End of remodel tour

This was the light over the kitchen counter - very different but looked very good in the house

And this was the front door of the cool house - it was wide enough for a wheelchair (just so you can visualize) and very neat. The inside was white w/ silver fixtures.

Cool House #2

This was the window seat in the dining room.

This was the staircase. It had originally come out the other direction and the builders had taken the landing apart, put up the wall and turned the staircase to come out this way. Very cool. The house was 90 years old and a very nice mix of old and modern.

Main bath

Kitchen. It had slate grey tiles - very pretty.

Cool house set #1

These are pics of a custom built-in in the living room. It was beautiful!!

And then this was the downstairs bath.

Home Remodel Tour

This was the first house that we could take pictures at. This was the medicine cabinet in the bathroom (which was an awful combination of old-world barn and Tuscan villa - to each his own I guess). We did like several pieces from the house tho.

This herringbone pattern in the floor would look good at home. It's tile, not actual brick.

Very pretty design in the floor.

Yes I know, I'm late.....

This was my Easter treat. He's from Andre's - otherwise known as heaven for your tastebuds. He was mocha deliciousness. Thanks mom!

I love being amusing.....

One of the nurses put dental xrays in my scan box.

I pulled them out of the envelope and said "What, pray tell, does she expect me to do w/ these???" So I emailed her exactly that. She found my use of "pray tell" hysterical and said nevermind, bring them back and they'll go live in the film library. I love my nurses!

Spring????

Mom's crocuses are poking thru our last snowfall. Stubborn little suckers.

Cats and Trains

This is Jack the cat. Apparently his nose was cold. He wouldn't move for talking to him, being petted, ice dropped on the floor for him to chase - nothing. Maybe he had a migraine?? It actually looks pretty close to my preferred "migraine position".

These are both pics of the trains set up in my GFIL's house. He was having a LOT of fun showing mom and I his collection. He had a flatbed car on the train hauling a copy of the tank that he drove in WWII.

This is Cafe (as in he's an Orange Cat Cafe from Lewiston). Dad took all the cushions outside and used a wire brush and snow on them to deodarize them (don't ask me, he read it somewhere.) OBVIOUSLY the REAL reason for doing this was to create a bed for Cafe! Why else would you make a cushy pile with cushions and coats on a table up high in the sun?

Oh what a beautiful morning.... Or not

So I went to sleep last night watching TV. Knowing snow was coming but feeling halfway resigned. I woke up sniffing smoke at 4:30. I assumed that it was just on me from me starting the fire before bed. Kept getting worse, it kept waking me up, so at 6:30 (yeah I know, I HATE getting up before I feel like it on Saturdays) I got up and went out to the hallway. Yeah, the house is filled w/ smoke. Apparently the snow/ice built up on top of the chimmney, causing the fire to back up smoke into the house. Dad had woken up, gone around and shut the bedroom doors for Mom and I, and had tried to air out the house after the snow on the chimney apparently melted. Too late. Yeah the whole house reeks. OH, and then at about 6:45 the carbon monoxide detector decided to get into the act. Except Dad thot it was the smoke detector that is way up high so we just had to put in earplugs and deal. So there I am, in bed, w/ a nest under the sheet trying to block the smoke smell (lovely headache it gave me) and earplugs to blog the screeching. I finally gave up about 7:30 and just got up to read. At 9:15 mom came out, found the carbon monoxide detector laying on the shelf by her room --- and proceeds to want to throw it out into the snow until I told her to give it to me and I removed the batteries.

Oh what a beautiful morning...........Yuck. Oh! And we have several inches of snow.

My weekend...

This is Jack the dog - who apparently has such a good winter coat he doesn't have to worry about snow. I think we should market his coat - he certainly sheds enough of it come spring... we could make a portion.

This is one of the machines at Mission this weekend that we helped judge. It was a highschool regionals Science Olympiad competition and very interesting!

This is the very fancy one that won.

