Seib Kitchen Upgrade Update

Ok, Ok, Ok, so most of you are wondering where the photos are of the progress of Mom's kitchen. (And Mom's been bugging me to keep y'all posted.) So, finally here they are.

Mom keeps telling herself (and all of us) how nice it'll be when it's all done.

So, to give everyone a history lesson on how this whole project started.....
Mom was in Phoenix (in February) at Bridget & Jason's when Dad ripped up the floor hoping to salvage original maple that was under the UGLY stick-on tiles. Yeah, that didn't go as planned....

So, the planning, designing, demolition, and chaos started.

The electricians came yesterday (Thursday) to wire the kitchen and will be back on Monday to finish up, which includes upgrading the fuse box to a circuit breaker panel (that's the $$$$$$$ part of the electrical) Nonetheless, the kitchen will be much brighter when all is done (although right now there is absolutely NO lights in the kitchen, unless you include the halogen floor shop light which is plugged into one of the two remaining outlets in that room:)

Well, tomorrow's job includes (sigh) tearing out the sink :( and remaining cupboard :( insulating :) and blocking for upper cabinets :)

So, if anybody feels like bringing dinner since we'll have no sink as of tomorrow and soon to be no stove to cook on...... Needless to say we'll be having lots of cook-"outs" and campfires and will be using paper plates, paper cups, paper bowls, paper (I guess it'll be plastic) "silver"-ware :) Any volunteers for doing dishes?!

So, I guess we'll have to have a "Kitchen-warming" when all is done. :)

MaryBeth (& Mae, too)

Before:



Demo #1



Demo #2



Demo #3 and Before electrical



Current State:



As of Friday 5/30:

Welcome to Summer in Elkhorn!

This will be the best summer ever! We will anxiously await the birth of our grandbaby as we build a new child proof deck. We are sitting here having coffee and hearing the furnace run in the background - it was 60 in here this morning. Ed is heading off to Menards to place the order for the decking and I am off to get the groceries and the Heartgard. We have a nice young man with construction background that lives around the block that has contracted with us to build our deck. Since the building is slow these days he has a job in another field for now and does the construction in the evenings and on weekends. Tonite we tear down the old deck and begin a one level with a gate deck to enjoy in the future summers with our growing family. If anyone is doing a home improvement or addition please post pictures and lessons learned. Someone can go take pictures of Mae's kitchen and we can see her progress. I only wish she would post her progress so we could hear how hard it is to redo a kitchen. So anyhow let us enjoy the summer together from near and far! I have also posted a picture of my Lily Of The Valley, hope you can smell them they are ohhhh so fragrant. Julie

Thank You!

To everyone who was at our baby shower on Saturday- Thank You. We had a wonderful time and it was great to see everyone. We received a lot of great advice that will be used in the near future (if not already.) To my Mom and Amy- Thank You for making all the plans and being great hosts. To Dawn- Thank you for getting the invites out to everyone there. To Greg-the yard and house looked GREAT! Good job! And Dad- well Thanks for being Dad and just being there. And everyone that came- It wouldn't have been a party with out you! :D

Now it is time for me to blush as I tell everyone I made an Oops! I half-way opened a present. I was so overwhelmed with all the great stuff we received that in the present from aunt Rita there was an exercise ball...or should I say exercise ball's BOX! ha! It was taped shut so I did't open it any further. Well, when we got home Brian was all antsy and opening up all the packages again and came across that one. Once he opened it he was like "Brenda, did we open this one. I don't remember this one." Well...no, we hadn't opened it! SO...I included a picture of what was INSIDE the box! Thank you aunt Rita!

Thank you all.
Lots of Love-

Brian, Brenda, and Baby

Baby Shower

Good Sunday Morning to all! I want to Thank everyone who was at the shower for Brenda yesterday. For those who were unable to attend I will post a few pictures. Brenda and Brian are two very wonderful people who will make great parents with their calm and positive personalities. As Brenda's mom I know she has endurance, but recently Brian has proven to himself and everyone who has observed him that he too has endurance. He spent Two weeks in China (13 hour time difference) then came home and had 3 days off. He went back to work and after a couple of days began to work 2nd shift to help the crash team during vacations. He filled the 2nd shift for 2+ weeks, and Saturday was his first real normal up all day since before China. So with that training he should be able to handle nights with a baby. Brenda and Brian are having fun playing with everything they got at the shower. Thanks again, you are all wonderful people and we are grateful for each and every one of you. Julie

The Mahlum Update

The Mahlum's are doing great. I just started my new job as an At Home Professional for a company called Cloud10. I get contracted out to different companies to help with customer call flows. Right now I am contracted out to T-Mobile, assisting with the prepaid phone section and dealing with anything that comes through there. Jesse is doing construction and so all in all we are doing about the best we have been able to do in a long time.
I know that people have been wondering how lil Dylan is doing, so I thought I would get on here and post some newer information as of 5-12-08, and some pictures. According to Dr. Castillo (Dylan's Pediatrician) said that Dylan is doing very well, and that he is growing much faster than he thought...he is at the top 10% of his age group in height, weight, and head circumference. He went to the Milwaukee County Zoo for the first time last week and he had a ball.
I feel happy and sad at the same time, watching him learn how to be more and more independent, makes me feel like I'm not needed although I know he needs me more than he shows :) I had tears of joy the other day when Dylan was in his ultrasaucer and picked up his bottle on his own. It was so fun to watch him get the hang of holding the bottle just right and trying to drink as much as possible before his little hands couldnt hold it anymore. He can already do a full roll and is working harder than ever to crawl....
Well I will keep you posted and WE LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!

I will get pictures to you all as soon as this blog thing stops giving me an error message!

News from Elkhorn Reindls

Hey everyone. I know people have not been able to see me for awhile but I've been working a lot of weekends. I do miss ya all and can not wait til I can see you all. Well here is are news: we are doing really good, still working at the Grand Geneva, Dylan is now 5 months old, 15 lbs/6 oz and 26" long. He can already roll over all by himself and he can sit up all by himself. Here is a new picture in front of Julies house for all to see. Casey now lives in Harvard, Illinois and they are doing good to. We got a new car a 1995 Oldsmobile 98 and it's a great car. Its Monday May 5th, a great sunshiny day for a walk with Dylan and great exercise or us (thank goodness for good weather). Well can't wait to see ya all!!! I love you all very much!!! Bill and Beth

The Doughty's

Well, I don't have time to post pictures on both blogs, but if you check out ours you'll see pictures of our new house. We just moved in last week and everything is in boxes. We are hopefully painting this weekend. I am not getting as much done as I would like, you know 4 kids and all, my new motto is "one box at a time". We are so thankful to have our own place now after months of living in someone else's house. Hopefully I'll be getting "the story of Arizona" written and sent soon:)
Love hearing how everyone is doing through the blog.
Love, Bridget and the family

Life at the Merfeld's

Well Hello everyone, I thought i would let everybody know we are alive and well. Life has been a little crazy here at our house, Jesse is partnering with his Dad this year and bailing hay, corn stalks, straw and anything else imaginable, which means he is not home a lot, it dose give Diesel and I some time to hang out and enjoy the new house. The yard is still a mess and has no

grass:( but i am trying to make progress by finishing little details like building shutters and installing my back splash in my kitchen. Work has also been busy as we are now looking for a new framer because Ellen is moving to Florida:( we are going to miss her. Calving season is almost done, with only loss of a couple due to cold weather and now we also have sheep. After the long building process Jesse and I took a long deserved vacation to the Dominican, it was incredible. Hope everyone is doing well and Happy Spring