If it's Father's Day, there must be a gift to buy

Father's Day Eve has been such an unforgettable day that I felt the need to share with everyone. It's been filled with togetherness and happiness and team work. And not an ounce of sarcasm. It began with an attempt at home improvement with today's agenda being the crown molding install in the hall and bathroom attempted by the father of the household. Every piece had already been pre-cut by John and painted by me yesterday. Easy peasy. Just nail it in place. Not so fast. Each piece fit properly separately, but when the puzzle pieces began to take shape, nothing fit together. It seems the saw John was using wasn't cutting the angles correctly. As well as cutting crown molding is way different than cutting other things. Something about cutting it backwards and upside down? I don't know.  

After a phone call to Jared, John procured the correct cutting tool. BUT. All the pre-cut pieces had to be recut. We actually bought three 16 foot pieces of molding with very little to spare. (We will need 100 more to finish the job.) After he had the correct saw, and after he remeasured and recut and after he'd snapped at me, he discovered what I knew secretly but didn't speak out loud. All the recut pieces were now too short. Back to the drawing board. After more cutting and more measuring and more muttering under his breath, there were no successfully cut pieces of molding nailed in place. It's been a cluster to say the least. The more we know, the more it's understood that crown molding install is a little jerk. John rarely gets stumped. But he did today.  

While he was working on the molding, the kids and I had to secure a Father's Day gift for the carpenter in the family. It seems like only yesterday John told me what he wanted for Father's Day. And because it really WAS yesterday, it was off to Home Depot on the Saturday before Father's Day to purchase the grill he wanted.

 OMG. 

The inception of the trip to the depot began at about 3:00. The traffic was fab and parking was easy and we got a million dollar gift card when we walked in the place. Or not. We found the grill all put together and not in a box. It was then I realized we'd not come in John's truck and would be unable to get the grill home. In my defense, I didn't think there would be a grill ready and waiting for our purchase. I thought we'd find a box, find a Home Depot person to tell us there was no way we could have one put together today, and then I'd have to come back and pick the thing up. But there were whole grills everywhere, in anticipation of Father's Day no doubt. So we got other stuff we needed, including a right angle device to help John with the cutting of the crown molding. (Spoiler alert: it didn't).

After a brief discussion between Owen and I about our predicament, Owen texted his friend Tosten and asked if he could come get him and the grill in his truck. We decided I'd set out for home before the answer came, because if Tosten said no, I'd have to come back in the truck to get the grill and the boy. 

En route I got this text.... 

I was about to turn into our driveway when Owen texted me again...

So happily, I got the truck keys, headed BACK to the depot laughing out loud at the thought of Owen trudging through the streets of town towards our house with John's new grill in tow. After fighting traffic a second time I was back at the store, Owen and a depot employee put the grill in the truck, unsecured I might add, and it was when they lifted it into the truck that I saw a dent in the thing under a domaflachy part of the grill. I quickly decided to ignore it and off we went.

As the two of us were riding in the cab we were discussing tumping and the fact the grill wasn't secured and there were two railroad tracks to cross over and blah blah blah. After one turn and one railroad track, I pulled over, Owen got in the back to hold the grill steady and we continued on our way. We had gone about two miles when I turned a corner and saw a policeman parked in a lot as we passed, Owen ducked to prevent being discovered. Unfortunately his hands were still in plain view because he wasn't letting go of the grill.

You know, I think there has to be times when policemen see something strange and think, "I'm gonna turn and look the other way and pretend I didn't even see that." Because we continued, unhindered, on our ridiculous way. 

When we got to the college campus, I ducked down a side street when I saw a campus police car and determined I wasn't gonna try to get by him. I'm convinced campus police have no sense of humor at all. 

It was then I took these two pictures. 

The second one was taken just as he was saying, "Are ya kiddin with the pictures?" 

You'd think this story was over by now, but no.

As we were nearing the traffic circle near our house, a trifecta occurred. Owen took his grip off the grill to read a text from Tosten telling him he was on his way to the depot after all (no I'm not kidding), at the same time I looked behind me to check on Owen...or the grill..at the same time a car was making its way into the traffic circle. When I looked back around and saw the car, I shrieked and slammed on the brakes and the unsecured grill then fell over onto Owen. 

And I'm not even kidding. 

He was pissed, to say the least, as he was slammed by the tumping grill and so I stopped and opened the door to check on him...or the grill...and he said, "MOM! Are you kidding me?!?!" I barely laughed at all as I apologized and got back in the truck and then may have laughed more as we safely traveled the final mile to our house where we arrived at 5:00 to the happiest Father's Day there could ever be in the land. 

None of these facts were....or could ever be made up in any way possible because this crap is real and I'm not kidding for one second.

Oh, and there are no molding pieces in place anywhere it was supposed to be installed. 

