this blog is on hiatus for a month or so

It's summer. The kids are outside in the pool, playing with the hose & running around the yard. I have to be with them & my laptop has a high gloss screen, making it impossible to use outside due to glare. Also, it's thunderstorm season, usually in the early evening, which means no computer use during them. So I will be catching up on my reading during this enforced lack of computer time. I am planning on rereading all 10 SPQR books, all 18 Didius Falco books I own and several dozen library books as well. I'm also experimenting with bread recipes that don't involve a bread machine. Mine broke & I'd rather put the $100 for a new one toward a Kitchen Aid 6 quart Professional stand mixer to replace the 4.5 quart Heavy Duty model we currently own.

And maybe I'll get a bit of scrapping in when I can use the computer. See you in July!

Love it or Hate it?

Scary Movies - hate them. They don't give me nightmares but they keep me from sleeping.
Amusement Parks - love them. I love riding rides, though most give me motion sickness now. I even love the rides at fairs
Valentines Day - I'm neutral. I love an excuse to eat chocolate but no one needs to get me anything
working out - I've learned to love it. After 2 years of regular workouts I really miss it when I gon't go
tattoos - love most of them. Not to fond of the death & destruction themed ones, but I love the art in general. I have 4 and I am seriously freaked out about needles. The difference about tattoos is, they are not an injection, and you don't have this big syringe coming at you. The needles are encased in a machine, you don't see them. They scratch you, not stick into you like a shot does. It burns more than hurts.
guacamole - love it. Homemade is best, that way I can control the onions (I don't like onions much)
Hillary Clinton - she worries me. I don't love her or hate her. I won't be voting for her but that is nothing to do with her, I just have this thing about voting 3rd party whenever available.
Napolean Dynamite - the movie - hated it
Meat Loaf - love the food and the singer. Paradise by the Dashboard Lights brings back so many fun memories
Forwarded Emails (videos, stories, etc.) - hate them. All of them, even the cute babies dressed up like fruit. Especially the "totally true stories" that a 15 second visit to www.snopes.com would prove false. Please, ask yourself before you hit send "If I had to pay for sending this, would I still send it?"

Sweet Shoppe survey

Q1: If you could vacation anywhere in the world where would you go and why?
I'd go back to England. There were so many things we wanted to do & see while we were there on our honeymoon and we lacked the time & money to do them all.

Q2: What cartoons do you absolutely detest & refuse to allow anyone to watch {be it child, spouse- haha, nieces/nephews.. etc just plain don’t want it viewed on your television)?
Sponge Bob. i think he is obnoxious & the boys don't need his example

Q3: You just woke up, you’re a mess, haven’t showered, there are dishes in the sink.. There’s a knock at the door, what do you do?
Depends on what room I am in & where the boy are. we have French doors. Anyone outside can see in them to the kitchen. If I am alone & in the living room or bedroom I'll just peek out the curtains & see who it is, answering or not depending on that. If the boys are home or I am in the kitchen, then the person is basically looking right at me. Depending on who they are I'll open the door or speak with them with the door closed.

Q4:When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thought that ran through your mind?
Goodness those 'fine lines' are getting deeper

Q5. Tell me a story about your Dad..
My dad is good person, very giving. He does a lot of work with teen boys through baseball. There was a boy who was a very very good player and Dad thought he had an excellent chance of getting a scholarship to college & maybe even make the majors. If his grades improved. The kid was from the projects, his dad was absent, his mom was busy providing for her kids & didn't have the time to take an interest in this. My brother & I were out of the house by this time & my parents took this boy into their home, helped him through 2 years of HS and into college. Dad has helped a number of low income teens, boys & girls track themselves into college with grades & athletic scholarships.

Q6: You open your drawer, find 1 pink polka dotted sock and 1 black sock with reindeer on it.. Do you wear them together and hope no one sees them or go without socks today & hope your feet don’t get sweaty?
go without socks

Q7: Are there any strange stains on your carpet, floor, walls, ceiling or couch? Do you know how they got there?
Our old carpet was full of them, most of them from juice spills or coffee spills. The new floor is still to new.

