem child and will have a real truancy issue when school starts. I hope Margaret can get this situation under control before Polly comes home with a tattoo.

A new disturbing habit with the tongue in pictures

Christmas this year was memorable as the Christmas that Margaret is starting to turn from a baby to a kid. All the kids enjoyed all the presents & parties. We still travel to both grandparents over the course of the week and try to catch up with everybody.