Seafair and Birthdays!

What a fun day we had yesterday! We were invited to Andy & Julie Lamb's home for Seafair BBQ and to watch the Blue Angels from their back deck on Mercer Island. Great view! Our whole family was there and of course Dave & Sharron Lamb also took part. Unfortunately Zanna, Erik and kids live in Pittsburg so missed out on this reunion of sorts, and Jeff, Kim and kids were unable to attend also. When the Lambs lived in Seward Park several years back, it was a tradition to party there and we had a fantastic, close-up view of the Blue Angels performing.
Sharron has posted about the BBQ on her blog so you can go check out her excellent snaps at: http://lambtales-shar.blogspot.com/

We celebrated birthdays together too. Conner Lamb turned 8, Annika Young turned 5 and Pete and Shauna Myron turned....another year older! It's not too often that a married couple share the same birthday!

Here are some of my photos:

Charlotte enjoying watching the other kids playing down below.

 "The Kids!"

Pete and Hailey

Yup, the specks in the sky are the Blue Angels. Just wanted to capture the view from the deck.

Andy, Beckett and Kari

Julie with Beckett. Andy and Julie are GREAT hosts.

There's Logan!

 Uh, does Saben happen to have a stick in his hand?? He must be giving his friend, Connor a birthday "poke." Look at that blue angel cupcake display!

The Birthday Bunch

Now, Annika and Pete's faces!

Slip 'n Slide FUN

Hailey

Charlotte

Our friendship with the Lamb family goes back to 1976.....36 years!! Almost 1/2 of my lifetime! (My goof....I'm, not 72 yet!!) Family and friends are the BEST. And we are BLESSED....more than we deserve!

On the Oregon Coast with Vic & Joan

We have THE best friends!! Several of our friends have timeshares, and we are fortunate enough to be included in some of their vacations. Thus, our trip to Gleneden last week. We didn't know where Gleneden was and quickly learned that it is here:

See Tillamook? Drop your eyes down a bit. It is just north of Depot Bay.

What a lovely time we had! Our accomodations at Worldmark had 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. And we even had a lovely view of the pools and beach.

I wasn't able to capture the wading pool in this photo from our deck.

The weather was great during our 5 days away. We golfed, ate out, ate in, shopped, walked, swam, played ping pong, cribbage, and learned a new card game called hand and foot.

Vic and Joan

My Blackberry Marguerita at Kyllo's Seafood Restaurant. YUM!

Beautiful Sunsets

Lovely sites at Depoe Bay

Depoe Bay

"Whale Watching Capital of the Oregon Coast" We didn't happen to see any!

Did you know that Depot Bay is the smallest navigable harbor in the WORLD?? Amazing!

The Coast Guard was practicing with newbies at the helm, traveling in and out of the harbor

Wishing Well at Worldmark

Always full of mischief!

We walked to the Salishan Resort and did a little shopping and ate ice cream cones. There were lots of these big planters full of lovely flowers.

As Bob Hope used to say...."THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!"

While Dave drove home I began knitting a pair of socks. Several hours later and this is all the further I got! Sock weight yarn, 5 needles and it is slow going!

Flower Show

Today was the day for our Issaquah Garden Club flower show. We have had several meetings to plan this event and many of us have spent hours and hours working on the details to make today's show a success. And it was a success!!

We had the perfect location. The Issaquah Public Library. I arrived at 9 am along with several other ladies in our club to arrange the display tables, cover them with white plastic table coverings and get our signage in place. What a lot of work! I was in charge of planning our room arrangement and after careful measurement and plotting things out on graph paper, it worked out perfectly! See?

We had a lot more entries than we anticipated!

I was so happy that my variagated hosta won a blue ribbon AND won a rosette for best of show out of all the horticulture! Isn't it pretty? I wish I could take this hosta with me to our new house. Wonder if I can find a plant at a nursery that will compare. Of course, someone STOLE the one that I had already moved in a pot to our new house. What is wrong with people!!

I love this variagated hosta!

Then I saw that my 5" miniature arrangement won a blue ribbon and was best of that category. This is pretty impressive, since I have only entered one other flower show! I am still considered a novice. Now when I win one more blue ribbon, I won't be a novice anymore. I guess 10 years of involvement in garden club has its benefits!

The miniature roses are from our new house. I discovered that I have both yellow and red minis growing. I guess it is just the right environment for them. The other greenery and flowers are from my garden in this house.

