UGGGGHHHH....

I finally got around to taking a few pictures of our remodeled house. I'll post way more fantastic ones to do Kirk proud, but after teaching 25 kids first aid (although with a crowd of 25, I'm not sure I taught much of anything), these will have to do in the meantime. Trust me these pictures DO NOT DO JUSTICE TO MY AWESOMENESS, so here is a little snippet of our basement. First up, our Yellow Room (cause we're really creative with our room names)....

Shane's cave....

 The blue room....

 Our awesome kitchen....prior to the remodel, the kitchen ended at the stove. They added not only new and awesome countertops....but more cabinetry, oh, and a whole new entrance into my house! I knew knowing cool people would pay off some day!

Now for the piece de la resistance....our built in boogie board holder!

 One of the dad's that came over to bring his daughter to the "crazy first aid class" (because I'm pretty certain it wasn't just first aid I was teaching), looked at our custom build and said..." now that makes me feel like I'm in Hawaii"! Errr, the dad was born and raised in Hawaii, but I feel the exact same way! I mean really, who doesn't need a custom built boogie board holder???? In other news, I found this while trying to find my nursing graduation picture for nursing appreciation week....

Pretty certain that trumps my nursing picture hands down! Even if I am wearing a NURSE'S CAP AND A NOSE RING in my picture!!!! So all in all a super fantastic, looking good, day!

Exhaustion.....

The last of our visitors left last night. This visitor had the unfortunate lot in life of being a Master Carpenter AND Shane's Step-dad. Unfortunate for him since the whole lower level of my house has been remodeled on his non-vacation/vacation.....extremely fortunate for us and our outdoor shower (this picture is before it was completely completed)....

My house looks awesome....it also looks messy, very, very, very messy, thus you will need to wait one more day before I start the onslaught a ridiculous amount of photos from our remodel (too bad I wasn't smart and took pictures beforehand so you could see the amazing awesomeness that is Kirk!!!! Honestly, I feel like I've stepped into a Pottery Barn with how crazy cool my entry way is. So here is your final warning to rest your eyes!!! So all in all a super fantastic, hoping for the cleaning fairies to come in the night, day!

Family History....

Buddy and I were invited on a multi-family hiking trip by his BFF, Not one to turn down.....well, basically anything, especially when it's with the aforementioned BFF, we joined him at the obsidian mines.....I think it was truly just a ploy to get some free labor off of the local neighborhood kids....

Buddy did his miner great-grandfathers proud with his obviously inherited awesome abilities with swinging a hammer (although, I'm going to believe that the great granparents are up there shaking their heads going "seriously, you want to do that for  FUN?????". Of course the boys had a blast exploring...

 and trying to set off avalanches.... Here they are right before they started pummeling rocks at the cliff above and beside me. Thank goodness I have the reflexes of a cat (OK, an ox) so I could literally run for the hills before the hills crashed on me...they of course thought it was hilarious!

They also had a great time dawdling....

Yep, that's them way back there. I actually got to the car and walked back to keep them focused. Turns out that when you get easily distracted by shining things when you're near an obsidian mine, you can't seem to walk two inches without stopping and exploring. Turns out that when you stop every two inches on a 2 mile hike your short jaunt turns into an ETERNITY! So all in all a super fantastic,  got to tell some stories about Papaw Huff and his awesomely missing his toes due to a coal mining accident, day!

Smoking guns.....

Buddy had a field trip today. They learned the important art of fishing....

Buddy mostly learned the important art of being a goober....

and the extremely important art of making the stinkiest fish chum....

Trust me, you are missing out not being able to smell the stench of this stuff. Nothing quite says odorific like sardines, tuna, squid, peanut butter and bread!!!! In other news, we've been renovating our basement to do vacation rentals out of. In other, other news, Buddy DCFS may be contacting us shortly about the child labor laws....

