hearth remodel

Well I did say our new home was in some disrepair.  Well my husband has been hard at work every minute of the day.  When he is not at work at his day job he is at work on the house.  He has my son right at his side.  Also my daughter helps, she is the greatest helper.  One job that was a lot easier than we thought it was going to be was doing the tile around the hearth.  We had to pull all the rug up in the living room and decided to lay down a new sub floor.  That was not easy because part of our home is a round house so the cutting was hard but Russell got through it.  He only threw the tools a few times. 

this is the ending result it came out great!

 

We started with a clean floor, we picked out tiles that matched the stone fireplace

Then he put some tile cement down with the tile scrapper in a thin layer just one square at a time and put spacers in between them to make sure they were the same space apart.  We picked out a small square trim, we did it this way so we did not have to make any cutting.  We wanted it as simple as possible.  Before we used the cement we dry placed everything so we new what our pattern would be and how many tiles we wanted to use.  We were not sure if we wanted to go out two or three tiles and decided to go out only two tiles.

So just keep doing this one square at a time then you have to let it sit overnight

then you take the grout with a sponge and just work it in and wipe it off with water till its clean.  Then you let it sit overnight again.  We wiped it down again in the morning.
We love it and think it came out great.  Russell said it was easy and we bought all the stuff at Home depot and the guy there was real helpful.  It took us the longest time to pick out our pattern.  We did buy to much cement but we took back the extra container and they gave us our money back.  Love +Home Depot.

Life is Short

OK after being a mom I could say I am a jack of many trades.  I'd like to say I have always been up for an adventure or wanted to try something new or needed to work for myself in someway or form.  I have always tried to be independent.  I should make more than a man not less.  I have always worked my way up, not with education, school was hard for me.  I was a hands on type of person.  I did go to college, but not till my late 30's.  I quit high school in my senior year of high school but did get my GED when my daughter graduated from high school.  That was a big deal for me.  In my life so far I have been- a babysitter, cook, waitress, cashier, Certified Nurses Aide, Home Health Aide, Manager, Bartender, Daycare Provider, Biller, Service Advisor, Cellular Phone Manager, Customer Relations Manager, Owner of my own Retail business, Finance Manager and a Lead Paramedic. Most of my jobs I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top.  I still hold my Paramedic license but do not work anymore due to medical reasons.  My last job as a medic is where I learned life is short and you must treasure what and who you have in your life.  You never know when it is your time and even the best medical care is not going to help you.  Some things are beond your control.  So live your life for you and the ones closest to you.  That is what truly counts at the end of the day.  And that is really what brought us to Maine.  We want our family to know what it is like to be a family. 

Our daughter Jennifer and her husband Zach and their two wonderful children.  It is so amazing that my daughter has children of her own, what a blessing.  Something so beautiful as my daughter has made two more beautiful babies and this tree grows.  Life is an amazing thing and to be a part of it makes me the proudest mom ever.

A little history

Its funny since I started this blog all I can think of is writing in it.  I feel as if I need to give some history about myself and my family.  Not sure how much you want to know or need to know but here I go. 
As I have stated before I am a mother of five wonderful children and I will always say that is my best part of my life if nothing else had ever happened to me ever those five life's have made me who I am.  You always think you will have children and teach them but really they teach you who you will become in life for sure.  If that makes sense.  I started parenthood at the young age of just 18 and believe it or not he was very much wanted not a mistake at all.  I was young and crazy in love, yes very crazy.  I had some very close friends even try to talk me out of it but there was no way of doing that.  My son soon became the love of my life and well then a year and a half later his sister became my second love in my life.  They were my world.  My life was not the best with my husband at the time so the children and I lived in our own little world most of the time.  They will never remember that but it was how it was. 
That marriage did not last and soon I did find husband number two.  I was not meant to be alone, so I thought.  And soon I had child number three.  My wonderful Jessie Bear is what we called her.  She was only one maybe two when her father and I divorced and we became a single family household.  We lived fine like that.  I worked hard and we survived. They had me and that is all my children needed.  I had my parents help and a sister that I was close with.  But my children went to daycare and we had a small apartment and we survived.  It was the way it had to be. 
It went on that way for years.  We had fun and I had fun.  Being single was nice but there came a time when I thought I should find a man at some time for me and my children.  I should settle down.
Then all of a sudden it happened, when you least expect it.  I was switching jobs and they had a party for me and we all went out to say goodbye.  Well one of they guys I worked with for the past year asked me to dance and well its history from there.
I mean it.  A year from that date we were married.  Not really sure how it all came to play but he called and kept calling.  I thought he was crazy at first.  He was 4 years younger than me, no children. A stable guy, no baggage, came from a good family, that didn't care I had children.  It just worked.  We just worked. 
The kids love him and he loves the kids.  Not to say that it was all easy.  There was adjustments I mean the kids were used to just me for years.  I was a push over.  I was used to doing things my way and having someone else have a say in things is hard.  We still have problems with that.  But Russell has gone on to adopt the older children about 6 months after we were married and we all became one happy family for the most part.  I mean every family has problems and we do have problems.  We are not perfect.  I will not claim to have a perfect family.  We fight. The kids fight.  We fight with the kids.  But we always try to work it out.  And in the end We all Love each other more than life itself and would do anything for each other.  That is what family is all about. 
Well we wanted to expand our family for sure so two years after we married we had our first child together and then five years after him we had our daughter together.  Wow that is five children.  I would of had 10 children but Russell said no.  He said we have been blessed with five happy (most of the time) healthy children lets not press our luck.  I do agree.  I still wish I had more.  But we are so lucky that our daughter Jen (my second child) has two children of her own, my loving grandchildren.
Oh man I wanted to tell about me but it seems my children are one of my biggest joy's and I need to put the dogs out so I will have to come back and blog about other parts of me.........

