A Few Days in Lethbridge

The day after arriving in Edmonton from Arizona, I had to drive down to Lethbridge to be here when the workers convert a largish coat closet to a pantry in our house down here.  Since Lloyd had to head north to work, and since I didn't want to drive 5 hours to Lethbridge by myself, Mickey came down with me and we planned to spend a few days scrapbooking and relaxing.

Mickey hard at 'work'.

So far, so good.  Mickey got eight layouts done the first day - I got one done.  *sigh*  Sometimes I am just so slow.  Then, we went to check out the only scrapbook store in town just to find out that it was in it's final stages of closing out - and there is no sign of another scrapbook store to take it's place.  Makes me think I'm making a mistake moving down here next month.  *sigh*, again.  The good thing is that we were able to take advantage of the clearance prices on all the stock.

The carpenter came yesterday to 'tear down' the closet before doing the installation of the pantry shelves.  There was some drywalling involved to repair flaws and holes from the rod and shelf that had been part of the closet.  As he was leaving he suggested that I might want to paint the walls of the closet before he comes back tomorrow to install the pantry.  OK I said.  Then I went on a search in the garage and basement for some leftover paint, a paintbrush and a roller, all of which I was able to find.  It took Mickey and I less than an hour to get the walls painted but in the process I ruined a blouse and a pair of jeans because I kept backing into the wet paint in the small space.

Painting is such fun!

Nick will be back tomorrow to finish the job and I'll finally have a place to put my seldom used but still needed kitchen implements, packages of food, etc. what don't fit in my kitchen cupboards.

Lloyd and I missed our grandson Kenny's 6th birthday the other day so our son Mike and DIL Avril brought the kids over for a small birthday barbeque party for Kenny.  That was a lot of fun.  We haven't been able to be a big part of these grandkids' lives because we only see them a couple times a year, but once we move down here next month we'll see much more of them. 

The boys helped peel the corn

We filled our plates with corn, hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad and cheesies. (Mike did the barbequeing).

Kenny blew out his six candles

And loved his Star Wars lego set, while Hannah dug for the birthday card

Hannah tucked into her cake like there was no tomorrow

Avril and Hannah played with the pinwheel from the top of the cake



Then the whole family settled in to put the kit together - Alex seems to have inherited his Dad's ability to follow instructions and put things together.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good day.  I love seeing my kids interact with their own families in such a sweet manner.  Mike is one of my 'little' kids, being #5 of 7.  It's hard to imagine them sometimes being all grown up with babies of their own.  Makes me proud.

Flood Update

I guess compared to so many people in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan we've come through the flooding down there fairly well. We had minimal water damage in the basement which will require us to replace the carpet down there, but since we were planning on renovating the basement anyway, it's not too upsetting. Our main problem is distance. Since we live a 5 hour drive north of Lethbridge, and had limited time on the weekend, it meant we had to drive down there, spend 3 hours at the house, and drive five hours home. It made for a long day. Luckily Mike and Avril live not far from us down there and had the hall carpet and underlay out, the wet edges of the big room carpet lifted, and the water mopped up before we got there. We left 3 industrial sized fans running which Mike will check on for us. Hopefully the rain and flooding is over now.

Carpetless hall and family room entry

Wet carpet getting dried out.

The wet at the foot of the stairs.

Once the carpet and underlay was lifted,
we could see where there used to be tile on the cement floor.