MAMA MIA

If you haven't had a chance to go see this movie...GO! My sisters and mom went to see this...TWICE and we laughed so hard we cried..TWICE! I promise you'll be singing "gimme gimme gimme " or "money money money" all afternoon.
Meryl Streep is AWESOME.

We're not on my planet...are we?

It's official.

I LOVE VIDEO GAMES.

I've seen these pics on enough blogs that I had to check it out for myself at Disneyland.

The first time, Aaron and I rode together and I scored a wimpy 1400.

Aaron saved a little face with 4500.

We were too embarassed by out pathetic scores to even bother waiting in line to see the pics.

I didn't get it. Where did I go wrong?

I was raised on Duck Hunt for crying out loud!

Yesterday I decided to give it another shot and took my parents with me.

Toward the end I got confident enough to pick up the 2nd gun....but was apparently a lousy shot with my left hand!

91,900

Wow. I forgot how much more fun something is when you are awesome at it. My parents were hesitant to ride again because their experiences the 1st time around were similar to mine...weak. (or as Kelly might say, "pathetic-ville). They had more fun the 2nd time...but it was close to midnight at that point and I think they just wanted to get the heck out of noisy Tomorrowland.

This time I managed to match my original score of 1400 with my left hand, and throw down a rockin' 163,500 points with my right. You're goin' down, Zurg!

You can tell from the look on my face that I don't mess around when it comes to enemies of the Galactic Alliance.

I love Disneyland.

Reese's First Movie

My girl Reese is growing up so fast! Since the next few weeks are going to be busy-busy-busy and filled with Grandpa and Grandma's and cousins and aunties and uncles and oh-so-many days where we are on the go...I thought it might be good for Reese and I to have a little Mom and Me Date before we head off to California. So, Quincy had a playdate at a friend's house, and we went to the Malco Kids Summer $1 Movie and sat in a VERY crowded theatre (seriously, we were on the 3rd row and she had to sit in my lap because there were no seats left!)

The Feature Presentation:

Not only was this her first movie on the big screen, but aside from The Sound of Music and Calamity Jane (both favorites) this was also one of her first movies with "Real People" (not cartoons) in it. Of course, when we walked in (late) the theatre was already dark (which made finding a seat tricky) and Templeton the Rat was scampering across the screen.

Reese froze with fear. I picked her up and reminded her told her that the movie screen is like a giant tv, and the animals on the screen can't "get" her.

She uncovered her eyes and saw the hundreds of kids laughing, changed her frown into a smile and whispered in my ear, "I love you mommy, thank you for this movie-date. I'm a big girl, but...ummm...can I sit in your lap for a little while?"

We found an open seat and snuggled up to enjoy the show. I hardly watched the screen...all the magic was in her eyes.

What Makes a Red Man Red?

So here's the follow up on the previous post (cuz I know y'all can't get enough of my vomit stories http://aaronandmeg.blogspot.com/2007/10/vomit-pants.html)

So Little Boy #2 finally quits throwing up and I clean him up (he'd also soiled his pants...poor kid!) and take his temperature (totally normal). He finally decides he can speak and after a conversation with mom we realize that the throwing up was his reaction to being spooked out about waking up in a different house. Sure enough, 10 minutes later he was playing with his brothers and acting totally normal. Mom says that this happens once in a while. Poor Little Guy! (and poor me...a little heads up might have been nice)

Flashback to Friday Night...
Aaron came home from golfing all day with co-workers (poor baby) with a terrible sunburn on his arms, neck, face and legs (because he had decided to "be cool" and not put on sunscreen). Rather than drive me crazy with his complaints, or hear an encore of my "you need to wear sunscreen so you don't get cancer"-speech, he opted to go just go to bed. So I spent the evening entertaining the little guys ,and our little girls, alone...and a little irritated.

Bedtime routines began around 7:30pm with Reese and Quincy together in R's room
by 8:45 I finally had the 4 younger kids in beds and asleep...but Little Boy #1 was flipping out a little. At 11:30 he finally fell asleep with me sitting next to him, patting his back.

Quincy woke up at midnight and didn't go back to sleep until 1:15 because she wasn't in her bed. (my kids are angel sleepers in their own beds, but anywhere else they have a tough time...which is why my kids are psycho and sleep deprived whenever we go on vacation. (yeah, it's awesome. Next week should be a picnic.) I finally crash around 1:30, secretly happy that my sweetheart has a sunburn because that means he's going to stay home tomorrow, and let me sleep in.

WRONG.

