More Kitchen Painting

Cheryl has had a bee in her bonnet lately about getting some painting done in the house this summer, and these last few days have been a flurry of activity in the kitchen as she has directed the kids and myself in working on the kitchen. She is a driven woman!James and Mary have been eager to help out on this project (I'm not exactly sure why, but we have learned not to ask too many questions and just accept whatever help we can get!). With James, it may have to do with the mission trip he took to Illinois; he found it quite enjoyable to put in a little sweat equity for a good cause, enjoying the company of like-minded people and the generosity of those on the receiving end of all the hard work.
The best part about the venture is that Cheryl knows what she wants, and she does a great job directing the family in getting the task done. And her choice of color is always spot-on. It really matches well with the decor of the drapes and the furniture and the various decorative items we have around here. She's definitely a woman of style and substance.

Making Mom Jealous with Tractors

Tractors!

We saw 'em, and we thought about you, Mom.

We attended an Open House at Rehoboth Assisted Living Home this weekend (which is a very nice place for people who are suffering from Altzheimer's or Dementia or Memory Loss) and there were tractors right there in front of and in back of the place, so naturally we just had to take some pictures to show Mom/Grandma and make her jealous, because we know how much she loves tractors.

Of course, we know nothing about the technical aspects of these particular models, if they're really good tractors or not-so-good tractors, but they sure were pretty-looking! So is our model standing next to them as if she were ready to jump up on 'em and start plowing a field somewhere.

There was a green tractor...
And there was a red tractor...
And there was an orange tractor...
Notice that Mary looked a bit taken aback by the orange tractor. That's because the orange tractor had her initials on it! Hey, we didn't know they made a tractor just for her!

A Trip to the Gardens

Grandma and Grandpa Meyer arrived in town on Tuesday night, and we were all looking forward to spending some time with them, even if it was going to be just a little over a day. The girls happily moved downstairs to sleep in the living room on the futon and the air mattress, setting it up like some kind of pillow haven.
On Wednesday, we all went down to Meijer Gardens to see the Chihully glass sculpture exhibit and wander around the place in the blazing heat. It was a bit tiring, which explains why the kids took advantage of the shade and a bench on the trail to take a rest.
Sometimes if you put the kids together on a bench, things get a little weird.
And then weirder.And then things just go over the top.
Luckily, we survived the trip, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

James Makes Pie

James has been wanting an apple pie for the longest time, so Cheryl got all the fixings together and said, "OK, now you can make one." And James marched right into the kitchen and, under her guidance, measured and mixed and sifted and stirred and rolled and stuffed and baked a pie.
Right on time, ready for the arrival of his grandparents (who, we believe, like apple pie), the pie was pulled out of the oven; and, after it had cooled for awhile, James posed with his creation.No, James, you can't "taste-test" it! You have to wait for your grandparents to arrive!

I may have to hide it somewhere...

Reunion Alternative

I'm still bummed that we couldn't make it to the reunion this year, but there were just too many things going on today, and, besides, Dave Ramsey wouldn't like it if we went and spent money we didn't have. So instead we focused on getting some things done around the house.

Adam is taking some Advanced Placement classes in the fall; as a consequence, he has a number of summer academic projects to work on. Books to read, essays to write, statistics to compute. Today's assignment was to gather data for a statistical analysis of pulse rates, so he polled the family and constructed a mathematical table of results.

Here, he is polling the girls downstairs while they play on the computer (after completing their normal chores, of course!). Deborah reports her pulse rate in beats per minute, and he writes it down on his little clipboard.

My main goal for today was to get some shelving put up in the office/library so we could unload some book boxes which have been sitting around downstairs - mostly my college and post-college technical books on programming and electronics. Plus some photo albums. After our last bit of fun with the sump pump, it would be foolish to leave them lying around on the floor, just in case. We already had the standards; last night we went out and got the brackets and the shelf board. Got three ten-foot by ten-inch by 3/4-inch boards and cut them into five-foot lenghts, then put 'em on the brackets and started unloading the boxes.Nothing better than a well-stocked home library!

