Bathroom Remodel Part 3

This is the shower ready to get tiled.
Papa Bear busted out the tile saw from Luke's aunt. He was hoping for better weather, but as you can tell it was quite chilly (check out the icicles forming on the table). Fortunately he didn't have too many cuts to make but we did have to use a lot of salt on the driveway to keep it from turning into an ice skating rink.
I was able to help a little bit with putting up the tiles. Being such a small space to work in though my dad did most of it so that the adhesive wouldn't harden in the bucket since I was a bit slow at this whole process. Even though the tiles have little "spacers" on them to make the gaps for grout you still have to make sure they are creating straight lines. The good news is that I learned the difference between being level and being plum. Level is horizontal and plum is vertical "level."
Papa Bear tackled the floor and Luke grouted it with my dad supervising and giving helpful hints.
It's beginning to look like a bathroom again! We still have to grout the shower, tile the wall and install the toilet and vanity, but we are happy with the huge improvement already. Thanks so much Papa Bear for all your hard work!

Holly Trolly

With nice weather in the forecast Luke and I decided to be adventurous and we hopped aboard the Holly Trolly. I caught a quick tip about it on the news and checked into it. So we found ourselves at the NY museum of transportation on an old fashion trolly car for a ride. They give you your ticket and stamp it, just like in the olden days. I guess people used to take the trolly from the suburbs to the urban city to Christmas shop. They'd bring cards and play on the way home after a day of shopping. The trolly car was quite warm and it was a cute. The trolly is capable of going about 60 miles per hour, but they keep it around 15. We'll have to go back in the summer when we can get off at the halfway point and take a train with a caboose for more adventuring.
After we went through the museum and got to see some old rail cars, model trains and an old fire truck.
The building isn't heated so it was quite chilly. It would have been nice to look around some more and read about the trains and different transportation used in Rochester years ago. We'll have to add that to our summer adventure list.

Bathroom Remodel Part 2

After the base for the shower being held up in snow on a truck for about a week Papa Bear was finally able to resume some work on the bathroom. In order for the base to "fit" and line up with the drain with minimal tweaking, he had to chisel out about 1/4 inch from each of the studs in the shower area, but just the bottom part. Here he is putting in some leveling compound.

He had to do a whole bunch of measurements I would have not thought of until it was too late. We get to start tiling soon :)

The bathroom is proving to be quite a challenge and Momma thinks he's done doing remodeling after this. I'm pretty sure I can convince him to re-do our blue bathroom since it is a standard size.

Bathroom Remodel

It's about time! Our master bath has been in need of some serious renovations since Day 1 but we have another bathroom so we've managed just fine without a second shower in the house.
We've procrastinated so long on the update of the bathroom since it is a non-standard size shower and we were trying to figure out what to do. Papa Bear to the rescue! He found a base that was just a smidge bigger than the current one (I'm sure the headache will be later). Here is the demolition of the bathroom...

a lot of heavy work, just look at the thickness of the shower floor that had to be broken up and hauled out!

There is a lot of dust, but I am sure that it will be worth the finished product.

Curtains

Next to the front door are windows, which are nice and let light in the front hall area. The house came with curtain rods for the windows, neatly labeled and wrapped in a bag. I was finally ambitious and made curtains for the windows. It involved buying a curtain, cutting it and sewing the edges so it doesn't fray. Not that it makes a huge difference inside, but at least now people can't look into the house from outside.

Copy Cat

I brought Cinder Ella a copy paper box from school. Apparently it is a love/hate relationship with boxes for her.

The box will be in itty bitty pieces on the floor for the next few months until she gets sick of destroying the box and I find her a new "toy."

Back to School

Well, better late than never I suppose. When we were little kids we'd celebrate the first and last day of school, plus report cards, by going to Chuck E. Cheese. Cate, Syd and Kendall joined us as well as the parents. This "lovely" photo in the Chuck E booth is in Luke's work cubicle:

Here are Kendall and Squiddy rockin' out:

We had our celebration day a little delayed due to team practices and class schedules, but it all worked out and we had a great time.

