I got Scammed!!!

So, I fell for it. It was a good plan by these people though. First off, I lost no money, just my time. About a month ago I got a phone call from "L and L Systems" and the lady on the other end said she was doing a public survey and she asked me about 10 questions; most of which had to do with cleaning supplies. I don't mind being part of the random sample of a survey. At the end she asked my permission to put me into a drawing for a 3 day, 2 night stay at a resort. Who would want that for free, so I said sure. Well...it was a part of the scam:

On Wednesday I got a call a little after 8:00 PM from "L and L Systems." I bold PM because that is already late. What does the lady tell me: "You are the lucky winner of our drawing and you get a 3 day 2 night stay at a resort." I think this is pretty cool, and I even recognize the ladies voice. She said that needed to drop off a certificate and get my signature for receiving. She made sure I was going to be at my house at 8:30 PM so they could drop it off. I said I would be and then specifically asked her, "Are you going to come here and try to sell me something?" Her reply was, "No, all you are going to have to do is sign for receiving your prize and fill out a 10 question survey." I then proceeded to tell her I would be here. Again, this was all part of the scam.

Two people showed up at a little after 8:30 PM. They came to the house with a big box and a little box. Since it was cold outside and I saw that neither the guy or gal was bigger than I, I invited them in out of the snow. The guy came in and said, "Is this your living room where we can set up?" I then told this guy that the lady on the phone told me all I had to do was sign for my prize and fill out a questionnaire. He told me he wanted to show me just a few things. I then responded, "We can go in the kitchen and you have 30 seconds."

To make a really long story short, the guy and gal were there to sell me a vacuum. The guy tried to belittle our Dyson (which we love), but I didn't let that fly and I argued with him. Finally I kicked them out of our house after he tried and tried and tried and tried to sell me a vacuum at 9:30 PM. I was blown away by how hard this guy tried. He did everything but get down on his knees and beg. Some of the funny parts of this whole experience was my arguing points. This guy had no idea what he was walking into, with trying to explain turbine motors and air flow to a Mechanical Engineer. My favorite response was: He asked me,"Would use a microwave that would only cook your food half way?" I replied with, "Sure I would. I would just use it twice." The guy looked at me and didn't have a word to say.

Before the guy left he wanted to call his boss and tell him how awful he failed at selling me a vacuum. I politely let him use our phone. I am glad I did this, because after the guy left our house, I immediately redialed the number. I got right to his boss who now has two ways of going #2. Just to spread the word, and to hold up my promise to this boss, I am letting everyone I know, DO NOT LISTEN TO, BUY FROM, TALK TO, ETC. ANYONE FROM "L AND L SYSTEMS." They are scam artists and I not proud to say that they were even in my house, but at least I can now let everyone else know, not to fall into the same trap. The vacuum they were trying to sell me was the Tri Star. And I thought buying a $500 vacuum was outrageous, they only wanted $2895. Yeah almost THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS! I couldn't believe it.

Then the final straw was this guy asking me to fill out a form with 8 of my friends information, AFTER I asked him to leave. They have to be on some sort of drugs at this point, to think I am going to give them anything but a swift kick to the rear end. So just remember:

L AND L SYSTEMS = SCAM

TRI STAR CLEANING SYSTEM = SCAM

PETER J. = FEELS DUMB

The last thing I have to say is: Heather, sweetest woman I know, YOU WERE RIGHT! She told me before they got there, that they were going to try and sell me something. I LOVE YOU BABE AND I AM SORRY FOR BEING SO DUMB.

Crazy People's Household is right

Is there ever down time? I can't even imagine what it will be like when Abigail comes. At least Heather will have some time off of her crazy work place. What has been going on:

Colton, where do I begin? He is growing up so fast and learning so much. People always say they are little sponges and those people are so right. He learns so much every day, and he has such a good memory. He is doing so well in Tae-Kwon-Do. I missed it, but a couple of weeks ago he was able to break a board for his first time. Heather was there and she said she almost broke into tears with joy and excitement. She said Colton threw is little hands in the air and was so proud of himself. He is currently trying to test for his next level which I believe is high white belt. Baseball is also starting up soon. I am going to be his coach again. This year we are in Machine Pitch, so it should be interesting. I will post up some pictures of him as soon as I take some. I still have to get some pictures of him at karate, so once I get them I will share with you all.

The house is pretty much at a stand still. It is about 99% complete, and it will probably stay that way. There are really just some odds and ends to do. Now that I am done with the majority of the interior, maybe Heather will allow me to do some work on our garage. The bar top still needs to be refinished too.

