Birthdays and Several Remodeling Pictures

Autumn had her 11th birthday on the 18th. Among her gifts were a "designer studio" where she can design different rooms on paper. She'd also been wanting a 500 pc puzzle. This has turned out to be quite a project and I'll take a picture of it when JM and she are through with it. That may be awhile.

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Also, she got some new luggage.

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Here she is with her Baskin Robbins cake that I worked very hard on.

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Instead of a party, she spent time with her best friend at the Time Out Corner. This is an arcade/miniature golf place with black lights to light the place. I also took Autumn and the friend to Claires at the mall to buy girl stuff. Also went to Old Chicago Pizza and to Mrs. Powell's cinnamon rolls. We enjoyed this more than a big party and weren't stuck with 100 different "craft" gifts!

Autumn also had quizzing a couple weeks ago and got third place GOLD.

Sam had quizzing last week in Wichita. He had to get up at 5:50 AM to make it to this quiz. He is the only teen quizzer in our church. A military guy from our church works as his coach some times and he took Sam that day. This guy has a Mustang which is fun for Sam to ride in.
Sam placed 10th out of 50. We're all pretty excited about that!

Here's Sam after he washed his hair..frizzy hair like his mother

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Here he is after I've straightened it.

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One day last week, the cat woke up sick to her stomach. Of course, a cat is worse than a baby in trying to determine what's wrong with it. After taking her to the vet and finding she had a fever, we had some blood test run. In the end, they didn't know what was wrong with her, but gave sent us home with liquid antibiotics. Those were a disaster to get down her. She quickly figured out when we were going to give them to her. We'd wrap her up in a towel and she immediately would start spitting out at us, even when we didn't have the medicine in our hands. She refused to swallow it. So, after 3 days of this, we gave up, and just hoped it was a viral infection. So far, she seems to be okay and doesn't seem any worse for the wear. Cats are so much harder to give meds to than dogs. I'm told a dog will eat anything. But $wirly $wirl won't eat anything unless it's got a $tring attached to it.

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I have been reading "The Long Winter" to Autumn. Every night Autumn gets her kitty blanket and lays on the couch to listen. Swirly hops up and lays on the blanket as well. They're very cozy together.

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Some exciting news about the remodeling. The construction part of the remodeling of the office and exercise room is finally over. Now we need to have it stained, the floor put in, the ceiling painted (we have a new ceiling but it just has the primer on it), and a few other odds and ends. Here are some pictures of the same views so far through the remodeling....
VIEW ONE (then)--Exercise room

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VIEW ONE (now)--still needs staining and cabinet doors

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VIEW TWO (then) --Exercise room

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VIEW TWO (now)

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VIEW THREE (then)--office

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VIEW THREE (now)--office

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VIEW FOUR (then)--exercise room (with door closed)

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VIEW FOUR (now)--exercise room (with door open and all the junk on the other side exposed)

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VIEW FIVE (then)--office with exercise room beyond

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VIEW FIVE (now)--office with exercise room beyond

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VIEW SIX (then)--office looking back towards family room and stairs

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VIEW SIX (now)--office looking back towards family room. There is also a bed that folds up in the wall here, but it has been taken down for staining. It goes where the blank spot in the wall is.

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So...the remodeling is looking hopeful...finally!

We have not had much stormy weather here. Just very cold stuff. We had several storms in December, and they tell us there was a big storm on Christmas Eve, making for a white Christmas. But January has been dreary and cold, but not much snow. This was taken in December.

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That's all, folks!