Stella

This is the most recent email message from my Brother-in-Law

We decided on the name Stella Josephine

I do have some minor bad news to report. It appears Stella has hip dysplasia in both hips, which might ring a bell. It's what Kristin had when she was a baby, and it does run in families and affect mainly girls.

The good news is that treatment has massively changed in the last 40 years (sorry, Kristin... don't mean to make you feel old! :)) They will probably use a Pavlik Brace or Pavlik Harness to hold her legs in the right position for at least six weeks. You can read more about hip dysplasia here: Hip Dysplasia


Unfortunately, no hospital in Lansing has the right kind of ultrasound to do an adequate scan. X-rays do not show cartilage, and so we'll have to go to U of M so the doctors know exactly the severity of the dsyplasia, just to be on the safe side.

I feel better talking to my friend Greg, the guitarist from Root Doctor. His daughter Rachel had the same thing. He told me the brace is a bit of a nuisance, but Rachel is now 10 and is perfectly fine.

Alison will hopefully be released tomorrow. I can't wait to have my girls home.

----Jim

This was me, Kristin, in my cast. This was one of the treatments for the hip dysplasia that I had. The next picture, if you look at my legs you can see that the tights are covering my braces that I had for a little while as well. I don't know what all was done to me - or the time line of events - maybe my anonymous commentor (my mother) can help explain a bit.

I wish, of course, that baby Stella didn't need to go through all of this, but I am grateful for the advancement of information and treatments for this type of birth defect, so that hopefully Stella won't need to have surgery or be placed in a body cast like I did.

Kristin

UPDATE:  Stella didn't have hip dysplasia.

Zora's Haircut

Zora cut her own hair yesterday -- My Mother sent an email out last night that Zora had cut her hair but it wasn't terribly clear as to what really happened, so here is todays message to explain to all of us...

Judith: (AKA my Mother, Nana) So….first of all I was so exhausted I couldn’t even write a coherent email! Anyway, I had told Zora that she needed to play by herself for a bit while I did up the dishes……..in just a couple of minutes she called down “Nana, come look what I’ve done”. I thought it was another art project. She had taken her kid scissors and trimmed her hair! She had dropped each clipping into the wastebasket, and was quite proud of herself. The result was about 4 chunks from the front bangs area…farther back so now it will stick straight up for a while (about ¼ to ½ inch long at the most), one spot that is right at the scalp in the front. Then she trimmed both sides a bit. (That part actually looks okay :o))………….Her mom is beside herself thinking Zora looks yucky. The whole thing is pretty funny. I don’t know if she gets to ever spend the night with me again or not! :o))

I spoke with Alison on the phone this morning and she was just beside herself at the condition of Zoras hair. She wanted to have a 4th birthday photo (her bday is next week) and now she is thinking it will be hard to get a good picture. Alison also said that they were just starting to put Zora's hair back into a ponytail, a little one, but a ponytail nonetheless. The new haircut just won't look as lovely in a pnytail, I guess.

Next, I received an email from Jim, the daddy in this family and he said this...

Jim: (AKA Daddy, my Brother in Law, Alison's husband) Here are some pics for everyone. (Posted in the message just before this one) Little baby is super cute. I am beside myself. She is so sweet. Zora is just too excited by all of this. She fell asleep with her butt up in the air, flat on her face on the couch this afternoon. She slept that way for an hour, before finally moving. Poor thing. Her hair isn't that bad.

Before and After!!

It is so funny how she looks like a different kid - not because of the haircut, but because of the smile LOL

Have a Great Day!
Kristin

More Baby Pics!

Here is Zora, Nana and new baby

New Baby!!

Zora, Jim and New Baby

Here is the whole family. Zora, Alison, New Baby and Jim.

New Baby!

She's Here!! She's here!!

Here is the proud Daddy, Jim. I totally stole these photos from Jim's website -- www.organissimo.org Thanks Jim!!!

Here she is -- born 1:07 pm today, weighing in at 7 pounds 6 ounces. She is 20" long.

These next two photos my sister Hillary (another proud Auntie) took with her cell phone. Thanks Hillary!


This muddy gal is big sister Zora. She is going to just love the stuffin' out of new baby.

I can't wait to find out what they name new baby. I'll let you know.

Have a great day!
Kristin

The Patio Door

You wouldn't imagine that I have any other life other than these flip houses. Let me tell ya, the dishes have piled up this week. I actually (gasp) used the dishwasher today. The sheer number of glasses and plates was a bit overwhelming, so I decided to just chuck everything into the dishwasher (the first time this year I do believe) and get it done quickly. I just had to wash up the cutco knives and the countertop and cutting board and viola! The kitchen was clean.