Aaron's Alarm goes off at 4:30 am and he springs out of bed, all well-rested and chipper.He heads out the door to go fly fishing (aka abandon me with 5 kids and no car seats for our little guests) with some guys from church.

Little Boy #1 and Quin wake up with the sound of the front door slamming when Aaron leaves.
Quincy is inconsolable, being used to sleeping until 8 am...this 5 am thing did not sit well with her. Or me. The crying wakes Reese up...and well...she was NOT HAPPY to be awake, not happy to go back to bed, not happy to watch a movie, not happy when I offered her candy, soda, Diego, and free access to the bag of chocolate animal crackers and vanilla wafers if she would JUST BE QUIET (we do not negotiate with Terrorists in this house...we give them whatever the heck they want, and then we go back to sleep). But this morning she wouldn't have ANY of that. She just flopped around on the floor throwing a darling little tantrum. It was all very surreal...like a flashback to 10 months ago when she did this every day. It really might have even been funny to me if I hadn't been so tired.

The waking up of Little Boys 2 and 3 followed soon after...which led to the events described in my previous post. By 6 am I was so exhausted I wanted to just lock my bedroom door and hide under my bed...well actually IN my bed so I could go back to sleep.

Well, I did go into my room. I sat on my bed for a minute, took a deep breath and reached for the phone on my pillow. I tried to call Aaron, but his cell went straight to voice mail. I closed my eyes and all I could think about was how much pain he must be in...it must be awfully uncomfortable to fish with that sunburn...

Then I snap back into reality and remember what planet I am on and how exhausting the past 12 hours have been and I don't feel bad at all.

So Aaron finally comes home a few hours later, and walks in the door laughing so hard I think he might pee his pants.

I ask what he is laughing about and he just hands me his cell phone.

I don't even recognize the scratchy voice on the line at first. So he giggles and dials 1 to replay the message. On speaker phone I realize the voice is ME! In my exhausted rage I had actually left him a voice message during my meltdown this morning. I hardly remember calling him...I certainly do not remember leaving him voice mail.

Coming from his phone I hear a deep, sinister voice saying...

Aaron.
I could kill you for leaving me this morning.
I. have. been. up. since. FIVE. FIFTEEN.
I think I'm going to hurt someone today.

What the?! Seriously. THAT'S the message I left. If I were Aaron I would have called the police and turned my wife in for premeditated homicide!

He now, ever since, plays this message every time I ask him a question, or start a conversation from the other room, he laughs to himself, says nothing and simply holds his phone up in the air...and then I hear, "I think I'm going to hurt someone today." as my response. Very funny.

Aaron Picked the Right Weekend to Go Fly Fishing

I am babysitting 3 little boys this weekend while their parents take a little "stay-cation".
Little boy #2 woke up this morning and threw up.
Everywhere.

Fashion Show! Fashion Show! Fashion Show At Lunch!

I have big hair.
it's like, an entity.
It takes a LOT of work and a LOT of product to keep it from taking control (which it still does from time to time-see photo below).
Unless it is wet, or has a blow dryer going full speed on one section at a time, I can't even run my fingers through it without them getting tangled and stuck.
For this reason I sported very short hair for years.
Then I moved to Utah and even though it was short, it just kept getting BIGGER. and BIGGER...until...

Don't Be Jealous.
I remember it took me like 2 hours to get it that straight that day.
(wow! look how young we looked! That's the summer we got married...more importantly, HOW did I get him to marry me with that hair...yikes!)

Then a few years later, I grew it out...and it still got bigger. Throw in lack of sleep, a newborn baby, some Midwestern humidity and...

A-Ha! Didn't take me long to find a another example of what happens when Meg's hair gets left to it's own demise.
Don't you see how it is trying to strangle me?
I think that my hair actually scared Reese's hair from growing for the first 3 years of her life. She remained bald solely because she was too afraid that my hair would beat up her hair.

Those who were there might recall that the last time I colored my hair was in Boise and I was 7 months pregnant with Reese and the red color foils BLED into the highlighted foils....resulting in a HUGE (3 inches) Target in front of my head that was CONSTRUCTION CONE ORANGE. Not kidding. I was in the salon for 7 1/2 hours while a crew attempted to fix this "fluke" mistake... as Jose' the instructor, along with his flamboyant team of experts tried everything. Touch it up, Tone it, Strip it, Bleach it out....we ended up attempting to dye it back to my natural color. After 3 attempts it worked, but I still had little glimmers of orange peeking through when I parted my hair different ways. I swore that would be the last time I ever got my hair colored at a beauty college. But aside from the color fiasco, it turned out to be one of the best haircuts I've ever had. Short enough that it didn't drive me crazy, long enough to pull into a ponytail, and cut so I could style it curly or straight and it looked good either way.