Next up was replacing the cracked face board on the bottom of the futon. It's been cracked for a long time, probably due to the impact of small children as they leap onto it. Finally got the replacement board last night (when we were bracket-shopping), then cut it to size and shaped it and installed it.It looks a bit lighter than the rest of the wood, but that's because the futon has been around for fifteen years or so.

Then it was time to sit at my little workdesk and attempt to resolve the problem with my little spinning laser-level, which failed the last time we tried to use it. I took it all apart and tested everything separately - and they all worked. So put them all together again, and they failed again. Got really frustrated with that.At some point, it got boring, just sitting there banging my head over it, trying to figure it out, so I abandoned that task and went on to other ones.

The other tasks (for which I don't have any pictures) were (1) setting up the walls in the downstairs bathroom; and (2) putting foam insulation in the walls at the bottom of the stairs, which have been staring me in the face for the last couple of years like old, dried-up bones. Now they are at least covered with pink.

James Sweats

James and some of the other Middle Schoolers went to Rockford, Illinois, on a mission trip to paint and clean houses. They worked really hard, drank lots of energy drinks, ate lots of donuts, chips and candy, and did an incredible job. Getting his T-shirt painted. With hand-prints.
Of course, it wasn't just the shirt that got painted; he did the pants, too.And his shoes were pretty spotty, too.

We missed him while he was gone, but not nearly as much as his kitty, Alfred, who whined and fussed and meowed at James's bedroom door every night, wondering where The Guy Who Pets Me had gone to. Mom and Dad were poor substitutes, apparently. Here you see Alfred's joy and excitement at seeing his comrade returned, safe and sound. And ready to pet.

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Sump Pump CSI

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Finally figured out what was wrong with the silly sump pump. Turns out capacitors don't like soaking in water and then drying out and then soaking in water again, over and over through the course of five years; the plastic dries out and cracks and then the electrolytic leaks out and the metallic substance - whatever it is - pokes its little head out of the case like a little atomic blast. It is just totally weird.

Now I have to go on-line and find a replacement start cap. Or run cap. I'm not sure which one it is.

The other weird thing is that neither the plastic case nor the metal shroud around the motor are marked by the manufacturer. I have no idea who made this thing. So I can't just go to their website and find the replacement. It's gonna be one of those "make it up as you go" things.

4th of July 2010

It was a beautiful, hot, muggy day, and the morning sun lit up the flags gloriously as they hung out over the front porch. It was a perfect day to get up early, enjoy the cool morning breezes, spend a few hours in praise and worship, and then drive down to Mike and Shawna's for the wedding.

The wedding itself didn't take place until nearly nine o'clock, so we had plenty of time to sit in the shade of the canopy and enjoy chatting with family and friends, catching up on the latest gossip and trading 'old-timer' stories of the way things used to be, and how the young whipper-snappers don't know what life is all about (but boy are they going to find out soon!), and reminiscing about people who have come and gone. The food showed up in copious amounts around six o'clock, and we fell to feasting, but that didn't hinder our yapping one bit, just gave us more energy to come up with more stories.

Finally the procession of participants began walking down the long path from the house to the pavilion, dressed in wonderfully tasteful wedding clothes, and the ceremony commenced, interrupted only by the loyal canines who sought to protect their masters from the onslaught of vicious photographers (and there were about a million of us stalking the grounds). Mike and Shawna and all the associated kin stood up on the deck looking happily down at the crowd of well-wishers, then the bride and groom took their vows with joyous solemnity while we watched and smiled and laughed.

Then they came down the steps to be congratulated, and the party began anew.

Later on, after all the requisite pictures of the families had taken place, the music started up and the bride and groom took center stage again to dance amid the popping champagne corks (the little plastic streamer-popping kind), and held on to each other as if no one else existed in the entire world, which is as it should be. And we gathered around them and silently prayed our blessing on the union, that it may be a life-long and happy one.