OK, so about this patio door - this was for the Jupiter house. The first thing that you all need to know is that we did not get a French Door, we got a Patio Door. My Dear Husband says that a French Door is one that swings INTO the room and an OUTSWING door (like we purchased) is called a patio door. The patio door looks exactly like a french door - however, in this case, it has two doors and they both open. :)

Originally we wanted a 5' Patio door for the kitchen area, but of course it wasn't in stock the day we needed it, so we got the 6' Patio door. My contractor, Dan, had a heck of a time getting that sucker into it's spot in the kitchen wall. It was a rough Friday afternoon for him, that's for sure. After several hours, many gutteral sounds, some swings of the sledge hammer and a lot of liquid nails, the doors are in place. Whooo Hoooo!

Tom hired two guys to clean out the crawl space under the house of all the debris that ended up under there, to pull nails, sweep up, demo the kitchen walls and a few other projects - boy were they a great find. The house is really shaping up. I think I'm going to sneak over there today with the vacuum and do a little "extra" dust removal.

Have a great day!
Kristin

Electricians, Plumbers & Contractors

Today was a pretty good day. The contractor arrived before 9, so did the electrician and his workers. The plumber who didn't arrive yesterday, did in fact get there today...at 4:48pm.

I don't have one problem at all with my contractor, Dan. He is great. He is nice, respects my opinion, gives me his and then quickly says "I can do what you want in 5 minutes, but I gotta know now" LOL He likes to just keep going. I thought the shower was too small (and it is) so he and Tom and the plumber all measured out a new shower and what walls would need to be moved. It wasn't going to be a big deal at all --- until all of a sudden we realized that the linen closet would now be 9" deep. The shower and walls and everything are back to the original small size.

The deal with the shower is this -- when they were measuring it out the other day, I suggested quite strongly that the shower area was not large enough and I asked for them to figure out a new configurations to make that shower bigger. In the end, I thought the shower had been increased...until today when I saw the chalk lines and the studs were put into place. Dan very patiently measured everything, told me how easy it would be to move the studs since they had just been put up and there wasn't any drywall put up, etc. So we measured again and again and again. The shower is going to be 36" square. There just isn't any other way for it to be. That's a pretty small shower for this day and age. Bummer.

What do you think -- should a 36" square shower have a shower curtain or a glass door?

The electricians put the main electrical panel in the wrong spot. The wall that had PANEL written in HUGE letters was mysteriously torn out and the panel was installed across the hall. It isn't a huge deal, but the darn thing is in the middle of the hallway. I didn't want it there. I wanted it at the end of the hall. grrrrrr

That was todays saga. Tomorrow begins at 8am. :)

Have a great day!
Kristin

Boy or Girl???

My sister is having a baby on Saturday (or sooner) - she must have a C-section so the baby is scheduled for Saturday morning, April 19th. This is a week early from her due date, so they don't expect the baby to arrive any earlier.

So, I think it's a girl. Jim's family is mostly girls and Alison is the middle kid of three girls.

This picture of Alison, Jim and Zora was taken last year - not sure what kind of mood Zora was in. How funny.


Here's Zora, soon to be the big sister, in a more current state.

WOW -- this is going to be so much fun. Baby number 2. Is it a girl? Is it a boy?

I'm guessing girl.

Girl

Girl

Girl

But I'd love to have a nephew, too.

Have a great day!
Kristin

Flipping saga

This is the garage. The original color of the whole house and garage was this green color. I think it is pretty cool looking. I know that on "Little House on the Praire," they didn't have such bright colors, but the way this "window" is cut out and the way the paint has worn, immediately made me think of "Little House."




There was T-111 on the outside of this garage that was torn off one of the demo days. Now this original siding is going to be covered up again, I think. But whatever happens, the garage is going to look like the rest of the house & the whole place is going to be painted yellow. A yellow house with white trim and dark green accents. It is going to be lovely.

The electricians came today. We marked out all the spots for eletrical outlets, lights, smoke detectors, cable TV and Internet, telephone and under cabinet lighting for the kitchen. Also the exterior lights, washer and dryer and other assorted necessities.
Do you see where the electrical service comes stright to the very top of the front of the house? I didn't like that. So the electricians, whos trucks say "We fix your shorts" and "watts your problem", are going to move that main line to the side, on the next highest peak. It will be much nicer looking.

I am really hoping that the awning will get removed sometime tomorrow.

The flooring was removed entirely in the kitchen and in the bathroom area. All the way down to the sandy soil below. The plywood subfloors were just aweful, however the main support beams for the house are really solid. I guess they are incredibly hard - the contractors said that the wood is so hard that if termites do ever decide to munch on this house, they'd eat the drywall before they'd ever eat the support beams...they are just too dense and don't hold a drop of moisture. Good to know.

So that's what has happened these past two days -- More demo, no floors, electricians arrived, and work is going at a steady pace. I'm quite pleased with the process.

