Of stain, a baby & fireworks!

Jonathan and I actually got with the program Sunday afternoon and stained the door and trim for the bathroom. It was a major project, not because it took so long to stain everything – it didn’t – but because we had an awful time trying to get the stain to match the existing woodwork. It’s got a “Honey Spice” stain, which has just a hint of red in it, so no matter how much we darkened the natural stain with the “Golden Oak”, it wasn’t going to look just quite the same.

Finally I remembered I’d used a cherry colored stain for the aviary in our living room, and ferreted out a can of it in the basement. After several tries of mixing the three shades, we finally got something that looked close to the same color as the cupboards.

While we were working on that, Jess went down to Huntsville to see Jason and the new baby, before heading to church.

Meet Sara Beth King, born May 28th, 2008.

He visited with the three of them for a while, and snapped a bunch of pictures.

Jason and Katie Sharp

Then he headed back up to FRBC for the big 4th of July celebration. They had all kinds of food and games and a HUGE fireworks display.

It was pretty late by the time Jess made it home from all his frivolities.

We all had a full day of activities!

Weekly Updates

It seems like I can’t get around to posting on this blog more than once a week lately, so here’s the updates for the past week:

Aftermath from my fall: I’m still waiting for my finger to heal up. Kind of a nuisance when trying to lift anything or write. Typing isn’t so bad, thankfully.

Blog & Internet Updates: Two steps forward, one back. Learning more, but didn’t get as much done this week as I’d hoped. I put in a lot of hours studying this week, as two sources of information I’m using will be closed after the first of July, so it’s my last chance to glean all I can.

Social: My good friend, RR, came to visit this past week and we exchanged goodies. I had gathered up a bunch of yarn for her, and a few other tidbits. She had made some new curtains for our bedroom out of some fabric I had, and hemmed up a pair for the bathroom. What a great friend!

Weather: Still no rain worth mentioning. It got dark a while ago and did a lot of thundering, spattered a few drops… and moved on.

Household: Jonathan and I had planned on doing some staining today, but we had to wait until Jess was done trying to repair a leak with the fridge. It’s wedged back into a little cubbyhole, and it takes two people to move it out. Even with both of them, they had an awful time getting it moved. There’s not much room to work in or a good way to grab it, so moving it is difficult. Ended up I had to totally empty the fridge and freezer (it’s a BIG side-by-side) before they could manage to move it.

The other problem was the wheels didn't seem to be working, and the vinyl flooring was bunching up underneath it.

Anyway, since I had to take everything out, it didn’t make any sense to put it all back without cleaning the inside and the shelves first, so that’s what I did. With all that activity, our staining project kind of went by the wayside.

The Surprise for this Week: Got a call from The Phantom Son (aka Randy), who is coming to visit next weekend!!

And that pretty much sums it up for this past week!!

Happenings from the past week...

It’s been a week since I last posted and I hardly know where to start. I’m trying to gain some balance in the many things I’m doing and make regular hours for different things. I’ve had some success, but need to improve even more. In other words, I’m making progress, but slowly.

Anyway, here are some highlights and updates from the past week:

• Aftermath from my fall: Most cuts and bruises are healing, but my stoved up finger is slow about getting better. It’s hard to lift things or type for long periods of time.

• Blog Updates: I'm picking up speed and getting more done on both Health Food Made Easy, and Helping Ellie Walk. Hopefully, I'll get even better at this!

• Farm Facts: I’ve got 12 chicken chicks, and 5 peafowl chicks in 3 brooder boxes, and 3 incubators that still have a lot of eggs in them. I’m super busy trying to keep up with them.

• Household: A lady on Freecycle was looking for items for a garage sale. I gathered up a bunch of stuff and she picked it up Tuesday morning. A few small steps toward clearing out the house.

• Weather: We keep getting teased with rumbles of thunder, but very little rain. There was a very brief shower this afternoon, but it barely got the sidewalk wet. We need rain. The pond is going down again.

• Winning a Bet: Actually, I didn’t win, but Jonathan did. We’re both taking some self-improvement courses, and the head of the company put a bet up on his blog: choose the winning team for the NBA playoffs, and if you guessed right, your name went in a drawing. (I guessed Lakers, Jonathan guessed Celtics.) First 3 names drawn got a free course, and some others got a course half price, plus all the rest of the courses free. Jonathan got the latter, but even at that, a fantastic deal.

• The Shocker of the Week: Jess found out last night that he’s a grandfather again. I mean, I guess you’d say he is. Jason called and said his girlfriend just had a baby girl a few weeks ago. The kicker is they didn’t even know she was pregnant and she delivered in the bathroom of their apartment. Long and very strange story, and I’m not sure what the next chapters will be.

So there you have it, a few brief facts from a very busy and sometimes surprising week.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there that have taken time to care and nurture their offspring. Too bad not all biological fathers are the real deal, men who are responsible and care for their family and worthy of the name "Dad."

I'm sitting here watching a program about Alaska on the Travel Channel, and remembering what a great time I had with MY dad in Alaska last year. We'd never spent so much time together, just the two of us, and it was great we got to go together to fulfill both our dreams of seeing Alaska. Here we are in Glacier Bay. Cold and totally awe inspring!

