Decisions, decisions

Just for reference, here are a couple of pictures of our old floor. I liked it, but it was always just a tad on the light side. We have so many cupboards and wood showing in the kitchen that we have to be careful not to get a busy pattern and were cautioned to stay away from the oak colors and patterns as they can make our kitchen look wall to wall wood.

With that in mind......here are some extremely small samples that we are supposed to choose from.

I'm really leaning toward sample #3 which is a light cherry. I think it will warm the place up. So hard to tell with such a small piece, what if it is too dark?? Aaagh.

The same group with one more sample that I don't like the color tone, too brown. It looks dirty to me.

Soccer

The only soccer picture I have so far, it is during practice before a game. Lacey is the tallest on the team.

Lacey and Banker

Lacey and her buddy - Banker.

Joe's Crab Shack

Joe's Crab Shack was the place Lacey picked for her birthday dinner. Last Friday we went and had a great time. Erik started the evening off with a Shark Bite. When they bring this to your table, the shark is holding a vial of grenadine. They announce to all around - "Watch out! Everybody out of the water! Shark attack!", then they pour the grenadine into the drink. = )

In the dessert menu, it tells you to take your picture through the porthole. Lacey obliged:
Seth did not, but I caught him anyway.
After dinner, what better thing to do than use Mom's sharpie and draw mussel animals. The manager and waitress loved this.
Dessert - holy cow! Six layered chocolate delight.

Game Face

Lacey had her first soccer game this weekend. She has face crayons with the exact same color as her team shirt so her and her teammates decided to add "eye black" or in this case "eye teal".

It must have worked, they won! There was some discrepancy whether the score was 5-1 or 4-0 (I never did hear for sure from the scorekeeper), but at any rate, they won by four goals. I missed the first 20 minutes of the game but they appear to have a really great team, good team spirit and respectful of each other. Big change from last year and it looks like it is going to be a fun team to be a part of.

New Light on Life

On the way home from Palm Springs last week, I made it 2,300 miles without incident and then, near Albany, OR, I got hit with a piece of flying debris (a chunk of tire about the size of a dinner plate). Incredibly, this was almost $1,000 worth of damage. A new headlight and the repair to the bumper.

Same bumper and new headlight! Also, minus all the bugs I gathered from Palm Springs.

Drying Out

The view of our lovely plywood floor. The contractor has taken out all of our flooring and we are now in the drying process over the weekend.

Two dryers and one dehumidifier. Besides being extremely loud, with all three running it also heats up this room to about 80 degrees. Needless to say, we are thankful for the pocket doors so we can close this room off and have it be somewhat bearable in other parts of the house.
Here's a better view of what is drying out. You can see how the nailheads are dark and have moisture around them. Even though the insulation below the house is not wet, I think the subfloor right here in front of the sink and dishwasher will need to be replaced. We'll see how well the dehumidifier does. It dumps a surprising amount of water every 20 minutes or so.
A plywood floor, a Sharpie and two kids:

Our new room

We have as new plastic bubble room! Last Friday the dishwasher sprung a leak and ruined the kitchen floor. Tomorrow the contractor starts ripping up the wet floor, then we live with a dehumidifier running for the weekend and hopefully by the end of next week we have our kitchen back. Stay tuned...

Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Android phone

Visiting in Salem

On our way to Spring Break vacation, we were able to stop in Salem and visit Seth's aide from his first few years of elementary school. Amber's oldest, Trae, was born on Seth's 8th birthday and her recent additions (9 months old) are Kingston and Marley. Aren't they gorgeous?

Here is Amber and Trae checking out Seth's movie collection. Terrence and Marley looking on.
Kingston and Marley giving Seth's game bag some close inspection.
Seth with Amber and her children.
It was so wonderful to visit, Amber hasn't seen Seth since 3rd grade. He was slightly taller this time! In fact, he's taller than her, as usual that made him very happy. I'm so glad we were able to make this stop, beautiful kids, beautiful family.

Seth's Mask

I love masks and this is Seth's mask he made in Art. I love it!