"we're so sorry, uncle albert, But we haven't done a bloody thing all day. We're so sorry, uncle albert, But the kettle's on the boil And we're so eas'ly called away."....A special thank you to the Beatles!

Who would have ever thought that having too many choices would make things so difficult? I feel like I am on an endless loop and it is not always fun and games. I would love a money value set on what I can spend on the floors and what I can spend on the cabinets. Right now I am getting asked what I want with no way to really choose. My basic answer is always “what can I spend?”

I am gradually changing my answers. I picked out what type of cupboard doors I want and showed Jim. Easy peasy right? I hope so. He is consulting his cabinet maker. I am easy to please. I just want accessible cabinets. I want the cabinets that I was unable to completely use because they were so deep to be usable  Not too much to ask I think.

My doors are simple in design. What will be flashy in my kitchen is my knobs. I found some crystal knobs that I am in love with at World Market. When I know how many cabinets there are I will go get them for the crew to put on. I have asked for so little in the kitchen, just the white cabinets, sand colored granite counters, river rock backsplash, and a double sink.

My appliances are where I am in a quandary. I kind of want black appliances. I think the black would work with everything but the white cabinets. I am not getting white appliances, they will never match. I am not a real fan of the stainless appliances. I have noticed some attractive black and stainless appliances. That will probably be the way I go. I am getting a solid top stove that is my no give at all on thing.

There was a cabinet that I always called the cabinet where things go to die. It seemed to me if there was something no one liked they would hide them in that cabinet. Well, guess what? That cabinet will be gone. It will be my dishwasher. Yes, I am joining the 21^st century and getting a dishwasher. About ding dang time! J We also will have an icemaker in our refrigerator. With the ancient pipes we had before we couldn’t have that. I am so excited. Sigh.

Furniture has been the hardest thing to replace. Seriously. We live in a town that has a population of over 100,000 people and we have like three furniture stores? We have a plethora of mattress stores but not furniture ones. Kody has been the best out of the kids picking out her furniture. She went to a local antique store and found some pieces for her little world.

Kody is a great shopper, she picked out a dresser with a hutch, a desk, and a nightstand for $309.47! All antique beautiful pieces. She is my bargain hunter on those things at least. She wants a bedframe that is a bit on the high end price in my thoughts. It may balance out. Loren isn’t bad at bargains. He picked out a dresser at the antique store that ended up costing me $20 + tax. Have to love bargain hunters.

We have been looking for dressers. Dressers are overpriced and frankly not constructed real well. I happened to luck out at Costco for a few pieces. I went out there and they had dressers and nightstands with cedar lined drawers. Plus an entertainment center for a flat screen TV that my mom had been eying. I got 3 six drawer dressers, 4 nightstands with one drawer and a moveable shelf, and the entertainment center all for $2715 and change. I was thrilled.

Scotty and I had the most uncomfortable mattress ever. So we decided to get our mattress ahead of time. We really wanted a Serta iComfort mattress. I am so glad we got it! My back is amazing now. It has cooling gel in it too. It’s been a pleasure sleeping on it! But, I was thinking that since I was buying a king mattress we were set. It could just get put in the bed frame we had from the insurance company. Not quite so lucky. Sigh. We order the mattress and foundation, they get delivered and guess what? The frame was a California king. So we had to go buy a bedframe. :/

Long time no blog and this is a boring one. Sorry guys! Next time I will have house pictures and an update on that!

Ch-ch-Changes Just gonna have to be a different man Time may change me But I can't trace time....Thank you David Bowie

Have you ever pondered how many different types of kitchen cabinets there are? I was so naïve, I thought I would go to Lowe’s and see maybe a dozen different ones. Silly me! Oh no there are far more. Oh so many more. It is enough to cause a person to dream of the cabinets. They have different colors, different styles, with glass, without glass……it’s enough to turn a girls head.

Then there’s the things that these different cabinets and drawers can come equipped with. Oh my! I have seen drawers that came with slots for your knives. Different trays for in drawers to make it more organized. I can just see how neat my junk drawer could be. There are drawers with the flatware trays built in. I kind of like those.

There are cabinets with sliding shelves. This is an idea which I think is great and convenient. There are my favorite cabinets that are built for corners with lazing Susan style shelves that turn so that nothing gets shoved into the back of the cabinet. We used to have a cabinet that I would only use part of it because I didn't want to climb in and find things. This is a plus.

Have you ever seen the cabinets with the clear glass doors?  Now let me ask you, who among us has our cabinets clean enough at the time to want the world see in to them? In theory it is a great idea but no thank you. Or the cabinets without doors? Oh sure that’s swell! Not for this kid. Then I saw in some magazine where they used some cute fabric curtains instead or doors. Not too sure about that either. Although I do like the idea about being able to throw the cupboard doors in the washer when they’re dirty…..Or changing the curtains when you get tired of the color or print. It is just a bit too bohemian for me.

When I went to Lowe's and looked at the cabinets I brought home brochures from all of the different cabinet companies. Kind of like wish books as it were. That will make the decision easier won't it? Laugh a minute here. I felt like a little kid looking at the Christmas catalog. Oh please Santa I have been a good girl. I want all of the bells and whistles. I want to be able to have all of the new toys. Not really. To tell you the truth I would give anything to wake up tomorrow morning in my bed and this all have been a nightmare. 

Oh the changes.....

There's a great big beautiful tomorrow Shinin' at the end of ev'ry day There's a great big beautiful tomorrow And tomorrow's just a dream away..... Thank you to the Sherman Brothers

Progress! Amazing sweet progress! It’s time to talk the house! I went yesterday and took a tour of our house I took Loren and Kody with me. Because I am trying to do a photo journal of this whole experience. Nothing may ever come of it but it helps me to see how far we have come.

