Random

1. I'm starting to feel really guilty knowing that the only vegetable my children have had since we started working on our house is french fries. . . that's a tough pill to swallow for a mom tries to make sure we eat healthy.

2. My shoulders are so stiff from all of the painting I've been doing. I think when I'm finished and we're all moved in I'm going to take a whole day to myself . . . and treat myself to a massage. . . maybe at the beach . . . no, just kidding about the beach part. The massage? I definitely think I'm going do that for myself.

3. I gave myself a little extra grace this morning. Rather than getting up at 4:00 a.m. and working like a work horse all day long, I set the alarm to 5:00 a.m. I really can't wait until I learn the lesson that I don't have to be everything to everybody and try to accomplish 500 million things in a day. . . I have it in my head . . . it just has not made it to my heart yet. This is a "me" issue. . . it's not my family demanding things of me. Why am I like this? Somebody please psycho analyze me so I can figure me out!!!

4. The big homeschool conference is tomorrow. I'm so very excited. However, I still do not have a list of all the stuff I need to buy. Maybe in-between painting strokes I can jot down the things I need. I am determined to come home with all that is needed for the next school year . . . no ordering things at the last minute.

5. I'm going to try and get Jon to take Ash to soccer practice today so I can actually cook dinner. I can't believe that I actually want to cook. We have either eaten fast food every night or my MIL has cooked for us. I'm not sure which is worse. Jon says he eats worse at GiGi's house than anywhere. I agree. . . it is so very yummy though. Just not good for the waistline or the heart.

6. This weekend I will be stepping into a Catholic church for the first time ever. A good friend of ours' daughter is taking her first communion. Thank you Nancy for all of the help and suggestions.

7. I'm tired. . . . grateful and happy and still telling Jon, "Thank you for buying my dream house." Just very tired. I've mentioned before that I'm a worker bee. I don't take breaks. I don't like to take breaks. I don't like to be interrupted when I'm working. I will stop and eat, but that's about it. Yesterday I had a gazillion interruptions and, by the end of the day, I was extremely grouchy. One of those grouchy days that I just couldn't snap out of it. Grrrrr . . .

8. I had a great laugh with my sister, Melissa, last night. One of those 'almost pee in your pants' laughs. I told her I would so blog about it the content of our laugh . . . if I could. She thinks I should. . . but I can't. Sorry . . . don't mean to tease you all . . . but it was a really good laugh!

9. I hope I get to see my little sister, Kristen, this weekend. They are supposed to be coming up. She's called me twice. . . I haven't called her back yet . . . slacker sister, I know.

10. I really want some new clothes for the spring/summer. I can't wait to get a tan. I feel so pasty white right now.

A Girl After My Own Heart

Could a girl make her mother . . . one that loves high heels . . . any more proud? Check out what my baby has on her feet. . .

I think she's a natural . . .

Tear. . .

Just when you think you've had a bad day . . .

Friday was not a good day for Jon. In fact, you'd probably call it a bad day. He had put some crown molding on our kitchen cabinets the day before. It was upside down. It looked great to me, but bothered him. . . so on Friday he took it all down, bought new crown molding from Home Depot (there ya go Lis) and proceeded to put it up. It took him ALL.DAY.LONG to do this. As he was wrapping up the day, Max (our dog) decided to viciously go after this neighborhood dog that has befriended our new home. To say he was a slight bit stressed when he got home is an understatement.

That night Ash and I were having a girls' night out with some of our friends. We headed to the best pizza spot in town (sorry Suzanne I know you'd disagree on it being the BEST). Like any good wife I was thinking of my hubby and how I could make him feel better. I ordered him a slice to go. When Ash and I got home from the movies that night he was half asleep in the bed.

When he saw the surprise I'd brought for him he opened his eyes a bit . . . and partook in this yummy slice of pizza to help him soothe his woes of the day.

Saturday night Ash had a musical at Homeschool School. Jon loves to back "Noah's Ark" into parking spaces and feels great pride that he is able to do this . . . that is . . . until . . .

until. . . we hear and feel a crash, boom, bang. Uh!oh! He hit something.

I hopped out of the car.

I was so glad it was not a small child.

What did he hit?

Not a tree.

Not a Toyota Tercel.

Not a Ford Mustang.

Not a minivan.

Not a Toyota Camry.

