Recurrence of the Plague

So, we're all sick.

Again.

Thanks, mom of that little kid in the cry room at church who let your sick kid grab all my healthy kid's toys and wipe snot all over them before telling me TWENTY MINTUES LATER that your kid was "really sick." 

That was really considerate of you.

If You Give a Toddler a Cookie...

Have you ever read that children's book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?"

Well, here's the Ella version...

If you give a toddler a cookie, she's going to want a glass of milk.

If you get her a glass of milk, she's going to remember that it comes from a cow.

If she thinks about cows, she's going to run upstairs to the playroom to get her book about farm animals.

If she runs upstairs to the playroom, she will stop on the stair landing to play with your glass candle holders.

If you ask her to stop playing with the glass candle holders, she will turn around and run up the rest of the stairs to the playroom.

If she gets to the playroom, she will start sorting through her toys to look for her book.

If she sorts through her toys to find her book, she will find her bucket and shovel that she used to play in the sand at the beach.

If she finds her beach toys, she will run to her room to find her bathing suit.

If she pulls out her pink bathing suit, she will want to wear it.

If she wants to wear it, she will put it on...over her clothes. 

If she puts on her bathing suit over her clothes, you have to take a picture.

If you have to take a picture, she will have to smile and look adorable.

If she looks that adorable, you will inevitably give her another cookie.

Don't believe me? 

Well, here's the proof...

Porch!!!!

Our front porch is a disaster.  Or, rather, it was a disaster.

See?

The sad tale of the porch cracking history is unknown to me, but I do know that these cracks have made it impossible to sell our house.  We haven't had the money to get the porch fixed, but recently we faced the fact that it had to be done, found a good contractor, and took the plunge. 

 This week, the guys showed up to do the work, and it was really interesting to watch it happen!  Let me introduce you to Rusty, the guy in charge of the work crew.  He likes to use drills, hammers, and chisels...

 

They took off the top layer of tile and cement...

 

 This is what it looked like at the end of the first day, after they carted off most of the rubble.

 

 On day two, they dropped by for half an hour to power wash the surface.

 

Then, on day three, they laid wire mesh before pouring the concrete.

We had to wait a bit for the truck, but at last, it arrived!

Ella was so excited.  She had been supervising the process carefully in her pajamas.



















The guys started bring up wheelbarrows of concrete and dumping them over the wire mesh.

Then they spread it out with these little hand tools.

They did the initial smoothing with a 2 x 4 plank.

Then they used this thing to push the concrete down and make sure there were no holes underneath.

Despite the fact that it was nap time, Ella pulled her chair over to the door and watched the whole process.  Notice the change of attire...she let me change her clothes, but she wouldn't leave her observation point.

This was another smoothing tool.

Here was how it looked after they smoothed it with the tool above.

 

At this point, I had to leave to go to work, so I didn't get any more pictures.  They waited for the surface to harden a little, and then they smoothed it one more time and scraped a special tool over it to give it a little bit of texture.  

Then we waited 2 days for it to harden....and voila!  A new front porch!

 

Hopefully potential buyers will think that this is a big improvement, and someone will make us an offer.