The smell of the new wood is great! It is a fresh clean smell. Something that I noticed yesterday is how small a framed house seems. The rooms all seem so tiny when you have sun and sky for a roof. I can hardly wait until the trusses get there so that have a two story again. I miss seeing the upstairs. That is Scotty and my domain. Soon Loren will be taking over the second room upstairs and we will share our domain.

Because the city inspector came in and changed things the furnace is now put into the crawl space. This kind of thrills me because that gives us a new linen closet downstairs and a bigger shower for us upstairs! It adds about a foot and a half to two feet bigger. To me that’s huge. It’s the little things I keep saying. Now two of the bathrooms and the kitchen are the only rooms I really have decided on. The upstairs bathroom is going to be a Disney Villains bathroom. I will be using the decals on this webpage. http://www.fathead.com/disney/disney-villains/disney-villains-collection/ . For the front bathroom downstairs that my girl’s (not sure if 19 & 20 that girls is the right term) are having a Princess bathroom. Not sure about decals for it because they will have a shower curtain. Blue like Cinderella’s dress for the walls.

My kitchen will be my treasure. I am going to have white cabinets with some sort of kitchy handles. I am hoping to find something resembling sea shells. If anyone sees any let me know. I am going to have sand colored granite counter tops. I picked a back splash that resembles rocks. And the walls will be a light aqua. This is my dream kitchen. I consider Disney but the seashore won out. My flooring in there is where I start to stall a little. I am not sure what I want. This is a great mystery. The rest of the house with the exception of the kitchen and the bathrooms will be a laminate. I want a cherry wood colored laminate.

The outside colors I want are from Kelly Moore. They sell a heat resistant type paint. It is supposed to help to keep your house from getting too hot in the summer. I am leaning towards a tannish beige or even a gray with a Seattle red trim! Plus I want the doors painted Seattle red too. I have also kind of picked the living room and the family room colors. Plus the one for the hallway. But when it comes to Scotty and my bedroom I have no clue. I just stand there in front on the colors and I become overwhelmed. 

Just a few pictures of the house for you. :) Our house is a very fine house.

The old Hatter is gone But the Hat must go on Worn by me, is that understood? So shut up and tow the line, While I redefine How this all will be mine.....Thank you Mad Hatter and Company

Can someone tell me why when I changed the address on two magazines that we have delivered to the house that the Sports Illustrated that Loren has is the one that has attracted all of the new resident mail? Seriously? The other magazine was mine. I feel slighted in this.

Is this not one of the most sexist things you have heard? Frankly this makes me angry. They are sending all of these things to my almost 17 year old son. Yes, I know they don’t realize his age but you know what Home Depot, OSH and Lowe’s I am the one that goes the most often to purchase things from your stores. Or should I say I was. Ace Hardware maybe 15 miles away but they have not slighted me.

Ladies, let me ask you. When your house needs the light bulbs, paint colors picked out. Heck most household needs who is more apt to be the one to go to the store to pick these things up? More often than not it is not the “man” of the house. I am always the one to go to the hardware store. I know where things are better than Scotty or Loren.

I feel the need to stand up to these mail dominated businesses and tell them to shove off. At the OSH where Kacy works the management team is all women. Face it we are not staying in the kitchen anymore. We pick up hammers and nails now. If you want our money you better get used to it.

This is no longer a mail dominated world. Scotty is just as happy having me be the one to go to the hardware store. Heck my grandpa who was born in 1908 got it. He understood. My dad got it and he raised me to be this way. He is the one that taught me that real women go to hardware stores and auto part stores. He taught my sister Kathy and I how to do these things. Thank you Dad for letting us be all we could be!

What is your comfort? Is it a southern comfort? Or just a simple book?

Everyone has their own way with dealing with things. We all have those things that are comforts to them. With me it has always been books that comfort me. I love my books and there are certain books for me that are like a comfortable old shoe. When we had the fire one blessing for me was that my Nook survived. Now I know there are a lot of people that poo poo e-readers, not this kid. I don’t know what I would do without mine.

To me reading is a comfort because that has and will always be that one constant in my life. When I was in the hospital in 2007 I was paralyzed on the right side of my body. Books were hard for me to hold. My hand didn’t move and could not hold books very well. The e-readers would have been perfect for me. My nephew Ryan knew that I loved the Harry Potter books went to Barnes and Noble when THE DEATHLY HALLOWS came out and got it for me. I would lay in bed with it propped against my tray so that I could read it. It was too big for me to hold.

I had Scotty go to Barnes and Noble and buy me Tamora Pierce’s books because although they are considered Young Adult books they are my favorites. I have read her set of series in the Tortall universe more times than I can count. They are my go to books. On April 9^th I restarted reading them. I read all of the Lioness books, today I finished the Immortals series, and I was going to move on. It was time to start reading something else. Well, I did. I am now reading the Protector of the Small series.

Now this series is about my favorite character Keladry. I guess maybe I am not quite ready to be a grown up again. I need to be in this other world where women can be knights and strong characters. This universe where a woman can be who she chooses to be. I like that. For that I am forever grateful to Ms. Pierce for developing this world where a woman can be a Kings Champion, or a wild mage, or a sympathetic Lady Knight, or a spy.

I will end this now with the thought that I hope that you all have your comfort and I am more than willing to share mine. Books are a great way to travel and be someone or someplace else without ever leaving the room.