Yes, we felt the quake!

I was at home, in front of the computer, researching window dressings, when it hit.

It was quite a bit of jerking and rolling. The lights were swaying, and I did hear something crash in the kitchen but I'm still not sure what that was.

A few things got knocked over, but we are OK.

More later....

We've only just begun ...

This morning the painter was officially "finished". He took his check, shook our hands, and skedaddled outa here before I could ask him to do one more thing.

Now my work begins.

Today I was able to accomplish the following:

• buy liner paper
• buy fun inserts for drawers to help organize things
• line all drawers
• put stuff back in drawers
• stare at the stuff I don't want to put back in the drawers but I'm not sure what to do with
• wash kitchen window inside and out
• notice that my front porch is really dusty and sweep off all the dust!
• put new curtains on kitchen windows
• decide I need an extra curtain swag and more inserts for drawers
• help Ben install new medicine cabinet in bathroom
• take out dishes and re-line 2 shelves in kitchen
• rewash dishes with dust all over them
• wash glass orbs of kitchen lamp with dust all over it
• dust mini blinds
  

I'm sure there was more but it's all I can remember.

Now that everything is out of my kitchen it looks so nice. I hate to put everything back in. Only problem is that everything I don't want to put back in my kitchen is piled all over my dining room.

Turned Inside Out

7/23/08 I believe that "inside out" pretty accurately describes my kitchen right now. A very large portion of my kitchen is now residing in my dining room. There are no places to set anything down ... and last night we had to eat standing up.

According to the painter, his goal is to be done by Friday. He is very motivated to finish since he has a hiking/camping trip coming up next week that he can't miss!

I'm looking at the kitchen and am seeing that he still needs to take all the cupboards down, take off all the hardware, sand, prime, paint, dry, paint again, and then rehang all the doors. Do you really think he's gonna be done in 2 days? Granted ... my kitchen is small.

7/24/08 This morning I emptied out every single drawer in my kitchen. Where does this stuff come from? There was no time to sort through anything, just dump it in boxes and stash it somewhere else in the house. I found a first aid kit I didn't know I had!

Watching Todd taking down all the cabinet doors is bringing back memories of when Ben and I first moved into this house. We sanded and painted all those cabinet doors ourselves. What a big job that was! I'm glad we aren't doing that again.

Library Elf

Today a very good friend told me about Library Elf and I will be forever grateful!

It used to be I could keep track of my library books. That was a long time ago, when it was just me, and my life was under control. My memory is a little hazy but I do remember those days.

Now that I'm trying to keep track of books for three (and sometimes four) different people, managing the due dates is a little more challenging. Back in the "olden" days librarians used to date stamp every book with the date due. I miss that skinny little date stamper! Our librarian was able to stamp that guy right between the lines every time! Now they have computer generated printouts that are much too easy to lose.

So I end up losing the printout, forgetting when books are due, and paying fines.

Well not any more!!!

Today I was introduced to Library Elf.

Library Elf is my new best friend! The service is free. Simply register your library cards and Library Elf takes care of the rest. Now I will get messages in my email any time a book is close to being due. No more past due notices in the mail!

Can you tell I'm excited about this?

San Diego Wild Animal Park

What a great weekend! We got to get away from the house painting for a little while and escape to San Diego. Our good friends invited us to go to the Wild Animal Park with them.... they are such wonderful hosts!

We had to wake up early though...

Ellie sleeping on the way to San Diego.

I don't usually take pictures of my children sleeping in the back seat, but with the bunny and puppy also buckled in, I couldn't resist. Do you see the pink box next to her? That has all the clothes she packed for her bunny. Bunny travels light.

We aren't sure if we saw lots of mama ducks with babies at the park, or if it was just the same mama and babies stalking us all day.

I feel kinda sad for the last duckling.

One of the things on our to-do list was "feed the ducks". Put 50 cents in a machine and out pops some nutritious duck chow. One mama duck was aggressively defending her territory so that her babies could get all the duck chow. Any time another duck or water bird came close, she would chase them away. Eventually all the other ducks went to the other side of the pond and left mama and her babies alone.


The girls were soooo looking forward to feeding the lorikeets! Ellie got to feed lorikeets at a recent field trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific, so she was giving Claire pointers. Both girls got their arms a little scratched up from the sharp lorikeet claws ... OUCH!

I asked the girls what their favorite memories are from the weekend ...

Ellie: French toast! Please get the recipe!

Claire: My favorite part was eating French fries at the park.

Isn't it odd both of their favorite things this weekend are French?