working on the house

After what I think was 5 weekends in a row of not being home, we decided to stay home and work on some much needed home improvements. The fires in washington have kicked up a ton of smoke. we are pretty far away from most of them but the way the wind was blowing it made the smoke blow right into our valley. Last monday we had a huge thunder and lightning storm which is what I think started some of the fires. I took this picture right as the storm passed.

After 6 years of living in our house we finally had a back patio poured. The forms are still in place and they have to come seal it later but just the initial pour made a huge difference. we will eventually build brick around the pillars and switch out the metal frame holder things to a better looking bronze type.

Luke was out of town last week so I let landon sleep with me....this is how I found him when I went to go to bed.

This is not the best picture but it is all the smoke in the valley. normally you can see mt spokane from here and all the hills.

Saturday we noticed a huge smoke plume coming from behind our house. It was a new fire about 20 miles west of us. we were not in any danger but it made it all smokey again.

The sunset's have been pretty cool lately.

My project for the weekend was to restain the front deck and the door that walter had scratched the heck out of. Here is the before pic.

And after.

Luke's project was the home theater. He built a nice built in area with shelves.

of course the kids helped...josie took this picture of landon.

Here is a side by side of the progress....

Now to add the TV!

It was nice to stay home for a change and not have to go anywhere. I got a new treadmill and have been trying to keep up with my running. I did a little over 6 miles on saturday which is a 10K. I was thinking of doing a 10K or a Half marathon in september but I think I might aim for the half marathon. My hip continues to be a burden but it hurts if I run and it hurts if I don't ...so I just keep running. I had an appointment with an orthapedic specialist today that specialized in hips. I drove almost an hour to get there and had to wait for 20 minutes. when they came out to get me they said 'sorry, our x ray machine is broken and we will have to reschedule your next appointment'......I had to reschedule for august....It was a little frustrating....so in the meantime I will keep stretching and trying to strengthen my hip. I have been going to a chiropractor for the past 2 weeks, I have had some stretch therapy and massage....none of it has worked....so I guess I will wait until august to see if anything is really wrong with my hip......