The Stuff In-Between the Remodel

 

On Tuesday, we had an early morning shift at the cannery in Harrison, UT.  It has been over 5 years since we had a cannery assignment since we have been away and of course Covid which closed it for a bit.  On our way there at 6:30 am, I thought we are too old for this.  But when we got there, I realized that we were about the same age as most of the volunteers for that shift.  We were tired but it is a good feeling to be a part in a tiny way of the welfare program of the Church.

We did beef stew this time--Gary broke up frozen carrots for the mix and I operated the gravy filler.  I only had one "Lucy Ricardo" moment (reference to her famous scene working in the chocolate factory from I Love Lucy.).  The cans were coming back to back at a fast and constant clip for about 30 minutes.  I had to keep checking the line for bad cans with dents and to make sure they were traveling correctly on both sides --coming and going through the gravy filler.  All of a sudden, the gravy stopped flowing, but the cans kept going, I ran to put my hands across the path to prevent the cans without gravy from going into processing.  However, I couldn't leave that spot to get anyone to fix the gravy.  I tried waving at the nearest people but it took a few minutes until someone finally noticed me and sent a young service missionary over to help.  And fortunately, he knew how to fix it and turned the gravy on again.  But I still had to grab cans and run them back to the other side of the filler.  The young missionary helped me but I felt like Lucy and Ethel as we hurried back and forth to get the cans to the right place...however, none of the stew ended up in our mouths! (reference again to the I Love Lucy show.  I am sure you can find it on YouTube.)  

Wednesday, it was Gary's turn to be "remodeled" as they removed a cyst from his back. Gary had me take this picture to share with the kids--to tell them about the cyst removal and the fact that he had been diagnosed with Diabetes 2.  That has been a learning curve for us as we try to learn about ways to eat to help him manage that.  We have a 2-hour appointment with a dietician on Tuesday who will give us even more direction.  Of course, we have googled things and I bought a book, but it will be good to really know where to start.

That is my armadillo on his shoulder.  He says it is
the best part of the picture. 

We have had a few days of snow which is good for the snow pack in the mountains, but cancelled our planned visit up to Vonette and Gary last week.

And in other news, I made a cup of hot chocolate and took my first bath in our new tub--and I was able to stay warm for over 2 hours while I read a book--the perfect bath.

And if I realized how handy having a small bench would be in a shower, I would have had one added to our house when we built it back in 1998--so nice!

That is our week!

The House Remodel Saga

When I sat down to start my blog posts for the week, I thought that really all I had were more photos of the updates on the house.  That does seem to fill most moments of our days.  Workmen coming and going, asking questions, making decisions, working around the mess of it all, while trying to live life.  We are doing okay with it all, but it seems to really consume our days at the moment.  My hope and prayer for it all is that we create a space for our family and friends to feel welcome and happy; where we can build many memories as we have in the past; and that it will meet our needs for the rest of our lives (or at least for as long as we need it, too.)  I love this house and I am glad that we are able to clean it up, make a few changes, and be here for the next phase of our lives.

This week of updates:

They removed our railing and put in a new cherry railing.  Our past railing was a bit shorter than current code so we decided to make the switch even though we liked our old one.  The new one is similar except made with cherry wood instead of a pine and even more simple than our first one which I also like.

It has been covered most of the week, because the painters started working on part of the house this week as well.

There are very few changes in our actually interior paint colors.  I have loved them for the past 15 years and want to keep them pretty close to the same.  Jena is changing her room to a more standard medium blue which is the color of the walls in the Bentonville Temple which is why she picked it.  Gary liked his "plastic bag" style of paint job on his office walls, but it has damaged areas and needs to be repainted.  I am not exactly sure how I did it the first time, so it will be white for the time being.  The living room (or library, as Gary calls it now, is being switched from a gold two toned style to a light yellow.  I have had a light yellow on the entry and the hallways, but decided that to tie the house together "cleaner" to change those back to white to match the kitchen/TV room, etc.  I made that decision at the very last minute when the painter walked through the house with me. Wish me luck!! The idea is that the white contrasts and highlights the greens, yellows, and blues throughout the rest of the house.

I loved how they wrapped the canned lights for the painting.

Gary's office

Our library wall is perfect!  I can't wait to fill it up with books and other meaningful things.

So they actually painted the library walls with the new yellow.  Since this was taken at night, it was hard to get the actually color.  But yellow makes me happy and I hope this room

Other Highlights From the Week

Wednesday, we headed down to Salt Lake to have lunch with Josh and Liz from the Church History Library and to make a quick visit through the 2nd floor of the library.  Oh, how we love that place and it was wonderful to see and to hug so many familiar people who we served with. We even connected with one of the missionaries from our MTC group from March of 2023 who is just about to finish her 23 month service in the library.  And Jena was a popular person with the missionaries and the staff---they wanted her to start doing the mail again.