You may ask why we we have a flower show. The reason is that it promotes garden club, so that the many people who stopped by might become interested in joining. It is also a fun and educational showcase for our club members to display the results of their hard work in the garden. And who doesn't enjoy a beautiful flower arrangement?? So, in case you wonder what I do with my time....maybe this will show you yet another side to my life. I always enjoy getting to talk to my garden club friends! I am so proud of my garden club!!

Painting

I hate painting. Dave hates painting. What was I thinking when I told Dave I wanted to paint the entire interior of our new home? Ugg. This remodel project has been going on for several weeks now and we are still not quite done with the painting. We are on the homestretch however. My first "mistake" was that I wanted to paint all the ceilings white and the walls a light tan/beige color. We have gone through several rolls of blue painters tape and Dave repeatedly reminds me that this was a bad idea!! Then I decided I didn't want to see ANY paneling or wood tone doors or trim. Of course, it takes 3 coats of paint to completely cover those areas with white semi-gloss. This home is almost 1800 sq. feet so that is a LOT of paint we have gone through.

I applied one coat of paint in the master bath, needing to cover wallpaper and paneling, and Dave just surprised me by saying he was heading over there to give it another coat of paint. YES!! I will be leaving soon to go buy yet another gallon of paint for the kitchen ceiling. Then I will attempt to paint the pantry door. Will this ever end?? I want to throw out our paint pans and rollers when we are finished!

We are making progress with the entire project though. Son Jason is doing the remodeling for us (minus the painting) and he has begun to install the new cabinets. Here is a photo taken at the beginning of this process as Jason was tearing out the kitchen cabinets, etc. Notice that ugly wallpaper!

Goodbye YELLOW!!!

Both Dave and I are anxious to be finished with everything and get moved in. NO MORE GRASS TO MOW!! We are feeling more and more like this is home and we can see the finish line ahead of us. We are beginning to mentally arrange our furniture!

The first room I painted was one of the spare bedrooms. I chose a light green and it was tough to paint as I couldn't differentiate (when the paint was wet) between the old yellow/cream color and the new green color. Once I finished, the change was obvious and I loved the look.

Hmm, what's new and what's old paint???

Most of the doors and trim had already been painted this yellow-toned cream color and I repainted them white. This house will have just about every detail updated. We are installing new bath fans (the master bath has a heater, so we found a nice Broan fan with a heater), new lights throughout, updating the light switches and outlets to white instead of cream, new door hardware, new blinds throughout, new roof, new plumbing lines, new appliances, new plumbing fixtures, and new flooring in the kitchen, utility and bathrooms. Jason is doing a fantastic job for us and of course when you open up a wall or change wiring, it presents another challenge in some way. Jason is really good at figuring out solutions to those problems!

Just to add to our workload, we ordered a shed and Dave has begun the process preparing the spot to install the shed. Yup. It was delivered in 2 flat boxes and needs to be assembled. I also ordered a new desk for my computer and that is also in 2 boxes and needs to be put together. I am planning on buying a new Hemnes daybed from ikea since it not only has 3 big drawers in it to store the grandkids toys, but it will make into a king size bed. But....you guessed it.....it will need to be assembled!

When we are moved in and done with all this craziness, we can picture ourselves out on the patio sipping our margueritas and reading on our kindles. But wait....after we move we will need to clean up this house after we have a huge moving sale. Downsizing by 1/2 presents the problem of what to take with us and what to get rid of. Soon this will all be a foggy memory!!

Selling Young Manor

Have you seen the TV program titled "Selling Spelling Manor" about Candy Spelling selling her home and boxing up all her possessions to put in storage until she can figure out what to do with them?  Thanks to Judy, I watched it! It made me shudder. 56,000 square feet. Wow! When it sold, she had 30 days to get moved. And I think I have problems!!

Here is a link to see what the mansion looks like:
http://www.frontdoor.com/buy/celebrity-home-spotlight-candy-spelling/pictures/pg15

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the task of downsizing, and I cannot imagine having the energy or determination that Candy Spelling had in order to box up her things and decide what to give to charity, what to sell, and what to put in storage. Watch this HGTV special and you will see that she number/letter coded all the boxes and can tell you which box contains what treasure! Just shoot me now! I am so convinced that bigger is NOT better. I wouldn't want her doll collection, nutcracker collection beanie baby collection, or myriad other collections. And yet, when I look around here at all that we need to dispose of, I hyperventilate!! How can I give up our stuff? Stuff that I have spent time and money accumulating?