Q8: Are you neighbors annoying???
My nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away. he'd have to be trying very very hard to be able to annoy me. Somebody within a mile or so lets their dogs run wild and a black one keeps getting into our trash.

Q9: Are you a phone person.. if I called you right now would you chat with me? lol
I like to chat on the phone so yeah, I'd talk to you. :)

Q10: What colour popsicle would you like.. Orange, Purple, Red, Yellow, Green, Pink or Blue?
Purple

some books & a discovery

My longtime readers (all 2 of you) will know that I am a major Douglas Adams fan, can pretty much recite the books (thanks to listening to them on audio so many times) and never pass up a chance to work a reference to them into everything I write. I know because I am an American, there are bits & pieces of things I still don't catch in them; references to things that I am simply not going to catch because of my nationality & my age. So I am always pleased when i find one. In his book "The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul", Kate visits a mental hospital called The Woodshead, while looking for Thor. There is a line in there, that when I read it, means nothing, but I've always thought it was given some emphasis on the audio version. Given that Douglas Adams himself is the narrator, I've long suspected I was missing something. The line is "I don't want to see anything along the 'Something Nasty in the Woodshead' business, being repeated". The speaker is referring to some unfortunate recent publicity. But I've recently come across a book of that title. The book was written in the late 70's and is 3rd in a crime/comedy-noir series, that apparently was a cult classic in Britain. It may be nothing, but given that I have always thought there was an unnecessary to the plot emphasis given to that line by Adams in the audio version, I really wonder if he named the place that just to be able to refer to the book. Which is something I can totally imagine him doing.

Being the orderly person I am, I cannot just read that book. I have to read the first 2 first. They are Don't Point That Thing at Me and After You with the Pistol. I have them on audio and am listening to the 1st one. I am enjoying it, but I think perhaps I might be better off reading it. I felt that way about Jasper Fforde's books in the beginning as well but ended up listening to 4 out of 6 of them before ever reading one and loved them all. It's mostly a matter of pacing. The book itself moves along well but the narrator does not.

I have that problem with things by Frances Mayes too. Under the Tuscan Sun was a great read and I suspect A Year in the World is as well. But they are both read by her on my audio versions and the pacing just kills me. She is a poet and she reads her prose
as if
it
were
a
poem..
with endless meaningful pauses. I haven't finished Year yet. I get bored with it and it makes me sleepy because she has this soft, melodic voice (great for poetry, not so much for prose) A friend of mine apparently has a version of Year that is read by someone else because she said the pacing was very good on hers. Under the Tuscan Sun was ok with pacing but really should have had the recipes abridged out of it.

April round up

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I read Victorian London by Liza Picard, Courtesans (can't recall the author) and the Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. I reread Cooking for Mister Latte, Marriage with My Kingdom and several Agatha Christie mysteries. I also listened to seveal audiobooks including The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, Heat and The Well of Lost Plots.

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

Various things. I don't watch much network stuff. I'm sick of crime drama and prefer my reality TV to focus on home improvement. I like "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel (but it is in reruns until July), and I've been hooked on "Robin Hood" on BBC America. I watch Mythbusters & Dirty Jobs as well.

What special days did I celebrate and how?

The 15th was my mom's birthday. We called her & the boys wished her a happy birthday.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

None given or received

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

I had some back problems. Drake had an ear infection

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

What were this month's disappointments?

What were my accomplishments this month?