Certainly not another "Noah's Ark."

He hit . . . a convertible corvette. Yes you read that right. Of all things to hit in a parking lot he hit the convertible corvette. My heart was beating so fast I think it started skipping beats. All the while I'm trying to keep my voice calm in order to soothe Jon's nerves.

He got out our insurance card and wrote all our info on a piece of paper, left his name and phone number and saying he was SOOOOOO sorry.

We proceeded to go inside the church where the program was taking place. How in the world do you enjoy something when you just hit someone's convertible corvette? People who drive these sorts of cars mean serious business when it comes to their vehicles. A bump, break, or scratch decreases the value at once.

We went and found the pastor of the church who is a friend of ours. He said he didn't know of anyone who drove it, and then said, "All I know is it is a probably a _____ County redneck, so I'd be careful if I were you."

Great. . . .Jon was so afraid that at any moment his phone would go off to find an angry redneck screaming at him, ready to duke it out in the parking lot because Jon hit his car.

He gave me strict instructions, "Baby, after this is over, no talking. We are getting out of here. Go straight to the car."

I obeyed . . . kind-of, sort-of. . . well, I didn't stay around and chat as long as I usually would.

We get in the car and his phone goes off. I really think my heart stopped this time.

The man was so very gracious and so very nice. Jon was overly apologetic. Everything will be fine. The man called the police and a report has been filed so our insurance will cover it.

Meanwhile, "Noah's Ark" has a scar on her bumper, which hopefully we'll get fixed after we've moved.

Remember . . . when you do have those bad days, things can and sometimes do certainly get worse.

Because I hate missing a party

Oh how I just love parties. My bloggy friend, Edie, is having a "Paint Wood is Pretty" Party over on her blog. Please go over there and check out her kitchen transformation. It is amazing!!! None of my painting projects are finished yet, but I still thought I'd share. They are all taking place in our new home. I can't imagine a party going on and me not be apart of it . . . all together or not.

This is what our before kitchen looked like. . . pretty ugly, huh?

The cabinets were a stained oak. We have painted them a Navajo White from Lowes. I had NO idea there were so many shades of white. It took us about 4 or 5 different shades of white to find the look we were going for. We were looking for a very creamy shade of white.

Before cabinet door. . .

Painted wood is pretty, huh?

This is what the final product will look like. We are distressing the cabinets.

Our hinges and cabinet knobs will be an aged bronze.

This is what is referred to in my house as "the pineapple." Guess why? It goes in the foyer and has a mirror that hangs over in. In my now-house I have a lamp on it and a picture of the kids. What's inside? Junk . . . just any ole' junk.

When I really start to love a decorating trend I tend to get a little obsessed with it and go over the top with it. So, I decided to paint "the pineapple" and distress it.

First I sanded it . .

Then I applied 2 coats of Royal Red paint from Lowes.

Then I applied 2 coats of black.

Unfortunately, I painted the black on today and you have to let your paint dry for 12 hours until you can start standing it to distress it. The color red is what will be shown through the black when I start standing it. I will definitely post the final picture.

Like I said earlier, I can't stand for a party to be going on and not being apart of it . . . so more to come with this one and the new kitchen.

Thanks Edie for such a fun party!

Because I'll forget

I'm one of those people that's so scattered brain if I don't write or type something down quickly, it will erase from my brain . . . permanently.

Today at our soccer game, one of my soccer mom friends told me that she was turning 40 in about 15 days. To celebrate turning 40 she was doing a countdown of "40 days until 40." Every day when she woke up she'd do something unexpected, something the average day would not bring her. She is a very career-oriented woman and I've often joked with her about being a Sarah Palin. Very smart, has it all together, organized . . . all those things I aspire to be.

Okay. . . back to her "40 days until 40" . . . she told me most of her days have really involved doing something for other people (which I think brings the greatest joy). One morning she took her Daddy out to breakfast. Another day she wrote her Mom a sweet letter. One evening she took 40 invitations and invited her neighbors to her house for dinner. Yesterday her hubby took the kids fishing and she had 4 whole hours to herself.

Did I mention she is a career woman and a soccer mom? Both of her kids play soccer. And she makes time to do this just to celebrate life!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!

I just think this is the neatest idea!!!

