Summer Lovin'

I just love summer here in Green Bay, the grass and foliage all around stays green and vibrant. There is wildlife all around and the cicadas sing in the afternoon. A lot has happened since February and I have not been feeling well due to Fibromyalgia so I have a lot of catching up to do!

In April and May we remodeled our family room and painted Savannah's room. It was such a mess and because we moved our furniture into the front room we had literally no living space. We thought about using the basement but didn't want to move the furniture up and down. Boy was I glad when it was over! I am so thankful for my husband and my son for doing so much work. I am not too much help these days so I really do appreciate them. The rooms turned out lovely!

I didn't remember to take a before picture of either of them but in Savannah's room there was white walls with really old pink flowered wallpaper (I'll not forget too soon what a pain that was to get off).

In the family room we had really dark wood paneling on the walls and so the room was super dark and gloomy. The hardwood floor was dull and needed finished.

Getting ready to paint. 

Here is what some of the mess looked like! And that may or may not be the ladder that gave way and caused Charlie to fall and cost two weeks of no work on the project and three days off work. 

When we moved in there was no overhead lighting in each living room of our house, or the bedrooms - in fact we had to use the light switch to turn the electricity on for the outlets. This must have been a popular thing in the 60's when it was built. Charlie adding some recessed lighting and put in a ceiling fan in both our bedroom and the family room. Much more user friendly. 

Paint is done and now the floor. I chose this paint because I wanted something bright. You can't tell by the picture but it is Candle Wick by Behr. The sample card shows it as a creamy pale yellow. I loved the idea of yellow but not too yellow. After we put it on it was just perfect. Charlie loved this handy dandy sander, it was well worth the rental. 

Finishing the hardwood with polyurethane

Finished product, new curtains, new area rug and a new lamp and it has been transformed!

This is what it looked like when we moved in.  

The boys put together our new patio set and the pergola for our porch - we got it on Mother's Day and I love sitting out on the deck in the cool of the evening. I wasn't sure about it at first but it really ended up being exactly what I wanted and looks nice. 

Savannah ended her 6th grade year with performing in the orchestra concert. She is improving more and more and plans to continue in her high school years.

Here she is with the school crossing guard, Tom, and his wife who gave her the violin that their daughter used to play when she was a child. They come to every concert and greet her afterward. It is such a joy to see the smiles on their faces.

Daddy and Savannah going to fly their new kite at the park down the street

In May my sister, Jennifer, and her family came for a short visit and we had a good time being with each other. I don't know how long it's been since I saw her last. I love that we have ample room to have company when they are here. We wanted to take them to Island Sushi but it turned out our reservations were mixed up and they gave us a gift certificate for the inconvenience. We ended up at Old Chicago and afterward watched our old home movies from when we were kids. I didn't want the night to end.

June took us to North Dakota where we went to the Wahus family reunion with Charlie's parents. We all met new family members and learned a little about the history of where Charlie's heritage came from. I hate to say it but there were so many faces to remember that I really only remember a few.

Charlie, Uncle Paul, and Sue, Charlie's mother

Uncle Paul and Savannah in the roller coaster train at the amusement park during the reunion.

Charlie put in fencing for the side of our house. He has been bizzzzee! It is a lot of work to be out in the sun and digging holes and building the panels and he did it all alone. We plan to finish the back side next year or so when we get a chance to get caught up on the debt from the remodel and fence. 

We adopted three new pets! Meet Mr. Smores, Garfield, and Skeeter:

Mr. Smores was adopted from the Humane Society. He was given up by a little girl who decided she didn't have enough time to take care of him. Savannah named him Mr. Smores because he has three colors: first the graham color on his nose around his eyes and also on his behind, then the chocolate, and white in the middle. He is a cuddle bug and likes to nestle inside your shirt if you let him.

Garfield was also adopted from the Humane Society. He was rescued from a hoarding situation. They tell us he is 4 years old but he acts like only a year or two since he is so playful. The first night we had him I gotta be honest I thought we made a mistake-he was odd and acted mental at times but knowing he came from where he did it wasn't surprising he was acting as such. When we first saw him I wasn't sure either because he looked like he'd been around the block with his crinkled up ear and mussed fur. Then we found out he is missing almost all his teeth and that he could possibly be the product of inbreeding because he had a seizure during a procedure at the shelter. Nonetheless he was a talker and would not let us walk by his cage without saying something about it. I guess this is what caught our attention the most. We were actually going to get the cat in the cage above him that we had seen when we got Mr. Smores but when we got there he was already gone. Two weeks passed after we brought Garfield home and in this time we absolutely grew to love him and he us. He settled down and unfortunately we came to find out he has some allergies which could explain why he was so hyper and ADHD that first night and has been scratching himself so much. A little medication for that and he has been feeling better. I just hope he isn't allergic to us or our house.

Skeeter is a 5 1/2 year old parakeet that we adopted from my co-worker's elderly mother who could not keep him in her  new living establishment. We are working on getting him to trust us as he has never been taken out of his cage or tamed. And we'll probably get him a friend to keep him company.

Muffers was ill for a bit, we never knew for sure why but she is better now. She is 14 this year so it could just be that she is getting up there, but we suspect it was more to do with stress from Garfield who wants to play with her.

Last week my Mom was out for a visit and while we didn't do much we had a good time just being together. It was a very humid and hot weekend but we went swimming, had rootbeer floats, and took a drive out to look at Lake Michigan. The water was freezing and we were getting bit by flies so we didn't stay too long.

While the summer is almost over and it is time to start school shopping again, I only hope we have many more adventures the rest of the year. Or maybe not, it could be good to slow down for me it seems.