Ended as great as it started!

My weekend that is! I had a wonderful 4 day weekend filled with family and fun. Gene, Grace and I drove down to Granny's Friday morning to get started on her deck. Granny was on Grace patrol while Gene and I worked outside! We worked for about 4 and a half hours and got all of the framing on it done. We headed home in time to get showered and ready for the first Greenland football game against West Fork....their rival. We ended up getting beat! It was still awesome though just to be back at the stadium!! Grace spent the night with Mom and Dad and after the game Steph, the boys and I all headed to midnight madness at the fair. Oh my, I'm getting too old for that! It started at 11 and ended at 2 am. I was exhausted by the time we got home!

We were all back up by 7 Saturday morning and out the door by 7:30 headed back to Granny's. Mom, Dad and Grace got there a couple hours after us and Tanner showed up a couple hours after them. Gene, the boys and I all got started on the deck right away and then it started raining on us. We ended up having to take about 3 breaks because of the rain but then finally the clouds moved out and gave way to the sunshine. And then it got HOT!! After Mom got there me and Grace rode with her to Lowe's to get some more material and then to Wal-Mart to get stuff for lunch. Tanner's 21st birthday is this Wednesday so Mom ordered a cookie cake and bought decorations so we could celebrate this weekend while we were all together! Mom and Dad grilled burgers and hot dogs and lunch and dessert were yum-o!!

Ok, here are the deck pictures. This was a before picture. You can tell right below the door where Dad busted out all of her brick steps last week. They were in really bad condition and incredibly not safe to walk down. I took this picture Friday right after we got there.

This was at the end of the day Friday after we completed the framing! The patio was way off on measurements and not squared up so we kept having to go back and forth measuring the frame to make sure it was even and squared up.

This is the final product!!! After literally about 11 hours of working on it all day Saturday it was complete!! The boys were great and stayed out there all day helping Gene. I was in and out helping clean up inside and then helping outside when needed! Granny was so excited and I don't think she could be any happier with the end result!! It's so nice out there now and we don't have to worry about her hurting herself going down her old steps! She has nice wide steps now with a handrail!!

Corey was snapping pictures and got this one of the beautiful night sky! We were all so worn out by the end of the day and absolutely filthy with sweat, dirt and sawdust. Mom and Dad stayed the night with Granny and Grace stayed with them so that we could all come home and shower and just rest!

Grace was a busy body all day long and ran and ran and ran and ran her little heart out !! Corey was able to get this crazy looking picture of her running up the front steps!

Yesterday we all laid around the house resting and watching movies. Gene told me at about 1 that he was hungry for a pot of beans. So, I ran to town and did some grocery shopping. I knew that there was no way the beans would be done in time to have for dinner last night but he seemed to think they would be so I bought the stuff for them, fried potatoes, weinies and kraut and cornbread. However, I was right and the beans were not done by the time we were ready for dinner! So, I re-grouped and ended up putting some chicken breats in a marinade and still made fried potatoes but changed to green beans and it was delicious! Gene did a great job of grilling the chicken because it was perfect!!

So, my 4 day weekend was amazing and I'm not ready to go back to work today! But oh well, I now only have a 3 day work week! Granny is having her surgery on Thursday so Aunt Cathy and Uncle Greg are driving in Wednesday night to be here for it. Granny will be in the hospital for 3-4 days after surgery but luckily she'll be at Washington Regional up here close to us so please keep her in your prayers this week! Also pray for traveling safeties as Aunt Cathy and Uncle Greg drive in from Atlanta!! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on how everything goes.