And The Changes Keep On Coming

T went to practice his forms with Master Amy one last time today before she leaves to go to Norfolk Virginia. He has been with her since he started TKD at age 4 or 5 at our home Dojang. We also found out that another Master from our home Dojang has left as well and moved to Idaho. T is saddened by all these changes but also understands and is taking it like a man. Although he will miss Master Amy she’s only going to be 3 hours away so he knows he can go visit her anytime. 

Master Amy may be moving on but T will never forget her. She has been so incredibly awesome in teaching him. She’s always been dubbed “The Poomsae Queen” since I’ve known her (Poomsae = forms). She has helped T be so much sharper in his forms. She has really worked wonders with him and he has appreciated it so very much. We wish her well as she ventures out on her own. 

New Books

New books that arrived today. Can you tell what we are going to be studying in homeschool. T’s been asking a ton of questions recently so even though we’ve explained the truth to him I want him to also study it for himself as well. This is going to be a family learning experience because we are going to study it with him to refresh our memories of all we’ve learned and I’m sure we’ll learn something new as well. Looking forward to our journey as we study history together. Next up will be Hitler and the Concentration Camps because we saw an episode of 7th Heaven recently that brought up a ton of questions about all that as well. Plus there’s been a ton of memes in social media using Hitler/Trump recently and we want him to the know truth so he can make an informed decision on how the media/government is trying to brainwash the people to believe things their way. Then he’ll know where the lies are coming from and what’s true. Wenalso have other history books to study as well. We have one on The Declaration of Independence. One on Ben Franklin. And of course the list goes on and on. With a certain political party trying to erase history we are trying to get our hands on all we can to teach T about the truth of history. “A society that erases history is doomed to repeat it!”  

1st Stormdoor

We went and bought a storm door for the backdoor today. We looked and looked and found a clearance storm door that they are no longer making. It was the last one in stock. It’s regular price was $362.00 and we got it for $200. Quite the deal. Scot is installing it now. Hoping we can find another one like at one of the other Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers around town for the front door. I’ll go looking tomorrow while Scot works. It won’t actually be in their system so you have to go and physically look for it. 

Deck Boards On ✅

The boys are done with the deck boards. They did such an AWESOME job!!!

The new stair cases:

Deck

Last couple of pieces going in. Both pieces have to be notched and T is watching and learning how to do it.

Growing, Growing, Growing!

Since the end of January our boy has grown 2” and he’s still going through a growth spurt right now. He’s wanting to eat everything that’s not nailed down and he’s sleeping longer hours too. He has always done that when he’s in a growth spurt. Since May 2019 he’s grown 3 1/2”. If we can get another 2” growth by the end of January 2021 that will be so totally AWESOME!!!  It will mean he’s grown 4” in a years time. It will put him in a much different weight category for sparring competitions but the height gains would make it worth it. We’ve been waiting for the 4” growth year to happen and this very well could end up being that year. He’s definitely overdue for it.

Nan check out where he’s at.  I think he’s going to owe you a dollar tree gift trip when we come to visit...LOL!  

All the grandkids when they get to be Nan’s height have to take her to the dollar tree for a dollar tree gift trip. Although with the pandemic 😷 they may forego the trip this time and he’ll just give her a dollar...LOL! 

Extra Support Boards

Old deck boards are off and new support boards are going in so that we can start putting the new deck boards on. This deck is so much more solid than it was. Makes you feel good to know that it’s getting done and done right. 

Scot was grinding off the rusty 24 year old screws. 

Extra support boards are almost all in. Looking forward to getting the deck boards on. Tomorrow we will work on the second stair case to the deck as well as finish anything we don’t get done on the deck boards. 

Rain Rain Go Away, We Wanna Work On The Deck Today!

Currently it’s looking like we won’t get to do any work on the deck today😕. This is our current situation:

Praying that it tappers off and we can get back to working on the deck over the weekend. There’s still much to get done. 

Plus we are putting two new storm doors on as well. After what we dealt with when we changed out our backdoor because of water damage we realize how much storm doors really door protect the doors to the home. A learning experience we will not soon forget. 