I'm one of those people who think you should celebrate the big birthdays - BIG!! Ya know, 16, 21, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 91, 92, 93 (ha!ha!). When I turned 30 is the year I ran my first and, so far, only marathon. I told her she just had to do something BIG on her actual 40th! She wanted to go hang gliding and her hubby said he wasn't going to have her die on her birthday. I think now she may be considering a hot air balloon ride - HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?!?

Thankfully I have what I consider to be lots of years before I turn 40 (after all I'm still 25 in my own mind), but this is something I'm definitely going to do. I wanted to share it with all of you in case you or anyone you love is turning a big number this year or in the next few years.

Who knows? I love my birthday so much I may just start doing this every year. Naaaahhhh!

These are the People in our Neighborhood

We have the nicest neighbors. Four of them have already come by and introduced themselves. One couple is a couple we know, and they came by the Sunday after we closed on the house.

Wanna hear something funny? The couple that we know, the wife . . . well, she and Jon used to date in high school. I think they dated for awhile. Our girls have played soccer together. She and her husband are very nice, and I like them both alot. I've even asked Jon should it bother me that his ex-girlfriend is our neighbor? Because it DOESN'T bother me. He, of course, has told me no. Let me ask y'all something . . . is it weird for this not to bother me? Would it bother you? She's very nice and I want her to want to be my friend. I would tease Jon before we moved in about having them over for dinner.

Well they came by and stayed for about 30 minutes. As we were talking I somehow brought up the fact that Jon played video games. "M" (his ex) said, "Jon?!? Plays video games?" She was a little shocked. Then I so ratted out Jon's brother, Lee. I said, "I tell you who really plays them. . . is Lee!!!"

After they left we snickered and talked about the conversations that took place while they were there . . . especially the video game comment. Her husband and his family own a local bank here in town. I told Jon, "You don't think "C" (her husband) plays video games?" Jon said, "No baby. . .that man's got a bank to run. He doesn't play video games." This was sooooo funny to me. It may be one of those "you had to be there" comments, but every time I think about this conversation between Jon and I, I just laugh. Here is my 39-year-old husband and his 41-year-old brother who love playing one another on X-box live. Jon and I did decide that "M" and "C" are a little more serious than we are. . . that's okay though. . . they are both as nice as they can be.

Another one of our neighbors whom we met is an older gentleman. When he saw the kids he said, "Oh, it will be nice to have a little noise in the neighborhood. It's so quiet around here." I thought to myself, "You'd better be careful what you wish for." We're a pretty LOUD family, especially me and the kids. In fact, Jon has had to get onto all of us several times for being so loud outside.

Another man has a cut-through in his yard to make it over to the newer side of the subdivision. This is where Jon's parents live. It makes us closer to them. He has a little pond in his yard and told us to come and bring the children down there to see his turtles.

They all have been so nice telling us if there is anything we need, ladders, help, whatever. . . then to please let them know.

I'd love to know, what about you guys. . . those who live in neighborhoods or subdivisions . . . are your neighbors nice? do they stick to themselves? are you a tight-knit community? do you have close friendships? do you borrow sugar or eggs or milk from them or just head to the nearest grocery store if in a bind?

In every neighborhood we've ever lived in the neighbors did not come out as quickly as they all have to introduce themselves. It seems like a tight-knit community and I'm so very grateful to be living there.

Progress - Part 3

I am a painting motro (if that means something bad I don't know it . . . and I'm sorry)!!! So far I've painted the family room, kitchen, bonus room, foyer, stairs, and I've gotten 3 coats on the dining room. The dining room is red, so it is probably going to need 500 m0re coats . . . who's counting though? Red is a booger to paint, but it looks so pretty when its on the walls.

While we've been working, the kids have been . . . .

riding their scooters, skateboarding, running around in the yard, wrestling in the house, and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Sidewalk chalk was the best $1 I have EVER spent. The girls have had so much fun with THIS!! Alec has played outside, but he likes to stay inside and talk to Jon and I as we work. Can all of these things count as school. . . PE maybe?handwriting?socialization? Because we will be doing summer school this year . . . at the pool . . . with our books . . . Oh yeah Baby!!!


Hanna drew this. It is me, her, and Jon.

She wrote me this love note. . . It says "I luv you mommy." Where in the heck she learned to spell you and mommy . . . I have no idea. She is reading, but spelling? She must be a little genius . . . just kidding . . . it comes with sharing a room with her older sister for her whole life.

