Mirror Images

Children are so enthralled to look upon themselves in the mirror.  I caught Mia doing this a few weeks back and remembered some of my favorite photos of Olivia when she was much younger doing the same in this mirror.  I thought it was the perfect opportunity to snap some similar pictures of Mia.  Of course Mia's expressions are much sillier than Olivia because that's our meatball, Mia's personality.


Mia, July 2012


Olivia in July of 2008
 

It also got me thinking about how looking at your children, you can see so much of yourself in them.  Sometimes the good and even the bad.  I hear Olivia's word when she's frustrated or yelling at Mia and it sounds just like me when I get upset with the girls.  It makes me cringe, but at least I am aware and working on breaking both Olivia and myself of that habit.  Mia's goofy personality is so me as well.  Her defiance and wanting to do things her way are tell tale signs of my childhood, although from what I hear, Andy's too.  Both girls are so unique from one another, which I love.  They can fight terribly one minute, but be so sweet the next.  Most of the time they truly look out for each other and it melts my heart.  I don't know who they got that from, because I don't recall ever being that sweet with my sister in my adolescent years, and I know Andy wasn't either.  It's a joy to watch them grow and develop their amazing personalities and see reflections of both Andy and myself in each of them.


 

Let's try our grumpy face on for size.

More Work on the Barn

We headed up to Alpena again for a short weekend to get as much done as we could.  Both Andy and I were elated to see concrete on the ground.  This trip we were minus one child.  Olivia went with Nana and Papa to a time Share Resort in Illinois for a long weekend, so we just had Mia to be our helper.  Per Mia's request we got up early and went in to "Big Boy" (spoken in a deep long drawn out voice) for breakfast and then back to the barn to start working.  Andy's main goal was to get the roof all on and tarpapered.  I wanted to do something and feel useful, so I went through the quick crash course of Andy Feyes' Wall Building 101.  During the beginning of my lessons I thought it was going to get ugly, but I bit my tongue and everything went smoothly there after.

Mia really was a great helper.  She would quickly get me screws, my hammer, drill, or fubar whenever I needed them.  She wasn't usually too far from my side building walls, unless she was napping.  I was hesistant on how it would be with only one child.  Granted with two we get a lot more fighting, but they entertain each other so well.  I was worried that Mia would command so much time and attention, but she was perfect.

My first finished wall.  The door is on the far left, with a window framed in towards the center.  Not too bad for my first time.

At the end of day one, we ran into town for some dinner.  Andy of course told Mia she could pick where we ate since she'd been so well behaved, so of course her answer was, "Big Boy."  Alpena amazingly can support two Big Boys and is only the size of Sturgis, so we opted to go to the other Big Boy this time.

Andy is almost done sheeting the roof!

My big helper Mia!

Andy manually carried each sheet of plywood up the roof.  He's beat from all the physical labor, but wouldn't let me help much with the roof, aside from climbing up and down the ladder to take him tools.  Which is probably a smart choice since I am accident prone and couldn't carry a sheet of plywood up to save my life. 

The end result of our short weekend consists of two 24 foot walls up, one of which has subsiding on it, and a completed roof with tar paper.  Also, it meant a late drive home and getting home after midnight, but we feel like we accomplished a lot in a short time.  Two weeks until our next trip up.

Barn Raising Good Times

We spent close to two weeks up north at our property affectionately dubbed, Patient Acres.  The plan was to build a barn/garage.  We were relying on my overly busy cousin Bari to help, so we didn't get near as far as planned, but are pleased with the progress thus far.


The end of day one after Andy chopped down quite a few trees and I cleared the brush away.

Bari on day 2 clearing out stumps.

Both girls were ecstatic to ride in the backhoe with Bari.  He has a way with kids.  Watching him interact with my girls transported me back to when I was a young girl and he acted the same with me.

