July 2020

July started out rather sedately at our house.  I think we all needed some time to adjust to the new, new normal at our house.  It was Steve's first day of not having a job.  I worked at LNC all day helping to set up the new iPads for the 5th graders.  Steve drove to Premier to clean off his desk at the office.  He also went to Verizon and put his phone on our family plan.

July 2nd Steve had a phone interview with someone that his Premier boss had recommended.  He felt good about the call, but...  He and Naomi relaxed at home while Nick, Jeremy and I went to work for the day.

July 3rd we drove to Statesville to drop off a load of branches from our neighbor's tree.  Because of Covid all the yard waste has not been collected for weeks and all the dumps in Charlotte are closed. We finally found one in Statesville that was accepting yard waste.  It was a fun adventure.  We all just enjoyed being out of the house.  That night Naomi and I watched Hamilton on Disney.  I was surprised by how much I actually like it.  

July 4th Nick has the morning shift at the pool.  Naomi and I cleaned the bathrooms.  Steve and Jeremy went on a walk and talk around Lake Norman.  I also spent some time making Grandma Cannon's custard ice cream.  Once everyone was home we roasted hotdogs and did fireworks in the driveway.  As always, there were fireworks in the cul-de-sac which always brings the neighbors together.  

Roasting hotdogs in the backyard.  It was too hot for the big fire so we broke out our mini pit. 

It isn't the 4th of July until you light things on fire and watch them blow up.  

The moon was really cool.  

July 9th I finished Nick's new and improved blanket 2.0.  He likes it a lot more than the smaller and less decorative version.  

2020 may suck but at least there are still beautiful rainbows.  

July 11th we started painting the ceiling and walls in the front room.  Naomi was so excited to cover up the "ugly, brown walls" that she helped paint all day long without complaining.  

The before. 

Naomi sat at the base of the ladder to secure it while Steve painted the ceiling in the entryway.  

Picture from the top of the stairs. 

Picture from the bottom of the ladder.  It is a long way up there.  

Nick and his friends had a graduation photo session at Kelly's party.  

Blake, Nick, Devan, Rachel and Kelly. 

Kelly, Rachel, Devan, Nick and Blake

Later that night we went to a drive-by graduation party for Devan French.  As we were pulling back into the driveway Jeremy mentioned that the tire pressure light had been on for a couple of days.  We examined each tire and found a nail.  I took him over to Discount Tire and showed him what to do if he ever needed to get a tire repaired.  So much to learn when trying to adult.  

JULY 13TH - NICK'S GRADUATION DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!  

We all piled into the truck and drove to LNC where we lined up in our cars for a drive-through graduation.  It started in front of the gym where the graduates were given their name announcement tag along with any awards they would have received at the multiple awards banquets that were cancelled.  Nick got his track batton from Coach Zamaira.  He was so excited.  

The traditional senior baton for being on the track team. 

We then drove to the front of the school and dropped Nick off at the flagpole.  We got to drive along side him while he walked up the sidewalk towards Principal Smith.  

Being announced by Ms. Norris and Dr. Kendrick

Getting his diploma from Principal Smith

Picture in front of the balloons.  

Almost official

Ms. Stein, the director, pronounced him officially graduated and he got to put the tassel on the right side.  

DONE!   An official graduate of LNC

He has the paper to prove it. 

Afterwards we went to Tenders for celebratory lunch.  

Back at the house Nick wanted to go for a run.  He left in a good mood and came back on Cloud 9.  While out running he stopped and talked to some girls he knew from school.  One of them, who he thinks is really pretty, said, "Nick, you have really pretty, blue eyes".   Best! Day! Ever!  That night he and his friends went to  Brixx Pizza to celebrate graduating.  

July 14th Steve and Naomi went to the volleyball sandpit at the front of Highland Creek to practice volleyball.  Naomi wants to be ready for volleyball tryouts later in the summer and Steve is happy to relive his glory days playing sand volleyball.  It is a win-win situation.   While they were off playing I got the dining room taped off in preparation to do the trim.  It was a BIG job.  

It took forever, but it is so worth it.  

July 15th I went into work to help get the computers in the classrooms ready for the new year.  As soon as I got home, Nick wanted to go to the Urgent Care to have them look at another sore on his leg.  They had to lance it and the culture came back positive for MRSA.  Poor kid!  Back at home I painted the second coat on the trim.  Steve had another interview and it seemed to go well. 

July 16th I finished painting the trim and got all the tape off the walls (which was not an easy task).  Naomi helped Nick get his room more organized.  They had a fun trip down memory lane finding all Nick's comic books he drew.  Jeremy went to lunch with Khristen (his old girlfriend from high school).  Sandra came over to see the progress on the painting and to give us advice about what to upgrade.  

INSIDE SCOOP AND EXPLANATION - All this painting and improving started when I prayed about what I needed to do after Steve got laid off.  The answer came back "redo the kitchen and paint".  I had to ask a second time because the answer was NOT what I expected to hear.  I immediately thought "Okay, we need to upgrade so we can sell the house quickly when Steve gets a new job."  I didn't want to spend the money, but everything came together and we were able to get everything done within budget.

Sandra told us that we would definitely need to upgrade the countertop in the kitchen and it would also help to continue the grey throughout the entire downstairs.  If we had any money left over she suggested redoing the floors.  We set off to see what we could get done. 

The finished product.  It is GORGEOUS!

I love it.  The room looks bigger and brighter and the floor looks almost new again.  