Today was a big day. Our beloved pool table was dismantled and trucked to the new owner's home. I hope they enjoy it as much as we have. We now have a big empty space in the family room. Bit by bit we are giving things to our kids, selling things, donating other things to Goodwill and setting much aside for a huge garage sale which we will have in a couple of months. Hopefully we will be moved into our new home by then and be able to make sure the things we want to keep will fit. Then, the overflow will go.

Goodbye! We sure had some fun times together!!

We have begun taking pictures off the walls and filling in the nail holes. We do want to leave this home as clean and groomed as we can make it for the new owners. So that is where we are at with this house.

The new house is another matter! The remodeling is well underway and the new cabinets are scheduled to arrive on May 11th. Next week I hope to get the rest of the painting done in preparation. I still need to select the flooring and have a few more light fixtures and plumbing fixtures to purchase. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Lots of internet shopping, driving to Lowes and Home Depot. Appliances to choose. I've been through this before! This should be the very last time we will have to do a big remodel.

I really don't like this business of having 2 homes to take care of. I have divided loyalty!! We love where we live now, and yet we are eager to get moved to the new place. Downsizing is a good thing. I'm very glad that we are doing this now, when we are still young enough to "get the job done." So many people put their heads in the sand and don't deal with the task of making a move soon enough. I don't want to put my children in the position of coming over to mow the lawn, repair the deck or any of a number of things that homes require as the years go by. Or make them feel like they have to help their decrepit (you'd think it should have a "d" on the end instead of a "t"...go figure!)  old parents pack things up and get them moved. (Although they may want to help and we wouldn't discourage them!)  I didn't have kids so they can take care of me in my old age. I had kids because I want long term relationships with them, their spouses and the grandkids!

Oh, one more thing.....even though it is a sad day seeing our pool table leave, there are 2 pool tables in the community center where we will be living! All is NOT lost!! Besides, Dave and I will have more time to play golf when we rid ourselves of all the yard work! Yahoo!!

Junk or Treasure?

While trying to sort though years of accumulated "stuff" I found these old dolls. The walking doll was mine when I was a child in the 50's. I remember her well! My mom sewed the clothes she is wearing. Not sure what happened to her eyes however. Certainly being stored for 50 years couldn't have caused them to give out. Hmmm, then again maybe she is just aging like me! The other dolls belonged to my mom and her two sisters and are 1920's vintage. The doll bodies have cracked with age and the clothing surely has seen better days! So, what to do with them? I need to find a new home for them since we are drastically downsizing. I could just give them to the Goodwill, but it seems a shame to go that route. I have several items besides these dolls that might have value to someone but I won't have room to keep them any longer. Junk or treasure? That is the question.

It is proving to be a painful process to sort through my craft/sewing room and make decisions about what to keep and what to give away or try to sell. I happen to like all my stuff and if I get into a crafty mood I just know I will regret not having some things that I may need in the future. Then again, how much crafting and even sewing will I be doing during this next chapter of my life? I'm hoping when this remodeling/moving process comes to an end I will be able to relax a bit and be creative again. But, I don't have room for everything, so decisions are being made. I sold my old Bernette serger yesterday. I have hung on to it all these years as a back-up serger but although the motor and workings were fine, there were adjustments needed to make it stitch correctly. I can't believe how many calls and emails I received from ladies wanting to buy it and felt confident they could fix it! Just goes to show that there is someone for everything.

The kitchen will be my other difficult area to sort through. Our new kitchen will be much smaller with way less cabinet space. I love all my kitchen gadgets and cooking aids. I still want to bake bread in my bread machine and make cookies with my 30+ year old Kitchen Aid mixer. They are big and bulky and with all my other appliances and paraphernalia, where will I store them? More anxiety!

Then there is the garage....our new home has a storage shed, but no garage. WHAT?????? How can this possibly work for us? I have ordered an additional shed so that should handle Christmas decorations, family memorabilia, excess golf equipment, etc. etc. etc.

The stresses and strains of moving are a reality and I can't tell you how glad I will be when this process is over and we are settled into our new home and develop new routines.

Family Portraits

So....I thought it would be a good idea for our family to go get some professional photos taken since we've never actually had our pictures taken together since the grandkids were born. What a challenge! Here are some photos of the day. As you can see, Hailey did not want her picture taken, Charlotte had her moments and Annika was into making goofy faces! Since I gave each grandchild a knit (by me!) article of clothing, I thought it would be a good idea to get a photo of them in their finery, hence the photos of all four grandkids with me. Phew. At least that is over with!!

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