Jim the Handy Man

While I was gone helping with corn, Jim was busy doing this, putting in our new stove. There is a hole in our wall due to the controls from the old stove, so now I get to use some creative decorative items to hide it. I'd rather do this then sheet rock it when in the future it will be gone completely. It was a surprise to me because I thought the stove was coming a week later then it did. So Mr. Jim got busy and worked about 7 hrs putting this project together and boy do I like it! I'll give you a little step by step of his process so you know it wasn't just sliding out the old stove and sliding in the new, nope this project was not that easy. Jim had to obviously took out the old stove and unhooked the electricity and took the controls out of the wall. Then he cut out the the drawer from below the stove and proceeded to move the cabinet over too.

(This is the best picture I can find of our old stove, Miss CMW trying out my high-heels! See the drawer below the stove, this was one item he had to cut out!)

You see, our old stove was a set in and our new stove is not only a free standing stove but it is 3 inches larger. He had to move the fridge over and cut out flooring to move the existing cabinet over to the left 3 inches. He even cut the back-splash to match the counter as it wasn't matching up due to the move. He then went and hooked up the gas line with a nifty gas hook up kit and only had 2 ft of gas piping left over. Great work honey at the little amount of waste you had!! Then he was finished, only after an 1hr of clean up. He got to bed @ 2am and made it though a full days work with a few cups of coffee to help him through. :-) I might have missed a few details but you get the drift, and send Jim an email (james.waa@gmail.com) letting him know, what great work does!

The Man himself, look at how chipper he is after this project! (just kidding, this was not taken after his 7 hrs of labor)

New House !

I bet some of you thought we were getting a new house? Nope but CMW did!!
CMW's dad put in a new stove (more on this later) and we got a very large box. So her mama decided to make it into a house for her. And she is loving it! I am so happy for her, she loves going in and out, bringing stuff in and throwing it out though the windows. I'm thinking once she gets bored with it, it might just go downstairs for a 'time out' and then it can resurface later in the winter months when it gets really long due to the ND winters.

Looking through the window!

Looking out the door!

Look at all that excitment of having her own little space.

CMW in her house, Mom taking picture from outside :-)

Corn and More Corn

Miss CMW and I went out to my SIL Jackie's to help with corn. Jackie's MIL alone with the MIL's MIL was there to help. (did you get this, confusing but we were all in-laws all the way)We shucked, then peeled the silk, washed, cut the corn from the cob, cooked it for about 20 minutes. It cooled off and was placed into bags. It was quite the ordeal and I got to experience it hands-on. I got to help with all but the cutting due to slicing off a chuck of skin from my finger tip with my slick corn cutter with only cob #2 getting done! (sorry no picture) So i was left to cooking the corn. And i made the statement, "if it doesn't taste good it's because I was the cook, or blame it on the recipe" (which wasn't mine). We cooked over 100 cups of corn, meaning 6.5 batches of corn. And Jackie was nice enough to let me take some of it home to enjoy myself.

Miss CMW had a fun time playing with cousin J and we enjoyed our short but sweet stay at the SIL. We want to do it again but will have to plan this out a bit more, maybe around harvest when she's alone lots due to the busyness of all the happenings. Here's some pictures!

Three hard workin' ladies !

Washing...

Cooking...

Miss CMW couldn't resist the temptation to help!

And bags, which this is only a sample, many more are in the freezer.

Free Give Aways

Hey You !

Click here Today's Give Aways. Net by 11:50 pm tonight (give your self 9 minutes to sign up) to sign up for free give aways, which happens to be a very cute apron or quit top. How Exciting!!! It doesn't take long and you can increase your chances by making comments and following the rules.

Good Luck!!

A little of this, A little of that...

A little of this and a little of that, it's more like a re-cap of our last few weeks of being here and there. It might be a little boring to read but at the end, we have our cute chicks so at least scroll down to see those. :-)

I was in Pequot Lakes for a week (26th - 2nd) visiting family and busily sewing with my sister. And that is about what I did that week. CMW enjoyed her time with the cousins and a bike ride here and there. I enjoyed visiting and making progress with my sewing projects.

I came home for a week, had a few more sewing projects to do and needed to catch up on being gone. Ya' know, that darn house work that has to be done.

Then back to Pequot the 11th - 16th and this was another busy week. My sister and I entered a craft fair and it was a super hot day. We had hand bags, jewelery, and hand made baby gifts. My Grams also embroidered hand towels and and made knit dish-cloths. We had a decent presentation for those folks out to buy something crafty but I would say there weren't to many people out buying crafty stuff and it was still fun and hot! This craft fair took place during the annual Ideal Fire Department Beef Feed (the township where I grew up). It's a four hour fundraiser that brings about 2000 - 3000 people for beef, corn on the cob (freshly shucked that day), slaw, bread and watermelon. It is so delicious and I was so excited about being there. I have missed it for 4 years now and it was time to come back. Jim during this time took a trip to Wyoming for work. He got home safely and all is good on the jobs out there. On that Saturday, I ran my first every 5k race. It was very fun and a good challenge. :-) It was for the Dru Sjodin Purple Elephant 5k/10k fun run/walk, scholarship fundraiser. My mom and daughter came out to support me and I got to see them after I finished. I did great.

Then on Sunday after packing up and heading out, I made one more stop for the new members of our family, the chicks!! Yes, chickens and there are 12 of them. And we might even name some of them. It has been so fun but we are only 72 hrs into this and they are small and cute. I'll let you know what happens when they get big and are giving us those organic eggs.

And now, CMW and I are home, watching our chicks and getting done some of that house work that needs to be done. But oh, that's right, Mr Jim Waa got us a new vacuum to use so now I vacuum about every other day. Our floors sure our clean. :-) The other work, we'll we're working on it and we trying to enjoy our summer that is left to enjoy.

Today's Give Away Is...

Head on over to

So Sweet

This is one of those moments of being a 'first time mom' but I need to share anyway.

Miss CMW and I were watching a show on PBS and she decided to crawl up next to me and snuggle in. Before long she was all settled in and comfy. With her head on the pillow, her blanket is covering her up and she's next to me with her bear. Then she just fell asleep. It was so sweet, she was so peaceful. So i cherished the moment for about 1/2 hr and then I put her in her crib for her nap. She even slept through lunch and took a good 3 hr nap. Good for both of us. :-)

I'm not sure when this will happen again but I'm recording it and will remember it for a life time.