John and Christine's Adventures

Thursday, December 5, 2013

November 28th through December 4th 2013:

November 28^th through December 4^th 2013: On Thanksgiving, we took Badger and Moose to see Ender’s Game. We all liked it a lot. We cooked a turkey and had all the trimmings. It was really nice to be with family on Thanksgiving. Sorry no picture of eating turkey. I watched some football on TV while Jill and Chris hit the stores for an early start to Black Friday. Jill got the really great deals she was hoping for. We got away on Friday about 10:00am because I had to be back for work. Saturday, we got up early and went to the temple. Afterward I got the rest of the floor grouted and Chris painted the pantry doors. We went to lunch and then went to see Catching Fire, the Hunger Games. Another pretty good movie. Then I went to work. Sunday we were alone for church. Charlotte’s family was on their way home from Thanksgiving in Denver with Alex’s family. We had tuna fish sandwiches for dinner. I can’t wait to have a working kitchen. Monday, I got transferred to a different department at work so I don’t have to work every night. In fact I don’t have to work this week until Wednesday. As a result, I worked on the kitchen until 8:00pm. Mom had a teaching job and then went to help out at Kirstin’s house. I got all the doors and drawer fronts hinged and hung and hardware installed, finished painting the pantry doors, and finished painting all the moldings.

Almost done!

The hardware for the drawers.

The hardware for the doors and the molding on the doors that I added at top and bottom.

Tuesday, mom had another teaching job and I worked on the kitchen. I finished all the electrical, changing out plugs and switches to white from the old ivory color, hanging the pantry doors and installing the hardware, and made of a punch list.

The new pantry doors.

For any of you who have not been through a construction project, a punch list is a list of everything that needs to be fixed, a nick here or touchup the paint there or like install the microwave. We had dinner with Charlotte’s family and then I showered and got cleaned up for our interview with the Bishop. That’s right, we got our papers submitted and our interview with the Bishop is now completed and we are waiting to meet with the Stake Pres. Hurray. Wednesday, I started work at 5:00am and got off at 2:00pm, but that left me enough time to seal the backsplash and floors. Alex stayed up last night and scrubbed the tiles and it looks great.

I think the tile looks great.

I also got the carpet reinstalled in our bedroom from the flood we had the night we got back from Thanksgiving. It turns out that the father of one of my home teaching families has a carpet company, so I was able to borrow a knee kicker and some hand tools to reinstall the carpet. I fell asleep about 8:30pm and that’s why at 5:00am I am blogging.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

November 22nd through November 27th:

November 22^nd through November 27^th: Friday morning we got up and got ready to drive to Denver. Chris’ nephew, Richard Cornwall, is getting married on Saturday. His young family was involved in a tragic car accident in July 2011 and his wife Jenny, was killed. He was left with 2 young children. He is marrying a cute young woman who is divorced with 3 girls. She got her temple cancelation just last week, so they are getting sealed on Saturday and then there will be an open house at Richard’s home.

The new Richard Cornwall family.

The drive was uneventful, but long and cold. Stopping to get gas in Wyoming, really makes you grateful for Utah weather. It also makes us nostalgic for the weather in Cochabamba. We stayed Friday night in Denver with Bill and Mary Jane McBean, the parents of our son-in-law Alex. It was great to visit with them. The sealing was really sweet. The mother, sister, brother and one cousin from Utah of Richard’s deceased wife came to support the new couple. Shaylyn, the new bride, had made dresses for all the girls. We pray for them and hope they both can find happiness together. After the wedding we went to lunch with Chris’ brother, Mark, his wife, Linda, and his other 2 children, Carin and Ryan and Ryan’s wife Heidi. We don’t get to see them very often so it was a wonderful occasion to talk and laugh.

Lunch after the wedding. L to R. Carin, Linda, Heidi, Mark Chris and Ryan. This is Chris' brother Mark's wife and other children and Heidi is Ryan's wife.

We got up Sunday morning and made the drive home. Monday I started the backsplash. Glass tiles are a little more difficult to cut than regular ceramic or porcelain tiles. When they chip out on the back as all tiles do when you cut them, you can see it from the front. I got all the tiles installed and then Charlotte and I decided that we didn’t like the part above the sink and to either side—too big a gap at the bottom. So I ripped it all off and cleaned the tiles and the wall. After more than 8 hours of leaning over the counter top my back was aching. I go cleaned up and went to work. Tuesday I reinstalled the tile and changed where I put the uneven part. It looks much better. I can’t believe it took me 2 full days to get the backsplash cut and installed. I did figure out that if you paint the chips on the back of the tiles you can’t see them.

Hard to see the back splash.

Here is a better picture of the new back splash.

The doors just waiting for hinges and to be installed. Next week.

We are getting close to the finish line.

Wednesday I grouted the backsplash and painted a little and then we drove to St. George to be with John and Jill and their family for Thanksgiving. They are spending Thanksgiving at Jill’s family condo. We went to a park to try and get the kids all tired out came home, had dinner and then went to the swimming pool. Then we had popcorn and watched Harry Potter. Good times.

