A sink? Yes. A vacuum cleaner? No.

I was a lucky gal and got my Mother's Day gift a little early... on Easter actually.  We were all home sick with nasty head colds.  I got up early and made a wonderful Easter breakfast.  I used my late grandma Betty's tablecloth, and a beautiful set of china of hers that I inherited a few years back, when we moved her out of her home and into assisted living.  I was sad but grateful that I had some things to remember her by.  I dished up scrambled eggs, peach crisp, bacon and fresh bananas.  Four Easter baskets waited for the kids...

Jordan, Rylan and Owen got some pinwheels.  They blew on them and then erupted into long, drawn out coughing fits... it was actually pretty funny.  We were a sorry bunch.  Lots of coughing, sneezing and spewing all sorts of snot in all directions.  It was lovely.  And then we ate breakfast.  And Owen coughed so hard that he threw up his breakfast.  On the table, himself, his chair and the floor.  Perfect.

It was to be this little guy's first crack at egg hunting.  We were supposed to go down to Longmont to have Easter dinner with the family and do an egg hunt with the cousins.  Then, later in the day we were going to spend the afternoon and evening with homeschooling friends, having an egg hunt and potluck.  But.  It was not to be.  By Saturday evening I knew that it was to be a no-go.  We were not fit to be good company for anybody but ourselves...

So what to do?  Saturday evening we made a preemptive move and prepared for the next day where we now had nothing planned, besides eating copious amounts of chocolate.  We went to Home Depot!

This was the kitchen sink.  The sink itself is as it was when I purchased the house eight years ago.  Shallow bowls meant that it could not hold much - and splashing all over the counter was a common occurrence.  The faucet was installed (pre-Dean) by a handyman at my church, about six years ago.  Around the end of last year, the entire faucet assembly started rocking back and forth.  You would use either handle and the whole thing would move back and forth.  Dean got underneath the sink and looked at it from below.  The bolts were rusting through.  Evidently some sealant that should have been used during installation wasn't.  Dean fashioned a quick fix by installing a wooden brace that held the assembly down tight, but it was only a fix.  I was now in the mood to replace the entire thing...sink and all.  I wanted something nice, something bigger.  I hate the look of stainless steel sinks - they show every scratch and dent.  I picked out what I wanted.  I visited my new sink, on display at Home Depot, every few weeks.  I even took pictures with my phone, so I could look at it from time to time... sigh.  I wanted a new sink!!!

Look, ma!  No plumber's crack!

So I got my wish!!  Lots of helpers to get the project started.  First everything was disconnected and the non-working dishwasher was removed.  Pipes were sawn away, and lovely, greasy sludge in the pipes was admired and discussed.  I spared you the pictures.  Again, you're welcome.

Goodbye sink!

Nothing says yummy like washing dishes in the bathroom sink.

 
So while Dean slaved away, I wiped noses and hid eggs for each child to find.  Colin had one blue egg to find.  Owen had three green eggs.  Rylan had four purple eggs.  Jordan had ten orange and yellow eggs.  When they found all of their (empty) eggs, they turned them in and got their Easter gift.

Colin can now impersonate Sid the Science Kid

Owen got a 4-pack of Cars characters

Rylan got a Jasmine doll

You guessed it.... Legos.

We ended the day with the sink replacement job almost finished.  The new sink is a 3/4 sink so the hoses were not quite long enough to attach to the water supply.  And Home Depot is not open at 1:15 am.  So the sink was finished the next day.

We left this cast of characters in charge for the night...

Dean took the van to work the next day, and then stopped at Home Depot after work.  Then he finished the job in very short order.  I didn't take a picture of the new sink until Wednesday though.

Voila!

We spent Tuesday in Wray, visiting with family and attending my grandmother's funeral.  I brought back some of the flowers that were delivered from family and friends for the service.  The two flower bouquets in the center were just beautiful.  The Peace Lily on the left was the one we ordered for the service.  The Peace Lily on the right, in the ceramic pot, is from Dean's grandmother's funeral service that we attended in January.  I also have another Peace Lily that was from my grandpa Orin's funeral service in 1997.  I think the Peace Lily has taken on new meaning in our household.  (Universe?  No more Peace Lilies for a while, okay?)

So I am loving my kitchen sink!  My original request for a Mother's Day gift was a birdbath.  But then I changed my mind and figured that a new sink (and a new dishwasher!!) was the way to go.  Dean was able to install the dishwasher on Wednesday afternoon, after we picked it up from Sears.  I imagine that some moms would be insulted by something so utilitarian - but I LOVE it.  And I love that my husband was able to do all the work himself..what a gift!!  Love ya honey!  And I also have my dear grandmother to thank.  She made this wonderful gift possible.  It has given me loads of time back that I otherwise spent washing dishes by hand, and that means all the world to me and my family.

