The Kitchen Has Finally Been Painted

Well, I managed to put off painting my kitchen for about two months, but I finally got it done today.

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

I still need to paint the spot on the ceiling that was ruined during the last rain storm. I should be able to get that done on Monday. I am a little nervous because we are having a pretty good rain storm right now, and I am hoping that Aaron really got that leak patched up or I may be back to square one again tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon looking for a picture that I can put on that wall. The one on the floor in the before picture is from Grandpa Tilley's house. It is okay, but it is all yellows and browns, and I would really like to have a pop of red right there. I went into Tai Pan Trading to look for a print, and this is what I found.

I know, the picture didn't turn out very well, but you get the point. Come on, people, it is only September 20th! Since I haven't been to that store for a couple of months now who knows how long they have had their Christmas displays up. The one good thing about it was that I picked up a pine scented candle. Pine is my favorite scent, and it is hard to find except at Christmas.

Gratitude

Mom's and Jef's latest post made me think of an e-mail I received from one of the teachers at Davis last week. The article is entitled, Made in the USA: Spoiled Brats by Craig R. Smith. You can click on the following link if it interests you. It does provide some perspective on what we have to be grateful for. www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53028

I've Been Waiting Half My Life For This!

The Legacy Parkway finally opened yesterday, and I have had the opportunity to enjoy it twice already. It is a great little highway, even though the speed limit is only 55 mph and you can only exit in Centerville or at 5th South in Bountiful. It's amazing how being just a little to the west of I-15 gives you a totally different perspective on the area. I am really hoping that it helps with the horrific traffic situation through Farmington. Now if we could just finish the current construction project on I-15! Sadly, yes, these are the kinds of things that bring joy and excitement to my life.

On another construction note, Nate asked me a while back if they had started construction on the mall in Farmington. I drove past the site a couple of weeks ago and they have finally torn down the last house (the big one that jutted out into the field on a little hill) and they have been leveling the area and putting in sewer lines. Soon the dream of all Farmingtonians will come true, and they will finally have their upscale shopping center with no K-Mart nearby to drag the area down.

New Neighbors

I met my new neighbors yesterday. It is the older couple, and they do own the weiner dog. However, the landlady will not let them keep the dog on the property, so a family member has taken the dog in. Al and Jean Simmons are recently from Farmington where they said they spent more than 40 years living east of the Rock Chapel. I didn't think to ask them at the time if they knew the Wassoms or the Tilleys. So, what about it Wassoms and former Wassoms? Do any of you know my new neighbors?

Yard Work

Since Aaron still needs to apply one more layer of joint compound to my ceiling and then let it dry and sand it, I am still not painting my kitchen this weekend.

I spent the morning outside doing yard work instead. These pictures doesn't really do justice to how nice my flowers are looking right now. Everything has been weeded and dead-headed and I think that I can finish edging my yard next time my batteries are recharged. The yard is looking good, but my left arm has been completely mangled by rose thorns. I guess I should have been wearing long sleeves as well as gloves!

Work Update & Something for Liv

My second week of work is over, and aside from the lice (still just one child) things are going pretty well. My new assistant is very efficient and willing to do the work. I don't yet feel like we are friends, but hopefully that will come later.

I started a blog for my class and I sent out several e-mails to the parents telling them about it, and I also posted a note about it on my door. After the first post 2 parents commented, but then I didn't hear any other feedback about it. I was beginning to feel like I was doing all that work for nothing, but I decided to do one more post yesterday. I sent out an e-mail telling parents that there would be pictures from our walk to the duck pond on the blog and apparently that was the incentive that everyone needed to check it out. My map went from 3 viewers (one of them in Erie) to a couple of dozen in the last 24 hours. I have a child whose father and extended family live in South Africa, and I see that they are now looking at the blog. A couple of parents e-mailed me to let me know that the grandparents are loving the blog too. Another mother told me that when she asks her son what he did at school that day he always replies, "Nothing". Last night they looked at the blog together and he described in great detail everything that he had done. That was what I had been hoping for when I started the blog, and I am finally feeling like it is a success.

On another note, my new next door neighbors moved in yesterday. I haven't met them yet, and I'm not sure whether it is the older couple who will be living there, or the younger couple with three small children. There have been a lot of people in and out and I am not sure which ones will be living there and which ones are just helping with the move. When I went out to pick my tomatoes this afternoon I found something that will thrill Ava, Liv, and Grandma, but it doesn't really make me happy!

Okay, I admit, it's kind of a cute weiner dog, and it has a funny, raspy little bark. Again, I don't know if this is a permanent resident or a visitor. Yesterday there was a black lab in the back yard. Who knows what might be there tomorrow!

More Problems

Well, Mom said that trouble comes in threes and that I should be done for a while, but apparently she was wrong.

We got our great thunder storm last night and again this morning. I was loving the storm until about 10 p.m. until I noticed that there was a bubble about a foot in diameter forming on my kitchen ceiling. I called Aaron this morning and he came over and sealed the flashing around my furnace and oven exhaust vents. That was on the agenda for tomorrow when he comes over to finish the metal around the chimney, but apparently it couldn't wait that long.

I was going to paint my kitchen today but I figured that I might as well wait until Mike comes over to fix the hole in my ceiling, so maybe next Saturday.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that I don't have any more problems!