Pool Table

Luke has wanted a pool table as long as I can remember. He even wanted to put it in the dining room! Around the corner was an estate sale where I spotted this beauty. The catch was you had to have it out of the house by the end of the sale. I had just over 24 hours to find someone to move the table and during the estate sale hours. Here is a photo of the table at the house:


Momma to the rescue! She knows everyone or someone who knows someone to help. Not only did we get an amazing pool table but at half off the asking price since it was the last day of the sale. Here is the table at our house, re-felted and all set up. Billiard balls and cues were included in the price.

Half Marathon Day

Good Morning 3 AM! Race day finally! I sent Luke to get a bucket of ice to start filling the tub for my post run soak. He was gone for like 20 minutes and I was getting worried. He had gone all over the hotel since ice machines were on every other floor and moved around due to renovations. We walked over to the starting area through Downtown Disney in the cool morning air. I was practically skipping and very excited, Luke had other things on his mind, but I failed to notice and figured he was just being a good sport about the whole early morning thing and my running. He kissed me goodbye and headed to the finish area and I went to the start.
I had so much fun running. My mom had called me the night before and told me to have fun and not worry about my time. I hadn't flown all that way to not enjoy it. Another bit of luck, they weren't mowing the lawn this year! I was smiling, feeling great and it must have shown. I was waving to all the scouts in Angel stadium and thanking the volunteers Despite the day being overcast it was not raining and looked like it might clear up for the parks after. I was grinning from ear to ear as I finished. Luke was right there at the finish line, holding my lime green crocs. He was smiling and told me I did very well, that I was one of the top female finishers--maybe an age group but he couldn't tell. He kept asking me questions since he wanted to make sure he took care of me like my mom does when I finish and am somewhat un-capable of opening water bottles and holding things. I was starting to head over to a poster to take a photo when he stopped me with "one more question." I turned around to see him down on one knee.

"Here we are at the happiest place on earth. Will you be my happily ever after?" Of course I started to cry a little and said yes. The ring was sparkly, Tinkerbell green and PERFECT! He had wanted to propose earlier on our trip but knew that it would mean more if it involved running and Disney, two of my favorite things.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing at Disneyland before having to catch our red-eye flight home. It was a very magical trip indeed and one that we will never forget.

Disneyland Day 3

We had a "quiet" day at the park watching shows and people watching since I would be racing the next morning. We ate breakfast at the hotel and headed over to the parks for the day. We headed straight for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. The line for this attraction grows quickly and does not move quickly. We indulged in my favorite, a Pineapple Dole Whip while watching the enchanted tiki birds. In the spirit of adventure we found our selves on the dock of the world famous Jungle Cruise, with Skipper Randy as our guide. He was the guy that was my trainer during the dream job! What luck! For lunch we ate at the Golden Horseshoe. I was reading about it online and found out that it was one of Walt's favorite places to dine. He liked the humor of Billy Hill and the Hillbilly's. Luke and I must have that same sense of humor cause we were busting a gut laughing at their antics. The guy said he couldn't play his fiddle cause he was a classically trained violinist. But when he used a pros-teeth-sis he was a darn good fiddler. He had fake hillbilly teeth and could play a mean fiddle. He made some really funny faces and had all sorts of jokes my dad would be proud of.
Next we headed over to California Adventure to see the Pixar Play Parade. It is entertaining with water squirting, bubbles and of course catchy music that makes your feet want to dance.

We decided to take a break for the remainder of the afternoon and went back to the hotel for a swim and nap. Refreshed, we returned to Disneyland to see Dumbo fly over the castle during the nighttime spectacular, Magical! I love that Tinkerbell and Dumbo both fly here. Dumbo, you need to fly over to Florida so I can see you in January.

Disneyland Day 2

Disneyland Day 2 began with us waiting outside California Adventure on a beautiful, not a cloud in the sky day. We wanted to make sure we got a Fast Pass for the World of Color nighttime show. After waiting an hour outside the gates (and we were the 2nd group in the park from that line) I snagged the passes for the 9:00 PM show, snapped a quick photo with Pilot Goofy and Lightning McQueen with Mater before our breakfast date with Minnie and friends at the Plaza Inn.