Ash and Alec have made several hopscotch drawings. Ash did one where she went up to 111 (Math . . .maybe?).

Today for school Alec will be working on a history project over at his friend's house. Ash and Hanna? They will be watching episode after episode of Gigi, God's Little Princess . . . character building?Bible? maybe, maybe? Can I count it? Whatcha think?

We're Making Progress - Part 2

I forgot to mention yesterday that before we took the linoleum out we had to remove the island. Tiffani had popped over for a quick visit. After she left Jon started trying to disconnect the electricity from the island. I freaked out when this bolt of electricitiy shot through. I called Tiff and asked if her Adam could come and save the day. Adam was definitely super-hero electrician. Thank you Adam and thanks Tiff for sharing Adam with us after he had been gone all day working hard. (Again, I didn't have my camera or I would have gotten Jon and Adam's picture working)


The next morning Jon left early and called me about an hour later. He said, "It looks like Taj Mahal out here." People were working everywhere. I pulled up to the house and this is what I saw. . .

Cars and trucks EVERYWHERE!!

I go inside and saw this going on. . . .

Later in the week Mama came to help me pack and she took the kiddibos home with her. Here we are at my now-house packing up the kitchen. I'd really been putting off packing. LOTS of my friends have told me they wanted to come and help me pack . . . I was having a hard time being motivated. Mom motivated me. Thanks Mama for all of your hard work and for taking the kids for the weekend.

We made several runs to the new house with packed boxes. Slowly but surely we're getting there!

Check back tomorrow . . . There's more to come.

We're Making Progress - Part 1

I've missed you blog world!!! Every single waking minute of the day I am spending at our new house . . . trying to get it ready to move in. I would love to give an update every night when I get back to my current home . . . . but, I'm so exhausted and dirty and stinky . . . I get home, check email, get a shower, and hit the sack.

Here's how things are going so far.

One night, as Jon was tearing up the baseboard (we wanted to do a thicker baseboard b/c with the hardwood floors the 4-inch would look too small, so we're doing a 6-inch), he sees where the house had some termite damage. We got a clear termite letter so I wasn't overly worried. Our friends Tim and Lisa were over helping us. Tim is an excellent carpenter/builder, etc. Jon decided to cut the sheetrock to see if any further damage had been done to the house. I'm so glad Tim and Lisa were there!!!! There were active termites eating at the 2x4s and the paper of the insulation . . . YIKES!! Lisa and I were painting in the kitchen. I looked at her and said, "Is this a big deal?" She shook her head and said, "It can be." Again, I just wasn't overly worried.

Jon went into zone-out mode, which means he can't think enough to work. He and Tim and Lisa sat around the table and talked and laughed. I kept painting and told Lisa, "This house may be eaten alive by termites, but it's going to be a purty house." Ha!Ha! Tim is one of the nicest guys ever, and I was afraid he would be afraid of hurting our feelings by telling us how bad he thinks the damage is. I told Lisa I was going to call her and see what Tim really said once they got in the car.

I wish I would have had my camera. I told them they were our first dinner guests. Know what we had? Pretzels. We all just sat around the breakfast table and sat and talked and ate pretzels while the kids played with one another.

We all had such a great time together. We've been friends for a really long time and there will be times when we don't hang out for months or years, but when we do, it is as if we see one another every day.

Termite damage in the living room
Termite damage in the dining room

Jon's a little stressed

On Monday we went to pick out our granite. This is the fun part to me!!! We had an idea of what we were going to go with, but we wanted to make sure the granite slab didn't have any dark smudges. That is the bonus of being in the flipping business . . . we had a bad experience with dark smudges on the granite with one of the houses Jon flipped, so we knew to go and pick out the slab for ourselves.

The people there were so very nice. They moved the slab to the outside light and wiped it off so we could inspect it very closely.

Santa Cecilia was the color we chose.

Here the kids and I are in the sales office getting ready to put down a deposit. I also got to pick out a really cool sink. I'm so EXCITED!!! Granite counter tops are something I've been dreaming about for years!!!

On Wednesday morning the hardwood guys were coming. They told us we could just leave the linoleum in the kitchen and they'd just lay the hardwoods over it. But when Jon starting looking closer at the linoleum there were 3 layers . . . I guess that is to be expected from a house built in the mid-80s.

