Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Ryan's birthday was actually on the 26th but of course I am a little behind. I guess I can blame that on having two children under the age of two. This was Ryan's 29th birthday so it is only appropriate that I share 29 reasons why Ran Rocks! (in no particular order)

1. He is hilarious. Me makes me laugh every day, several times a day.
2. He's a hard worker and always puts his best effort into everything he is involved in.
3. He puts his family first. I know he does not do some things he would be interested in doing in order to spend time with his family.
4. He makes a mean batch of mashed potatoes.
5. He's a great dad. He's definitely the fun one, because when daddy's home it's play time. The hours between Ryan's return from school to bedtime include games of chase, wrestling, jumping on the bed, playing with the cars and garage, reading books, going outside and whatever else Grant asks his daddy to do with him.
6. He offers hours of back scratching and hair playing without asking for the favor in return. Even when we sit down to watch TV and Ryan says that he just wants to watch TV without having to play with my hair, he ends up doing it anyway :)
7. He's tall, athletic, and handsome.
8. Speaking of athletic, I appreciate that he enjoys the same outdoor activities that I do: playing sports, hiking, going for walks. And even though he doesn't love running as much as I do, he is always willing to go for a run with me.
9. He's a handy guy. His expertise can range anywhere from a squeaky doorknob to the fine craftsmanship you can see in the previous post.
10. In conjunction with #9, he knows a lot about cars and even does the oil changes himself.
11. He can turn a plain nursery rhyme into a boisterous Irish folk song, complete with accent. If you ever want to hear for yourself, stop by one evening during Grant's bedtime story reading, it will make you want to do a little jig.
12. He tells me I'm beautiful.
13. He loves my cooking and lets it be known. Now I almost expect him to say how much he enjoys everything I have cooked up.
14. He looks really good in a collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
15. Even though we have quite different taste in television, he lets me control the remote the majority of the time.
16. He can always get Tate to burp whenever I am unsuccessful.
17. He never complains about his never ending honey-do list.
18. His is an example to me of faith and he honors his priesthood.
19. He painted my toenails for me when I was pregnant and did a much better job than I ever did myself.
20. He tells me he loves me several times a day.
21. A running joke in our house is that I use up about 3/4 of the bed, while Ryan squeezes on the remaining 1/4. While this is an exaggeration, there is some truth behind it, and I appreciate he doesn't complain too much about it.
22. He is a great friend and spends a lot of time helping out others and making sure people are included.
23. He's my best friend.
24. He can easily balance Grant in one arm and Tate in his car seat in the other.
25. He gives wonderful hugs, and then some... :)
26. He is awesome to watch a funny movie with, his laugh is contagious.
27. He is more than willing to get up in the night to walk Tate back to sleep after I have fed him.
28. He is probably one of the cleanest people I know (as in hygiene clean).
29. He has wonderful ideas and is very creative (again as evidenced by the previous post).

The list could easily continue, but alas Tate is crying. I love you honey, happy birthday!!
P.S. As a birthday gift I let Ryan choose the header image. That pic of Grant & Tate always makes him laugh.

DIY can-rotating shelves.

Ryan here. I, like many around the world, have always wanted a cool shelf system that rotates my cans for me by date of purchase. You know, the ones where you put the new cans in at the top of the slanted shelf system and take them out at the bottom, thus preventing the hassle of having to manually rotate your cans by date of purchase. So I looked into these shelving systems and found that if you want a half decent one that holds a respectable number of cans you'll be looking at spending several hundred dollars for it. Downer.
(To see these shelving systems for yourself you can follow this link to one such company: http://www.yourfoodstorage.com/storage_shelves?gclid=COuus7mHwpkCFd1L5QodnBb_sg)

So, being a thrifty gent by nature and having just enough pluck to get myself in over my head as often as not, I decided to figure out a way to make a cool can-rotating shelf system without having to pay the several hundred dollar price tag. The result was encouraging enough to make this post, in case anyone else might like to give the same thing a try.

For the foundation I used a shelf system that we had purchased previously from Sam's Club for about $60 (seen below stacked with a jumble of cans and assorted pantry items). I think the brand of the shelves was "Gorilla" something. At least I remember that the box had a gorilla on it. Note that the shelf system has holes in the vertical bars so that you can put the shelves at any level you want.
Also note the rampant disorganization of our storage area. This is the main thing that prompted me to find a more efficient way of storing our pantry goods.

After many hours of thinking about how the rotating shelf systems work, I figured out what I'd need and how to convert our current shelving system into a system that rotated cans. Here's the formula, as quick and simple as I can make it. If you want more detail just leave a comment and I can explain any of it in more depth.

