Chairs

After months of looking for a new chair for my living room, yesterday I bought this one. We don't have Craig's List in our little town, but we do have people who sit by the side of the road and sell furniture. This chair is a beautiful Broyhill with a matching footstool that I got for $125. The old chair, which I have been begging Kirby to get rid of for years, had no padding left in the arms and the front was completely torn up by the cat. Not even duct tape could have helped it. So, we moved the old chair out to be disposed of and moved the new chair in. After taking turns sitting in it last night, we both decided that we loved the chair and it's very comfortable, but it just isn't our old chair.

So, this morning, Kirby took the old chair to have it recovered. We could have had the old chair recovered any time during the last two years, but we thought that we would rather have a new chair than to pay the price of a new chair to cover the old chair. Well, our thinking has changed. Our old chair is the perfect size and shape for our living room, and we just can't part with it. Now, we're willing to pay twice the price of the Broyhill chair to get our old chair covered. Here is the fabric Kirby chose (since it was his chair). Anyone who knows him will say this looks like something he would choose. The fabric is on the lower left corner. The upper right corner is our couch and you can see that they look really good together. I'm not sure at this point where the Broyhill will fit in, but I'm sure we can find a spot for it.

In other news, the roofers showed up today and have gotten a lot of work done. And Lowes is positive the vinyl will be here Wednesday!!! We shall see.

Contractors and Lowes Woes

About two months ago we decided to put a new metal roof on our house. It took two weeks of calling people to even get someone to come give us an estimate. Then, we had two guys show up at the same time. One of them seemed very upset that the other one was here, and then he called us the next day and said he was too busy to do our job. I thought contractors would expect you to get more than one estimate, but I guess he didn't. Luckily, the second guy gave us a price we agreed on and we gave him some money to get started. Since then, we have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. First he had to come back and get some more measurements. Then he had to get a price from his supplier on some material. Then he had another house that he had to finish before he could start ours. Then it rained. Then he went out of town for his daughter's ball game. Then he just didn't show up for no reason. Then he said he couldn't get the materials delivered. Then they finally delivered the materials in the late afternoon, so it was too late to start. Now, he says he will be here on Monday.

In the meantime, we have been trying to get some vinyl soffit from Lowes, which the roofing contractor is supposed to install for us. First they sent three boxes of the right color, but the wrong kind of vinyl. Then they said the right stuff would be here Wednesday. Then they said Thursday. Then they said for sure on Friday. Now they say it will be August 6 before we can get it. Once they sent a box that turned out to be aluminum instead of vinyl. Then they re-ordered it and promised it would be here in two days. Sure enough, two days later we had another box of the same aluminum they sent the first time. Then they said they were ordering it from a different supplier and for us to call Monday and see what the status is. The man who does the orders at Lowes is named Bourbon!! Maybe that is part of the problem. Do you think that is his actual name or some kind of descriptive nick-name?? I'm beginning to feel like I'm on an episode of candid camera or something. I almost hate to go up there Monday and hear what the story is now.

Tick Bite

A few days ago I was getting ready to take a shower and Kirby noticed a tick on my shoulder. He pulled it off, but I think I may still have the head embedded. I read all about it on the internet because I always heard you had to burn them off or smother them with nail polish or vasoline. Those are old wives tales apparently. One doctor even said not to worry about the head being left behind because your body would take care of it. But I keep thinking of that fly movie where the fly has the human head and cries "help me!" I can just hear my shoulder talking to me.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of your own shoulder? I must have taken 15 pictures and some of them didn't even have the tick bite in them. Anyway, I noticed while I was attempting to look at the tick bite with a mirror that I can just barely make out my smallpox shot scar on my left arm. Do they even give those shots anymore? Years ago, all school kids had to get one and some poeple have really bad scars from them.

I guess I'll go put some antibiotic on my tick bite and a bandaid.

Top Five

I was challenged by my daughter to list my top five album openers. I spent some time thinking about what songs I really listened to over and over and these are the ones that made my list (in no particular order). I'm sure Jen will remember some of these playing in the car.

Year 1981
Album Heavy Metal
Song Heavy Metal
Artist Sammy Hagar

Year 1966
Album The Monkees
Song Theme from the Monkees
Artist The Monkees

Year 1983
Album Sports
Song Heart of Rock & Roll
Artist Huey Lewis & the News

Year 1983
Album An Innocent Man
Song An Innocent Man
Artist Billy Joel

Year 1978
Album Even Now
Song Copacabana
Artist Barry Manilow

These are all old, but I guess I don't listen to anything anymore like I used to. I'm sure I wore these out and bought them again at one time or another. I think what I liked about them was that every song on the album was good.

PUNKIN

Here is my dog Punkin's latest obsession. His name is Roger and she chases him all over the house and sleeps with him and won't sit with us in the living room unless Roger is there, too. I guess this is what happens when you don't have children at home anymore. You treat your dog like a child. Really sad, isn't it? We love the way his tongue rolls out when you squeeze him. Of course, he squeaks, and that really gets her excited.

Besides playing with the dog today, I had to go report for Jury duty. What fun!! I tried to tell them that I drive a truck and when I call in to see if I'm needed, I may be in Texas or New Jersey or somewhere. They said if my number comes up to just let them know I'm out of town. I don't know why they bothered to give me a number. Anyway, the judge who spoke to us informed us that real trials are not like "Law & Order." They don't solve the case in less than an hour and DNA does not come back the next day. I couldn't believe we sat for two hours in a crowded court room to hear that. He also informed us that some cases settle out of court. Imagine that. I hope you have the opportunity to serve your community as a juror real soon.