The Scenic Route..

After our hike yesterday, it was such a beautiful afternoon, that I decided to take the long way home.  We drove north out of Masonville and headed toward Stove Prairie.  I love, love, love this drive.  So do a lot of other people, apparently, because there was a lot of traffic, considering.  Lots of motorcyclists were out as well, because this stretch of road is just beautiful.  Horse pastures, meadows, tall pines, alpaca paddocks, ponds...etc.  We headed north towards Stove Prairie, and I noticed that there were a couple of other cars tagging along behind me.  I wasn't going slow or anything, I think they were just enjoying the drive as much as we were.  Anyway...

I was getting close to the turn-off at Stove Prairie... maybe a couple of miles to go.  I came around a sharp bend and saw before me a scene that made my heart just stop.  A motorcyclist was laying on the pavement in the oncoming lane, his motorcycle laying across his legs.  No one else was around.  I slowed down as I pulled up to him, and called out to him as I jumped out of the van, engine running.  He was staring at the sky.  I again felt my heart stop.  Then he blinked.  And let out a low moan.  Oh man....  I knelt down and looked in his eyes, and started asking questions...

"Are you okay?"
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Where does it hurt?"
"Can you wiggle your toes/fingers?"
"Are you able to breath okay?"
"Were you riding alone?"

It was eerily quiet for what seemed like a long time, but it could have only been less than a minute, because the other cars that were traveling behind me were pulling up to the scene as well.  Two guys pulled the bike off the injured rider.  His foot had been pinned under the gas tank, but the bike seemed like a pretty light bike.  He could even move his foot after it was freed.  I realized then that I had left the van running, so I went to move it to closer to the shoulder and shut it off.  In the meantime, one of the guys who came to help suggested the rider try and sit up.  Idiot... I yelled out as I ran back to keep the guy laying still, but it was too late.  He went as white as a sheet and his eyes rolled back.  I reached out and grabbed the lapel of his leather jacket to prevent him from hitting the pavement as he fainted.  Luckily, he came to within a few seconds. 

Then I felt the frustration of not knowing what to do for him.  He was obviously not paralyzed.  He had sensation and nothing appeared to be broken (but he was also in a state of shock - so he may not have been registering pain in a proper way).  No blood (oh thank god...), and he was able to breath without difficulty.  None of us could get a cell signal, and a guy that must have been a local went off to call for help from a nearby residence.  What else can you do except keep him still?  Another motorist arrived, and got a blanket from his car.  Of course!! (I should have thought of that).  So there we were.  Five onlookers, anxious for help to arrive, and the injured rider, still laying on the side of the road.  He was able to talk to us, tell us his name, where he lived and so on.  We all thanked him profusely for wearing his helmet.  ( I shudder to think what the accident scene would have looked like if he had not...)  Another guy teased him about the road rash he was going to have.  We all looked at the dirt embankment he must have hit, and made guesses at what must have happened...

Then the unmistakable call of a peacock rung out across the small ravine we were in.  A turkey called out in response from the other direction.  Then you could hear Jordan yell from the car, "What was THAT?!".  The peacock called out again.  Then the turkey.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.  Then the turkey flew across the road and passed through a clearing.  We all commented about the turkey.  And then I looked down and saw the injured rider, laying on the pavement.  He was just staring up at the sky... probably thinking to himself that we were all a bunch of weirdos, commenting about a turkey instead of helping him.

The emergency vehicles showed up about five minutes later and took over the scene.  It was such a relief that help was finally there.  It must have been a total of 20 minutes from the time I arrived to that point.  All I could think of the entire time was that my brother often goes on rides like this, and this could have just as easily been him - and I would hope that whoever came to his aid would be just as helpful (except for the encouraging him to sit up bit).

This guy did everything right.  He wore a helmet - which bore deep scratches on the back where he had skidded across the pavement.  He wore a leather jacket, gloves and protective pants - and I think they went a long way to keep his skin intact.  He wasn't traveling at an extremely high rate of speed, because the damage to the dirt embankment was minimal, and there was no impact damage on his bike - just scrapes along the side where he slid across the pavement.  We think that he just hit gravel along the edge of the road and went into a skid he couldn't pull out of.  The windshield had torn away, as well as the side mirror.  His helmet's visor was up when I found him.  I don't know how it got that way.  All I can say is that he was lucky, lucky, lucky.  I am guessing that his injuries include a concussion, a minor ankle injury, and a very, very sore rear-end.

Jordan, bless him, was busy leafing through his Boy Scout manual (which he had with him for the hike), looking for advice on how to treat the injured man.  I am just so, so thankful that it wasn't worse... or a fatality.  I hope he is home, recovering.