This (click photo to enlarge) was taken a month after the fiasco...but if you look REALLY close you can see a hint of the fixed version of orange peeking through in this picture. It's that brassy glare on top of my head. The other two beauties are my sisters. They know ALL about growing up with Big Hair...except their's came at the cost of a pink can of Aqua Net hairspray.

Is it possible for the universe to allow one to get a good haircut twice in a lifetime without paying the cost of a 7 hour trauma session? I felt like one of those surgery patients that has all the students sitting behind the glass wall in the balcony, taking notes. (Step 1: don't cut this chick's hair. Step 2: pregnant ladies cry when you ruin their hair. Step 3: don't ruin people's hair) Breanne, I need you! Do I dare mix caramel highlights and a level 5 red/brown in the same trip to the salon? It would have been so cute...had my friend remembered to put the collagen between the foils. I found out later that I was her 2nd ever color job and she was super nervous. Should I go short again? Red? Blond? (lol...I'm so white that If you threw in blond hair too, i think i might disappear!)

I have an appointment tomorrow (at a beauty college, yikes!) for a haircut AND a color. I'm terrified, but really really need a change.
Any suggestions, Anyone? Anyone? Beuler? Anyone?

Princess Wands are NOT toys

This morning I took the girls to Fun City (think Chuck-E-Cheese minus the freaky mouse) where we met my friend, Jerushia and her kids to play. I gave Reese 4 tokens in a cup and let her choose what she wanted to do with them. Her friends played games that put out tickets that you can buy little prizes with at the end.

Reese chose to use her tokens to ride the little moving car rides, which surprised me because they do not give out any tickets and she is typically afraid of carousels and things we can't ride with her. She had a really fun time and is pretty excited about all the rides she will get to do in Disneyland next week.

When it was time to leave, her friends lined lined up at the prize counter and examined all the little trinkets and toys to decide which they wanted to exchange their tickets for. Reese joined right with them and pressed her nose against the glass wall and stared wide-eyed at, what must be to a 3 year old, a glorious loot.

Reese: I want a red candy mommy....no purple.

Me: Reese, you don't have any tickets to buy a prize with. You chose to ride the cars instead, remember?

Reese: Ummm...no wait, I want green. What are you getting, Hannah?

Me: Ok Reese, let's say bye to our friends, it's time to go now

Reese: Hey is that gum?

Hannah: I want a princess wand

Then Jerushia offers up her extra tickets for Reese to get a prize.

What's a mom to do? Does Reese even understand the whole barter system concept? Should I expect her to? Do I turn this into a teaching opportunity for her? Or perhaps she totally understands what is going on and is tuning me out because she is in denial of the possibility that she might leave without a prize.

Jerushia hands a Princess Wand to Reese, which Reese doesn't want at first...until it is offered to Quincy.

I ended up leaving Fun City with Princess wands for both Reese and Quincy and 2 very tired, but happy little girls.

Once we were on the road I notice that Reese was pouting.

Meg: What's the problem now? Why are you pouting?

Reese: I didn't want a princess wand. I wanted a piece of candy.

Meg: Well you are lucky you got anything. Hannah was nice and shared her tickets so you could get a wand just like her.

Reese: I don't WANT a wand! I WANT a CANDY! (followed by an over-dramatic sniffle sniffle.)

Meg: Reese, that is rude. You just spent 2 hours playing with friends at a fun place AND you got a new toy. You need to fix your attitude and be grateful.

Reese: No I didn't!
A Wand is not a TOY.
It's an accessory.

Of course it is, Reese.

On Being a Good Neighbor

Dear Keith aka Creepy Guy Who Lives Next Door To Me:

I'd appreciate it if you did NOT harass guests as they leave my home after a party. They have every right to park on the street in front of your house. The railroad ties that you now have lining the perimeter of your yard (in a mediocre attempt to fashion a pseudo-"curb") are not only sitting on village-owned property, but they are also unattractive and will do way more damage to your precious "lawn" (well manicured weeds...just like every other lawn in the village) than the cars that were parked there for an hour the other night.

In addition, in case you didn't notice when your gums receded and all of your teeth fell out...SMOKING is BAD for you.
AND it makes our yard stink.
So does the poop from your Shi Tzu's, please clean up after them.

