Hard work pays off...eventually!

Some jobs are relatively easy, like our windmill project.  Strong winds had ripped our windmill out of its cement anchors last winter, and the paint was old and rusted.  Devin straightened it and painted it for me, so now it is just how I have always wanted it.....patriotic!  Every time I look out my back window I just smile.  I love it!  He did such a great job.  When it is spinning it looks like Captain America's shield, which Maren loves!  She's kind of infatuated with him at the moment, but who isn't?

 Some jobs are a little harder and take more time, like my kitchen cupboard project.  I've been wanting to redo my cabinets for several years, but it's a huge endeavor and....well....I'll admit it.  I'm sort of lazy.  We finally pulled off about 1/3 of the doors and refinished the cabinets and changed the hardware. It was a lot of work and I still have 28 of my 47 cupboards to go, but I love it! 

 It's hard to tell from the pictures, but they used to be really yellow and now they are dark brown.  I know, they look the same in the picture, but really they are a dark walnut now.  It's just the flash.  And yes, I should have cleaned off the counters before I took the picture, but as I've already explained, I'm kind of lazy.

Some jobs, though, are much harder and they take a lot longer, like Christopher's Eagle Scout award.  Sometimes you think it will never end. Sometimes you feel that you will probably strangle your son, but you take comfort knowing that the judge will be lenient because he's probably had a son, too. Sometimes you get so you hate the sight of the Boy Scout office and feel your life would be so much better if you never had to see it's ugly brown siding again.  And then, amazingly, it is finished and the hard work has paid off!  Chris was awarded his eagle in July with his friend, Tyler Winder.  

 

We're proud of you, Chris!

And you, too, Tyler!

Not only are they good friends, but they have been in Scouting since they were Cub Scouts, so we thought it would be fun to have their Court of Honor together. 

I've been waiting to post this blog about his Eagle because several people took pictures for me during the Court of Honor and were going to give me the pictures.  However, for some strange reason this is the only one that I ended up with:

Hopefully, I will get some later and add them to the post.  Until then, here are some fun ones of Chris and his troop over the years:

Right where all monkeys belong!

Caleb Hibbert, Tyler Winder, Isaac Miller, Chris Symons, Patrick Riley, Mike Garcia

Proud parents

More proud parents

This picture has four of Chris' past Scout leaders, Tom Myers (who passed away 6 months before Chris got his award), Greg Romriell (who is also our dentist), Nate Jorgenson, and Del.  Joe Winder, in the picture above, was also one of his Scout leaders.  Chris has been fortunate to have lots of great leaders to help him earn his Eagle award and we are grateful for their help.
Yep, hard work does pay off......eventually.  And more importantly, it's worth the effort!