Sunday, March 27, 2011

Who is this hairy man?

I wish I didn't know who this was, but alas I am married to him. He has made it through the first cut to be an extra in the New Testament movies the church is doing sometime this summer. They asked the men to grow beards and let their hair grow long.

All I can say is that I CAN'T WAIT, for this to be over. He thinks it looks cool. I think that I really miss the clean shaven man I married.

There is never a dull moment around our house....with the remodeling and our house turned upside down.......living with a hairy man...........the passing of dear loved ones..........being a service missionary (which I absolutely love).........and life in general.

Grandma C., Grandma Christensen, Chuck A Grandma


I got word tonight that my grandma is not going to live more that a few days, which is a good thing because she has suffered so much for the past 20 years, especially the past 6, but it is also very sad to say goodbye. I have been asked to give the life sketch at her funeral, probably because she and I have been very close all of my life.

When I visited her tonight, she kept saying she was afraid. When I asked her what she was afraid of, she said she was afraid of going. She asked me if I would go with her. She is not totally in her right mind, so I told her that I don't think I could go with her at this time, but her mom and dad and husband would go with her so she won't need to be afraid.

I am really glad that Nancy, Calvin and Kimberly came by while we were there. Calvin and Dennis were able to give her a blessing and it was beautiful. I am so thankful for the Priesthood. During our visit, there was a group of students out in the main hall of the nursing home singing hymns. I thought it was a nice backdrop to the blessing. It sounded like a choir of angels singing in the background.

Dear Grandma, I love you! Thank you for all the love you showed me and my family over the past 50 years, and for the wonderful memories: the 4th of July parade and picnics, complete with new outfits and cap guns, sleepovers, Vicks and dishtowels tied around our necks when we were sick with a cold, playing under the tent of a steady stream of handstitched quilts that we were the lucky recipients of, the camping trips, peanut butter balls, a plethora of cookies and candy canes at Christmas, you didn't read us bedtime stories, you told them to us from your head, always loving us no matter what!

How sad it is to loose 2 of the people most dear to me in the space of 6 months. Life goes on, but will never be the same! The only consolation is in knowing that they are going/have gone to a much better place where there is no more suffering and are reunited with loved ones they haven't seen in many, many years.

Still Under Construction

Yes, we are still under construction. It is amazing how little one can get done when working around jobs and other of lifes everyday happenings. We were ready to paint the living room and hallway, but the kitchen still was waiting for the texture and trim, then puttying the nail holes and sanding everything. We decided to go ahead and paint the living room and hallway so I had to come to a decision on the pain (of all the choices I have had to make in this project it has been picking out the paint). Of all the sample we had up on the wall, most people picked a brown called glazed onions. I liked it as well, but thought it would be too dark for all the walls, especially down the hallway, but Dennis and Steve really liked it, so I gave in and we bought one gallon and decided to paint it on the far wall, so if it was too dark for all the walls, it would just become an accent wall. After painting it, thankfully Dennis decided it would be too dark to paint everything, of which I was so grateful, because I "HATE" the color, even for an accent wall. It doesn't look anything like glazed onions, but rather it looks like mud. Everyone that comes to the house says how much they like the color. So I went back to the paint store and picked out a whole bunch more samples, that I thought would go with the brown and we settled on one. It turns out that it is practically the same color of our bedroom, of which I absolutely have loved. I am glad that our schedule didn't allow us to paint a few weeks ago when we actually bought it because I really wanted to paint just once, which included the few walls in the kitchen that we had textured. In the meantime, Dennis and I puttied, sanded and caulked the trim and I put on the primer, then painted all the trim and doors white. Finally, last night we had everything ready and got down to the business of painting. I love the color "Plantation Beige", but still hate, "HATE", the brown. I am thinking of glazing the brown wall which will make it darker and cause the texture to stand out. It looks awesome at Steve's and Amanda's house, but they have a much lighter paint on their walls. If it doesn't work out, than Dennis has given me permission to paint it the same as all the other walls.
Dennis painting the hallway walls.

The corner of the kitchen that once used to be the second entrance into the living room. If you notice the paint under the cabinet stops abruptly and looks awful. That is going to be my next project - to add a tile backsplash, but until then it has to look ugly.

Dennis painting the living room walls. The paint looks quite different in this light. It is more the shade of the kitchen in the picture above.

The "UGLY MUD BROWN" wall. When we were picking colors that would go with the mud brown, this was the winner. I don't think it did a thing for the mud brown. Just so you know, Dennis does all the roller painting, and I get to do all the edges, corners and "cutting in".


The 1/2 bath is all painted and ready to be put back together tomorrow. The main bathroom is still in limbo until the vanity gets finished. There is still all the little things that need to be done, like paint touch up, putting up the lights, electrical outlets and switches, puttying the nail holes in the wood floor (which up until now had been covered so we could paint), order carpet and blinds, move in the furniture and decorate. I also need to clean every room in the house from all the dust that has collected from all the sanding.

Will this never end? NO, it will not. Want to know why? I have plans to redo the office, and tile the backsplash in the kitchen when all the rest is done. Somehow I have to find time to get my gardening done around all of this.