Mia has no problem getting dirty, but Olivia on the otherhand does.  This trip was perfect for her.  She delved in digging in a giagantic dirt pile.  It doesn't show well enough in this photo, but she was absolutely filthy from head to toe.  Andy didn't even want her in his truck, and I didn't want to make mud in my dad and Patty's washing machine with her dirty jeans.  The solution: throw her in the bed of the truck and drive down the rarely traveled dead end road to the association lot and throw her in the get clean.  I of course was slightly apprehensive putting my six year old in the bed of a truck, even though we did it all the time in my youth.  Either Andy of I had to ride in the back with her if I was going to allow this.  Andy won, and I drove.  Of course as we turn out of our little subdivision onto the road to the association lot, I see a police car heading towards us.  I quickly turn and try and get Andy and Olivia to duck.  Andy quickly sees my gesture and hides Olivia, but remains up himself.  Finally, after my repeated hand motions and screaming he realizes what I am saying and ducks himself too.  Thank goodness.  That would be just my luck, such a short trip at low speeds, but I would get pulled over and ticketed.  So glad I wasn't. 

Olivia jumping in to rinse off.  She was a trooper the entire time and thoroughly enjoyed bathing with her clothes on in the lake.  Mia however was our naked jaybird the entire trip.  She saw Olivia in the lake and immediately disrobed and tried getting in herself.  She also pulled her underwear down in Arby's, the museum, and countless other places that escape my mind at the moment.  Usually it was because she had to go to the bathroom.  We are working on keeping her pants on until she's in the bathroom now.

Here's the end of day 4.  We got all the poles set.
The next few days consisted of digging a 12 inch trench around the perimeter to put in rat board.  That was the most excruciating part for me, and of course we picked the hottest day to do it.  Our soil is a web of roots, some very strong, large roots.  I'd plunge the shovel into the soil, only to have it feel like I hit concrete because of a root.  So Andy made me swing an ax chop all the roots out.  I was one sore woman the end of that day.  I was sweaty, dirty, exhausted, and lightheaded.  Andy didn't enjoy the task anymore than me, but seemed very amused at the utter exhaustion that had overcome me.  He thought it gave me a good taste of what he deals with daily.  After rat boards came headers and we were ready for concrete, and our delivery of materials.

Saturday was the day most of our materials were delivered, minus the trusses, which were scheduled for Tuesday.

Guess what, Tuesday came, and Andy was gitty as all get out watching this huge truck with a wide load sign and lead car try and back down our narrow winding road to drop the trusses off.  We're amazed he got them back to the point he did.  Super nice guy who lives in Angola, IN.  One heck of a truck driver for sure.

Well now the trusses are here, but in the middle of our road, that yes, one person lives down, so now we had to get them out of the road.  Not too much of a problem, right?  Afterall they only weigh 526 lbs each.  So we attempted to move them using the tractor to pull them, but it didn't work so well, so Andy and I physically moved them one at a time to our drive to get them out of the road.  Now we blocked our main entrance in and out, but we have a secret entrance to still get out.

Bari and his friend, Rich, showed up the next day to help set trusses.  Andy and Rich were up high to secure the trusses.  Bari manned the backhoe holding the truss, and I secured each truss to the backhoe and walked it to guide it into place.  It all was a very nerve racking task, but very rewarding in the end.  It finally looked like we had a lot accomplished at we were at day 9 at this point.

End of day 9!  Finally looking like a barn.

Mia spent a lot of time on her bike or riding in her car.  I took my bike up and shoes to do a bit of running, so I could train a bit for my triathalon that is now less than one month away.  I decided building a barn was enough conditioning while I was there.  Overall, the trip was a success.  We all had to learn to compromise, let go of some ideals we thought would get done.  Andy and I were convinced we'd be at each other's throats by the end, but we really got along well, and dare I say had fun.  Patient Acres brings out our patients, or at least makes us aware that we need to work on them.  By the end of each work day, we could tell the end was near, because we'd lost patients with the girls and were ready for some sleep.  The girls were terrific through it all too.  Regularly we'd hear them screaming at each other from inside the camper like typical sisters do, but other times they worked together to build, create, or pretend together.  I hope they will treasure the memories made for a lifetime.

Andy got almost half the roof sheeting on and tar papered before we left.  We plan to head up again this weekend to see what else we can get done.  I got a call today that the concrete is being poured today!  I never thought I'd be so excited for concrete.