Projects and Pets

Have you ever heard of painting an old laminate countertop? Well, that is our latest project/ experiment. Our countertop at the old house is a lovely 1960's "classic" that has seen better days for sure. So Jon found info online about painting old countertops, and we are giving it a try to see how it turns out. If it isn't wonderful, we can always defer to plan A and tear out the old and replace it anyway. So far we've primed and painted the first coat, and Jon is painting the second coat tonight. Then we have two accent colors to apply tomorrow, and then seal it with a clear finish. Just with the one coat of paint, it was already an improvement, to say the least! I'll let you know how it goes.

I think I've discovered that our boxer, Lucy, has a fly phobia. We've always known she was bothered by flies (she hides from them, whereas cocker spaniel Dixie likes to hunt them down). Tonight there was a fly in the house, and after a while, Lucy started shaking and looking around. I thought she might be having a seizure (our old dog Dakota used to have seizures - thus, I started wondering what was wrong with me that my dogs always get seizures). Then I noticed the fly buzzing around, and I got her to walk with me out to the living room and she seemed fine. Lucy wanted to go outside, so I let her out and she ran around like normal. So I guess it was just the fly getting to her. Personally, I am far more bothered by spiders (the bigger, the worse!) than pesky flies, but I will try to keep the flies away from Lucy from now on.

House For Sale

Finally our old, dear house has the "For Sale" sign in the front yard! We still have a few little fixes left to do, but it is officially on the market - yippee! So if you or someone you know is looking for a nice, solid three-bedroom brick house in the Berwick area of Savannah (Southside), let me know. It has a great fenced in backyard, bonus room/den, and good neighbors (sniffle, sniffle). If you're not interested, feel free to pray with us for the right buyer to come along quickly.

It will be so great to get back to a normal life after all this house stuff is done (or at least not so urgent anymore). Having time to go on fun outings with Anna and Will again, not having to drag them to a house so we can "work" or drop them off with kind relatives day after day, being able to take it easy on the weekend... these are some of the things I dream of lately. Three months of home renovation and improvement starts to wear on a person (at least on this person anyway).

Hello, again!

Ta da! I'm back - finally! We moved to our new home on Friday, August 1, but have not had internet or cable tv until today at long last. How can this be in today's modern high-speed world? I guess it's my fault... I wanted to keep our telephone number the same - I thought that would be easier - so Jon signed us up for some "bundle" for cable tv, internet, and phone. But, in order for Comcast to transfer our phone number to the new house, it was going to take two weeks, amazingly enough, during which time we would be without tv or internet. Our phone would remain active, though inconveniently located at our old house (where we no longer live, in case you missed that). So today was the big hook-up day... except that two days ago, Comcast called and said they had a software problem and our phone number didn't get processed in our order, so now it will be an additional five business days before the phone moves to the new house. Whatever.

In the meantime we have hosted Jon's brother Stephen and his family of four from Chicago at our new house, and Jon's sister Heidi with her family of eleven from Pittsburgh at our old house, so there's been a bit of excitement to keep us preoccupied during our "unwired" time. Everyone came into town to celebrate Jon's parents' 5oth wedding anniversary. There was a party/reception at the church last weekend, not to mention dinners out, trips to the beach, swimming at the pool, cousins playing together, etc. It was fun and exhausting.

So here I sit, in the midst of many boxes, with children sleeping (or "peeping" as Will says) and husband out buying groceries and retrieving more boxes from the old house (we're almost done - really). It is quiet - just the hum of my trusty computer and an occasional jingle of dog tags in the hall. Gradually, everything in these boxes will find its proper new place, a life rhythm will emerge once more, and we will find our new "normal."