Closing in...

The tile comes tomorrow and Michael and Randy have been working on the trim all weekend. I've been pretty sick, but tried to go help last night. I lasted about an hour, then Michael had to take me home. Bonnie stayed in the truck the whole day. We're wondering if she knows something about the skunk! Michael was also putting a lot into getting the pantry units put together so Randy could get those installed today. We're counting up the number of things that need to be done today before the tile and the list is quite lengthy! Guess I better pull myself together and get down there!!

Well, now, that's just purty...

Every once in a while, you really get to let go with a cake! This was the case with this one. It was a surprise party for his wife and he wanted a birthday cake. But for just wanting a birthday cake, he sure had a lot of requests! But just about the time you think you've outdone yourself, the only response is, "Yep, that's a cake." No, I don't get that much, but it's one of Michael's favorite lines when I really start thinking I'm something. But I'm about done with these surprise orders! Lining up the pick up or delivery on the sly can take more time than decorating the cake! I think Mom was just about to deliver it for him when she saw where he planned to put it. He was shoving stuff around in the trunk to make room, but she knew darn well that all that stuff was going to shift and topple down on the cake! Well, we haven't heard the final results, but we sure hope it got there looking like this!

My friend

This is Herman. He's my new friend. He's been poking around at the Blue House and appears to wish to stay. I'm not completely pleased about this, but he is extremely cute. But, as with all cute guys, he does have his downfall. No, he hasn't done anything wrong yet, but I know boys and it's only a matter of time. We've seen him the last couple of days and think he may be living in the crick somewhere, or in the big log we've tried to burn twice. I called my dad since he claims to be a hot shot pest control manager of some sort, but he was busy. I'm thinking of calling the sheriff, but all he will do is call some hot shot pest control manager (a.k.a. "DAD") that won't have time until spring. I can just see how this goes... we finally get the house ready and can't move in because the neighbors have stunk it up. grrrrrr

Have to hurry

Really wanted to post last night's cake. It is so sharp. All red and black (plus some green leaves). It's for a restaurant's first anniversary.

But anyway, Michael's rounding up troops to head out to the blue house to unload all we got from Home Depot last night. We have a lot of cabinets to put together for Randy to install! And I already have a lot of dings and such to fix up with some spackle, too! All part of the job, I hear!

Busy day... have to play later, but had to get this cake up!

Kitchen Progress

My kitchen seems to be coming together! The cupboards all went in Wednesday, then they started on the cabinets and island Thursday. The guys took a long weekend to Branson, against my better judgement. Not that they asked me. There couldn't be anything more important in Branson!! Randy has to build the island countertop because it's so big. We're really excited about that. We have a 36" base in the middle, and we're wishing it was a 24" to give more room around it, but I'm sure nothing would be perfect anyway. Always depends on how many people are in the kitchen! The electrician is coming back to finish up the lighting today. Michael sent me to get a home theatre system and said not to spend over $400. Well, of course, the one the guy said I HAD to have was over $600, but while he was looking for kitchen speakers, I ran into a display of them for $48. Really had me baffled on that one. Sure, it didn't have the whoop-de-doo receiver thingy, and you had to buy your own brackets for the speakers ($8 at Walmart), but that's what I got. Done. Now to explain to Michael. I tried to tell him I spent the $400 so I could feel better about getting a good system, but he said he had told me to only spend $300. I reminded him that he shouldn't have sent me. So I said fine, it was only $250. After arguing and negotiating a price I had already paid, he called my bluff and asked for the receipt. Bad call. I threw it away. Well, no convincing him of that. Any woman that can tell you exactly what the household spent on Mountain Dew last year doesn't throw away a receipt for a sound system. Bummer. Definitely sold out there. So he found out what it cost and wasn't too upset at all... yet. We'll see what the electrician thinks about it!
The other photo is Morgan cleaning up. You might think I have a great kid there, and I do, but what he's really doing is gathering up sawdust for himself! They play in it like it's sand or something, but since I haven't found anything contextually disrespectful or morally reprehensible about it, I'm letting that one go! Happy cleaning!!

Hanging lights!!

...And I don't mean Christmas lights!! Chris got nearly all the light fixtures up yesterday!! It's really coming together! Morgan got some pictures for me. (And a great job there, too. Out of 32 photos, 5 were keepers!) He also got all the outlets and most of the switches hooked up, too. I changed my mind on a couple of rooms, so after work I ran up to Home Depot to get more paint, a couple more light fixtures, several switches, a doorbell, and a whole cart load of light bulbs! (What? Those don't come with?) My deep blue wasn't working in my room, so I wanted something truly black. I found one in the Disney paints called "Mouse Ears" and figured those to be black! Then I found one in the brand I like called "Dark Secrets." There ya go. That's what you need in your bedroom! Anyway, the guy mixing them said they both take nothing more than black. 16 ounces of black! So we'll see if that fixes my problem. Probably not, but maybe it will fix my walls. So the dining room (see Morgan's outlet photo) is back to its original color. I tried a faux finish, but really didn't like it as much as the solid color. So now it's back to solid. I also tried to do a neat glow in my living room, but it didn't really do for me what the solid did, so I got more living room paint, too. Today's project! Home Depot knows me by name now. I'm not saying they don't run and hide, but they do know me. When we got back with all the stuff (Mom was precious enough to go with me!), we went straight to the blue house to unload it. Chris had a light on for me! I had minimal bulbs there at the house, but he put one in an outside light for me. He's really cool. Dad also came and shortened the extenders for my palm frond fans in the living room. He's so cool, too. Those are the greatest fans ever. Except the globes. Stupid globes looked like someone sprayed them with that tacky frost junk ya spray in trailer park windows. grrr. New globes. The ones I really wanted were about $12 each. Now I can multiply 12 times 8, but at that particular moment I chose not to and to keep looking for something I can live with! They aren't great, but they're better. So after unloading and getting back home, we were crawling in bed about midnight, so first service is a little less attractive today... but it's my turn for the shower, so things will look brighter in a few minutes!

Been Busy

Well, I took the week off work to paint, and I got pretty far, but not far enough!! I had to leave the living room so we could spray the trim, but all the other rooms have at least two coats. The bedrooms have three coats, and the boys' even has four so far. It would be nice to give it one more, but we'll see. These photos are the mudroom (with the red door) and the kitchen. Nothing photographed well on the first try, but I'm posting these anyway. My little helper there is Morgan. My hands are killing me, so this is it for now! Might get some more up later this week.