And the struggle begins.....

I was talking to Janet a week or so ago, telling her about the anticipated scrapbook room and the one thing I was concerned about. I told her that when Jim put up the temporary wall, he also put up 2 doors, one to separate one bedroom from another and the other to separate the bedroom from the bathroom. I told Janet that I thought the only problem I’d have with Jim was taking down the door that separates the bedroom from the bathroom. The reason I have a problem with this door is that there are 3 doors in a very tight area and it drives me nuts all these doors banging against each other. Originally, there was a door leading from the family room area into the “scrapbook” room and a door for the bathroom.

Last night I was downstairs making my Cricut key as instructed by Barb when Jim came down. He walked into the other rooms, looked around a little and proceeded to tell me that he would not take the door that separates the bedroom from the bathroom. Do I know this guy or what? I told him I didn’t want to talk about it at that time because we were not going to agree. When he started to say something else, I just cut him off and said that the door wasn’t there when we moved in and I wanted it back to the way it was originally and that having 3 doors in such a tight area drives me crazy! His protest was that when anyone would go to use the bathroom they’d see my scrapbook room. I told him I didn’t care. I’m sure this is not the end of our “door” battle….

Giving in is so hard to do.....

I’m finally going to get my scrapbook room because we had two kids move out recently. Angie moved in with Brian (after asking my permission) a few weeks ago and Matt bought a condo and moved out this past week. Originally, I thought I would use Matt’s bedroom for my scrapbook room because it’s right next to my bedroom, there’s a pocket door separating the two and it also has a nice view out to the woods in back of the house. After thinking about it for a while, I changed my mind and decided I wanted “my” room downstairs in the lower level because it is much larger and more private. Jim had built a temporary wall when we first moved in to make two bedrooms so he will have to take that down first. He'll also have to move Johnny's bedroom furniture up to Angie's bedroom until we find a house suitable for Johnny to buy at which time he'll take the furniture. I figured we would use Angie’s & Matt’s upstairs rooms for guest rooms and of course the ideas started forming in my mind on how to decorate the rooms. I’ve been getting kind of excited and look forward to working on these rooms. Angie’s will not need to be painted but Matt’s will so I’ve been picturing different colors and anticipating the start of a new project.

Jim & I were looking around in Matt’s room the other night when I said that we’d need to paint. That’s when he informed me - maybe so, maybe not. When I asked what he meant, he said that it was going to be “his” room. When I objected and told him that he already had the garage (just like my big sister told me to say) he said that it wasn’t really his garage because I’m the only one that parks in it. I couldn’t really argue with that. Now he’s gloating and trying to be mysterious about what he’s going to do with "his" room. He knows it’s killing me not to have control over a redecorating project. Whatever, I guess I’m conceding Matt’s room to Jim but I’ll be sure that my scrapbook room gets started first!

