MACK DADDY TOOL CADDY!

 In case you ever wondered what the ultimate welder's cabinet looks like, this is it.  Four feet tall, four feet wide and two feet deep, this lockable rolling tool caddy holds all the tools I need to do my job in whatever shop I happen to find myself. 

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 You really don't want to know how much this thing weighs. Suffice it to say it is "oil field strong"!
3 inch steel casters are bolted to a 1/4" plate base, 16 gauge walls are piano hinged to 10 gauge doors, and it is topped off with a 3/16 plate top.  As you can see my hood, grinders, leathers, tools and whatever else I need are at easy reach.

 I chose an old oil valve that "may or may not have come from a local refinery" (allegedly). 1/4 turn of the handle pulls two 1/2 round rods out of their catches.  An overlapping door designs holds both doors shut with one mechanism.

The double radius ends give this utility cabinet a clean intentional look.  I chose a brown bronze for the walls and interior and flat black for the top and handle wheel.  The flat black was used for it's ability to hold chalk (I like to take notes on tables etc.. ); this is after all a utility caddy.
If you want one let me know and I'll whip one out for you for about $1000.00

Air Mail!

Yep.  We just spent the last few minutes watching this helicopter sling-load this airplane around to our neighbor's house.  He has a runway, so the plane made sense.  This just isn't the usual way we see him fly around!

Hillbilly Central Vac

Some of you might remember our Hillbilly Air Conditioner 2000.  For those who don't, I regrettably do not have a picture, but it was a fan/roughneck/ice concoction that worked quite well!  I honestly don't even remember how it was set up, but that Pat made it work!  

Well, Pat is at it again.  He has now made the Hillbilly Central Vac.  We have a little corner that houses our wood for the woodstove and our dogs.  You can image the amount of debris that collects on a daily basis, especially as the weather continues to cool and the woodstove is getting more use.  Pat had enough one day and decided to do something about it.

 After careful price comparisons, we brought our new shop-vac home and took it to the crawl space.  Pat had used the hillbilly romex (extension cord) to wire it up under an unused register.  We set it up as close as possible to take advantage of the retractable 8' hose!  Notice we had to work around our custom radiant floor heat piping (that is heated by our woodstove for the bathroom!).  It was tough work.

 Once completed, it is quite invisible.  The register hides all components, and since the floor was once part of the sunken floor, we have a perfect storage area for the attachments!  Since the broom was never quite cutting it, we had to do something, and let me just say, this is fabulous!  It works great!  Simply remove the register, reach down and flip the switch to turn it on, and pull the hose with any needed attachments to where the dirt/dog hair/woodchips are hiding and suck it up!

Hillbilly Perfection!

34

I celebrate birthdays.

I do wish, however, that I could pass on the increasing amount of gray in my hair.  I know, seriously shallow and vain.  I have found some slight pleasure in knowing that my husband now has some of his own:

 You see that big light hair in his goatee?  It's the fat gray one!  You have no idea the excitement I had this night!  Obviously, I had to get the camera and document this momentous event!

Sadly, I am winning this contest.  Pat must be thinking golf score.  I wish I could convince my follicles to play that way.

Oh well.  If this is the worse thing in my life (and it's pretty high up there) then that is a testament to how amazingly blessed my life has been these 34 years.  I have to admit, I don't stress about much.  In fact, I rarely stress.  This last year has opened my eyes and heart to so much, and I am a little apprehensive but extremely excited to see where this knowledge takes me.  Ten years ago my life changed.  Eight and a half years ago my life became combined with another's and change has been my constant!  I have no idea what lies ahead, but I know that change has been good to me and I will celebrate this change in my age!

Now then, perhaps I need to change that hair color...

GIVEAWAY!

You could win this!  All you have to do is link to this post (on the Alaska to Africa blog) from your facebook page or blog, or become a follower, and get the word out that we are taking orders for Christmas.  Remember that all proceeds will go to help others this Christmas who have no mom or dad to care for them, much less give them a gift.  Make your purchases count.

 This 12"x7" layered cross will be the only one made, specifically for this event!  It is a beautiful blued steel background (blue/purple color comes from a careful heat treatment) with a brushed bright steel front. Help us help the fatherless this Christmas.

Don't forget to tell us that you linked up by email, commenting, or facebook!

Oh, and the winner of this unique cross will have this shipped anywhere in the U.S. in time for Christmas giving!  If you happen to live outside of the U.S., we will try our best!  We will announce the winner on December 12th.

My Week with Isaiah (and his family!)

