Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas to all!
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We have had such a blessed morning. Our little boy is amazing he had so much fun with his presents, the wrap and the boxes too. He absolutely loved the dump truck that Nana and Papa got him. So much so that he got mad when he didn't have a clear path to test drive it. He had fun helping daddy put together his garage and even loved his new shoes!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Renovation Realities
I'm not sure everyone knew this, but this past weekend HGTV and DIY network from cable television filmed a reality TV show at my house this past weekend. It was a project to renovate a shed in my backyard into a music studio. This is how it went!
Well, it was a crazy weekend! The crew showed up Thursday afternoon, did some principle photography shots. They do these "stylized shots" where they move the camera around from right up in your face, to the room around you, and focus real fast on something else. It may look cool on TV, but you have to stand there forever while they do these, and hold still and stare straight in the camera lense. Kind of crazy. So Thursday, that is all we really did. Friday, they showed up at 6:30 AM, as I was getting Alec ready for daycare. They followed me to daycare, then back home. Kevin was supposed to show up at 8 AM to start shooting, he was about a half an hour late, they have plenty of shots of my staring at my watch.
Once Kevin showed up, we had this Kerosene heater set up to help the paint and such dry, and neither of us could get it lit. Apparantly the igniter was broken, which my dad didn't tell us, so we had to call him, but we finally got this running. this was one of those moments they will probably edit together with Kevin and I struggling. Wasn't too bad, but kind of funny. Next, we started demolition of the interior of the shed. During tearing out the stuff, I kept talking about a mouse that I'd seen in the shed before. Then, when we opened up the old closet, my dad has placed a giant stuffed rat looking thing in the closet, and it scared Kevin and I pretty darn well. My Dad was pranking us all weekend with stuff like that, he had a huge rubber snake in the attic, and a bat ontop of some shelves. Silly, but funny, I'm not sure how much of that will make the final air. When demoing the oil furnace, I thought I had shut the fuel line off, when infact I had reopened it, because my dad had shut it previously. So, when I pulled the fuel line off the furnace with a wrench, number 2 diesel fuel started spilling onto the shed floor, probably my biggest dumb moment of the weekend. I crimped the hose and then reshut the valve. Then, we pulled the doors off of the shed to set the new ones in, which we had to then make the opening bigger for the doors, which was really tough. Once the doors were in, we wrapped for the day, then they set up time elapse cameras for Kevin and I that night. We shimmed the door and then mud and taped a little, till 2 AM.
At 2 AM, Kevin got a call that his wife was going into labor, about 2 weeks early. We started shooting the next day outside of Beamont Hospital, they interviewed Kevin on the street infront of Beamont, where he informed us Pauline had given birth to a 9 lb 6 oz. baby girl named Lyla. Pretty cool moment for the show. Then, I needed a new helper for saturday, so my dad stepped in and all we did was pretty much argue. It should be pretty funny, infact, we gave each other a lot of crap. We went home and built a small deck for the outdoor section of the heat pump (heating and cooling unit for shed, a Daikin unit that I sell - a nice high end high efficiency unit) I was putting in. Also, we painted the ceiling and smoothed the mud on the walls a bit, at the end of the day I stained the concrete floor (which I have to redo because the crew walked on it when it wasn't dry).
Overnight, my friend Dave and I wired up some new lighting (didn't quite finish), and Honor touched up the ceiling paint. I called it a night around 3 AM, then got up Sunday at 6 AM to head to church to do my new parttime job (music team leader at the Rochester location of Kensington Church). I got home around 10 AM, where dad and I started to prepare to hang the indoor section of the heat pump, which we also bickered through (some funny stuff). Then, about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, Kevin showed up again willing to help, and Kevin took over for my dad. Kevin helped me (did most of the work too) build a window and frame for the shed attic, which worked out very well. They took some final shots, and left my house around 7:30 last night.
It was the busiest few days I've had in a long time, but it was a LOT of fun. The show will be the season finale of this season, airing in December or January. I will be watching it for the first time right along with you guys, they do not send me an advance copy. The crew was exceptionally nice, and warm, even though it was 40 degrees outside and they froze their Tennessee butts off. We had a great time with them, they liked our family so much they suggested we do another project for them down the road at Kevin's house, as long as the show edits well and airs well. All in all, it was a very cool experience.
