Basement Progress #2

The bedroom is coming right along - and so is the living room!

Wednesday: Steve glued/screwed these strips onto the wall so that the drywall can be hung.


Thursday: He took a day off to be with his other grandchildren. :)

Friday: Steve brought my nieces and nephew with him to work all day. Nick was supposed to be off of work too for 4th of July, but he had to go in to finish a project. :( We had fun anyway and got lots of work done.


Steve did the ceiling in the bedroom - which was quite a process. Can't explain it in words... Then he drywalled the whole room/closet! WOW! It really made a difference!



Saturday - Sunday: We all took off! :)

Monday: Back to work. Steve and I met at Lowe's to pick out lighting for the living room, more drywall, doors, nails, electrical wiring, outlets, light switches, insulation, etc. This took so long! (and sooooo much $$! eek!)

Tues - Saturday: We worked on the living room. Here are some pics from the process. Oh and by the way - I've added one more job title for myself: electrician. I now know how to wire a can light! Woo hoo! (call me if you need a can light in your home, I'm sure to "screw" something up!)

THis is me nailing the wires to the frame...and a very sad Mason who wants mommy to stop working!

Here is my handy-man Hubby wiring up the box for our can lights!

THis is an upclose picture of one of our can lights after Nick and I wired them up!

Whew, they work! :o)

And this is where we are now! Hopefully, tonight I Steve will drywall the ceiling and finish preping the walls!

Go Tincaps!

The Actuarial Dept. at Lincoln held an event Monday night at the Fort Wayne Tincaps baseball game. Nick and I went and took Carter (We left Mason w/ G-ma Fiechter - didn't think he'd enjoy it much ;) ). We had a great time! Nick is really loving his job - praise God for that! His boss is great and he is really enjoying his coworkers. A special thanks to Brent (and the rest of the social committee) for organizing the event! Enjoy the pics from the evening! We didn't get many....

What would a baseball game be w/o a $1 hotdog?

This is Lexie and Hunter, Brent's (Nick's coworker) children with "Johnny" the mascot. Carter was too scared to give him a high 5...Maybe next time...

Carter and Nick ran the bases after the game with Lexie & Hunter

Carter again - he loved this part!

By the way - I should post that the Tincaps WON! woohoo! The new Parkview stadium was really, really nice and the game was really fun - filled with lots of entertainment between innings. Hopefully we'll go again someday!

Basement Progress #1

This week my step-dad, Steve, began finishing our basement. We are really excited! I thought it would be fun to keep a running update on the progress. This may take a really long time...we'll see.

Monday: Purchased material for bedroom and carried down to basement.

Tuesday: Framed wall and closet. (I'm not about to let him work w/o eating so, we ate too! Chicken casserole (from DD4, of course) , steamed broccoli & cauliflower, and banana nut muffins)

This is Steve, the fix it, build it, design it, anything man.

This is Nick and Steve working on building the wall.

This is the bedroom wall and closet up and ready to be drywalled!

Just to show you how talented Steve is, he built this train table for our boys as a Christmas gift last year without any plans or anything. I gave him a picture and said I want it like this...

Hope you enjoy this long, grueling process with us! We could probably hire someone full time and have it done in a few weeks, but this way is MUCH cheaper! ;)

Permanent Marker

Arg! You'd think after our first incident (yesterday, coloring all over his left arm) we'd learn our lesson.

Nope. Not Mason. Not me. As I was distracted by a darling little baby (babysitting for my sister - she is a foster mom) Mason was up to NO good.




Yesterday when I found him with marker all over his arm I was so thankful that he didn't get it on anything else. Like his clothes, his face, the carpet.....................


Today, I'll be thankful that it isn't on his face?????? Or maybe that it isn't on his shirt? (b/c it IS on his pants AND my carpet!!!)


Ahhh...the joys of motherhood. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. ;)

I really, really do love my job. Even on days like today. God bless!

Our Getaway...

We're home! Nick and I had a great time away! We stayed at the Embassy Suites by the river in Covington, KY. (aka Cincinnati)

When we got in on Friday, we decided to eat out at Macaroni Grill. We've heard that this is a fabulous place to eat, so we were super excited! We searched for it on our GPS - located one about 9 miles south and hit the road...........Only to arrive at a CLOSED Macaroni Grill 20 minutes later..........We were NOT excited. But we decided to have good attitudes and head for the Olive Garden we passed on the way (Italian really sounded yummy...). The food was wonderful and we even had enough left overs for lunch the next day! (this made my financially conservative husband VERY happy!)

Then we headed back to our hotel to order one of those "showing in theater" movies they provide on the TV. We rented one and enjoyed the evening together NOT playing Go Fish, NOT wiping noses, NOT changing diapers, NOT pouring yet another cup of milk, NOT spending 40 minutes brushing teeth, going potty, reading stories, and tucking in our boys. Now - don't get me wrong. I LOVE doing all these things and wouldn't change it for anything, but boy was it nice to get a small break! :)

On Saturday, we spent most of the day relaxing at the hotel, laying in the sun, and shopping. Sunday, we visited the Creation Museum. It was really cool! We loved the planetarium. For anyone who hasn't visited the creation museum, we highly suggest it!

Because it was only the 2 of us, we didn't take many pictures. Carter is into dinosaurs, so we did take some pictures by the dinos for him.

