Demolition Day

Unfortunately, I have pretty much no time to write a post today; I've been working non-stop all day on the bedroom and bathroom. Brian (my brother) came over early this morning and we changed plans a bit. I'll write about that later, but it involves removing the entire subfloor and then replacing it with plywood.

My job was to remove the subfloor, which was terrifying at first, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. The hardest part was removing the ten billion staples holding the subfloor down. Putting the new plywood down should be much faster and easier than pulling apart the floor today!

I am completely exhausted, but there is a lot more work to do tomorrow. And I don't have a bed to sleep in tonight! Jerry and I are going to sleep on the couch, haha. Anyway, Jerry took a bunch of pictures when I didn't even realize it, so here are a few from our work today...

 

Well, that's all I can write tonight. Tomorrow, we have to put down more insulation, lay the plywood, prep the bathroom plumbing for the new bathtub/shower, possibly install the bathtub, and frame in a couple of small walls. (Brian will be doing the important stuff! But I love to learn how to do new things, and I learned quite a bit today.)

Anyway, I've cried many tears over all of this (I never anticipated this project!), but I am starting to envision how much better it will be when it's done. I may or may not be able to do a Transformation Tuesday tomorrow, depending on time, but please send me your transformations anyway. Just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Include your name and a description of your transformation--can't wait to see what you've got!

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Joey's Summer Vacation

I'm feeling pretty depressed again today but I don't want to write about that. I'm tired of thinking about heavy stuff and worrying about everything, so I thought this would be the perfect post for today: Joey's summer vacation.

If you missed it, Joey stayed with my sister Jeanie for several weeks this summer. She lives in Illinois, but she and Shawn, her husband, have property in northern Michigan. They have a basset hound and Jeanie thought it would be fun for both Joey and her dog (Bentley) to stay with her for a while.

He would stay at the house with them in Illinois, and then go up north with them on the weekends. Jeanie and Shawn's property has a HUGE fenced in area for the dogs to run and then much more acreage to enjoy.

Here are a few notes from Jeanie about Joey's stay...

A typical day in Rockford:

Go for walks at 4:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM

Wrestle with Bentley until exhausted, then lie down and eat a bone before bed.

Bentley normally sleeps on a dog bed next to our mattress (although he is allowed on the mattress whenever he wants). But once Joey got there, Bentley did not want Joey on the mattress without him being up there also. So, it took a few days to figure out the best option but they worked it out and Bentley ended up sleeping on his dog bed and Joey took the couch which is right above our heads since our mattress is on the floor.

And then a typical day up north:

We were able to spend two full weeks up north plus two long weekends. Those days were spent going anywhere from a two- to six-mile walk in the morning. Then the dogs typically spent the rest of the day lying on the porch and soaking up the sun.

In the evening they would wake back up for about 15 or 20 minutes before lying by the fire pit for an hour or two until we went to bed.

They spent some time watching and chasing wildlife up to the gate. Here is a picture of Joey watching a bear...

We went on several rides on the new side-by-side, which they both absolutely loved, sticking their heads out the window and having a grand old time.

Twice I took Joey by himself to the beach so he could play in the shallow water and chase rocks that I threw.

And he really enjoyed having those smoked bones. He would lay on his dog bed and chew them literally for hours.

I honestly think Joey and Bentley really became great friends during those five or six weeks. Bentley seemed really bummed when Joey went home.

Luckily we were just able to adopt a special needs Basset this week. Walter is a special guy--of course there’s a little period of adjustment now that he’s in a new home--but I'm sure he and Bentley will have just as much fun as Bentley and Joey did!

As you can see, Joey definitely had a fantastic vacation! He came home with some of the special bones he likes (and he really does spend hours chewing on it). When he came home, he spent three full days sleeping--he was so tired from such a long and fun vacation with his cousin/buddy. It was fun getting pictures from Jeanie showing me what they were up to.

Jeanie and Shawn are the best dog parents EVER--seriously. If I was a dog, I'd want them to adopt me!

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Date Night!

Yesterday felt like the first *real* date night that Jerry and I have had since the pandemic started. We were invited to our friend Eric's 40th birthday party. I think Eric said he was the youngest in our friend group, so we are all in our 40s now--I can't believe it! These are mostly people that I graduated high school with in 2000 (and I actually went to preschool with Eric). I love that we are all still friends, and I wish we got together more often. Jerry and I are going to plan a game night soon.

Anyway, I was hoping to get more pictures from other people who were there last night, but you know how that is--people takes pictures, say they'll send them to you, and then you never see them. But I have a few of Jerry and me.