Have a great day!
Kristin

Ooooh, and I'm going to put captions in the pictures I posted the other day. I'm going to do that right now.

WFMW Pill Container

Welcome to another edition of Works For Me Wednesday! Each week hundreds of people from around the world gather at Rocks in My Dryer for WFMW and share their tips. Please take a look when you have finished here. Thanks & I'll see you again next week.

My fabulous tip this day after tax day (in the United States) is a handy dandy little pill container. This container not only holds my vitamins and my allergy tablet, but it also does a whole lot more! It keeps me on the right day. It helps me remember that I have taken my allergy tablet and I don't double dose myself. I don't know if I have actually double dosed on the allergy meds, but I have NOT taken one because I couldn't remember if I had already. This makes for a terrible evening when the residual medication from the past weeks has worn off. I usually just suffer through the allergy attack so I don't mess with my schedule of taking my vitamins and other assorted good-for-my-body pills in the morning around 9am.

Here is the picture of the pill container that I purchased about a month ago. I chose yellow. Nothing in my bathroom is yellow, so I wanted it to stand out in the crowd - make me aware of the daily habit I was forming -- Take your pills each morning. Take your pills each morning - well you get it. :)





I have also found that taking a multi-vitamin each day (for the past two years) I have physically felt a lot better than I ever had before. (That is an additional tip - take a multi-vitamin each day)



Here is the pill box open - I have a rather large multi-vitamin and a rather large omega-3 fish oil capsule and they fit quite nicely. This is probably a medium sized pill container. They had smaller ones, but I was afraid those fish oil capsules wouldn't fit. I got these at my local grocery store in the vitamin area of the store. $2-$5 depending on your style.

The side benefit of the Days of the Week on the pill box is that I am aware of what day it is! I know that sounds funny, but days can sort of string along without me really knowing if it's Sunday or Monday. Thursday is Survivor day, so I rarely miss that one LOL But seeing the day of the week first thing in the morning sort of cements that in my head for the day. Like I said - that's a side benefit.

Hope you enjoyed my Tip of the Week. I have really been enjoying reading the tips you all send in. Have A Great Day!

Kristin

Flip Pics

This is the tile flooring that was discovered underneath the layers of flooring in the bathroom. We were going to leave it and just put the subfloor over the top, but a structural problem was discovered under this, so this tile had to be torn out.



This is the cleaned up area - the master bedtroom all the way to the storage closet. Now however, it is a disater again. The chimney is gone, the floor is gone and all of the walls are gone.


This is a picture of the bottom of the kitchen flooring - all of the hundreds of nails. When taking out the subfloor our carpenters found that some of the flooring had been bolted to the floor - actual bolts with washers and nuts underneath. Our best guess was that they were trying to get the warped floor under control. This floor was the devil for my demo guys. Millions of nails, boards bolted together, three subfloors - ugh. It is gone now.


This is one of the electrical switches. Old wiring, old switches, old everything. The house had "grounded" outlets, but they weren't actually grounded. This place was just waiting to burn up. No need to worry anymore - we are rewiring the entire place. All new everything.

Jupiter Day Three

Tom and I met with Dan and Kenny (The contractors) today to finalize the plans for the bathrooms. I say finalize, but we never actually had anything written - just that we wanted there lol With all of the walls & ceilings down it was so much easier to measure and map out the spaces today. The floors have outlines of toilets and tubs and vanities and showers. It is fun. The master bedroom gained about 18 square feet. The master closet went from a 4 square foot space to a small walk in closet. The master bathroom will have a large shower, toilet and vanity. The main bathroom will have the tub/shower vanity and toilet. The chimney in this house will be torn down because we have it all exposed right now and that space will become the new linen closet. The linen closet that is in the house now will be a part of the second bedroom closet and will double that space.

Dan and Kenny have inspected the walls in the kitchen and we have all determined that we need to demo the kitchen walls...so we'll call the demo guys back this week and get that all torn out.

If nothing else this house has officially lost weight! We have taken off the plaster walls and layers and layers of flooring. The chimney is thousands of pounds, too. We are replacing concrete and brick steps with decking and we are taking off the horrible front awning and replacing it with a pergola. The lighter and brighter tone of the house is going to make it lovely! I can hardly wait to have it finished and I'm only on day three.

Have A Great Day!
Kristin

Springfield Days 1 & 2

The Springfield house is getting renovated fast and furious. On day one (Sunday the 13th) we got the carpet and padding out, the toilet, sink and vanity removed, the floor in the kitchen and the entire floor in the bathroom (all the way down to the ground, literally) and the refrigerator moved from the kitchen to the lawn.

Today, day two, Robert and a new guy, they call Pops worked on repairing the floor in the bathroom, removed all the kitchen cabinets and the stove. Tom is planning on listing the cabinets and the stove on Craigs List or on FreeCycle. They are good enough to use again, that's for sure.