CAUTION: We are acting out for a 3 year old...These pictures are highly silly and we look really dorky...

Summertime Fun

The boys and I have really been having fun this summer. I LOVE being outside (as long as I am near water!) and so does Carter and Mason. Last week, we went swimming at Aunt Lynn's house. We had a great time, but we also got fried! Therefore, we spent several days inside recovering.

I seem to be getting a lot of the above faces lately...

This week, we went to the Gerber Pond with Amy, Hudson, and Cline and had a great time. Carter and Hudson are buddies - they played so well together.

This picture is of the boys playing in Hudson's "ocean". So funny!

On Tuesday evening, we went out to the new Splash Pad with Jenny & Kaden. We had a great time (despite the black bird that almost attacked the boys and DID attack a lady there...)






Well, Nick and I are off to Cincinatti this weekend. We will be visiting the Creation Museum and hopefully a water park or something. We are so excited! Have a good weekend!

Happy Birthday, Nick!

Today is my handsome hubby's 23rd birthday!

Our day began with breakfast out at the Corner Depot. It usually involves at least half of the Fiechter family, but today it was Nick and I and the boys and Lynn. (Brad & Josh were rafting, and who knows where everyone else was!)

Then we came home and opened gifts! Here are a few pics from that: (the boys were so excited)


The boys got him 2 new picture frames for his desk at work, a pair of really nice house slippers (that he has been wanting for 6 months), and a really cool "to do" paper pad. (He loves to make lists, so this was a perfect gift). Carter even sang to him....several times - gotta love Carter!

To celebrate his many special occasions - graduation, birthday, and Fathers Day, Nick and I are leaving next weekend for 2 nights away. Any advice on where we can go? He said he wants me to pick and surprise him...I cannot tell you how excited I am to get away! We both need this very much.

Happy Birthday, honey! I love you!

The Lord will provide

Just thought I'd make a quick update on my lesson planning! WOW! The Lord really does provide! I know in the big picture, this lesson really isn't that big of a deal, but I am once again amazed at the wonders of the Lord. Throughout the day today, (after much prayers from me and from all of you, thanks!) I have come up with a pretty good "rough" idea of what I am going to do. I have quite a few little stories that I can tell and some good little "audience participation" things for the kids. But maybe more about that later.

Throughout the planning of this lesson, I have shed tears over a story that I thought I knew so well already. I have just thought over and over about how Jesus felt when he was up on that cross all alone. Judas betrayed Him. His disciples deserted Him. How would we feel in His position? I think the emotional pain itself would have killed me! When I feel the littlest bit of a headache or cold, I want Nick there beside me rubbing my shoulders, or just plain babying me. I cannot imagine or fathom the loneliness He felt as He hung there on the cross all alone... Yet He said, "Behold , the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." St. John 16:32

What an example He made for us. Even in the toughest hour, "the Father is with me". Hmmm..

I've learned to lean harder on Him. Prayer changes things! THANKS!

My bible school lesson...

I'm nervous.

I'm scared.

I'm petrified!

Help me! Okay, so my lesson is on Thursday. I am not really uncomfortable with the kids, but I just hate to talk in front of a lot of people. I am mostly nervous b/c I just don't feel like I have any good ideas on something fun for the kids. I don't want "just another lesson".

So I am calling out for any help I can get! I have 5th graders and my lesson is to cover the Betrayal and Trials of Jesus. Any ideas? I have a few little ideas like maybe to write out on notecards some scenarios that the kids might run into where they feel betrayed and ask them what they would do. Then what Jesus would do...

Anyone have a really good story I can tell?????

If you have no ideas, you can at least pray for me! ;) Thanks!

Graduation Celebration

Friday night, the Fiechter family had a graduation celebration in honor of Nick. We had to have it a little late due to farming. It was such a nice evening! It has been a long time since we have all been together at Gma and Gpa Fiechter's house, so we all really enjoyed it!

Here are some fun pictures from the night.

Gma babying Carter...He got sad outside so gma said, "Lets go watch Maise!"
No wonder he loves going to gmas!

And no wonder she loves having him! What a sweet picture.

Meanwhile, outside here is a pic of Mason throwing a classic fit. He got mad at me so he threw himself on the stones...He laid there for a few seconds before he realized it wasn't so comfy...

Here's a pic of Nick and Ryan. They had just finished swimming a few laps training for the "Fiechter Triathlon" (This great event will be held at the end of August)

This is all the men talking - Brad, Dave, Ryan (3 brothers) Charles (gpa) and Nick
(I think Jason was playing with the kiddos!)

This is Gabe - Ryan and Darla's son. What a ham!

Mason and Aunt Lynn

Group picture again - L-R - Brad, Darla, Joni, Jason, Dad (Dave)
Jason fixing the "Boz" swing*

* Last summer, Grandma had Nick make her a tire swing (aka the Boz swing). Jalen was swinging on it and for some reason the chain broke! Yikes! So I just had to add this picture of Jason fixing it. I couldn't watch - I had to just go inside! I hate heights!

I didn't get pictures of several of the other family members b/c they didnt' get to stay the whole time. Maybe next time! Love you all anyway!

Thanks a ton grandma and grandpa for having a graduation
celebration for Nick! We love you!