Home improvement and cookies

We decided to give Carly's old room a makeover. We got leftover paint from Cheri a year ago, so we decided to use the free labor (Adam) and get it done. The ceiling needs repainted (white) so all the light, smoke alarm, and fire sprinkler fixtures needed to be loosened. The rest of the room will be painted a dark tan color. And a few places in the whole room needed plaster repair. And then while I was at it with the plaster, I took out some old taping paper that was buckling in the window sill and down one whole wall corner.

We replaced the living room and stairs carpet a few months ago. As usual, the carpet places give you more carpet than you need, (and this was AFTER we had subtracted a few yards off the original estimate) so we had enough left over to do the landing upstairs also. But not enough to go all the way down the hall. I finally decided I couldn't live with it that way anymore and ordered more carpet. I saved $75 and picked it up myself down in Cypress. (30 min. away) I was told it would be 7 ft long, but instead, it was 12. I wasn't prepared with bungie cords to tie down the back, but luckily there was that strong plastic tie stuff lying on the ground. I picked it up and was thinking about how to tie down the door to the 3 feet of carpet sticking out the back when a nice young man (non-English speaker) came over and proceeded to do it for me. {And I didn't even have the presence of mind to tip him!} So I drove home on the 405 with my car beeping at me the whole way because the door was ajar. Oh well, at least it wasn't raining. David is laying the new carpet as I type. And yes, there is quite a bit left over.

So while I'm waiting for the plaster to dry, I made cookies using Cadbury mini eggs. I know, shocking -- they actually lasted long enough to make it into dough. You can use any recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe for malted milk chocolate chip cookies and then used the mini eggs instead of the chocolate chips. (I also add another cup of flour to the recipe so they're not so flat.) If you try this yourself, put the candy in a ziploc bag and then hit the eggs with a rolling pin to at least "cut" them in half.

So then I told David that I want to paint a wall or two in our bedroom. I'd like to have it be marble-y looking, but that may be more ambitious than I really want to take the time for. Besides, I'm all about instant gratification. Maybe when Carly's room is all said and done I will be "done" with house projects for a while anyway. Oh wait -- I forgot that we want to take out a window in our bathroom and replace it with a door that goes outside to a spiral wrought-iron staircase. What was I thinking that we'd be "done?"

Newport Beach Temple

Hard to get a good picture of this temple

What's in a name?

Apparently there were plenty of girl names ready to go for Michael/Laura as well as Michael/Carly.

Boy names?

Not so much.

Which is of course what they will both be needing. I have a bunch of ideas, but first let me hear from you. Let's help these parents out with great boy (man) names.

Grandson basketball team

We are so excited about getting two new grandsons this summer. Yup -- two! And with Chandler (2) and Tanner (8 months) just ahead of them and Tyler (5 1/2 and therefore the obvious position for center), we have our basketball team. And give us 14+ years and they will be the greatest team of missionaries the world has ever known. They are already the cutest little guys ever.

Now our two granddaughters are outnumbered. But that's okay. We'll console ourselves by getting new shoes, dresses, and mani-pedi's. And being cheerleaders at the basketball games.

Birthday Month

David is accusing me of having a birthday "month" instead of a "day." But he also stresses that it is totally okay with him because he gets to enjoy all the festivities too. Such as: all of my kids gave me (us) a night at the Lavender Inn by the Sea in Santa Barbara last weekend. So we made a whole weekend out of it. We left early on Friday morning and drove straight to Solvang. After a yummy breakfast, we did some shopping and browsing at all my favorite shops there. (Yes, I've been enough that I have my favorites.) We left around noon and drove back to Santa Barbara. After lunch we did some exploring down by the coast. It started raining pretty hard, so we checked into the hotel. And waiting in the room for us was a gift basket from my friend Nancy. She even included lavender scones. Yum. (More about her later.) The hotel had a bottle of Martinelli's for us and even had a milk and cookie hour for the guests. Plus lavender scented bath products -- which I love.

Saturday morning we got up and it was sunny and beautiful outside. We walked to the beach (a whopping 2 blocks) and checked out the wharf, the marina, the breakwater, and the college.

But we had to be back to the room in time to see BYU thump San Diego. {They even let us have a late check-out so that we could see the whole thing.} Those San Diego fans are so rude and uncouth that it made the victory that much sweeter. But I digress . . .
Next up: shopping downtown. David was patient while I checked out shops like Sur la Table, jewelry, stationery, and other assorted "girl" shops. We did go into an Apple store, though, and a couple of manly stores.
Then:
We went to our friends' home. Joe and Nancy. They moved to Santa Barbara 11 years ago and although we see each other a few times a year, this was the first time we stayed at their home. We all have a favorite Chinese restaurant there, so off to dinner we went. And then we stayed up late just talking and catching up. We went to church the next morning with them and it was fun to meet her friends there. (Although she still insists that Manhattan Beach Ward friends are the best.)
We drove home after church and enjoyed the clearest day I've ever seen along route 101. Even the ocean was Caribbean blue.
So to our children: thank you for a fun get-a-way. We've decided we need to do that more often. Dad's birthday is in July . . . . .