Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A laundry riddle for you...

How does one thirteen-year-old girl go through fourteen pair of underwear in one week? And then not even realize that she's worn fourteen pair of underwear so that she then is forced to clean and organize all her drawers and fish out luggage to search for said underwear?

If you come up with the answer, let me know.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Too Fried for Prose

Another busy week at the Page House! Because my brain isn't organized enough to link coherent thoughts, here is a list of the highlights.
  • Devon was diagnosed with shingles. He was quite miserable for most of the week, but thankfully is recovering well. Most of the lesions have scabbed over, and he appears to be on the mend.
  • We also thought that Nikki had come down with the chickenpox, as she had a red, bumpy rash all over her stomach. However, it never developed beyond that.
  • We finished painting the master bath and the dining room. The bathtub and vanity were delivered by our favorite contractor. We also have a door, but the one in the master bedroom won't be coming for another month. Pictures forthcoming soon.
  • Tomorrow we start Vacation Bible School, always a highlight. Today was spent decorating the Community Center like the Grand Canyon. Our camping gear was called back into service. We're looking forward to a fun week!
  • We have a new washing machine. Ours broke on the second load after returning from Yosemite. I'm still catching up on laundry, as it took a week for the new one to come.
  • The air conditioner has been repaired TWICE since our return from Yosemite. It's working hard to cool the bigger house, but is much more effective since the repairs. Also nice are the cooler evenings.
  • I got to see the new Harry Potter movie. :)
  • I finished Wuthering Heights and am back on literary fast-food with the next installment of the Outlander Series.
  • Our niece, Lauren, is coming to visit on Saturday. We're going to take the kids to Hollywood. It should be fun.
Hope you're having fun, too!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Painting

We've been too busy painting to blog.

Boo LOVES to paint!

Teamwork!


Painting is messy business. :)

Painty toes.

Nikki's new room. She opted to splatter her paint. (???)

The girls are happy to be back in their own room after six weeks of being displaced.

Hmmmm....


Master Bedroom. We think it looks like a mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich. It still needs the chair rail and molding, but at least it's painted!

And that's what we've been up to.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Where to start?

We are back from Yosemite. In an answer to prayer, we have no bear stories to tell. I think this is in large part due to the fact that it is entirely too cold for anyone to survive a night where we were camping, so the bears intelligently moved to the valley. Regardless, I am grateful to have returned without incident.

Yosemite was BEAUTIFUL and we camped right on the Merced River. Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying that particular amenity.

I think my favorite day was spent in the valley at Happy Isles and Mirror Lake. Gorgeous.

Goddad rigged a solar shower, which made the trip bearable.

On Thursday, I even got to wash my hair in Curry Village. Unfortunately, we also ate in the cafeteria there, which resulted in Godmom and I puking all night. Did you know that it's very inconvenient to vomit while camping? First, zipping oneself out of sleeping bags and tents does not make it easy to vomit outside the company of others. Recognizing this, I moved into the van for the night, where the door just swings right open and provides easy access to bushes. I considered driving down to the bathroom, but that would have required entirely too much movement. Godmom, however, did make it to the bathroom, where she sat on a rock outside for about three hours. Did I mention it was COLD where we were? We're talking low 40's at night. When I found this out Friday morning, I felt quite guilty about not moving the van down there.

We came home Saturday to find that my wonderful mother had cleaned all of the bathrooms and washed our sheets. I am relishing my access to plumbing. :)

While we were gone, Scott accepted a position at Clairemont High School. For the first time in our married life, we will be working in different places. I'm sure it will be a great opportunity for growth.

We are currently painting the house. Last night, we spent about three hours priming. We're not done with the two rooms we started. It's going to be a long week.

We painted last night because during the day I had to go into school to interview a prospective English teacher. We were required to offer her the position. I tried to be as scary as possible. We'll see.

And right now I should be changing into painting clothes and getting started. Today my skin and hair will be green. Lovely, yes? It will be great when it's done, it will be great when it's done...

Hasta luego.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Update

The week started out on a low, but went uphill.

A member of our congregation died of stomach cancer on Sunday. She worked in the office and all three of her kids (who are in high school/first year of college) are very active in the church. She was only 45.

We also found out that the principal we thought would be ours will not, in fact, be ours. Instead, we have to hire a new one. In the meantime, we are losing more and more teachers, my husband being a prime candidate.

So on Tuesday I left town for San Francisco. I took a recently-graduated student up for her orientation, and we stayed with Jackie at her apartment. It was SO FUN and SO NICE to be away from all the turmoil of construction, grief, and indecision. I got home yesterday afternoon.

Today we ordered the cabinets for the kitchen and the vanity for the bathroom. We now have a very large credit balance with Home Depot. However, I am very excited about the new kitchen. It's going to be GREAT!

Nikki also came back from confirmation camp today. She had a great time.

I know this is not even remotely interesting or entertaining, but that's what we're up to. Just thought you'd like to know.