I'd say today it's: 
Home Improvement 0
Lisa and John 0
A zero sum game for all.

Oh happy day to all in the world, whether you have a dangle or not.  

Some more home redo

People I don't have people. What that means is, I can't be multi places at once and I don't have someone to blog for me. Not that that would even be good... BUT. I'm in the middle of home improvement everywhere and if you didn't know, it takes so much time to improve the home. And that's always been my problem when home improving because I have no patience, or a very limited amount of it. 

As I already documented we took down the popcorn in our den, bathroom and hall, spackled, repainted and finished all of it. I just gaze above and admire our handiwork. BUT. I still have to paint all things in those rooms and other stuff as well. It's overwhelming to think about. 

And then there's this...
We've lived here for a long time and our back bathroom has always been a blight on the butt of humanity....or just this house. I say that because it's tiny and the shower was created for a hobbit. And it has multi colored tiles in it because a while back John had to replace the pan in the bottom of the shower and there was no way to match 30 year old tiles.

So, consequently we've never used it unless absolutely necessary. I've always wanted to redo it, but have always been nervous about trying it. 

Lately I've been talking to John about redoing it and well....

I started the process. The problem is, the tools to chip out these tiles are heavy and my arms are dainty. OK, that's not really true cause I don't think anyone has ever called anything on me dainty, but my arms DO wear out really fast when swinging a small sledge hammer. Of all the things we've found wrong in this house, they made sure these tiles will last til Jesus comes back. Or so it seemed. The good news is John's stronger than me, the bad news for John is, he's busted out more tile than me because of that fact. 

That gray stuff you see is not cement board and will have to come out in some manner before we put a new pan and a small shelf and new tile and a raised shower head as well as a raised ceiling. It makes me a little jittery when I think about all that must be done. BUT. I'm in it to win it now. There's no going back to the bad orange, tan and beige tile. And I'm not even kidding about all of those colors. Don't expect major progress on this shower project, this one will be a marathon and not a sprint.  

In between home projects I'm uploading more trip pictures and I'm just gonna warn people now, there are tons. And when there are tons, we know I have a hard time culling. So hope for the best and prepare for the worst in the overshare and you should hit that nail right on that head. 

I'm ending this post so I can go work on the others. 

I'll finish with asking God to bless us all in spite of the evil we live amongst, because it's beyond ignorant that people still hate based on skin color. We are all the same in God's eyes. No better. No worse. Tonight heaven is fuller, which means there are families with very heavy hearts.

Lord please give them peace that surpasses all we could ever imagine.

Colorblindness can be a good thing.    

Lets take a trip to the North shall we?

I'll be leaving town later today and therefore won't be blogging until next week. But as promised, here's the beginning of multi posts about our vacation. 

We begin with patriotism brought on by the beauty of our country...

After our successful trip up north, I've been feeling very patriotic about America. It may sound cheesy and all, but the varied beauty of this country is fabulous. It's been a long time since my family's been on a major road trip, and although I was nervous about it, I was ready for one. We spent many hours gazing through car windows at the lovely countryside with sights that included mountains, streams, a gorge, quaint little towns and big cities. I'm a sucker for a freshly mowed field of hay rolls, horses and cows grazing peacefully in pastures, and Lord knows I love the Amish country with their stark white barns and clean looking houses. I also become enchanted by a lovely church on a hillside adjacent to a pretty cemetery. I saw all that and more. There really is something for everyone. Even yankees have pretentious grocery stores! Only they are bigger and better than ours. Ahh well, we have to give them something.  

There wasn't one ugly place along the way. And even though I'd love to see other parts of the world, I think I'll stick with the USA for now and try to see more of it first. It really is something to behold. We traveled through 11 states in all, Indiana just for two minutes purposely crossing a bridge just to enter and then get back on our route. But it counts!

So I was thinking....
Oh beautiful for spacious skies..... saw that.
For amber waves of grain...saw that
For green mountains majesties...saw that. (Not purple).
Above the fruited plain...ummmm maybe.

I just looked up the words to America the Beautiful and listened to Ray Charles sing it. His is the best ever. BUT. I didn't know there are eight verses to that song. It mentions patriots and pilgrims and alabaster cities and liberating strife. We need more of that. It's a great song describing our beautiful country. I'm glad to be born American. Not slamming anyone else's country, just proud to be an American. That's another song, but I'll hold off on that one for now. 

This post only covers some highlights from the trip up, and the states we traveled on our way to Pennsylvania. 

In Mississippi...

We saw the mighty muddy Mississippi.

Those are my kids. I know you know that. 

In Alabama...

We saw a quaint little town all dressed up for the Memorial Day honor.

In Georgia...

We saw the Northwest Georgia Mountains. 

In Tennessee...

We found the mountains in Chattanooga...

Breathtaking. 

