Today was the annual Komen Race for the Cure. We walked it last year and did it again this year. Rather, Jon and I walked it, the kids rode -- last year in the stroller, this year in the wagon. I think they could have walked the mile, but since we had to work at the event as well, I wasn't sure they'd be able to stand for as long as was necessary (7:30am to 11:30am).



















I always love this race. So much hope, energy -- it's fun to be part of "a cause" with the kids. It's fun to teach them to give back and to work to better things for others. We didn't have the official pink paper on our shirts, but we were racing in celebration of Great Grandma. Having a personal connection to breast cancer certainly makes the day that much more meaningful.

Amara wasn't much into the race until the end, when she discovered the finish line. Then she took off running towards it -- only she didn't really know where she was going, and instead was just trying to avoid all the people. So she ran straight into the street! Thankfully police and race officials were blocking traffic and it wasn't an issue -- but it did draw a few chuckles! Dominic, likewise, enjoyed running bits and pieces of the race. He'd take off, weaving in and out of people, just to see how far away from us he could get and still safely make it back. He never let us get too far out of his site, but he did enjoy himself as well. More than the race though, the kids enjoyed all the booths and freebies that were given out in the pavillion area. As my co-workers' wife said, " This is a little girls' heaven -- lots of free stuff, and it's all pink!"

On the home renovation front, we didn't get as much accomplished today, which is understandable, considering we were gone until noon. When we returned from the race, we were beat, so we joined the kids for a nap.

Following the nap, we decided to start on the house. Jon had been determining how to best get out the little desk area in the kitchen so we could remove the last of the "extra stuff" attached to the central wall. To begin that project, we determined that we first needed to get into the attic and remove all the insulation from the soffits. Because I'm the smaller of us, and the one with the "best" knees, I was nominated. Jon suggested that I put on long sleeves and long pants before undertaking the task, but I didn't want to be bothered with that, so just put on gloves and climbed into the attic.

Mistake!

I forgot that insulation is made of fiberglass. And our insulation isn't the pink sheets -- it's all the loose gray wooly stuff. I was probably up there for 1/2 hour pulling insulation out of the soffits. In the photo, you can see where there's still insulation in the cut-out area. That's one I could get to, because the air return duct was blocking it in the attic. But you can see what my project was -- I had to clean out the other areas above the desk area -- one handful at a time. And the area I was cleaning out was about 2 feet below where my feet were safely able to stand without busting through the ceiling. Nice and fun project!

The more "fun" part came later. As I got out of the attic, I realized that my legs and arms were fire-itching. All that crazy fiberglass deposited nice little fibers all over my skin. Duh! Should have worn long clothes, despite the crazy heat in the attic. Three showers later, and it's a little better, but definitely still irritated.















Anyway, because of my need for showers, that's all we got done before the kids went to bed. Once we put them to bed, we set out to remove the desk built-ins. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get them fully removed. As I've said before, the man who built our house did it right. The sheetrock was over the area above the desk/cabinets, and metal "corner" edges lined the bottom and each corner of it. And again, there were nails upon nails upon nails -- so Jon really had to work to remove all the sheetrock. Because there was really no "open space" behind it, we couldn't really just take a sledge hammer to it and bust out the sheet rock. So the photo illustrates the work we got done today. Unfortunately, the time and effort it took really isn't accurately illustrated by the photo!

This weekend's goal: to remove those wood built-ins!

Oh, and the tally....
- Fuses Blown: 0 (though we did see sparks once with that outlet above the built-in)
- "Whew" Moments: 1 - Jon stepped on a nail, but it stuck in the heel of his shoe and didn't reach his foot
- Lessons (Re)Learned: 1 - shorts & tshirts don't mix well with fiberglass. We're long sleeves and long pants when handling it!