It was certainly a special trip for many reasons!

Jess got home early this afternoon from his trip to Kentucky. He went with some of the guys he used to work with at Shelby to see the NASCAR race at the Kentucky Speedway Saturday night. Since he got back I've felt like a switchboard operator fielding his "Happy Father's Day" calls!

While Jess was away, Jonathan and I also played and went to a movie Saturday. I make it to about one movie a year, and this year it was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

AWESOME! Two action-packed hours, tied up some loose ends from earlier movies, a little far out with super adventure and fantasy, and all around a great movie. (Hey, if I wanted reality, I'd watch the news!)

We went to the Rave, which has the plushest seats, but even so, by the end of two hours I was fidgeting in my seat. Of course, it didn't help I had a few cuts and bruises from my fall Friday night. I expected them on my leg, but didn't realize I'd bruised my arm too. At least it wasn't bad enough I needed stitches anywhere!

It's been a fairly lazy weekend with some special treats. Tomorrow I need to get back in the groove and back to work. Playtime is over!

Broken Mirror on Friday the 13th

Okay, tomorrow morning I suspect I'm going to be walking a little gingerly, and having a hard time typing.

You see, I was standing on top of the futon bed in the spare room to reach up with my bug zapper and catch a spider. Once I had it and started to get back down I slipped and fell.

I fell right into a set of plastic shelves and mirror leaning against the wall and broke both.

Broke some skin too -- I have a few cuts and scrapes on the outside of my right thigh. I think those came from the shelf unit, because fortunately for me, the mirror was leaning behind it, and facing the other direction. (They were both in storage because of remodeling projects.)

I'm sure tomorrow I'll also be able to see some magnificent bruises. While I was at it, I also stoved up the ring finger on my right hand.

But! I never let my thumb off the suction button, so I didn't lose the spider, and now it's gone, gone, gone, flushed to that septic netherworld.

Tomorrow I'll have to get the sweeper out and clean up all the glass. This is assuming I can move, because I think I gave my spine a good shake, and it's already mad because of a little rain.

Now, who believes that breaking a mirror brings 7 years of bad luck? Is it a double dose if you break it on Friday the 13th?

Quick Update

I've got 20 minutes before my last phone call for the day. Not the week, just the day. I've got two more calls tomorrow, and one call next week. Then that finishes up calls with the course, unless they get some new ones that aren't presently scheduled. Not likely.

Actually, while the teleseminars are usually great, I'm about ready for them to be done. Right now I have to work my schedule around these calls, and somedays it's hard to get anything done but listen to calls while furiously taking pages and pages of notes. I'm doing the bare minimum around the house and farm right now.

I'm looking forward next week to having a less interrupted work schedule (as much as possible around here, with chicks hatching out every day and such), and having more time to focus on both my business and Ellie's blog and fundraising.

That's not to say I've finished with the course! I'm not even half way through it when you consider they gave us another complete course on teleseminars as a bonus.

Right now I'm just getting through calls this week, and thinking I'll take Friday as a planning day, to think about how to schedule my days (as much as it's possible to do so), so I spend the "right" proportions of time on the many things I need to do not only for my business, fundraising, but also around the house and farm.

The learning curve is steep, so it's going to take some time, but check back next year, and we'll see how far I've made it!

Blue Shirt, Yellow Bus

Richard sent me this little video a few days ago. Ellie learned some new words, the first ones being "blue shirt", and the others "yellow bus".

Of course, I was tickled to hear her new words, but I'll admit I think the very best part of the movie was at the end when she blows Grandma a kiss!!!

Another week has whizzed past!

My days are full. So what do I do every day, at least on Mondays through Fridays?

Well, in the mornings, I...

• Fix Jess's lunch.
• Feed the turtle.
• Feed the cat.
• Get the daily humor mailing put together and mailed out.
• Get food fixed for the peafowl.
• Feed the parrot.
• Go outside and feed the chickens, guineas, and peafowl.
• Let the sheep out.
• Let the goats and llamas out.
• Fill up the numerous water buckets.
• Give the dogs some treats.
• Usually take a few pictures.
• Go back inside and fix my oatmeal.
• Eat breakfast and read Bible.

Of course, there's always a few extras in there, like right now I'm also keeping track of some chicks and 3 incubators full of eggs. And there's loads of laundry, and usually some mail to put out in the mailbox, and all kinds of other goodies that pop up that need done.

When I've got the essentials taken care of, it's time to get busy on my coursework. Connected to that is building two new blogs, one directly related to future business, "Health Food Made Easy", and the other blog"Helping Ellie Walk" for using skills I'm learning for future fundraising for Ellie's surgery.

Some days there are also one or two training calls that last 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I try to get as much done as I can, but before I know it, time has sped by and Jess is home again, and it's time to do evening critter chores, and fix supper, and clean up the kitchen, and whatever else I can manage before bedtime, and then it's time to get up and start all over again.

And somewhere in all that I'm still trying to fit in clearing out stuff and doing remodeling - usually evenings and weekends. And my personal blog and email and... and... and!!!

I know -- whine, whine, whine! I'm sure everyone is just as busy with their "to do" list. Guess we could all get together and have a major pity party, then get back to work!