I took pictures last night before a lot of the kitchen demo - but I did get a picture of the beginning of the Hole in the Floor in the bathroom before I left for home. I want to go over tomorrow and see what's happening. Robert and Pops are supposed to be there at 8am.

I suggested that instead of demolishing the chimney (which is no longer needed) and demolishing the pantry, that we keep it and take down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and just expand the kitchen that way. I think that just taking out the wall would be much less mess and time consuming and would give a much more open concept. Taking out the chimney would give us an additional 4 square feet. I think we can leave those feet for someone else to demo if they'd like.

Tom really liked my plan for the kitchen and thinks that is the way to go... so that's the plan! I'm excited. I didn't even have to explain why my idea was better! LOL

I'll post this and then get the pictures in on the other computer.

Juptier Day Three

Day Three arrived with rain for about half of the day. This was actually a real good thing because the boys needed to take off some of the siding and it really minimized the dust. The siding was from 1947 so it was more than likely asbestos. We got the boys respirators and followed all of the codes. The small area that we needed to come off was very easy to work with and came off without any troubles, thankfully.

We ended up having a full day of clean-up left on the house. We had a crew of five until 1:30pm when two of them had other plans. Then the three remaining, plus Tom and I went into overdrive to get that place cleaned up. The debris in the closet, bathroom area seemed to multiply throughout the day. It was almost finished when bam - something new was discovered and needed to be demo'd. We found some cool old tile - the octogon shaped small tiles in blue with white flowers. That was an unexpected find. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

The chimney is cool, too. It isn't needed anymore since there is no longer a furnace needing to use it - so to add space to the bathroom, masterbed room project, we are demolishing the chimney. I am not sure who is doing that or when it is going to happen, but I'm excited about it. The top of the chimney is red brick, the middle is white brick and the bottom is cinder block. It looks like the white bricks have almost completely pulled away from the mortar and is just locked in like a puzzle piece. I hope the white bricks are individual because I'd like to save them for a gardening project for that house. We'll just have to see I guess. If nothing else I'll save what I can and make a stepping stone out of them lol

I pulled staples out of the ceiling today. I started this project on Friday, but didn't really get much accomplished until today. Each 12" square acoustic tile was set in place with three staples. Thankfully the staples used just barely stuck into the wooden strips mounted on the ceiling, so they were fairly easy to get out with a pair of pliers. However, my middle finger on my right hand is starting to get a blister. I can see it. I went around and showed the soon to be blistered finger to all of the worker bees this afternoon. They all told me I should probably call it quits for the day. I'm so glad that they understood the joking nature of the "soon to be blistered finger" because those boys worked so hard today. I wouldn't want them to think that I was that much of a whiner LOL

Speaking of whining. I'm so tired! I'm so sore! My feet hurt! my legs, my arms, my fingers, my scalp, everything. It feels good in a way but not that good! The next few weeks I will more of an observer to the house being recreated, so it is nice that I got to help right away in the beginning. I love seeing all of the layers in the floors (even though they are so hard to remove!) and when you think you have hit the last layer, another is revealed - like the unexpected tile in the bathroom. Part of the floor had been removed at one time and that tile had been replaced, but some was left behind for us to find. And we are leaving it behind for someone else to find. I love the tiny closets with the wooden shelves and the notches cut out for the rods. I love the hardwood floors being revealed. This really is a great project.

See you tomorrow for Day four! (And an update on the Springfield house)

Kristin

Pics day two

This is one of the bedrooms & below is the same bedroom with the carpet removed. I am truly surprised at how nice the hardwood floors look. The other bedroom is nearly identicle.





This is a view from the Master bedroom, through the demolished closet, bathroom and all the way into the storage area, which will also become a bathroom.


This is that Kitchen floor. I don't think this picture even comes close to showing how many layers and how many nails were in that floor. Dean is working on it, in this photo.

The green side is the laundry room. We've taken the wall out between the kitchen and the laundry room and will push it back about two - three feet to give us room for a dining room table in the kitchen. The laundry room should still be fairly large. The door to the exterior will no longer be in the laundry room, we are putting in French Doors in the kitchen, which will lead to a deck.

Jupiter Day Two

It didn't start off well today - Everyone agreed at 8am, so I arrived at 8am and not a soul showed up until 9. I would have loved an extra hour of sleep this morning instead of sitting at a house with no workers.

The day picked up though - Bill (carpenter) arrived with Robert (who is our carpenter and who is going to live in the Springfield flip) & he brought along Dean. Those three got to work right away (the steam coming from my ears might have helped) and then about an hour later Tom arrived with Glen and Jerry. They all worked real hard today. We got a lot done & the 30 yard dumpster is nearly full.

