Painting and Organizing the Trailer

As some of you may be aware, my new trailer got used a bunch of times before I had a chance to organize it at all. After several jobs and the trailer starting to becoming little more than a pile of tools, one on top of the other, I decided to undertake getting the thing organized. It took the better part of this weekend as I had to do a couple of coats on the floor paint and had to build all the shelving. Much better! I think I can now actually find the tools I'm looking for without digging through piles of random fasteners and small tools. I did a flake finish floor on this with paint that has sand mixed in so it isn't slippery and then built all the shelving out of CDX plywood so it should last a really long time. Future plans for this are to add a bench/desk area above where the saw is sitting, add more lighting inside, and add an area for a small heater to keep the glue and compressors warm on the way to jobs and microwave for lunch.

Anyway...for those if you who haven't checked out my latest website, please take a look at it (link is on this page). The site is now up and running. I have a handful of photos I still need to put on there of some recent jobs I'm just completing and will get them on there soon. Check out the links and the different sections that show the range of work that I do. Thanks for those of you that have helped keep this business running.

If any of you are considering doing any construction related work, now is the time! It is really inexpensive to build or remodel right now so let me know if you are interested in me working with you on your project. - JAKE

Easter and stuff

We had a great easter with major candy overload for the kids. They got to do an easter egg hunt in Farmington. Zack informed me before he started that I was not allowed to help him and he could do it just fine himself. Fine then. He loved it though and both he and Kate got plenty of eggs. Then we had a BBQ at my parents followed by an indoor easter egg hunt due to weather. The kids shoved their mouths full of candy as fast as possible. Actual easter Sunday was spent at home in Midway because I had to work that night. We had a nice quiet day with more candy left by the easter bunny.

The other pictures are from the fishing activity we did for family night. Zack was so excited to go fishing and so mad that we didn't get any fish. Kate dressed herself for the occasion: black shirt, pink pants, red cowboy boots, and a purse of course. You never know when you'll need your purse fishing. How did I have such a girly girl? I'm going to need major help raising her because a girly girl I'm not. Anyway, if anyone ever wants to go fishing Zack will be happy to accompany you.

By the way, my pictures will apparently always be out of order. They always come in just as words and I can't see them until I preview it. By then I'm too lazy to fix them. Oh well. Also, in Zack's easter picture he was doing some kind of dance. He cracks me up. Another side note; at church Sunday Zack started saying all of the colors with an 'o' after them (orange-o, black-o, white-o, etc). After he finished he said, "I said all of the colors in spanish mom!" I love it. He'll be happy to teach spanish to any of your kids who haven't quite mastered it yet:)

It's a...

It's a girl! Another little pink thing! We're excited. Well, I should say, everyone's excited but Zack. He keeps insisting that its still a boy. So sorry. Time to get out the girl clothes and start thinking of names. We've made it halfway!

Miracles

Do you believe in miracles? I know I do. I've seen many in my life, both big and small. We saw a lot of miracles in our experience with Linz. The big miracle of Linz being saved didn't happen, but that doesn't mean we weren't blessed with a lot of other miracles. These miracles help us get through our days. These miracles are what we focus on when things get tough. And when things get really tough we hope for future miracles.

We've also been blessed with many miracles since my mom has been sick. Our lives will never be the same. Our testimonies and understanding of the gospel is forever changed. While we've been grateful for the miracles we've seen, we've continued to hope for the ultimate miracle of my mom being healed. We've prayed, fasted, and hoped with all of our hearts. I know many of you have joined with us in those prayers and even fasting, and so you're also a part of our latest miracle. Is my mom completely healed? No, but I would say that she's halfway there and I see no reason why she couldn't be completely healed at some point. She had her latest round of tests this week. They looked at her stomach and saw that the tumor is 50% reduced. A miracle? Yes. That rarely happens and pretty much never happens that quickly. Then they looked at her liver. The liver is the real kicker in all of this. Liver cancer doesn't go away. It pretty much never gets smaller and if some of the cancer is killed it just turns into scar tissue. In other words, when you're looking at CT films you're always going to see the same amount of spots. With the liver you're just happy if you don't see any increase in spots. Unless you're my mom. Her doctor called the second he got her CT results because he was so excited. Why? Well, a lot of her spots are gone, and the ones that are still there are smaller. That doesn't happen, not without a miracle.

So to those of you who have been praying, fasting, and hoping with us: Thank you. Please keep it coming because it's working. We're 50% of the way there. Why not go all the way?

And most of all, my gratitude and appreciation to a loving God who hears and answers prayers. Thank you for your compassion. Thank you for giving us more time. Thank you for loving my mom.

He's Home!

My brother's home from his mission! Okay, so he's been home for almost two weeks now, but since when do I post anything on time? He served in the Ohio, Cincinati (I just realized I don't know how to spell that, how embarassing) mission spanish speaking. He spent two years teaching illegals as much as he could before they headed back to their home land. Missions are tough either way you look at it, but he had an especially tough mission dealing with Linz and my mom. He's definitely a trooper for sticking it out the full two years. We love having him home!

And yes, we believe he's adjusting quite well. The day after he got home he was working and two days after he got home he was on a date. One of his first questions was, "Do I get a cell phone?". And then my mom decided to give him the ultimate welcome home gift. She's had yet to actually throw up with all of the chemo, just lots of nausea. Well, she and Greg were eating a nice quiet dinner together and, you guessed it, puked all over Greg. Needless to say, neither one of them finished dinner. Welcome home Greg!

Here are some pics from the airport. So sorry that they're in reverse order. I'm too lazy to do it over. Also, please note how dutiful Zack and Megan were in holding their sign up. I believe it said, 'Hola Baby'.

Also, please note that the bum didn't come down the escalator. No, he had to find a sneaky way down and just walk through the airport. How rude of him to deny us those beautiful escalator pictures:)

Spring Fever

I didn't want to look at that picture of Kate anymore, so I had to put this one up. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm dying for spring. I just keep thinking about what it's like to walk to the park with the kids in warm sunny weather. Ahhh. To those of you who live where it's warm right now, we'll see who's laughing in the summer when you're melting to death:)

Poo Party

I had one of those experiences today that every mom dreads. Kate woke up from her nap, but wasn't screaming so I just let her stay up there. The fact that she wasn't screaming should have clued me in that something wasn't right. When will I learn? The first thing that hit me when I walked in her room was the smell. No big deal right? Just change her pants. Wrong. I looked at Kate and she was covered in poo. It was caked all over her hands, on her face, legs, and feet. Not to mention her crib, blankets, and stuffed animals. Yes, apparently she had quite the party. Blowouts are bad enough, but your kid purposefully playing in poo? Not ok.

Fine, you spend the next 30 minutes cleaning up. The problem was that I had to leave right then to pick Zack up from preschool. I actually thought about just leaving her there in denial that she existed. But I decided that probably wasn't the greatest idea and I'd somehow end up with an even bigger mess (if that was possible). Of course I took time to take a picture so I can get some sympathy. Then I threw her in the shower and scrubbed her off. I put her in a diaper and pajamas and ran like mad to get Zack. I broke numerous laws and managed to get there seconds before Zack walked out. Zack wondered why Kate was in her pajamas, so I explained the situation to him. He said that Kate smelled like a gerbil (they have gerbils at his school and they stink so this is not a compliment).

Anyway, things are scrubbed off and in the laundry as we speak. Why do I want another kid?:)