SURPRISE!!!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!

Happy Father's Day Kurt ~ I hope you're having a GREAT day today! I have a little surprise for you. Remember how hectic things were the month before you left for Virginia? I remember looking at your "to do" list and thinking, "there is absolutely NO way he's EVER going to get all of those things done!" Well, with the exception of cleaning your workshop, YOU DID! I know it drove you crazy to pack it up and leave without tidying up. Every time I walked by the door to your shop I would smile because it literally looked like a tornado (you working like a madman) had touched down in our basement! Do you remember?????

Ahhhhh.....Your workshop!!!

The pathway......

The sawdust....

The chaos....

The utter destruction!!!

Hmmmm... now where was that tool? (I'm positive you knew where everything was, but the question was, would you really remember when we moved back here in 2-3 years?)

One day I had a thought.... I thought "wouldn't it be nice if Kurt didn't have to come home and clean this mess up someday?" Sooooo.....I went to work. I worked for an entire week. Tyler came one day and helped too. Alax helped me move the heavy things on Saturday.....

DON'T PANIC! I promise I didn't throw anything important away ;-)

I swept, and swept, and sneezed, and swept some more.

I found a place for everything. (You can rearrange things where you want them when we move back.)

Now everything has a place in these nice storage cabinets.

Things are hung up.....

Dusted off...

And sorted into these bins - i.e. electrical, plumbing, welding/soldering, pipe fittings, screws, nails, etc. etc..... oh, and there's one bin labeled "what the heck is this tool???"

I cleared away all of your power tools....

and put them back in their cases...

all of your tools are now in a TOOL BOX...

Sorry to say that I couldn't figure out how to put the socket set back in it's case, so....this is the best I could do.

I hope you will smile and know that I just wanted to help.
please don't be mad ;-)
Love you!
Tam

Early this morning I taught seminary. I have the wonderful opportunity to substitute occasionally when the regular teachers have in-service meetings etc. This morning we played a scripture mastery review game that the kids love - "In The Box". I forgot to take my camera! We had a great time and reviewed quite a few of the New Testament scripture mastery scriptures. Little did I know that later in the day these same students would be on lock-down at the high school when someone reported that a student had a handgun and was planning to use it. The students were asked to stay in their classrooms, in the dark, while police searched for the alleged gunman. I'm sure the 2 + hour ordeal was a very scary experience for the students there. I'm happy that nobody was hurt and that everyone is safe.

After seminary Kurt and I went to Home Depot to get supplies for a shelter for Rusty and Rolly. Yes, we're spending MORE money on our goats ;) The rain is supposed to start this afternoon so Kurt wants to make sure they have somewhere to stay dry. (Their previous owner told us that they hate the rain and will cry, whine and bleat until it stops).

Home Depot is Kurt's favorite place to hang out. I went with him this morning to help him focus. He's been known to spend hours there just browsing.

Trying to find some straight 2x4's.

In the load zone.

Hurry, hurry Kurt. The rain's coming!

Well, he didn't finish it completely before the rain sent him running for cover, but it'll keep the boys dry.

Rolly and Rusty - snug as bugs in a rug.

Meanwhile, back in the house, I have a little construction project of my own. I assembled a new CD holder I bought this morning.

Later I organized, by category, some of my CD's. I love music!

When Kurt came in, he helped me assemble this TV stand for our bedroom. Our DVD player has been sitting on the floor for months. It's always interesting when we have to point the remote control at the floor to change the channel on the TV.

We decided to stay in for date night tonight. It just seemed like the right thing to do with the nasty weather and all. We made homemade pizza dough and sauce and made a combination pizza....

and a chicken alfredo pizza. They were delicious!

For weeks now, Kurt has been hinting that he's craving pineapple upside down cake. In our 28 years of marriage, I never knew he loved this dessert. I've never made one before, in fact, I've never tasted p.u.c. before. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and made one tonight. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD! We served it with whipped cream. Kurt was a happy camper. Below is the recipe:

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

• 1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple, drained with juice reserved
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained with juice reserved
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat the bottoms and sides of each 9 inch round cake pan with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Sprinkle the bottom of each pan with 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
2. In one of the pans, sprinkle coconut over the brown sugar. Lay pineapple rings in a single layer on top of coconut. Place a cherry in the center of each ring. In the other pan, spread the drained crushed pineapple.
3. Mix the cake as directed on package, but substitute reserved pineapple juice in place of water. Divide batter between the 2 pans. Remember which pan has the pineapple rings in it.
4. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pans for 20 minutes.
5. While the bottoms of the cake pans are still warm to the touch, invert the layer with the crushed pineapple out onto a serving dish, then gently invert the layer with the pineapple rings on top of it for a dazzling two layer pineapple upside down cake.

- THE GREAT WALL OF PLACERVILLE

Kurt spent most of the day working on the retaining wall on the side yard. Here he is on the track loader clearing more dirt and rock so he can continue the base course for the wall.

He bought this track loader when we began construction on the house, thinking he'd sell it when the house was completed. He hasn't been able to part with it. I guess that's a good thing, he's been able to use it a lot for moving dirt and rock and lifting things (including a piano!)

Widening the cut in the bank to make room for the wall (and hitting a lot of granite as he goes).

1/4 of the way finished with the bottom course. He's looking forward to just stacking block when this part is done! He's also looking forward to some cooler weather. It's been SO hot this week!

- IT'S A HOT ONE!!

Temperatures were in the triple digits today. It's supposed to get even hotter tomorrow and Thursday. The heat doesn't really bother me. I prefer warm weather over cold any day. It obviously didn't bother Kurt either. He worked on the retaining wall most of the morning before work. He's having to break up the rock to lay the first row of blocks. Hard work for such a hot day! What a trooper.

- MY GARDEN

This morning Kurt and I put landscape fabric down between the raised beds in our garden and covered the area with gravel. It looks so much better now. It was nearly 100 degrees outside when we finished.

Kurt, weed whacking before we rolled the landscape fabric out.

Covering the area to keep the weeds out.

Half yard of pea gravel - probably about 1/4 of what we'll need.

We completed about 1/3 of the project today. It just got too hot and then we had a summer thunderstorm. What a perfect way to spend the first day of summer! To celebrate, we picked the first zucchini of the season from our garden.

- WE'VE GOT OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US!

Recently we had 2 semi-truck loads of retaining wall blocks and brick pavers delivered to our house. Kurt has spent the last few days moving some of the pallets to the back yard. We're working on the yard/landscaping now that the house is mostly done. It'll be so nice to enjoy our yard....maybe next year ;)