No pictures,  next time!  We did get a picture of this yummy treat that Josh got us.  We had lunch down in Chinatown on State and 33rd South and he bought these from a nearby grocery store.  It is a place we will go back to.  Friday nights it is supposed to be quite fun with so many Asian shops and restaurants in one place.

These mango (left) and peach (right) ice cream treats are delicious!

Thursday was James' birthday.  It was fun to FaceTime with them and show them around the house in its remolding disarray.

We had a very low key Valentine's Day which is fairly common for us.  Jena had a Valentine's Party for Family Night in her YSA Ward on Monday and another one at her theatre class on Friday, so she was having fun. 

I did order these for Gary---although really in honor of our master bathroom almost being done.

On Saturdays at about the same time Gary leaves for the temple, we head over to Davis Lanes for bowling.  Jena loves bowling and being with her friends.

Getting ready to bowl...

We also had some of the first snow since before Christmas that stayed on the ground for more than a day--both on Thursday and again today.

The first two pictures are from Jessica's house---

These are the crows in the tree across the street from our house today....

And our water chain is in action as it has not been cold enough to freeze it yet.

I taught my first Gospel Doctrine class since being called as a teacher again.  It was nice to prepare all week for just one lesson, but nerve racking to teach!  We all survive and the PowerPoint and screen all worked perfectly.

Gary continues to serve at the Ogden Temple and he was called and set apart as a worker in the Syracuse Temple as I mentioned last week.  You can only serve in one temple and they told him that as soon as he serves his first shift in Syracuse Temple, he can no longer serve in Ogden. We are assuming that will happen the second week of June after the temple is dedicated on June 8 but that hasn't been confirmed yet.

The Week Remodel Highlights

Uhm...much of the past week was the same as the weeks before.  

The remodel continues on the house:

A new back door---with the blinds built into the window:  (This technology was just coming out in 1998, but our builder discouraged us from getting one since people were having problems with them.  The door representative that we are working with said that those problems have been resolved and they should work for the next 20 years at least.---our goal for everything "to work for 20 years.")

They did put up two of the cabinet doors to see what was going to be needed to attach them to our old boxes:

I know that wood cabinets and specifically cherry are not "in trend" or everyone's favorite but I love the diversity of color and lines of wood.

Of course, I can't leave the green totally behind.  It has been the iconic feature of our kitchen.  So the color is being moved from the countertop (hear my children cheering...) to the island cabinets:

The painted drawers and cabinet doors won't be added until after the floors are done and the island is permanent mounted.

But you can see the green that will cover the island when it is done.  It is a personal taste for sure, but I love green and I have loved having green counters for over 25 years.  I couldn't imagine my kitchen without this cheerful color.  However, they don't make quartz this color so it had to move somewhere.

The pantry also got put together this week--

And the pieces for the magnetic showerhead also arrived and got installed.  So we are moved back into our master bathroom and closet which is nice.

Slow and steady wins the race.....

 

A Temple Visit...Alone!

Well, of course there were other people in the temple, but this was the first time that I have gone to the temple without Gary and/or Jena since before Covid.  Before we had kids and Gary was traveling so much, I usually went to the temple by myself.  Then during children raising times when we lived near a temple, Gary and I would go together once a month or so.  When the kids finally were all in school (which for us started after Jessica was in college and Jena started kindergarten), I often went to the temple during the day by myself (not that I was a weekly visitor or anything.  That is a much more recent occurrence.) Anyway, I got into a flow of going to the temple by myself--often planning to get there to have extra time in the chapel before the session as well as time afterwards.  During our missions, we all three went together and since being home, we have tried to go most weeks.  It has been great.  And being with Jena in the temple is like being with someone famous.  She gets so many smiles and waves and hellos as we walk through the temple.

But this past week, Jena was sick and we decided to have Gary stay home with her (because she was not liking all of the things she was missing because of her cold.)  So I went by myself and I remembered some of the things I love about that as well and I had two very sweet and spiritual moments there in the middle of the whole experience of being in the House of the Lord.  

Gary has been going to the temple by himself--both to serve and to do sessions (and to study) over the past six weeks.  I think I might start going by myself from time to time as well. After all of these years, I can truly say that I love to be in the temple.  What a blessing for us!

In other news, they have announced the Dedication date for our Syracuse Temple (June 8) and the Open House to be held starting May 10.  You are all invited to join us for the open house.

