Month: April 2011 (Page 2 of 2)

Yes, it is officially ours, now. We spent about 2 hours picking up garbage. The front yard is totally clean except for what is still under snow. We made good progress on the back yard. Here is a before picture and an after picture. Hopefully I can get them side by side:

I know…. it isn’t totally done, but we got tired and it is a big yard. We filled the trailer with stuff and there is quite a lot of stuff that was useful stored in the garage.

Inside, here are a few interesting pictures. Notice the nice size of the kitchen. Also notice the lovely colors!

We are going to put new flooring, wall colors, and all new cabinets and appliances in there and I think it will be really nice!

Here are a few pictures of the living/dining/family rooms. The one is at a lower level than the other.

It’s hard to get pictures of some of the smaller rooms, but here are some of the bathroom and bedroom.

Believe me, the tub surround and tub have got to go!

To finish it off, here are pictures of a few cute, interesting, or nice things in the house:

I think it is interesting that this will be the second time we will be living across the street from a house that we have painted and fixed up the yard. It is nice – getting to look at a yard that is exactly my style because it was my yard!

Here it is, Monday already. Yesterday was a nice quiet, clean-the-house-practice-piano day. And be sure not to eat in front of Dad, because he couldn’t eat all weekend to get ready for a test today. Then he had to take all sorts of laxatives, etc. But he didn’t complain at all. I was actually quite surprised. And the upside of it is that I should have a decent weigh-in at Weight Watchers this evening. If I don’t overdo today.

Only one week until my big week of concerts, so all my free time will be spent practicing.

Things went well today at contest. Jamison got a second on his piano solo, which I thought was a bit harsh, because he played most of it really well and just had a lot of trouble on one part. But he did have a lot of trouble… I didn’t stay for all the scores, but I know I have 5 going to State and another two that probably will. One quartet had to do it critique only because one member couldn’t be there, making it a trio singing a quartet! The same gal was one of the solos I was supposed to play, so obviously I didn’t play that one, and two others canceled earlier. I convinced Jamison not to play his horn solo (Erica, I’m sure you are relieved). It wasn’t hard to convince him, because he knew it was pretty awful, too!  Would you believe Brittany Kamrath was one of the vocal judges?

So, now I have the rest of the weekend to enjoy!

It seems like April 1 should be more snow-free than it is. There is the normal mud and such, but there is still a lot of snow on the ground up here. It’s rather depressing. But at least the roads are free of ice and are dry, so walking around town is once again possible and fun.

H.S. solo/ensemble contest is tomorrow up in Rice Lake. I have 16 events to play for, unless Jamison decides not to play his horn solo – then it would be 15 and I could go home about an hour earlier. Except for that one, all the rest are vocal events, mostly solos. Most sound quite good, so I expect I’ll have a lot on the Saturday of State competition, too.

We walked over to the house that will be ours a week from today and looked at what was being exposed by the melting of the snow in the yard. Lots of junk, but also quite a lot of cool stuff. We’ll take some pictures next weekend when it is really ours and when the snow has melted more. Such an adventure!

I just want spring to really be here and to be able to rake the yard and open the windows…