A Red Letter Day

This evening marks the end of a long, dirty, difficult process: I finally finished scraping all the nasty popcorn texture from our ceilings.

The family room and kitchen were scraped about 12 years ago; the kids bedrooms were scraped one year ago. That left the master bedroom, bath, and closet; the two hallways; and the living room and dining room, all done in the past month.

I also finished patching and sanding the dings and holes today.

Next up: priming and painting the ceilings, then painting all the walls and trim in the master bedroom, bath, and closet; dining room, living room, family room, and kitchen; and back hall. The family room and kitchen ceilings need repainting, so I might as well do them while I have the paint tools out.

Memorial Day Fun

Trike Tricks

Heather and Jared suggested a day at the lake in celebration of Memorial Day. We concurred, and Greta and Daniel joined us at our favorite beach in the morning. Not wanting to get sunburned, we left by noon and headed home for a feast of Chuck's (becoming) famous ribs with sides. We finished off with homemade ice cream.

The Ice Snatcher

Shuttle or No?

Our attempt at viewing the next-to-last shuttle launch last week didn't pan out, but we had fun in Florida anyway. The Professor and I drove down on Thursday (and saw a tornado-damaged area on the way).

The next day we made it all the way to a quiet spot on Cocoa Beach before we heard that the launch was canceled.
Oh well. Our walk on the beach was fun and the day was beautiful. The next morning we enjoyed a picnic on the beach before heading home.

A Blessed Easter

Happy Easter! He is Risen! (He is risen indeed!)

Wonderful music and worship at church

A delicious ham 'n lamb dinner on the patio...

...the boys prefaced it with an appetizer of an entire can of olives (just the two of them).

Fun family times at home

Ready for the little kids' egg hunt.

Luke on a collecting spree...

...while Patrick discovers that eggs grow on trees!

The big kids' egg hunt.

Moving Days

Heather and Jared are mostly moved in now; just a few boxes remain here in the closet.Patrick welcomes you to his new house.Come on in!Making things comfy.
Part of the moving crew hoping for a lunch break.
Lets' eat! The dining room is barely big enough to hold the table.

Granddad puts together Patrick's crib....

...so that Luke can get back to playing.

Boys horsing around.

Busy Spring

We're in activity overload right now.

Today is moving day #1 for the foursome. They have an apartment awaiting them about 12 miles away, not too far from Jared's new office. Today Heather and I will move as many boxes as we are able, using my van. Then tomorrow the rental truck will be packed with all the heavy things. And helpers are scheduled to be here bright and early.

Palm Sunday evening is our church's Seder banquet. I'm on the committee; my main responsibilities are recruiting helpers for all areas, and getting the tables decorated and set. I have identified tasks for 25 helpers so far. I'm pricing paper tableware, and I'm hoping we can finally buy real metal flatware instead of plastic.

Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are special events for childrens' Sunday School. I have a number of extra jobs to get done for both of those Sundays.

Our annual garage sale is tentatively scheduled for late April. Half the garage is full already, awaiting pricing and setting up on tables. It will be a big job as usual, but I expect all sellers to help with pricing and set up. My rule is: anything I have to price becomes mine.

House renovations begin the day after H and J are fully moved out. I promised myself that I will take this opportunity to scrape all the remaining popcorn texture from our ceilings. I will start in the master bedroom and bath/closet, and then proceed to the hall, the living room, the dining room, and then finally the little back hall. After scraping, I will need to patch and sand (maybe several times; it depends on my scraping skill). Then I will prime and paint the bare drywall in all of the listed rooms. Then I will move on to paint the walls in all of the same rooms, plus the kitchen and family room (that's most of the house). After the walls comes the trim. Next, there's a little electrical work that needs to be done professionally. And then, finally, I will get to start fresh on decorating the master bedroom. I hope that will include some new furniture, as well as new window coverings and bed linens.

Maybe I will finish by Christmas.

Brothers

This week our weather has been so lovely; we have eaten meals outside several times now.

The boys have been having a grand time in the backyard. But they are a little too brave in their explorations ~ they love to climb the stairs and venture out on the steep hill and across the top of the high retaining wall. Nanas don't like to see them up there alone.

They each have their own tricycle now and they love to ride all over the patio, one chasing the other. Patrick can't reach the pedals so he runs his little feet faster than a blur across the patio. It is really funny.