Here we are getting the cabinets put together. We decided to work on these in the A/C before moving into the garage. Chita can’t stand not being in on the action so we let her help out as well.

On to the garage! We had a specific place we wanted the cabinets so I spent some time finding the studs so we could build a 1×4 frame to support them.

After measuring and cutting our 1×4′s Elyse painted them and I pre-drilled them and started to screw them into the studs. As you can see, Chita helped in the garage too.

Elyse helped me finish attaching the frame before test fitting one of the cabinets. Once she signed off on how it looked, it was time to hang the cabinets.

I brought Cole in for the heavy lifting. Our frame had a 1×2 lip on it that made hanging these super easy because we had already made sure the frame was level.

Here is the finished product, already getting put to good use. We are completely happy with them and cannot wait to get started on some of our other garage projects!

There is a new Jimmy John’s in Lawrence that has a drive through . It recently opened and we had not been there yet so we decided to try it out.

Here we are enjoying it with Cole, good as always!

In the pictures below you can see some of the detail on the front and back of the uniforms. This year Nike used ‘Swamp Skin’ (that’s what they call their gator-skin pattern) all over the uniform including the helmet, which is my favorite part. The main idea behind these seems to be weight reduction. The jersey is 23% lighter; the pants are 49% lighter; and the whole thing is suppose to be 46% lighter when it gets wet. Let’s not forget the titanium D-ring that is 66% lighter than the traditional steel one. The Vapor Trail gloves are awesome and the new uniform is completed with the orange and blue Zoom Vapor Carbon Fly TD cleats. GO GATORS!

Also, you can kind of tell from this picture that the puppy is losing some baby teeth! At the time this picture was taken she had 3 bottom and 2 top front teeth missing. Since then, several of these are now growing back in.

When we got there, I tried walking out into the lake, but she didn’t seem too interested in following me out. After a bit of her playing on the shore, I carried her out a little ways, then held her in the water and let her paddle her feet. She had the hang of it, so I let go and she swam back to Chris at the shore. We did this several times and she is a natural swimmer (as I’m sure most dogs are!) She is fast, too! I had to move quickly along side her to keep up! Here we are heading back to shore.

Here’s Chris (with us in the background) hanging out on shore enjoying the shade. It was a hot day! We had quite a few weeks where the temperature in the middle of the day was above 100F.

Here’s some video Chris took of Chita swimming and playing in the water. We had a great time and I’m glad Chita is such a good swimmer!

The valence itself is plain and simple, which we like, but the clips that hold it to the headrail is the part that we weren’t wild about. Not only can you see the clips but it made the valance stand too far out from the window casing.

I decided to take things into my own hands to come up with a solution. After a little thinking and a few quick measurements I knew what we could do.

Then it was time to get to work in the garage. We got out the miter saw and and transferred our measurements to the stack of valances and got right to cuttin’.

We decided on using clear 3M Scotch Reclosable Fasteners (which is like velcro but made with little plastic beads) to secure the valances because it will allow us to remove the valance if need be and it gave us the right amount of clearance to use the tilt wand and pull cords. After cutting the fasteners down to size we stuck them to the headrail’s mounting bracket.

From there it was really easy to attach the valance to the other side of the fasteners. Below is the finished product. They look clean and fit perfectly right into our window casing. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the way they turned out.

If she is being calm and behaving, we let her sit in our lap on the couch. Here she is chewing on one of her rawhide sticks sitting with Chris. It sure is nice when she’s calm enough to just sit around, but it doesn’t happen much!