It's been one of those days!

Geez, yesterday and today have just been those kinds of days. Everyone we deal with has some sort of problem they need fixed, sorted out or changed. You know when the phone starts ringing at 7:30, it's going to be that kind of day. . . Well, an upside is that we get to work from home and can monitor the fireplace progress and answer any questions or make changes as he goes. Today seems like a ton of progress (yes, it is only day 2 :D). It really has taken shape and he even started to put up some of the block. He scraped on all the cement and then told Chris he normally lets that sit a day before adding block, but since he's behind, added some block. . . Right after he'd left, Chris thought there was a crooked piece and sure enough, it was falling off. Chris was worried that one of the big ones would go, but so far, so good ~ I'm sure that will happen at say. . . 2 am! He said he likes to piece together random stones so you get a feel for how each section will look. I love how random the sizes are on the block! To get that, though, he was doing a LOT of chiseling with his hammer on the ends of the block. Tomorrow he said he'd bring the mantle and hearth! We had a lengthy discussion about the hearth as far as the size, depth, where the splices will be, etc. The reason we have to have splices is because the fireplace sits on the floor so the thickest mantle we can get is 1 1/4" and those have a tendency to break. They really wanted to have the hearth thickness match the mantle thickness, but this doesn't matter so much to me since occasionally we'll have little ones over and the thinner the mantle, the less chance we have of someone falling and hitting their head. You can't not think about those things after having kids :~)

So far this year, the bus situation has been very good. We ask the boys specifically about the bus ride (the question "How was your day" is too vague apparently) and there's nothing to report! Both bullies are still in the front seats and causing not so many problems.

Taite is extremely excited about going to Japan. So much so that he asks us questions about "main songs" or their motto or other odd questions he comes up with. After the questions he always follows it up with "I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO JAPAN!!!" Brayton doesn't say much, but I'm sure he'll be just as excited when it gets closer :~) We all need to get some chopsticks and practice with them! They get offended if we automatically start out with a fork and don't even try the chopsticks. I was looking at our schedule again and the one day they have set aside for Disneyland, they also have us moving to a totally different city, so I'm not so sure we'll be able to see more than the entrance to Disneyland ~ LOL. At least we have prepped the boys on that one! Most times once Chris gets to Japan and then has to get to Nisshin's office, it is a somewhat lengthy journey between bullet trains, buses, etc. And I guess they all drive like maniacs, so pray for our safe return. ~ hehe

I suppose, I'm ready for some time away from my computer (giving the boys haircuts and trimming nails tonight doesn't count!) so I'm going to grab my book and relax. . . good night