Sunday was spent working at the house. Things had not progressed as much (or at all, actually) as I wanted them to since last weekend, which sucked, but we did get quite a bit done. Tyler borrowed the backhoe from work and finished digging the trench for the new waterline to the well. The previous pipe had broken and it was all old, so he decided to just replace all of the pipe. The water pressure also wasn't that great, so we're getting some kind of pressure tank that will help with that. After a few bumps along the way, we got all the pipe laid down and the connections made. We're lucky in that Tyler gets all of the materials to do this for free from his work. The new pipe ended up not fitting through the hole into the house, which could have been a big issue, but we just ran down to the workshop and he cut off a piece of thinner pipe, then used their equipment to make the threads on the end. That was kinda cool to see. I mean who ever thinks about what it takes to make the threads on a pipe? I certainly never did! They also had all of the connecting pieces we needed. I have a feeling this is going to be really handy as time goes on!
While Tyler finished up the piping, his mom and the kids and I worked inside the house. We got the walls scrubbed down in two of the bedrooms and the hallway, so they're ready to be painted. I also had to step into the disciplinarian role, which was interesting. Ethan, who is 7, kept playing around and not helping out, so instead of getting to work with everyone else, I made him go outside and pick up pinecones. He pouted the whole time, but next time hopefully he'll do what is asked of him instead of messing around. In order for this family to work, everyone is going to have to help out and if they don't want to do the chore they're given, I'll be more than happy to find a different one for them to do! I had to get on Lily (age 9) about helping out too. It's interesting to see how I'm going to have to deal with each child differently. Kylee (age 5) does really well when you praise her and I think that'll be the best motivator for her. That's not going to work with Lily. I don't think making her do extra chores will necessarily work either. That's what they've been doing, by making her clean out horse stalls when she has a bad attitude. I think losing privileges might be what will work for her. We'll see as time goes on.
I did a lot of bonding with the kids this weekend. No one has ever sat down and read with them regularly, so I spent lots of time reading to them. Even the babies (Trysta-1 year and Ava-2 years) were fighting to sit on my lap and look at the pictures. My mom brought up little presents for everyone, including some books and Morgan (8 years old) sat and read a book to my mom. There were lots of hard, foreign words in the story and she did surprisingly well. She's an excellent little reader! Even my mom, who actually teaches reading, was impressed. Lily seems to need lots of physical affection right now, so I made sure to give her lots of hugs. When we were saying goodbye, she gave me a huge hug and started crying. She didn't want me to go and said she was going to miss me. Holy cow, way to pull at my heart strings! Despite having their grandma and aunt around, what these kids really need is a mom. Taking them over to the house so they could see that it's being cleaned up and made into a home again has made them excited and they all keep saying they can't wait until the wedding. Kylee did whisper in my ear, though, that Tyler and I aren't allowed to kiss until we get married!
My ring was done being sized this week, so now I finally get to wear it:
Sadly I only took one picture this weekend . . . Trysta really liked her Jello salad!
1 comment:
I can't wait to see the pictures. House sounds great, even if the progress is slow. And HOW GREAT to have TYLER - who can FIX all this stuff?! That is great. I like your ideas with the kids. And GLAD you had a great weekend with all the families together! Yay! Love your ring! ;)
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