I found out something interesting from the neighbor - there are two large holes, one on either side of the driveway, she said that area used to have palm trees. I wondered what had been there. Since this house was a foreclosure, the guy dug up the palms and sold them. He also sold the furnace/Air Conditioner unit and all of the appliances, but I hear that's typical. I didn't realize that plantings were normally dug up and sold though.

Here is what was completed today...or finished since yesterday.

-the wall between the master bedroom and bath - gone (there was a closet inbetween, too)

- the entire bathroom gutted

- Furnace room next to bathroom torn down. We are going to put the new air handler in the attic space.

- former coat closet/storage area , nearly gutted. It houses the electrical panel, so that wall was left intact, but the rest is gone.

-The kitchen cabinets - all gone.

- The kitchen floor. Oh goodness, this was horrid. The floor was nailed down, more nailed down than I had ever seen in my life. It took about 6 hours for these guys to get the floor up. It has a subfloor, then a particle board floor, then two layers of lino, then cement board, then tile. The cement board was nailed with 2" nails, 4-6 nails per square foot. This is just one of the things you find when redoing a home... people do the strangest things! The cement board could have just been glued and that would have made this job a 1-2 hour job.

- the exterior of the garage was rotting, so that wood has been removed.

- The insulation was just loose stuff. Most of it is now gone, everywhere where we took out walls or ceilings.

- The laundry room floor is being removed. That isn't done yet.

- The wall between the laundry room and kitchen has been removed. (We are making the kitchen a few feet larger, since the laundry room was so large.)

-We had one guy bagging trash all day. Most of it was plaster and insulation from the masterbedroom, bath, storage area.

-the carpets in the other two bedrooms were removed & revealed that the hardwood floors are still excellent.

All of our carpenters and workers are coming back tomorrow. The kitchen floor really held us up and we need to get another days worth of demo done before Monday morning when the Contractor, Dan, comes ready to work.

That was today. I will post pictures shortly.

I may post those photos after I have a bath. :)

Have a Great Day!
Kristin

Zora Mail

Here is Zora with her Grandpa - my Dad. I'm so bummed the picture is a bit fuzzy, it is one of the only pictures of Zora that I have where she isn't moving!


Alison's birthday was the other day and Zora's birthday is coming up. I guess she was thinking about one or the other when she drew this cake and ice cream theme. Look at the cherry on top of the ice cream!


I'm not sure if this is a kitty because there is a leash involved. I haven't seen my name written by Zora before, so this is great. To Kristin From Zora

Pictures of Day One

The drop ceiling


The strips that we are going to keep, since the ceiling is so bad - we'll just put the new drywall over this... taking out all of the staples is going to be time consuming though.



Here is the living room debris field. 99% is now in the dumpster. I did that part!



The Kitchen area


This is where the stove used to be. You can see the vent opening still

Jupiter Court Day 1

I just woke up from my nap on the couch. It's 9pm. Before that I had dinner and Tom and I were watching Shepard Smith. I like Shep. He's a hoot. I don't normally fall asleep in the middle of his show, but I did - I made it to nearly 7:45pm. I think I'm going to write this, take a shower and go to bed. We are going to start early again tomorrow.

So I started with the end, but the beginning went pretty well today, too. Tom left our house early this morning and arrived on Jupiter Ct around 8am. The two guys Tom has hired to help were there and the three of them tore apart things that needed to be torn apart. The bathroom and the walls between the bathroom and the masterbedroom, the kitchen cabinets, the wall between the kitchen and the laundry room (for some reason they have only destructed one side of that wall) and the ceiling in the livingroom. The dumpster didn't arrive until 4pm, so all of this destruction was piled in the house. I do have to say that these boys did a real nice job of making piles of rubble and stacking stuff so that there was a lot of room to walk.

When the dumpster did arrive it was placed right next to the house and just about 6" from a window - which turned out to be ideal. I took it upon myslef to start tossing the debris into the dumpster and having that window opening was perfect. I spent about two hours tossing trash. Every muscle gets used tossing trash, even if all you have to do is pick it up and maneuver it out the window and toss. The cabinets in the kitchen weren't regular cabinets, they were actually made right in place. Getting them out required a ton of effort. In fact the base cabinets are still not all the way out after day one. Anyway, the sheer number of nails in the cabinets is mind boggling. Maybe I should have taken a picture of some of the pieces. Clearly someone enjoyed using a hammer. I am covered in scrapes and scratches from all of those nails and assorted other jagged pieces of wood and debris. Most of them I didn't feel at all, but tonight when I washed up with some hydrogen peroxide, I felt them.

I spent most of the day sitting at home waiting on the FedEx guy to arrive with Tom's medication. Since we have to sign for the package and they don't deliver on Weekends, it was very important that someone be here to answer the door. So, I watched HGTV for a few hours while I did laundry, cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed. Later I watched "The Jazz Singer" that I had recorded on the DVR sometime last week. (It was only given one star --- I would have given it at least two!) Finally at 2:45pm he finally arrives and I'm out the door over to our new home.

