Hello friends!
Can you believe its been nearly 2 months since I last updated my blog? I've thought about it a lot, but not much had been going on and I didn't want to bore you! Don't get me wrong, we still do stuff nearly every day, but not all of it is blog-worthy if you know what I mean!?!? But since it's almost October, I thought I'd catch you up on what's been happening with the house and with the family !
The house is taking FOREVER, but we are finally seeing some improvements. We are nowhere near being able to move back home which makes the mom both sad and happy at the same time! Why you ask - because when we move back home she'll have over 800 boxes of stuff to go through to see what we want to keep and what we don't want in our house any more!! She is mostly afraid that it is going to take another 4-6 months to get the house liveable and we're supposed to have Christmas at OUR house this year (Auntie Terri and Grandma said so!)!
Yes, you read that right - more than 800 boxes of stuff came out of our house! AND another bunch of boxes of clothes, blankets, toys, dog beds and stuffed animals (more on that later)! Everyone wants to know how we got SO much stuff into our house, and the momma tells them "one thing at a time for the past 23 years"!
In the middle of August, the company that dry cleaned our clothes and other fabric belongings called and said that they were ready. The momma wanted to tell them to store them, but then she came to her senses and told them they could bring them here. The momma thought that she could go through the boxes and get rid of some of the stuff that don't fit either her or the dad before we had to move back home. So, one Friday 2 people showed up with a moving van and asked the momma where she wanted them. She asked them if they could put the boxes upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms and they said SURE! Well, they went up and down the stairs at least a nickzillion times and they put another 8 boxes outside with stuff that was "unsalvageable". the momma tipped them and gave them homemade cookies for bringing the boxes upstairs for her, and after they left, she went up to see how many boxes there actually were. Well - its a good thing she tipped them 'cuz where there was 3 empty rooms upstairs, they now have boxes in EVERY one of them!! And not just a couple here and a couple there! NO - the 2 regular bedrooms were pretty much filled and the "master" bedroom had several more!! And when I say filled I mean that litterally! There was hardly any room to move in there! So, over the next 2 weeks, when the momma woke up early and on the weekends, she went up and started going through the all of those boxes! She started seperating everything into its own box so they could find them easier when they went to look! Almost everything had been put onto hangers - PJ's; shorts (yep - they safety pinned them to the hangers) sweats; t-shirts; dresses; jeans; blankets and even our costumes and bandana's! She's already gotten rid of 5 boxes full of clothes that don't fit either of them (and probably haven't for at least 10 years or more). She threw them into one of the empty boxes and litterally filled it back up again and then she took 3 of those boxes to the DeAnza flea market and sold some of the things to raise money for Golden Gate Basset Rescue and then her and Addy took the rest over to the Goodwill by our right now house and donated the rest! The guy was NOT happy with them 'cuz the boxes were too heavy, but at least they are gone from our house!! So the rooms aren't as full as they once were, and you an actually move around in all three of them! And the big boxes that are in the left bedroom and the master beedroom have already been gone through and seperated. She only has to go through about 10 more large boxes and a bunch of smaller 2'x2' boxes, but most of the smaller boxes have socks, sheets and stuffed animals in them so she's in no hurry! To give you an idea of what has been done already, here is a partial list of what is now in the gone through boxes:
1 box is nothing but shorts - and its full!
1 box is nothing but sweat pants
1 box is nothing but lounge pants / pajama bottoms
1 box is all of the dad's t-shirts with sleeves that aren't for anything in particular
1 box is full of the dad's sleeveless t-shirts. Some of these were bought this way, but most of them the dad cut the sleeves off when they got too tight.
2/3's of a box has all of dad's Raider, Sharks, Earnhardt, Earhardt, Jr. and Music (Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa) t-shirts
1 box is 2/3's full of dad's long-sleeved shirts
1 box is filled to overflowing with pants
1 box is filled to overflowing with the momma's "girlie" clothese (she doesn't wear them that often)
1-1/2 boxes are filled with blankets.
1 box is filled with light coats and sweat jackets.
1 box has the heavier coats/jackets in it
1 box has all the "dressy" clothes in it for the momma and the dad (again, don't get used much!)
