Weekend in review
What a busy weekend! We stayed up SO late on Friday night ripping up floors and baseboards. I'm glad Chris and Sabrina came to help--for hours. And we didn't even finish--by 1:30 a.m., we realized it wasn't worth it to try to get up the remaining flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms, so we left that and went to bed (good idea, since we had to get up at 5:00 a.m. for Jon's day).

Then Saturday was the racing day (see pictures in post below). We had to drive up separately (I had to wait at the house for the tile guys to show up so I could show them what we hadn't gotten done, where the tile was, etc.). I got to the speedway before anything really started, though, so I'm glad I didn't miss anything. First, they took the 7 men in Jon's class out in a 15-passenger van to ride the course and show them where to take the turns (Jon said they took the turns, in the van, at 100 mph!). Then, they got in the cars and drove 10 laps (or more?) behind a pace car to get a feel for the track. Next, they went into a classroom for a 45-minute to 1-hour session (not so exciting for me sitting outside in the hot!). After the class time, they had another driving session, this time with no pace car. They started out in a Nascar start formation and did a few pre-planned formation changes they must've talked about in the class. Then they had several "free-for-all" laps where they could drive at their own pace and pass each other if necessary (the instructor communicated with all drivers through the radio earpiece they all wore). Then it was time for another 1-hourish class session, and then one more 25-minute driving session. This is the session where I really saw Jon get comfortable in the car (at least that's what I could tell from how fast he was going). I know Jon had a really great time, and I loved watching him. His best lap (according to my wrist watch and out of the 6 or so laps I timed): 55 seconds (around the 2-mile oval course). :)

We got home around 2:15 on Saturday to see the progress on the tile: not as much as I had hoped, but it looks good and the guys did get up the floors in the kitchen and bathrooms. I rrreally hope they come tomorrow and can finish.




Saturday night we went to Scott and Kim's. Scott showed us the house addition/remodel plans he had drawn up. Oh my gosh, they are awesome. I mean just awesome. In addition to adding the second story, there would be a lot of reconfiguration on the first floor... which means a lot of disruption to our lives--for many months. We're still talking/praying about it, and Jon wants to see how much we'd get approved for (we'd do a HELOC--home equity line of credit), but after seeing those plans I am so gung-ho for this!

Pictures from Jon's racing day
First: Jon finding the certificate for the racing day in the shorts pocket: "Whaaaat?"

Learned a new (to me) word today, but I'm not very sure if I like it. I guess it's slang, but still....

Natch.

As in "natchurally"?

Jon and I went to Home Depot last night to pick out grout for the tile tomorrow. We got a good matching color. Since we aren’t going to be home tomorrow, the installer guy came over this morning at 7:00 to go over what needs to be done. We have our work cut out for us tonight though!!! We’re doing as much of the prep work as possible to reduce the time we’ll have to pay him for, so we’ve been ripping up the carpet and baseboards. But tonight we have to scrape up the floors (VCT) in the kitchen and both bathrooms; clear all the furniture; pry off all the baseboards, door casings, and wood on the floor that held the carpet; remove the stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher (going into the garage I guess for now); get up the rest of the carpet in the living room area; AND get to bed at a “reasonable” time since we have to get up very early tomorrow. We thought we might not have to scrape the kitchen and bathroom floors--we thought maybe they would lay tile over them--but the guy basically shot that idea down this morning. Oh, and it sounds like he won’t finish with everything tomorrow, but that’s OK. I think he would come Monday/Tuesday to finish, so we wouldn’t have to go too long with partial floors. At this point, I don’t care if it takes a week!!!--just give me my tile! :)

At some point, we hope to meet up with Scott and Kim for at least a little while tonight, because 1) Scott is done drawing up our house plans! and 2) Kim is due on Sunday so this’ll be one of their last restful Fridays for a little while.

Our house
I realize I'm going out of order, as I sort of already mentioned the "remodel/addition" below, but I don't think I ever wrote about it. I'm stealing the text below from an e-mail I just wrote to a dear friend (hi Nell!):

We’re thinking about adding on to our house. Currently, it’s a one-story, 2-bedroom, 2-bath place with a teeny kitchen. We’d be adding a second story with 2 bedrooms and a bath. That may include some restructuring of the downstairs to create a little bit larger kitchen and/or dining area, but I don’t know. Our friend Scott and his dad are architects, so Scott came over last week and took measurements of the house so he can draw up some plans. This would be a very smart move for us financially, as having a 4-bed, 3-bath house would mean we could stay/fit in the house a lot longer AND even if it cost us 5 times what we’re thinking our budget will be, it would still be smart because we’d still be paying way less per month than if we sold our house and moved to a 4-bed, 3-bath house in the same area. Home prices are astronomically high here, and though we felt we paid a lot when we bought ours, its value has gone up a lot since we bought it. So that’s our fun news, and I’m really excited about seeing the architectural plans. I do know, though, that doing a major remodel like this effectively takes over your life for 6 months, but now is the time to do it when we don’t have kids.

