This picture says so many things about our family

Happy Father's Day!

Summer Fun

Albany is a big-ish small town. We're big enough to have a Target and Old Navy and soon-to-be-two Publix's, but not big enough for an Olive Garden or Super Target. If I go to the grocery store, I'm bound to see at least a few people I know. Albany has a definite small town feel.

Not too long ago, we started noticing that for such a small town, Albany has an inordinate amount of places that serve *only* hot dogs. At last count, we've noticed at least five. It's kind of weird, actually. Why the great love for hot dogs in Albany? How do five hot dog stands survive in the cut-throat restaurant business? This doesn't even take into account all of the BBQ joints and fast food restaurants that have hot dogs on their menu.

I mean, hot dogs are okay, if you're in the mood for a hot dog. It's not something I seek out, and it's certainly not something I think about buying when I'm looking to buy a precooked meal.

But the girls like hot dogs, and Madeline came up with an idea for some summer fun. We are going to visit all of the hot dog restaurants in Albany, one a week, and rate them. We even have a grading system! Sure, we could be doing something else with our time, but why not? Look for our first review soon!

A Tree Fort in Our Yard (minus the tree)

If I had a million dollars
I'd build a tree fort in our yard
If I had million dollars
You could help, it wouldn't be that hard
If I had million dollars
Maybe we could put like a little tiny fridge in there somewhere
You know, we could just go up there and hang out
Like open the fridge and stuff
There would already be laid out foods for us
Like little pre-wrapped sausages and things

- Barenaked Ladies

Well, we certainly didn't have a million dollars, but we a lot of free wood, a friend who lent us a nail gun, and a man with a big immagination who would do just about to make his girlies happy.

The free wood had lots of nails in it that had to be removed before it could be used. Each piece of wood had at least 12 nails in it. James pulled them all out by hand.


The Bucket 'O Nails, at least two inches deep


Putting down the flooring while sitting on the flooring takes lots of talent!


Don't try this at home, kids!


Me, wondering how all of our projects get so out of control


Look! Progress!


James saying "Worship my mad building skillz!"


Look at that!! A real playhouse! And the beginnings of a chicked coop and run!


James, Isabella and 3rd daughter Katie on the balcony


The temporary roof- our old trampoline! It's not waterproof, but it makes great shade and it was FREE!


The girls decided they were going to spend the night in the clubhouse.


They got eaten alive by mosquitos, but they stayed out all night! Can you believe it?


Obviously, the playhouse isn't quite done yet. But it's playable, and that's all that matters! Work now turns towards the chicken coop, because the baby chicks are starting to look like real chickens.



(This picture was actually taken a week ago, and they are even bigger now!)

Public Service Annoucement

'Yeah' and 'Yea' are synonyms.

'Yea' and 'Yay' are homonyms.

Don't use yeah/yea when you really mean "Yay!"

This PSA is brought to you by my raging case of PMS. You're Welcome. :)

What a cross between Stonehenge and the Taj Mahal would look like if it were being built in So. GA

For about two years now, we've had a plan to build a playhouse for the girls. A playhouse complete with electricity (and therefore A/C) that could also double as storage, and just maybe a guest house for when people come to visit. Our neighbors heard about the plan and laughed. The next day we came home and found three chairs on the front porch with a note saying the chairs were a "contribution to the girls' first apartment".

These playhouse plans were also part of the motivation for James to bring home all that wood last spring. He built the compost bin last spring, and the pile of wood had been sitting ever since. In James' defense, he's a busy man. But with the addition of the chicks (and the return of longer days) James has been working hard in the back yard.

Which brings me to last week....

James' plan for the permanent chicken coop involved a long yard and a coop with nesting boxes, tall enough for us to walk inside without having to bend over. We planned things out together, spray painting marks on the ground where poles would stand and things would go. I left him to his work. James had been outside digging holes for poles for about two hours when he called me out back, saying he had an idea. This is what I saw.



His idea was to build a small "treehouse" on top of the coop for the girls to give them a place to play until the "real" playhouse was built. In our minds we were thinking of the treehouse my Granddaddy had built over at the compound.



You can see it in the above picture. Something simple. Something easy.

*cue ominous music*

The girls loved the idea, of course, so James go to work going through the piles of wood to see what he would need to use. About this point I suggested that it might be nice if the playhouse was just a little bit bigger than the coop, making a balcony up top, and a covered place underneath where the girls could park their bikes and scooters. James thought this was a fabulous idea and adjested his plans accordingly.

I'm not sure what happened next. The next time I went outside things were...bigger than I had imagined.



See those cross boards? Those are the supports for the playroom floor. Let me show you from a different angle.



James is over 6 feet tall. The floor will be 8 feet in the air. The playhouse itself will be almost 6 feet tall with a pitched roof. To say that this thing will tower in the air would be an understatement.

Then I got to looking closely. All of the posts seemed kind of far apart. James then explained to me that the dimensions had changed a bit to make it easier to work with the wood we already had.



All told, from one end to the other, starting with the entrance to the chicken yard to the end of the balcony this structure will be 38 feet long. The playhouse floor itself (8 feet off the ground, remember) is 8 1/2 by 14 1/2 feet. For the record, this is almost as big as our bedroom. It started out 5ft by 8ft. The plans now included enclosing the area underneath the playhouse and building shelves/cabinets for even more storage.

Please tell me why we can never, ever stick to a simple plan.

TO BE CONTINUED, AGAIN