I am not sure what we were smoking when we decided we wanted to lay white tile in our kitchen last spring. But let it be known, RaChelle warned me and I chose not to listen. Verbatim reasoning: "But I like white floors."

For the last year we have taken our shoes off before we go into the kitchen and we (let’s face it, I) have spent an inordinate amount of time on hands and knees cleaning. I have even been known to get take out or pizza on the night we clean – just to have a couple hours with my clean floor. SO, last weekend we decided to rip up the tile floor and have Redlands Floorhouse lay hardwood that will eventually match the rest of our floors. Picture: Telfer is poised to begin.

Cracking up the tile was actually pretty fun (Dad, notice I am wearing protective eye wear).

The backerboard layer wasn’t too bad either – lots of screws and dust.

And then came the devil linoleum layer This picture on the right is me at the low point.

We finally quit at 8:30 on Sunday night, having pulled up only 15 or 20% of the linoleum. And then, on Monday morning, poor Telfer had to watch the floor guys BRING IN old linoleum to GLUE in the sections we did pull up. Apparently, all our work was for naught BUT the good news is that the floor is down and next Monday, they will be coming back to sand and finish (it needs time to "settle"). More (happy) pictures soon.

We are welcoming our first rose blooms this week. I am like a worried, anxious rose-mother.  This is the one that’s farthest along (will be a white rose).  Just a little excited about our garden.

Some of you might remember a certain point in college when we all had spice girl names (Bliss, this means you). RaChelle is just the dearest friend and I am looking forward to living closer at some point in our lives (even if this means we live in the same "retirement community for active seniors").

As all my friends are teachers, they all have spring break (what a wonderful thing). Anna was down last weekend to visit her granddad, Kyla, Bekah and ME! Since we were in a no-camera time of our life at that point, no documentation exists BUT we had a great time puttering about in the Redlands shops and eating Thai food and Mexican food. RaChelle and Paul arrived late Saturday night and  sadly Anna flew out  early  Sunday morning (weighed down with a punch bowl and china no less). 

RaChelle and Paul did a visit-the-Griffith’s/Southern California (Disneyland, Getty, etc.) trip that was marred by torrents of rain. Luckily they are resilient types and still had a good time, but Telfer and I felt BAD that they were in Sunny California and all they got was rain and more rain. Maybe next time…The four of us went shopping at Cabazon, to dinner at the Yard House one night and just had a marvelous time together. Yesterday they left for Monterey and of course the weather in Redlands was sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

I.love.Costco. Telfer and I bought our first digital camera at Costco a year and a half ago (which coincided with the beginning of our blog).  We had been happy with our purchase until about a month ago. The camera started making a suspect whirring noise and the images would no longer focus while taking a picture – you know, small stuff. We went through Elizabeth’s wedding and our trip to San Francisco and Portland without a camera. So sad. When we got home, we gathered all of the camera accessories and took it to Costco on the off-chance they would take it back (no receipt). Five minutes after entering the store we had a gift card and purchased this camera for $30 more from Costco.com.  It came earlier this week and we are in awe of it – so shiny, so sleek and skinny, such a big screen!