Anything else noteworthy to record?

how embarrassing

I just paid a repairman $60 to plug in my stove. I feel like an incredible idiot. But given the situation I can't see how I could have known. This is what happened:

DH makes cookies at 3pm on Sunday. Oven is working just fine. At 5pm I set it to preheat, but it only reaches 135 (so it *was* working) and then cuts out. The burners don't work either. However the digital clock display and the timer work just fine. So obviously something to do with heating has broken on it. It's an 11 year old stove & we've had to replace the heating coil once already. Monday I call a repair place, tell them the problem. They say something about circuit boards. So they aren't thinking about it either. Repair shops, unlike tech support, do not ask "Is the appliance plugged in?" before proceeding to troubleshoot. Even if they had I would have said "well sure it is" without looking because it's STOVE not a printer & the odds of it somehow coming unplugged without a noticeable amount of deliberate effort on my part, are really quite slim. The plug is behind the stove, you have to move it out of the way and pretty much CLIMB OVER IT to unplug it. And I am not the sort of fanatical cleaner who insists on moving appliances to clean behind them on a regular basis. Once a year, maybe. So it has been MONTHS since that stove was moved, maybe even a year or more. And the stove WAS WORKING all this time. Seriously, would 'maybe the plug came loose' have occurred to you given the situation?

The guy comes here, moves the stove, says "the plug is loose" pushes it all the way in and the stove works fine. he checked out the circuit board and other electronics to be sure but as it says on the receipt "Plugged stove in" is what he did.

oven problems

Our oven has stopped heating. It worked fine to make cookies about 2pm but then when I turned it on at 5pm it only heated to 135 and then stopped working at all. We had to replace the heating element within a year of buying the house. I can't recall what we spent. The oven was only a year or so old & Ithink the part was covered but we had to pay $50-60 for someone to come out, tell us it was the part and then come back & put the part in. Now, at more than 10 years old, we'll no doubt have to pay for the part as well. So we looked at stoves online. A straight replacement of our bottom of the Maytag stove will cost $250. Upgrading to the ceramic cooktop (which we've said we would do some day) would be $400. Upgrading still further to the ceramic cooktop and double stove model (which is my dream) would be $1000. I'll call Maytag in the morning & see how much the repair will run.

I cooked dinner in the toaster oven. It worked fine. Its just small. I need to search out my smallest baking dishes & see if they fit because odds are, that oven won't be fixed until some time after we get back from FL.

layout for today

We lost one of our cats on Monday. DH found Buddah on the porch in the morning. He had apparently passed on while laying in front of his box. The scraplift challenge at scrapbookgraphics.com inspired me to do this layout of him.

I am surprised at how few photos we have of him, or that I can find anyway. I've been going through all the photos for the digi camera years & copying out the ones with any of the cats in them into a separate folder. I found one packet of pics of the cats in with the rest of my photos and scanned them but I am sure I had more.

I'm starting to get stuff together for our flight on Thursday. A friend offered to take us tot he airport & for a bit it looked like I could ride home with DH. But that's not working out. I called around for airport taxis but it's $150-200 from here to the airport. I'll cost me about $100 in parking fees and gas to drive myself. Is it worth $50 to not have to deal with getting from baggage claim to the back of beyond parking with a double stroller, large rolling suitcase, 4 carry ons and 2 small boys at bedtime. Not from where I am sitting right now. But I can't say how I will feel when I land after 2 2 hour flights and a 90 minute layover with all of the above. Previous experience leads me think I'll be thinking "i'd pay $200 not to have to deal with this right now". But I'd have to travel with the car seats. Sure they can be used on the plane, but I'd have to take them from check in, through security to whatever distant terminal my flight is departing from. Along with all the aforementioned items except the rolling suitcase. Do they allow bungee cords through security? Because the only way I can see to manage it is to bungee the car seats into the stroller and then sit the kids in the seats, which is probably unsafe and will lead to the kids falling out. So I am driving up.

