The Playset is 75% Complete

As of Saturday evening (Aug 4), the playset is approximately 75% complete. I still have a lot of work to do on the roof and I have to build the swing support, but it's almost finished :) I know the pictures are not the best, but it's because I tried to take them at the end of the day when I had the most work finished. Unfortunately that means I was working until it was dark.

A Quick Update

I have made a lot of progress on building the playset/swingset in the backyard. I worked on it for about 6 hours on Saturday, but I haven't had the time to work on it since then. Our VBS started yesterday and I've been busy with that. Hopefully I will get some new pictures by the end of the week. Not a lot of other news at this time.

New Project

A week ago I started a new project; a backyard playset for the children. I found a great deal at Sam's club and thought it would be a weekend project. I was wrong. Some assembly required would be the understatement of the century. What I bought was 200 lbs. of lumber pre-cut and pre-drilled and 50 lbs. of hardware to hold the sticks together and a simple booklet with 100 easy steps to the playset of my children's dreams. Hopefully it'll be ready by next summer:) Here is a picture of what it's supposed to look like when it's finished. Here is what it looks like after the first weekend of working on it. Here is the rest of it.

We're home

We made it back Saturday evening from our enduro drive to the west coast. The trip was great (except for the driving part). We had a great time and were able to see lots of friends and family. Below is a slideshow of our photos from the Disneyland Resort. Clicking on it will take you to the photo album where you can browse more leisurely and see larger pictures. I am working on getting more albums created of our time in San Diego.

Heading West!

Wow, I'm really bad at keeping this site updated. We are off to the west coast. Tomorrow morning we leave (at 4am) for Disneyland. We are driving. The kids should be getting used to this, but I'm sure as soon as they wake up (hopefully at 9 am) they will ask if we're almost to Disneyland. We're hoping to make a lot of progress tomorrow and make it to Tucson so that Sunday will be a pretty easy drive into Anaheim. We're spending 3 days/4 nights in Anaheim then it's down to San Diego where we will be for 8 days. I don't have a laptop so I can't provide updates along the way, but I will take plenty of pictures and video to post once we return.

Climbing Higher

It's been quite some time since I last posted, and yes, the complaining from some of you has finally worked and I'm updating the blog. I have several pictures and some video of the kids that I will post over the next week (if I can figure out the whole technology aspect of it). Here are some pictures from a birthday party last Saturday where the boys tackled a rock wall. There is also a video of each boy climbing the wall. The quality is pretty poor because I had to take it with my cell phone. William is in the blue shirt; Grant is in the white shirt.

Spring Sports

The spring sports season has begun. William decided to play soccer again this spring so I am coaching his team, the Cannonballs. William and Grant both played with the Cannonballs last fall, and I was the assistant coach. This year, I am the head coach, and Grant has left soccer to pursue baseball. He will be playing for the Ironbirds, and he is excited about baseball practice finally starting (tomorrow). We have already had our first soccer game and we lost--actually we don't keep score at this age, but since I am who I am, I keep the unofficial score and the Raptors demolished us 9-4 in 40+ mph winds. I was actually happy that the field was in desperate need of mowing since that kept the impact from the wind somewhat under control. William played great and scored 3 of the team's goals, but we definitely missed having Grant in the game while William was on the bench. Of course the most important thing is that everyone had lots of fun. Claire did have her cast removed, but if you were to see her walking, you would think she still has it on. She limps around a lot and walks very stiff-legged. It's going to take a few more weeks to get her back to walking normal. This week she is suffering from some infection. She has conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) in both eyes and an ear infection. Also, I have changed the settings on the blog, and if you are so inclined, you can now submit a comment at the bottom of each post. The comments are viewable to everyone.

Claire adapting well

It's now been a few weeks since Claire received her special gift from Grant, but she is adapting well. She has been walking on the leg and has even attempted running a few times when she gets excited. As you can see from the picture, she is not slowing down at all. Yes, that is a scooter she is trying to ride with her broken leg. She gets her cast off tomorrow morning. I think we'll all be happy that the sponge baths are over--especially washing her hair with the spray thingy at the kitchen sink. One last thing. If you haven't checked yet, you must take a look at the ACC standings in men's basketball. My beloved Hoos are tied with the Tarheels for 1st in the ACC. It's been an exciting year with more to come hopefully.

My first fracture

We visited the orthopedic clinic at Children's Medical Center this morning. Claire does have a fracture on her lower leg--the fibula to be exact. She will have a cast until Feb. 20, but the doctor claims she can walk with the cast on; she has a little shoe to wear over it to help her walk. The question is will she walk or will she be a drama queen and make me carry her everywhere. Here are some pictures of her with the initial leg splint and now her cast.

Running Fast

The boys and I went to Ameriquest Field in Arlington on Saturday for the annual Fan Fest event that the Texas Rangers hold (the baseball team, not the police force). The boys got new baseballs and were playing with them all evening. About 7:00 pm Grant was chasing a routine grounder behind the couch and it was getting away from him. In his words he was "running so fast I had to close my eyes". As he rounded the corner of the couch, with his eyes closed, he met up with Claire. An hour later she still could not put any weight on her leg without falling to the floor so off to the ER we go. The initial diagnosis is a sprained knee-no fracture; however, the ER doctor admitted that X-rays can be misleading with children this young so we are following up with an orthopedic specialist at Children's Medical Center. Their earliest appointment is Thursday so hopefully we will have more info at that time. Currently it is splinted from hip to ankle with one of those sleeves with all of the velcro straps. And the lesson of the week is: No matter how fast you can run, keep your eyes open.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I've decided once again to try to maintain some sort of website for the family so everyone can stay up to date with the Bartleys. This is my third attempt at this, but it should be the easiest format to maintain so hopefully I will keep it more current than past attempts. I'm quite certain I won't be updating it daily, but hopefully a few times a week.