Happy Birthday Mike

Tuesday was Mike's 42nd birthday. The girls were so excited and had plans for their dad. After the weekend of Dolly, we weren't feeling very festive but his office was having a party and the girls were home for the day. While I was gone Brynna and Lauren called and asked if they could "decorate" the house for his birthday. I felt guilty that they were home all day and said "yes". Little did I know that there would be confetti all over the house, even in between the covers on our bed, thanks to Lauren.

The party at the office was great and his staff are amazing cooks. They made homemade tacos and I think they were the best I have ever had since we moved to El Paso. The food was amazing and I think Mike had a good time.

I got home before he did and the first thing Brynna did was give me a paper to sign before I went to my room - see photo. I knew I was in trouble when there was a contract to sign. Mike came home soon after and as he walked in the door Meagan started to play "Happy Birthday" on our tuned piano and Brynna and Lauren threw confetti at him. When we went upstairs I was shocked at all the confetti on the floor and saw it underneath the covers on our bed, Lauren wanted to make sure I saw her handy work. They had a good time and as stipulated in the contract, they cleaned it all up. Although, I keep finding pieces in different parts of the house, it sort of fits in with the taken apart family room.
Is there confetti still in my hair?..........

Dolly wins

Well, as much as we tried the carpet was beyond hope in the family room. We came down this morning to more wet carpet (which smelled awful), tile coming off the bathroom wall (that we just finished last week) and the motor on the pool not working. The motor on the pool we think, got just too soaked and kept blowing a fuse. We waited awhile and finally it kicked on and has continued to work (fingers crossed).

The carpet we decided to just pull it all up and take it out. Mike has always wanted to put down tile but I have been reluctant, I guess tile it is but it will take a while. Definitely not a weekend project.

The bathroom wall was very wet and tiles were very loose. So we pulled off the ones that were not dry and laid them to put on at a later date. We think we fixed the leak, it looks like it was from the vent outside that was not caulked.

I guess it will be another wet day. I have posted pictures of the empty family room without the carpet and the new living room with furniture as well as the shower. Now we just have to have the cable guy come out (of course there is no outlet in the living room, that would be too easy), fix the roof and start tiling.

I think I am turning into a tiling fool.........

Dolly Drops In

Today we woke up to rain, what else should we expect it is the monsoon season. The rain was coming down very fast and the weather report said that this was the remnants of Hurricane Dolly. It was very windy and we ended up getting over 2 inches of rain - we also ended up with some leaks in our house.

The bathroom that had been tiled earlier in the week had water coming through the glass window and into the tub. Then when we went into the family room, close to the fireplace we felt a squish. We had significant water coming in from base of the fireplace. Needless to say we have many wet towels and the family room is totally taken apart and tiles are taken off the wall in the bathroom.

When we had a break in the rain this afternoon we went back out to the window where the bathroom is and saw that there was an exhaust outlet on the wall that was not sealed (we hope this is how the water was coming in for the bathroom). As for the fireplace, Mike is going to look on the roof tomorrow to see if he can see any cracks.

Tonight the weatherman is calling for more bands of rain so I think Mike and I are sleeping downstairs to watch for water coming in from the fireplace. The carpet is pulled up and fans are running, it is the best we can do for right now but boy is it exhausting - whew! Look like Mike might be getting home repairs for his birthday, thanks Dolly!
Trying to stay dry.......

And we are back to the bathroom

The downstairs bathroom has been a work in progress for the past few months. Yes, I said months. With Mike coming back, the end of the school year, vacations and all of the other things that come with summer, the bathroom fell on the back burner. The most important piece was working, the toilet and so when company came over they washed their hands in the laundry room, it worked.

(It ended up being a blessing in disguise because we found a leak in the window from the rain, see previous posts, and it made marks on the cement board. I found the crack outside, patched it up and now it is water tight.)

My partner in crime and I decided that this week worked to pick up where we left off. The counter around the sink had already been tiled, we had 2 rows up of tiles in the shower and on Monday we continued working from there. We got about half way finished in the shower on Monday and today we made it all the way to the top. It looks great (minus the blue tape). We should be able to grout this weekend and then the bathroom should be fully functioning, Meagan cannot wait! I have to say that Christa and I work very well together. It has been a lot of fun and she and her family are pretty amazing!
Waiting to take a shower........

