Chimney, fireplace and roof

Here's some before and after pics of our chimney and fireplace. The fire place on the inside isn't done yet...we still have to put some stone around it and make a new hearth for it.

First this is the reason for the new roof, 3 inch hail! Before we got the new roof we had to fix our chimney which was not usable.

The bay window before

The Chimney before

The fireplace before

(to see the after pic, look at post below)

The chimney durning construction:

The guys were surprised that the chimney hadn't fallen off the house.
Before:

After:

Ken Geci did the chimney and shingles and he's a great guy!!! If we ever need anymore carpentry work done he'll be doing it!!

This is the little truck the roofers called "The Al Quieda" cause it looks like one of the truck they have over there with machine guns mounted to the top. I am actually taller than this truck (keep in mind I'm 5 ft tall). Note the wood bumper.

Mike Ball did our roof and he is excellent!! We can't say enough good things about him and his crew!!

Old Roof:

New Roof:

Busy, busy, busy...

Hanging out with Mommy on the floor:

JM really likes this monkey:

For the past few weeks we've been busy. We're getting our chimney rebuilt, cedar shingles hung on the chimney and bay window, and we got a new roof (we had major hail damage back in April) (another post). J was in Hot Springs, Arkansas 3 weeks ago for the 2009 National Scramble (its a Jeep thing). While J was gone my Mom came and stayed with us and kept JM while I was at work. We pulled down some "new" toys from the attic. We borrowed these from some friends, and so far JM likes all of them.

JM is now smiling at people and when I say his name. I think he is attempting to laugh also. We have this stuffed animal thing that has a blanket attached and it looks like a cow but has little knobby things down its back, so it kinda looked like a dinosaur…so we called it the mooasaur. Our kind friends informed us that it was a giraffe not a mooasaur, we still call it a mooasaur, its fun to say.

Dad put the mooasaur on JM's head.
It didn't last long there:

JM likes to get in the jumparoo and the bumpo if he is in a good mood. I think he’s almost outgrown the bumpo. It’s a little tight fitting. We’ve been practicing sitting up while holding onto my hands and he does really good…I just can’t let go or else he face plants (that’s why we practice in his crib, soft landing).

This weekend we went to a picnic at Mr A’s house. He has a pool and has invited us to use his pool to get JM used to the water. I had been looking into swim lessons, but since he has offered us the use of his pool I think we’ll take him up on it and go at least once a week. I really want JM to learn to swim at a young age…I took lessons at the Y when I was small (around 6 or 7 months)…I don’t ever remember a time when I couldn’t swim. JM LOVED the water. At first he wasn't so sure probably cause it was cool, but once he got acclimated to it he loved it. We would hold him under his arms and let him kinda float on his belly and he would kick his legs while we moved him around.

Mr A's dog Molly checking out the little human.

The hat says "Chik Magnet"

Super Baby!!

JM had a bubble butt from the air in his swim trunks.

JM when we got home, he slept 11 hours that night!!!

Here's a run down of some things we did this past month:

Went to A's (AKA big dude) 2 year birthday party...James slept through most of it. It was a Word World theme party

June 10th J and I went to my 10 year high school reunion, that was nice getting to see some people I hadn't seen in years.
June 17th J went to Arkansas and my mom came up and stayed with us. That was such a big help!!

June 19th I decided to cut the grass for J as a Father's day present...keep in mind that I had never used our riding mower before...lets just say that the weeds got knocked down. I can now understand why those crazy people like to race riding lawn mowers...its fun once you get up to speed :) My dad decided to help take down the old stone that was around the fireplace...well he got it down...in one big piece that fell. No one got hurt except our big chair I was trying to sell. Looks like its here to stay. But we got the rock down!! Yea!! Thanks dad!!

Me, my dad and JM on Father's Day

The last week of June a wonderful friend had her third child! A little girl!! She is so precious and they are so in love with her.

I had an awesome Silpada party the last weekend of June. I need more parties like that one.

July 2nd we took JM down to Bham to stay with my folks. J was in a wedding in Abita Springs, LA, so we had to be down there by Friday night for wedding festivities. JM stayed with my parents and he got to go meet his great grandparents at their farm in Oneonta that Saturday. On Sunday he got to go to the family reunion on my mom's side.

