All I wanted was to have the bath tub faucet tightened.

The faucet needs replaced, but is attached to the surround, so we needed to pull that to replace the faucet.  That alone was irritating enough.  (We're in repairs.  Forgive the notion of us needing to keep it real and while it is functional in there.  It isn't pretty.)

200 MPH tape (AKA duct tape) rides again!

 "Hey Honey, can you replace the fan with one that isn't quite so loud?"  We knew that we were developing some mold on the wall and ceiling above the shower and figured that the 12 year old fan had seen better days.

 Then we ran into the other side of this.  I will not repeat here what came out of Hubs' mouth.

 Up close and personal.  No fear.  We about had a heart attack.

 Hubs cut out the offending wood.  Yes, that would be the other side of the surround.

The sunlight was shining through the plastic bag that is hanging above the temporarily placed surround.  Keep in mind, we do not have a window in there.  I mean, I wanted a window, but didn't mean this way.  I pitched the idea.  Hubs turned it down.  He may have asked if I was crazy.

 The first layer of board.

The second layer of board, exterior and now waterproofed with a full tube of caulk.  I would be disappointed if Hubs didn't use a full tube of caulk.  He loves caulk.

He asked if I would cut the circle out in the soffit for the new vent cover.  He is going to attach the fan tomorrow, so for right now, it isn't flush to the soffit but it will be soon.  The wood will be painted back to the original gray and all will be well.

Thank God I have a handy husband!

Now onward to the inside!  No more lavender walls.  We'll be going with a nice sea glass greenish blue.  Yes, there will be photos of that later.

Have a home improvement-free night!

Rambling things clogging my brain.

The Firefighters-  Oh how my heart breaks for that town.  Seriously, I couldn't imagine their last moments.

The man in our church that is now homeless-  There is a gentleman that you can pray for.  His name is John.  I don't know what the circumstances are, but as of today, John is homeless.  It breaks my heart.  He is going to be going to stay at the homeless shelter that Hubs and I used to volunteer.  Yesterday, we had the quarterly attendance awards/prayer shawl and baby blanket passing.  Rev. K called John up and had him choose a blanket.  She said that she knew that his belongings had to be light and that he would be residing at the homeless shelter for a while.  The practical previous homeless shelter volunteer in me knows that the way that this situation is being handled is in the way that you would handle an addict.  John has been in our Sunday School class these past few weeks and he sits there rather expressionless.  I know that the shelter he is going to has a dry-out program and job/life skills training.  We talked about John at the dinner table last night.  How my heart breaks, but I know that walking up and handing him money may very well not be the best solution for him.  If there was a specific need, Rev. K is pretty vocal and would have let that be known.  I feel that our best help to John is to pray for him.

The Paula Deen situation confuses me.  I admit, we aren't big cable people.  As such, we don't have the Food Network or whatever she happened to have been on.  I know that I read a delightful article about her in the Guideposts magazine several years ago.  I'm not saying that what she said was delightful.  She wouldn't say that what she said was delightful.  I read something somewhere that someone stated, "Everyone has said that word."  I haven't.  Maybe it is because I'm north of the Mason-Dixon Line or because where I live is by and large suburban America.  I do, however, think that this thing has gone way too far.  I knew that when she bailed on Today last Wednesday, she sealed her own coffin shut.  However, Smithfield won't be associated with her.  Target dumped her as well as Walmart, JCPenney, Sears, Kmart and the 5 book deal she had.  I'm sure that there are more that I've forgotten.

Do you mean to tell me that all of these corporations have a spotless record and live sinless corporate lives?  I think not.  I'm sure that you could search each one of the companies and find where there have been bad employee practices, sweatshops that have been employed to make their products, 15 years for one particular company on that list to unionize because conditions for their employees were so poor.

Lance Armstrong finally lost his endorsements when they confirmed his doping allegations.  Paula Deen says one bad word (albeit offensive) and her empire falls apart.  Even Martha Stewart wasn't lashed that poorly.

The Hamster escaped!  K was cleaning his cage, didn't have the lid to the ball down tight enough and when she was cleaning and I was sitting on the couch while talking to a friend, a cageless H was staring back at me.  I hung up on my friend and went running.  I trapped him under the microwave cart, Hubs was at one side with the Swiffer, I was on the other with a yard stick and K was in the middle with a hamster donut.  We did get him and sealed him back up in his ball.  Whew.