 The day arrived when I took the kiddo's to the airport to welcome their parents and new brother home.  That was the toughest day to drop the kids off at school!  I just wanted to celebrate all day and have a countdown through the hours!

We were slightly excited!  (notice my chinese nephew in the background!  I thought it was an extra special event to watch one international nephew welcome another!)

 The moment finally came and there was no way to describe that moment!  I saw them come through security and told the kids to run up and greet them.  It was so sweet!  I waited as long as I could before I went ahead and greeted them as well.  It was so fun!  In fact, it was so fun to celebrate with the rest of my family and Cambria really showed it!

I just love her shiny boots!

We got home and I have totally lost all concept of time after this.  I just know that I took tons of pictures on some days and none on others.  I really just wanted to soak in every moment and be available when needed.  It was such a special time.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of that week.  

 Loving the great outdoors!

I even love the drool!

 Bathtime was so cute, especially when he figured out that he liked it!

Such Sweet Lovin's!

Lots of giggles!

That first night with the Bible Story was so precious.  

How cute is this?!  I think he safely avoided the crash into the laundry basket, but only after I watched him hang in the balance for a while!

Hangin' with Dad

Takin' a break.  It's tough to play with all this stuff all day!

I'm out!

Then, the last night of my stay, Chris suggested Julie and I head out and have our own "date-night"!  This is a tradition for us and we headed out to our usual place: The Olive Garden for hot chocolate.  

 This time we splurged and got dessert, too!  We couldn't decide between the chocolate dessert on the left and the pumpkin cheesecake on the right, so in the theme of splurging, we got both!  They were delicious.  We loved every crumb, every drop, every dollop!  Most of all, we loved the time we got to spend together all week and especially this night!

Yes, we conquered it all!

Waiting for Isaiah

So, back to my blogging!  

I had finally made it down to Kansas (see previous post)!  After sending Julie and Chris off, we headed straight out to see our new Soccer Stud: Toby!  I have to admit, watching very young sportsmen get as excited to end their shift as they do when they score a goal was highly entertaining!  

Toby scored at least one goal and his team was very tough!

 You know we went fishing!  I was trying my best to convince the kids we should wait until it was cooler in the evenings, but they were determined to head out in the 90-degree weather.  Being the best Aunt Meli there is, I complied and cut up the hot-dog bait.  We gathered our gear and headed out to the pond.  

I'm not too sure how long we fished that first day, but after several false-alarms, Sydney hit the jackpot and reeled up this "beauty!"  

I'm a terrible judge of size, but I don't think it could have been smaller than 2 pounds, and possibly more.  It was a little bit funny when she pulled it up on the shore and all 3 kids slowly backed away!  No one wanted to hold it up for a picture or anything!  It swallowed the hook really deep and when I tried to retrieve it, the line broke and the catfish was free to swim another day.  

 The garden was a bounty of fun carrots!

 We began almost immediately to prepare for the welcoming decorations!  The banner was rolled out and the kids decorated it all on their own.  We had purchased a few special markers and balloons, and it was so much fun to make the house special!

 Raegan become a serious balloon-blowing professional!

Speaking of Raegan, she was my power-cleaner for the whole week!  One day after lunch, she asked if I would give her the broom so she could finish sweeping.  THEN, she proclaimed, "It needs to be mopped"!  She grabbed the dishrag and proceeded to "mop" the entire kitchen and dining room floors.  To top it all off, she insisted on bringing out the shop vac. and vacuuming the van!  Pat told me to bring her home with me.  Seriously.

 Sydney also took a moment to spoil me.  She cooked up some of the most scrumptious french toast I have ever eaten.  Now, why don't we have kids?!

One day, I got to take Raegan to the Wichita Art Museum for a morning of "Art Start."  It was very fun!  She got to walk on top of Chihuly's glass sculpture of what looked like a coral reef!  Later we saw some wooden masks from Africa (irony not lost on us!) and finally she made a mask of her own!

 On a special trip with Gram and Aunt Barbara, we went to Red Robin's and got the balloon man to make us some very fun balloon animals!  Raegan had a large bouquet of flowers, Sydney had a penguin, and Jackson had a pink flamingo with amazing eyes that included eyeballs!

Since Sydney and Jackson got to go to school every day, Raegan and I tried our hands at pre-school at home.  We worked on the letter "H" and read the story of Happy the Hippo and his hats, his friend Hannah, and his love of Hamburgers for the Hippo Holiday!  

The week of waiting went by swiftly and we had a great time together!  I loved every moment!