Relatives Came To Town

Recently my SIL moved back here to stay with her mom. Her two sons and a girlfriend of one helped her to drive out here from Indiana. Long road trip, but they made it all in one piece. We got to spend three hours with them while they were all here & we had a good time eating, celebrating a graduation from college and playing Rock Band 2.

My MIL and my SIL from Indiana.

My oldest nephew and his girlfriend.

My youngest nephew connecting with his new home in Alaska.

My BIL who hosted this event. He BBQd Salmon and corn on the cob & they had a wonderful salad. It was delicious.

My hubs with his little sister.

My hub's older brother and his friend.

My kids and my nephew playing some Rock Band 2.

My SIL, who also hosted this event, singing with my daughter and my nephew.

My son.



The weather was so beautiful that one week in May. We were able to eat outside on their very nice deck and sit out there a while & visit.

Back in for some more Rock Band 2.







Here are some of the women in the family with me. Two SIL's & me standing and my nephew's girlfriend in front.



My SIL and my daughter singing together.

My oldest nephew and my son.

As you can see by the smiles on our faces we had a great time.

Good food + good company = good times!!

J's Birthday 2010

My son turned 15 on July 1st!!!

J's birthday was during all of the floor refinishing and painting days so we just had a lunch with grandma and a little cake.

Later he took a couple of friends to some Pawn Shops as a day of fun. I never thought teens would think going to Pawn Shops was fun, but these guys sure like buying DVD's and video games.

J spent all of his money on DVD's and a Play Station 2. Before that he bought an XBOX 360. So Rock Band 2 is back in action at our house.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, J!

The New Furniture Is In Place

Thanks to my SIL we have newer furniture. She gave us her furniture when she moved and didn't have room for it. What a blessing. Of course this furniture is what started the whole refinishing process.

As you can see here there were two unmatching couches and an old dirty carpet. This was at my daughter's birthday party back in March.

Here's my son posing in the newly painted & refinished room with the furniture. We have been given a lot of furniture over the years and we are thankful, but we were definitely overdue for this refinishing project.

Thanks to a lot of people this project was possible. They helped in many ways to make it an easy tansition for us. My hubs, my son, my MIL & SIL did work hard to get things ready while I was at work still.

Thanking God for family and friends who gave of their time and money.

Someone's Been In My Bed... And He's Still There

JAAAAAAACK!! What are you doing? Lazy boy. Happy Sunday everyone!

An Apple For The Teacher

Check out this awesome cupcake! It was delicious!

The last week of school at my job site, one mom from the PTA made about 50 of these cupcakes. She placed them on what looked like a parade float in the teacher's lounge as a thank you to teachers for all of their hard work this year. These cupcakes are a work of art.

On the top of the cupcake secured with frosting is a small donut. The stem is a piece of Tootsie Roll rolled to be smaller and the leaf is a premade or purchased white chocolate candy leaf.

The whole top is rolled in red sparkly sprinkles. The crafter of these delicacies said her fingers were red for most of the day from the frosting dyeing process.

Many thanks to the PTA of Rainier View for being so organized and involved in the school that their kids attend.

My Mother's Day 2010

Better late than not at all. Here's my pictures from Mother's Day back in May.

My kids bought a planter full of flowers at their school plant sale. They made me a card and gave them to me on Mother's Day. I was very pleased. I love plants & flowers.

After church we met my parents and sister and MIL for lunch.

My parents are seated and my sister is in the black & white checked jacket. My son is on the left and my daughter is on the right. That's me, Mocha Momma in the blue and white.

In this picture is my family with my MIL. My hubs is standing behind me.

We had a nice meal at a little restaurant and sat around talking for a bit, exchanged gifts and cards and that was about it.

We had a nice time and it was a beautiful day so we took my MIL with us for a ride through a local park with beautiful views of the water.

Finally, A Pedicure!

I love a pedicure. Ahhhh!

The Floors and Painting Are Finished...Yay!

Remember this?

Now it looks like this!! Isn't it just awesome? God makes some nice wood doesn't He? Ya baby!

While the floors were being refinished we ate a few meals in the back yard. I actually cooked two breakfasts. I don't do breakfasts very often so it was a special event when I cooked two days in a row. I have to say, it was good.

We also stayed in the back rooms or kitchen or out of the house while this process of floor refinishing was going on. Jack, our cat, basically lived in our bedroom. He was getting pretty fed up with it all. We let him out between coats of FloorFin whenever the floors were dry enough to walk on.

Now when the floor was finished & the painter showed up Jack was very curious. He kept an eye on that guy. Wondering what he was up to.

Jack watched for quite a while while A painted.

And he watched some more. Finally Jack was getting too close to the freshly painted walls & we had to put him back in our bedroom. Poor Jack. A really liked him too.

As well as many other things my hubs installed the base board. At first I was apprehensive because in the past, I'll just say, the work was less than what I had hoped for. Well he did a very good job this time and A followed him with caulking & sealed the top & covered nails. It looks very nice. I am smiling.

Nice eh!

A 52 year old floor uncovered after many years of abuse and carpet covering it.

For not really fixing any walls other than minor patching and covering up our old house turned out pretty nice.

It's me, Mocha Momma, very pleased and right before the 4th of July too. Now to bring in the old furniture and then the newer furniture.

We were anxious to bring the furniture in off of the deck and get everything back in order so we could relax and enjoy the Independence Day festivities.

But it had poured rain the entire day on July 2nd and when we pulled off the tarp there was our old furniture sitting in water on the tarp. Big oops! Shouldn't have put tarp under it or should have made sure the top tarp was tucked under the bottom one.

We spent a lot of time with a heat gun drying pieces so we could put the pads on the feet and set them in place.

The entertainment center, the piece we wanted to set up the most so we could get all the electronics back into it, was soaked about an inch and 1/2 to 2 inches.

This is the bottom of the back. Ugh!

And this is the oldest piece we have that came with the house. It has the most damage. It's a Secretary's Desk. It had some broken parts, but it had never been refinished so apparently it has more value that way. As it dried one of the claw feet cracked & part of it fell off.

This side is warped, cracking and the finish is gone now. We let it dry and then brought it in and put it back in service. Not much else to do unless we take the time and money to get her fixed. So much to do, so little money.

The whole project went very smoothly until the rain soaked things, but it's all okay. We're still very pleased and we even had some old friends over for the 4th. As always, God is good and shows us what's important.

I hope your Fourth of July was fun and festive. Hopefully I'll be back soon with more fun stuff we've been doing. God bless you all.