Badger, John's oldest.

Moose or James. James when he is at school, Moose is all anyone in the family calls him.

Ellie the only girl.

Jake the baby.

The older brothers spinning Jake. It was so funny. He couldn't walk when they put him on his feet.

John watching his two oldest on a kind of teeter-totter swing.

John and Jill's family swimming.

Friday, November 22, 2013

November 15th through November 21st:

November 15^th through November 21^st: I’ll give you the update on the kitchen first. On Friday the 15^th I spent all day installing all the full piece tiles and then on Saturday I rented a tile saw and cut all the edge tiles and toe kick pieces. 110 cut tiles to 106 full tiles. John B. came over and helped me for a couple of hours--he would measure and I would cut. Charlotte and Alex wanted to take me to dinner for all my work. So I stopped at 6:00pm and we went to dinner. We were going to go to Chuck-a-Rama, but alas, it was too busy, so we ended up at Pei Wei. Her kids were disappointed, but I wasn’t. After church on Sunday, we had our early Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and all the trimmings. It was delicious. All our kids are going to their in-laws for Thanksgiving, but we will all be together for Christmas.

Early Thanksgiving Dinner.

Family games. I won.

Monday I returned the tile saw and started grouting. I forgot to put on gloves and after one bag of grout and 3 hours of grouting, some of my fingertips were bleeding. I stopped and got cleaned up and went to lunch with my brother Van and his son and his son-in-law. We went to a Chinese restaurant and most of the staff spoke very little English. It was fun to practice my Chinese and see their surprise at my attempt to communicate. I finished off the day making some molding and installing it on the new pantry doors so they matched the cabinet doors. I also picked up the cabinet doors from the painters.

Tile floor done just a little more grouting.

Then it was off to work. I only got about half of the floor tiles grouted, but my fingers were too sore to continue, so I installed the rollout fronts on the rollouts in the pantry and sanded and primed the molding. Tuesday I wired all the plugs and yes and they are all GFIC and they all work. I finished caulking and started to clean out cabinets and install the cover caps.

Cleaned cabinet with no screw holes.

I took the doors to the company that had milled the cabinet parts so they could bore the back of the doors for the hinges. I noticed a funny spot on one of my knuckles on my left hand and for the life of me I could not figure out what it could be. It was about the size of a dime and then all red around it and my hand looked like I had a glove on. It was really swollen. Wednesday I installed the hooks and closet rod in the pantry and some molding at the end of the cabinets so there would be something to die the back splash tiles into. All the finish carpentry is done and the list is getting shorter.

Pantry, hooks and closet rod done.

At work everyone looked at my hand and convinced me I had better go to the doctor. They all had their smart phones out and had googled spider bites and I have to admit it looked like one. So I left work early and went to instacare. Guess who was the doctor on duty? Lenny Portacarro, from our old ward on 17^th Ave. He agreed that it looked like a spider bite. He cut it open and took a culture of the puss to find out what kind of bacteria was causing the infection. He was worried that if it was staff, it could be the kind that is flesh eating. He had the nurse give me a shot of antibiotics. I have never had a shot that hurt so much. I was limping home. I started on some antibiotic pills on Thursday but he wanted to get a big dose in me right away. Thursday I helped the plumber install the sink and facet, disposal, refrigerator water line and the dishwasher. Hurray! We have a sink. I wired the dishwasher and disposal and installed ceiling cover plates on the places where there had been fixtures. We left these in case Charlotte wants to add a chandelier over her table or something like that.

Sink and plumbing done.

Then I went to Thanksgiving Dinner at the Elementary School with Charlotte and Miles, her kindergartner. What a fun thing to do for parents and grandparents. I was surprised the food was pretty good.

Thanksgiving Dinner at School with Miles.

Miles the thankful Indian.

I then picked up the doors, now they are ready to be installed.

Cabinet doors ready to be installed.

Then I folded laundry and got our room clean and went to pick up Chris at the airport. But first I had to exchange the backsplash tiles. Home Depot had received a new glass tile and I took one home to show Charlotte and she decided she liked it better than the one we had and it was a little cheaper, so I exchanged them at the Home Depot in SLC on my way to the airport. Mom’s plane was really late and I spent almost 2 hours waiting for her. I got to work late and so I didn’t get home till almost 11:00pm. It is great to have her home again. Three weeks is a long time to be apart. Mom wants to tell you about California so I guess I will let her.

Wow, I feel honored to write on the blog. I had a great visit with Genevieve and Sam and their two little girls, Xela and Willa, in Pasadena, California. Xela will tell anyone who asks, that she is three years old, but after Christmas, she will be four, and Willa already is one year old. It was fun to be part of their daily life (going to pre-school and play dates) and being together. Ginny (our family nickname for Genevieve) was getting ready for two different conferences, one in New York and one in Washington, D.C. She was traveling some of this time, so I had lots of time with Sam and the girls. We also went to music makers, the Zoo, Kid Space Museum and decorated their Christmas tree. We had so much fun and it reminded me AGAIN how much energy is required to parent young children. Love them lots.