HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

It's time...
Let's ring in the NEW~
throw out the OLD~
and begin a fresh New Year.
Do you make resolutions????
I try to think of things I'd like to improve,
or change or discontinue or...whatever-
New Year ~ New You
Although...
I do like the old me (figuratively and literally)
For The Most Part...
so maybe I'll just try to~
# 1. Be Kind to others
# 2. Be Kind to me (when I forget #1)
Have a safe and happy new year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Merry Christmas
***
love and joy
***
The Gerardi's

the insanity...

It's rude!
Lorraine (mom-in-law)
had her final RADIATION treatment.
Given at the hospital.
Loma Linda.
She had to lay still on her back for about 30 hours
while receiving an ultra strong last dose of radiation.
Her hospital bed had steel shields on both sides and
she could only have visitors in for 15-20 minutes MAX.
At the end of this treatment...we were told to pick her up,
they needed the bed and she had to get out. ???
The treatment ended at 10:30 P.M.
That's what time Jim had to go check his mom out of the hospital!
It is beyond belief.
But that's what he had to do.
ARGGGG
Hospital bureaucracy!

Yippee!

It's taking a long time but it's getting closer!
Today the counter tops were installed...
Say good-bye to little white tiles
and line after line of grout to clean!
Tonight the new faucet, new garbage disposal (it was 20 years old)
and pipes and hoses and knobs and yada-yada stuff
are all being hooked up!
I have photos but can't upload them...
but I did get them on my facebook post.
You can see the beauty there.
Next step...
I am studying the "how to tile back splash"
because that's the next step
that may OR may not happen before our big family bash
~THIS SUNDAY~
wish me luck!

No more white tile squares & grout!!!

All I can say is
hurry!!!!!
Tomorrow is the big day...
New kitchen counter tops!
I'm a little giddy...
Of course, the house is 20 years old,
and we've been here 15.
Bit by bit, we are doing improvements.
We painted,
inside ~ then outside.
We got laminate floors downstairs,
we got carpeting upstairs.
We've replaced some light fixtures.
We rebuilt our balcony (you can actually go on it now)
and got 1 block wall in the back
(2 to go...we'll see).
We replaced the kitchen appliances.
(wow the oven really does close now)
and now~ ta da! ~ counter tops!
This project (as all of them have been) is
not going totally smooth.
I will keep you posted....

O Christmas Tree

Jim usually buys a small tree for his parents
every year for Christmas.
But...
with Lorraine in the middle of radiation we thought an
artificial tree would probably be a better solution.
I looked and looked and found a small (4 1/2 feet) tree.
The display really looked nice, but seemed a little pricey.
It went on sale and so we bought it.
Today, we took it to their house and took it out of the box.
It wasn't hard to assemble (hinged branches).
Then I looked at it and my heart sank...
This did NOT look like the display tree in the store.
We have NEVER had an artificial tree so this was something new.
As I stared at the tree longer, I realized that it just needed a little fluffing.
After all, it had been in a box for who knows how long.
So with a few pulls and pushes and twists and fluffs...
voila'
We beheld a beautiful tabletop tree.
Well, that meant we needed to decorate it and so we did!
It turned out even better than I expected it.
And ...
Lorraine loved it!