Trying to install a dishwasher...

We recently got a really nice dishwasher before we went to Finland. We ran into some problems trying to install it so it has been standing in our living room for the past month. I am trying to get some help from some blogs, so I will post here some photos for some others to see as a reference, and hopefully figure out soon how to properly get it install it so I can start using it and get the extra space back in our living room.

First image is the bx cable, second the junction box that plugs into the dishwasher and the third shows the instructions on the installation booklet. Our bx cable only has 2 wires (black and white). The main question is how to properly ground the dishwasher. 

Here is few pictures from our anniversary celebration from back in August. Since I have been trying to update our blog lately here are some more pictures. We went on a nice trail first, then ate at Safehouse restaurant. It was interesting. We had to have a password to get in. If you didn't have the password they made you do some funny tricks and there tvs inside and people were entertained by the funny stuff we had to do. We had to do the Irish dance...lol..I was a little rusty. After the dinner we went for a walk by a river. It was a nice date. I am grateful to be married to Bobby. It has been an adveture.

 

 

Today was a nice day. I helped watch my friends son for few hours. Jared had fun time showing him some games and toys. I ended up playing cat in the hat game with Jared. After Jared went to K4 I took the boy home and then helped an other friend to frame some pictures. I bought some pizza for dinner so it would be easy to make dinner tonight. After dinner I asked Jared to clear the table and few minutes later I found Jared doing the dishes in the kitchen. I had to hurry and get a picture to memorize this historical moment. My 4 year old son was busy doing the dishes without asking. He is the only child in our family that has ever done this. Few months ago our dishwasher started acting up so I have been doing dishes by hand for few months now. So, I was pleasantly very surprised to have Jared do the dishes and he washed a whole sink full until they were all done!

 

Floors...are they ever finished...

I like dreaming of a beautiful home, but in reality the execution is hard and getting things finished takes forever, especially when I don't exactly know what I am doing. While my parents were visiting we started on the flooring project. Most of is done by now. I still have to do two transition pieces: from family room to garage and from hallway to Matthew's room. Few pieces of the quarter round broke when we were ripping it out to get the laminate installed. Last week I went to Menards to buy some more and found out that they don't carry the same size anymore as the original 60s quarter rounds. With a new obstacle the completion gets delayed. With my personality I like to take my time though, and like the process of researching for a best solution. Which involves looking stuff for hours on pinterest... I have several other projects in mind for the future, but I am trying to constrain myself to start anything new until I have the flooring completely done with all the details. Here is some of the progress.

 Floor in the kitchen

 This is our old carpeted kitchen floor...sorry about the mess....

Entry way...

 I made this metal (looks wood) transition between the kitchen and basement...sawing metal was fun, new experience.

I painted the baseboards and quarter trim white..sounds easy right, sanding, priming two coats and putting in two top coats. I probably didn't need all those extra layers, but just in case...

I love how the new floor is so much easier to clean :)

 Some of these pictures are so my dad can see what I did...this is transition I made from hallway to bathroom.

 

This is transition I made between entryway and living room. I got a long piece of wood, mixed different stains to get the right color and sealed it :)

I'll get pictures of the rooms after I clean ;) and after I paint some paneling in my family room. My kitchen cabinets still clash with the floor, but that is an other big project I don't want to start yet.

With all this agonizing about getting the floor finished I have to tell you how grateful andI blessed I am to have such an awesome dad! He is so talented and patient, maybe one day I can be more like him if I really, really try and don't give up :)

Sunday hike in Kettle Moraine State Forest

Bobby had a great idea to take us hiking this Sunday after church. The choir was canceled so we had enough time and it was nice weather...sunny and not freezing. The fall colors were so nice and our kids have always a lot of energy so off we went.  I hiked ice age trail for a mile or two...this hike is about 1000 miles long, which is very cool. We learned that the ice age had left it's marks in this area of country which was very exciting for me, because that is similar to my area in Finland. We have a lot of big rocks in Finland that are left as memories from ice age and they had something similar here and also land formations that had been created from the sediments when ice was melting. The nature was beautiful and we got to walk trough some woods. Our kids wanted to stick their hands into dirt constantly...must be a boy thing...so I made them all wash their hands well when we returned so they could eat their cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

Cool pond

 

 These images remind me of salpausselka in Savitaipale...

Happy Halloween

Halloween kind of sneaked on me this year. I have been busy finishing off the flooring and busy with cub scouts and other stuff and I realized two days before that I needed to figure out costumes. Thanks to Bobby's cousin Leslie I had things under control. She had given us some costumes last year and they all worked out perfectly for Matthew, Timo and Jared. Matthew was a star wars clone guy, Timo was a night and Jared was a clown. Our kids are good about being what I tell them to be, so they were happy with the custumes and actually probably were something they would have pick up too if they had the choice, We ended up going trick or treating on Sunday since they do it that way here and then had trunk or treat at the Church on Thursday on actual halloween. Our kids had so much candy. Usually I take it all and control it strictly but for some reason this year I didn't too much and have just hoped that they eat it quickly so it's all gone. Now it's only 5 days after Halloween and it's almost all gone. Of course I ate a lot of it too.

I had the cub scouts make some games for the church trunk or treat party. We made a ring too and bean bag toss. We also used the pin the alian eyeball game from Timo's birthday party. One of the cub scouts made also a game, which was cool. I am a den leader which is a lot of fun. I love making projects with cub scouts. As long as I can keep them under control it's a lot of fun.

 My pumpkin one first price in the lions club family category :)

 My home improvement projects...got a love my creativity of finding a place to saw a door. The floor was raised almost 1/2 inch after I put the laminate in, so the door couldn't close anymore....

 Ward halloween party :)

 Matthew did a great job running games at the Halloween party.

 Will and Esther.

 Mission president's wife handing out candy. Her dad was the temple president in Stocholm temple and I knew him when I was a teenager and my parents were very good friends with him and his wife.

It was raining so the trunk or treat activity turned into trick or treating in the class rooms.

My Parents Visit us from Finland

We were very fortunate to have my parents come and stay with us for 10 days. I picked up Matthew early from school so he could help me pick up my parents from the airport.  I was so great to see my parents after a long time.I loved seeing my mom and dad play with our children. Timo had a birthday party the day after my mom and dad came. They helped with the guests and my mom even helped by playing volleyball so the teams had the same amount of kids.

At Church after hearning that my parents had done some missionary work in Russia we found out that our Mission President's wife's parents were temple presidents in Stocholm Temple around 1992 and I knew them. My parents seem to always find people they know anywhere they go. During their visit my mom got to go and play ping pong at the local ping pong club. My friend Grace took her there. She also enjoyed going to walmart and buying a lot of fabrics for her dollhouse business. She also bought a camera so she could get better pictures for her website.

My dad wanted some projects around the house, so I put her to work :) I was hoping to get of my green carpet in the kitchen and family room. My dad was already starting to move the furniture the following morning so I thought that it was for reals so we ripped out the carpet and get the laminate the same day. He worked so hard for the next severeal days on the floor. I am blessed to have such an awesome dad! He got it almost finished before they returned. I still have to put back the quarter trim, paint the baseboards and do few transion pieces between rooms.

My parents were also asked  to give a small presentation about their missionary efforts in Russia in church during priesthood meeting. That evening we had brother and sister Treter come over and visit our family. Their son is serving his mission in Samara Russia Mission.

Matthew, Timo and Jared loved having their grandparents visit from Finland. I feel very blessed to have such wonderful parents. I am looking forward for our trip to Finland next summer.