I stopped at my parents' house to drop off some peaches for them, and since Jerry and I were relatively dressed up, my mom got a few pictures of us.

I was pretty nervous about going to Eric's party, not only because of my social anxiety (I had no idea who was going to be there), but also because of being vegan and a non-drinker. I looked up the restaurant's menu online to try to plan ahead and discovered there was NOT ONE SINGLE OPTION (I'm not kidding) that was vegan. And if there were any vegetarian options, I didn't see them.

So, Jerry and I decided to eat before we went and if there was nothing we could eat, no big deal. It was served buffet-style, and there ended up being a plate of hummus and veggies, along with a side salad with vinaigrette. I took a big portion of both and just hoped nobody would ask me why I wasn't eating more.

As far as drinks--I could have stuck with water, but with a full bar there and it being a special occasion, I decided to ask the bartender for a mocktail (cocktail without alcohol). Since being alcohol-free is becoming more and more common, bars are starting to serve more mocktails and they are pretty creative. I didn't want to order a simple tonic with lime (my go-to mocktail), so I asked the bartender if she could make me a mocktail of her choosing--just to make up whatever she wanted and surprise me.

I didn't know this until recently, but there are non-alcoholic versions of spirits like gin and vodka. I'd never tried them, so it was pretty fun to get to try something new. And look at my fancy drink! I wish I could remember what it was called or what was in it, but there were a lot of names of things I didn't recognize.

The drink wasn't as sweet as it looks. I told her that I'm not a huge fan of sweet drinks, so she made a couple that weren't on the sweet side.

I had one more mocktail that was like a mojito but it had non-alcoholic gin and something else in it. I used to *love* mojitos, so I was excited to try that one. It was delicious! The muddled mint makes any drink taste fresh and even summery.

Between the salad and hummus and the mocktails, I didn't feel as awkward as I expected to.

The best part of the evening was getting to see my old friends that I hadn't seen in so long. I got to catch up a bit with them, although not long enough, so I am excited to host a game night and/or bonfire soon. Jerry and I used to host a big bonfire every year--usually on or around his September birthday--so that's probably what we'll do this year. I can't remember the last time we did it!

Today was back to working on the flooring in the bedroom and bathroom. Jerry took everything out of the bathroom (per my brother's instructions), and I prepped the subfloor (pulling nails, caulking, and priming) in order to pour the leveling product on it. It was actually kind of fun, listening to a podcast and working with Jerry.

You can see where the water damaged the floor along the shower, too

Now, all that's left in the bathroom is the toilet, the shower, and the vanity. The toilet and shower will come out soon. That's when the real fun starts! Haha.

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Friday Night Photos

Yay for Friday night! Jerry and I actually have plans tonight--we're going to a restaurant to meet our friend group because it's Eric's 40th birthday. I'm planning to wear a dress for the first time in years, so that should be interesting ;)  I'm actually kind of excited to dress up a little.

I have a mishmash of photos from the past week. Most of the photos I took were of the bathroom and bedroom issue with the flooring, but I do have some others that I haven't posted yet because they just don't fit in anywhere else. Here goes...

Since I had to move almost everything out of my bedroom, my lava lamp was on the table in the living room. When I walked by, I immediately thought it looked like someone was stuck in there upside down. Doesn't it look like a face?

I know I wrote about it already, but here is The Peach Truck. They pick Georgia peaches and then drive them up here on a tour. You can buy them by the 25-pound box--which is why I'll be eating peaches for a week! They are SO GOOD, though.

I forgot that I had pre-ordered this book. I frequently feel like a bad parent--or at least one that learns by making the wrong decisions. It's hard having to learn to parent when the only experience you get is by raising kids! My kids know how much I love them, though, and they are *truly* really good kids. Anyway, I have friends that feel the same way about being a parent, and I thought this book was funny!

You can find it on Amazon here (affiliate link)

If you can't read the pages (the photos aren't great) it says:

"If a quokka mom comes face to face with dingoes in the wild, guess what she'll do to get away? That's right... she'll toss her child."

"For dinnertime, a koala mom will feed her kids her poop. Remember that when you feel bad about giving yours fast food."

I found this hutch on Facebook Marketplace and it's from Pottery Barn--as you know, I love Pottery Barn furniture! Remember the coffee table and TV console I refinished? (Here are the makeover before and after photos.) Those are two of my favorite pieces of furniture. Since I need a place for sewing and craft stuff, I thought this hutch would be perfect. I'm going to paint it, but I'm not sure what color yet. Probably white, like the others. I also have to find a place to put it, but with the bathroom/bedroom thing we have going on, I have an idea for it.