While I'm down in FL I'm hoping to have time to work on the pregnancy album I am creating for 1hourscrap. As usual I overcomplicated it by deciding to do all these different options & had to toss nearly everything & start over. I'm planning on using the flight time (assuming the boys actually *watch* the DVD I am bringing) to rework my ideas, make a full list of what I want to include & how I want to include it, so I can just sit & do it once we are there & the grandparents are playing with the boys.

dinner

It was not on the planned menu but Safeway had a sale on leg of lamb so I decided to get it. I had them cut it in half for me because the smallest was 6lbs and really, there is no way that would get eaten. I've never made lamb before. To the best of my knowledge I have never eaten lamb before, though there is a hazy childhood recollection in my memory of skillet fried lamb chops that were as tough as shoe leather. They might have been pork chops though. My mom cooked pork to death as it were. I remember smoked pork chops and ham steaks that were dry & tough because I suppose prevailing wisdom was to cook pork so it was inedible to avoid trychsy something or other. I hated pork chops until DH cooked some that were tender and juicy for me.

Anyway, back to the lamb, my culinary adventure of the month. Not much of a cooking adventure. Joy told me to roast it to 135 & that it would take 1.5-1.75 hours for a 7lb roast. It suggested rubbing it with oil and perferating the skin and sliding garlic slices into the slits but that seemed like rather a lot of work when I could just put it in a bag and pour some garlic & olive oil dressing in there for a marinade. It marinaded most of the afternoon. It roasted for 40 minutes & came out pink. It was delicious!!! Tender & juicy, like the best steak ever only more flavorful. I'm glad I have the other half left & may go buy another one if they are still on sale. I also steamed some asparagus & made some couscous. It was a really good meal. And for probably the first time ever I had the right amount of meat. No leftovers, but plenty for everyone.

Feast

from this site

Appetizer When you travel, which mode of transportation do you prefer?

I prefer to travel by train but can't afford the cost to time ratio. It takes 12 hours by rail to get to my parents. I can drive there in 18 for a quarter of the cost or fly there in 3 for the same price. I like the room you have in a train, especially an overnight trip. You can get up and walk around and there is scenery & you can look at it without having to watch the road as well. It's nicer than a plane, roomier, you can spread out more. Some day i would like to take the family on one of those scenic 3 day trips out west.

Soup Have you ever met a blogging friend in person?

No I have not, though I might in June.

Salad When was the last time you were really, really tired?

I was really really tired from about mid 2002 until Dec 2005 when I started taking Lunesta. I was barely functioning with a newborn and then pregnant with an infant and then had a newborn & a toddler and chronic bronchitis. If I slept 3 hours in 24 it was a lot of sleep. My memory was shot, my motor skills were faulty, my personality was non-existent. It was a very bad time for me. Since then I have only been really really tired twice. Dh was out of town and my younger son was up most of 2 nights in a row & I had no opportunity to nap.

Main Course If you could have dinner with any one fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be?

Tough one, either Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Thursday Next from the Eyre Affair (and other books)

Dessert Fill in the blank: One day, I hope to see _______________.

my great grandchildren

new menu

It's the beginning of the month so it is time for a new 2 week menu. The interesting side dish thing has continued to be a problem & lunch is becoming a serious issue for me. I am instead trying to get more veggies into the main dish & make meals with leftovers that will serve as decent, protein based lunches. I eat way too many carbs during the day. we are also still recovering from $1000 in unexpected auto expenses so keeping the cost down and not going out to eat must be included. I'm also trying to reuse multiple ingredients so I can 'chop once, cook twice' though I have timing issues with it and food sometimes goes bad. So this is what I have in no real order

Pasta primavera (Buttoni tortellini with broccoli & squash & pesto)
Frittata with potato & squash and a salad
Braciole (flank steak is on sale this week) with garlic broccoli side
Beef ragou (also with flank steak) side TBD
Grilled chicken & sweet potato salad (includes other veggies)
Pizza, with grilled chicken & artichokes
Pork schnitzel with honey garlic carrots & salad
Turkey cutlets with creamed spinach
Chicken & bean antipasta (includes artichokes & spinach)
Pasta TBD
Pocket sandwiches of turkey, artichokes & spinach
Grilled tilapia & beets

All of it but the pasta, piza and the fish make decent leftovers for lunch & on those days I'm thinking yogurt, hummus & carrots, and hard boiled eggs. Possibly some salad depending on the leafy greens situation. Pasta tomorrow night & I think after that the chicken & sweet potato salad (assuming a ripe avocado can be found).

