Grandpa and the Babies

Once again, things in our lives are keeping us so very busy. Even though I don't have the time for proper blog updates these days, I did want to post something the birthday party we attended a week ago. We drove out to the youngest daughter's house in Hardin in order to attend the "joint" birthday party for 9-year-old Madison and 7-year-old Mason. Honestly though, it was the little girls that Leo was most looking forward to seeing...those two are the ones with less "pawpaw time" than all the others.

Rachael and Lee did a wonderful job getting things all set up for the party. It was a really nice day and I didn't realize until we arrived that Leo had never been to their new home either. The double-wide trailer has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, just right for a family of 7. The kids' bedrooms are all down one hallway which gives them easy access to each other. The two little girls share a room, but the others all love having their very own rooms to sleep and play in.

In the photo, Madison in in the upper-left and Mason is to the right of pawpaw. The dark-haired sweetie is our step-granddaughter Kaya, but she is every bit as much a part of the family as the others. The older baby on Leo's lap is Zoe and the newest addition is Tori. This was Leo's first time to meet her, and he made up for the lapse by spending a lot of time with her.

By the time we got home late that night, we were completely worn out. But the trip was definitely worth the effort. We had a wonderful time with our family.

P.S. Although our daughter Michelle was not able to attend, we did get a chance to visit with her a week later. Hopefully, we'll all be able to be together when the holidays arrive!

Lots Going On

Leo made it home just fine yesterday, and I was DELIGHTED to see him. We have a LOT of things planned for this "set off". On Monday, Leo and I are headed to Victoria to sign the contract to finish the work on the house. We are so EXCITED! It has been a long time.

The first thing that will get done is the kitchen cabinets will be ordered. The man who designed our kitchen layout came up with a solution for the "problem corner" that I just wouldn't have thought of. The solution looks really nice (at least on paper). The cabinets are cherry, have a very simple layout, and are going to be finished in a very dark (almost black) stain. You'd have to see our kitchen area to know that this will look just fine since our kitchen is very open, and since most of the cabinets are lower cabinets and won't be seen. Oh, wait...I have drawings. Here, let me show you. (Remember to click for a larger view of the images.)

This first drawing shows how my "problem corner" is going to look. When I was playing with the idea, I thought we were going to have to choose one of the walls to put the appliances on. Our designer used a cut-back version of the cabinets in the corner, however, which gave us just the room we needed to be able to use both walls. The opening to the right of the refrigerator is the hall leading to the garage. The opening to the left of the ovens is the large (7') opening between the kitchen and our offices. The ovens shown are a microwave mounted over a convection oven. The refrigerator on the right will have french doors on top and a freezer drawer on the bottom (no need for an icemaker here as we have one in the garage). I can't wait!

This is the view of the rest of the kitchen from the vantage point of standing in front of the appliance corner and looking out. The little circles at the top are the openings for pendant lights that will hang down over the bar. In the background, that side of the house is covered in windows so the view that we'll have while hanging out in the kitchen is going to be awesome. The center of the island is going to have a smooth cooktop with a downdraft vent. To the left of that will be the sink, and to the right, on the "L" part of the bar, I'm going to have my dishwasher. I'm quite proud of the one we have picked out as it has 2 drawers instead of the hinge door opening. The drawers allow for us to wash just a few dishes (1 drawer) or a full load (both drawers) as needed.

This is the view of the kitchen from the living room, from standing by the windows and looking back across the living room. You can see that a couple of cabinets will be turned toward the living room giving us a place to put some items to display in. This also provides extra support for the corners of the bar. My goal here is to have a long bar with plenty of room for grandkids, guests, or whoever to hang out while we are in the kitchen. I am very pleased with the design and have high hopes that the final product will be beautiful. You can be sure we'll follow up with photos when we're done!

Finally, here are a list of my appliance choices, and links to photos of them, just in case you are interested. So...wish us luck as we dive in to one more little project.

KA KA KA KA WP

KEBS107SSS KECD866RBL KUDH03DTSS KBFS25EVMS GT4175SPS

convection oven cooktop dish drawers refrigerator microwave

Link Link Link Link Link

Another Trip

Rebecca (my daughter and office manager for my company) got our reservations all set today for our next trip. She and I are headed to Australia, by way of Hawaii and Guam. We'll spend 1-1/2 days there together, then I will board a flight for Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Rebecca is going to hang out in Cairnes, Australia while I go on for a week's worth of business dealings. When finished, I'll head back to Cairnes for a couple of days, then we'll head back home.

I'd like to say this is going to be a big, fun vacation, but it's not. I'll be buried in business dealings from the moment I arrive in Australia until we leave. That's not to say we aren't looking forward to the trip, because we are. Here are the itinerary details:

09:35 Sun Oct 4. IAH to GUM. Arrive 17:55 Mon, Oct 5. 1 stop in HNL.
18:40 Mon Oct 5. GUM to CNS. Arrive 23:10 Mon, Oct 5.
06:30 Wed Oct 7. CNS to POM. Arrive 08:40 Wed Oct 7.
15:40 Sun, Oct 11. POM to CNS. Arrive 17:50 Sun, Oct 11.
00:10 Tue, Oct 13. CNS to GUM. Arrive 04:35 Tue, Oct 13.
06:30 Tue, Oct 13. GUM to IAH. Arrive 08:05 Tue, Oct 13.

Total travel miles for Rebecca: 9,547.
Total travel miles for Bea: 12,950.

Oh, you can definitely count on us posting some photos when we get back. Wish us luck, in both our business dealings and our "fun times". Wish you could all go with us!