And the next time you present me with a verbal threat to "straighten my butt out" when "that husband of [mine] is not around" I WILL be calling the police to document a written report.

Have a nice day,
Meg

PS-People who pay $5oo to have their dogs CREMATED and then put into an urn above the fireplace are suckers. Those folks from "Angel Ashes" (or wherever it was) probably said,"Sayonara" to Zippy when they flung her in the woods across the street...right after they walked around your house, dumped all your ash trays in a box, slapped a pink collar on it and sent you the bill.

Play Date and Weird Science

Question.

what happens when you eat a pack of blue Scooby-Doo fruity snacks and sneeze 10 minutes later?

Yeah.
That's a BLUE boogie.
and, Mom, if you're reading this...sorry I made you throw up.

Jay Gowen's cheesebread wrapper had NUTHIN' on this little guy.

The Countdown Begins.

Two weeks until...

It's so close...I can almost smell the Pine Sol and...well it is Sunday, so make that Pine Sol/Rico's Tacos de Cabesa...to be fair.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

I think it should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that the biggest priorities in my life are my faith and my family. They mean everything to me and I can't imagine living my life without either of them.

Today's Top 10 List: Junk I LOVE

I'm not really into playing "tag" since you end up being tagged over and over again with the same questions, but I thought this would be a fun challenge and encourage anyone else who wants to participate to join in and create one for themselves. It's always fun to sneak a peek into someone's home and appreciate it through their eyes. That also being said, In no particular order, I present you with a list of stuff in my house that I just really, really love:


#1 my dresser
Lynda bought me this chest of drawers 5 years ago at a garage sale for 5 bucks. It was 1970's brown and together we stripped the paint (the brown layer, the green layer and the yellow layer) and white washed it. Then about a year later I distressed it and have been collecting funky knobs for it. (thank you Aunt Valle for the daisy knob, Aaron for the glass knobs, Craft Paint for the purple knobs, and Hobby Lobby for the rest) I love my dresser. I also love the lamp sitting on it (also a gift from Aaron, isn't he awesome?)

#2 the photo wall (click to see up close)
These are all portraits we have taken over the past 2 years. The family pics are the most recent and were done around Father's Day. Every time I look at this wall it makes me happy...mostly because it reminds me of how cute my kids are. Love it!


#3 Reese's Bed

A little shout-out to my ward. It's awesome. I have awesome friends here. I just mentioned that I was looking to buy a day bed and if anyone saw one at an estate sale, or whatever, please call me so I could check it out...even if it was ugly, and I'd fix it up. I got a call from Jenni (who I hardly knew at the time) and she GAVE me this bed. FREE. Even after I offered to pay for it. Seriously. Isn't it beautiful? Jenni, you are so awesome, and soooo generous. I love it.


#4 Mi-Ma's Quilt
I saw this at my Grandma Tenney's house and immediately fell in love with it. I had to fight a little to get it; it had been promised to my Aunt. But she was generous and now it's on my bed. Thanks to my Mi-Ma, I have a love for all blankets, and usually have one wrapped around me, (yup, even in the summertime) So I especially love this quilt because it was hand made by her. If only it still smelled like her it would truly be perfect... I just love it.

#5 Crusty Old Doors
(btw, that isn't my furniture in the pic, but it was the only picture i had of the GB house on this computer You get the idea...LOVED those french doors!)
Our first home was a 1924 walk up salt box home and I loved it right away, even without my own stuff in it. It still had all of it's original hardwood floors, built ins and wood work and it was just...so warm and charming that it actually made it difficult to leave FREEZING Green Bay, WI for this...

Obviously it looks NOTHING like that now...
(even this photo is a little outdated, but you get the idea)
I honestly LOVE my home now, but unlike my first house, it has taken a lot of work for it to feel like it's mine, and after 2 1/2 years and a LOT of sweat, I finally feel like it suits me. We remodeled the kitchen in our Green Bay house too, to update it into this century (you know, so we could actually fit a refrigerator and oven in there...both of which were not common kitchen amenities when the Green Bay house was built)
One of the things I kept from the demolition and brought with me to Arkansas was this door: I just couldn't part with it and felt like it had a story to tell. Obviously it's not common anymore for people to have a solid wood door separating their kitchen and dining room like this was originally meant to be, so I put it in my bedroom, and I think it is happy there.
I also found this little beauty at an estate sale and it is dated to the late 1800's. There was a broken window in it, but once that came out and the lettering was added it became a perfect little chalkboard for my kitchen and a great conversation piece. I loves it!