Tomorrow I am to start the crew off at 8am. I went over to our garage unit this evening and got some shovels and brooms, two garden hoses and some buckets. We can at least clean off a bit tomorrow with the hoses and the shovels are going to be key in getting all the tile out of the kitchen after it has been broken.

I think that is pretty much the highlights of Day One of the Jupiter Court flip. Come back tomorrow night for Day two!

Have a Great Day!
Kristin

Just funny

I don't know if these are real or not, but I got such a laugh that I had to help spread them around the internet. Enjoy!!!
Kristin


Doctors' Comments On Patient Charts:

* "Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year."

* "On the 2nd day the knee was better and on the 3rd day it disappeared completely."

* "The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1993."

* "Discharge status: Alive but without permission."

* "Healthy appearing decrepit 69 year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful."

* "The patient refused an autopsy."

* "The patient has no past history of suicides."

* "Patient has left his white blood cells at another hospital."

* "Patient's past medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days."

* "Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch."

* "She has had no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night."

* "She is numb from her toes down."

* "The skin was moist and dry."

* "Occasional, constant, infrequent headaches."

* "Patient was alert and unresponsive."

* "She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce."

* "I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy."

* "The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stockbroker instead."

* "Patient has two teenage children but no other abnormalities."

* "Skin: Somewhat pale but present."

* "Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Blank, who felt we should sit on the abdomen, and I agree."

* "By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart stopped, and he was feeling better."

* "The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of gas and crashed."

* "When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room."

* "Patient was released to outpatient department without dressing."

Us Girls

Kristin, Hillary and Alison.

I'm in black, Hillary is in the middle and Alison is standing up in back wearing the black and white. Hillary gets that far off look every so often. Not sure what she's thinking about.

I'm the oldest, Hillary is the youngest and Alison is right here (can you see the hand motion) she's in the middle. We were born more than 5 years apart, so according to some "experts" we are all considered first born. I think that's why we are so independent, so different and yet we are all so much alike. I've got the BEST family!

We took this picture on the stage at the Williamston Theatre the very first week of March 2008. We saw a preview of the play "Hate Mail" - it was very very good.

Funny, but I really like this photo of me. My sisters are going to get me for posting this, I can just see it coming. You know what, I don't think I've ever noticed this before, but Alison and Hillary have the same smile and the same type of mouth -- I've got a much smaller mouth (just like my Dad and Grandma Corlett.) Hmmmm, very interesting. I knew I had that same look, like grandma, but I don't think I'd ever analyzed that I was the only kid in the family to have it.

Well, here are the three girls. Alison is having a baby in just a few days. I can't help but think how exciting it is going to be for her daughter to have a sibling. It may not mean much to Zora the first year or so, but as she gets older, she will hopefully have an incredible relationship with her sibling as I have with mine.

Sending lots of love from Florida to Michigan!! Wish I could be there on the new baby's birthday.

Love, Kristin

Cool, very cool

"Unassembled snow men are going to fall from the sky again."


Raven (Pati)


A friend of mine from an online group posted this statement about the weather they were expecting later in the day. I thought that it was so clever! I don't want to forget it. I can almost see the card with this printed on the front... Love It!

Have a Great Day!
Kristin

Nervous Nellie

Tomorrow morning I get to go to the bank and authorize two cashiers checks to be cut from my account. Two checks = two houses. Even my toes are cringing.

I'm actually really excited about the flip project. I've been dreaming about paint colors, walls being removed, bathrooms renovated, floor covering, contractors showing up, sub contractors showing up, then I sit straight up in bed and wonder why I'm doing this!

Tomorrow is the day we send in the money. Friday is the day we own two run down houses.

Oh my. I've started another journey.

I can say this - It is going to be better than owning a scooter rental business. Much better.

Have A Great Day!
Kristin

WFMW - The Dishes

Welcome to another edition of Works For Me Wednesday! Each week hundreds of people from around the world gather at Rocks in My Dryer for WFMW and share their tips. Please take a look when you have finished here. Thanks & I'll see you again next week.

I heart doing dishes, is the title I put in the WFMW post. I love to do dishes. I do. I am one of those mutant types that loves to have my hands in hot soapy water. My tip for you all this week is one that I've known about for a very long time. Wash the dishes as you go. I know, it seems so easy and so impossible all at the same time, but if you wash the dishes as you cook or at least fill up your sink with hot soapy water and toss items in the sink as you use them, you will find that your kitchen stays cleaner and your clean-up time is so much less.

I have a dishwasher and I only use it a few times a year...I run it to make sure it still works lol I hand wash all my dishes. I do it because I like the water, the soap, the time to reflect on the day. I also get to admire my dishes that I picked out so lovingly. It's one of the few times each day that I actually finish a project. All the dishes get done, the counters washed off, the room smells good and it is clean. End of project...well, until someone wants a snack, but for a brief moment in time the kitchen was completely cleaned up.