I'm a hang nail ripper.  It's true.  It is at this time that I admit to y'all that about a month ago, I pulled a hang nail on my big toe.  Yes, the big toe.  I was in the bath and I pulled it.  Oh, it pulled off along with about 1/2" of interior nail and have been in pain ever since.  Since I took K to the podiatrist for kiddo plantar warts last week and he was do delightful, I decided to let him dig away at my foot, cause me excruciating pain and sign an official document that I will never pull a hang nail ever again.  I decided that the hideousness I know that will occur can simply be covered by a variety of character Band aids.  Oh, and it is the foot that I broke almost two years ago.  This problem started not long after release from the boot.  I had decided to be a bit over zealous and give myself a really GOOD pedicure.  (There are reasons why people go to professionals.)  I lopped the nail the wrong way then and it hurt worse than the actual broken foot.  I had to have an in-office procedure done on my left foot when I was about 13. Then, we were poor and I was wearing ill-fitting shoes.  This was my own stupidity.  Don't you hate it when you have to admit that?

I can go without a coat in 40 F in the winter, but not in 68 F in the summer.  I was having a text discussion with Rachael about that today.  The 68 F was damp.  The 40 F is dry.  It just seems weird.

My daughter has an obsession with her Webkinz.  Hubs bought her a new one today.  I'm thankful that not only was it incredibly cheap, but our museum pass gave us an additional 10% off.  A tiger and a carrier for $4.50.  Not too bad!

The air conditioning has been off and it has been delightful!  Sleeping with the windows open has been a whole lot better than locked-in and canned up air.

The crock-pot has been my friend.  Turkey meatloaf last night and turkey tacos tonight.  Hooray for the crock-pot!

My child continues to read after lights out and is reading a book every day or two.  That's not a bad thing at all.  Just difficult to get a tired kiddo up and out of bed in the morning.

Tired.  Must go flip some laundry into the dryer.  All this afternoon mountain region-like rain is pits for the laundry line outside.  At least I have been able to give the new line a test and the replacement to the replacement line holds without sagging to the ground.

Night!

Not too old to create with cardboard boxes.

It delights me to see that my 9 1/2 year old decided to gather up cardboard boxes this morning to take out to build some things with.  While this may seem as no big deal, I'm glad that her time doesn't always have to be plugged into something and thankfully, she's creative enough to fill her own time with creations that she's come up with on her own.  Yesterday, she decided that she wanted to bake.  She baked filled cupcakes-- on her own-- for the neighbors.  :)

Hooray for low-tech toys!

From trash to treasure.

Last week, K and I worked at the church Trash and Treasure sale.  For several days, we shuffled, straightened and tidied.  On Saturday, the last day of the sale, boxes of vinyl records showed up.  After everything settled down, we shuffled through them.  

I found our favorite.  :)

Mary Poppins! 

When we were in NYC, my SIL treated us to Mary Poppins on stage.  We loved it before, but Broadway made it even better.  I mean, the guy who played Bert sang and danced while being suspended from upside down above the stage.  Wow!

I told her from the moment that I found it that we needed to frame it.  K agreed.  So did Hubs.  We were all thrilled with the find.  It was just a matter of making that into the wall piece that we wanted.

We went to the thrift store on search for some work shorts for Hubs.  K wanted to visit the "Home Center" which is also code word for, "I want to check out the toys."  She didn't score anything, but I found additional dishes to go with my Christmas set.  I saw a wall of frames and spied this one.  Across the room was a display of vinyl, so I did a quick size check.  This frame window was about 1/4" too big all the way around, but better too big than too small.  It was 1/2 off blue day, so we paid a dollar for the frame.  She was in rough shape on the back.  Someone gutted it before.  

I found that the golfer collage was actually wallpaper or border.  Kind of hideous if you ask me. 

It was scotch taped to this American flag quilt picture.  Scotch tape was tried on the back as a holding agent for all of this beautiful work, but finally they went with 200 MPH tape (AKA silver duct tape.) 

I gutted, painted, cleaned and purchased glazier's points to hold it all together.  Voila!  Because we didn't want to adhere the cover art to anything, all of the words are on the back of the album cover and I wanted to keep the vinyl with all of it, I had to eyeball it in the frame.  It's just a smidge low, but with all of that weight, I figured it would shift a little anyhow.  I painted a 1" orange border all around the edge of the mat, so that a little bit of orange would pop out from behind the album.

Hubs was impressed that I didn't use my typical push pin hanger.  I went and found a screw for the wall and everything.  We love it!  :)  Our total investment?  Between paint and glazier's points, probably $3.00 total.  

Hooray!

Have a great weekend!

My list is still long, but things have been checked off.

First, I took K to the podiatrist.  She has quite a number of plantar warts on her big toe and down to the ball of her foot.  I thought it was just a callous from her skinny feet shifting in shoes!  He was a wonderful man and the treatment of choice (for now) is an in-office acid treatment and a prescription of Tagament to be taken 3 times daily.  It is an antiviral and in the dose he prescribed, it is effective for getting rid of plantar warts.  Hooray!  We had no idea what we were in for.  He said that he could cut them out, but she had 5 more waiting in the wings and he'd end up having to do them in a few more weeks.  This way, she can swim this summer and this is less invasive.  (She got them from swimming at the local university.)  Finding the prescription took 4 stores, but we've got it.

I've had it on my list to go to the Mom & Pop nursery down the street to see what they had for plants on sale.  I'm a perennial girl and I had the new beds up front to fill.  I found 5 that I wanted and asked the gentleman if his perennials were still $7. each.  He said that they were and I admit that it was more than I wanted to pay.  I told him to hang on and let me weed through them a second.  He told me he'd give them to me for $5 each and I said, "Sold!"  I didn't mean to get a deal, but I was happy to take it.

I came home and the boys across the street were most interested in my purchases.  They gifted me some cast-offs to help fill.  So far, my garden has the following planted in it:

Yellow Yarrow (from yard splits)
Pink Yarrow (from nursery & split in three)
Tickseed
White Coneflower
Purple Coneflower
Burgundy/Red Hibiscus (from nursery & with a baby as a bonus!)
Lavender (a driveway volunteer)
Miniature Hollyhocks (from the boys)
Orange Zinnias (from the boys)
Cosmos (free in the mail from some gardening club)
California Poppy (50% off seed at the local hardware)

I've noticed that I've accidentally gone a little heavy with the orange this year, but a lot is from seed and well, sometimes seeds don't always come up.

I didn't realize exactly what the hibiscus was.  I thought it was purple and interesting.  It's red and still interesting.

I made Hawaiian Chicken in the crock-pot tonight.  It was a Pinterest recipe.  I'll list it as good enough for once, but not again.  K hated it.  Hubs was fine and I was fine.  It was kind of meh.  The cooked cabbage was awesome, even if I was the only one to eat it.  (Thank God for Beano!  Cruciferous vegetable night will never been horrible again!)

I took the girls (K and the neighbor) to the African drumming program at the library.  I signed E up for the summer library program and the girls enjoyed the show.  K was all about volunteering.  The gentleman who was drumming was very good.  A little culture for the girls is never a bad thing.  :)

I got gas for both cars at the bargain price of $3.32 because we know that tomorrow the price will probably be back up to $3.89 again.  (It happens here in a big jump like that on a regular basis.)

We were going to work on a sewing project, but that can be for tomorrow.

I was going to clean the house, but that can be for tomorrow.

The big thing on the list for tomorrow is to hit the local thrift up for some shorts for Hubs for work.  He ruins them on a pretty regular basis at work, so used are just fine.  Hubs is in big need and I'm sure that a stroll around the thrift won't be met with much resistance from K.

For now, my pillow is calling me.

Have a great night!

When Dad is responsible for setting up the Slip and Slide.

It's really slippery and really fun on a very hot night.

Have a great day!

PS  And yes, I did get wet.  Surprisingly, only a few drops landed on the camera.  I was about 4 feet away from the end.  Let's just say that when soaping down the slip and slide, the end was not K's stopping point.

You won't see a man move faster than when he realizes that his boat is trapped.

We've been very slowly whittling away at the landscaping work we planned.  (Busy and shifted schedules coupled with a week long festival of downpours will do that.)  I've been carving in the skip stone path that I made.  (60 stones cut in by hand and it took me more hours than I can count.  There will be finished photos when the grass fills in and I have plants planted, but it is DONE!)  The boys have been being nosey-poseys and the one mentioned, "Hey, [Hubs] hasn't been able to take his boat out because he can't get it out past the mulch."  "Hmm.  We hadn't thought of that."

And we hadn't.

I came in and mentioned Don's observation to him.  I believe that my husband gasped audibly.  "Oh no!  I'm taking the boat out tomorrow and he is right!"

And that, my friends, is how you get the remnants of a big ole pile of black mulch to move out of your driveway.

The end.