Odds and Ends

Grad school, teaching, and life in general get in the way of blogging.  Here's what has been going on over the past 4 weeks...

Joey graduated from the fire academy and is now with the Milwaukee Fire Department.  Congratulations, Joe!

Mark ordered and installed banners for the school weight room...

 ...they feature players from throughout the years and motivational words.

 Kids work hard in this place, day in and day out, all year!

 I should have taken a "before" shot, but here's the upstairs bathroom.  This is what happens when Mark puts several $$$, hard work, and time into something.  Thanks to our neighbor for the donating the log from his cabin, to Jan for the rugs, and to Shopko for the sale on the shower curtain!

 This room used to be long, dark blue, and cavernous.

Back left is a case with the individual cloth boxes, one for each kid to store their "toiletries" (for lack of a better word right now).  We're hoping that the kids use this bathroom more now.  It turned out really sharp!

 
On top of the towel cabinet is this box from my family's farm with my dad's signature on it.  It's very special to me for obvious reasons!

Last bit of trivia...the dogs.  Young and old, hyper and calm, inside and outside...the antonyms could go on.  I love how Rudy is barking at Mickey through the window.  Gotta wonder what Mickey is thinking, "Gee thanks a lot, guys...why does the little whippersnapper get to stay in the house and I don't??"