Hopefully we'll be back to dinners out again next month & I'll be able to buy some digi supplies as well. I've got a plan to bring in some extra money to subsidize my digi habit & Quizno's addiction but it'll take a couple of months before all the paperwork is done. However it has the potential to become a long term WAH job to carry over once the kids are in school full time.

share your plans for April

re you done with Spring Cleaning yet? Are you going to play some practical jokes (or even pranks, LOL!) come April Fool’s? Do you practice Lent? What are your plans for Easter?

Yes I am done with my Spring Cleaning. I do a 'spring cleaning' 8 times a year and just did my most recent right before Ostara (Mar 21). I'll do my next at the end of April, right before Beltane (May 1)

I would love to play pranks on people but I'm not very good at it and don't really have anyone to do it on, except DH. I don't practice Lent or celebrate Easter because I am pagan. Our holiday of renewal was on Mar 21, the vernal equinox,when we celebrate the rebirth of nature & the increase of light. The boys and I went outside with drums and woke up the trees then we had a ritual meal of symbolic foods - omlette, spinach salad and new bread.

My plans for April mostly revolve around the yard. We have to dig out an old parking area and till it, fertilize it and the current play area and reseed. That's going to take most of the month. We also have to get started on prepping the rest of the garden and ordering some more trees. Plus I have issues with my computer desk that are going to need addressed with some carpentry.

reading

These are some questions from the Sweet Shoppee weekly “From Our Blog To Yours” event.

Amazon or brick and mortar? Wherever the price is best. I'll browse books at B&N and then look them up on Amazon and half.com & wherever the deal is best I'll buy. I'll also check my library for a copy as well.
Bookmark or dog ear? dog ear my books, bookmark library books
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Grouped by subject but not alphabetized
Keep, throw away, or sell? Depends on the book. I keep the ones I love, sell the ones that are worth a decent price and donate the rest
Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep
Read with dust jacket or remove it? With it on
Short story or novel? Novels and essays
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I've only read one book of each and didn't really care for either. Lemony Snicket if I had to choose
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? When I get tired I read to a chapter ending.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Depends on my mood.
Buy or Borrow? Borrow if it is a new author or one I just like, buy if it is an author I know I love
New or used? Used
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Browse followed by recommendations followed by reviews
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Unless it is a series I like tidy endings
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Whenever I have time. :) I listen to audiobooks during the day in my car and at the gym and I read in the evenings
Stand-alone or series? I do either.
Favorite series? Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series
Favorite children’s book? The Narnia Chronicls
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Dirk Gentley's Holisitic Detective Agency
Favorite books of all time? David Eddings Belgariad & Mallorean serieses
Least favorite book you finished last year? David Edding's "The Younger Gods". His first 2 series (Belgariad & Mallorean) were awesome. His second 2 series (Elenium & Tamuli) were very good. His last one (the Dreamers) was just plain horrible
What are you reading right now? Insatiable by Gael Greene
What are you reading next? I'm not sure but I'll probably reread Julie & Julia or check if the latest Anne Perry mystery is at the library

Sweet SHoppe blog prompts

1. If you could witness one supernatural event–whether you believe in the supernatural or not–what would it be? Why? I do believe in the supernatural. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a supernatural event, but it certainly is mystical. I'd like to witness an actual ritual at Stonehenge performed by the people that built it. There are a lot of theories why it was built & what was done there & I'd like to see the 'grand opening' events because I really would love to know why they built it.