Heather's back is getting better. Thank you all for your prayers. Poor Heather has been ordered to get massages. She goes once a week for about an hour. I guess it gets me off the hook for a little while.

That is all that is really going on as we wait for Abigail to come around.

A final note of "PRAISE GOD." We finally have a settlement agreement between us and Colton's biological father. I express how relieved we are that we can finally move on. I could on for hours about how it was like pulling teeth without any numbing medicine, but for now I will thank God that we got some papers signed.

We also want to send out another welcome to Nash Jacob Adams. He was born on April 3rd at 7:09 PM. He weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz. and was 19 inches long. His parents, Lauren and Travis have started creating a blog, so once it is up and running I will post up the link. For now you can enjoy a picture of him:

It's Been a While

Sorry it has been a little while since I have updated anything on the house or the family. First off, I want to tell the whole world how proud I am of Colton. We had our second parent teacher conference last night and I quote the first words out of his teacher's mouth, "I just love having your son in my class. He is such a wonderful boy, and he is always happy and nice and kind." As I said on our other blog, nothing makes me more happy and more proud than to hear how happy our boy and how kind our boy is. That is one the greatest things a parent could ever hear. For the garbage Colton has had to go through and hear, I am so glad and thank God for such a wonderful and smart boy. They told us that he is making really goo strides and learning well. Of course he has his 6 year old moments when he can't focus, but he is getting better. I am so proud of him. He is also doing well in karate and hopefully soon, we can get him into some piano lessons. I also registered him for baseball (machine pitch) the other day. I am again going to coach his team and plan on having another undefeated season!

The house is "almost" done. We finally have CARPET!!!! I grew up on carpet and have missed it since we moved into our house, but it is back and it is Awesome. It has really made our basement. We don't have worry anymore about what that old carpet had in it. It also creates more space for Colton and I to wrestle. We love it. There is a lot of clean up still to be done but here is what part of looks like:

I should be receiving the door knobs today! We are really down to the finishing touches. It feels good to almost be done with our major projects. Maybe next week we will sell it start over? Ha - don't count on it. I am working on putting up a lot more pictures in an online gallery, so once I do, I will let you all know. Pictures of Abigail's room are posted on forourlittleone.blogspot.com.

I've Created a Disaster

So, at least I can say I have tried. I still haven't quit, but the bar top is not going very smoothly. I tried putting a top coat of concrete to make it look nice and it ended up cracking all over the place. I have since removed it and put it on hold until after the carpet is installed. I figured I will wait until the base layer has fully cured, then I will try again. I have a couple more ideas and if all else fails, I will tile it. We get our carpet this Friday (Feb 29th). I can't wait to have something down there that I actually feel comfortable laying on. It will be nice. I will then just have to cover the carpet with a good layer of plastic when I try to re-coat the concrete. I have a good feeling that it will work this time. We will see.

Concrete...

So, it has been a lot harder than I thought. Of course in Peter's world, everything is easy and everything fits together perfectly. Well, the concrete didn't turn out bad, but at the same time I can't say it was what I imagined. The top came out good; it was the sides that did not turn out. You can see in the pictures below that it turned out "honeycombed." I then went back to Lowe's and got a "top finishing" concrete to fill in all the gaps. I think it will be nice in the end. In true Peter fashion I just jump in head first and hope there is water in the pool. If there isn't then I will just repair the damages later (I married a nurse on purpose, a beautiful nurse at that). I had some good help for the initial laying of the crete, although he sat around most of the time complaining about an ingrown hair on his arm, WIMP! The pictures below so the progress of our work.

Click on the Photos to make them bigger

Paint Done. Concrete Form Done.

So all the carpet is out of the basement and the walls are painted. If you have never used a airless paint sprayer, really ask people how to do it before you do. First off, the first one I rented broke down. I had to take it back and get their other one. Then as I was painting, all I could see was white. I had no idea how thick the paint was going on so I just continued to spray. Well most of the paint was alright, but some of the paint ran because I was spraying it so thick. It really turned out nice and since it is only the basement, I wasn't so picky. What I am more excited about is the concrete bar top that I am doing. I have it all framed out and this next weekend I will be pouring the concrete. Below is a picture of me after I was done painting and a picture of my concrete forms. The family is doing really good. Colton is doing well in school. He told us the other day that he got to put his name on the board because he was reading so well! Heather and I are so proud of him. He loves taking pictures so below is some of his photography. Spiderman is blurry because he is "so fast." Colton is also in Karate. He has been enjoying it, but right now we are trying to get over that hump of "it's getting hard so I want to quit." I think it will be so good for him in the long run. We are also trying to get him into some piano lessons, but so far I have been unsuccessful to find the right teacher for him. Emotions and craziness is high around the house right now, so once things calm down a little bit, he will begin piano lessons.

