Birthday, Blessing, and Bathrooms

This past week has been such a great one! On Saturday, my sister and her kids came to visit. It was so great to just hang out and enjoy each other, though Kim was sick most of the time. I must admit that Roy and I had second thoughts about whether or not we want to do the parenting thing, but it's too late to turn back now. LOL My niece and nephew are very well behaved, actually, but they are still kids, and they take a lot of work. Not only were Roy and I exhausted when they left, but Cleo was too!!! Sarah just adores Cleo, and she follows Cleo around all over the house pretending she is her baby, covering her up with blankets, petting her, giving her bones, etc. It is very funny to watch, and we couldn't help feeling sympathy for Cleo.

John's 6th birthday was in June, and since I wasn't there to celebrate it with him, we just had our own celebration while he was here. He picked out a Mars Lego set for his bday gift. It was amazing: the set is for ages 7-14, and he put it together by himself in one day! He is quite the thinker and engineer. Here he is showing off the two pieces in the set.

Of course no birthday is complete without an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Yummo! (Not sure what's up w/my face in this pic! LOL)

One of Cleo's favorite things is playing in the sprinkler and in her pool. It made it so much more fun to share that excitement with John and Sarah.

Sarah helped me make waffles for dinner!
John learned how to crack eggs and then scrambled them to go with the waffles. (By the way, yes, that's a cast on his arm. He broke his wrist a few weeks ago by falling off a play thing at McDonalds.)
On Monday after I got home from summer school, we went to the theater and watched Kung Fu Panda. Fabulous movie!!!! The popcorn, Coke, and Milkduds weren't bad either!

My sister left for home Wednesday, and I rode with her because my mom called and said she bought a new car (Honda CRV - awesome vehicle!), and she and Daddy had planned to give her old car to me and Roy!!!! What a blessing! We had known they wanted to give us the old car, but we thought it was going to be next year, so it was quite a surprise. I went to OK with my sister, stayed the night, and drove my "new" car back on Thursday. It's a 2001 Kia Rio and only has 62k miles! They have taken fabulous care of it, so it's in excellent condition. All these years Roy and I have only had one car, and we had gotten used to the inconvenience of it. Now we are realizing how great it is to have two! Thanks Mom and Dad! (I forgot to take a picture in the daytime, but this gives you an idea. It is super cute, and is a grey/blue color.)

Finally, after a month and a half, our bathroom remodels are complete! Below are the pics. Keep in mind that I haven't purchased the new rugs or towels yet, and we still have to get wall decor and curtains, but the rest is finished. I thought I had taken pics of our old bathrooms, but apparantly I didn't because I can't find them anywhere. I guess you will only get after pics then, not before and after.

Below are pics of the upstairs bath. They took all the nasty tile off the walls, and replaced it with wanescote (sp?). The paint color is "searching blue" from Sherwin Williams.

We didn't want to drill holes into the wanescote, so we just got this stand-alone toilet tissue holder from Linens-n-Things. I think it's snazzy.
We even got a new toilet seat and handle to match our new brushed nickel hardware. We had no idea putting in a toilet handle could be such a pain! The handle was so heavy that the rubber plug inside the tank didn't want to go back down, so Roy rigged it with fishing weights! Boy that Ph.D program is really paying off!!! LOL
Below is the shower curtain I ended up choosing. It coordinates with our blue paint perfectly, and it has a pretty sage green color in it that I plan to accent with.
Here it is close up.
For those of you who had seen our old tub/shower, you know this is a huge difference. No more nasty tub w/peeling finish! This new one is so much bigger and cleaner! Hurray! I have to go get some bubble bath now!
When our contractor suggested we use the same 16" tiles on the shower walls as we were using on the floor, we weren't sure how it would look, but we love it. I think the larger tiles make the shower look larger.
Below is a pic of the downstairs half bath. We mirrored the look of the upstairs, so it's not much different. I love how this sink bowl comes out of the vanity.
We had ordered over-the-toilet cabinets online, but we got them today, and they looked horrible. The stain on the doors didn't match the stain on the side panels, there were chips in the boards, and all the edges were roughed up and the wood underneath could be seen. They looked very used and worn. It was ridiculous; there was no way we could keep them in our bathrooms, so we are sending them back, and we are disappointed. Back to square one on over-the-toilet cabinets. Bummer. :(

Overall, our summer has been one of many blessings. Who would have thought that 2008 would be so great!!!!! (Hey, I'm a poet and didn't know it!)

Oh, one more cool thing - I have lost 4lbs since May! I think it must be from going off my birth control pills, but still, it is nice!