In more "other news", Gary was called and set apart as a Syracuse Temple worker.  He will be serving on Saturdays from 5:30-10:30 pm!!!  Can you believe how late they will be open?

We also found out that our former (and well-beloved) stake president, Jim Brandt and his wife have been called to serve as 1st counselor and assistant matron of the Syracuse Temple.  They are perfect for that job and I look forward to seeing them in the temple.

The Work Continues

Yes, we are still in the basement and the remodel continues.  A little here, a little there. Each thing that is completed makes us happy and look forward to the next thing.  I am so glad that Gary and I both are relaxed about things and don't feel a great rush or pressure for things to hurry and get done.  It is helpful that we have been able to still access kitchen appliances and to have a bit of counter upstairs to use as needed.  We can also use one bathroom upstairs as well.  I guess getting older means that we understand that "this too will pass."

So in the past few weeks, we have gotten some sheet rock and taping done, more caulking on the library wall, and the master bathroom is almost completely done.  It is only lacking a shower fixture (that the plumbers convinced us to change) and a faucet that had been boxed without a key piece.  Hopefully, both of those will come in this week and get installed.

master closet light

Below is one of the lights that our designer had found for our bathroom.  Although almost everything else in our bathroom was changed from that original design--this was a must!  I love quirky lights! Perhaps you already figured that out by the master closet light I chose.

Over the tub

You can see the missing pieces in these two pictures--the faucet and the hand held showerhead for the shower head.  The plumber suggested that the magnetic one was much better than the one with a hook we had ordered.

Our frameless shower door did require
a top piece because of how we decided to
have the door open.  It is so beautiful, I don't
want anyone to shower in it.

Here is what the completed faucet look like.

We kept the same look of a frameless mirror
that we have always had even though it is not
"in fashion." It is practical.  This one is bigger than
our prior one.

And the bathtub faucet and safety hand rail.  One of our goals in the remodel is to make the house more suitable to age in place so we added handrails at the tub and in the shower.  Small things but hopefully, helpful if needed.

In the kitchen, they have started putting together the new cabinets which are replacing our desk area.  This will be a bank of cabinets with a full freezer....part of that aging in place focus.

When they repainted the master bedroom, we realized that there was a definite aging of the light switches, so Gary has gone through and begun replacing the switches and the outlet covers throughout the master bedroom, bathroom, and now in the kitchen area.  We had not put that into the bid for the remodel, so I appreciate the skills and willingness Gary has to do this work for our house.  He also installed the lights in the bathroom to save us some money there. too.  My mom told me to marry someone who could fix things---Gary certainly met that criteria (and many others.)  

When all of the kitchen doors were removed, I started noticing some of the aged and stained parts of the inside of the cabinets and I was wondering if I made a mistake in not replacing them all with completely new cabinets.  However, last week, I spent some serious time cleaning them and am very proud of the result.  They aren't perfect, but they are sturdy and well-built and they will last us another 20 years. And it feels good for the environment not to discard them yet.  A win-win!

Saying Goodbye to Norm

Norm Bennett--our first bishop of the Silver Lakes Ward when we moved into our home in 1998--dad to our dear friends--Debbie Woodrow and Karla Robinett and of course, grandpa to their children who we also love--passed away at the end of January and his funeral was last Monday.

Norm and his wife, Carol, started a plumbing business which actually did all of the plumbing in our house.  In later years, he bought this golf cart and used it to drive around his work site and around the neighborhood.  It was parked outside of the funeral which made me smile as we went in.

Norm (and his wife, Carol--it is hard to talk about one without the other) was just a good, decent hardworking man who loved everyone.  What a blessing it was to have known him and to share a bit of our lives with them both.  And we are blessed to still have Debbie and Karla and their families who also filled with that same love and goodness.

More and more, we are becoming the "old" people in our ward and neighborhood.  We had a teacher training meeting today and the Sunday School president introduced me as a new teacher--but then said, Well, she isn't really new.  I looked around and realized that I was not only the oldest person in the room but had also lived in the area longer than anyone else that was there.  (It was just the Sunday School teachers of our ward.)  A few nights ago, Gary and I reviewed the people older than us in our ward.  We were glad to discover that there were probably 5-7 couples/singles older than us but we might be in the top 10 of the oldest.  It is just a weird thought, because I don't feel old--well, my body sometimes feels old, but not my mind. As I was drifting off to sleep, I thought, "The YW or YM might invite me to their service project dinner/activity for the "old people."  I was not sure how I would feel about that.  {I don't know if they actually do things like that any more.  It was just something that has been done in the past. So I might "dodge that".}