And this is Kt - who was playing around with the glasses she found while we were waiting for the next team to be ready to compete. Doesn't she look so intelligent?? (Or loony!)

The fight of the century......

It was epoch. Grace's last day in the wilderness. She was running all over, getting last smells, eating her last bit of wild cat poop (oops sorry, she'd prefer that remain private), jumping small mountains of snow...she was WILD!!!! She was surveying her territory. We adventurors made it all the way to the end of the drive and on the way back --- horrors!!!!!!! AN INVADER!!!!!!!! It was orange camoflauge, with a thick fur coat. He sauntered along like HE was the owner of the land, NOT GRACE!!!!!! The nerve!
The battle ensued. Grace in command with her faithful sergeant Jack by her side careened into battle. The orange invader (hereafter known as "Cat") hissed and yowled and swatted his razor sharp claws then fled scared straight up a tree. After a couple of reassuring runs around the tree to complete her victory, Grace moved on - never one to gloat. :-)
When what should occur but MANDY betrayed the pack!!!!!!! She coaxed Cat out of the tree and not only petted the creature but PICKED HIM UP!!!!! She walked up the drive calming the Cat and it took Grace a little bit to notice. Understandably, she had thot this battle was complete. She came TEARING back into action. Cat used his fur coat to get bigger and bigger and puffed out his tail in FEAR!!!!!!!! He started to yowl.......a battle cry. Grace came up and attempted to negotiate -- sniffing Cat in an offer of friendship. The invador WHACKED Grace across the nose w/ his claws, launched himself off Mandy's chest and tore his way thru the snow to the shed for safety (for the dog door was not built for one of Grace's ..... size.) Grace celebrated w/ her faithful sidekick - running thru the snow and kicking up her heels before deignging to forgive Mandy her betrayal and come in for breakfast. It was a good final morning in the wild....

The End. :-)

My blessings

So since this has been such an "interesting" week or so I thot I'd try to focus my stressed out mind on some good things for a change. Feel free to contribute your own......
1. Mom's surgery went well, even if she's not recouping as quickly as she'd like. Her streak is still unbroken and she continues to be an inspiration to those who cheer her on.
2. No more 6 day migraines!
3. Drugs for the migraines that do arrive. While I hate having them, I am always incredibly grateful for the medical minds that invent the "help"!
4. Grace. Ok, so I'm blessed to have her but she is not blessed to be here, so I'm blessed that she has somewhere to go. She's not eating much and is very lonely so I look forward to getting her back to what she obviously considers "home."
5. I'm blessed to have an ipod filled with songs that lift me up and encourage me thru the workday - as well as some that help me boogie my way thru a stressful week.
6. I'm blessed to have the job I do. Issues nonwithstanding, it has been a wonderful learning experience --- and if they lose me due to my health issues then I am sure God will have a use for me somewhere else.
7. I'm blessed by my car place that got my shaking car fixed today for FREE! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!

Most of all I'm blessed by all of you that have listened to me whine/cry/giggle etc my way thru the last several months w/o my husband. Thanks! (And yes I've had some migraine meds so I'm feeling sappy - sorry!)

More pics

The shirt to go w/ the shoes..... loaned by Moni along w/ a little long-sleeved black shrug

It's laundry day.....even for the dog!

"How's the rear-view?" (p.s. - this isn't "the" dress so don't get all excited.)

Long awaited pics....

Moni in my dress --- all ready to dance :-)

My new 10$ purse!

My new fancy shoes to go w/ my outfit tomorrow night -- thanks for the shopping help Moni!

My new "wk" shoes. Comfy for wk but not to hike from the hotel to Jack Stack and back in - that was a bit much.......

Foot in mouth.......

Me: No I don't know why I'm crying really, you are 1000 miles away and while I agreed to do this is sucks bigrottoneggs! (All said while sniffleing)

Him: You're crying b/c you're a woman......


Funnily enough this struck me as such a dingbat thing to say to a crying woman that I quit crying!! So apparently it wked, but I still think it's funny.

