Briefly...

Just a quick side note to add to yesterdays blog entry...a couple of cute things we thought about that some of you might enjoy! First...yesterday Josh and Mandy had us for lunch at their place...and while we were in the kitchen dishing up our lunch, Jayden marched into the kitchen with a remote control in her hand and opened the cabinet under the sink and threw it in the garbage! We all asked why she did that...her response was "I don't need two remotes, I already have one and this is too confusing!" Needless to say, we all cracked up...and didn't do a very good job of concealing our reaction, but she was very serious and then walked out of the kitchen! Of course, her dad wasn't very happy with her action, but it was so funny, how could you not laugh at it!! One of those memories to tell her when she's older!

Today, Jayden and Josh were over for a while and Josh washed his car (and Terri's!). When they first got here, we weren't home and Jayden was inside with Aussie. When we came home, Jayden was then outside with Josh, helping him wash the cars. As we walked into the house, we saw a few clumps of Aussie's hair...which is not unusual (but she's not been shedding lately!) and as we walked to the family room, we found a few more. We picked them up and then went outside and looked at Aussie...all the way down her back were spots where the hair had been cut...and it was obvious what happened! Jayden had given Aussie a haircut! Terri asked Jayden if she'd cut Aussie's hair and showed her the handful of hair and pointed to Aussie's back and she got really quiet (that guilty sort of quiet!!) and quietly nodded yes! This was another one of those moments when you have got to keep your composure when explaining that you ONLY cut paper that is meant to be cut...no hair, not hers or Aussie's! Of course, her dad wasn't too happy with what she'd done and we just explained that from now on, no cutting unless an adult is around! On the bright side, Aussie could care less and it really doesn't look too bad...and if it had been her own hair, well, that could have been a bit more to deal with! It's one of those things that nearly all little ones do at one time or another. We had her little scissors in a basket with other craft things for her, but after this, the scissors are now "hidden" until someone gets them for her!!

Another cute comment...Terri had bought a little plastic horseshoe set for her to play in the yard and she found it today and Terri (Mimi) set it up and played with her a bit, then let Jayden play by herself as she went back to pulling plants from the beds. After Jayden was finished, she picked it all up and said she was finished and said "Thank you, Mimi, for buying this for me and showing me how to play it. I'm finished with it now!" Melt our hearts...that totally made up for Aussie's haircut...which really was nothing!

Okay...until later...we'll leave you alone! Have a great week!!

Dare to think that Summer is here?!

What a shock to our systems to have had nice weather for a couple of weeks around here...it's so rare to have warm, dry and clear days in May...and to have so many is a real treat! And, the forecast looks to be decent...this has got to be a record!

Memorial day was beautiful...a tad cooler than the days before...and after, but still wonderful. We had Josh, Mandy, Jayden, Jess and Sean for a barbecue on the deck that afternoon and it was really nice to be able to sit on the back deck. The kids had spent the day on Lake Tapps on a boat, so had all gotten plenty of sunshine and fresh air...and then we fed them well, so they could all go home and crash (and probably put a bit of aloe gel to sooth some sunburns!). We enjoyed the weekend by spending some time in the yard and working on some chores around the house. In two weeks we are having a gathering to celebrate Jess' graduation from CWU and want to get things in order...so it's kept us busy on the weekends. It's really a great way to motivate us to get the chores done so that we then can "play" the rest of the summer!

With this wonderful weather, our Saturday mornings have found us heading to the Puyallup Farmer's Market...where we enjoy a coffee from our favorite coffee shop (FORZA) and then a pastry while strolling around to see what all the vendors have for sale. We are anxious for the fresh produce - and figure that we've got a couple more weeks before that happens, but then will enjoy a couple months of wonderful local produce!

The nice weather has allowed Terri and Jayden to get out on many of the days they are together and have enjoyed playing in the back yard and heading to some area parks. Our local neighborhood just put in a basketball court in our community park and they are looking forward to playing with the new purple (Jayden's favorite color!!) Hanna Montana basketball! One day last week when it was a bit cooler than the other days...they had a picnic inside, on the floor of the family room and watched Monsters Inc which seemed to satisfy Jayden...oh, and Aussie who watched their plates VERY closely while they ate! It seems that in the past couple of months, we've seen Jayden's looks change from a toddler to a little girl...when did this happen, she can't be growing up!!

We hope this finds you all doing well and having some nice weather as well...and looking forward to a good summer!

Jayden and Papa (alias...Rick) on Memorial Day

The first bloom on our clematis this year...oh, the joys of this time of year!

Our rock fountain in the back yard has attacted many birds this spring who want to clean up and cool off!
Papa and Jayden having a serious talk about something while waiting for the ribs to finish grilling!
We have a family of cute little birds (sorry, don't know what they are) living in a tree in our yard...and if we get around the tree, they sit on the fence and "talk" to us, I'm sure wanting us to get away...they are really quite entertainig! Jayden says they are "our birds!"


Our "little" girl...can't believe she's getting so big...ohhh, the joys of grandchildren! We highly recommend them!!

A wonderful Mother's Day!

Just thought I'd update with a few photos from yesterday....and a couple older ones (you'll understand in a minute!). Mother's day was nice around here...which in its self was a treat and then we had the kids all here for dinner which was really nice. Poor Jayden wasn't feeling well and when she arrived with Josh and Mandy, she was asleep and actually slept on the couch until we were nearly finished with dinner. She did pick up after she woke up and ate a little bit...and of course, was ready for dessert...an ice cream cake the kids brought! The above photo is one of her sleeping on the couch...she was so sweet to watch!
After dinner the kids went through a box of photos that we'd found in the garage on Saturday while cleaning it out a bit. The photos were about 14-15 years old and boy did we all have a good laugh...at each out and ourselves! There were lots, but I'll just post a few of them...and some of you may get a laugh or two out of them as well! Now, Josh and Jess (and there is one with their cousins, Samantha and Sydney and then one with Terri's brother, Scott and Sydney thrown in as well) might now think they are quite a funny with me posting them on the blog, but I think they are cute and fun...enjoy!




