What's New Around Our House--Part IV

Nicholas painted the kitchen/dining room ceiling white from the same dark grey that used to be on the walls.

A few touch-ups are still needed. :)

We also replaced these two lights in the kitchen...
With these...

And we replaced the upstairs hallway lights that made me gag...
With these...

We are slowly replacing all the upstairs doorknobs with these beauties (instead of the gold monstrosities that I refuse to photograph).

This little guy likes to hang out on our trash can.

And Nicholas got another orchid.

5th Grade Graduation--Numero Dos

To finish up our trip to California--My nephew, Tanner graduated from 5th grade!

Tanner and his teacher, Mr. Moses

After our pizza lunch--

We had to leave the pizza lunch celebration a little early because there was a minor flooding emergency back at my sister's house. Nicholas volunteered to fix the toilet in the boy's bathroom so that the bathroom would no longer smell like little boy pee. He figured out what the issue was and was in the process of replacing the toilet when we left for Tanner's graduation. Unfortunately, the water shut-off valve at the toilet needed to be replaced, and that was not something that Nicholas could do. After a little help from a plumber and lots of initial help from Nicholas, the boy's bathroom now no longer smells horrid!

We had a fabulous time and were very happy to help celebration so many important nephew milestones!

Not Me! Monday

It is not me who, after two years of use, just figured out that my Kitchen Aid mixer has an aid to help add ingredients. I always thoroughly read an instruction booklet before I use something new. I would never assume that my previous experience and intuitiveness can assist me in figuring out how to use anything. That being said, I have yet to decide how I feel about this new ingredient adding aid.

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I have not missed several Not Me! Monday posts because I have been traveling and extremely busy with work. I have not been neglecting my blog in favor of sleeping in my bed and listening to 8 hours of conference calls a day.

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My downstairs bathroom is not currently without a toilet. I have not forgotten how long it has been since said bathroom had a toilet. My four-year-old niece was not completely fascinated that we have a toilet sitting in the backyard. *sigh* I will have a fully functioning downstairs bathroom hopefully in the near future...when we can find tiles we like for the floor.

What have you not been doing today? Head over to MckMama's blog for more not me's!

High School Graduation--Numero Dos

I am hopelessly behind in blogging...

Last Sunday, my nephew, Timmy, graduated from high school. Little brother trying to take his picture.

Graduation was held outside in a Pavilion. Thankfully, we were sitting in shaded seats that stayed shaded the entire time!

Timmy is the second one in line.

After graduation, Timmy would only keep his gown on for 5 seconds of pictures.

Then we had some Mexican food for the celebratory dinner.

San Francisco

We spent Saturday in San Francisco. As mentioned before, we all rode the BART train about an hour to San Franciso. We walked from the train stop to Pier 39 for lunch and saw lots and lots of sights along the way.

Like palm trees...

...and tired, hungry nephews

All the piers that led up to #39

Coit Tower

Tractor Tug Boats

We didn't go to this place...but I wish we had!

We had lunch at the Fog Harbor Fish House.

This was the view from our window at lunch.

After lunch, Nicholas and I took a trolley tour around San Fran.

The Golden Gate Bridge from outside our lunch restaurant.

Alcatraz

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Pier that was used for transport to Alcatraz.

The original sourdough.

Lombard Street

Chinatown

Union Square

The row of houses from the TV show Full House.

The Tanner Family house.

Cable for the trolleys

The Golden Gate Bridge

Switching seats to the top of the trolley.

San Francisco