He promised me the moon....

And he delivered....

Okay, so it is a little smaller than I had envisioned, but a promise is a promise and I love him just the same!

5 years already!

Wow.

:-)

My Morning Helper

So as most of you know, my mornings invariably start between 4:30 and 5 in the morning with feeding the cats, the dog, and then heading down the long living room trek to my office to start typing. Lately I have acquired a companion/helper of sorts. He has "helped" me to get to know my delete button quite well.

It starts with Manis leaping up onto Jeff's side of the desk and peering around the side of my computer screen. He has good reason to be leery. A week ago he was in this position and unbeknownst him, was sitting on my cell phone, which for some reason I not only had cranked up to maximum volume, but also had set to vibrate. Mom happened to call at this crucial moment of utmost curiosity in working of my hands and, well, lets just say I have a vague memory of him floating somewhere around my head and then suddenly appearing at the other end of the living room running in space for a good 10 seconds while he tried to find purchase on the hardwood floor. Needless to say, I wonder at the fact that he finds the need for a good scratch worth all that torture.  Anyway, back to the normal routine. He sits next to my computer headbutting my hands (thus my repeated use of the delete key) until I break down and pet him, which only results in more head butting and the resultant drool on my hand (the poor guy only has three teeth). Finally, he moves on.

To my lap.

And there he sits...until he lays down.

And then we are good until I have to get up to make coffee, or go to the bathroom, at which point he is unceremoniously dumped off my lap and onto the cold, hard, unforgiving ground by the horrible monster of a master (loosely translated) that I am.

Note, it has taken me three bouts of sitting at the computer to type this short blog and we have gone through this routine all three times. One of us is a bit of a slow learner....ahem.

Last night of My Vacation. Dinner at The Tides with my hardworking husband of 5 years(yesterday)!

My Vacation

Today was the first, well actually the third really, day of what I like to call My Vacation. It was the first day of it spent at home. See, we as a family have a had what seems like a TON of vacations this summer...There was the trip to New Mexico (by Mac and Ben), a weekend at the canal, the week in Spokane at Nana and Poppie's lake house, the weekend on the river in Cle Elum, the trip to Minnesota (by Noah and Lydia), there was a weekend at home there when Jeff put in the new flooring, and then it was back to the Canal for a whole week, then a weekend in Pasco....whew!But this week I am on my own. No kids, Jeff is at work, no plans to watch other people's kids, nothin.  I had big plans, let me tell you! Up early to work (still gotta work, it isn't that kind of vacation), a couple other computer related things, then a day of project painting!

I have several pieces of furniture that I want to paint (or get rid of) before it gets moved back in to the house onto the new floor. But alas! I find that I can't get to a single piece of it as it is so handily stacked and jammed into the shop. Well, no bother, I will instead focus on the outdoor furniture I wanted to paint. A small metal bistro set (thank you, Lulu) and two wooden porch rockers (thank you, Jerry!). But first, since I am still home and know exactly where the paint is, I will paint the frame to that large mirror in the entryway. And maybe hit those spots in the hallway that look like someone bled all over the wall. I have always disliked the "pickled" look around the mirror and now that everything else has a nifty white trim, so shall it have! Well, most of it will. All except for the inside edge that has been liberally spread with some sort of clear rubber grouting. Ugh. Hopefully, Jeff can fix that.  As for the hallway, now that I have mucked up the brush in white, I have to wait til it is clean and dry to hit the hallway color....sigh.

So on to the next project! Paint for the bistro set and stain for the chairs. The first store has the perfect color of spray paint (no  more brushes for this girl!), only there is just one can of it. Been there, done that and learned a hard lesson so I moved on to stains. Ugh, so not exciting, gonna have to wait for Jeff to help on that. Off to the next store.

This store's got nothin, at least not in the paint department. The nursery, however, was a different story.....Then, well, I was so close to Goodwill it would have been a shame to pass it by without checking it out....okay, so picture frames were purchased for another project on another day. Then to the library to return some books and on to the last paint store. Here, I find another perfect color..but only two cans left. About 10 minutes of deliberation (no joke) are spent on whether two cans would be enough and in the meantime I peruse the "real" paint selection for a new color for our front door (yes, another project for a different day). Decide to risk it, grab a sanding block for the rockers and head home.

Managed to get the bistro set done, though I am a little leery that it might be too hot to be spray painting outdoors and a little afraid that I might be killing brain cells in the ducks as they insist on being close to the action, but I press on. I end up with over 3/4 of a can left. So maybe I can use the other can for the picture frames! Woo hoo!

The mirror is still frustrating me. It took several more coats than I expected and when I peeled off the tape, off came the paint around the glass. That darn caulking!! Spent waaaaaay too much time sanding the silly rockers, but maybe Jeff will be impressed and take it upon himself to do the staining...not that he should (love you, honey!).

There was a little nap tucked in there as well (it is MY Vacation, after all) and now here I sit, the sprinkler going in the front yard to entertain the dog, (and maybe water some grass) and I am feeling less than enthusiastic about making dinner as it will require a trip to the grocery store. Not that I am ever all that excited about making dinner. Next year I am going to have to see about spending My Vacation someplace all inclusive....

Scenes of summer.

Dog tired...

Monkey cupcakes I decorated (Resa did the actual baking so they were actually delicious) for Erin's baby shower. Me, Erin (can you believe there are twins due in less than 2 months in there?) and Resa. Love my high school girlfriends!! Go AHS!