Yesterday morning Rick left for Iowa. He was supposed to have a 3 hour layover in Minnesota but his plane had to make an emergency landing somewhere in the Dakotas. He arrived in Minnesota 3 hours and 8 minutes late, meaning he just barely missed his connecting flight to Iowa. Of course it was the last flight of the day so he had to then stay night in Minneapolis before heading home today. I feel so bad for him having to go through all this but greatly appreciate all the help he gave us around the house, as well as all the time we got to spend together. I think I spent more time with him than Jessica this time, which isn’t normal, but was a lot of fun.
I know I wrote my last post about the 4th of July, but I wrote it in the early evening before the neighborhood fireworks party. All I can say is I’ve never seen anything like it. Lighting off fireworks is illegal in King county, but not in Snohomish county, meaning that our neighborhood, and every other neighborhood in sight, takes great pride in seeing who can put on the best fireworks show. It wasn’t just impressive for a neighborhood, it was impressive for a town. I’m serious. Rick and I kept saying all night “I can’t believe this! I’ve never seen anything like it!”. On my street everyone gathered in the cul-de-sac, which is right at the end of our driveway, and had a good old fashioned block party.
I got a chance to meet and talk to almost all of the neighbors. Everyone was super cool and has graciously welcomed us to our new neighborhood and home. They’re actually a pretty tight-knit group, which was evident by the fact that the people we bought the house from were also there. Getting to meet them was nice; they have two daughters that are almost the exact same ages as Ava and Elise. Their oldest daughter kept going to our lawn and garage because she thought she was home. It was pretty sweet.
Rick was kind enough to bring some Cuban cigars for us to smoke, so we saved them for the party. I haven’t had a cigar in years, and even though I generally have a pretty high tolerance for stuff, this thing kicked my ass. I hadn’t even reached the half-way point when I realized that I had to put it down. I was getting the spins and had to take it easy after that. Luckily there were plenty of neighborhood kids who were more than happy to light off my fireworks for me. Rick was in pretty much the same boat as me so we just kicked back and enjoyed the show.
In addition to helping Jessica with upgrading our closet, laundry areas, and bedrooms, he was kind enough to help me upgrade our TV area. We now have a nice big dark wood shelf mounted about the TV, which was moved down the wall about 8 inches to allow space. In order to hide the brackets we put them through the top of the shelf, which makes the shelf look like it’s floating. Now all of our TV equipment is up high and out of the reach of curious little hands. He had to add a power outlet up high on the wall and do all kinds of crazy wiring to make it work. It took us about 6 hours on Sunday but turned out amazing. It’s easily the nicest home entertainment center I’ve ever had, and we left room to replace the current TV with a bigger one down the road. Jessica was thrilled.
As soon as one visit ends, another begins. Tonight Amy and Tom will be arriving from Colorado. They’re doing some type of camping expedition the next two nights and therefore won’t be staying with us, but will be back in time for Elise’s first birthday party on Saturday. My Mom will also be flying in on Friday for the weekend, so I’m excited to see everyone and show them all the work we’ve done on the house. I’m sure there will be plenty of updates and photos coming soon. Rick – thanks again for everything. We really appreciate it!