Month: May 2006

This weekend, with my sisters help and guidance in paint choice, I did this in the dining room.

Love it. I smile every time I walk in the door. The top color is actually the same, even though it doesn’t look it. The color is truer to real life in the after picture.

I am this close to finishing the sink room in the bathroom. It’s painted and ready for hardware and mirror installation. The toilet room is wallpaper free and ready for Derek’s spackling handy work. Pictures will come soon!

This is a pathetically short post, but I am super inspired by some of my friends who have done their own artwork, so I am off to Hobby Lobby to buy some canvases! I’m going to create something for the naked wall in the dining room-the one opposite the wall with 3 pictures.

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend!

I have a very pathetic cherry tomato plant. It has produced exactly 5 tomatoes, two of which were eaten by bugs while they were still green. Three remained. Three lonely cherry tomatoes. Two of them had started to turn red, while one was still green. The beautiful red tomatoes proved to be a tempation too great for Logan.

Connor and I told him no. Logan was very upset because he wanted the tomato so!

In the end, Logan won. He plucked the tomato from the vine and bit into it’s juicy flesh. Connor, not to be outdone, picked the other red one.

And then I found this.

The lonely green tomato, picked before it’s time. And bitten into by a slightly snaggle-toothed 14 month old.

Ahh…the joys of gardening with small children.

I went to see a movie last night all by myself. It was glorious. I saw Stick It, and I loved it. A lot like Bring It On, which I also love, but with gymnasts. I’ve always wanted to be a gymnast. I’m fairly certain that the only reason I’m not an Olympic gymnast is because we were too poor for gymnastics when I was a kid. I’m sure that’s the only reason.

I used to be really good at handstands. I could out handstand my entire volleyball team.

Anyway, I need to do that more. Get out by myself. Take a break. Thanks, Derek, for taking care of the kids and cleaning the whole house. You’re the best!

Bathroom update: I am offically sick of stripping wallpaper. Our bathroom is two seperate rooms-the sink room and the toilet room. I haven’t even started stripping paper in the toilet room, and I am seriously considering just painting over it. I have run into a few problems taking the wallpaper down. First, it’s stripping off some of the wallboard, which means a lot of spackle, sanding, etc. to get the wall smooth. Second, the doorframes were caulked over the wallpaper, so I am having the hardest time getting the paper off around the doors. Ugh.

Anyone have any experience with painting over wallpaper? Is there any reason why I shouldn’t just paint over the toilet room?

The good news is I picked up some more paint samples and I am getting very close to deciding on a color. And, my sister is coming to visit this weekend, and she is going to help me with painting! It will be so much easier and so much more fun with a painting partner.

I live a golden life. Really, I do. Last night, despite feeling under the weather, I went outside to get some pictures of all my boys. I love the shots I got yesterday. They made me think.

My life is golden.
I am blessed beyond measure.
I have a Derek. A man who works hard so I can stay home, takes care of my needs and many of my wants. A man who loves our children and is dedicated to this family.
I have children. Two healthy, beautiful children. And they joined our family easily.
I have friends and family who love me, support me, make me laugh, tell me the truth when I need to hear it, and love me just for being me.
I have a house. A nice house. And I have the luxury of fixing up said nice house so it’s even prettier.
I have hobbies. And the luxury of time and money to pursue my hobbies.

I never, ever want to stop being thankful for my life.
It’s golden.

I totally stole my title from Shauna’s blog from a few days ago. I just have a feeling today is going to be one of those days. I know part of it is in my head. Derek has a dinner he has to go to tonight, which means he won’t be home until late. That makes for one long day for me.

Connor has decided he is afraid of airplanes flying overhead. He is scared they are goin to land in our backyard. All of my efforts to convince him otherwise have proved futile. Every single time he hears an airplane, he wants to hold my hand. Or my leg. Or I have to hold him completely. That’s not that big of a deal, right? It is. We happen to live right behind an airfield where astronauts, coastguard, and the Navy train. This means airplanes are constantly flying overhead, and lately it has been even more than usual. It’s driving me crazy.

I think I’m getting sick. Or my allergies are bad. I feel foggy, sneezy, scratchy throat, yuck.

Oh, I just thought of a cute story. Yesterday, Connor informed me that he wanted to wear “doctor shorts” aka boxer shorts like daddy wears. We went to Kohl’s where I found him his very own boxers. They were so dang expensive because they are plastered with spiderman. But you can’t really put a price on him wanting to be like his dad, can you? Anyway, he is so proud of his doctor shorts. He even slept in them, and only them last night. Such a little man.

While we were at Kohl’s, I decided to look at shower curtains. I found one! Here it is.

Love the polka dots. And it’s reversible to stripes. I also bought towels-yellow ones. And I think one of the colors of paint I love will work. It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but the color is really close to one of the dots. I may not use this exact color, but something close to it.

I’ve got two walls stripped, two to go.

In fact, I should stop this blogging nonsense and go work on it some more since the Logan Bug decided to take a morning nap today (thank goodness!)

