Sunday Morning

5:30 am (Good Grief - what Am I Doing up at this hour ?? ). Here's Reg with his Sunday paper. Today, in addition to his banana, I cut him up a plate of oranges from our tree for his breakfast. It was a little wet to pick them but well worth it.

Saturday Rob Helps Dad Building Kitchen

Reg is still working on the kitchen, and Rob came over to help him. The cabinets are VERY heavy and so much of the putting together requires 2 strong people. The guy who we paid to put in the 2 toughest cabinets asked if we wanted "Crown Molding" because it would alter how he put in the supports. We didn't, and he hung the corner wall cabinet and put up the suspension rails for the other cabinets. Turns out - in the secret IKEA Language, "Crown Moulding" is not the ornate, 4-8 inches wide stuff you see on This Old House or HGTV. It is just the 1 inch trim that goes along the top and sides of the cabinets. Reg found this out by going to IKEA and getting sent to talk to the store kitchen Guru Guy. This is why we paid the extra money for the IKEA contacted decorator - who is supposed to tell customers about these things BEFORE they start putting thier kitchens together. Unfortunately - the designer who we got assigned was not up to par. This has caused us a lot of money, time, extra work and (on my part) tears and heartache - plus it is now 4 weeks without a kitchen. I would never ever recommend getting an IKEA kitchen to anybody who I like ( but what a great way to destroy and demoralize an enemy).

Notice in the backgroud of the pictures all the tucked here and there temporary pockets of kitchen areas.

Audrey has Pneumonia

Wednesday Rob called to ask if I could stay with Audrey. She had been to the Doctor's office and he diagnosed her with Pneumonia again. She gotten 2 shots that day (plus medicine to take at home) and she would need to stay home from school.

When I got there on Thursday morning her fever was way down and she was feeling better - but still not up to her usual self. You can see from her eyes that she is still feeling wiped out at 8:00 am. For almost 3 hours she just played on the Nick Jr web site while I plied her with water & juices, and Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch. I taught her how to use the bowl as a cup to drink the broth, explaining about poor manners but when something is good for you it's OK to do it.

She started to perk up and by the afternoon she was her bubbly ball of energy again - wanting to run and play. She loves to have me wrap myself in the long vacuum hose that has a cover that looks like Python Skin. Then she tells me which Power Ranger she is and who I am supposed to be. Then she runs to the next room and waits for me to yell "Help Help Pink Power Ranger (Yellow Power Ranger, Green, etc), I am being attcked by a giant Python snake". She comes charging in yelling things the Power Ranger TV Cartoon characters yell and chops off the snake with her foam sword, pulls all the loops off me and rescues whoever I am (she likes me to be Grandpa or Papa, Avery or Sydney or Kylee, etc). She wants to play this game over and over. She just loves it.

New Oven

New Ovens don't come with plugs already on them these days. You have to wire your own plug. The wall wires are at the very bottom of the floor - here's Grandpa in a tough space getting the wiring set up.

Our 46th Anniversary

We had a great day. We went to the Alta Mesa Park with Rob and the kids. Then we came back to our Sunrise Village Home and went swimming in the 86 degree pool - followed by lunch at Mcdonalds. Then Reg and I came home and had a nap (we needed it). Later on we went to Rob's house and he made us dinner and we played with the kids. Grandpa built great big tall towers with dominos and Avery blew them down. Audrey and I played dominos and she beat me twice.

Pictures of Avery and Audrey in the park snacking on slices of oranges from Grandpa and Grandma's Orange Tree. Avery and audrey getting a rocking/rolling truck ride with Papa being the rocker. Avery and Audrey with swinging on a tire swing with Papa and Grandpa. Avery and Audrey, Grandpa and Grandma in the swimming pool.

An Advantage of Living in of Sunrise Village

Ahhhh, here I sit at my computer, shopping for Blu Ray players, sipping a glass of Orange Juice from the oranges I picked just a few minutes ago off our tree. They are small because the tree was not watered this past year - but they are the juiciest and sweetest "Arizona Sweets" I have ever tasted and there are 100's and 100's of them on our tree. 100's and 100's of sweet, succulent Grapefruits on the Grapefruit tree too. This will truly be the prime lifestyle we will be living. Tomorrow - our anniversary, swimming and grilling with the 2 youngest grand-kids. AzGrandma Valerie

Ikea is harder than it looks

We have been having a devil of a time with the Ikea in a Box Kitchen. The boxes were delived on 3 pallets and I could not lift most of the boxes. I sweet talked the delivery guys to get them to move the boxes from 1 pallet into the outdoor screened room so it wouldn't be in the street (no room here for 3 pallets of boxes). The invoice sheet was several pages & they said we'd have 48 hours to verify we got what was on the invoice. I couldn't see all the labels & Reg had 3 days in a row of a lot of plumbing work so he wasn't able to do it. The next week when Tim came to install the 2 hardest cabinets for us he said we didn't have the right stuff and I took some things back to Ikea and bought different boxes back. Reg, on the week-end, just put most of the units together without labeling them as he went so we have no idea where the additional 3-6 boxes of parts go to which built frames. The "Build List" doesn't tell you which cabinet goes where and everything is in coded letters and numbers. The Kitchen Designer's design on the computer is not a match to what we got - plus I went from 30" to 39" cabinets at his suggestion without realizing that made extra weight ( we may use the words manufactured home but this is just a trailer with 2x2 walls) and that changes the distance between the wall cabinets and the base cabinets giving less counter space. He didn't tell us to leave room for the trim, or even that there was trim, so all the bar racks are too high to the ceiling. I really didn't know enough to be the person who placed the order and the designer (we paid $250 to IKEA for this service, they contact the service out - other people have gotten great help from thier designers but I had Great Spaces and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who was a friend ) didn't support me as with any neccessary info so we are up a creek. No one told me about the trim piece that should go on the top of the wall cabinets and along the bottom. Oh gosh, I could keep going here but the basic thing is that this is a disaster and we have spent all this money and because they are halfway put together we can't get our money back we still have no kitchen and probably won't for a long time. Reg went to Ikea and they have a Kitchen Help guru who gave Reg a lot of additional info and said he will help (by phone) but everything has just stopped. I am pretty devastated.