Jon calls me his worker bee all the time. I tease him back and say I'm definitely not the queen bee. In order to keep my status as worker bee and not queen bee I was going to get in there with him and get my hands dirty.

However, I had no stinkin' idea that this stuff would be so incredibly hard to pull up. Have I mentioned before that I work out and lift weights? I thought I could handle it. Girlfriend had to use some major leg and arm strength to pull this stuff up.

Jon got a monstrous toothache. . . the worst he has EVER had. He was in a LOT of pain. So I handled the rest of the linoleum by myself. I felt like Wonder Woman . . . if I could do this, I could certainly be a super hero and defeat the bad guys. I'm tellin' ya. . . this is HARD stuff to pull up.

See, in this picture, Jon's mouth? His tooth was really hurting him.

The girls were exhausted. Here we have this big house and they could have easily gone to their bedrooms to sleep. They wanted to be where the action was . . . so they laid on the hearth of the fireplace and sacked out. Hanna is under the blanket too. If you look carefully you'll see her blonde hair sticking out the side.

Alec decided he would do some of his homework from Homeschool School.

Jon's mom, Gigi, came over to help us. Jon thought he was going to be at the house until after midnight, so she was coming to be with him. I originally had planned on taking off around 9:00 and coming home and getting the kids in the bed. When Jon's tooth started hurting I couldn't leave him there, so I decided to stay. We didn't leave until after 11:00 (that is really late for this get-up-at 4:00 a.m. girl). When Jon's tooth started hurting Gigi went and got him some medicine. Thank you Gigi! She's so funny. She tried to help me pull up the linoleum. She told me, "Michele, I think you are stronger than me, and I don't think I like that."

Gigi and my Mom both are worker bees too. I'm honored to be apart of their hive.

Stay tuned for more updates . . .

Easter

A few days late on posting this, but I didn't want Easter to be too far gone before I posted about our day. We got up that morning and Jon rushed to Wal-Mart to get candy for the kids baskets. We worked so late on our new house Saturday night that we hadn't gotten them anything yet. This is what happens when you are all together 24/7.

We went to church. Here is a picture of us at our house that we live in now and are moving from.

This is picture Jon accidentally snapped while trying to set the timer. I told my friend Lisa that I felt like Benny Hinn with all of my white on for Easter Sunday.

Jon's parents took the girls out one day and got Easter dresses for them. They took Alec on a day by himself (to give him a break from the girls) to pick out his Easter clothes. Thank you Gigi and Granddaddy!

We went to Gigi and Granddaddy's for a quick bite, then headed over to our new house. Jon and I were so tired we told the kids to watch a movie or entertain themselves while we got a quick cat nap. After we woke up we hid Easter eggs and had our very first egg hunt at our new house.

We love our new yard almost as much as we love our new house.

On your mark . . .

Get set. . . .

Go!

I love that Alec will still hunt eggs. Now if his friends were around he probably wouldn't, but he did on Easter and was pretty excited about it.

I love this sweet picture!

Here are Jon and Ash checking out what she got. We had a prize egg that had $5, then we had a couple of empty eggs that Jon and I had eaten candy out of while we were hiding them. We told the kids the empty eggs were worth $2 a piece.

The only egg we could not find was the prize egg. . . Go figure.

I saw an egg and pointed it out to Alec.

Ash got mad and cried because she didn't find the prize egg. Here she is sulking . . .

All in all it was a great day!

Why in the World?

Now, why in the world on Friday, would my family and I have had a celebratory lunch at our favorite Mexican place?

Why in the world would Jon and I be trying to pick out paint colors?

Why in the world would I give him this look when he picked out a color I didn't like?

Why in the world do we have to agree on a paint color today?

Why in the world would I be thinking so hard of my furniture back home when trying to pick out a paint color?

Why in the world would the kiddibos be picking out paint colors?

Why in the world would I make . . . I mean . . . ask Jon to carry me like this?

Why in the world would I have this HUGE smile plastered across my face?

Why in the world would I have a picture of my high heels on these brick steps?

Because . . . .

Drum roll please . . . .

We finally closed on our house!!! Praise the Lord!

I can't wait to give y'all the tour and have you over for coffee . . . soon . . . . very, very soon. Right now we're covered up to our elbows in fixin' it up. Can't wait to show you all the before and after pictures!