The Jensens are hoping you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

(And stay out of the shopping centers today!!)

Thanksgiving Program

Today Andrew had a Thanksgiving program at Kindergarten that parents were invited to attend.  They sang a few cute songs and went through the alphabet with each kid naming something related to Thanksgiving; for example Andrew’s part was saying “N is for November”.

After the alphabet was complete they went down the row again asking each kids to name something they were thankful for.  First kid says, “My Mom.”  Next kid does the same “Thankful for my Mom and Dad.”  Each kid says the same thing… until they get to Andrew.

What is Andrew thankful for?  “Snakes and my birthday,” he says with a great big smile.

What the What?

I at least I know his birthday is coming up and he’s excited about that.

But never in my life have I know Andrew to like snakes.   Never seen him hold one, heard him talk about one, or desire to own one.   As far as I know he doesn’t dislike them either, nor have a fear of them.   To my knowledge he is fairly ambivalent toward snakes.

So I have no explanation why he broke from the ranks of the “Mom and Dad” crowd to add his grateful for the legless reptiles.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the kid isn’t afraid to stand out from the crowd; to not follow along like a sheep.

But snakes?  What the what??

 

 

For Halloween the kids were able to dress up at school.  Andrew was a knight.  Joshua went as some type of archer and took his bow with him, but no arrows.  The following philosophical discussion ensued when he got home.

Me: You were able to take your bow?

Josh: Yeah, I talked with the principal about it and got the okay.

Me: Good.

Me to Andrew: Did you take your shield?

Andrew: Yes, but not the sword.

Josh: Why not the sword, Andrew?

Julie: No weapons allowed Josh.

Me: Wait, then why could he take the bow?  Is the bow the weapon or the arrow?

Julie and Josh together: The arrow.

Julie:  The arrow gets shot so it’s the weapon/threat.  The bow just launches it.

Me: So he could have taken the gun, but no bullets?  Because the gun just launches them, right?

Julie: Um, sure.  Let’s just keep this theoretical though, okay?

MORE TiLE/HOUSEWORK

Julie and I finished putting the tile in that bedroom on Thursday and she grouted the entire thing on Friday.  It looks really nice.  We’ve moved the boys beds into there and put down a rug for them.

Today we started tiling their room.  It is slightly larger than the one we already finished, but not by much.  I think we can finish getting the tile down on Monday, and grout it on Tuesday.   I’m not sure about starting the third room up there because it is stuffed full of food that I brought back from the house in Missouri.

I’m afraid that those 22 tiles are all I have in me to do today.   That is a lot of work for me unfortunately.   There are 19 uncut tiles left to put down in the room.  I think Julie might do them all later with Caitlin since she (Cat) really wants to do some tiling and Julie really wants to get this done.

Also, I got the washer and dryer put in place upstairs too.  So now the laundry doesn’t have to be hauled down to be washed, and then carried right back up.  I’m hoping that makes things nicer and easier on Julie.  She needs a few things to get easier around here.

 

Sorry about the grainy photos… my photographer today, Joshua, isn’t exactly a professional.

 

We have started making some major moves on the house work front again!  Last week we got the washer/dryer pan installed in the laundry room.  And now Julie and I have started laying tile in one bedroom.

Tile

I (we) move slow since the pain it causes me is incredible.  This took about 45 minutes.   The kneeling and bending kills me though, so we did this then took a 2 hour break to let my back relax.    A friend from church (Jason Fawcett) came over in the after noon and we put in another 45 minutes or so.  With him doing most of the work we were able to get all of the uncut pieces of tile in.

Yesterday we worked on the cut pieces around the edges.   Julie actually laid most of these.  She would measure them out and I’d cut them.  This let me just stay seated at the tile saw while she did most of the rest.  Between stints of being “mommy” to the boys, we got them all laid out before dinner.

This was this morning actually as she was cleaning up getting ready to grout the floor.   Unfortunately this is another activity that I can’t really accomplish well, but doing just this one small bedroom shouldn’t be hard on Julie.  It’s less than 150 sq. feet.

When we finish 2 bedrooms we’ll get the closets in and move the girls over into the new area of the house.   They boys have been there for a while now.

After this we’ll move onto the bathroom then kitchen/living room area.   Things are coming along slowly (and are slowly killing me), but we are making steady progress toward completion on the house work.

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Anyone willing to volunteer some time to come help with small projects like these is more than welcome!  We happy accept any and all offered service.