This is a habit that you need to work yourself into, I don't think you can just all of a sudden be a cleaner-upper while cooking dinner if you haven't before. So, fill your sink with hot soapy water even if you don't end up using it. Keep doing it and pretty soon you find that it is really helpful. You might even get a family member to do the dishes while you cook - that soapy water will just look inviting :0) (I know, I know, I'm dreaming!)


Have a Great Day!
Kristin

Milk for Kitties

I've been reading a lot about cattle lately. Pioneer Woman on her blog (one of my almost daily blog reads) and another friend has been sharing stories of her life on the farm, birthing baby cows and snow.

I saw this picture in my photobucket account, not sure where it came from, but it just fit the theme lately.

Don't ya just know that the kitties wait for this treat each day. I can just see the pleasure that the man has -- he's been doing this for a long time. His aim is perfect.

Kristin

Bye Bye Tiki stuff

The Tiki Hut inventory is gone.

Bye Bye

Yippppeeeee!!

This really nice couple came by to look at all of the inventory over the weekend. They called back yesterday and said they would take it and they came over today to count and load. We went piece by piece, finding the wholesale amount, writing it down - then when we had finished, we took about 15% off that total and that was that! They got a great deal and I gott rid of all of it out of my garage.

I was terrified it was going to stay around for 5 years or more like everything else in those garages... but I sent out lots of "I Want a Tiki Business" vibes into the universe and I was sent a buyer!!

It is a Great Day!
Kristin

Happy Birthday Alison

Happy Birthday Alison!!!

Funny

I don't know where this came from, who took it or who played around to get this picture but I Love It!

Springfield Ct.

This is our beauty on Springfield Court.

She is amazing.

I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of the entire front of the house. That little driveway to the left of the house goes back to a shed/garage-like structure. I can't for the life of me remember at the moment if it has a garage door if it is just a shed. Whatever it has, it is a real nice room. It is going to look great.

I sent an email to my family yesterday telling them that this house was the same floorplan as my Grandmothers home in Nebraska. Now I'm sure that a two bedroom, one bath house can really only be configured a few ways, but the thought of this having anything to do with that great little house in Maywood, NE makes me happy as can be.

This house is a gem if I ever saw one. My husband put an offer on it before I even saw it. In fact, I only saw it a few days ago. Anyway, the place needs a new kitchen layout, and I think I'd have open up to the dining room (which is really too small to be a dining room these days.) I would leave the seperation between the living room and the existing kitchen since this house is so small - a little privacy and noise reduction is going to be welcomed. Our carpenter suggested putting an entrance to the kitchen from the living room - but if we incorporated the dining room into the kitchen design, then we already have an entrance that way. Well, I'll be posting a million pictures.


I can't decide what to do with that front porch. (Besides a nice paint job lol) It either needs trim to make it look like it isn't just stuck on, or it needs to be taken off. I think I'm for keeping it and just sprucing it up. It is always nice to have a screened porch to keep the skeeters away.

We close on this house on Wednesday. Our carpenter is going to live in this house for a few months, work on the Jupiter house and this one and then we'll buy another one for him to live in, flip and so it goes...or we'll just see how this goes first. That's the plan anyway.

This is Springfield. She is going to be something great. I can see it now.

Have a Great Day!
Kristin

Cool Building

My husband was taking me around the city of Jacksonville the other day, showing me houses, when we came upon this little gem. It was just the neatest building. We stopped and got a cone, each of us. I got a small one - 3 bites. OK - maybe it was 10 bites but it was just the perfect size. Besides needing a good cleaning, it was just a perfect place. The people who have recently purchased the place were putting up a fence on one side - I guess to protect the picnic table area from the street just steps away.

I have no idea where in Jacksonville this place is located, although I'm sure my husband does - but it is someplace I will try to tell everyone about so it will stay in business for another 50 years.

Have A Great Day!
Kristin

Flipping Wonderful!

Here she is...

Miss Jupiter

Isn't she pretty?

She'll be all ours on Friday.

The list of things to fix, repair, replace, take out, move, demolish, upgrade, level, paint, stain, refinish and keep are numerous. When we get finished with this three bedroom, one bathroom house (plus a sort of started half bath in the garage) it will be a...

Three bedroom, two and a half bath, eat-in kitchen, original hardwood flooring, landscaped & fenced yard with a new roof! (The fenced yard will actually be roofless, but the house will have a new roof lol) There is deck access through the Master Suite, but that is just one of three decks gracing this property. Central heat and air as well as all new electrical throughout the house are among the amenities you will find in this charming home on Jupiter Court.

Have A Great Day!