The remaining items for me to do (to receive final payment) are painting the wall and trim (they didn't care about seeing that stuff on air, because they found it boring), wiring and piping my heat pump (all planned out and easy for me, they didn't want me to do it on air because I started to talk through it and they found it too technical, plus they had enough other stuff), gloss coating the floor of the shed, finish the wiring, putting in the doorknob and lock, and I'll be done. I have 2 weeks to send them pictures of the finished project, with the band equipment moved into it.
I'm excited to have the project completed fully! They thought that we hammered out all of the big stuff on camera, which was important.
It was really difficult because it takes forever to do one task, because they stop you so much to get you to explain it to the camera, and then they change angles and make you stop what you are doing. I wasn't prepared for how long everything would take.
But all in all it will be a fun show, I hopefully didn't make too much of a fool of myself! Kevin and Dad were amazing help, and great on the show. I can't thank them enough! I also can't thank Honor enough for letting a film crew come into the hosue for 4 days and take over, she was amazing! I only wish they would have had her featured a little bit more in the show, because they led me into some sayings of "I'm being evicted to the shed" and such, when Honor has been amazing about all of this, and in the end the result is that I get a mancave!
Take care! Jon
Well, it was a crazy weekend! The crew showed up Thursday afternoon, did some principle photography shots. They do these "stylized shots" where they move the camera around from right up in your face, to the room around you, and focus real fast on something else. It may look cool on TV, but you have to stand there forever while they do these, and hold still and stare straight in the camera lense. Kind of crazy. So Thursday, that is all we really did. Friday, they showed up at 6:30 AM, as I was getting Alec ready for daycare. They followed me to daycare, then back home. Kevin was supposed to show up at 8 AM to start shooting, he was about a half an hour late, they have plenty of shots of my staring at my watch.
Once Kevin showed up, we had this Kerosene heater set up to help the paint and such dry, and neither of us could get it lit. Apparantly the igniter was broken, which my dad didn't tell us, so we had to call him, but we finally got this running. this was one of those moments they will probably edit together with Kevin and I struggling. Wasn't too bad, but kind of funny. Next, we started demolition of the interior of the shed. During tearing out the stuff, I kept talking about a mouse that I'd seen in the shed before. Then, when we opened up the old closet, my dad has placed a giant stuffed rat looking thing in the closet, and it scared Kevin and I pretty darn well. My Dad was pranking us all weekend with stuff like that, he had a huge rubber snake in the attic, and a bat ontop of some shelves. Silly, but funny, I'm not sure how much of that will make the final air. When demoing the oil furnace, I thought I had shut the fuel line off, when infact I had reopened it, because my dad had shut it previously. So, when I pulled the fuel line off the furnace with a wrench, number 2 diesel fuel started spilling onto the shed floor, probably my biggest dumb moment of the weekend. I crimped the hose and then reshut the valve. Then, we pulled the doors off of the shed to set the new ones in, which we had to then make the opening bigger for the doors, which was really tough. Once the doors were in, we wrapped for the day, then they set up time elapse cameras for Kevin and I that night. We shimmed the door and then mud and taped a little, till 2 AM.
At 2 AM, Kevin got a call that his wife was going into labor, about 2 weeks early. We started shooting the next day outside of Beamont Hospital, they interviewed Kevin on the street infront of Beamont, where he informed us Pauline had given birth to a 9 lb 6 oz. baby girl named Lyla. Pretty cool moment for the show. Then, I needed a new helper for saturday, so my dad stepped in and all we did was pretty much argue. It should be pretty funny, infact, we gave each other a lot of crap. We went home and built a small deck for the outdoor section of the heat pump (heating and cooling unit for shed, a Daikin unit that I sell - a nice high end high efficiency unit) I was putting in. Also, we painted the ceiling and smoothed the mud on the walls a bit, at the end of the day I stained the concrete floor (which I have to redo because the crew walked on it when it wasn't dry).
