August 15th, 2008
The Licorice Experiment
A road trip sometimes calls for desperate measures: red licorice.
It’s all about nutritional priorities … and a lack of screaming.
August 8th, 2008
How I spent my summer vacation
Back in June/July, we took the long trek out to California to spend a little time with my family. I say long trek this time because we can’t get any direct flights out of Midland to anywhere (sigh). So we take the hour flight East, yes the wrong direction, to Dallas, have a quick stop there and then get back on a plane and head off West for three and a half hours. We had a later flight leaving Midland around 6:30 pm and got off to a bad start when we found our flight was already delayed an hour. Our connecting flight was delayed as well so it wasn’t a problem.
The first flight was smooth, and as much as I hate to admit it, the second flight didn’t go so well. Enara was the kid that everyone hates on the flight. It was a 9:30 pm flight delayed for more than an hour so it was closer to 10:30 pm so by the time we arrived in California it was close to 1:00 am for Enara; add some time to pick up bags and the drive to my mom’s house and you’re looking at one cranky baby.
That first Saturday was family birthdays and we had a larger than usual turn out. Due to my Aunt Ginny’s recent diagnoses of lung cancer, most of her family was in town for the party and it made for a great time. Enara just loves hanging out with all the kids.
Mom had the first couple of days off and we spent them hanging out with my niece, Madison, and nephew, Ethan. The kids were supposed to be spending the summer with their mom but she was nice enough to let them spend some extra time with us. My mom’s neighbor, Shelly, has become like family and was kind enough to let us use her pool to keep cool. Enara wasn’t sure about the whole water thing but by the second day at the pool she was much better.
Paul left for home 6 days after our arrival. I think he was happy to leave; my family can be a little overwhelming (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only we aren’t Greek).
The following weekend was the 50th Year Reunion for Nazarene Christian School. This is the school that I attended from kindergarten through 8th grade. This was a whole weekend event beginning with a family picnic on Saturday and a special service at the church on Sunday. Mom wasn’t sure if we should attend both days but we were so glad we did. We saw people and families that we hadn’t seen in 20 or more years. Since mom lives so far from the school we (mom, me, Enara, Madison and Ethan) crashed at Auntie’s house in East Los Angeles. Enara had a rough night of sleep. Since it stays pretty cool at the house and there is no AC we slept with the windows open. Talk about noisy! Between the party two doors down, the sirens, the loud cars, and the fireworks Enara wasn’t a happy camper.
Mom had the following week off and it was time to work. The plan was to paint and do some work to mom’s bedroom. Mom has been in the house for almost 20 years and her bedroom was still builder white. The light fixtures are a dated metallic gold and it was long past time for a change. Before we got started we had to clean out the room. I felt like I was on that television show “Clean Sweep”. We had piles all over the living room, a goodwill pile, a trash pile, a find somewhere else for this to go pile and a somehow fit this stuff back into the bedroom pile.
After about 7 hours of cleaning we headed out to the store for paint and supplies. Our first project was mom’s closet. The old closet rod and shelf was attached poorly and it was falling off the wall. We purchased a new closet system and now she has even more room and storage than she had before.
I thought paint was going to be easy. We painted a green accent wall, which turned out fantastic. The tan walls were another story, after 3 trips to the paint store we finally got the right warm tan! I installed a new silver ceiling fan, and then we moved onto the bathroom. We painted the whole bathroom in the same green we used as the accent wall in the bedroom. Took the large wall mirror off the wall and hung a framed picture mirror. The light fixture also went from an unattractive fluorescent fixture to a multi-bulb silver fixture.
Window treatments in both rooms were replaced and softened things up from the previous honeycomb blinds. Pictures were hung on the walls and everything fell beautifully into place. Mom has her eye on some new bedroom furniture but hasn’t made the purchase yet. I’m sure that will be taking place in the next couple of months.
The week of hard work also included, cleaning out the garage, linen closet and game/toy closet. I told Paul that I was more tired after coming home from vacation than when I left. Even though it was a lot of hard work, I’m so glad that I could help mom out. She’s already making plans for my return visit.