Thursday, June 25, 2015

Houseboat vacation 2015

Well, we have another successful and fun houseboat vacation in KY with family.
 
 We have many traditions after 10 years of gathering for this event at the beginning of summer.  We meet up at the park for our picnic.  It is always great to see each other.
 
Our picnic was at noon on Friday.
 After a lengthy wait for the repair man to fix our refrigerator we were off to find our evening mooring.  That evening we celebrated two birthdays, again another tradition.  It is usually B's birthday during the trip but we also celebrate others.  Gram made "Death by Chocolate" as was requested by B. 
 Our first full day was rainy in the morning.  Gram brought a puzzle and so we put it together, read and just generally relaxed after breakfast. 
 The sun came out and we were able to play.  Look at that little one in Daddy's lap. She loved the water.
 Our newest member, Josh's wife, fit right in. 
 The meals were terrific. 
 We played Mexican Train and Doug and Jessica brought this engineer's hat for the winner to wear while playing the next round.  Josh had two terrific round.  He went out on his first run one time and was only one tile short the other time.  Those two events were 'history making' for our group.  However, he still didn't get to take the hat home.  It stays with Jessica and Doug for future games. 
 We played in the water, Gram enjoyed her children and grandchildren.
This little one was with us as a tiny baby last year but joined right in with all the fun this year. 
 Momma and Daddy had fun with her in the water. 
 Leo enjoyed spending time with Josh and his new wife.  She is a keeper for our family. 
 Of course Gram and her grandchildren had lots of fun together.
 Uncle Bud joined this family picture. 

 I took lots of pictures on the last day of Eva and her grandchildren and children.
 This cutie really enjoyed the trip and we really enjoyed her. 

 The last picture we took before heading off in our own directions. Everyone made it home safe and happy for having this time together. 


This is a great family time together and I am thankful that we have this tradition to meet together as summer begins and enjoy our time together. 

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Can This Marriage be Saved????

We are at the stage of needing to paint the walls in our newly remodeled master bedroom/bathroom space.  Bud has decided he wants more color in our house.  I am perfectly comfortable with off white walls and a little bit of color on some walls that only really shows up in bright sunlight.
SO, we went to the paint store and began this journey of compromise.  We picked out 5 sample cans to bring home and start the process.  I am not good at painting because I get more paint on me than the walls so Bud set up his sample laboratory in the kitchen. 
 
 We all know that I would already have paint on my clothes by the time I opened the cans but not Bud.  He can open the cans right on the kitchen counter and not even put down protection for the countertops. 
 This is the beginning of the gray color for the living room.  So that we don't have to live with test spots on the walls, Bud took down some pictures, marked off the space with tape and filled in the place where the pictures would be so that we can cover up the test spots while we are working out the colors for the living room. 
I felt this gray was a bit too dark and had too much lavender in the color.  Bud couldn't see the lavender and thought it looked good.
 This is the bright blue we picked out for the bedroom.  Again I thought it was too dark. 
 He had in mind this brown color for the new area in the bathroom/bedroom TV area where we took the tub out.  Again I was not very happy with this color right from the beginning but I let him try it out.  He did decide pretty soon that it was too dark and we have eliminated this color all together
 I was happy that this color was eliminated from our choices.  We discussed the color choices in depth (no loud voices but I did have a sleepless night trying to think of how I would approach my apprehension of the colors)  After discussing things again, we decided that all the colors we picked out are probably too dark.  (Bud came up with that on his own, I didn't cry or anything)  We have dark ceilings and a lot of wood so we decided that lighter colors would be better for our house.   I have accepted that we will have color on the walls, I am good with that and Bud had accepted that darker colors really don't work in our house. 
We both went back to the paint store and picked out some more swatches and Bud laid the colors out in groups in the kitchen.  We chose 2 new gray colors to try and another blue.  Those sample cans came home yesterday and so the search for the perfect gray and blue continues.  I am hoping we are both happy when the final colors go up on the walls.
Meanwhile, I retreated to my sewing room and made a Teddy Bear for a birthday party we are attending today. 

Life goes on here, Up North.  Color is coming into our lives and compromise is important. I think our marriage can continue to be happy.