I hope you all had a wonderful weekend...ours was great and the only way Mother's Day could have been better was to have our Mother's here with us!





Scott and Sydney
Josh, Samantha, Jess, Sydney

PHEW...the kitchen is FINALLY finished!

Boy, does it ever feel nice to have our kitchen back to working order...not to mention all new! Now, it really wasn't that long compared to some other stories we've heard from people who have been through kitchen remodels in the past, so we can't complain! We did get tired of Lean Cuisine, take-out, no coffee in the morning and using the bathroom sink to wash the few dishes we had!

All in all it went well, but we did have little "bumps" along the way and it got to the point that we almost expected something with each new phase...and we usually weren't let down because there seemed to always be something!

The start was the doors we ordered...so we "thought" were suppose to be completely finished, but when we picked them up, we discovered they weren't stained...leaving us with our first dilemma. That all worked out...we were able to get the cabinet company to agree to stain (for a fee, of course!) the doors and trim for us...but when we asked them that, they told us our date for the cabinet installation was a week later than we had been told...and this was just four days before the day we "expected" them to install them! ARGH!! Then, we scrambled to reschedule the counter top installation and the other work being done in the kitchen and lower level. That all came together and we had just one more week to wait and the cabinets went in just fine. And, we were able to sell our old ones in just two days...whoohooooo!! The granite installers came out to lay the templates for the counter top and discovered the sink fitting had been cut wrong and had to call the cabinet company to return to redo it...and that took about four hours...seemed crazy to me, but evidently they hadn't installed an under mount sink before?? Hmm, I don't quite understand that because so many people have under mount! Whatever...it got done! Then came the granite installation a week later...we LOVED it and were so excited. Of course, a little "bump" with that in that the faucet we chose would not work and we had to scramble to get a new one in a day so it could be installed and we could finally have a sink! They wouldn't cut the holes until we had the faucet, so they could get them right...and again, it worked out, we found a new faucet, got the holes cut and it installed the next day. But...there was a little problem when having the faucet installed as one of the sides of the sink wouldn't hold the water, so we had find a new ring that would fit with the sink...and we did, but had to wait three days for that to get done! There were some other little bumps...the extra trim to match the flooring we put in last year came, but was actually a different shape from what we had before...we figured out a way around that...the instant hot water tank JUST fit under the sink, but the disposal had to be taken out to get it in...one of the stove feet was broken with being moved around so much, had to order another one and shipping was TWICE the cost of it! We have some narrow cabinets alongside the microwave and Terri decided we needed "sliding" spice racks in each side, it took a bit of work to figure that all out, but in the end, it worked great and looks nice!

SO...the kitchen is finished, all is unpacked and put away (but don't ask us where anything is, that'll take a few months to figure it all out!) and we're now working on the rest of the house that got neglected (and covered in a THICK layer of dust!!!) and had things thrown into other rooms during the process! So, we are now working on that and hoping to get everything ready for next month when we have a celebration for Jess who will graduate from college!!

We must give big "KUDOS" to our neighbor/handyman, Nick Holbrook, for all his great work, patience and understanding...without him, this would not have gone as well and probably wouldn't even be finished by now!!

Here are some photos to see what it looks like...and something to compare it to!

~~ BEFORE ~~
~~ AFTER ~~

Spring Photos

Okay, so here we go again, a bit slow in our posts and it looks like there might be two tonight, or one tonight and one tomorrow...depending on how much we get done. This will include some photos from this spring, since Terri returned from California in early April.

These photos were taken the one of the first days after Terri got back from California had Jayden. We were very lucky to have a nice day and so spent quite a bit of time outside. As you can see, Jayden and Aussie are great pals!! And, Jayden is great and making "funny faces for me when I'm taking pictures of her! The last two...she enjoyed a popicle (okay, I confess, I gave her two!!) after a long walk around the block, but as you can see, it didn't give her any extra energy...she just crashed within minutes of finishing the second one!! She was just too darn cute to resist taking this photo!!!!





We got lucky another week with a nice day and went on a picnic with some other moms and kids in the neighborhood. What a great time we had...and the sunshine (natural Vitamin D!!!) was really energizing!!!! We sure could use a few more days like that, but won't complain and just will be happy with the ones we get!





Easter...we enjoyed a great dinner at Jess and Sean's home. Since our kitchen was torn apart and we didn't even a sink to use, they offered to have dinner for all of us. Josh, Mandy and Jayden joined us as well and it was a wonderful evening together, even if it rained and the egg hunt had to be inside. We did get to sneak outside a little later when the rain sort of stopped and the sun was trying to peek through the clouds!






Now, we're pretty current with the photos and will just add a couple from yesterday morning when Mandy, Jess and Terri went to a "Mother's Day Tea" at Jayden's preschool and were treated to a performance by the students...they were so cute and served us cookies to enjoy with our tea afterwards!





We hope this finds our family and friends all doing well and enjoying a nice weekend. It's especially nice here as we have SUNSHINE this weekend...the best Mother's Day gift we could get this year! The kids are all coming for dinner tomorrow night and if we are lucky we might get to eat outside! We wish all you mothers a wonderful Mother's Day and hope you are able to spend with your loved ones!