Basement and Busyness...

Finally, we've been able to start getting work done on our basement. We had our basement framed about a year and a half ago. Gregg's sister and his dad gave that to us for a Christmas present. We so appreciated that, but haven't had anything done since then.

A couple weeks ago, brother Pete called and said he remembered that we had talked about having our basement done and would we like to start on it. So we started working with him and it is going amazingly quickly. We have been really feeling like we could use the extra room and we are so excited.

On July 14th Pete came over with the Dave electrician and we talked about what we want done and where. On July 22nd(?) Eddie the plumber came to see what he will be doing. On July 29th Nate the heating man came to see what he needs to do.

Then the actual work started. On July 30th Pete picked up our shower that we had bought and came and framed in the shower and did a little more framing that needed to be done. We really, really appreciated that. I was more than a bit nervous about getting the shower into the house. It was 33 3/4" deep and our patio door is 33 3/4" wide. Pete said it was quite the project to get it into the house, but they did get it in. We were not home, but I will tell more about that in a bit. I am so happy that they did get it in because I really like this shower and didn't really want any of the other showers that would have fit. So a big, huge thank you to Pete for doing that for us.


On July 31st we had a carpet man come to show us some carpet samples and give us a quote on carpet. We might not have enough money left to do the carpet, but if we do we wanted to know about how much it would be. Nate also came and did all the heating duct work and left us the covers so that when everything is done we can put those on. There is one heating duct that had to be moved so Nate will have to come back to move that and then the heating will be done.
Today, August 1st, Dave came and did most of the electrical. He will come back tomorrow to finish up what he can do. Then he will have to come back again to do the final finishing after the sheet rocking is done. Eddie the plumber will be coming back on Tuesday or Wednesday this week to do the plumbing and put in a gas line for a future fireplace. The sheet rockers will come on Saturday, August 8th and the tapers will maybe be coming August 12th through the 15th.

We have also been busy with all kinds of other things in the last few days.

On Wednesday the 29th, Auntie Jennifer came and picked up the girls and took them to the Radison Hotel in Bloomington by the Mall of America. This is where the Water Park of America is. She spent many hours with them in the water park and the girls had a blast. Jennifer had her Korean sister-in-law and baby niece who just moved to Minnesota, over to the hotel. Being Asian too, she wanted to meet Meikiina & Brynlee. So they all spent the morning playing in the water park together on Thursday. Jennifer asked Gregg and me if we wanted to spend the night there Thursday night, so we did. We went over to Ikea and Mall of America and wandered around a bit. It was fun and relaxing. I did feel guilty that we weren't here when the shower was coming into the house, but it was good to be given the gift of a relaxing evening/night. Jennifer is so good to us.

Today we went to see 'YuLong: The Jade Dragon' by Circus Juventas. It was great. It was from 1:00 to 4:30 and we could have stayed way longer. The whole last hour Meikiina was asking, "It's not done yet, is it?" I think she got hungry about half way through and started acting out, but I had a snack for her and when she ate that, she was right as rain again all the way through the rest of the event. Brynlee enjoyed it too, but was a little scared, I think, a couple of times.

Circus Juventas is a youth performing arts circus. YuLong: The Jade Dragon, is a story of a Chinese kingdom under attack and Hua Mulan (a young woman) dresses as a soldier to take her father's place in the army that was drafted to protect the kindom. It was spectacular - the colors, the costumes, the acrobatics... We often get to see several of the Chinese members of Circus Juventas at our other Chinese functions and our favorite is always the little boy. He's about 5 now and we've been watching him since he was about 2 years old. He's very good already and so, sooooo cute! We got to see him here and he was as cute as ever.