Thompson Tales: Building, Snow, and Singing

Well its been a while since I had a minute to post so I have a lot to catch up on. I thought about saving some of it and posting one thing a day for the next few days so that it wouldn't be so long between posts again but just in case this is the only time I have to post for the next few days I want to be sure to get it all in. Anyway, here goes.

snow, Snow, SNOW!!!

We have had an unusually warm autumn and relatively snow free December until a few days ago. I guess all good things must come to an end. We have just been pounded with snow over the last few days and we're expecting more snow over the next few days. It wasn't bad at first but yesterday was unbelievable. It just kept coming and coming. I was out shoveling the walks and had the girls get a ruler to see how deep the snow really was. We had 7 inches at 1pm but the snow didn't stop until a few hours later and by then there was at least 2 more inches out there. Normally I wouldn't mind too much because I don't have to travel in it but this time I was hating every inch. I may not have to travel in it but CJ does. He has to go 30 miles south to Payson every day to build. I worry about him on that highway with all the other drivers who forget how to drive in the snow. Anyway, here are some pics of our snow.

This is the first day of snow. I thought we had a lot then. I didn't know how much we were about to get.

I let Megan touch the snow to see what she would think of it.

She didn't like it at all.

I went to take out the trash and was met with a happy stranger.

Rebecca and Dakota have made me promise not to shovel the sidewalk while they were at school because they wanted to do it. I thought they were doing it because they thought it was fun. Turns out they were doing it because they wanted to earn money. Oh well. I'm going to take advantage of them while they actually want to shovel the walk.

Here is the ruler. I know it's hard to read but it says 7 inches. That was before the additional 2 inches.

All the neighbors made ginormous snowmen with the abundance of snow. My girls decided to make a snow fort/sledding hill.

School Holiday Sing.

Last Friday was the last day of school before the winter break. It is a tradition for the kids to have a holiday sing for the parents. Each class gets to perform a song or two. I was really tired and CJ had the morning off so he got the kids off to school. I forgot that I wanted to fix their hair real cute. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Building Week 1:

Last week was the first official week of building for our home. The construction supervisor decided to build our house first since he knows the plan better than the others. I'm okay with that now that I know what his plans are. We are going to frame our house first. When everyone is done with our house (the training house) they will frame all the other houses at the same time. The interior work will be done simultaneously so that all the houses will be done at the same time. Our house won't be done any earlier than anyone elses. CJ was out at the house every night last week. He is having a good time building and getting to know our neighbors. The biggest problem he has is that it is cold at night and they have to shovel all the snow away before they can start to work and that takes time away from the build. I was amazed when I went out on Saturday at how much work they had done. They had the basement wall done, the stairwell (minus the stairs) done, and the floor almost done. It only took a few hours on Saturday with everyone there to get the floor all the way done and start on the outer walls. By the time we left we had our first wall erected. It was so much fun to see the wall go up, I almost cried. CJ came back tonight and said that we have all four outer walls up. That is great news. We are way ahead of schedule. If we keep going at this rate we will be done way before August. It helps that a few of the families have people in them that know what they are doing and don't need to be trained. One of them just graduated from school with a degree in construction. It really helps having him there if we have a question.

This is the floor half way done.