It’s almost Friday! And the weekend. Can’t wait to have a relaxing weekend with my boys.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in H-town. Not humid at all, high around 80, nice cool breeze, etc. I had the windows open all day and it was just georgous.

I decided to grill some chicken for dinner. Then I started wishing we had some patio furniture so we could enjoy the beautiful spring evening. Derek suggested that we just have a picnic on a blanket, and I thought that was a great idea. So I finished up the meal (which included green beans fresh from my garden), while Derek set up the blanket. I started to carry out the plates when Connor stopped me in the doorway.

“Mom, this is only a boys picnic. It’s just for daddy and Logan and me and daddy.”
(he almost always repeats the first item at the end of a list-almost like he forgot he just said it.)
“You just eat inside by yourself and the boys are eating outside.”

He was very adamant, so being the loving mom, I obliged. And you know what? I didn’t even mind. Not one single bit. I had a nice, peaceful dinner watching my three favorite people have a special boys only picnic.

Onto a totally different subject.
I have started stripping this glorious wallpaper off the bathroom walls.

My wonderful mother-in-law was gracious enough to let me borrow her steamer, so this task is not quite as hideous as stripping the border from Connor’s room. My hands aren’t bleeding or anything. But this is not fun. Not fun, my friends. First, the bathroom heats up to about 95 degrees with that steamer on. And it’s just hard work. Plus, I am managing to strip off some of the wall board in places…not good. This means an extra step of spackling and sanding before painting. But, my wonderful husband has said that he will help with that part. I am hoping to be ready to paint next week.

At Wal-Mart today, I picked up some paint samples. I haven’t for sure decided on a color. I am thinking yellow…like a soft, creamy, golden yellow. Or maybe blue, like a fun, greenish, blue…almost turquoise. I think I may scan in a few of the colors I like and get some opinions. Besides paint, I am going to buy new towels, possibly a new shower curtain (the one I have now is just a neutral beige), and I want to do some framed black and white pictures-either scenic Europe (that my brother took), or of hands a feet and the like. So many choices.

I am really hoping to get a lot done on the house this summer. First this bathroom, then the kitchen, and finally our bedroom. Plus a few knick-knacks around the house. I love having a house of our own!

Connor: Mommy, when I get to be a grown up, I am going to be a mommy-

Me: No, Connor, you get to be a daddy. Boys grow up to be daddies and girls grow up to be mommies.

Connor: Why are girls (pronounced grills) mommies?

Me: Because that’s how God made us.

Connor: When I get to be a grown up, I am going to be a daddy. And I am going to go to the aquarium (pronounced aquarMimum). And I am going to be the driver and the other daddy…

Me: You mean your daddy?

Connor: Yes, my daddy. He’s going to be the passenger and I’m going to be the driver. That’s what happens when I get growed up.

Love it. Need to write more of these down for scrapping ideas. I just spent the past two days scrapping with Cindi, so I am definitely in scrapping mode!

One more funny convo. with Connor…

(I’m changing into my pajamas. Connor is sitting on the bed.)

C– Mommy, what’s that stamp? Do you have a stamp on your bottom?

Me-Yup, I do.

C-Why?

(very tempted to answer “because God made it that way”, which is my answer for about half of the 12 billion questions he asks each day, but I refrain.)

Me-Just because I like it.

Connor-oh.

And just for the record, I wasn’t mooning my son. My “stamp” is on my lower back…eeking every so slightly onto my bottom.

First, just to make sure it’s clear, I didn’t teach Connor that trick. There was a golf cart behind us and he was pointing at it. I didn’t even realize that he was pointing with the choice finger until Ry and I looked at the pictures later. We could not stop laughing. The look on his face is just perfect.

Second, I just saw this movie clip, and it is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. If you know anything about dances for the past 50 years, this will crack you up!

Yesterday, I decided I wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and take some pictures of the kids. I called my friend RyAnn to see if she wanted to come with Brock and Addy, so she came too. We had a good time. It did get pretty hot, but the kids were real troopers, even when we went to Chili’s and ended up waiting quite a bit for a table.

This is my favorite picture of Brock from yesterday.

This is my favorite of Addy.

I don’t have a favorite of Logan…he wasn’t much in the mood for pictures yesterday.

And this is my favorite of Connor. Quite possibly my favorite of the whole day because it just cracks me up so much.

Aren’t kids great?

There’s nothing better than catching up with old friends. I am so blessed to have such awesome friends, the kind of friends that you can go months or even years without speaking, but then just pick up right where you left off. It was fabulous to see Staci’s belly in person, and see a huge outpouring of love for Staci and Mike and their new baby on the way. It was fabulous drinking margaritas and having a good old fashioned girls night. Staci, Sarah, Shauna, Suzanne, and Juli Beth-you guys are such a blessing in my life!

In other news…my new camera is here! I am totally loving it. Here are a few of my favorite pics that I’ve taken so far.