The buffet breakfast was yummy. We saw Minnie, Chip and Dale, Tigger, Eeyore, Captain Hook and the Fairy God Mother from Ciniderella. Luke made funny faces in all his character pictures, except his with Captain Hook. While Luke was busy getting his tray loaded with food Captain Hook was waiting by the table doing the "shame on him" motion with his finger and hook for leaving me at the table alone for a pirate to come along and take. He must have known I had some Tinkerbell Pixie Dust.


Stuffed from breakfast we headed over to Tomorrowland. Luke wanted to ride Space Mountain. We wait in line and when we can see the space ship coaster cars they start sending empty cars into space! Before we know it they are directing people out the door of the attraction due to technical difficulties. Sounds like yesterday at California Screamin'. But it's not as bad as it sounds, the issue was with the automatic gates that open and close letting you get on the ride. The front two gates wouldn't open. At least they gave us a Fast Pass valid for any Fast Pass attraction at the park for the day. We moseyed over to Buzz LightYears Astro Blasters, which is more my type of space ride anyways. I rocked and took a top score of the day for hitting Zurg targets.

The race expo was now open! We took the monorail out of the park towards the Disneyland hotel for packet pickup. Of course my race number landed me in the longest line there. No surprise that it was also the slowest moving. Fortunately, I had Luke there cracking me up and continually asking if he was doing a good job taking pictures and making sure that I did everything I usually do with my mom when she is my "support crew" at these things. I think I might be smiling mom, he did a fantastic job!

Back to the park and a boat load of rides. It's a small world, Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain--I was soaked. We went and got our sweatshirts from the hotel and went off to see the World of Color show. I was amazed by all they were able to do with some lights and fountains. The fountains shot up past the top of the Fun Wheel. We had a fun filled, exhausting day.

Disneyland Day 1

Greetings from California! After departing Buffalo at 6am we finally arrived in sunny Cali for our fun filled weekend of everything Disney. We started off at California Adventure. Unfortunately Toy Story Mania was closed for some work, but here is what Luke and I would look like on a toy store shelf. I couldn't believe how many people were walking by as we posed in the box scratching their heads and saying, "what are they doing?"


We attempted to ride California Screamin' but it was experiencing difficulties and everyone was kicked out of line. After taking in a few of the other rides on Paradise Pier the roller coaster was back on track. We posed for a few more photos before heading over to Disneyland for the Magical Fireworks show--Dumbo actually flies over the castle! It was an exhausting day.

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

Luke and I leave for Disneyland tomorrow morning bright and early. Cinder is going to have a fun filled weekend at my parents since she needs plenty of attention. She spent yesterday hopping between the two suitcases as I finished packing for the trip and then slept on them last night. Anyhow, I stayed busy last week with painting and such around the house.

My dad helped Luke put in a laminate floor a few weeks ago. We painted the wood paneling to make the room brighter. I spent several days painting the shelves to get them put back up.
Before you could barely see the fireplace. The dark paneling took away from the beautiful brick.


And after with our fireplace jumping off the contrasting wall.



Here's Luke installing the floor. A big thanks to Papa Bear for making a special tool to "knock" the boards into place and bringing over his saw to cut the pieces.

Disneyland

Luke and I are very excited about our trip to Disneyland. We leave in one week so that I can run the Disneyland Half Marathon and earn my Coast-to-Coast medal. I've been counting down since about May and and Luke has kept my excitement in check. Over a rainy weekend in June I made a poster of the parks and put a *star* next to the must see/do items. We had the poster hanging above the couch in the family room until we painted, and then it was relocated to the office... but not before Cinders was able to put some teeth marks in it. Cinders knows that we are leaving and climbed into the suitcase as I was packing. She's been sleeping on the suitcase the past few nights, probably so I can't escape without her knowing!