#6 Pretty Dishes One quality that I inherited from my mom is my desire for everything to look pretty. She finds beauty in everything and with a wave of her magic wand and her special touch, she can turn anything ugly into something spectacular. I like everything from a plate of food to a cup of pencils to be pleasing to the eye. I have a set of serving trays that I've collected, and I love it so much that I'll throw parties just for the excuse to use them.
Especially when paired with the black and white dishes from Hobby Lobby (man I am like a walking advertisement for them today) I also have a set of red dinner plates from Lynda that I really love and pull out for regular use in December-February and when my guests aren't awesome enough for the black and white plates. Love them ALL and they make anything I serve look appetizing. I think the only thing missing are some large pink square plates to complete the pink set. (hint hint for whoever draws my name at Christmas) I love my pretty dishes.

#7 Baskets and Trunks
Ever see that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Deborah throws away Ray's letter from Mohammad Ali because it looks like junk mail and Ray never puts away his crap? Aaron and I have had several very similar arguments. He sides with Ray and says that Ray DID put the letter away in the drawer, and Deborah doesn't respect his stuff. I side with Deborah and say that THE JUNK DRAWER is not "putting something away".
Since I am a collector of stuff I need a place to keep it all, because as much as I like it, I don't want a messy house. I am a firm believer that the difference between stuff and clutter is not showcasing it properly. I need everything to have a place...which is why I love storage containers and baskets. They satisfy my OCD and keep everything organized and contained and in their designated places.
Samantha gave me this trunk at my baby shower and we painted it white to holds Reese's stuffy's (stuffies? Emily, that's your word...what's the proper spelling?) stuffed animals.
This trunk has been previously used to hold blankets, shoes, and at one time burp cloths and a breast pump. It currently has toys and a blanket. I love it and it cost me $3 (one person's trash...) The traveling salesman trunks house my sewing machine and sewing supplies. They were 50 cents at a garage sale and I wish I'd bought more. I love them.

#8 The Fireplace
Once a year I become a lumberjack and split firewood all day (and night, and pretty much all weekend). It's hard work, but it keeps us warm all winter long and I can proudly say I've only had TWO electric bills over $100. I love my wood burning stove. It can be a pain, but it's a money-saver, and it's pretty when there's a fire going.
I LOVE to curl up in my big chair and read or take a nap next to a cozy, crackling fire.

#9 Crusty Old Windows
I have very few actual windows in my home, and only a small fraction receive direct sunlight. This took some getting used to, because our last home was practically a fish bowl. I may not have a lot of sunlight, but I do have a lot of walls. So, like the doors, I love using windows to bring some beautiful shape to my otherwise shape-lacking home. Next to the dresser in the first photo is an awesome old window that Darcie found for me. I still need to hang it, but have been waiting until after I paint that wall, since it was part of the whole bathroom renovation.

Also a rescue from my Green Bay house. This is the original window from the kitchen, and I couldn't part with it after the remodel was complete. I did my best not to compromise the architecture of the house when we updated the kitchen, but that was very difficult to do since most of the architecture in the kitchen was impractical...hence, the remodel.


My love for old stuff was around long before we lived in our old house. I found this at a roadside flea market in Boise, shortly after we were married and then filled it with wedding photos on our 1st anniversary.

#10 The Screened-In Porch
(this is a really old photo, but you get the idea)
or deck, or patio...whatever it's called, I LOVE it. It's a safe, contained outdoor space for my kids to play. The added bonus is the bird habitat that my neighbor behind us has created...I can't stand all the cheesy yard ornamentation that seems to be multiplying exponentially, but it does attract some pretty birds (cardinals, orioles, bluebirds) and they're nice people, so I'm willing to look past the white mosaic birdbath with the iridescent ceramic fairy on it. Plus it's clean, shaded, mosquito-free and we love spending time out there.

So that's my top 10....It's a fun way to appreciate the things you have.

What cool junk do you love?

Ooey Gooeys in the House!

I'm hosting a baby shower tomorrow night at my house so we (me, Reese, and Quin) have been in the kitchen all day cooking up delicious, high-fat goodness. Today I made a batch of 7 Layer Dessert Bars (which only have 6 layers, Erin) We've decided the 7th layer must be just plain awesomeness, because that's what these are...Awesome! So that's what we are calling them from now on, Awesome Bars. 7 layer anything just reminds me of bean dip or something from Del Taco....also tasty, but not quite what we're going for today.