We took a break from all the painting to deliver dinner to Nick.  I usually take him some of whatever I have fixed, but with the kitchen being torn up and us being exhausted, we went and got some take out.  No one was at the pool so we joined Nick for dinner.  It started pouring rain while we were there.  The funny thing about this is that for the next several weeks it would start pouring just as we delivered dinner to Nick.  It became a joke around the house - "It must be dinner time cuz it is raining hard."  

July 18th Steve took me to look at granite countertops.  He had done some research and found a place that came highly recommended but wouldn't break the budget.  I found the one I wanted and we scheduled a time for them to come and measure the countertop.  

July 19th, Nick helped some of the neighborhood boys learn how to mow lawns for the neighbors and make a little extra money.  As soon as he finished up with them he went to work.  He was exhausted by the time he got home that night.  

July 20th they started resurfacing our street.  It desperately needed to be done, but it was so inconvenient trying to get in or out of the neighborhood for a couple of days.  

I worked a lot helping out at the school during July, but we got everything ready for the start of the new school year.  

July 23rd we went kayaking for Steve's birthday.  It was a gorgeous day and we really enjoyed the time as a family out in nature.  Tail Race Marina is a great place to go if you want to enjoy a day of kayaking on the Catawba. 

Floating on the Catawba River

We found a little side river to explore. 

It was so pretty and peaceful. 

Steve took another path and got stuck in the shallow water.  

Loving the view from my kayak.  You can't see it in this picture, but there is a spider making a web between my sandal and the kayak.  

My boys.  

Back out in the deeper water of the Catawba, Jeremy wanted to try standing on his kayak.  

He ended up in the water.  The splash was spectacular. 

Nick just enjoying the cool water. 

We stopped on one of the sandy beaches to stretch our legs.  

Showing off his muscles

Naomi enjoying the beach time.  

It was an amazing day.  We all had a great time and I think I may have convinced them I REALLY DO want a kayak.  We got a call while driving home that the counter top guys wanted to come and template the kitchen tomorrow instead of three days from today.  We had a lot of demolition to do to prepare, but we got it done.  

We took off the top shelf counter and cut down the studs to make it level.  

The countertops would not come out without taking the tile off the wall.  I guess we are getting new tiles.  It wasn't an easy job getting the tiles off the wall.  The builder had glued the tile directly to the drywall and so there were huge chunks of drywall that came off with the tile.  This project just got a little (okay, a lot) bigger.  

Friday, July 24th I went to work in the morning and the guy came to template the countertop.  After he left, Steve went to the Urgent Care to have someone look at an infected sore on his butt.  It needed to be drained.  The doctor found a long, in-grown hair.  She gave him a prescription for some antibiotics, but when he got to the pharmacy to pick it up he went into shock and called me in a panic because he was too weak and shaky to go into the store.  I sent him home immediately.  I called Naomi and told her to meet her Dad at the door and make sure he went straight to bed.  I asked Kim if I could leave early and headed to the pharmacy to get the prescription and then hurried home to check on Steve.  He was feeling much better by the time I got home.  Naomi and I went to the grocery store and Nick went to a sleep over with his friends.  

July 25th the kids and I worked in the yard getting the weeding done and the lawn mowed.  Steve was in a good amount of pain so he stayed in the house and relaxed.  We got some drywall plastering done where there were holes in the kitchen walls and then Naomi and I headed out to find some birthday presents for Steve.  That night the bishop came over and gave Steve a blessing.  He wasn't feeling as good as he should have felt after three days on the antibiotic.  

July 26th Steve got to do whatever he wanted.  There was a lot of relaxing in the hammock with minced ham sandwiches.  He went for a drive.  We ate cake and opened presents.  It was a relaxing day.  

July 27th Naomi went to the school to pick up her laptop.  I took Steve back to the Urgent Care because his wound was getting worse, not better.  They did a white blood cell count on him to make sure the infection hadn't spread and worsened.  Thank goodness the test came back only slightly elevated.  If it had been too high we would have been admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics.  They had to really open it up, drain it and pack it.  They also gave him a Rocephin shot and Keflex in top of the other antibiotic.  Hopefully he will heal up properly now.  

After all this trauma we went to the countertop showroom to pick out how we wanted the template placed on the granite for our countertop.  

It is going to be worth it when it is all done.  

It is so pretty.  

Dianna's birthday present arrived. Now he needs something to grill.  

July 28th, the culture of Steve's wound came back positive for MRSA and a couple of other bacteria strains that Steve could not remember.  We were to continue with the antibiotics and report to Dr. Moll in the next week for a follow-up.  Naomi got to go to a volleyball practice at the school.  I took this time to start putting the house back together as much as I could with the kitchen being torn apart.  

July 29th all the packing fell out of the wound and Steve was worried so we got into Dr. Moll a couple of days earlier than expected.  Dr. Moll put him on another course of Bactrum and referred him to wound care because the wound was not healing like it should.  

We got word that the new countertop would be ready to install on Friday.  So excited!  Nick also found out that he had been awarded the Imagine America Scholarship worth $1,000.  It was a great day.

July 30th I worked all morning in the garden getting the iris separated.  I finished that up and went to the grocery store.  When I got back home we discovered that the air conditioning had stopped working.  Parks came right out and fixed the problem.    That night we went to Razzoos for dinner to celebrate Steve's birthday.  

July 31st the countertop is in.  It took 5 guys to lift it out of the truck and onto the dolly and then to get it into position.  I love it and wonder why we didn't do it sooner.  We can now pick out the backsplash and get the kitchen finished up.