Overnight, my friend Dave and I wired up some new lighting (didn't quite finish), and Honor touched up the ceiling paint. I called it a night around 3 AM, then got up Sunday at 6 AM to head to church to do my new parttime job (music team leader at the Rochester location of Kensington Church). I got home around 10 AM, where dad and I started to prepare to hang the indoor section of the heat pump, which we also bickered through (some funny stuff). Then, about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, Kevin showed up again willing to help, and Kevin took over for my dad. Kevin helped me (did most of the work too) build a window and frame for the shed attic, which worked out very well. They took some final shots, and left my house around 7:30 last night.
It was the busiest few days I've had in a long time, but it was a LOT of fun. The show will be the season finale of this season, airing in December or January. I will be watching it for the first time right along with you guys, they do not send me an advance copy. The crew was exceptionally nice, and warm, even though it was 40 degrees outside and they froze their Tennessee butts off. We had a great time with them, they liked our family so much they suggested we do another project for them down the road at Kevin's house, as long as the show edits well and airs well. All in all, it was a very cool experience.
The remaining items for me to do (to receive final payment) are painting the wall and trim (they didn't care about seeing that stuff on air, because they found it boring), wiring and piping my heat pump (all planned out and easy for me, they didn't want me to do it on air because I started to talk through it and they found it too technical, plus they had enough other stuff), gloss coating the floor of the shed, finish the wiring, putting in the doorknob and lock, and I'll be done. I have 2 weeks to send them pictures of the finished project, with the band equipment moved into it.
I'm excited to have the project completed fully! They thought that we hammered out all of the big stuff on camera, which was important.
It was really difficult because it takes forever to do one task, because they stop you so much to get you to explain it to the camera, and then they change angles and make you stop what you are doing. I wasn't prepared for how long everything would take.
But all in all it will be a fun show, I hopefully didn't make too much of a fool of myself! Kevin and Dad were amazing help, and great on the show. I can't thank them enough! I also can't thank Honor enough for letting a film crew come into the hosue for 4 days and take over, she was amazing! I only wish they would have had her featured a little bit more in the show, because they led me into some sayings of "I'm being evicted to the shed" and such, when Honor has been amazing about all of this, and in the end the result is that I get a mancave!
Take care! Jon
Friday, September 4, 2009
Zoo Time
Alec's first trip to the Zoo went quite well. It was one of our local destinations for our staycation this past weekend. His favorite animal was probably the little groundhog/woodchuck station they were running around everywhere, you could see Alec's eyes darting every which way. This weekend are we heading to Cleveland for Matthew's Wedding, yeah, stay tuned. Oh and school next week so the blog entries may be sparse for the next 10 weeks.
No trip to the zoo is complete without a nap!!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Dancin' In The Street
This is the first video I'm uploading, bare with me. I haven't figured out if there is a way to turn the image, so you'll have to look sideways. It just cracks me up that kids just automatically know how to dance!
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman... aka Alec.
If you are superbaby, you have to have a secret identity such as baby Alec and pretend that being in a basket is tons of fun.
You also have to pretend that you get super sleepy like other babies and perhaps fall asleep at your high chair after lunch.
Then when no one is looking you have to get on your SuperBaby outfit and don't forget the cape!
SuperBaby joins his other superheroes to beat the evil villians with a waterballoon fight.
Then SuperBaby has to fly with Mommy and Daddy, riding in style.
Then you join Batman Evan as he turns 5 years old and eat your weight in Cake and Ice Cream.
Then of course you drive home, take a nice long bath and lay down for a good nights sleep. All to start the adventure again tomorrow.
You also have to pretend that you get super sleepy like other babies and perhaps fall asleep at your high chair after lunch.
Then when no one is looking you have to get on your SuperBaby outfit and don't forget the cape!
SuperBaby joins his other superheroes to beat the evil villians with a waterballoon fight.
Then SuperBaby has to fly with Mommy and Daddy, riding in style.
Then you join Batman Evan as he turns 5 years old and eat your weight in Cake and Ice Cream.