Reunion

As you know, we were in Myrtle Beach this week for a family reunion. Here's a picture of my Mom and step-dad with Mom's newest great-granddaughter, Katie. It was pretty neat this year that Mom was the oldest member of the family to attend the reunion and Katie was the youngest and she just happened to be Mom's great-granddaughter. We really had a good time and I'm so glad we made the trip. But, it was a nine hour drive home, so I'm not going to spend much time on here tonight. Just wanted to add this picture and say how blessed our family is with healthy, beautiful babies.

Suntan Products

Since I've been at the beach this week, I've been wearing mostly capri pants. But I had some shorts I wanted to wear and I thought my legs looked so white that I would put on a little self tanning lotion one night. I put it on my legs and on my upper arms so I could wear a tank top without the top of my arms looking so white compared to the bottom of the arm. Anyway, I put it on and waited about two hours before I went to bed. The next morning I got up and took a shower. My tan looked pretty good, not dark, but not as pale as a ghost either. Then I went to make up my bed and realized I had solved a long standing mystery. I know how they created the Shroud of Turin!!! Luckily it all washed out of the sheets.

Blustery Day at the Reunion

These are our condo beds. I must be in the nursery because I have "Shark's Tale" comforters and dolphin border. My sister brought the cat pillow from home and it perfectly matches her comforter in the condo.

Yesterday we had our Mullins family cookout under a tornado watch!! The wind was blowing so hard that you needed three hands to eat anything. If you set your drink down, it blew over. If you took one hand off your plate to pick up your hot dog, your plate blew out of your hand. We had just enough time to bring all the food out and set it on a picnic table near the pool, serve everyone a hot dog, then begin to cut our cake before the worst of the storm hit. We frantically loaded everything into a shopping cart and hauled it upstairs to my cousin's condo, covering the cake with a plastic patio table as we dashed through the rain to the elevator. We had about 50 weiners left so we pushed the cart from condo to condo trying to get rid of the leftovers. We should have knocked on the doors of people we didn't know!! We did have a good time and had about 40 family members there, so that's pretty good.

Tomorrow night we have our main meeting which includes a meal and a program, including me talking about truck driving, as well as other family members sharing things about their jobs. We'll have people talking about our ancestors and we'll give certificates and Bibles to the new babies born since last reunion. And a good time will be had by all.

If you ever plan a family reunion at Myrtle Beach you should all get condos at Water Pointe I, located at 4619 Ocean Blvd. in North Myrtle Beach. This place has the perfect set up for a large group. There's an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a kiddie pool, and a hot tub. We also have several tables and lots of chairs all enclosed under the building so you wouldn't have to worry about the weather. Too bad we had our cookout at a different building. We'll know next time.

Family Reunion

After months of trying to make up her mind about going to Myrtle Beach for the family reunion, my mother finally decided she would make the trip. At the last minute, we were fortunate to get a condo on the beach. So, early tomorrow morning, my sister, Judi, my mother and step-dad, and I will be on our way. A year ago, I had hoped to have my son and his family and my daughter and her family all there, but that didn't work out. So for several months, I was planning to go by myself. Then my sister decided she would go with me. Now, there will be four of us. It should be a lot of fun. One of my sisters lives in North Carolina, near Myrtle Beach, so her family will be there. Lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. will be there. One of my uncles is in Florida with my cousin, who has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks after an aneurism. He is in serious condition, but improving, so we will be keeping him and my uncle in our prayers through out the reunion activities. I'll post some family pictures when I get a chance.

Todd's New House

We were only out 5 days this week, but they were very busy. We delivered a load in Texas and then we had a chance to go through Austin to see Todd & Allison's new house. We saw it on Thursday while it was still empty. On Friday, they signed the papers and started moving in. Wish we could have been there to help. We packed a few boxes with them on Thursday evening, but I'm sure they could have used the extra help on Friday. Anyway, they got completely moved out of their old house and into the new one late Friday night. I can't wait to go back and see it with furniture. It's almost double the square footage they had before, so they will probably need some new stuff. It has the most windows I've ever seen in a house, and they are large windows. I'll have to take pictures when I get a chance.




From there, we took a load to New Jersey. We used to go to Rahway a lot, but not so much lately. There is a restaurant called Rising Star Diner on Roosevelt Ave. where I love to eat. They have the best brocolli and cheese omelet. They also serve a great steak with mushrooms and have a really good salad bar. I don't know what they do to the mushrooms, but they are delicious.

If you ever travel to New Jersey, check out the world's largest light bulb. It's located at the top of The Thomas Edison Memorial Tower and Menlo Park Museum which was built in 1937 in the Menlo Park section of what is now the town of Edison. The World's Largest Light Bulb is thirteen feet tall and weighs eight tons. The tower marks the spot where Edison invented the light bulb. An interesting Edison story is that Henry Ford has Edison's last breath in a bottle in his museum in Michigan. Supposedly, he got Edison's son to sit by his death bed and catch his last breath in a test tube. I'm not sure what he intended to do with it, but the tube is on display at the Ford Museum.