When Life gives you Lemons...

Make Lemonade.

We've had our share of lemons lately, and I must say I think we've done a very good job of making lemonade out of everything being thrown at us.

Kitchen and 2 of 3 bathrooms being remodeled. Exciting!! Being without a kitchen and 2 of 3 bathroom for 6+ weeks. Not terribly exciting.

Cooking pizza on the grill, pretty cool the 1st time. Not so cool after the 2nd time. We are looking forward to breaking in that new oven with a nice turkey!

Getting news about our referral for E-2, AWESOME! Having someone cross the median, head on, and causing an accident. Not so awesome!

Hanging drywall, taping, and mudding the 2nd floor bathroom. Oh thats LOADS of fun. Being all done but the sanding, priming, painting, and tiling. What a relief! Then again, J has to do the painting and the tiling.

Having our laptop crash with over 2 years of family photos, video, and music lots. A huge bucket of lemons! Praying that it would boot just once to be able to offload those pictures and videos, and having the laptop actually respond. Nothing short of a miracle. (pictures and videos saved, but laptop is still hosed).

Having to tear out all of the plumbing in the house (and thus jacking up our plumbing expense). Well that just stinks. Getting a cool $460 bucks from the scrap metal shop for all that solid copper plumbing. A very nice suprise! Having to turn around and spend that $460 on a new set of tires for the family car on the very same day, an unexpected bummer.

Rather than making a stand by going on a hunger strike (though some would think that I have), deciding to make a statement by not shaving until the remodel is done. Admorable. Having to put up with 6+ weeks of itchy, scratchy, trimming, facial maintenance. Well, simply put, its time to shave.

Burning the candle at 4 ends (I bet you didn't know a candle had more than two ends! Well you can also burn it in the middle on two different sides), for almost a month, what a drag (literally). Looking forward to catching up on some sleep (and boy does it look like I need it from that picture), is something I am looking forward to.

We've had a lot of lemons lately. But we've done quite well for ourselves. It would have been very easy to get down on ourselves and let things deteriorate. While its not been a walk in the park, I think we're becoming stronger for it. In time will we see just how.

Ahh Bitter.. but it sure is sweet..
(raising a virtual glass of lemonade) Cheers!!