Tough Week

This week started off bad and got a lot worse before it got better. I caught a cold toward the end of last week, so I was feeling pretty crappy on Sunday and hoping and praying that I would start to feel better soon since my marathon was only a week away. Then Sunday afternoon I got a call that my mom had broken her hip. Thanks be to God that the orthopedic surgeon was in the hospital where they took her (he works in a few) and was able to take her in pretty much right away to surgery. He inserted a rod into her bone, and she spent a few days on a recovery floor. I came home Monday to help take care of my dad (my mom is basically his caretaker) and be with my mom. Mid-week I took my dad to stay with my aunt for a while, and my mom was moved to the rehab floor. She is progressing very well and they say she will likely be able to come home next week. I plan to stay home until the end of next week to help her with the transition home. I am so thankful that she is doing well, but I know she has a long recovery ahead. And I'm thankful to my aunt who will probably have to care for my dad for the next couple weeks at least. I am hoping my mom will be doing well enough for him to be able to come home sometime in mid-December maybe. We will have to celebrate Thanksgiving separately - my mom and I here, my dad in Ohio - but hopefully we will be able to be back together at home for Christmas.
I am still planning to head to Philly just for this weekend to run my marathon. I have put so much time and effort into training that my mom and I would both be disappointed if I didn't run it. Now that it's so close, I'm nervous! Prayers are appreciated for my mom, and dad, and for my running and traveling this weekend.

Renovations

So the parsonage I live in is pretty great. One of the things I love is that there are hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms and carpet in all the bedrooms. And they refinished the hardwood and put in the carpet only about 2 years ago. They were waiting to do the floors in the kitchen and bathrooms though until someone moved in full time. So those floors were pretty ugly vinyl. When I got a new refrigerator I saw that the kitchen floor was in bad shape (as was the master bath), so the church council and I decided to get the floors done ASAP. So I picked out some tile, and also picked out a new toilet, vanity top and faucet for the master bath (which also needed to be replaced). And last week the floors guys came and everything was done in less than 3 days! We also have a guy on council who is a carpenter, who ripped out the ugly laminate wall coverings in the bathrooms and put up wainscoting. The wainscoting still needs to be painted, and I think I might paint the vanity and put new handles on it to update it a bit, but the changes have already made a huge improvement.

These are the "before" pictures of the floors in the bathrooms and kitchen.

And these are the "after" pictures! The first is the tile in both bathrooms and the second is the kitchen.