Blowin' in the Wind

Hooray! The windmill is finally up and operational! It's been almost a year since we started digging the trench for this windmill project. As always seems to happen, this project turned into a BIG project that took a lot longer to finish than we anticipated. (Read about the beginning of our project here.)

Brian made the changes required by the electric company on the disconnect switch, so we had the "all clear" to get it up and running. Here it is all ready to be lifted into place:

(Fortunately it was a fairly windy day for the initial test!)

Brian hooked up the hydraulic hoses to the Skid Steer...

... and up it went! (Love how well this design works -- I'm still amazed by it!)

Then he had to finish lowering it the last few inches and bolt the tower into place on the base.

Looking straight up -- 75 feet!

After an initial warm-up period, it started spinning! We watched our electric meter go backwards at times.

And, finally, for those who are interested in some of the technical details, Brian had me take pictures of the junction boxes:

The only bad thing about launch day was that Brian's dad couldn't be here to see it all happen. He put a lot of time and effort and know-how into this project with Brian -- we couldn't have done it without him!

So Happy

I'm so proud of my Hannah this morning.

This morning was the "Academic Pep Rally" at the elementary school. They have one at the end of each grading period to recognize the honor roll and give out a few other awards. Hannah was so excited this morning on the way to school and couldn't wait to get there. She told me she really hoped she got the "Miss Manners" award for 3rd grade. (They choose one boy and one girl from each grade who have the best manners in the cafeteria and hallways. The winners get to go to lunch in town with the principal.)

Well, she was recognized for the "A" Honor Roll, but she didn't win "Miss Manners" for 3rd grade. However, Courtney did win "Miss Manners" for 1st grade. I was worried that Hannah would be disappointed or upset that Courtney won but she didn't, so I found her after the assembly. I wasn't sure if I'd find her in tears, but she had a big smile on her face and just said "Mom, I'm so happy for Courtney!"

I'm so happy too.

Pumpkins of the Past

Blogging about our family pumpkin this week made me reminisce a bit about some of our past family pumpkins. So I thought it would be fun to go back and look at the pictures we took...

2001 -- The first year we carved a family pumpkin

2003

2004

2005 (only got the kids this year and not the whole family)

2006

2007

2008

2009 (you just saw this one, but I'll put it again here!)

You'll notice the only year missing is 2002. Apparently we didn't do a pumpkin this year -- I guess it wasn't much of an engrained tradition at that point and probably had something to do with the fact that I looked like this:

But at least the kids managed to get dressed up for Halloween that year:

Pumpkin FHE

For several years now, we've kept a family tradition of carving a family pumpkin on the Monday before Halloween for FHE (you can see at least 2007 and 2008 in the archives here). So this past Monday, we pulled out the pumpkin and the carving knives once again.

Dad is the head pumpkin carver, but he has lots of willing helpers (and Mom is officialy photographer). First job is to scoop out the insides. The girls were excited to help, but not making a lot of progress. Two seeds at a time would make for a long night!

So I got to take over the scooping job while the kids worked on the face design. Dad might be the carver, but the kids are the designers. We had them each draw their idea on a piece of paper and then we all picked which parts we'd use -- McKay's mouth, Courtney's nose, Hannah's eyebrows, etc. Then the kids are very watchful to make sure Dad does it right!

(Hayley's the only one paying attention to pose, but wow! look at that dirty window! Actually I think Courtney "cleaned" it for me not too long ago...)

(I have to include this picture because I thought it was funny and it illustrates one of Hannah's habits that is driving me nuts. Do you see that little tongue of hers just looking for some hair to chew on? Aargh! She has already chewed enough of her hair off that we had to layer it (it used to be all one length) -- I hope she outgrows this habit soon!)

The kids also wanted to try their hand at carving. McKay took over the mouth -- and the whole time he was carving, he kept making comments about how he wasn't going to repeat his mishap of last year.

Hannah & Courtney also got to try a little bit of carving with Dad's expert help.

Hayley with our finished pumpkin!

Then of course we have to test him out with a candle and the lights off.

The final part of the tradition is to take pictures with the pumpkin -- first with just the kids...

...then the whole family!

Fun times!

Almost There!

Brian has been making a big final push to get our windmill up and functional before the colder weather really sinks its teeth in (we have already had several chilly days as it is).

A while ago, he built the support to help hold up the tower when it is lowered, then in the past week he has been finishing up stringing wires through all the conduits. First, McKay helped him string wires through the tower itself.

Can you tell a storm was moving in?

Even Hannah got to help for a bit by holding the spool at the base.

This this past weekend, he got the turbine and blades installed and hooked up.

Finally, today, he had Brandon help him pull wires through the conduit from the tower to the house -- they gave their arm muscles a good workout!

The electric company came by this afternoon and had one concern about the disconnect (they were going to have to check on what the specific regulations are), but other than that, told us everything looked great. Hopefully it will be up and blowin' in the wind soon! I'm still so amazed by what he has accomplished with this project!

Girl's Getaway - "Wicked" Weekend!

Several months ago, my sister and her daughter were able to go see the touring Broadway production of "Wicked" in Salt Lake City. Afterward, they found out it would be playing in Denver in October and since we have another sister that lives in the Denver area, we decided to make it a girls-only occasion!

We got our tickets and waited all summer. It's always lots of work to get away for a few days, but so much fun. Brian was a great sport about letting me go and having to get the kids off to school by himself for a couple of days. (Although he did say he wasn't quite up to fixing the girl's hair in the morning!)

Our tickets were for a Thursday evening production -- front row balcony seats! I arrived Wednesday morning and got to hang out with my sister Amy and her cute daughter Emma for a bit. By Thursday morning, we had all arrived at Amy's house -- my mom, my sister Sandra and her daughter Kelsey, and my sister Malinda. We originally bought 8 tickets, thinking my sister-in-law Sarah would be able to come (so sad she couldn't!) and one for Amy's husband (but he decided he didn't want to be the only guy around), so Amy invited a couple of her friends to come with us.

It was a fabulous evening! Started off with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory:

Here I am with my big sis Sandra at dinner (those mirrors made for difficult pictures!):

Then we walked a few blocks down to the theater. We looked for a poster or something to take pictures, but all we could find initially was this little marquee in the lobby with the names of the cast. This is me and my little sis Amy (our fabulous hostess):

And here we all are! My Mom and her four daughters (from left: Amy, me, Mom, Malinda, Sandra).

And the show was just FABULOUS! I loved, loved it. The performers were fantastic, the set and costumes were gorgeous, the music was beautiful and the story had a great message. I was not familiar with the storyline or any of the music beforehand other than it was a story about the witches from "The Wizard of Oz." I know this Broadway version is fairly different from the book (which I've been told not to read) and that it was written to "fit in" with the original "Wizard of Oz" story, but I'll never watch "The Wizard of Oz" the same again!

On our way out of the theater, we finally found a poster for some more pictures!

Here is our entire group! From left: My mom, Amy's friends Jenny & Michelle, Amy, Malinda, Kelsey, Sandra and me!

And in addition to the fabulous night out, it was great to just spend some time with my mom and sisters (and nieces) for a bit, even if it was a short visit.

I even managed to squeeze in a short sewing lesson with Amy and helped her hem one of Emma's dresses. Yay Amy!

And of course we had time for lots of stories with cute little Emma!

I had to hurry back Friday evening so I could be here for our Primary practice and program, but I'm so glad I was able to go. I don't know how long it will be until we can have another getaway, but I can't wait! (And I'm already checking into whether "Wicked" is coming to a city near me -- yeah, I know it won't be Amarillo, but maybe Dallas?? -- I want to take Brian!)