First, I moved two of the shelves close enough together that a can could rotate around the back of the top shelf and come down onto the back of the bottom shelf.
Then, I set the front support of the top shelf one hole higher than its back support and the back support of the bottom shelf one hole higher than its front support (Front = left in pic; Back = right in pic). This makes it so that a can would roll backward on the top shelf and forward on the bottom shelf. (See the pic below for a visual extravaganza.)

Then, I needed something to guide the cans in separate rows. We had an old coffee table we were never going to use again so I convinced Erin to let me cut it into strips that I could use to guide the can rows. To see how many rows I could fit on each shelf I just took a can and laid it down on the shelf, then moved it from one end to the other, adding the width needed for the plywood divider strips for each row. I could fit eight rows of cans on our shelf system.

I had to cut dividers that were as long as the bottom shelf was deep and as long as the top shelf was deep PLUS an extra 4 inches or so to give the cans room enough to fall off the back of the top shelf before hitting the sheet-metal scoop that would guide them onto the bottom shelf (to be explained soon).
Here's a pic of the coffee table marked to be cut. Note that some of the strips are marked longer than others. The longer strips are for the top shelf, shorter for the bottom shelf.

Next, I took some leftover sheet-metal that we had from another project and cut it to length to be screwed to the end of the top shelf's dividers, bend down, and be screwed underneath the dividers of the bottom shelf. Then I screwed all the dividers into place on their respective shelves. The result was a system where the top shelf feeds the cans toward the back and then the cans fall off the back of the top shelf onto a sheet-metal scoop that feeds them onto the back of the bottom shelf, where the cans roll forward.

The finishing touches were screwing sheet-metal strips from the back of the top shelf's dividers to the back of the bottom shelf's dividers to guide the cans in their own rows while traveling down the sheet-metal scoop and screwing a narrow board onto the front of the bottom shelf's dividers to stop the cans from rolling right off the front of the bottom shelf. (See pic below.)

The result of it all was an 8-row, self-rotating, can-dispensing shelf system that cost about $80-90, total. Each row will hold about 16 cans, using two shelves, for a total rotation capacity of around 128 cans!
Plus, there are several other shelves left to hold boxed items, sports equipment, etc. And if you want, you could always add another couple shelves into the mix, either feeding onto the same 8 rows or as a separate set or rows on the same frame.

By the way, it took me a whole day to put this all together. And what did I do with our then-7 month old son, Grant, during that time? I corralled him into the living room with chairs so he couldn't get in the way or get hurt. Poor kid.

In the end, though, he gave the result his stamp of approval.

What's that...?!?!

The other day, while changing Grant's diaper, I saw that his bum was kind of red and irritated. It was clearly uncomfortable and he was being a little fussy about the whole process. As I began wiping his bottom with a medicated wipe he started to squirm and fuss and said "What's that... pine cone?!?! Aaahhhh, dang it!!!"
I started laughing and reassured him that I wasn't wiping his bottom with a pine cone. He didn't look very convinced but stayed still long enough for me to put a clean diaper on him. That's my boy! What a great kid!!

Go Heels!

Those of you who keep up with college basketball know that UNC beat Duke this past Sunday in their final regular season game. I was not able to go but Ryan went and even got to see Micheal Jordan from up in the rafters. I have never been one to really follow sports but it's hard not to get into it out here in basketball country. We'll see if UNC can pull out another championship win for our last year here. I want to be able to watch the news and see the people jumping bonfires on Franklin Street again. Anyway, we have really enjoyed being able to go to several games and have tried to take advantage of opportunites to go since this is our last year here. UNC plays quite a good ball game.

Ryan has also been able to take Grant to two games this year. Although, Grant does not look very happy in either picture, he must have had a good time because he often asks Ryan to take him to the game. If we walk by the staircase at the playground (which leads the way to the Dean Dome) he imediately starts asking "game?", "game?". I'm glad they were able to have a fun outing with just the two of them.

In other news, yes we are surviving with two chillins, although occasionally barely. Actually, things are going surprisingly well (I think that is because I was preparing for the absolute worst). Grant really likes Tate and is nice to him, which is most important. Tate is a cute little guy and is pretty chill, mostly eating, laying around and sleeping. He's started to have a fussy time at night for about 30 min but otherwise doesn't cry much, which I appreciate.
There's nothing too exciting to report as my days seem to run together in a blur of diaper changes, feedings and entertaining Grant, but we're having fun and enjoying our expanded family.

My boys, they are the best!

Just a funny picture :)