Tried to sneak a pic in but Owen caught me. 

We stopped at a brand new Fairfield Inn in Bristol Tennessee on the first night. 

John did much maintenance on the car the week before we left for this trip. New tires, new brake lights that were out. We were certain we were leaving with the car in tip top shape. Well, on the morning we left, we were all in the car and after we prayed John tried to start the car and it made a half hearted attempt at starting and then did. He brushed it off as leaving the doors open for so long while packing the car. All day on the first day we drove and stopped and of course turned the car off. No problem. The next morning, when we were leaving this hotel, the car battery was dead as a hammer. Would. Not. Start. The hotel manager jumped our car off and we were on our way. Never had another problem with it that day. BUT. Once we arrived in Butler, we got a new battery and never had another worry with it. Thank you Lord.  

We spent much quality time together. 

It was a sweet suite. 

Speaks for itself.

Had to...because apparently he has equipment there. 

Half of this street is in Virginia and half is in Tennessee. Both are named Bristol. Not confusing at all. 

I told you.

You could jump back and forth all day. I didn't. But you could. 

The kids thought this sign was fab.

This was a weird castle/football stadium. 

I thought this was fab.

We left Tennessee then were in Virginia, then back in Tennessee, then back to Virginia. 

There are the lovely hay rolls I mentioned earlier. How picturesque is that? On the side of a mountain? I mean come on. Virginia was gorgeous. 

But we had to keep moving. 

Mountain tunnels....

Look just like under water tunnels inside. 

This was a disturbing sign. But I CANNOT believe I didn't take a picture  of the escape ramp! It went straight up and looked frightening. 

Same people the whole trip. 

Don't remember what we were laughing about here. 

But it  WAS NOT this. 

One more.

The gorge I mentioned earlier, in West Virginia. So high up, not for me.

We parked and got out and I had no idea I was gonna have an impromptu stress test at this place. 

Emma struck a pose for me.

That's Caitlin making her way to the lookout point.

A nice girl took this picture for us. 

The view was gorgeous. 

One more shot. 

That's what we had just driven over to get to this place. Glad I didn't know that beforehand. 

We then got back in the car and drove down to the river to have a closer look and that's when we discovered Owen was afraid of heights. I had no idea before this. He was gripping the door handle and very concerned about the closeness of our car to the edge of the drop off that had no guard rail. 

They took off for a view of the rushing river. 

I went part of the way but decided the treacherous terrain was a hazard and chose to stay back. A twisted ankle at this stage of the trip would have been a disaster. 

John was looking for something weird I suspect. 

They paused for a few.

We had such a fun time here. 

I tried to make Emma a mini. Clearly I have not perfected this technique. 

I know I took lots of them by the water, but who knows if we ever go again. 

Splitzies.

The other half. 

John seemed to have excitedly spotted something. 

Blurry tiny people. My camera kept focusing on the rock. 

Got to have all tiny blurry people documented. 

But then it was time to go and Owen was leaving with gusto.

We hated to leave because it was gorgeous and I could have stayed the whole day. 

Selfie to document I was in fact, there. 

Throughout the trip Owen needed for me to charge his phone on my charger in the front of the car. Every time I had his phone, I put this picture as his phone background. He would change it and I would change it back. It was an activity to pass the time. 

Another shot of the gorge bridge. Not short for gorgeous. But I guess it's both. 

And another.

The lovely ride back up the mountain. 

Then it was destination time. But we still had quite a ways to go. 

Pennsylvania countryside. 

Absolutely beautiful. Snow covered has to be off the charts gorgeous.  

Is that a fruited plain? Could be.

Very close...

I tried to pick the least buggy sunset through the windshield photo. 

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but who decided to build houses on a mountainside? This flat land girl don't get it. Although it's lovely. 

I either wanted a profile of John's nose, or the sunset in the background. 

Lots of mountain tunnels. 

On the other side of this tunnel. 

Is Pittsburgh. 

Look that's me taking pics! I never saw this til now. 

Pretty sun on the downtown buildings.

Lots of bridges in Pittsburgh. 

That's a different bridge. 

The Pirates were playing. 

Beautiful sunset just behind the stadium. 

Last sunset pic of the day.

OK, next to last.

Steeler stadium. Blech. I'm not a Steeler fan. At all. 

That's the 411 on the trip up to "our nations's attic" as Olivia coined it. 

There's so much more to report on the trip and I will, but first, a short trip down south to see the Turners and the Clines and a new house. And the main attraction of course...Lucas. 

After a 3,166 mile trip, they're all short trips right now. 

It's almost 3:00 in the A.M. and I have to be up and ready at the crack of 10:30. 

So I gots to go to the softest bed I know.

It's hot in Louisiana, so it must be summer. Or October or November or December....you see where this is going....

OK, I'm out!