AZDonna

I know it’s been a long time since I posted (according to the blog police), but I refused to write about nothing, and that’s what has been blog worthy around here for the past month. Until this weekend. Whew! I’m exhausted. But I have a new floor and fresh paint in my kitchen.

Saturday morning, I rented a tile stripper from Home Depot (who got quite a lot of my money this weekend). It only took an hour and a half to totally strip the old tile. Just as I got it all gathered up and dumped in the trash can, Glenda called and said she was on her way over to help me. I tried to protest that she didn’t need to come work so hard on a holiday weekend, but she said, “I want to!” Well, between the two of us, we sanded and scrubbed the entire floor on our hands and knees. Then we emptied all the counter tops and removed the baseboards, window coverings and hardware in preparation for paint.

After church on Sunday, we headed back to my house to paint. Glenda did the cutting and I did the rolling, and we made a darn good team (if I do say so myself!) We painted the whole kitchen in 3 hours. Glenda had to leave around 4:00 to take her elderly father out for dinner. I took a good look at the paint on the walls and decided the color wasn’t right! (I do that almost every time I paint! 🙁 ) So I headed back to Home Depot for a quart of darker color to mix with what I already had, and then totally repainted the whole thing before bed. (It went pretty fast because the first coat had acted as a primer.) I’m much happier with the color now.

Monday morning (Labor Day), just as I started laying the new tile, Glenda showed up again. She helped me lay the entire floor! We made a great team, and it looks beautiful. And we didn’t get lost once! 😉

Next weekend, Brian is going to help me put in new baseboards, and I’m going to make some new window coverings. THEN I’ll take pictures and post them.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Glenda! I love you! You’re the BEST!!!

The Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics last night was absolutely breathtaking. The precision of the thousands of Chinese performers was unbelievable. Toward the end, there were 2008 people forming a perfect circle, with each row ruler straight and not one body out of position. Have you ever seen a circle of 10 people in perfect position? How about doing it with 2008, and not one marker on the floor! The lighting of the torch is always cool, but this year it made me gasp just watching it on TV. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be in the stadium.

The announcers mentioned that the directors realized the perfection was so intimidating, that they had told the performers to smile more just that afternoon. You could see big smiles on their faces. It must have been an honor to participate.

The parade of athletes was anti-climactic after that brilliant show. The TV commentators are saying it is unsurpassed in memorable history and probably will remain so for many years in the future. If you missed it, you should go search YouTube.

On my recent business trip to Santa Clara, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency where they had this very cool sink in the bathroom. I know …. kind of weird to take a picture of a bathroom sink, and even weirder to post it on my blog. Apparently I live a very dull life, because I thought this was cool.

Holly is having her teeth cleaned on Tuesday. It’s going to set me back several hundred dollars. If I hadn’t been at the vet’s office with her when I got the estimate, I would have said “forget it”.  But I was afraid the vet would think I was a horrible pet owner to deny my dog a dental cleaning. Apparently I haven’t done a very good job of taking care of her teeth over the years. Did you know you are supposed to brush your dog’s teeth every day? She’ll have to have at least two extractions. They’re also going to shave her matted fur while she’s asleep.

This is not the first time she’s had her teeth cleaned, but at least it should the last time. At 11, she is pretty old in in Sheltie dog years. She’ll probably be lucky to live two or three more years.

Brian and Carrie have started a new blog. Yippee! You can read along by clicking here!

Carrie and Brian have been looking at school options for Nathan. He is academically advanced, and they want to make sure he is challenged, not bored. They recently heard about the Paragon Science Academy, which is opening this year as a charter school. The school has a strong focus on science, technology and the arts, to prepare more students to meet the demands of today’s changing world and grasp new opportunities in these fields.

Carrie took Nathan yesterday to have him tested for placement, and he tested halfway through first grade level in reading and math. He is eligible for the advanced kindergarten class, and has secured a spot. School starts on August 11, and he is very excited, especially about the robotics and microscopes. He has already told his mom when he grows up, he wants to work on finding a cure for Sanfilippo Syndrome.