2. What is your earliest memory? Why do you think you have remembered that particular event or thing? My earliest memory is of lying on something cold with a sheet over my face. I know I am in a hospital but that is all I know in my memory. I'm not scared or in pain. I'm mostly focused on the way the light looks coming through the sheet. I realize now that I am remembering when I had to get stitches in my forehead. I was about 3. I suppose I remember it because it was a significant thing to happen to you.

3. Pick a friend or acquaintance with whom you think you would like to start a new business venture. What business? We've actually discussed this with a couple friends. They teach yoga & one of them owns a bunch of land so the idea is to run a yoga retreat place. I'd be doing the admin stuff. I like yoga, but not enough to actually learn to teach it. Someone has to do the paperwork & that is what I am good at.

I wish someone had told me...

that disagreeing and arguing with someone does not mean you have to sever the relationship. You can be friends with people who disagree with you on things. You can even continue to love them. You can agree to disagree and respect one another's points of view. Disagreeing with an opinion is not the same as disliking a person. I don't know how many people in the first 25 years of my life I walked away from because we had one fight, one argument. They walked away as well, so its not just me who didn't know it. But I wish that was something that had been explained better to me when I was a child.

living room is done!

here are some 'after' shots



Please note, ifyou can see it, my beloved flat screen monitor is back :) It's new. They couldn't fix the old one so they replaced it with a new one that is actually bigger than the old one. I've scrapped 2 layouts since I set it up on Tuesday. :)

And now for the bad news. Yesterday I failed to miss a chuck of tree branch in the road. Hit it pretty much dead on the passenger side. Took out the crossbar on the underside of my car, which sheered the bolts out of the radiator. And that is just the damage I could see. Fortunately I was only a quarter mile from my house & made it into the driveway before the radiator really started leaking....ok, it gushed fluid as soon as I stopped the car. I had it towed to our mechanic that afternoon. Today I called and he says I'd better call my insurance as I have "significant damage' to the car and it needs to go to a body shop. DAMN! 2 weeks ago I got a letter from my insurance telling me that starting March 14th my payments were going down $10 a month. Wanna bet that doubles in the opposite direction? I called the insurance, they arranged for a rental car as I was bright enough to include that on my policy when we switched. I arranged for the mechanics to tow the car to the autobody place (Which is owned by a guy who used to work for the mechanic and is a customer of DH's company. gotta love small towns) I'd been told it would be 48 hours before an adjuster could look at it but he called me about an hour later & actually inspected the car before it left the mechanics shop. He also noticed a cracked front fender. The mechanic said my compressor had been damaged & possibly the transmission as something is still leaking fluid. Lovely. I just had that transmission replaced in August. Not being able to see the compressor or the transmission the adjuster did a claim for $1012 & is sending me a check for $512. If other stuff is needed they will just pay the autobody place directly. unless, and here is the kicker, the transmission is shot. Given the age, mileage and damage to the car (this is the second collision it's been in. DH failed to miss a heavy folded tractor trailer tarp in Nov 2002) they will declare the car totalled. We are so screwed if that happens. My car is paid off. We can't afford a car payment right now, not until DH's truck is paid off next Jan. we'll get at best $5000 for my car as a payout. I am so hoping there is nothing so significantly wrong with the car that they will call it totalled. I really need that car to last another year at least.

