Monday Morning Mackenzie

First thing this morning she bee-lined directly for her computer.

Grandpa and Ryan build a new PC

Grandpa and Ryan built a new computer yesterday for Mackenzie. (Details) Nathaniel and Mackenzie are sharing his desk so they have their two pcs together. (Ryan also fixed my ancient iPhone)


If you want to see the whole build, upgrades and all the technical details you can reference my other blog: http://xenostream.blogspot.com/2014/03/upgrading-two-pcs-and-new-build.html


Mackenzie loves having a spot to hang out with the boys. We will have to get another computer chair soon but she can get on youtube now and watch her videos.

Weekend update

We had a beautiful Saturday with highs in the 50s. The kids and dogs all took advantage took a walk. (The boys used their scooters)

Crazy Jack going for a walk.

Made a Bacon wrapped meatloaf yesterday. This was delicious.

This is after I dumped it out the meatloaf pan. Inside are layers of meat and cheddar cheese. I put it on a tray so the fat would drip off while it roasted. (300 degrees for 90 minutes and then another 30 minutes at 350)

The finished product. I ended up broiling it a bit to really crisp up the bacon.

Half gone.

Playing magic with the boys

We ended up staying up way past bed time last weekend playing some magic.

Nate has built two decks he likes to play with. ~65 cards each. He also recently started playing 2014 Magic on Steam.

I have no idea how many cards his deck is but way over 100. He still wins quite a bit with some very interesting combos.

Ryan went for a Zombie photo shoot

This is Ryan after the shoot when he got home.

Kids grow up so fast

Tessa, Kaleigh, Nate and Ryan (In Maine 2008)

Dinosaur park, http://naturesartvillage.com/thedinosaurplace/

Ryan is only 9 in this Picture but still climbing Rock Walls

He made it to the top. (This was at Mystic Aquarium)

This is from Robyn's Birthday in 2011.

Crestwood Drive Kitchen

Robyn was cleaning up in the basement and found some old documents from Crestwood drive when we were remodeling our kitchen. These are the plans and pictures. In hindsight I should have finished the kitchen immediately after moving in as we only enjoyed our new kitchen for a few weeks before we sold the house. The kitchen remodel really did a lot for the usability of the house. Of course remodeling the kitchen was not only necessitated by the fact that it was old and needed to be redone in order to be sold but also because of a certain pair of dogs that had completely shredded and chewed the existing kitchen floor to scraps. Here are some pics.

My brief sketch before I went to get prices

This is what they mocked up from my sketch

Crestwood Kitchen Render 1

Crestwood Kitchen Render 3

The finished project. They did a great job with a custom cabinet with a screen to hide the radiator just behind the kitchen table. (We have two mismatched chairs there as I think almost everything was practically moved out at the time this photo was taken.)

Boys at Tae Kwan Do tournament

I have gotten behind on updating my blog lately. Things have been quite busy but I will start posting some more updates soon. This is a great picture of the Schulze brothers post tournament.

This is from January and Nate has since earned his Yellow Belt but they loved this tournament and they both earned a medal. Great job!

Just a Tank I saw on Route 2 Yesterday

Getting into Hartford yesterday was a bit challenging and it ended up taking me about 90 minutes to get to work. I did have a great audiobook to listen too though and I also happened to pass a tank:

Pictures from Ryan's First Birthday Party

We had a family party for Ryan's 15th and Meme and Pop Pop joined us for the celebration. Ryan got two cakes! (Mom and Dad ate the Cheese Cake)

Mackenzie was a Great help with all the presents. She also took some videos and pictures of everything as well.

Our Back Deck is still covered with snow

Ryan's Birthday (15)

Ryan turned 15 today and we had another party.  Meme and Pop Pop were over Sunday to celebrate and I will post those pictures tomorrow as well.  Here are some pictures from today's celebration.

Mackenzie helped blow out the candles

Nathaniel is surprised that we get TWO cakes for ONE birthday

No complaints about cake from this one.

Mommy and Ryan

She jumped right out her chair and headed up for a bath expecting to be followed.

Can we have cake tomorrow too?

Timelapse photo of our Snowy front yard

Security Camera. I have been changing up parts of our security system and this is a disconnected backup camera that takes some pretty great pics. This is part of a time lapse. As you can see... Still snow. (Google added the snow effect)

Painting the Dining room and Living room

So faced with a destroyed dining room ceiling that was now repaired we knew we were going to have to paint the ceiling. While we were doing that we thought we would also paint the walls of the dining room and living room. Originally when we moved in we left every room white so that Nail Pops were covered by warranty. In hindsight I would have just have had them paint it as I could have easily done the nail pops.

This is the color Robyn picked. It was originally a named color but she had them add white a few times and lighten it up to get a nice custom brown. Very warm.

Painting in Progress

Putting the room back together

Overall I really like the color. The house looks very different compared to Thanksgiving pictures.

Another shot, we repainted the ceiling as well. Ultra White Flat. We left the Trim and columns with the Satin white finish.

Meme took some pictures when she was over. (Better than mine)

Dining Room Ceiling

Upstairs show drain was leaking and caused some minor damage

Plumber cut open ceiling to fix the issue

Much higher quality Drain he installed. (The old one was plastic and prone to issues)

Once he left it was time to Sheet Rock

My dining room table holding my sheet rocking tools.

Almost done, Bob stopped by and helped fit a piece and did the first Rough Cut of Spackle but I had to throw that old spackle out and get some fresh. Bob showed me a trick of covering the unused portion with Wax Paper as it will help it keep for a long time. Next up is more coats of spackle, finishing, sanding and painting. Will post more pics tomorrow.