a week in review...

It's been a busy and EXCITING week so I haven't had time to blog. First off and the most exciting was ultrasound news from Nathan and Tammy when we found out Baby Love is a little girl and her name is going to be Bailey! Another granddaughter to love and cherish arriving in July - I'm so looking forward to watching her cousin Brooklyn and her grow up together.Record breaking warm temperatures have arrived in MN and with daylight savings time we are loving the warmer evenings to go for long walks with the dogs.

On Monday, I spotted my first robin of spring but try as I might I cannot capture a photo of him. As far as I can tell there is only one here and it is very camera shy but put out a few peanuts and the bluejays will pose for the camera anytime.
We continue to take baby steps with the kitchen remodel (extremely frustrating) and I've been busy putting the rest of the house back in order. This morning I am taking a much needed break from all the work to watch these 2 sweet girls - Kinley...
and Keena.
Mommy and big sister, Ketcie, are spending the morning at Ketcie's preschool screening appt. It seems like yesterday when I introduced newborn Ketcie on the blog and here she is old enough for preschool screening already...how can that be? So today, I am enjoying these 2 little ones - they grow so fast! Which reminds me I need to go spend some time with Brooklyn again - at her age she has big changes to show us each time we visit.

Back to work...

After a wonderful weekend with Brooklyn, Jayme & Scott we are home and back to work. Just wanted to share a few more photos of our time with our precious granddaughter for my extended family - 1st photo is Grandpa time in the early am while J & S got a few more hours of sleep. Next was playtime and practicing her sitting up skills.

On Saturday, Brooklyn wore her "Girls Rule Jamaica" outfit and Grandpa wore his Jamaica HD shirt.
We admired her new hair growth and...
gave and received lots of kisses.
We sure love this little girl and wished she lived a little closer so we could see her every week, but at least her gracious parents let us move in for a 3 day visit :)

a perfect day...

is spending it with this little cutie!

Oh how Grandpa & Grandma love doing a special day with our little Princess Brooklyn.

Leaping Lions?...

It's Leap Day, a day that only comes every 4 years on our calendars. My question is does the traditional Lion not know about Leap Day? It looks like this year on February 29th, the Lion ushering in March came a day early! We have been so spoiled with such a mild winter of no snow that winter finally arriving on March 1st, OOPS, February 29th is a little hard to take.However, Hershey & Ruger have been enjoying running through it all morning and...
the birds are in full force at the feeders. Birdwatching has been mighty scare this winter when they could find so many natural sources of food with out lack of snow.

It does look pretty out the window but in reality, there is a thick layer of ice under all the snow as we started out with freezing rain for most of the night.
I have been so busy working on house projects that blogging has taken a back seat this month. There was no time for fun on the computer till the evening hours and by then I was too tired to do anything about it.

The next few weeks it will be all done (at least I hope it will, we had a major setback yesterday) and I'll give you a tour...but for now here is a sneak peek :)

a beautiful day...

I'm loving this warm MN winter!

wordless Wednesday...

sweet cupcake...

a joy filled weekend...

I haven't blogged for awhile because J & I continue to spend long hours working on our home renovation project. Last week we had extra incentive to get things done and the house as cleaned up as we possible could because we were expecting Brooklyn and her parents for the weekend.
After opening 17 gallons of paint we have newly repainted walls in the living room, kitchen, dining room, hallway, guest bedroom and all the ceilings! Buckets of water too numerous to count have been used to scrub up white dust from floors, walls and all the woodwork in every room but the living room which is still cluttered with totes of kitchen stuff until the new cupboards are installed. Clean bedding was put out on the guest bed and Brooklyn's crib in anticipation of their arrival and all the last minute work was so worth it to have this little princess in our home once again. On Saturday, Miss Brooklyn wore her cupcake tutu outfit to go out for an early birthday celebration dinner with Grandpa...
and Grandma had to buy her a kitty bath towel for bathtime at our house :)
Still honoring Grandpa for his early birthday celebration she wore her "Grandpa's Girl" shirt and another tutu today.
She is such a joy and we can't believe the different things that she can do now compared to just 3 weeks ago when we saw her last.
With this little girl around no one has to remind me to choose joy...
we love her so much!
Back to home improvement tomorrow but the end is in sight!

little things...

Sometimes it is the little things that make life easier that can bring you joy and in this week of painting (opened my 9th gallon this am) it is the handy little snap on paint can lid. It sure makes for less mess with a handy pour spout and screw top so the paint doesn't dry out - from Home Depot for 3-something.

I'm also loving that the really messy parts of remodeling are done and I am in the clean up and put back together phase. Heida Woodworks has started the cupboards and they are a few weeks from being finished but it will take me that long to clean every room in the house from all the white plaster dust. Not looking forward to the day when I finally attempt the fireplace as all those stones are pretty layered in white.

mosaic Monday...

