Presidents and Paint

Hi Folks,
Sorry for the extended absence. So what have we been upto for the last couple of weeks?
I spent a couple of weeks battling bronchitis. Im back to normal now except for a persistant tickle in my chest. I started taking allergy pills again this week, and I think that they are making a difference. Probably a good thing as we have really stired up the dust this week.
Due to the every growuing population in our household, I am finding it increasingly difficult to find adequete storage. The places where I use to store things is occupied bt my Brother in Law and his 3 children. As a result, our bedroom had become the dumping ground. All around the perimiter of my room I have items such as my scrapbooking supplies, totes of wrapping paper, the sewing machine, keiths guitar, the ironing board, a bookshelf full of paper backs. Also all the christmas gifts had been piled up in there. Some of which still remain as there are some family that I will be seeing this week whom I still have gifts for. What a mess. It was organized, i knew where everything was but it was a visual nightmare. And cleaning properly was just a fantasy. I have terrible dust allergies. But as long as it isnt diturbed I am ok.
This weekend, we disturbed the dust! We went to IKEA and bought a floor to ceiling wardrobe that covers an entire wall of the bedroom. We got rid of the book case and keiths dresser and now have our clothing nicely organized in the new unit. All the junk which was cluttered on the floor is now stored away in our old closet. We did a thourough cleaning and were ruthless with our sorting. In all, I had five garbage bags filled for the 2nd hand shop. Now our room feels like a nice area again.
That was a little break from the painting. Over the last week we have painted the living room, kitchen, dining room, stairway, and hall. I did a very nice job, pained all the baseboards and trims a bright white. Some walls are a deep vanilla and some are a brownish green. I still have to paint the area at the bottom of the basement stairs tommorrow. Trying to get all that done with nine people in the house was interesting! I didnt bother to paint much on the weekend as its just impossible when every one is home, hense the wardrobe project!
I have been working nights, tonight is my last shift. So o will finish off the last of the painting when I go home.
I have visitors coming to stay a few days so it will be nice to have it all finished so I can enjoy my visit. We will be getting together with all the family for a big delated christmas party. My parent havent been able to travel here untill now due to the enormous ammount of snow we had this year. We still have a fair bit of snow on the ground but thankfully it has stayed cool so we did not have the rapid melt and massive flooding that was feared.
Yesterday morning when I got home from work, I switched on the TV and tuned into the Presidential inauguration. Barack seems like a wonderful man, his speeches are incredible. Lets just hope that he can do something possitive with the energy he has created amongst the people.
The first Lady was stunning and very classy. What a day this was. When 10 year old Lexie came home from school she said they had watched President Obamas speech in the gymnasium. I am glad the teachers at her school recognized the importance of allowing the kids to be a part of this historical day.

Meltdown!

The Meltdown has begun! Usually, when we get snow, it melts away in a couple of days. Not so this year. We had record snowfalls. Yesterday was the first time my little Golf could get out on the road and still the undercarrraige was draging in the snow. Over night we had lots of rain and rising temperatures. This was our street today. Heidi and Lexi cleared out the gutter right to the end of the street to prevent flooding. Our drive way slants down towards our house so keeping the melting water diverted is impertive.
As yet, our basement is dry. But not far from Maple Ridge in Chilliwack, they have called a state of emergency.

All these pictures are in Maple Ridge. This is a farm covered in melting snow. In the foreground, is a ditch, which is full to the top. These drainage ditches are about 8-10 feet deep.

There is steam actually coming off the snow, as it is now so warm. Here is another over full ditch!

This is taken from the Pitt River Bridge. The river and the Golden Ears Mountains are hidden beneath the heavy mist.