This was taken a few years ago now my younger son is taller than his older brother

 

My honey and I, when my son Little Russell was small we asked him what he thought mommy's name was and he said "Honey"

One of my favorite pictures again was taken a few years ago it is hard to get us all together now.  Chris my oldest live in California, Jennifer lives in North Carolina, and Jessica lives in Hawaii.  We never get them all home at the same time.  We miss them like crazy but with skype we get to see them almost everyday or at least weekly.

Good Morning Cold Day

We wake up at 6am in our house I am sure when we get some animals we might have to adjust that time.  But that gives us enough time for the kids to get ready for school.   Getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth and hair wow seems like alot for them.  Melanie does good and most of the time wakes up in a great mood ready to start the day, our 13 year old not so much.  We have to drag him out of bed.  He wants to wait till the last minute and rush around.  The bus comes at 7:05am right in front of our house, it drives by and does a turn around at the end of the street so they have time to walk down our long driveway to meet it.  Melanie walks out the door when she See's it go by the house and Russell is running down the drive after her. lol. 
While this is all happening my husband is getting ready for work he must leave by 6:30am he has a 40 minute commute to work.  Most days he will be back home at around 5:15pm Monday through Friday.  Not bad we both worked crazy hours before where there would be days where one of us would not see the kids for days.  Now we always have family dinner together every night, at the kitchen table.  We all talk about our day it is an important time of our day, I think we all look forward to it.  The kids the most. 
Before he leaves he helps start two wood stoves to heat the house.  We have oil heat in the house but oil is expensive so we try to use the wood stove to heat the house most of the time.  When we moved in we had the oil tank filled 3/4's of the way and to this day we have only used 1/4 of the tank.  We think that is great.  We have gone through about 4 cords of wood but that is cheaper than oil.  Our house is about 72 degrees all day long and may drop down to about 62 at night but it heats right back up in the morning when the stoves get going again.  It is one way we can save money.
Saving money is the key.  We do a lot to save money, I think about it all the time.  Living on a budget is very important for us to live like we do.  Many times we want to stray from our budget but we have to think of where we have come from and where we are now and that makes us stay with it.  I will blog of our money saving things we do and have done that help us stay away from credit cards and debt.
OK time to feed the dogs :) and do some laundry folding it never ends. I have some exciting blogs coming.  We are remodeling our kitchen and it is coming out great.  But I have to go for now........

meet melanie

HI I'm Melanie. I'm the youngest of five. I am nine years old. I love our new house. I love farm animals. I've been looking forward to starting a farm. I can't wait to get our first animal, I hope it's chickens or pigs!

I am nine so this blog is going to be short, but it is going to be interesting. My mom probably told you about our boxer puppies, Sophie and Bailey. I love them so much, we also have a cat and a hamster but our hamster, Taco, passed away a few weeks ago :-[ Our cat, Boots loves to cuddle just like the puppies, but he's not so friendly with the pups.

Can you find my silly cat.  Its Boots in a Basket he got in big trouble for that, not really ;)

I will blog again real soon with some more updates on my new home.

Bailey & Sophie our Boxer puppies

When we found our home and knew it was going to have 10 Acres of land we wanted some animals for sure.  At first my husband said lets get a couple of Bullmastiff puppies.  So I looked and looked and couldn't find any that we could afford.  Breeders wanted crazy amounts of money for those cute giant dogs.  So I started looking up other good natured dogs that looked like a Bullmastiff.  We already have a Maltese for a dog and she is 7 years old.  My husband really wanted dogs that were of a bigger breed.  Our new home is in the country and he wanted something that states protection.  Well I looked and looked and we all decided on the Boxer Breed.  Then we had to find two girls at a reasonable price.  That was hard.  Well I found two gems.  We did have to drive to New York City to get them and they don't have papers but we din't care we are not going to breed them. 
We picked up Bailey and Sophie when they were just 8 weeks old.  OMG they were just the cutest things ever!  So gentle and loving from day one.  Our children could not have been happier.  We picked them up on New Years Day 2013.  It was a great way to start a new year and what a great year it is for our family the start of our new and exciting life. 
Now the puppies are alot of work but are totally worth it.  The children have to take part in the care.  The training is going great we take them out often and crate train them at night.  They have a few accidents but that is mostly our fault.  They love to play and run.  They love our new home!

this was a picture when they first came home they still cuddle together as much as they can.

Melanie woke up on a snow day and was playing dress up with the girls and they didn't mind a bit. This picture was taken a few weeks back they are growing like weeds.  The Boxer dog is a great breed and a great family dog.

Maple Syrup

Our new home has given us a few rewards already one is the art of making Maple Syrup.  Our first attempt at farming is our trees.  We are taking the sap out of our tree's and making it into maple syrup.  It is the most amazing thing ever.  The local people in Maine even have a day for Maple Syrup Sunday.  That was the day we tapped our first Maple tree.  A few days later we made homemade Maple Syrup.  One thing we learned is it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.  Wow alot of work for such Little treasure.  But totally worth it.  We boiled down about 3 gallons and got a few ounces.  Amazing! The taste to die for.  We will make more for sure.