And...We Have Railings

Sean was not going to let the cold and rainy weather stop him!  He built the deck railings in the garage this morning while the boys were at school and then slid them into place this afternoon.  It makes the whole space look much more deck-like.  

 The man pauses to admire his work.

 Now you can clearly see where the stairs are.  No more falling off points along the edge!

Happy wife, happy life.  :-)  Sean knows this by heart!  PS: You can also see the three rocks we recently bought at a great price from a landscaper doing some work in the neighborhood.  (We actually bought four, but the biggest one is in the front yard.  It literally weighs about 1000 lbs., so that's where it will be staying!) We have big landscaping plans for the backyard over the next few years!  It is a slow process... 

Three Steps Closer to Being Done

Sean is nearing the end of "Deck Project 2013".  And not a moment too soon!  He is hoping to have it completed before our first snowfall.  Fingers crossed! 

 Getting ready to frame out the columns.

 Carter pounding the dirt hill.

 The steps are done (just need to be painted) and the columns are almost done!

 Sean positioned the three steps so he would not have to build a railing.  I like how it turned out!

Another view of the columns.  All that's left now is to build the railing between the columns, finish filling in the ceiling and then paint it all.  The PVC decking needs to be washed, too.  I'm hoping it will look really nice when it's not covered in muddy dog prints.

The Flood of 2013

I am sending out this post to our families in the Midwest.  The Beilmans have, so far, survived Colorado's Flood of 2013!!!  We are safe and dry at home!  We have gotten about a foot of rainfall over the past few days which has led to flooding and evacuations all around us.  Last night, they evacuated a neighborhood just down the road from us.  That was a little too close to home and I actually brought all of our pool flotation devices upstairs in case we needed to do a water evacuation overnight.  You laugh, but it made sense at the time. (Not to Sean, he thought I was crazy.)  Today we have gotten an advisory from C-DOT to not drive in our county unless it is an emergency, but as I type this I am looking at sunny skies outside.  What a wonderful sight!  We are supposed to get another 1.5-3 inches of rain over the weekend, so we're not ready to celebrate yet!  But, it certainly could be worse.  A lot of folks have not been so fortunate.

 After having recess canceled for two days in a row, Carter wanted to go out and play in the rain!

 See the huge puddle at the bottom of our future stairs?  It was like a moat around the deck.

Here is the sky finally starting to clear.  Hallelujah!

We saw a total of three military helicopters fly over our house on Friday to rescue those stranded folks North of us. *Update: On Sunday, they canceled school for tomorrow (9/16) due to washed out roads and standing water in the district.  We currently have road closures to the West of us, on the main road out of our neighborhood.  Luckily, we have an alternate route but know of several people who are stuck at home!

How I Am Spending My Free Time

A beautiful thing has happened...I have free time!  After nearly six years working full-time on weekends and taking care of children during the week, this is really a new and beautiful thing.  I feel so fortunate to have had that time with the boys, but it sure is nice to drop them off in capable hands at school for a couple of hours! I recently cut back my hours at work to part-time, so I am just working Saturdays & Sundays for now.   This new schedule has motivated me to tackle some projects at home.  First off was cleaning out the three junk drawers in our kitchen and the overflowing cabinets below.  It was out of control. I wish I had some "before" pics to show you.  Here's how it looks now:

 The boys have enjoyed having all of the craft supplies on their level.  I'm not so sure it's working that well for me to have sparkle paints available all the time...I see some child-proof locks in our future.  

Food Fun

Carter requested paw print design with waffles and pancakes for breakfast today and Davis wanted his picture with Mom's carb creation.  Ah, the simple pleasures of being a kid!

 This was just too funny to ignore.  Davis has been wearing my old "going out" boots and Sean's snowboarding helmet as part of this crime-fighting get up that he invented.  He says he's "Invisible" when he wears it to fight the bad guys.  I captured him today eating chocolate pudding while taking a break from defending the universe.  Love the mustache!

A Bunch of Animals

Carter had a flex day so no Kindergarten today! We decided to use our bonus weekday time to go to the zoo with our friends, the Buyrn girls!  Unfortunately, we picked a super hot day to go.  Megan and I were sweating lugging the five kids around.  We had a fun picnic in the zoo, saw some cute baby animals and just enjoyed an afternoon together.  The kids were great (for the most part) and Davis even napped today--score!

Looking at the baby zebra.

See the Leopard?

Best friends eating lunch together.  So sweet!

I think these five look like they could all be related.  Who knows, someday there could be an extra Beilman or two in the mix... Catch my drift? ;-)

I drove the boys by our old house in Park Hill (see below) and then we stopped for milkshakes on the way home.  What a day!

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As a bonus, here's what our old house looks like now.  The new owners painted the ugly brick and I think it looks pretty good. The yard is another story...(Yes, it has already been re-sold since we sold it two years ago.  And yes, the couple we sold it to made $65K when they sold the house. Have I mentioned that the Denver housing market is on fire?)  This house was tiny and a little bit in the ghetto, but we have so many fond memories of that place. It is always fun to drive by and remember our time there.

And here's what it looked like when we lived there:

Labor Day Labor

Get it? :-)

Since Sean & I both had the day off, we enjoyed a big breakfast at home (I didn't lift a finger!) and then Sean went to work outside.  The ongoing saga of Deck Building 2013 continues with the construction of stairs. While Sean worked, I took the boys to the pool so we could enjoy the unofficial last day of Summer. Having a neighborhood pool has been way more fun and valuable to us than I ever could have imagined. Plus, it got us out of the construction zone for a while. 

 After this first round of pouring concrete into the molds, I stepped in to help scrape/fill while Sean mixed and poured.  I think the boys were both shocked to see Mommy doing manual labor.  Carter said "Wow Mom, I didn't know you had muscles like Dad!"  I don't know about all that, but I did use it as an opportunity to remind the boys that we girls can do a lot of things.  We are strong and capable, just like boys are!  Plus, it was fun to be able to finally help, even if it was minor.  Carter & Davis wanted to get in on the action, too!

Hope you all had a fun and restful Labor Day!