M and I share a September birthday. Sort of. His is the day before mine. The 19th. Or mine is the day after his. The 20th. Depends on your perspective. It's always made it easy to remember and to celebrate.
We don't usually do gifts because they just sort of cancel each other out. But this year we had a fabulous birthday gift and a big surprise. Just not from each other.
My Girl had been telling me for weeks that she and her fam were coming for our birthday weekend - so get ready. How do you get ready for guests in a house with torn up walls, closets under construction and a kitchen being remodeled? With stacked up, building materials and tools piled all over?
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| Just keepin' it real. |
You don't. You just stack things up more and move things out of the way and try to clear a path.
How do you get ready when you have one room totally empty, working on it? With all of the contents of that room (and that room has a LOT of contents) piled into the other rooms?
And there is nothing in any of the closets because you are still trying to get the shelving up in those closets.
You don't. You just move things around a bit or pile things closer and higher. You just move stuff out of the way, try to clear a path, sweep the floor free of nails, screws, drywall bits and lots and lots of drywall dust. And you shove as much stuff into closets without shelves, knowing you'll have to pull it all back out again in a few days. Then you hope for the best and try not to think about it since you normally like your closets to look like Paradise in a Closet.
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| The Girlie's closet stuffed to overflowing. It will eventually have shelves on the end to hold Girlie toys and dress up stuff. The ironing board already found another home. |
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| The guest room closet that will eventually have shelves in the ends to hold all the extra bedding, pillows etc. The sewing machine at the bottom of the pile is in its new home in the finished sewing room. |
You also give yourself a mental reminder to tell GrandGirlies not to open closet doors since you don't want them to be crushed in an avalanche. Then you get busy trying to put everything and anything remotely not safe out of the reach of the 18 month old. The very creative climber who we believe must have little sticky things hidden in the ends of her sweet little toes. She also happens to have GoGo Gadget arms. She's just so cute that you don't notice these oddities about her until she performs one of her feats of amazement.
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| She curls her toes up so you can't see the sticky pads and see how long those arms are? But did you even notice any of that because she is so stinkin' cute? |
So Friday bright and early I got going and prepared to do that. You know. For Saturday. When my Girlies got there. What's the use in doing things ahead of time and besides, I had lots of time, more than 24 hours. At about 8 that morning, I had been at it for a couple of hours. The phone rang. It was My Girl calling to tell me that she and my GrandGirlies had decided to come early and leave her hubby, otherwise know as my Other Son at home. OH! Well at least I had about 3 hours to get things moved out of the way. NO? She was only about an hour away. I worked as fast as I could but just about an hour later I heard the car pull up and little Girlie voices. So I ran to the door like a proper MeMe does and opened the door to my Girlies and found
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| Auntie K! |
AND
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| Uncle Bee-ull! |
They had been a bit worried about me and decided to come
I have to admit that I was totally speechless and briefly considered that I was hallucinating. I had been missing them so much and there they were; I thought I had flipped out! I guess this all showed in my face because they laughed at me and pretty much kept laughing about it for several days!
My little brother, Uncle Bee-ull is the only guy I know that is as workin' as M! Now my baby sister, Auntie K (she informed me that Sister K made her sound like a nun) is one of the most organized, let's get things done people I know. If the two of them get together on a project you get phenomenal happenings! They were determined to have something finished for me before they left. What an awesome sister and brother! Of course,
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| My Girl |
AND
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| the GrandGirlies |
were on that porch too. They had all come to help! Besides it's some official decree now, MeMe and PaPa's birthdays do not happen anymore unless the GrandGirlies are around.
Then when My Girl's hubby, my
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| Other Son |
got off work he was coming to help too! Amazing, just an amazing gift of love from our family!
By noon after they got there, Uncle Be-ull was already up to his elbows in drywall compound in the pantry closet. Auntie K, My Girl, all 3 GrandGirlies and I were preparing to head out to MeMe's eye doctor. Dilation, tests and NEW GLASSES. Glasses that I wouldn't have to pick out all by myself unable to see what I was looking at. Yes!
We got the eye doctor bit done and headed to pick Papa up from work. Boy was he surprised! We headed home and spent the evening just enjoying each other. After they helped me clear off beds, pile stuff in closets and move stuff around.
Then bright and early the next morning we started our marathon work weekend to finish my 2 stalled projects - the pantry and my sewing room. Uncle Be-ull started his day off very early by sanding the drywall he had done the day before and then giving the pantry closet another coat of drywall compound.
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| The pic isn't fuzzy, he's covered in drywall dust! Well, maybe it's a little fuzzy, that green in there does not like my camera! |
Then he helped Other Son hang the crown moulding that had been laying in wait for.....well, let's just say for quite awhile. I will tell you we had to wipe the dust off of it.
Meanwhile Auntie K led the girls in a furniture paint fest. Occasionally we allowed Uncle Be-ull to stop and eat too, but look at the drywall gunk on that guy!
As soon as the crown moulding was up the guys started laying the floor out for the sewing room. I had decided on vinyl flooring in there - easy to sweep up threads, pins and other stuff but also easy on the feet! The girls made a run for supplies to the Big Blue Store (read, glue for the floor). We chose the Big Blue Store because right next door is HOBBY LOBBY and Auntie K decided I needed cool knobs for my sewing table and maybe a few other things too!
When we got home M had the floor cut and it was laid in place, we walked in and Other Son began spreading glue. About an hour later, he was installing the baseboard! Have I mentioned what an awesome son in law I have? He is the best!
While helping with the crown moulding and the flooring Uncle Be-ull kept right on working on the pantry and on installing the new light for the guest bath! Of course, once he installed it he discovered that I had made a slight miscalculation in it's replacing the former ugly light. So up I went with sandpaper and paint. We didn't think it looked too good like this!
As soon as the baseboard was down K and I took turns filling nail holes and touching up all the moulding; top and bottom.
She even washed the window, with a little helper.
The long week end flew by and before I knew it they were gone. The House on the Hill echoed with emptiness. But my pantry walls were finished and painted with the pale celery green that is in the guest bath. Because I had almost 3/4 of a gallon left! They were just waiting for shelves to be hung on them.
A view thru the doorway, Uncle Be-ull worked on the outside wall too! The closet is small only about 4'x6' so it is really hard to get a good pic of it.
My sewing room was finished. Completely from top to bottom. It looked like this; we had even moved in a few pieces of furniture.
The pretty, white crown moulding
the new baseboard and my new easy care floor.
My guest bath had a new light, with a wall painted behind it!
What an incredible family I have! With all they did, I have managed to get some things completed. My pantry is done and in use and the boxes have disappeared from my kitchen. I promise Auntie K, I will post pictures soon, maybe tomorrow. Putting my sewing room together is an ongoing project because I have decided I want it to be a fun, bright place for me and am doing some creative things in there. There is not one speck of tan in there either! I will give you a few sneak peaks with the pantry pics!
A huge thank you to all of you for one of the best birthdays we've ever had. You are wonderful!
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