1 box has just Raider stuff in it that no one will ever probably wear again, but can't get rid of yet
1 box has clothes, costumes, jackets and bandana's for us girls
1 box will have nothing but jersey's and 1 more with the dad's work clothes that he can't wear to work any more 'cuz they've gotten new uniforms since then.
Oh, and there is 2 boxes of shoes that hasn't even been looked at yet, and about 15 boxes of "stuffed animals" which is probably a combination of our dog toys and the momma's stuffed animals!
The momma has already decided that 99% of the stuffed animals are going! She's told everyone that she doesn't need any more EVER!! Cross paws that people listen! Now to keep the momma from buying more, too! Where are the stuffies going you ask? Well, since they've all been dry cleaned, they will be donated to the firemen for Toys for Tots! Yep - she's going to help the firemen that helped me to help kids have a great Christmas!! :-)
The momma also picked out the cabinets and whar color they're going to be, so they've been ordered. The design is called Hartford, which means the cupboard doors will have an arch at the tops, not just squares. They will be made out of oak and stained a chestnut color with "chocolate glaze". Doesn't that sound yummy?!?! The glaze helps bring out the wood grain without making the doors too dark!
Well, after that, not much went on for about 5 weeks. About 2 weeks ago, the momma ordered the recessed lights for the kitchen. She ordered 9 of the 6" cans and LED lights to go inside! She also ordered 3 12-inch florescent lights to go under the cabinets (if they ever get here!) and a ceiling fan with a light for the living room since both her and the dad like the one here at the right now house. The electrician installed them last week! The momma got to go talk to him and tell him her idea of how the lights should be. He told her what he would do, and she nixed it, and since its her kitchen, she got her way! One of the lights will go over the kitchen sink. 4 of the lights will be in each side of the kitchen - 4 in the old kitchen and 4 in the old breakfast nook part of the kitchen. She then told Jorge that she wanted 2 light switches so that she could turn these 4 on or those 4 or all 8 if she wanted to and he suggested putting in a 3-way switch so we can turn them on or off from either side of the room! It's going to be SO AWESOME!
The new kitchen window is going to be a garden window, and since they are taking out the sliding glass door to put in more cupboards and the new double ovens, she found a new back door that has a window up top (so there is now a window on each side of that room) and a doggy door built in!! We just heard that both of these things came in on Thursday of this week, so if they didn't get them put in yesterday, they'll do it on Monday!! Yay - more progress!!
The other thing they did recently is pick out the color of the new carpet for the whole house (a light grey called "Majestic"; Granite countertops in a color called "Kashmir White" which is a cream background with swirls of grey and specs of green, blue and burgandy and what the momma calls the most amazing backsplash ever - its called "Merlot-Linear GLS Stone Mosaic, which is a fancy way to say that they are glass and stone oblong pieces in greens, beige, grey and burgandy! It goes SO good with the countertop! The kitchen is going to be SO COOL! Now she needs to find the laminate flooring. She wants it to look like stones, but its not, its laminate! She wants the same floor for the entry way to tie the rooms together, whatever that means! (shrugs shoulders)
The one thing that the momma is working on in secret from the dad is to finish the hall bathroom, so PLEASE don't tell him!!! Its been partially done for 3 years now and the momma wants the house to be totally finished when they move back home! Well, yesterday, the momma went to Home Depot after work and picked out a Whirlpool Bathtub and a new shower surround to go with the new light she ordered when she ordered the kitchen lights! Now all she needs to do is find the pedestal sink the dad bought 3 years ago and never put in (so far, the company that is storing our stuff haven't found it), so hopefullly its in the garage somewhere - that's the one place they didn't pack up! She'd hate to have to buy a new sink when there is a brand new one somewhere - right!?!?! Oh, and she needs to pick out a new floor and paint colors! In fact, they need to pick out the paint colors for the whole inside of the house! Neither the momma or the dad are into white walls, so they're going to have fun! The momma has been a little overwhelmed with the idea since they don't have any furniture to help decide colors from, and up until this past week, they didn't know what color carpet was going in. Now, that the carpet is picked, it might make the paint decisions a little easier. She better call Barry soon and get him to help her and the dad! The momma told dad that she already knows what color she wantss for the outside of the house... light grey walls with black trim! She is SO beyond tired of the salmon color the house has been since they moved in!!