Last Official Training w/CK

T has his last official training with the Carolina Kick’s Team via Zoom tonight. Moving forward he will be following his coach to WOW TaeKwonDo and being on their team. We promised Grand Master Cann before she passed away that we’d keep T with Master Wasiu. He is such a great coach and we are so thankful to have him as T’s coach. T is looking forward to when we can officially train with the new team at WOW TaeKwonDo with Master Wasiu.  

Deck

We are getting closer to being done with the deck boards. Check out the new vs. the old. 

Training Never Stops

A little video of a combo that T is working on. He is doing his best at getting better and faster. His body is going through so many changes at the same time which is making it a lot harder for him to get his speed where it needs to be. Puberty + Growing Pains = hard adjustments but he’s pushing through. 

Drip Edge

Well the drip edge has been all fixed. It took the crew yesterday afternoon and this morning to get it all done. It’s looks good for what they had to deal with. Nothing on this project was done in the order it should have been done but I’m glad that the roof is officially finished now. Now we can get all the remedial work done inside the house from the water damage that was done. Hoping we can get that scheduled and all taken care of quickly. Looking forward to being on the other side of all this. 

A Set of Stairs

Well, we got one set of stairs in place minus the railings. Those will come later. Scot and T did a great job. 

I threw a picture of Tucker enjoying the sunshine as a bonus. He loves to be in the sun. 

Update on the Roof Crew

Well, they sent a couple of guys out to fix the drip edge issues. As usual there have been challenges once again.  We came up with a solution that doesn’t mean tearing down the gutters that were just installed🙄. The gutters have been one of the best parts of the job so far. I just want it all buttoned up and protected so we can continue to move forward. So glad we figured out what to do so that we could get the drip edge fixed.  So ready to be done with all this. While they work we are still continuing work on rebuilding our deck. I’ll be glad to get all the boards on and look forward to when we can paint/stain the deck😁. 

Still Waiting on Roof Crew

When the gutter crew had to redo the facia wood and facia wrap in order to install the gutters they damaged the drip edge. We’ve been waiting for the roof crew to come and fix the drip edge for over a week now. They were supposed to be here at 11:30am and it’s now 1:04pm and they still aren’t here. Such has been life with getting this roof done. Plus we are still waiting on the remedial crew to come and take care of the damage on the inside of our home from the roof being open to the elements for so long with no work getting done. Oh how we are looking forward to the day when everything is fixed and back to what it was before we started this process of getting a new roof put on. What a glorious day it will be when it’s all done. 

Deck Challenge

Well we went to take off our first set of stairs to find we are going to have to get more wood. The casing for the stairs is all going to need replacing. We can put new screws in them. Plus several are cracked on the sides. 

Fun in the Sun

Tucker loves laying on the new deck boards in the sun. 

Oh to be a dog. They have such easy lives. 

Deck Work So Far

Here’s all we got done on the deck rebuild yesterday. 

The boys got almost half of the deck completed yesterday. T worked hard with his dad all day yesterday. I love that he enjoys learning how to do things from his dad. 

Back Door Is On

Got the new back door on today. It took a little longer than we had anticipated but hey it’s done. All that’s left is some touch ups. We’ll get to that at some point...LOL!  Tomorrow we do some more work on the deck. 

Oh My Goodness😳

T has grown so much that his sweat pants don’t fit. We are going to have to buy some more😳. Jeepers. Another expense that we frankly expect to have with a growing child but the timing isn’t good😞. 

Thank you Lord for always supplying all our needs even when we don’t know how those needs will be met.  We thank you for the work coming in to bring the supply. We just thank you in advance. In Jesus Name. Amen! 

Always Learning

T loves to help out and learn how to do practical things. A pic of T helping cut extra support boards for the deck. Just want to give a little added support to our original boards.  

Hindsight is 2020 (Pun intended)

Well, we went and got our first load of deck boards with the van today. We also got some support boards as well and they came in to the tune of $450. I think that included the bucket of screws we got but that only covers maybe half the deck. The deck boards were twice the price ($23 a board, I think🤔 ) of what they were a few weeks ago when we went to check the pricing🙄. Just another thing we can thank the pandemic of 2020 for😡. With us not anticipating the cost to be that high that kinda threw us somewhat. It has to be done though so just another cost we are eating😞. 

