Project Update

We've been hard at work on our basement lately. Since we've owned this house, we've had issues with water and a musty smell. After some investigation, we discovered that the walls were never properly sealed. Normally, the outside of the foundation would be coated in tar to prevent water from seaping through. This foundation was poured before that was considered something "good" to do. The previous owner had coated the interior of the walls with joint compound and then painted. Needless to say, this was not an effective sealer. Over time, water had caused the paint to peel off in places and we needed to remove all of the paint and joint compound to start over. The project began with lots of scraping and powerwashing. Matt needed motivation several times through the project to keep moving forward. Good thing Don and Lori are here to keep things moving. The scraping and powerwashing were big jobs, but left the least mess and kept us from toxic paint remover that would have required us to evacuate the house. Once the paint and joint compound were removed, we went back with two heavy coats of sealer. It was a lot of work too, but worth it to know that the walls are now properly sealed. We'll give it some time, but hopefully our musty smell will disappear.

MMMMM!!!! Corn!

Good Buddies

Maddix and Joshua are quite the buddies. The both light up when the other one comes around. Josh walks around and says "Madd, Madd" a lot. He also pretends to talk on the phone to him. Once in a while, you can get them to give each other hugs.

And We're Back!!

We're finally back on line. Our computer of 6 years finally died in early October. After several days (or weeks) of struggling to spend top dollar for a replacement, we broke down an ordered a new one. Good ol' Dell delayed the order twice and my frustration with them lead me to cancel the order. We made a trip to Wal-mart and bought a cheapy that is doing a fine job now. Maybe this one won't last 6 years like the last one, but if it gives us a couple, it will be worth the small amount we actually spent. Here are the latest and greatest shots of Joshua. He's getting bigger every day and repeats almost every word you say to him. All of the sudden, it really matters what words you choose to use. The first picture of him is his 17 month old pictures. The second one is Christmas morning at Don and Lori's. Santa brought him a cool police version of the "Cozy Coupe". We had a great Christmas in Goodland with all of the McKenzie family. It was blizzarding for 2 days, so we didn't get out much. The last picture is one from this summer. Joshua and Hoss have become pretty good buds. They're hanging out in Hoss' kennel in this picture. Josh knows his name and runs around saying "Hoss, Hoss" a lot.

Happy Birthday Lawrence!

Some of you may know that Jena has a turtle. More appropriately, Jena's mom now has a turtle and he's actually a Sulcata Tortoise. Jena saw him in a pet store in Lawrence, KS just over 10 years ago and thought she needed the cute little thing. In true Younger fashion, she negotiated a better price and took him home. At the time, she did not realize that this little "turtle" could live up to 80 years and would get big enough to ride some day. Since we never really knew when he was born, Jena decided that Columbus Day would be his birthday each year. As you can imagine, he's seen some interesting times in his 10 years on earth. Here are a few highlights from Larry's life:

• Was small enough to ride in the cupholder of Jena's car when he came home.
• Has lived in Tribune, Garden City, and Goodland...but mostly in Tribune.
  
• Once walked away from Brett and Jill's house in Goodland and was lost for 2 weeks. He was found about 6 miles north of town and made the front page of the newspaper on return.
  
• Can destroy any flower bed or garden in no time at all.
  
• Can eat you out of house and home now and enjoys all the veggies he can get.
  
• Was almost adopted by the Garden City zoo until another turtle in the exhibit was stolen. Jena quickly decided against leaving him there.
  
• Likes to give the grandkids rides...yep, you can ride him!
  
• Has lived about 8 years longer than any vet or tortise expert expected him to live.
  
• Is the main attraction at the turtle race at the Tribune fair.
• Weighed less than a pound when Jena got him and weighs close to 80 pounds today.
  
  

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I had to include the first one above as a nod to Max and the great Polaroid. I'm not sure anyone other than Max still has and uses one of those! Can you even see Larry in the picture? He's pretty small in Jill's hand.

A huge thanks goes to Wayne and Kathy for adopting Larry and giving him a great home. He probably would not have lived nearly this long if it hadn't been for the care he gets in Tribune.

Frustration!!

I tried to help Jena with the blog tonight and killed the whole thing!!! All I wanted to do was updated the background and I lost all the page elements. I think it ties back to the html code from a certain website...no, I'm sure of it. Anyway, I'm done with that website for backgrounds. I think it's mostly fixed now. Maybe it was time to change things up a bit anyway. OK, I'm done ranting...Matt.

Lot's of Fun!!

Joshua and Maddix sure had a lot of fun the other day! They learned it's fun to play with the dishwasher and to play under the sink. They went in and out of the cabinet a hundred times. Josh liked it when Maddix was on the outside of the cabinet and could hand him stuff. It's fun to see them grown up together!