The contractors say we'll be able to move back home sometime in November! They are hoping for Thanksgiving, but it could be all the way until the end, depending on the inspectors from the city! Cross your paws its sooner rather than later!!
Well enough about the house! I know that's what is on everyones mind, but other things have happened, too! For example: Teddi - the last time I typed Teddi was diagnosed with a torn ACL and the momma opted not to do the $5000 surgery! Teddi received 8 Adaquin injections from the vet and the momma started her on SOD & Boswalla and she has been doing fantastic! She races me and Sasha out to the ramp every morning to make sure no kitties snuck into our right now yard! The momma took us to meet some friends at Pillar Point in Halfmoon Bay today and Teddi was running all over the place! Sure, by the time we got home, she was moving kinda slow, but that's what massages are for!
Sasha has mellowed out a bunch, but we still need to go to the dog park every day for at least 1 hour for her to play with her friends! She's recently started chewing things up after the dad leaves for work and before the momma gets home. The momma has gotten to where she asks "what did you get into today, Sasha" as she's walking in the door. She's usually right! We thought she was over it, but apparently, she's gotten really comfortable in the right now house, so she's started again! Not good!
I had a goopy eye in August. The momma took me back to my eye specialist to make sure I wasn't getting glaucoma in that eye, too, but knock wood, it was just a cold. I got another bottle of drops that the momma had to put in my eye twice a day, but I'm WAY better now!
Last Thursday, the momma and the dad celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary! The momma told her friends at the dog park that we wouldn't be there that day and she made us the most awesome dinner! It took her 4 hours from the time she started until they ate, and the meat just basically fell off the bones!! It was called Osso Bucco. It's an Italian meat dish that is supposed to be the meat of the kings! Like I said, we all loved it, but because it took forever to make, she'll probably never make it again! :-) They went to San Francisco on Saturday night to see Chris Katan from Saturday Night Live. He was OK, but the guys he brought with him were really funny! Then they went to Mojo's in Fremont on their way home to see their friends band play. They didn't get home until like 2am so I guess they had a good time without us!
The momma has been super busy! She's been doing all kinds of stuff to help raise moiney for the bassets!! She helped with a couple of photo shoots for hounds that had been adopted through GGBR so they could put together a Rescue Calendar for next year! Its at the printers now so they'll be ready to sell at the auction. Then she helped put things together to make gift baskets for the auction with Addy and Lina. They spent 6 hours one Saturday taking pictures of everything so they could put them on the internet for the on-line portion of the auction and for the bid sheets for the live portion. The on-line part has been going very well, so far! Cross paws it will continue to do so! Next Saturday is the live-auction and dinner! The momma has to make spaghetti for 100 people. Don't know how many people will show up, but she always makes enough so that Auntie Terri can take the rest to her school and sell it for the lunches to make money for them, too!
The dad bought himself another guitar on Thursday. He found it in the paper for $100. Its almost brand new. The lady that sold it to him bought it for her son, but he didn't want it, so the dad made out like a bandit and now he doesn't need need to buy any more (not that that will stop him!)!
Did I mention that with all this going on, they called to schedule the momma's knee surgery? They scheduled it for October 30th. Then she called them back the next day and told them she couldn't do it then 'cuz she needs to be able to pass out Halloween candy to all the trick-or-treaters! :-( So now that she cancelled it, she can't do it in November 'cuz we'll be moving back home and there is a LOT to do when we move! And then it'll be Christmas and since we're having Christmas at our house, she'll need to wrap the presents and cook the dinner, so it can't be then, so we're now thinking New Years 'cuz "she has priorities"! (lowers head and shakes it).
Well, now that things are moving once again around our house, I'll be able to update y'all more often then once every 2 months! Thank you all for your patience and the encouragements I've received lately to continue writing this Blog! I'm glad that those of you who've read it, have liked it! More soon, I promise!! Thanks once again for your continued love and support!
Love and hugs to y'all!!
~Madden and the Smokin' Hot Hounds~