It's been a very busy summer so far. Mom's operation & recovery consumed the months of May & June. Then we started hunting for a condo for Matt Miller and a house for Johnny. We were successful in finding a great deal on a condo for Matt and after a lot of painting and a few repairs he's ready to move in this week. We haven't had as good of luck with finding a DECENT house for Johnny. We've been looking at one foreclosed home after another and if you've never experienced it, let me tell you, it's shocking to see how people can live. Total trash! We realize that there will be a lot of work involved when buying a foreclosed home, but most of the places we've seen would need to be totally gutted. And every basement has been leaky - and we all remember my experiences with a leaky basement - a nightmare! Whenever our realtor sends over a new listing, we try to go see it right away because it's very competitive and if you find something that's halfway decent, you better be prepared to make an offer immediately. I've been telling Johnny not to get discouraged because I read in the Kiplinger Letter that the $8,000 or 10% purchase price incentive from the federal government will most likely be extended for another year.
I just got back yesterday from a visit with Barb in Nashville. Janet & I drove through torrential downpours Wednesday night and even though I haven't been down there for about five years, I had a sense of deja vu because I remember driving to Nashville many times in rain storms and even a snowstorm once. It was great to be back in big sister's neck of the woods and see how she's redecorated her house. She gave us a tour Thursday and she saved her "favorite" room for last. Needless to say, we ended up spending about 2 hours in her scrapbooking room looking at stuff, getting lessons and talking. The weather wasn't so great so we didn't spend any time at the pool on Thursday. We did get some pool time in Friday and decided to surprise Barb's friends and crash their pool party, too. It was fun. We did some scrapbooking at her dining room table because she didn't think her scrapbooking room would be comfortable for us since she has so much stuff and little room for working. Throughout the weekend we kept track of how many times we had to run upstairs to her scrapbooking room to get things. Between the three of us we climbed those stairs 42 (or so) times. Oh well, I guess we got some exercise! We also had fun playing Barb's new (antique) game Park and Shop. She said she remembered playing it at the Beckman's when she was a kid (hence the antiqueness) and it was always her favorite. Since I won both games (which really came down to the wire both times) I have to say it's my favorite game, too. Makes me feel a little better after all the times Barb creamed me in Scrabble! When I got home yesterday, my car was pretty dirty with bug guts from the trip. I had to take it in to the dealer this morning because there was a recall for something and when they got done they brought it out totally clean. They washed it! I was one happy camper.
The rest of the summer is going to be busy with a shower, bachelorette party, two weddings and a scrapbook retreat. Barb, Janet & me also have a cousins scrapbook retreat in October at Kentucky Lake. We went last year with cousin Judy and worked feverishly. I thought it was great because Barb had all the layouts planned and we finished a complete scrapbook. The only problem this year is that I've heard that the only "cousin" may not go. Come on Judy, please, please come along with us. We really enjoyed your company last year. Besides, if you don't come along we'll have to change the name to "cousinless scrapbook retreat".

Excitement at JCI!!!

The U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon visited JCI World Headquarters this afternoon. He had already visited Monsanto and will be giving a speech at SLU later today. JCI has had a relationship with the United Nations for over 50 years and in 2003 JCI adopted a resolution to support the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty & hunger, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, global compact and corporate social responsibility. JCI has since developed a program called “Nothing but Nets” which provides bed nets sprayed with insecticide to prevent malaria in Africa. We have many local member organizations in Africa who can distribute the nets in an efficient & effective manner.

Our 2009 President, Jun Sup Shin is from South Korea and has made climate change his priority this year. Ban Ki-moon is also from South Korea and he is in the St. Louis area to discuss the issue of climate change, so from what I hear he said he wanted to stop at one non-profit while in town and JCI was chosen. A man from the State Department came to check out the office Tuesday. A few more men came from U.N. Security yesterday to let us know the rules-no media, no unauthorized guests, no fast moves, etc., etc., etc. We were all very excited; especially Edson who has visited the U.N. many times and has a framed picture of himself with the former U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan in his office. He called this a historical event in JCI history and is very proud.
We hired a professional photographer who took many pictures and we were able to get a group shot but I don’t have access to it yet so here are some pictures I took.

My Sister, The Traitor

(Encarta Dictionary – traitor – betrayer – somebody who is disloyal or treacherous)

I went by Mom’s after work yesterday to check on her, bring her some dinner and visit for a while. She is still somewhat insecure about taking a shower because she’s afraid she might fall or something as she still doesn’t have all her strength back. So while she was in the shower, I decided to check the plants on Mom’s porch to see if they needed watering. The plants that I potted were fine but when I checked the hanging plant that Barb bought for Mom, it was dry. It’s a beautiful plant. I think it’s called an angel-leaf begonia. It is lush and full with plenty of flowers. It’s so lush it looks like it should be at an exotic resort in the Caribbean or Mexican Riviera. Absolutely georgeous! In fact, it’s so full, I had a hard time getting the leaves out of the way to water it. As I was pushing the leaves aside I noticed the tag and decided to see where my ELDEST sister bought the beautiful plant. Lo & behold she bought it at Koenig’s Nursery!

Now, if you read my blog regularly, you should remember the problem I had with Koenig’s and reported on August 4, 2008 in “It’s the Principle”. The last sentence of my blog was, “I will NEVER go back to Koenig’s Nursery again and if you’re my family or friend, you won’t either!”

Just for that, Barb, I’m telling Ronnie & Matt that you shop at WalMart….