Just what did we get accomplished this week?

A few weeks ago I said we had taken the carpet up out of the family room in the basement of our home. This week we began the tile process. Our son Bryan did most of the actual laying of the tile.
It matches what we put down in our entry way a few weeks ago.
I really do not know why I come up with these "great" ideas, cause I do HATE messes.

The guys did get it all down by Thursday night. Stan grouted it on Friday. He was able to clean most of the grout off by Saturday. On Sunday I went downstairs and did a wet mop on it. Here Darius (#1419) got hold of my rag while I was doing something else. He did manage to get a bit more water on the tile than I intended, but I got it cleaned up with no serious damage.
The room is put back together by Sunday night. We need to paint and put up new trim. It will really be pretty then.
This view is into Stan's piano room which we decided to tile also. I want to tile the room to the left where carpet is visible. This is my sewing craft room. It would be nice to not have carpet in a room that I sew and sometimes drop pins in. It would also complete the flow of the tile.

In the front of the house, just off of the entry is a bedroom that is carpeted also. I am hoping to tile that room too. It would make the entire basement area of our home tile and so much easier to keep clean.

Just a few more things to do to make this 9 year old home live able:) Paint the entire house. The tile I mentioned above, as well as the two upstairs bathrooms. New trim throughout, as well as new white doors. Then if I really want to push my luck, I will ask to hardwood the two remaining bedrooms. By the time we finish, I will not be able to navigate the stairs any longer and we will need to sell it and move to a one level.

My living will. Please file for future references.

" I,_Evy R._________________, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead politicians who couldn't pass ninth grade biology if their lives depended on it, or lawyers/doctors interested in simply running up the bills.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for at least one of the following:

Glass of wine
Margarita
Sex
Martini
Cold Beer
Chocolate
Mexican food
French fries
Pizza
Ice cream
Cup of coffee

It should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes, let the 'fat lady sing,' and call it a day!

Sunday was a day of

POPCICLES

FAMILY

CLIMBING IN FORTS

FRIENDS (and my daughter Trish.)

BOUNCY HOUSE

HAPPY CHILDREN

COUSINS

PLAYING FOLLOW THE LEADER

DOG PILE ON SEBASTIAN

ENJOYING THE SUN

I am wondering why I did not get a better picture of the Man of the day. My son in law Sebastian, for whom we were celebrating his CITIZENSHIP!! Took a while to get it done, but it is and now we have one more vote against the machine that is working its way through our country. A way of life he gave up several years ago. Your M-I-L loves you Seby son.

We are not going to care that our friend spelled Hooray incorrectly. She made the cake and probably had three little girls hanging on her at the same time. So we just enjoyed the sentiment and ate it:)

Great weekend

Tricia came down from Dillingham Alaska for a long weekend. When we were talking before she came, she told me that the Pioneer Woman would be in North Seattle signing her new cookbook, Pioneer Woman Cooks. Much to Kris's chagrin we decided to meet there and meet Ree and have our cookbooks signed by her. She began signing at 5:00 PM on Saturday. We arrived at the bookstore at 4:30, fairly confident there were not that many bloggers in the Seattle area who knew who Pioneer Woman was. It was a good thing Tricia had a deck of Phase 10 cards with her because we waited, and we waited, and we waited. They called people up in groups and we were in the "I" group.

I did not know my friend Sue was there, but she saw Tricia when Tricia was up wandering around. She even joined us in a game of Phase 10 right before our letter was called at 10:00 PM.

Here the three of us are waiting in line. Patiently, I might add.
Finally, my five seconds with Ree:) I must say she is in very good company, because I have never stood in line for a book signing and I will never again...........unless it is Sean, Rush, Glenn, Sarah or Ann.

Fun Busy Day

Lunch at Red Robin's today with my daughters. Angie, Darla (Daughter in Law) General Manager of our neighborhood Red Robin. Me, and Kris. Back row: Karyn, Gina and Tricia, who came down for a long weekend from Dillingham Alaska. Up there they call it going "outside."
Here we are waiting for our orders and enjoying the company. On the left is Shaylene, Karyn, Gina, Jonah and Angie. On the right is me, Jesse, Amanda, Tricia and Kris.