This is just me, trying to meal plan for the week. Duck gets jealous of anything at all that I'm paying more attention to than him, and he definitely does what he can to get my attention.

Jerry and I went into Walmart for some organizing containers, and we saw these cross stitch kits. We thought it would be fun to work on together, and we ended up picking out the same one, haha. It's been YEARS since I've done cross stitch and Jerry has never done it, so we had a lot of laughs trying to get started. I think we watched half a movie before we finally started making stitches.

Jerry's progress after about an hour

Duck was going crazy watching us--he wanted the string so badly! I knew it would be a bad idea to even attempt the cross stitching (because of the kittens) but Jerry and I were really careful. We kept the thread we weren't using in Ziploc bags and if we had to get up, we put the whole thing in a bag.

The thread was hooked to a piece of cardboard, so I felt better about that. At least if the cats got a hold of the thread, it would be stuck to the card and they wouldn't be able to swallow it. Well, when it came time to put everything away, Jerry and I searched and searched but we couldn't find my piece of cardboard with the thread on it. Finally, I went in the living room to look, and I found it... with a LOT of the thread chewed off!

Since Duck had been sitting on the bed watching us, I knew it had to be Chick that ate it. I searched around for pieces of it and couldn't find any. He'd clearly eaten all of the black and he'd eaten half a piece of green and half a piece of white.

I felt totally panicked. After everything else going on this week, the last thing I needed was another cat surgery to remove thread! I couldn't decide whether to bring him to the vet right away or if I should just watch for any signs of a blockage. When Duck ate yarn, he was throwing up bile all over the place and he totally lost all interest in food. That's how I knew something was wrong; Duck would normally sell his soul for a cat treat.

That happened on Wednesday night. Jerry is on a midnight schedule so he was awake all night and checked on Chick several times. Yesterday, Chick threw up a hairball and I knew I had to look through it to see if there was any thread. I put on some gloves and started picking it apart. And I found some of the thread! (Keyword being "some".)

It's now been a day and a half and Chick hasn't shown any signs of feeling sick. He's playful, he's eating well, he's being social... so I'm pretty sure he's fine. I'm still going to watch him like a hawk for a few days, though.

Since I'm already writing about gross things like hairballs, check out this picture of a bruise I got. Isn't it so weird looking? I got that from using a jigsaw.

I ran into TJ Maxx to see if they had any containers I could use to organize stuff as we clean out our bedroom/bathroom and of course I had to look at the pet section. I thought these cat beds were SO cute! I wanted to buy one, but they were $60, so I didn't get one. Maybe for Christmas ;) 

While I was there, I also saw this dried passion fruit. I LOVE passion fruit! And I've only had it once--when we were in Punta Cana in 2014, it was always out for breakfast options. I thought it looked like snot with ants in it, so I didn't try it for a few days. Then one day we got room service and they brought a bunch of fruit. I gave it a try and I couldn't believe how good it was! I pretty much lived off of that for the rest of the time we were there.

The problem with passion fruit is that I cannot get it around here (at least that I know of). I would love to have it again! But I was excited to get this dried passion fruit. It wasn't even close to the same, but it was good. I also drink passion fruit La Croix and anything else I can find that is passion fruit flavored.

I'd gone into TJ Maxx for containers to organize--which they didn't even have--and ended up leaving with not only the dried passion fruit, but also a mug that was on clearance for $1. It's the "Love Is Love" mug on the bottom left.

As for the others, I got them from Hobby Lobby (again, while looking for containers, haha!) and they were 66% off! So I bought the Death Star one for Jerry and the Central Perk one for me. And the other two were too perfect for us NOT to get, so I picked those up, too. (Those are Friends references, if you're not familiar.) Anyway, they ended up being about $3 each and they're nice mugs.

While I'm on the subject of mugs, I just have to share what Noah received as his white elephant gift at his birthday party. It's a mug that is solid black but when you pour hot liquid into it, it turns into this:

Nicolas Cage in a banana peel. Hahaha! I have no idea what the significance is, but I thought it was hilarious and the perfect white elephant gift.

While I was pulling weeds (yes, I'm keeping on top of it!) I found this--the little bean looking thing is a peanut! The shell came apart when I picked it up, but clearly one of our squirrels buried it and it sprouted. A peanut tree is just what we need ;)

And that's all I've got for this week. Hopefully next week I'll have some progress pictures of our bedroom and bathroom.

Have a great weekend! xo

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