FYI- it looks really awesome and I will be posting a bum load of pictures when it is complete, so start resting your eyes now...you have been warned! In other, other, other news, contacts are a lot more difficult to place when you won't really open your eyes!

So all in all a super fantastic, needing an eye crowbar for Buddy, day!

Stinky bait....

 Because I'm either the laziest or the coolest Webelos Den Leader in the world, I made Shane be in charge of the boys earning their traveler pins....

Now if only we could earn our Cub Scout napping pins and the clean my house pins the boys might actually have a little bit more fun. I mean look at them.... poor boys are bored to tears....

 Just kidding!!!! Best den meeting ever....well, except the science one because that one had some really cool experiments. Of course, Shane was in charge of teaching that one too, so I may need to hang up my fancy scout belt and shirt (but lets be honest, those shirts do nothing for me and should probably be retired for the sake of all of those still with their eyesight!). In other news, Buddy has a fishing field trip tomorrow. The kids are in charge of making their own bait. Buddy just spent 30 minutes combining tuna, sardines, peanut butter and bread into the stinkiest slop this side of the Mississippi! If the stinkier the bait is the bigger the catch, then we may be catching a whale tomorrow. Also, I'm just assuming he knows what he's doing with his bait concocting because he said he watched some of the uncles on the island use the same stuff.....I guess we'll see when we catch our whale! So all in all a super fantastic, gotta go to sleep for our fishing trip, day!

Heimlich....

We have been hosting 13 extra people at our house for the last few weeks as some sort of weird social experiment. It only got weird because we're related to them....I claim only by marriage though with this group of hooligans....

Buddy of course had a blast, we'll actually he ate a ton of beans while they were here so he had multiple blasts! This is one of his more memorable blasts....

Buddy LOVES his cousins if you can't tell.....

Well, maybe you can't tell....

Anyway, since we had a Master Carpenter and Interior Designer at our disposal we milked them dry....actually, we're still milking them dry since they both extended their stay to help us renovate our basement into a vacation rental, although everyone has left now but the Carpenter (talk about super milking)....

Not done yet, but it definitely pays to know people! In other news, amongst all the chaos we had a Hungry Hungry Hippos Pack Night to fulfill all of my childhood dreams...

And yes, I am totally not embarrassed to admit that I kicked a kid off of a coaster so I could take a spin. Do you blame me? Also,  Buddy also had time to compete in a Newbery Quiz Bowl.....

That's Buddy's team, the only all boy team in the competition. They finished 8th out of 19, not too shabby for this group of goobers.....

Seriously, it's like trying to herd cats! In other news, to celebrate almost everyone leaving our house today ( and I mean that in the nicest way), I took Buddy down to Kona to pick up his new contacts and then out to eat. It was a fine plan.....until he decided to choke on his sushi and I had to perform the Heimlich, at which point he vomited all over the table and my completely uneaten meal. Sheesh!!! That boy! He choked on an orange in Alaska when he was 4 where I had to do the Heimlich and now again????? I'm starting to think that this boy is going to have to bring all of his dates over so I can give them a course in first aid before he is allowed to go out....I'm also thinking HOLY CRAP I'M GLAD I'M A NURSE! So all in all a super fantastic....

just because some things should be repeated, day!

The Adventures of Clay Moore....

We had Cub Scouts today. Since I'm a lazy den leader, we decided to have a lesson on manners. My boys are the wind breakiest (I'm sure that's a word) boys I HAVE EVER MET (Buddy is of course KING), so  I figured a manners lesson wouldn't hurt. Of course, some air freshener wouldn't hurt either! Anyway, to end our den meeting, we all made some Claymation videos. After everyone left, Buddy continued to make masterpieces....

He has aptly named his series of video shorts "The Adventures of Clay Moore", here is one of his episodes...

The fact that he's avoiding homework in the process is just another bonus in his eyes!!!!! One of these days I'm going to have a kid that likes doing homework....but I may need to borrow a kid in order for that to happen! So all in all a super fantastic, avoiding our homework again, day!