House repairs

I have been back home for only one week but it seems as though it has been longer.

We have been doing minor repairs all week. We received the vouchers for the low flow toilets. A plumber was going to charge us $200/per toilet since we had 3 to be replaced. Dh instead watched videos on the This Old House website. He decided to attempt this project himself.

I am happy to report that we have 3 low flow toilets in the house. I hope to see a reduction in our water bill. While at the plumbing store he inquired about the shower head for our bathroom. Back in May we had attempted a water survey for our place but it could not be completed as our watering system does not work. The person did leave behind low flow shower heads and adapter for the faucets. The shower head did not fit on our fixture.

When we went to the big box store, we were told that we would have to replace the entire pipe. At the plumbing store, we were told that the extension would be able to be taken out and it could be changed. The part ended up being quite inexpensive. We now have a new shower head!

Dh also installed the "new to us" dishwasher without a hitch. I will post photos later (once I take them).

The next project will be blinds for the living room and a curtain rod for our bedroom. My children were complaining that there is no door from our bedroom into the bathroom area. I was at a store and I found these "car wash" type curtains. I thought this would be perfect! It is not a solid curtain and light will still be able to come through.

I have decided that I would like the kitchen to be painted a pale bright yellow. Our bathroom is going to be a pale mint green.

Dh has mandatory furlough days from the university. There are a couple of weeks where we will have a 5 day weekend!

Road Trips with Children

People are always amazed when we talk about our road trips. We have driven to Alaska. We went up the Casiar Highway and on the way back drove the Alaskan Highway. We stopped at Lake Louise and Banf on the way back. I was amazed that Banff is about a 2 1/2 day drive from here. Ds keeps asking when "are we going to Alaska again?".

We have driven from northern California to New Jersey 3 times. When we lived in Indiana, dh's navy reserve unit was in DC. We drove there several times again.

Our van does not have a dvd player. While we do bring dh's laptop along to download our photos, it is used only occasionally for videos. We wait until it is dark. They can only watch as long as the battery lasts.

We play the alphabet game. This is where you find the letters of the alphabet at the beginning of words seen on billboards, trucks, cars, businesses and exit signs. We have found that we usually get stuck on J, Q, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. For Q, we are on the look out for Quality Inns or Quiznos. U's are found on u-haul trucks or us ? trucks. For X, we usually resort to using "exit". Z are usually skipped until we get to a major city that has a zoo. When we play with younger children(pre readers), they are allowed to find letters anywhere in the word.

We also have cassettes with children songs that we sing along to. Reading or coloring is another favorite activity as is finding license plates from far away states.

We like to bring granola bars, trailmix bars and water drink. Sodas have too much sugar and make for sticky messes when spilled. Apples and carrots are also good to eat. Stopping for ice cream around 4 p.m. is a welcome treat.

It is good to be back home. Now, just to readjust and get back into the swing of things.

Tree of Life Afghan

I finished this afghan. It took longer than I had anticipated. I was encouraged, however, by one of dh's cousins. She started an events planning business 2 1/2 years ago. She told me the hardest part for her is time estimation.

I used 11.2 skeins of wool ease in fisherman with size 8 needles. I personalized it by adding their names, dates, and 50th anniversary in gold wool ease yarn. I found a letter chart that was 10 rows high. The dividing section was 14 rows. I knit 2 plain rows followed the chart and finished with 2 plain rows.

I altered the tulip border by adding an extra stitch at the far end (the one not attached to the afghan). I slipped the first stitch and knit the last to get the chain edge. I found this helpful in sewing on the border. On the bind off row (for the border), I slipped the first as usual, p 2 together, psso. I then bound off until I had 8 stitches and finished by p 4 and k4.

I preferred this as my leaf then curled under.

Dh joked this has a built in re-gifting deterrent!
I started this around April 6th. I seriously started knitting on it during our trip. By the middle of June, I had finished it to the 50th anniversary portion.

Bicycle

Photos

Here is my dh on the futon. He has a cast on the sprain. He has an "air boot" on the fractured foot. there is a Bob the tomato pillow for resting on.

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