Jon's birthday
It went pretty well last night! Ray, Colleen, and Jennifer came over around 6:30 and we barbecued some of the albacore and yellowtail Jon caught deep sea fishing a couple of weeks ago, and I fixed corn, vegetables, and French bread. We had Colleen’s poppy seed cake and coffee afterward, and then Jon opened his presents. He got clothes from his family, a Home Depot gift card from my parents, and earlier in the day Scott gave him a new tape measure and utility knife (boys!!!!). Then he opened my gift... 3 Old Navy shirts and a pair of shorts (he really loved the shorts). After he finished, he said, "Thanks everyone!" because he thought that was it. I said, “Check the shorts,” since he hadn’t noticed the little car that was in the pocket. He found the car and said, “Oh wow, what is this, a little GTO?” It was cute--I think he was confused but trying to sound excited because maybe that was my gift to him--a little Hot Wheels car. I said, “Look in the other pocket.” He reached in and pulled out the certificate for the racing school, which I had paper clipped to a brochure about it. He opened it, looked at it for a second, and asked, “What is this?!?” I told him he will be spending this Saturday driving stock cars in a racing school at the California Speedway. “Whaaat?” he asked. “This Saturday? But what about the tile?” So that was the only downer--that he was concerned about the tile. I think it’ll work out though. Even if we need to postpone the installation one week to 8/14, that day would still work. I took a couple of pictures last night and will post them once Jon can fix the USB port thing on the computer so I can upload the pictures.

We had a good, busy weekend. On Friday, we went down to where Jon's family is staying and had pizza and cake for Jennifer’s 14th birthday (we got her a necklace and cute little pad of paper in the shape of a purse when we went to Solvang and also a little photo album). We left around 9:15 and met up with Neil and Casey to see “The Manchurian Candidate” with Denzel Washington. I found it entertaining but a little “out there” (the events seemed plausible through most of the movie, and then things started getting weird and too unlikely). I also thought the whole political agenda was very obvious and overdone. I am interested in seeing the original movie though (with Frank Sinatra). Then on Saturday, I went and got my hair done while Jon helped our friends Dustin and Lissa move into their new townhome. We got some work done in the yard/house after that (Jon started ripping up our carpet and baseboards in preparation for the new tile that is being installed this Saturday, and he spent a while getting up that ugly wood floor at our entryway), and then that night we went out to dinner at Wood Ranch with newly engaged Steve and Chelsea. We went to Steve’s place afterwards and played a very fun game called Hoopla (an offshoot of Cranium). Then on Sunday, we went to church and then straight to the Angels game with Rob and Kristen and their daughter Skyler. It was rrrrreally hot until our seats were finally covered in the shade after maybe an hour and a half. The Angels won and we went home and rested before leaving for Jon’s basketball game at 5:30. We arrived to find out that his game was really at 5:00, so Scott and Kim came over to our house, and we had dinner out on the patio (and Sierra watched the humming birds--it was so cute). Then Scott and Jon took measurements of the house so Scott can draw up plans for the remodel/addition! Yesss!!! And that was our weekend.

Countdowns
Jon's 27th birthday: 1 day
Baby shower I'm throwing for Ricci: 19 days
Trip to Germany: 32 days
Bridal shower I'm throwing for Katrina: 54 days
3-day cruise to Baja: 74 days
Katrina's wedding: 82 days

I'm so boring.

We're going to the place my in-laws are staying tonight for Jennifer's 14th birthday. And tomorrow Jon's helping our friends move from their apartment to the new townhouse (I say Jon's helping because, though I will be there too, I doubt I'll be much help with the heavy lifting). Sunday we're going to an Angels game with Rob and Kristen. Our weekend is full, which is nice, but it means we won't get the things done around the house we need to.

Oh! And finally--the date is scheduled for our floor tile to be installed (in the whole house except bedrooms). It's next Saturday, 8/7. This has been almost a year in the making (since buying the tile in November and having to wait until June to get it).

Jon went to lunch with our friend Steve this morning and got asked to be a groomsman in Steve and Chelsea's wedding in May '05. He's also a groomsman in Jeremy and Jennaya's wedding in December '04. I think Jon has probably been in at least 10 weddings. People just love him (including me). He is just such a great guy friend. I'm very glad he has so many guy friends, too (and not any girl friends). :)

Our dear friends' daughter finally said my name. I know she has said it before when I'm not around, but I've never heard it. It came out "Deedee" and was so cute. I love her. Her little brother is due 2 weeks from yesterday!

We've gotten a lot of yard work done so far this weekend, and I'm proud of Jon for making our grass look so nice. With this last round of grass seed he put down in some patches yesterday, it'll be looking wonderful. We also got a new fern and potted it, and Jon bought some of the drip irrigation materials to put in some more places. Some of it requires taking up the brick in our patio, laying the tubing, then putting the brick back, so I'm very thankful he's willing to do that work since I'm not good at remembering to water all of our plants. The drip system is excellent for me (just turn on the faucet, let the system do its job, and remember to turn it off in 5 or 10 minutes. Saves water too). We're slowly but surely learning how to garden! Next on my list is transplanting our bougainvillea from where it is in the backyard to behind the fence in the alley by the garage. I think it looks messy where it is, and the plants in the alley were just annuals that died (white alyssum). This will be an interesting task, though, because I don't think bougainvillea takes kindly to being moved. We'll see.

