We had a kid-filled weekend.
Friday afternoon we picked the kids up from school for early release Friday. I had purchased two new puppets when we were last in Langley, and I saved the box that our new computer was shipped in. We made a puppet theater.
Then the kids had a planning session in their "office" and decided on scripts for two shows.
Irene introduced the first show.
The new puppets were Dewey the Library Cat, with a book to match, and a Jack Russell Terrier. In this show they were Sam and Bruce.
Josy's toy mouse got a part in the second show.
We met Jill at Olive Garden and we took the family out to dinner. Corey was in Colorado visiting friends and family. He was going for a job interview, but he landed a new job working in technology with Tad, so he just went for a visit.
On Saturday Jill was leaving by 11:00 to catch the supporter bus for Vancouver BC to attend a Sounders match. The kids had soccer pictures and soccer games. Grandpa and I were on call. Grandpa picked Isaac up for his pictures a 8:45 and then got him to his game. Jill got Irene an emergency appointment with a doctor for a suspicious rash on her face. They got seen, got medication and we all met up at Isaac's game.
Irene played with her cousin Charlie.
Isaac played on the field with his cousin Carson. Here he was ready for the corner kick.
Then Jill left, I hurried Irene to her photo session, and then back home for a quick lunch before we went to Irene's game.
As goalie Irene tried to protect her team's slight lead. I have no idea what the final score was.
After some down time back home, we headed over to the Cedar River trail for a little fun in the sun.
Then at home I fixed macaroni and cheese and Tom and I watched the Sounders match while the kids watched videos on my lap top.
They stayed overnight and in the morning I prepared a pancake breakfast. That's not our usual fare, but it was yummy!
Irene enjoyed the new easy access to Grandpa's pop up book collection.
Upstairs I had replaced a small bookcase with a larger one from downstairs, and made a children's book library in the guest room. Irene set it up as a library and played librarian. We all had to check out a book.
She featured Dewey, the library Cat.
The puppet theater was now a check out desk.
In their room, Isaac was stuck to the screen of Tom's Galaxy tablet.
Tom was across the hall, checking to see what Carbonite had not transferred to our new hard drive.
And I was down stairs watching Seahawks football.
Tom took the kids home at half time. The Seahawks lost. No big national scandals occurred today.
I read the paper over a long lunch, picked and arranged flowers, and went for a walk. There were left overs for dinner.
It was a good weekend.
It has been a busy week.
On Monday Tom and I got all of the speaker wires placed. This involved me in the house tapping on the floor and poking wires in holes, while Tom was under the house with the dust and spider webs.
On Tuesday our new cabinets were delivered.
There was some tension. Will they fit? Will the components fit? Don't scratch the new floor!
With a bit of adjusting, the cabinets do fit. The floors were spared. The old receiver would have fit in the component slot, but we had to buy a new one for extra speakers and it doesn't fit. We problem solved and decided just to leave one of the cupboard doors off and put it there.
Then we had to decide where everything goes and Tom drilled holes for cables and cords.
Then we had to hook everything up.
As you can see, we labeled all of the wires before we placed them in the cabinet and moved it back in place against the wall.
Tom gave me an assignment, hooking up the surround sound speaker wires.
As night fell, Josy wondered what the heck we were doing now. There's always something weird going on around here lately.
By the time the shows I wanted to watch were on, we had achieved TV and sound.
On Wednesday I had a lot of shopping to do and errands to run. Tom drilled a few more holes and made some adjustments. In the afternoon we began placing the shelves and filling them up.
Tom's pop-up books are back on the shelves where Irene, who loves them, can get to them. Much of my pottery collection is back on display. One shelf was the wrong size, so we have a call in to get that fixed.
Speakers have been added to the mix, but most of them are small.
The sub woofer is clunky. Obviously we will be going to the lighting store to find a new solution for light in the corner.
Today Tom spent a lot of time trying to hook up the turn table - yes, we still have some old record albums we like to play, especially at Christmas. Alas, we are not getting sound from the turn table or the speakers in the other rooms, so more problem solving and some tech support are yet to come.
Finally Tom hung the old family heirloom picture back over the fireplace.
There are still a few things to do, but it's beginning to look like home, like we hoped it would. We are very happy with our renovations. As for the cabinets, as you can see, it is all about the TV!
Meanwhile, upstairs, Tad has set up the new computer and installed some of the programs. Now Carbonite is restoring our files. I tried to use it to upload these photos and messed it up, so Tom had to get Carbonite going again. I'm loving my lap top right now. It was kept us connected.
We certainly live in a wired world. It's good to be connected.
It's a big night in Seattle.
The Seahawks are playing the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. The stadium is rockin'. And all over the area, dinner is taking second place to being camped out in front of the TV.
I'm watching on my new BIG TV. It's awesome.
Go Seahawks!
Our first fall Sunday morning dawned bright and clear. It took us a bit longer to clear our heads and get going. We are always tired after going to a Sounders match, and it was an especially tense one, in which we eventually lost to the league leading San Jose Earthquake, 2-1.
Yesterday Tad began the set up for our new computer, but now we have to wait for Carbonite to restore programs, so I'm glad I have my lap top. And I'm glad we have Tad!
Our cabinets are being delivered Tuesday, so we need to get the speaker wires figured out before then. We'll work on that this afternoon.
But this morning called for a nice long destination walk. I selected the Cedar River Trail portion from Cedar River Park in Renton to the river's end at Lake Washington.
The Sockeye Salmon are returning to the river to spawn.
This fish weir is counting them.
There are playgrounds along the park trail.
Tom pointed out this old grafted cherry tree trunk.
The Boeing Renton Plant where 373's are made is along the trail.
Lake Washington
Where the river meets the lake.
Ornamental parking lot trees are the first to color up.
I do love this sculpture's title "We are all in this boat together", especially in light of the "class warfare" that is going on in politics right now.
While we were gone, Josy kept the couch warm.