Fake post

So, I bought 2 new pairs of shoes today, and a purse for $10. I also borrowed a tank and sweater from Moni to go w/ my new skirt for district meeting.
See the new red and black heels?
See the new work shoes?
Isn't the purse nice?

What? No pics? Oh right. Guess you can't see them huh. Yeah. That would be because my DEAR husband who sent the camera and charger down w/ a wk buddy to KC yesterday..........forgot the connect-it-to-the-computer cord. Sorry. (Really he is but I am still a bit annoyed. I promise I'll post the pics later to make up for it. Maybe even one of Moni in my wedding dress!)

My apologies......

Update

Well Grace's bath definitely helped "de-shed" her but she still smells like a dog. I'm sure there's a reason for that if I could just think of what it might be.......oh well. She's sleeping a ton - even for her and doesn't seem interested much in food or her bones. Not sure what's up w/ that.

I went to a shower for a couple friend of Kt's on Sunday. They just adopted 2 boys from another country - they were so cute!! The littlest was quite sure that all the balloons on the table had been brought especially for him. I wish he could have seen how they made it to the church. Kt was driving the van, mom in the front passenger seat and then me, with 25 helium filled balloons, in the middle seat. There were so many that I couldn't move - my head just had to sit leaning to the side at a 90 degree angle. We joked that if we did have a wreck at least I'd be well cushioned, but we'd sound awful funny giving police reports from breathing in all the helium.... Kt had gotten the older boy a slinky ---- he was HUGELY impressed with it - seemed to be his favorite present. It was fun to see how happy they were being cuddled by gparents and the aunt already. And I actually figured out how to run Kt's fancy camera to take a few pics for her. Yay!

So.....

My husband is in line at the Capitol bldg for his tour w/ the kids.
Moni just called shrieking about her new ring.

Everyone is having fun w/o me!! Yes I know I could have gone to DC but I'm saving my time off for the ski trip in Feb. in NY. Yay for dumb holidays in other countries that allow my husband to have a 3 day weekend for me to come visit! Hopefully I'll get emailed some cool pics from DC that I can post for ya'll. They get to tour the white house too - cool no matter who the current resident might be -- but no cameras allowed. That one kinda annoys me b/c I didn't get to tour the WH either time I went and so I would have liked to have seen some good pictures. Oh well.

The dog is finally settling in somewhat. She's off at Petsmart getting a bath. (And considering they told me to allow 3 hours for it it'd better be a darn good bath!!)

Family Christmas

This is mom getting her "first Tiffany's" from Kt and I.

It was a ring that says "Tiffany & Co" in script around the outside for her to wear on her right hand. She had been wearing "hand-me-down" rings from me but one had broken. This one is MUCH better!

These are all the nail polishes Kt gave me for Christmas (among other things). They are AWESOME and I can't wait to try them all. I've already worn the blue and pale pink.

And this is Kt adoring her 2nd gift from my husband - his famous dirt dessert. To answer the question: Yes, she's playing in her food, and Yes she does know better. She just can't resist.

THE COAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my husband's Christmas, Anniversary and Master's Degree Graduation present. Since I'm not allowed to show his face on my blog you get just the shot of his body modeling the new coat. He was very impressed, surprised and grateful to all who contributed to it.

Then of course, everyone else had to model......

Notice the genuine maps of occupied France etc. on the inside. The coat weighs a TON and smells soooooooo yummy!

I think for Kt it's just a hair too big!

I am truly my mother's daughter...

I just had one of those "AHA!!!!" moments. I had warmed up my frozen pizza lunch and someone said "Oh that smells good!"

Guess my immediate response?????


"There's another one in the freezer if you'd like it!"


I"M FEEDING MY COWORKERS!!!!!!!!!!! Or trying to, they're not very obliging. Maybe after the Christmas goodies arrive they'll be more helpful w/ my "feed others" syndrome. :-)

I have also encouraged a coworker to try one of the healthy choice pasta things I bring in. No luck there either.