(You can Click on the Photos to make them bigger)

(Trust me I am not that dumb. This is a Joke)

DEMO is Back!!!

Since there is another precious one on the way, "she" needs a place to rest "her" sweet little head (we still don't know what the sex of the baby is, but it will be a girl so...) This means the computer moves out and the baby furniture will be moving in. The computer is so precious but it still needs a place, which is the basement. We have not done anything with our basement since we moved in...until now! The demolition of basement has begun. All we are doing with the basement is painting, redoing the bar top, and carpeting. The previous people had carpeted down there, but they had also left it up to their dogs to destroy it. You can see below what I am talking about:

The first two photo's are "before pictures. All of the stuff will be removed. The last picture is of the pee stained carpet that I have removed.

Meanwhile the family is doing great. We had a big cold spell here for a while, but it is warming up. The boy had a great time with the huge icecles that formed:

Back into It!

So the holidays are finally over. We had an absolutely awesome Holiday season. There is no doubt that Colton was a good boy this year because he got just about everything he wanted. I say just about because he was still able to think of some toys that he wanted. It was also good to hear him say things like, "Happy Birthday Jesus," and be able to have conversations about why we really celebrate Christmas. I think Colton plans on being a good boy this year because he has already started making his list. Heather and I also had a great season as we got to spend a lot of time with each other. The getting bigger prego Heather (that is the baby is getting bigger, not Heather) is doing well the pregnancy other than the general aches and pains here and there. For those of you that don't know, I have started a blog for our little:
forourlittleone.blogspot.com
You can visit this site to get any updates as to how our baby is doing.

CHRISTmas

I can't believe how it came and went. Colton, of course, had "the best Christmas Ever." While we were opening presents on Christmas morning there was a time where he was litterally shaking. His eyes were going a million miles a second. He could hardly talk because he could focus on just one thing. Here are some Pictures Recapping our blessed Holiday:

This last photo was taken at Zoo lights. The girls, Colton and JJ got ride while I stood around to take this picture. JJ is hard to see but he is in the back of the train on the right hand side. You can click on the photos to see it bigger.

As I Promised

For those of you that are the unprivileged and don't get to see Heather on a day-to-day basis, here is a glimpse of our little joy in the making.

On Friday the 21st we will be going to see our baby through ultrasound. We are so excited. The suspense continues to build as we are not going to find out what the sex of our baby is. We were talking tonight about a game plan revolving around decorating our babies room. Since we are not going to find out and Heather is sees all these cute decorations for only boys and only girls, I think we are going to do a hurry up and decorate when the baby comes, or maybe we can decorate while we are up at 2:30 in the morning. However, the pregnancy is going really well and we are enjoying it greatly. Colton loves talking to the baby and saying hi to her/him daily. Heather is the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen. Isn't she just the cutes thing ever?!?!

Older but Good

So still trying to catch everyone up since I have not been good with blogging so here is what we did around hollowing. I don't have any pictures of Colton in his Spiderman costume, but he did love it, and again we had a blast running around trick or treating. Here is the pumpkin we carved:

One huge accomplishment that we have overcome in the last month is Colton has learned how to tie his own shoes.

Other than that nothing really big has been going on. Of course we are all Really excited for Christmas to come. The most beautiful wife in the entire world is doing great with her newly formed baby bump. I will do my best to get a picture of that next on here. To end enjoy these pictures of Colton and I "raking" our leaves (oh yeah, Ace helped too!)!

Do we have the record yet?

So I know we have not posted is ALMOST a year, but what can say, it has been a busy year. Just to be captain obvious, I don't think it is going to slow down any time soon. Baby Jenson is on the way (Due May7th) and once again the house needs an overhaul. I shouldn't the house, but just a couple of the rooms. Baby Jenson needs her/his room, so I am in the process of refinishing the basement. The computers will move out of the baby's room and into the basement. Since Heather did such a good job picking out the paint in that room, it will remain the same. I will do my best to start blogging again so all you Colorado Aliens will be kept up to date as to what is going on. Stay tuned!

The Date is Set!!!

August 12, 2007, I will be uniting with the most wonderful, beautiful, caring, loving, smart creation that God has ever made. We will be doing this at the Boettcher Mansion, which is located in Golden, CO on top of Lookout Mountain. Here is the link to their home page:
http://jeffco.us/boettcher/index.htm

Of course there will be more updates to come, but I think the biggest decision is out of the way. I will also be doing some research on some hotels and am going to see if I can get some deals, so I will try and keep all you out of towners updated.