Front Door

This is after two coats of paint. It’s currently drying but looks great. It’s giving a fresh new look to the house. Once we put a new storm door on it will look even sharper. Once it’s dry we will decide weather it needs a third coat or not. 

My Fighter

T is constantly trying to improve and get better. He’s had a lot of bad habits to have to break from former training before he was with the coaches he’s with now. It’s a constant battle to get new habits formed in him to replace the bad habits. This video is a good moment from his training. 

Back Door

Back door got damaged from the water the house took on while we had no gutters and the issues we were having with the roofers and our roof being open to the elements for 7 days. And as with everything so far, we go to replace the door and we have sheet rock fall apart as we were taking the framing off to take the door out. There’s always more challenges to deal with along with trying to get a task done. We are praying there are no more issues to have to deal with. We just keep finding things and that’s frustrating for us. It is also equally frustrating that we can’t feel safe in our own home because of the water damage that happened to it😞. 

This first picture is the lower part of the door that crumbled in Scot’s hands as he was taking the framing off. The framing has mold spores building on it so it will have to be replaced. 

This picture shows how wet the sheet rock is half way up the door where the frame used to be.  As you know sheet rock holds water and falls apart like you saw in the first picture. 

Keep us in your prayers as we deal with the problems that have been popping up from the water damage. Pray in agreement with us. Pray for an expedient and excellent job to be done in repairing all the problems. That our home is restored to what it was before all this damage happened to it. And also pray that with the rains that will be coming in from the hurricane that we have no more leaks coming into our home. Pray for the Lord to give us favor in getting all that needs to be done done. Pray that He works on the hearts of the workers and staff of the company that even if they are meaning to do harm that the Lord will turn it around for our good and His glory. Thank you!  

In The Meantime

In the meantime while we wait we are replacing old outside light fixtures that are rusted through. Getting the new back door ready to be installed on the house. Organizing the house some more. And just taking care of odds and ends that need doing around the house. It’s crazy times we’re living in. If not for the pandemic I’d have been hard pressed to be here to help with all of this cause I’d have still been traveling for training/tournaments. At least everything is getting taking care of now though. 

I stood on the inside because there was yet another wasp nest. Scot killed it though. 

Drip Edge Replacement and Interior Mediation Update

Called this morning to get things lined out for the roofers to come back and replace the drip edge all around the house because it got damaged when the gutter guys had to redo facia wood and wraps that they did wrong. They are still getting things ironed out with the mediation company to get the inside of the house taken care of where water got in. #tryingtobepatient 

Internet Issues...

The internet company had an outage in the area this morning. It took us until moments ago to get it back working. T can now get his school work done for the day. #challenges #takingitinstride 

My Boy is turning into a Man😢

T doesn’t like when I take these kinds of pictures. Puberty has hit full fledge at our house with him. So many changes. The biggest is his torso and his hip bones. The boy is growing and changing a ton. 

Gutters Are On!!!

The gutter crew came and got the gutters and new downspouts on. The machine they use to make the gutters is so cool:

The white material on the reels comes out up at the front of the machine to form a gutter. See below:

Such a cool machine. The new gutters look fantastic as you’ll see in the pics. What was more impress though was that the new downspouts are some much bigger than the old. Take a look:

Now the roofers have to come back out and fix all the drip edges. So we will be waiting for them to come and fix that. Not sure when that will happen. We are also still waiting approval on getting the crew out here to fix that side of the house as well. We are praying that they work with us to get this done and done right and that we don’t have to have our attorney get involved. 

Gutter Crew

The gutter crew was here again today. They changed out the facia wood that was wrong. They put on new facia wrap because the other that was put on was wrong. They got all the vinyl soffit buttoned up. Tomorrow they come back and put drip edge where it needs it from getting damaged when they changed the facia wood out.  Then they put the new gutters on. Woohoo🙌!!!

After we get this all completed we may have to look at getting the siding done just so it will match...LOL! Plus we are looking into wrapping the doors and windows. That may be something we can do ourselves except for the high windows. We’ll havta see about that. 

Organization

My living room is looking more line a gym everyday. Had to organize the mess. One can only take so much of things just being unorganized and then, if you’re like me, you snap and fix the problem. At least now I know where everything is and T can find it more easily when he needs it.