Midterms and Jack Frost

Well, well.

Here we are in the middle of my Fall term already. 

I can tell because I have yet to leave my computer for a full day without having to write a paper or un-dig some  research for another paper. 

Oh, and did I mention the studying?

Ugh, anyways...in between all of these wonderful, stressful things we also have plummeting temperatures. 

Last year we were surprised by our electric bill going from about $80 up to $500. We had tried to buy wood and use our fireplace, but that did not reduce the bill substantially enough to cover the amount of chords of wood. 

We decided we needed to insulate under the upper portion of the house.

 Brent has had some trouble actually being off at all the last couple months,and it is just going to get worse. This next month I don't think I will see him until Thanksgiving. He is going to be in Washington for almost 2 weeks, trying to squeeze in hunting, and then needing to go clean up mess at his own store.

Well, he was able to make it home and start the insulation. He did not get as much done as planned as he was very late getting home(3am) Wednesday morning and had to leave to a meeting early Friday. 

Still he and Mitchel got all suited up and got under the house. They did about 2/3rds of it. Over the course of two days. I'm afraid I was no help because I had school, and August decided to get sick. 

It was horrible. We gladly let him snuggle in between us when he came in the middle of the night. Abruptly we heard some gurgle-bubbly sounds and we knew what it was...August had a diarrhea incident in the bed! It wasn't that bad, but it was annoying. We were already so exhausted. To get up and have to change sheets and poor Aug. He was so worried about it. He had no idea he was going to do that. The poor dear. The second night was even more exhausting as he was up every hour and half needing to use the toilet. 

In addition to the insulation being 2/3 of the way complete, our new stove and oven should be delivered this week (on Halloween). Yeah! Papa came over this week to pull out the old ones and will be here to install the new ones on Friday.

After getting August back into good health I was able to tackle my midterm assignments. I lived in my robe for a couple days. Stopping school work only to do dishes, cook, and laundry. My mother was a life saver keeping the boys running with errands, chores, and halloween costume shopping. 

Here are some of the pics from this week:

The guys getting ready to open a bag of insulation...

They need to insulate a little over 1,000 square feet ( the upper level of house)

Mitchel is excited to be wearing a bunny suit.

And there it is, the hole which the boys had to crawl through to get to the underside of the house.

Brent is the first one in!

Mitchel goes in second.

August was very curious. (and being outside in his underwear did not contribute to him being sick)

Since we are a few days without a stove or oven we need to use the bbq, microwave, and this...

Here are the toad-in-a-hole, (or birds nests, whatever you call them) breakfast on the griddle

Where the OVEN once was...awaiting the new one

Where the new STOVETOP will go.

 This next video was August trying to block Mitch in his room.

It was adorable. He came to get me to show me all of the things he did to trap him..

sadly, he didn't realize the door opens inward. All of his planing was in vain.

Some of the sad, very sad midterm craziness photos...

At around midnight I needed some PEANUT BUTTER and apple to keep me going

One of the papers I had to write was on this. My virtual child, Imogen.

I baked one last pie in the oven before it was taken out.

A blueberry and rhubarb pie

Eating pie between breakfast and lunch on Saturday...

Almost done on SUNDAY

Watching TED talk to finish up critical thinking paper...ugh

Now I just have to take some tests this week and be done with it until finals.

Can't wait to get our new appliances.

And to have the insulation done!

We have already been at below freezing for a couple weeks now.