Mosaic 1: The most often seen bird in Jamaica were egrets & they were everywhere! A Jamaican crocodile in the Black River. YS falls where you can swim in the pools under each falls level and we did :) A MN gardener escaping winter can't stop herself from photographing all the beautiful flowers and tropical plants.I will never fail on my decision to "Choose Joy" each and every day and this past week was a test of that :) Living through remodeling with 3 rooms of your house in totes in the living room and every inch of space covered with white plaster dust is a challenge. That said...Project 365 is a failure. I guess there are worse resolutions to fail on then not even knowing where your camera is and not being able to get to the second one! I do love the idea of a photo of a day though so maybe once things settle down I will do a photo a day for a month :)

Mosaic 2: Starfruit are currently ripe and being harvested and we got to eat one fresh off the tree. A view of the Jamaican coastline from a stop on our atv riding tour, another tour offered was the swimming horseback ride where the horses swim you on a trek in waters up to 20 ft deep - not for us :) More flowers and a banana plant.
Since the only photos I can access right now are ones already stored on the computer I bring you scenes from Jamaica in mosaics.

Mosaic 3: Those big blue blossoms are beautiful but they are from an invasive vine that is growing up a lot of trees in the forest and killing them off. The reason I took this photo is the Jamaican version of a ladybug which was about 1/4 the size of our ladybugs. Jamaica grows 12 varieties of pineapple and we sampled 6 of them. None of them are the ones we can buy locally and oh how I wish we could, delicious! A cluster of jackfruit, pelicans flying at sunrise and more Jamaican wildlife in the form of a lizard.
Mosaic 4: Water sport scenes from our resort, sunset over Montego Bay, more flowers and 2 beautiful birds. The scissor tail hummingbird is actually called a Doctorbird and it is the national bird of Jamaica. It was a fast mover and I couldn't find him half the time in the screen of my purse sized camera I brought with on the trip. Seeing the Jamaican birds was the only time I regretted leaving the good camera back home! I asked the name of the yellow/black/white bird and have already forgotten the name but the gardener at our hotel told me they are nicknamed the wasp bird because they bring the wasps with them. Tradition says they promised the wasp one of their eggs in return for protection for the rest of the eggs and so the wasps follow them around and protect their nests from other predators.
Mosaic 5: Two more photos of the doctorbird (it was so beautiful) and more tropical plants.
Mosaic 6: Seeing the "real Jamaican" out of the tourism sector was my favorite part of the trip. Jamaican roads are something else - 2 laned roads that are narrow than a one lane here in these parts. School kids in their uniforms and the color of the uniform says which school you attend. The business places were the most interesting - most you walk in and there is one long caged in counter and you purchase your stuff through the salesperson behind the counter. Corner bars were everywhere in an approx 10' x 10' bldg with a bar counter and maybe 3 chairs. That said Jamaica is in the records books as having the most churches per square mile since they average 1/sq mile. The photo with the girl in the yellow outfit is a local restaurant. The homes in the upper right were 2 of the nicer we saw - maybe I should say 2 that were finished. Jamaicans don't take out home mortgages because their interest rates are from 13-31% - instead they save $$ and build as they can afford it and it can take from 5 to 20 years to build your house. One local told us the "deep pockets" can afford to build their homes in 5 years but the average Jamaican takes 10-20 years. Many homes are one level and being lived in with rebar sticking up for the second story to be added at a later day - many have stockpiles of sand and cement blocks on the yard purchased as they can afford it for construction later.
Mosaic 7: Examples of houses being lived in and under construction - some you could see one room finished, some the entire lower level and some were even built around the original wooden shack which I imagined would be torn down as the house was finished. The photo in the lower right is scaffolding which I don't think would pass a safety inspection in the US. The photos on the left are to show just how narrow the 2 lane roads were and they don't slow down much when meeting someone either. A constant noise on these curvy roads is the beep of vehicle horns - they beep when approaching a curve (and there are many) to warn pedestrians and other vehicles someone is coming around the curve.
Mosaic 8: More scenes of rural Jamaica - the narrow roads, people getting their water from a river (only 85% of Jamaicans have access to piped water), one of the many churches and some colorful homes. The bottom 2 photos were quite interesting. If you live more than 5 miles from a cemetery you are allowed to have a family plot on your property. Many homes had crypts in small yards and the lady buried in the lower left has a fancy "home" built on her crypt compared to the actual house on the property. One last interesting fact - Jamaicans pay property tax on the actual land they own and not the value of their homes. So if you have a lot with a tin shack or a mansion by their standards you are taxed the same if your lot is the same size.
Visiting Jamaica really hits home to how fortunate most of us are, we take running water for granted, we take our 3-4 bedroom homes for granted and we are wasteful with the amount of food we have. No more complaining on my messy remodel for me - I'm lucky I have the means to do so. That said, this week will be spent painting so I won't be back online for awhile.

Project 365...days 13-23

We are back in the midst of remodeling after a quick warm weather winter break and a short visit to see Brooklyn. Jamaica was a fun vacation and hopefully once I get caught up with all the work around here I'll show more photos.