While we were on vacation, Joe found out that he...drum roll please...PASSED his paramedic exam!!! WOOOOHOOOOO! Can I say how proud I am of him. That test has a reputation of its own that preceeds itself. He has worked so hard this year and it has been very rough since January with him going through school and then prepping for the test. Now all he has to do is complete his field training on his shifts at work and everything will be completely done.

While visiting my parents, my mom was trying to cook dinner. Their pantry has the auto lights where when you shut the door, the lights go off. If you know Brooke, you know how she likes to shut doors. She kept shutting the door on my mom and I had to get it on video. The camera shakes some because I am laughing my butt off as I am taping her. The video starts out sideways for a few seconds, but then I came to my senses and turned the camera the right way. Enjoy!

Joe & I took vacation last week finally. It took a lot of planning to get a week that we could both go between me being on-call, his work schedule, paramedic school, and everything else that had to fall into place! So we headed out to the lake house...

This is Brooke having a little R&R at poor Chester's behalf. I have to give that dog much kudos for everything that he puts up with. He just sits there and takes it. Brooke pulls on his tail, lays on him, and even hits him at times and he just looks at her. Sometimes he turns around & looks at us & I really think he has this "Why Me?!" look on his face!!

Brooke was making a mess and playing with Chester. She took his dry food & put it in the water bowl. Then stirred it around with her finger. Then she took the food to Chester and hand fed the dog. Later I looked over and she had her pacifier in the water bowl with the now mushy food and was stirring it with her finger. I went to get the camera to take a picture of the mess she made and when I turned the corner with the camera she was then carrying the entire food bowl. I begged her to put it down and this picture is her cleaning up everything after she spilt the water and the food!

Joe & I worked really hard. We completed the kitchen and love it. I have never painted red and don't think I ever will again! We love the color but it was very hard to get even. The back bathroom is officially finished too. The front bathroom is almost completed (the sink just has to be put together). The laundry room, living room, and front bedroom all got new paint and trim. We got a LOT done. Brooke was there to help a little too. She helped us move some trim, was very good at making our tools disappear when we needed them, and did everything she could to give us a pat on the back when we needed it (literally)!
To see pics of the rooms, go to http://firehouseretreat.com/Photos.aspx. Then click on Scrap/Craft Room, Kitchen, and Bathrooms on the left.

Brooke loves cheesing it up for the camera. Now she has learned that when you take her picture she can instantly see herself on the little screen so as soon as you take her picture she says "wanna see" and she wants you to show her picture to her.



I lowered her high chair to her level. Then she put her dolly in the seat and pretended she was feeding her. It was very important to Brooke that she sat in one of the kitchen chairs to feed her dolly just like mommy & daddy do to feed Brooke!


This is Brooke's latest thing. She uses her cars to her advantage to reach anything she wants. Here she is reaching the deadbolt, which she can really reach and undo without the car. In the other picture, she is showing off her dancing skills again. This is an action shot!!!

Since we have our first booking we decided it is time to kick this thing in high gear and I needed to go and work this weekend whether Joe was going to be down there with me or not. Joe was down there with me on Friday night. Then sis came down. Mom and Dad took Brooke and were so nice to bring dinner which helped out tremendously! We cleaned a lot on Friday, Joe kilzed some more stuff, then we stayed up really late moving furniture. Saturday, sis and I painted the back bathroom and she finished kilzing the front bathroom. After she left, I painted the front bathroom. Then Dad came back out to fix one of the locks on the side door. I did about 4 loads of dishes, 6 loads of laundry and cleaned until my hands hurt. Thanks again to everyone for their help! Below are the results of this weekends adventure. Oh, and Chester was there of course, but he refused to help...hahaha.

Joe & Hector worked on the house again this weekend. They finished the hardwoods, got the new refrigerator in place. The people came and laid the carpet. You can see what the new interior doors will look like below. They should have new black hardware sometime in the future. He put all the 'guest' beds in the back room. They are not set up the way they will be in the end but you can see how much room we gained by switching the rooms around. I have not been to the house in a month now to see all this work first hand due to my job, so I have just been getting to see pictures like the rest of you. I think I will finally get to see it the week of August 18th!