July 4th we planned to watch fireworks on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain. We were told that they would start around 9pm. We got there at 9pm and sat on the wall and waited and waited and met some nice people from over neat Baton Rouge. talk for a while and then around 9:30 we decided that we either missed them or that they were canceled due to the wind. We did get to see some though...the ones in New Orleans. they were tiny, but being that it is flat down there we could see for miles (around 30 miles to be exact). Here are some pics from our trip:

I love the hanging pots on the rail...this was on the second story of a house.

Inside the cathedral

mmmm...Cafe Du Monde...I love beniegts
We saw this guy on Jackson Square, riding a Jazzy motor scooter thing, carrying an ironing board...yes you read that right. When he got to the curd he threw down the ironing board picked up the scooter put it on the other side of the curb and picked up the ironing board and went on his way. Wow the things you see in New Orleans...
The tin man across the street

The following shots were taken in a store next to Cafe Du Monde...I couldn't resist:

Note the Holy water next to the Voodoo doll

Lookin Good for Jesus!!! Get his attention, Repair Damage!!

Who comes up with this stuff??!!

This is the grooms cake at the wedding we went to. Cassidy sells used cars in Columbia, SC. He does a pretty good job at it too.

Oh, and BIG news my sister got engaged July 4th!!!!! I'm so happy for them!!! I've been telling JM that he has a future Uncle L. They are thinking next June.

Just the other day another good friend had their first child...a little girl!! They are both on cloud nine right now. It seems that JM will have a bunch of little girl friends :)

The past week...

We haven't done too much this past week. On Monday JM got a lesson in plumbing, and so did I.  Our kitchen sink was only putting out a trickle when the hot water was turned on, plus it was cold not hot.  So I decide that instead of washing dishes with cold water I'm going to figure out what was wrong with it.  I took apart every piece of that faucet that I could to figure out what was wrong.  I couldnt find a darn thing wrong, so I threw it all in a diaper wipe box, loaded JM up and we went to Lowes where we had purchased it 2 years ago.  I page someone in plumbing to help me figure out whats going on with it.  I must have been a sight, no make up, a sleeping baby in his carrier inthe buggy, and a diaper wipe box with a faucet that looked like it had been in a massacure.  Mr. Plumbing departemnt amn came over and I told him what was going on.  To make a long story short he took mine faucet pieces and gave me a new one just like the old one.  YEA!!!!  So we get back home adn after a couple hours of yelling at the stupid water lines and faucet I got it in and it works!!! AND no leaks!!!!  I hate plumbing.  I hope that thing works forever, caue I busted almost all of my knuckles putting it in.  If I hadn't been so aggravated at it I would have taken some pics.  JM slept through everything except when he was hungry...thank goodness. 

The rest of the week was pretty much uneventful.  I have been putting JM to bed earlier in hopes he still sleep up to 4:30am (yea, thats when I have to get up) .  So far he's stayed asleep.  I think he knows when I put his pjs on and turn out the light that he knows its time for sleep, cause I dont hear a peep outta him until the next morning.  Let's hope he keep sthis up :)

Yesterday (Sat) he had kin of a grumpy day. I think I can feel his little tooth coming in and its bothering him.  I found this little thing you put on your finger and it had little rubber bristles on it.  Well I thought I could use it to massage JM's gums and boy does he like it.  If your not careful he'll suck the thing off your finger! 

Today he wasnt as grumpy.  We tried to put him in his jumper thing that hangs in the doorway and he wasn't too sure about it.  It's still a little big for him and if your not careful he'll fall face first onto the tray.  I rolled up some blankets and put them in front of him to support him and he was ok with that.  He still wasn't too thrilled with the whole thing.  Here's some pics:

 WAS UP!!!

Once I hung the elephant up he kinda started to like the jumper, but only for a little while.  

Tomorrow work starts on our chimney :) Hopefully this winter we can a real fire! Here's some before pics:

We're going to put cedar shingles on the outside instead of siding and we're also going to add them to the bay window.  Our whole house is brick except the chimney and the bay window.  The cedar will make it look so much better.