Behind the Times

I'm a little behind the times here, I guess I don't really have a real good excuse for my lack of blogging... Pull up a chair, grab a snack and get comfy. We've got some catching up to do.

So all the way back to Mother's Day. I'll make this one brief because both Mom and Jenna already blogged about it. On Saturday Mom and Dad came up so Dad could help Chris do a little weed control in the driveway.

Dad assisted Chris in the driveway with the torch while Mom and I stayed safely inside baking. Chris and Dad exterminated all the driveway weeds they could and Mom and I conquered our baking extravaganza.

On Mother's day we were blessed with the company of the entire family (minus Ryan  and Chelsea). To make a long story short, we had a great time with great food. A photo summary of Mother's day:

Kyle, Jenna and Payton made the drive up from Portland!

Mom, Daughter, Daughter! or Mom, Mom, Daughter :)

She's adorable, but I don't think the baby craze has worn off on us yet : )

I'm glad we had a relaxing Mother's Day weekend because things got a bit rough for awhile...

While Dad was over, he noticed the floor was raising up near the base of the toilet. Not a good sign. Chris donned his head lamp and went in the crawlspace for "investigation". It was either the shower (bad news - we'd have to rip out our NEW tile, cut the shell out, etc) or the toilet (messy, but not as bad news). The puddle underneath the toilet in the crawlspace was a dead giveaway we had a little toilet leakage going on.

Step 1: Investigate (with a helper of course)

Step 2: Remove toilet and tear up the BRAND NEW molding, floor a wax toilet ring.

Step 3: Realize you don't have the right tools for the job and con your wife during her moment of trauma (MY BATHROOM WAS IN SHAMBLES) into letting you buy new tools.

Step 4: Survey the damages. Count your lucky stars that the water damage did not go under the cabinet, shower or up the wall. Just a lot of stinky, stinky moldy wood.

Step 5: Remove subfloor and OSB plywood.

Step 6: Hey look - water damaged insulation. Out that goes.

Step 7: No more demolition - forward progress now! Install new insulation, OSB and subfloor. (Take note of the shiny new flange extender for the toilet)

Step 8:  Put new floor back in. Luckily this stuff is as "waterproof" as they advertised.

Step 9: And finally - reinstall toilet. A welcomed sight.

Neither of us knew what we were doing so it was a stressful project. Luckily Chris had the luxury of taking the day off work to fix our little situation. I guess they say - you live and learn :)

The next weekend we decided just to lay low and recover from our bathroom disaster. We did make it down to Bremerton for the Armed Forces Day Parade. The parade was HUGE (2+ hours) and we did score a free BBQ lunch. It was a great day to spend outside.

This reminded me of the San Diego submarine races. Perhaps a near relative of the WWU 2 Person Human Powered Submarine??

Not every day you see this rolling down the street of Bremerton.

Ok - now fast forward a bit. Chris had to do a "make up drill" for missing out on National Guard drill while he was in Florida. His make up was to drive the brass quartet to Spokane so they could play a welcome home ceremony for some troops. I was allowed to tag along and I was all over that opportunity because I had a very special person to visit over there!

Chels took the time out of her day to introduce us to the garbage eating goat of Spokane and gave us a good quality tour of the city (included a stop for a delicious lunch at a French cafe). Too bad the weather did cooperate fully, but we had a great time. Because we had to go pick up Chris' unit-mates we didn't get enough time together. Don't you worry - I'll be back to cash in on that pizza :)

Last week we caught a Mariner's game with some friends we met in Leavenworth awhile ago. It was a great game with great company and great garlic fries! Too bad the roof was closed for the game.

Cheap seats!

Garlic fries - the reason for Mariner's games.

This last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting our friends Mike & Elaine this weekend. We had an enjoyable evening relaxing at the brewery before resting up for a trip to the Folklife Festival in Seattle on Saturday. We had a great time chatting, lounging and give the pinball machine a good run. Unfortunately my camera was MIA and there are no photos from this weekend... Oh well - they'll have to come back again!

Stay tuned for a post this week or next - exciting changes going on here in the Walker household.

A hint -