what I have been up too

I haven't been around much. I haven't done any layouts or any products for 1hourscrap. I haven't had a workspace for 2 weeks, with another week or so to go. We're finally getting wood flooring!!! It was supposed to be installed last week. So the week before I spent packing up the living room & moving what i could elsewhere in the house & then we were going to rent a moving can to hold the furniture we had no space for. Last Saturday we were ready to get loading when the guy calls & says he can't be here until next week. The guy is an old friend of ours. So I'm a bit peeved & decide that since the room is cleaned out & the furniture is already piled in the middle of the room, lets take the week & paint the walls. We picked out a medium golden yellow - pirate's treasure if you look on Lowe's and some chocolate brown for trim. The plan was to paint every night last week & get primer & 2 coats done. Primer got done & one coat got done & then we all had this 48 hour bug that kept us from doing the second coat. Saturday we go the truck, loaded it with the furniture & pulled up the carpet & tack strips. Today we were going to go get the plywood for the underlayment (it's concrete slab), but it's snowed 6 inches so far & now we are getting a sort of freezing drizzle thing. So we're stuck here. The other thing we were going to get was the cabinetry for the built in 2 workstation desk area DH is putting in where my old useless plastic shelving & odd desk were. I am so looking forward to that. Of course the snow means our friend probably won't be down tomorrow as planned, so that's another day of no floor. The living room is giant freezing echo chamber currently. Here are some pics of developments so far.

my computer area before clearing (taken by DS1 age 4)


the rest of the living room before clearing- taken this summer, we have new curtains now.


my computer area last week (I'm at the kitchen island at the moment)


the mostly empty living room


little boys painting primer


my work area in color


DH pulling up tack strips


I really hoping to be able to post next week pictures of a fully furnished living room with new carbonized bamboo flooring and custom built in office area. Or by the weekend after that at the very latest.....except the office area, which I am bracing myself for not being done until April. But here's hoping for the best

some new poducts of mine at 1hourscrap

I did some photo stacking quick pages


Some multiphoto quick pages


And some Love-ly word art


I'm working on templates that match the 2 quick page sets and another set with multiple photos.

Glory day!!!!

At long last, after 8 years of talking about it, planning for it, saving for it (then needing to spend the money on something else) we are finally getting wood flooring in the family room! Yippee!!!! We're going to Lumber Liquidators today to pick up the carbonized bamboo flooring we ordered. Next Saturday we go pick up the moving van we've rented to store our furniture for the week and then Sunday our friend who is going to install the floor is coming down to help us move the furniture & then get started with the floor. He'll be here about a week, living with us. He's DH's oldest friend and redid our kitchen while I was pg with DS1 - a 6 week project that stretched out to 14 weeks. He'll be sleeping in the playroom, which is where we will be during the day while the family room is redone. We have a family room, a kitchen, 3 bedrooms (one is the playroom & the boys share a bedroom) and 2 bathrooms. The family room is 1/3 of the house's square footage. It is going to be a big challenge to keep the boys occupied and out of the way while this is going on. DS1 is already suggesting ways he can help M with the floors. M has 2 kids about the boys age & has been renovating their home so I'm sure he is used to it. Hopefully he'll have a few tasks the demons can help with & then they'll be willing to go play in their room or watch a movie. Mel has already said we can spend an afternoon or 2 over at her house, but I don't want to impose too much. I'm thinking of calling DS1s preschool and see if I can't make some arrangements to have him stay in the aftercare program that week. They want you to sign up by month, for the whole month, but I'm hoping they might make an exception.

I am so excited about the floors! I have a construction kit around here somewhere, I think one of Christina Bartholomew's and plan on doing some flooring layouts.

combining things

I've done a fairly good job this week of getting my scrapping done and reading. I've completed a QP set for 1hourscrap, plus half a second set. I've got my stamps & word art uploaded. I've done 2 layouts for myself.

And I have read 3 books and am working on a 4th. These books are excellent! If you like fiction, you will love Jasper Fforde's books. I love wordplay. Puns are my favorite type of humor and his books are full of them. One of the characters in the books is the villain of a book called The Squire of High Potternuse. They are excellently written, well paced, have wonderful characters & the plots are engrossing. I not only have a hard time putting one of the books down, I have a hard time not starting the next one immediately. The one's featuring Thursday Next are better than the ones with Jack Spratt (and if you can manage it read the first 3 Next books before reading the Spratt ones) but all of them are highly entertaining. I am reading the 4th Next book now & hope to finish it tonight after the boys are in bed. Then I have the 2nd Spratt one.