He Said, " The front door will be done before winter, or I will go crazy." She, smiled while looking out the window at the snow.

Last weekend Mark and Adam insulated and vapor barriered the main room (Thank you Lisa for letting us borrow your husband on your Golden 30th birthday weekend). I almost cried tears of joy! But Adam said "Don't cry til after the sheetrock!" So I went to Menard's and ordered the sheetrock, it was delivered on Tuesday. (Which paying for delivery is almost an extravagant expenditure in the Stankey mind) Mark prepped the rest of the room on Thursday and now everything is ready to sheetrock this weekend. There is no longer a 5-10 drop in temperature when you enter the room-pretty amazing.

So last night as Mark and I stood in our dark main room, Mark said "I'm putting the new front door in before winter! It will drive me crazy if it doesn't get done." I smiled and gave him a hug. It wasn't until today that I realized that it was 27 degrees yesterday and we had a light dusting of snow. When does winter really begin? I guess in a room that no longer feels like winter it hasn't begun. :)

Everyone: Hey, what's new? She replies, "Nothing, I'm literally just running, that's it."

So through this project I decide, actually was peer pressured into running the San Antonio marathon. I would not have spent the last 8 months or so training for an event for most people but it was great to share the marathon experience with my sister Lisa, and good friends from High School Liz Beedle (Ashbrook) and Kidada Mitchell (Stokes). There were supposed to be a few more of us but I guess the only graceful way to back out of running a marathon is to get pregnant - way to go Emily and Majken! Just kidding and congratulations!

The electrical and plumbing took a little longer than anticipated and of course we had to take some weekends to play so I guess it's a good thing we didn't suggest having Thanksgiving at our place this year. At this point our main room is still down to the studs and we have a few more finishing things that need to be done before we insulate and put up sheet rock. We're staying in the cities for TG this year so hopefully we'll get a couple of good days of work in.

Now that the marathon is over (praise the Lord!) I'm hoping to update the blog more frequently. And for those of you that are wondering how I do it - I made this choice a long time ago and even though we live in a construction zone it's still a pretty good option. And when it's complete it really will be glorious - I'm actually a little concerned if we'll have enough to keep us busy then. :) Or at least keep Mark busy. As for me I think I'll be moving to running half marathons and a few other girlfriends have accepted the challenge -way to go Mandi and Sara! it will be fun and will be quite an accomplishment. So Grandma's half marathon in 2010-if you're interested let me know!

She: laughed. He said, "My wife is back!"

So for those of you who know me you know that I love to laugh, I'm pretty easy going and pretty positive most of the time. Last month was a month I'm glad is over-some strange person was walking around in my body and really not being nice-especially to Mark. Sorry hon! But thanks for loving me through it!

We've decided that I really don't like demolition. I say, "loud noises" but Marks response to that was "Are you like Buster from Arrested Development?" So I guess yes, I am a bit.

This month started with a 20/40 yd (large) dumpster being dropped in our drive way. Out went the tile, mortar bed, the kitchen, walls, plaster, and insulation. The kitchen was moved to the basement-which is actually larger, lighter and more efficient than my previous kitchen. And closer to the laundry which makes things really easy when every appliance is within 20 ft. So now that demolition is mostly over and putting new stuff in will begin soon I'm doing better. And being nice to Mark again.

Currently, in our main room we have sub-floor, stud walls, scaffolding, a fridge that is being given away and a bunch of tools. Next projects consist of electrical and raising up the floor so the floor where the tile was is level with the rest of the room. Now I know that things will still be dusty but it will be wood dust instead of plaster dust and that has to be better! I guess we still need to mud and tape-but I'll just be so excited for new walls that I won't care!

Mark's time line for the upstairs is to be completed by Thanksgiving which is only a few months away. Very exciting!

The dumpster was picked up today from Atomic and I'm hoping that mean lindy was in that dumpster somewhere-never to return.

She sang "Happy Birthday to me." He laughed.