Kristin

Caffeine

Caffeine is not my friend. I had one 12-16oz glass of dietCoke last night.

I was awake until 7 am this morning.

I keep telling myself that I cannot have caffeine, but it doesn't sink in. Maybe if I actually blog about, tell everyone about it and make it real - I can't have caffeine!!!!

Don't do it!

STOP!

There... I'm going to bed now since I only slept from 7am until 10:30am.

Whew, glad I got that out.

Have a nice night...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz


PS I quit having a daily dose of caffeine in 1992. This is something I've known about for a very long time.

Spelling Alphabet

My husband was a private pilot for many many years (and will be again, I'm sure). I think he got his first airplane when he was 17 years old. I've always been facinated with the alphabet that pilots used in the air, so I thought I'd pass it along today.

The alphabet is actually called the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (also the Phonetic Alphabet...although it's not phonetic, so I don't know why it is called that or the NATO Phonetic Alphabet). For this "lesson" it will be called the...

International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet

A = Alpha
B = Bravo
C = Charlie
D = Delta
E = Echo
F = Foxtrot
G = Golf
H= Hotel
I = India
J = Juliet
K = Kilo
L = Lima
M = Mike
N = November
O= Oscar
P = Papa
Q = Quebec
R = Romeo
S = Sierra
T = Tango
U = Uniform
V = Victor
W = Whiskey
X = Xray
Y = Yankee
Z = Zulu

Most of the words are recognizable by native English speakers because English must be used upon request for communication between an aircraft and a control tower whenever two nations are involved, regardless of their native languages. Wikipedia

I think it is fun to know these words - especially when you are trying to say a UPC code or something over the phone. "Did you say D or B??" Now you can say - "Did you say D as in Delta or B as in Bravo?" You'll be oooh so clever!

Have A Great Day!
Kristin

WFMW - Greatest Hits

This is a rewind edition of Works for Me Wednesday...This is one of my tips that I thought I'd showcase again...Enjoy!!

Works for me Wednesday

I’ve been reading the WFMW posts for about a month now - you all have some great ideas. This is my first week posting a tip for WFMW, I do hope you enjoy. I love to clean things, but I also want to spend the least amount of effort doing it. I want it to be fast and easy and I don't want to use smelly chemicals. I'm a fan of soap and water.

If you’d like to see more Works for Me Wednesday posts, please click here.

I have a love affair with my shower. It is a man made composite material of some sort, it is bright white, it is supposed to look like tile, but it isn’t. It is supposed to look like there is grout between the tiles, but there isn’t - it is just one big plastic-like tub surround...I just love it. I hated it when I first saw it - When I toured other condos in our building I was shocked that even those folks who upgraded their bathrooms, still kept that awful tub surround. THEN I found the trick...

It is a chamois type product - It is called The Absorber - I googled it and this is just one of the many places I found -- The Absorber. It is the best thing EVER. I found mine at Target in the clearance section a few years ago, but now that I know how awesome it is, I would gladly pay the going rate.

When I get done showering, I pick up the absorber from its throne (laying across the tub faucet) and I get it wet -- I then wipe off the walls of my plastic-like tub surround. It takes a moment - maybe three moments. The fake tiles, two years later, look like they have never had a drop of water on them.

The Absorber is stiff like cardboard when it dries - but when you get it wet you can literally roll it up. I have placed it on the floor of the tub so you can get a little bit or perspective on the size of the cloth. Have I mentioned that I love this product!



For the tub, I use a magic eraser once a week - I keep it in the shower and just before I finish up in the shower I just grab the magic eraser and clean the entire tub, hose it down, turn off the water, wipe the walls with my absorber and my tub and shower are tide-clean!

My quick tip - Clean the shower while you're in it.

Have a Great Day!

Kristin

I am grateful

When I watched The Secret for the very first time (I'm in my hundredth watching by now I'm sure) one of the things that popped out to me immediately was this quote from Bob Proctor.

"I am so happy and grateful now that..." fill in the blank. I say it many times during each day & I love how I feel when I say it. I have a connectedness that I had never had before. Or maybe I just feel the connection rather than just racing through life.

I purchased The Secret Daily Calendar this year. LOVE IT! Yesterday's message was....

Bob Proctor, featured in The Secret, suggests writing down what you want. "Begin each sentence with, I am so happy and grateful now that ..." (and you fill in the rest). When you give thanks as though you have already received what you want, you are emitting a powerful signal to the Universe. That signal is saying that you have it already because you are feeling gratitude for it now. Each morning before you get out of bed, make it a habit to feel the feelings of gratitude in advance for the great day ahead, as though it is done.

Today's Secret message is....

Laughter attracts joy, releases negativity and leads to miraculous cures.

On this April Fools Day, lets be Grateful and Laugh!!!!!!!!!

Have A Great Day!
Kristin