Floor Report - Almost Finished

I'm sure you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats for the next installment of Holmes Family - Floor Makeover. Isn't my life exciting?!?  I guess when you do the work yourself, there is a greater amount of satisfaction when the project is finished.  So, we're all getting pretty happy about now, because the floor is almost complete and we can return furniture/books/pictures to their places on the floors/shelves/walls.  After all, there's not much use for a piano in the kitchen.

This first section took the longest to prepare and measure. After that, it goes pretty quickly.  (More quickly than acid staining concrete anyway.)

When it came time to ask for piano movers, Abigail jumped right on in there.  Katherine was her usual helpful self. Katherine, this word's for you. Hmph!  

Jeff surveying his great work.


The last bit of carpet is rolled up and sent out the door. Yahoooooo!!!! My nose is so happy. Well, maybe not quite yet, because it's all stuffed up right now from all the dust; but, it will be ecstatic soon, I'm sure.

Total collapse. We are finished!

The floor is unbelievable. It's so smooth and beautiful. One more day to put down trim around the edges and we will be finished.  Stay tuned for the final episode of Holmes Family - Floor Makeover. Coming Labor Day to a blog near you.

It's Just Tearing Me Up

Tearing out carpet...killing the sinuses...but it must be done. After 10 long years of living with the ugly, stained gray carpet, we are ready to put down a new floor. Unbeknownst (great word) to us, there was a parquet floor underneath the carpet! I could have screamed. We could have been living with a fairly decent wood floor all these years instead of that allergen-infested gray matter. Oh well...

There was also a small bricked off area, that we can only guess might have held some type of heater or fireplace. Well, it's gone now...and EVERYTHING is covered in dust. Achoooooo...... Thankfully the wood tiles were very easy to just pop up.




As you can see, the carpet under the piano will be the last to be removed. Any strong guys out there need something to do?


What a girl...Abigail picks up tiles in spite of her allergies. I have Benadryl standing by. By the way, has anyone seen Rebecca or Katherine?

A clean slate...

Sample of the new floor

After photos coming soon...

First Day of School Times Two - 2008

It seems to come around about the same time every year -- the first day of school. Katherine and Rebecca started on Monday, with Abigail having her first day on Tuesday. We are attending Grace Prep again, with everyone taking a full load of classes for the first time. What a shock for everyone to start "rising and shining" much earlier than we have been all summer. Abigail did not enjoy seeing her sisters off to school without her. (Next year, Abigail.) It looks to be a very busy semester for everyone. Abigail has homework now, due to no study halls; Rebecca and Katherine are just plain gettin' after it. I heard moans tonight at dinner that everyone already had vocabulary quizzes tomorrow.

Katherine is a Junior. Wow. She has her driver's permit and will be an official licensed driver on December 27. She is taking British Literature, History of Christianity, Chemistry, Spanish 3, Forensic Science and Art. She continues her art lessons with Miz B. at Hobby Lobby, as well. And, she's finally taller than me.

Rebecca is an 8th grader. Again, wow. She is playing setter on her volleyball team and looking forward to a great season. She'll play basketball in the spring. Her classes are English, Algebra, Science and American History. She's almost as tall as I am.

Abigail is a 6th grader. Crazy. My baby all grown up. She will be 11 years old next month. Her classes are English, Math, Science, History and Art. I have a feeling she's going to be the tallest one of all.

P.V.S.S.

POST VACATION STRESS SYNDROME, noun. 1. the realization that the last two weeks of your life, which included a housekeeper and restaurant meals, is over; 2. a condition in which one receives a slap in the face and "Welcome back to your real life, missy. Playtime is over."

That's me.
Heavy sigh...

Family Vacation - San Antonio

To round out our summer, we took a short family vacation to San Antonio. Seems like our entire summer was spent here and there, with one or two people gone almost every week. We thought it would be great to "finish up" summer all together. Jeff was working in Kerrville on Monday, so we met our friends, The Halls, for a day of shopping at La Contera in San Antonio.
And, the girls will tell you, we shopped till we dropped. Very hot...


On Tuesday morning we drove to Sea World. The day started off pretty warm, but a couple small rain showers during the day cooled everything off and it was very pleasant. We had a wonderful day and ended up staying until the park closed at 8 p.m.

Yea! We're at Sea World and our mom is forcing
us to take pictures together in front of everything
that has a killer whale on it.

We started our day by feeding the dolphins. Fantastic! They always look so happy to see you. Rebecca and Abigail were able to pet the dolphin they fed. Katherine's and Genny's dolphins weren't so cooperative. We could have stayed and watched them swim around much longer, but we headed to the aquarium and viewed the sharks, rays, and penguins.

We saw both Shamu shows and, of course, I have no pictures to do either of them justice. They were both so good. We're still talking about them. The sea lions were funny, barking for food. We were sad that the sea lion show was cancelled due to the weather. Guess we'll have to go back to see that one.

Of course I loved the purple set in Shamu Stadium.

How can a killer whale look so sweet?

Jeff had to work on Wednesday morning, so the girls all laid around the hotel room stuffing themselves on Disney Channel, Animal Planet and Food Network. Hey, we can't help it. We don't have cable at home. Gotta watch when we can.

Wednesdsay afternoon we drove downtown to the Alamo. After a brief history review that morning, which the girls pretended to be interested in, we spent a couple hours "Remembering the Alamo!" I always get choked up when I think of the men who gave their lives fighting for freedom.

It was boiling hot that day, so we bought snowcones in front of the Alamo and quickly proceeded underground to the coolness of the Riverwalk.




It was a great day. After strolling around for awhile, and stopping to take Rebecca's picture on every bridge imaginable (I'm on the bridge, Charlie....) we decided to eat at Casa Rio. Yummy! The girls fed the pigeons and ducks pieces of tortilla, until they were taking over our table and we had to shoo them away so we could eat.



On Thursday morning, Jeff allowed everyone a couple more hours of cable and then we headed for home. We dropped Katherine off at the Halls for an extended visit and will return to get her on Monday. Hope I don't forget to pick her up. I'm already getting back into school mode. Sadly, summer is coming to a close...

Five Days in Paradise

The bestest vacation I ever had...it's the only way to describe the last few days in Ambergris Caye, Central America. I found myself on Friday trying to figure out ways that we could lengthen our stay -- mandatory hurricane devacuation? (isn't that the opposite of evacuation?); accidental drowning, the bodies were never recovered?; terrorist kidnapping?; well, we couldn't find an excuse the kids would believe, so we returned home. Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Yes, the water really is that green. Awesome!

the pool at White Sands Resort
(the guy in the pic is Jeff going to email the girls)

going out to dinner at Captain Morgan's

the view from our table

everybody goes barefoot

scary snorkel man
He wanted me to take the same pic of my face.
Yeah...like that would happen.

View from the plane

Coconut trees everywhere

The view from our balcony

Note: This post trip report brought to you by Stella, Barb and Paige, who graciously cared for our children while we lived in paradise. We cannot thank you enough.