Jacking the Stoop

We did our normal Friday night routine, which is that Helen says she's tired and wants to go to bed, but I talk her into cuddling on the sofa and watching 20/20. She likes to cuddle, but she always falls asleep and feels "out of it" when she has to get up and go to bed. Once again she fell asleep on the sofa and then had "bad" sleep when she went to bed.

The boys came in and cuddled in our bed in the morning before heading downstairs to watch cartoons. Helen slept in a little, I went on a run, Derek practiced piano, and Adam played with his castle and knights. When I got back from my run, Derek showed off a pulley system he made using the wheels on two of his remote control cars. Helen went on a walk\run and then we all went to Derek's basketball game.

Derek is only 7 in an under 11 league, so he's not having much of an impact. But, he's learning and giving a good effort. Adam always packs a bag of toys to play with during the game. Usually he plays the whole time, but today he sat on my lap for quite a while and watched the game. He would jump up after every score to look at the score on the score board. Adam likes that he always gets one of the team snacks after the game. Helen was tired and chilled and running a low grade fever again. She's very frustrated that she can't seem to kick this sinus infection.

After the game we went to Northern Tool to see about getting some jacks to shore up the settling of the front stoop of our house. Terminix insisted on venting the front stoop from the crawl space and when they did they removed some dirt that seemed to be supporting the front stoop. The concrete on the stoop should have been reinforced with re-bar or something when it was built, but it doesn't appear that it was. So when the dirt was removed there's nothing supporting the concrete stoop and it's starting to sag. What Helen thought was going to be a quick stop turned into a long stop. Then we had to go to Home Depot for some concrete footing for the jacks and some other things.

When we got home, Helen headed straight upstairs for a nap. I replaced the weather stripping on the front door and replaced the toilet seat in the downstairs bathroom. Derek practiced piano and Adam played on the computer.

Helen made spaghetti for dinner. She was going to make quesedillas but didn't feel up to it. We watched a prerecorded episode of Sunday Morning on our Media Center PC while we ate. It's probably the show that we watch the most. We rarely watch "live tv", especially during the school year. We really love our Media Center PC and love having it at the desk in the kitchen where all the action is. It's the nerve center of our house. A lot of times we watch our "family videos" that we've transferred from our camcorder. And we're always doing email or looking up something on the internet. The boys love playing games and we all love watching the screen saver with all our photos. We highly recommend setting up a computer in the kitchen since that's where all the action is and setting up a screen saver with all the family photos. It really helps us all, especially the kids, keep all the things we've done and all the people in our lives fresh in our mind.

Today is my brother Jason's 39th birthday. How did you get to be 39? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were playing "short yardage football" on Mom and Dad's bed. Happy Birthday brother.