Then of course you drive home, take a nice long bath and lay down for a good nights sleep. All to start the adventure again tomorrow.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Drivin Around in My Automobile
Alec loves his little car that Aunt Pauline, Uncle Kevin, Evan and Burke got him. He can easily spend a half hour just getting in and out of it. What a great gift. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend with Mr. Man. We saw Will and Kari and Owen what a wonderful visit, we miss you guys. Then we headed to Pauline and Kevin's for Dream Cruise fun. We had a great dinner, thanks guys, Alec ate two whole hot dogs, it is about the only thing that he will feed himself. On Sunday we went swimming at the pool and Alec loved every second of it. Splashing and playing putting his head under water. When all was said and done he slept like a rock for almost two hours. Then we played in our car and Daddy set up his swing, which he adores. Just wait for more pictures of that! Oh and don't get too use to all these posts I am headed back to class in September but at least for the moment we will enjoy summer!
The Sheards: The Next Reality TV Superstars
Yeah you heard it right Jon and I are to be reality TV superstars. No, not really. But we are super excited (I'm a little nervouse thinking of my messy house) to be scheduled for an HGTV show. The show is Renevation Realities, it is a half hour show where they film you doing your renovation. No help or designer, just you, and their editing to show all that goes wrong in your renovation. Our project is to redo the shed/barn we have in our back yard. Since we are starting to think about a second addition to our family (no we are not pregnant) we need to make room in the house. So Jon is getting a Man-Cave. The shed will be his new guitar studio, place to practice and escape. So stay tuned, they don't film until October but we'll keep you posted. Yeah and I said film, how scary.
Here is the show's website: http://www.hgtv.com/renovation-realities/show/index.html
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cookies, Music, Books and Pacifiers
This is just about a typical night for Alec. First we eat dinner and lately we finish it off with a cookie. 
Next we play and most frequently he plays us a little music and showes us his rythym as he dances.
Next we read books. Alec also loves to read on his own. Momma is so proud he doesn't even tear the pages in his books, yet.
Then we get ready for bed. Unfortunately, they no longer sell Alec's bug pacifier so he has been testing out all the other brands. Notice he has three different ones that he switches around. I love the last picture, can you tell he went to sleep just a few minutes later.
Friends with Babies
We had such a great Sunday two weekends ago enjoying time with our friends as little Jackson got baptized. What beautiful blessings we have in our lives.
Jalen, Jamie, Jackson, Kim, Brayden, Honor, Alec
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Wagon Adventures
We had so much fun with the boys a weekend or two ago. Taking a fun ride in the Radio Flayer in the back yard. You wouldn't believe how hard the three of them are to pull around.
Cake in Cleveland
Alec had so much fun at his first birthday that he wanted to do it again. We traveled to Cleveland for my family on July 17 and had such a blast. Since he had practice on the first cake he was a pro the second time around.
CAKE IS GOOD!
Frosting makes a great moose/hair gel. Although his hair was a little greasy for a couple days he smelled oh so sweet.
So many big boy toys where does one start?
Dana, Emily and Hayden enjoying their gifts.
If you look real close Mommy is actually hiding behind the balloons. Thanks Aunt RoRo for giving my day such color!
Elmo and Cooking Monster had a great day!
Miss Dana enjoying FROSTING, not cake.
My family has a Polish or Italian tradition on the first birthday of placing a shot-glass, silver dollar or rosary in front of the child. Which ever one they pick is suppose to be their future. Alec of course picked the silver dollar from what I can remember from the picture. My future money maker!
CAKE IS GOOD!Frosting makes a great moose/hair gel. Although his hair was a little greasy for a couple days he smelled oh so sweet.So many big boy toys where does one start?
Dana, Emily and Hayden enjoying their gifts.
If you look real close Mommy is actually hiding behind the balloons. Thanks Aunt RoRo for giving my day such color!
Elmo and Cooking Monster had a great day!
Miss Dana enjoying FROSTING, not cake.Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Cake Was Flying
Well Mr. Man had a ton of fun at his Detroit Party. It took him a few minutes to realize he could make a mess but he went for it and ate quite a bit too. Thank you to everyone that came you made the day so much fun!
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