The mortar bed is out! We are one step closer and completely full of dust. Mila is grey-not because of old age. And everywhere we turn our clothes/skin turns into white dust! However, if I can somehow convince Mark not to take out the plaster walls this will have been the messiest part. And it is done!!!! I took a photo of my beautiful birthday door with the pile of concrete that Mark removed-we never said it was going to be easy. Or pretty, right away for that matter!

He said, "I'm going to tent off this area." She said, "like a fort?"

The day following my last entry it was decided that I would not get a front door for my birthday. However, we do have a cool fort in our living room trying to keep all the tile/concrete dust contained! I think my nephew (second cousin) Henry really liked the fort yesterday-which I was a bit nervous about. So far no child injuries so that is good-unless you count Sam's first skinned knee. Which it really happened outside so I'm not counting it. Last weekend Mark rented a hammer drill and took up all the tile in our front entry/living room. As I write this the floor is vibrating from round two-removal of 2" mortar bed. The plan is to have the mortar bed up by the end of the weekend-then call all his friends to help remove the tile and concrete from our front yard. You thought not having a front door was bad-now we have a pile of debris in front of our plywood front door. :) We had to remove the mortar bed to build up the floor to match the same height as the other subfloors in our main living area. With the main area starting demolition I'm struggling with the project more than usual. I have no doubt's that Mark will do an amazing job and our house will eventually be a jaw dropper. It's just harder to live in the construction than I thought. Lord please help my attitude to stay postive! This evening we're headed up to the Hemming's cabin for some well needed R & R - hopefully that will rejuvenate us both a bit!

p.s. Sorry this one wasn't funny - i tried to stay away from debbie downer but she tackled me.

He asked "What would you like for your birthday?" She replied, "A front door."

Two years until we got carpeting (which is fantastic! my feet have never been so happy!)-which is fine because the dogs and I can handle sub-floor. However, the neighbors may start complaining if we don't get a front door soon. Not saying it doesn't look good-it just doesn't look good. So, I told Mark that I wanted a front door for my birthday and he was like-no problem, i'll get right on it-and he did! He went and bought the doors-or at least the door slabs (Stankeys don't believe in retail, we customize everything). Door included will be from scratch. I was excitedly telling a work colleague that I was getting a front door for my birthday when it hit me-I did not preface that the door needed to work! Ugh! When will I learn! So last night we're getting ready for bed and Mark says, so I'm pretty sure I can get the door done-I just don't know if the hardware will be in it? What? How does it hang? open? lock? So currently, I have 2 door slabs leaning agains the back of my fireplace. Mark is studying for his LEED exam and I am now off to continue reading Atlas Shrugged-half way through! We'll see if I finish the book before or after the door is installed and working-1200 page book. He's got some time.

She said "I'd like to try a garden this summer." He said, "I'll build you a box!"

The first weekend in May we went up north for the weekend. Had a great weekend with the cousins and wives-Krista, Sara and I got to talking about gardening. I thought that I'd like to try out my green thumb-see if I have one actually. So on the way home I asked Mark what he thought? I was just thinking about tilling up part of the side yard (small) and seeing what happens. Mark said, "I'll build you a garden box." Me thinking it would be 4 boards-4 nails (maybe 8) said "Great! " Thinking this won't take too long...We got home around 5 on Sunday night and I easily had a garden box. All I needed to do was get some dirt! Oh, no - the box wasn't even close to being completed. Over the next three weekends we trimmed the box, puddied the nail holes, sanded, primed and painted the box. Then it was time for the welder! Out of spare steel we had lying around Mark built a cage for our garden box to keep out all the little and big critter's we have around here. Finally, the garden box was complete-I planted the garden on Memorial Day-Tomatoes, Pepper's, Lettuce, Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Green Beans, Herbs and a Jalepeno Pepper plant. Mark's comment, "This was a lot bigger project than what I had anticipated-you better really like to garden." My thought, "If I wasn't meant to garden before-I better be now!"