On Frenchman Mountain

Goodbye to the four different kinds of 15+ year- old carpet. Hello to 1,000 sq feet of Malt Smartstrand by Duponte.

While waiting outside as the carpet was being laid, we girls played airplane. Captain Jeremy passed snacks through the kitchen window (couldn’t take a chance on Yuma getting into the house) and I acted as stewardess. Sandra was seated in first class headed to Honolulu for a party weekend with some girlfriends and Katy was in a seprate flight to Cabo San Lucas for a quiet weekend spent reading and hanging by the pool.

It’s easy to play tropical getaway and the weather is in the upper 60s.

Oh, almost forgot about our other baby. Yuma spent her time peeking in the windows at the workers and howling. She thought she was missing all the fun. As long as she was near me, she did ok. Just meant I had to stay outside and keep myself occupied writing trivial blog posts.

To prepare for 1,000 sq feet of new carpet, we needed to move our belongings out. The backyard and garage served as the repository. Quite the ordeal!

This has been a wild week. In order to save money on interest, we paid off  Jeremy’s car. Over the next 18 months that’ll save us around $360 total. Not a ton but enough to justify paying it off early.

Over the weekend, we picked out new carpet to replace our 15+ year old stuff that has many stains and holes from the pets. Yuma, the famous Alaskan malamute, has dug several holes in the carpet. We think she was trying to get at the pet smells from the previous owners. Lovely. Our new carpet is Malt in color and guaranteed to be stain resistant for 15 years. We got such a good deal because of the economy that we’re replacing ALL the carpet in the house. Awesome!

Lastly, Jeremy did a little research on the magical Internets and found that baking soda, a scrub brush, and elbow grease is the best way to clean tile grout. So I gave it a shot. Now I’m embarrassed! It looked terrible and I didn’t even know! Don’t make the same mistake I did. Once the carpet is installed and the grout is cleaned, it’ll be like we have a new house! Just in time for my sister and mom to visit.

Below: On the left is the blackened grout yet to be cleaned, on the right is the freshly cleaned grout, and below is an image of where the two ends meet.

Glendive Ranger Review - Jan. 14, 2010 [PDF]

Neat!

At school we have too make a S.A. on any state and I choose Washington State and I could use some help in the commet area tell me a website that might help my research and S.A.!!! I tried wiki so leave an other choise!  Thank You!!!  ; )

Over the past few years, we’ve decided to celebrate winter solstice on the actual date. This year, it was Monday, Dec. 21. Our tradition includes opening presents in the morning, a formal dinner [PDF menu] around 2 p.m., followed by a board game and dancing in the evening. The kids love celebrating earlier since it gives them more time with their new gifts. It also gives them something to do while they are on winter break from school.

New this year - presents for the dog and English holiday crackers.

Here are some pictorial highlights from our day: