Toadfrogs and Elephants

Wade spent the rest of the weekend building and painting my desk. He got most of it done yesterday and even got up early this morning to spray a final coat of paint before church. We went to a new church, met Nate and Michelle for lunch, and watched the storm clouds move in. We hurried home from Greenville just in time to rescue the desk from a down pour. Wade spent some time working on spacing and leveling.

I learned from our last run in with enamel paint not to handle or place anything on the surface for a long time. I waited 48 hours last time and still messed up the top. This time I am thinking a week. Then I will have a finished, usable desk.

Wade put up the door tonight. The last little part associated with the mudroom is complete. I have a feeling this door will require a lot of cleaning (lots of dust in the garage), but I don’t mind.

Wade and I were glad to have this week behind us. I had three big meetings yesterday at work and some visitors in from Hong Kong. 5 o’clock didn’t come too early. We spent some time shopping for new kitchen appliances and then visited the local bowling alley. You never know what kind of people you will find. We had people on either side of us and they obviously knew nothing about bowling etiquette. We had a lot of fun anyway. We each won one game and then played some Area 51. Kill the aliens!

Wade and I decided to take a walk tonight. It was already dark as we were walking back to our house. Wade happened to glance down and see a video iPod in the middle of the street. It had a case on it identical to the one Wade had on his that got stolen, but we quickly decided it wasn’t the same one. We spent a few minutes looking at the material on the iPod and determined it belonged to a family man with a couple of kids that attended a local church and listened to Andy Stanley (the pastor we like so much). We didn’t see a house or neighborhood in the pictures that looked familiar, but we have friends that go to the same church. Hopefully they will be able to identify the guy in the pictures.

Moral of the story – put a name or pictures on your iPod and a good Samaritan might return it to you.

Wade and I tried out a new church this morning and both left feeling it was so-so. Wade immediately jumped into a new project – the mudroom/garage door. He removed all of the old glass and dog-chewed molding. Then he put in all new. The door required a lot of spackling and sanding, but he almost has it ready for me to paint.

I bought a new organization system for the cleaning supplies and grill utensils. I had to have some help installing them, but that is another small project off the list.

Wade and I drove to Greenville this evening for a Yopp Family performance. Some of our Catalyst friends had been talking about the Yopp family for months. They used to have a Christian children’s theater, but had fallen on hard times. The performance we saw had a Fourth of July theme. The father, four sons, one daughter, and one daughter-in-law sang about our country, the Declaration of Independence, and the war. Wade and I enjoyed the show.

Months ago, Tina had invited all the SA girls (and their spouses) over for a pool party. The day was overcast and sprinkled rain, but we always have a good time together. Tina requested my chocolate chip cinnamon cake – I love any excuse to make it. Carol brought chips and salsa from La Botana (yum!). There was a little swimming, some eating, a lot of talking, and a dunking in the pool for me (thanks Rick!). Madison was invited and even got in the pool voluntarily. She was very intrigued by Allie, the resident dog who loves to swim.

And for a special someone out there, this is from all of us to you:

Wade has completed the new stairs in the mudroom. The polyurethane has dried and they are ready for use. Hopefully by next weekend we will have the mudroom/garage door up and the mudroom can be marked DONE.

Before:

After:

My co-worker, Debra, has a birthday tomorrow. I knew she was taking the day off so I brought a cake in today for her birthday. I got to work and she had called in and decided to take today off as well. I knew the cake wouldn’t keep until Monday so we celebrated Debra’s birthday without her.