Countdowns etc.
Jon's 27th birthday: 12 days
Baby shower I'm throwing for Ricci: 30 days
Trip to Germany: 43 days
Bridal shower I'm throwing for Katrina: 65 days
3-day cruise to Baja: 85 days
Katrina's wedding: 93 days

Mood: thoughtful, "listy" (want to make lists)
Music: City on a Hill (I think this is the original one)

A good friend asked me yesterday how I'm doing. Not as a wife/employee/friend, etc., but personally. How I'm doing personally. How am I doing personally? I realized that I really do define how I'm doing by external things ("How are you doing, Katie?" "Great! Jon and I are doing really well, my job's exciting and wonderful, and I'm having a good time working on the house"). I also realized that that is completely backwards. Ashley put it well when she said basically we should be focusing first on our walk with/faith in God, reading His Word and spending time praying, etc., and then use that as a lens through which to look at the rest of our lives.

I've felt far away from God in the past months (feelings aren't all important, I know, but I just remember much more of a closeness that isn't there now because I'm not spending time reading and praying). It's like everything's going fine and great in my life... I like my life. But how much better would my life be if I were in the Word daily and looking at things through the lens of my faith in Jesus Christ?

We had a fun, nice, busy weekend, which included dinner out with Jeremy and his new fiancee, lunch and new condo viewing with Katrina (my college roommate) and (her fiance) Phil, a surprise 30th birthday party for Rob, a terrific church service including a message from 1 Samuel, and normal things around the house including completion of a 5-hour editing job.
 
Oh, and I'd like to echo Lori's comments: I hate the new "user-friendly" blogger setup.

I'm trying to create one of those borders across the top of this page (to the left of the "archive" stuff), but I am HTML impaired. Can anyone help? I tried it, but it wouldn't stay at the right size or would change places if the window minimized. I don't know how to do tables or anything.
 

 

Oh well, no big deal if it doesn't work.

Our friend, Jon's former roommate, Jeremy, is engaged (finally)! When Jon told me Jeremy was engaged and that he had talked to him on the phone, I asked, “Who’s he engaged to?”
Jon said, “Oh, I didn’t think to ask.”
I asked, “How long have they been dating?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“When’s the wedding?”
“I have no idea.”
Ha! Do guys even talk? We're going out to dinner with them tonight. I don't think we know the fiancee, but I'm looking forward to meeting her.

OK, this is rather juvenile of me, but I just read these in the archives of someone else's blog and found them so hilarious!

WOULD YOU RATHER...
eat a shot glass full of live wasps OR eat a shot glass?
shave your mom's bikini line OR your dad's butt?
be ruled exculsively by your heart OR exclusively by your mind?
only be able to tell lies OR have to scream out every true thought that crosses your mind?
take back one thing you said or did OR say one thing you never said or did?
have a small butt on your forehead OR two little feet dangling beneath your chin?
walk around all day with a dead mouse in your butt OR a dead frog in your mouth?

We went to Inka Mama's today for a coworker's birthday, and it was really good (Peruvian food)! I got the Salpicon de Pollo, a delicious salad with chicken. I can't believe I've never been to this place before. I counted the salad as 8 WW points, but it might have been even fewer--excellent!

The shower on Saturday for Kim went well. I think 18 people were there, and I realized that that is about the maximum seating capacity in our house (including bringing in extra chairs). 15 would have been a little better, but we all knew each other so sitting close was OK. Kim got some really cute things for little Samuel. Oh, and I liked the cucumber sandwiches I made but decided I'll make them on Ritz or Wheat Thin crackers next time instead of the cocktail rye bread. And I don't need to make quite as much.

Here's one of the things I got for Kim (it's a hoodie robe & washcloth set):


The rest of the weekend went by really quickly. Jon had a work event he had to attend for most of Sunday, so we didn't have our usual church-lunch-relax day. But we did go out to dinner with Scott and Kim on Saturday night, which was good since we hadn't seen them in almost a month (they were on vacation for most of that).

I don't like stirring up controversy. And I'm no (academic) theologian. But some Christian doctrines/theologies get me so upset and frustrated and flustered, especially when I think about how many people believe them. It makes my heart ache. And I don't get upset because the beliefs "sound wrong." No, I've read and researched (the Bible and various commentaries by authors on different sides) and prayed, and I know what the beliefs are. I hate arguing about it--no one I've talked to about it has ever changed his/her mind (plus I get flustered and know in my heart what to say but it doesn't come out clearly. Jon's much better at this--keeping a clear head in any situation). I just hate the idea that these beliefs are perpetuated in schools and churches and evangelism.