Christmas Break

Since the house is finally in working order and does not need our immediate attention, over the holidays there was minimal work on the house, but we did fill our time with lots of playing. Super heroes was the game of choice, which consists of Colton telling us what super hero we are and where we need to go to save the city. There was also a lot of play where I was the bad guy, which consisted of Colton beating me up, tying my up, and in the end Colton saving the world. Colton now has just about every Superman toy ever made. You would think that having so many Supermans that he would not be able to play with them all, but Colton is very talented and manages to make sure that no Superman is left out. Over this winter break Colton and I had the privileged to experience skiing. Colton made me so proud. The first part of the day, was a little slow going, but once he figured out the basics, the only frustrating part to Colton was when I touched him. He picked up skiing better than anyone else that was trying that day. The were two older people that by the end of the day had taken off their skis and were walking down the mountain. Colton, on the other hand, was skiing all the way to the bottom without falling. Some quotes from Colton, "This is the best day ever," "This is so much fun," "Quit touching me," "I can't wait to go skiing again," and the quote that I will cherish forever, "You are such a great Dad." If you have ever spent more than 10 seconds with Colton, you will truly know who Superman really is. Colton is still asking to go skiing again, so shortly we will be venturing out again to experience it some more. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Christmas is coming

This past weekend I spent finishing up some loose ends on the house. I finished painting all of the base boards in the kitchen, which allows me to say that the kitchen is finished. Everything we had planned on doing to the kitchen is done. Also this weekend, we bought a Christmas tree, put it up, and decorated it. Our house is finally feeling like a house. Here are some pictures of our living room:















As always there is a little touch to do here and there around the house, but we extremely close to being finished. I am loving it, because now with not having to work on the house all of time, Colton and I get to play all night.
I have been getting a lot of request lately for just a family picture, so for all of you that don't get to see us a lot:

I am so eager to have a house warming party, but Heather keeps setting me straight with everything else that is going on right now, so we will be putting the party off until the new year comes around. This will give us time to actually decorate, hang up some window coverings, and any other odds and ends that need to be done. So I will try and keep you updated with what is going on.

Bigger than the House

So, most of you know the news already, but in case you have not, maybe the following picture can explain it:

If you need an explaination, that is Heather left hand.

I asked Heather to marry me on Saturday night and she said "Of Course!"

We are all very excited (including Colton, who did give me the OK). We will keep you all informed on the necessary information as we plan the big day.

In order to butter her up and make sure this weekend was going to go as well as I had planned I did manage to finish off the kitchen (minus some trim painting). Here is a picture of our kitchen:

We are getting close to being done with our house. With the kitchen being done, the light at the end of the tunnel is really getting bright. Hopefully we can plan an open house in the next few weeks so all of you can see our work. We will let you know.

House at a stand still

There hasn't really been very much work done on the house lately. I have been pretty tired from working on it for the past month and a half, but I am getting my energy back up and this weekend will be a busy and good one. I have plans to finish the kitchen and help Gregg remodel the downstairs bathroom. The bathroom needs to be done so Lauren and Travis can then move in. All that needs to be done in the kitchen is some texturing of the new walls and painting. Here is a picture of the kitchen at night with recessed lights I put in dimmed:

I believe soon I will have to go to blogging about what sort of mischievous activities Colton and I get into because I won't have the house to work on. I have to give a lot of credit to SuperColt for being so good during all of this remodel. Being so young he probably doesn't fully understand what we are doing, but he has been so good through out this process. I can only imagine what goes through a 5 year olds head when he sees an open can of paint.

Kitchen is Close

The kitchen is close to being done. We have selected a paint, which was actually a long process of buying one painting a wall, not liking it, and repeating these steps 4 times. Finally my office mate gave me the idea to go onto Behr's website and look at some complimentary colors of our living room. I did this and that is the color we selected. Now this weekend I will be able to install our countertops and then actually have a kitchen sink. I am also working on puttin in some recessed lighting above our breakfast bar. It is really coming together. I will be sure to post some more pictures of our finished kitchen after this weekend.

The Cabinets Are In

So I have been getting hounded to post some pictures of how the tile turned out. Well to say the least it turned out really good. Not that I am ever looking to do that large of a job again, I had fun learning how to do it, and now I really have a sense of accomplishment.

Another sense of accomplishment came with hanging the cabinets. Mike and Anne came to help for a Saturday and were able to hang all of the cabinets and our microwave. Here is a couple of the final pictures we took:











I have since been ablet to put in our bottom wall, hook up our oven, and get our countertops ordered. We will be picking out our paint really soon and painting our kitchen. The kitchen is getting close to being done. Our next projects is painting the kitchen, finishing the walls, and working on the office. I will try and keep you posted.