It is raining - again

It is looking like another night of rain. During the day it gets so hot and humid and then at about 4 p.m. the clouds start rolling in and by 5 or 6 it is raining. It is the monsoon season but it would be nice if it would give us just a little break.

The girls are just hanging out and Mike has been home for the week. He goes back to work on Monday and Meagan starts up with her voice camp for 4 weeks. I feel like school is right around the corner and I am definitely not ready. Lauren, however, is ready for school. She has her backpack already to go and by the front door. She is such a funny duck.

Should be a low key weekend, my favorite.
Until next time.......

It's Raining, It's Pouring, the Old Man is NOT Snoring

I wish I was snoring right now. We had another storm that brought rain and lots of lightening and thunder throughout last night, monsoon season is in full swing. However, our dog Annie is very afraid of the thunder and lightening so she was whining most of the night.

Yesterday, the piano man came and made our old piano sound fantastic. I had hoped to get out the door and have Mike take care of the piano but the piano tuner decided to come early. He was here at 9:30 a.m. and Mike wasn't dressed and ready. So, I spent the morning talking to him. He has great knowledge when it comes to music and I do enjoy talking to him. It took him a couple of hours to tune the piano. He told us about a piano store out on the east side that sold pianos that he would recommend when we were ready to buy a new one. So after he was finished we all loaded up and went to see what the store had to offer. There were some beautiful instruments and we have a better idea as to what we are looking at price wise.

The girls were excited about the prospect of a new piano. And as luck would have it their piano teacher called to say she had some pieces ready for them to look at as possible performance competition pieces. As expected the piano got a great workout and it sounded beautiful. A tuned piano sure is music to my ears.

The Piano Man

Well, since Mike is off this week and has complained about the piano being out of tune since he returned from Iraq, I scheduled the piano tuner for today. The piano tuner is a wonderful man and a friend of our piano teacher, however, he loves to talk more than I do! So, Mike gets to spend the morning with him. I think I am going to go over to the high school and help stuff orientation packets and come back to a relatively tuned piano.

We have had our piano for about 8 years now. We bought it from a retiring 3 star general in San Antonio for $500. It is about 60 years old and the general had played it most of his life. I look back and am amazed that I even got to know the wife, I was just a captains wife at the time and she was just very down to earth. When she heard that I had little girls that were interested in playing the piano she told me that they were selling their piano before they moved. I dragged Mike to the general's house, while the general was not home, and he just didn't know what to say. I think he wanted to say "no" but saw how excited I was and that the general's wife was so willing to sell it to us. He relented and I was beside myself when the movers brought it to our house. I had never owned a piano before and couldn't believe my good fortune. It has been very good to us and does deserve to be in tune.

I think we have since outgrown this piano (at least Meagan has) but it has such great memories that I think when the day comes that we get a new piano I will still keep this upright and not worry if it is in tune or not.

Riley is HOME!

After 45 days, he is finally back with us! The girls were so excited yesterday when we went to pick him up. He is a very funny fellow and makes everyone laugh with his personality.

Annie, our Shepard/Lab seems to be ok that Riley is here again, however, Henry (our cat) is having nightmares!

I will try and post pictures later of the three of them. It is great to just be home and not worrying about how Riley is coping.

Back from the Tech

Well, I thought that it might be helpful to keep everyone up to date on how things are going. We returned from Texas Tech on Saturday and it seemed like a great camp. We are now counting down and ready for tomorrow - when Riley, our new dog comes home! We can't wait.

For those of you who don't know the story.....we got Riley on Mother's Day. He had only been with us for 2 weeks when he went out to the pool at dusk to get a drink of water. I didn't realize that there was also a bat drinking from the pool and when it left it flew right over Riley's back. I couldn't tell if he was bit or not but we needed to err on the side of caution. The next morning I called animal control to tell them what had happened and they informed me that he had to be quarantined for 45 days (state law)! So he has been living with our vet. He is a cute dog and we can't wait to get him back. Tomorrow should be fun.