I am so full, I do not know if I will even be interested in fixing dinner for Stan. Maybe he will want a burrito.

Fun day girls, I love each of you for the unique person you have become.

Tea Party 2010

Karyn, Gina and I went to the Tea Party today. Karyn kept her boys out of school to go.

Gina's son Jesse (#6111) is homeschooled so he did not miss anything. We chalked it all up to Civics for them. The small print on Jesse's sign says, "Is this what my dad left a communist country for?"

We gathered at the train station before walking up to the courthouse. In this picture is Cannyn, (#2208) hidden, holding his sign. I'm prepared to defend. Jesse, (#6111) holding Red White and Blue sign. Jonah, (#6518) just being cute. And Brystan, (#2310) who put the Pledge of Allegiance on his sign.

I saw this man and his sign and asked if I could take his picture and post it. He was happy to pose for me.

The majority of us met at the train station, about 1/2 mile from our rally point. We walked up to the courthouse amongst plenty of horn honks. I did not encounter any negative reaction on the way up. When we passed the Cop Shop, there were about a dozen of them on the porch waving to us.

Several signs I found interesting.

I think probably there was about 100 people there. (sic) This picture does not include the people behind me or all of the ones on the plaza above. Actual estimation was between 6 & 7 hundred.

This was probably one of the most photographed signs at the rally.

Brystan and Jesse really paid attention to the speakers.

Jesse listening to one of the speakers.

Proof that every union man does not march in lockstep with the union thugs.

Police stationed at the rally to keep us under control.

John Koster, running for State Representative for the second district. My district.

Jonah was so happy when all the speechafying was over and he could play.

He did not have to go potty, I asked him.

I spent the bulk of today finishing up some knitting

I had started. This outfit is using a pattern I found on Ravelry for soakers. She also includes
a skirt pattern, but I kind of went off on my own after I got started on it.
I really do not think I would do the picot hem again. I have a hard time keeping the stitches even when I am turning the hem up. I finished this skirt and sold it today. If you are on Ravelry, the pattern I used was Li'l Aries Soaker

by Amy O'Holleran. It was a free download. I will probably use it again, but I also found a pattern that I liked and bought. I bought Sheepy Pants and Sheepy Skirt

by Mandie Harrington, who is also on Ravelry. I decided to buy her pattern because I liked the look of her gusset better than the one by Amy. Believe me, though when I tell you I do appreciate the generosity of the designers who spend their time creating and then share their patterns with those of us who have absolutely no idea how to do it ourselves, or maybe we are just to lazy to put out the effort.

I also finished up this pair of tights. It is also a pattern I found on Ravelry. It is by Machelle Salmeen who has a blog called Chopped Tomatoes These are the second pair I have made. I went up a size in my needles this time, but they are still very small. They would fit a newborn baby. They are made from 100% wool. I am contemplating adding a skirt to them too.These longies are made from Amy O'Holleran's pattern also. I found it on Ravelry too. Again, I had some trouble with the gusset. I still think they turned out pretty cute. I do see one thing I need to fix, nah......I will just make the adjustment next time. Like I said, sometimes I can be a bit lazy.

I have a very pressing question.

Who is going to clean this when I die?

In fact who is going to clean all three of them?

Another week in the life of Gramma2Many

Caleb (#6212)

doesn't even need

a skateboard to ride the rails!

Landing on both feet successfully.

Miss Elizabeth (#6314)

learning to knit with Gramma.

She actually caught on very quickly and took her project with her when she went home to work on it further. She is the first to get the concept of knit one row and purl one row. I usually teach them to knit every row until they are comfortable with the knit portion of it.

Because we are in the middle of big changes in the basement, tiling the floor and putting in new windows, that area is closed off to Grands. This is the aftermath of a day at Gramma's and being unable to play downstairs.

I wish I could have taken pictures of a few bolts of the lightening that accompanied this hail storm. Had I still been living in Georgia, I would have been looking for a safe place to hide from the tornado.

I have not experienced a thunder storm with the power this one had for many years.

Still waiting for my beautiful Wisteria to come into full bloom. It usually blooms before it leaves. I do, however, see a few leaves showing.

The favorite corner of my yard. My cherry tree and my swing. I love to sit here and knit in the summer.