I also whipped up some Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake (see oct 2007 post for recipe) because I feel like pumpkin gets the shaft. Why should we have to wait 'till October to appreciate the pumpkin? It's not like I harvested it myself and have to wait until fall for the pumpkin patch in the yard to ripen. It comes in a pretty orange CAN, from the good people at Libbys.

I suppose it WILL take until October to burn off all the calories we will be puttin' down tomorrow night, because I also made OOEY GOOEYS! That's right world, you can thank the lovely Grover family for bringing this little bit of heaven into your belly. I'm not sure if the recipe is a family secret and they just really like me (I almost begged over the phone), or if I have the liberty to share....I'll have to follow up on that one.

I'll post pics tomorrow...because right now my kitchen is covered in caramel wrappers, powdered sugar, coconut and about a million other things because I let Reese help with all the baking today...a lot. It's not always easy for me to let the mess go and let the kids have fun, but I did today and BOY do I have a disaster in the kitchen to clean up! Oh well, evidence of a good time, right?
We had a blast today.

And for your baking pleasure, here's the recipe for Awesome Bars
(If you haven't discovered these yourself yet, you'll be thanking me later, Sheena)

even the non-coconut fan will enjoy this delight. Thank you, Erin for making the world a better place with this dessert!

Awesome Bars

place 1 stick butter (act surprised, y'all) in a 9 x 13 pan and let melt in oven while you preheat
to 325* for glass or 350* for metal

once melted, crush 1 pkg graham crackers and pour over melted butter

pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk over the crust

add a layer of chopped walnuts
and an entire package of chocolate chips
top with a package of coconut

pack everything down to be sure that the sweetened milk gets to all the layers

Bake 20-25 minutes

let cool before serving. YUM YUM YUM!

7 Years!

Aaron,

My love for you is timeless and unconditional. Thanks for being a wonderful husband and giving me true love in return. Happy 7th Anniversary!

Hugs, Megs

Discipline in the Willardson Home

That's how we roll. Don't like it? Don't poop in my bathtub.

Reasoning With Reese...on the Forf of July

Reese: Hey guess what guys? It's Forf of July!

Meg: I know, are you so excited to celebrate? We're going to go swimming and have a BBQ.

Reese (giving me a look of total disgust): Are you kidding me? What happened to Disneyland? It's time to go. I'm NOT going swimming, I'm NOT going to Kasey's house and I'm just staying here because it is Forf of July and you said July is when we go to Disneyland.

oops. I had completely forgotten that Reese would actually know it was the month of July. For months, every time that she asked when we would be going to Disneyland, my automated response has been "in July" (like she has any idea what that means) And every now and then I would show her how far away it is on our little calendar by showing her how far away "july" actually is.
Finally, my vague, whine-proof, not-in-the-near-future unit for measuring time has come to bite me in the butt, because all she heard this weekend in the supermarkets, on tv commercials and at church was "happy 4th of July, it's fourth of July, it's finally here, celebration time!" which in the mind of a 3 year old translates to "JULY+celebrate=Disneyland"

Meg: Oh...yes, it is July now. But we get to have 18 more days of July until it's Disneyland Day.

Reese: For Real? Bummer. Well how many July days until we really are going swimming?

These Really Are Our Children...

We're still not sure where the blonde hair and blue eyes come from...certainly not us!



I think Reese looks like HolleeAnn in this picture...maybe it's the perfectly feathered hair?
Another huge milestone for Reese....she is holding a frog. (Reese is terrified of EVERYTHING....to the point that she goes to sleep with a hoodie on so she can't hear thunder or fireworks.)

Finding Nemo

THIS is for that stupid old guy on the river who told Aaron he "would probably catch a lot more if you hadn't brought that dang woman along"....followed by a request for tacos.

I do make a mean taco, but seriously?! Chicks CAN fish...even me, and I have the patience of a 3 year old...sometimes less.

I did have fun teaching 12 and 13 year olds to fly fish at girls camp...would have been nice If I'd been able to catch something large enough to NOT be related to Nemo.

If I Had a Hammer....or a Crowbar...

I only have a few pictures from the original bathroom. This was the view from my bedroom. Just an open hallway to a sink, then a tiny doorway to the right (minus an actual door) that led to a 2nd narrow bath area consisting of the shower and toilet. NO that's not bad photography, my floors were THAT slanted. The wall i removed was the one to the right of the toilet in the 2nd pic, and in the right of the photo with the sink.
Yes, the handicapped assistance bars have been removed from the bathrooms. All 5 of them.

This picture is mostly just to emphasize the rockin' 1970's light fixtures that donned every corner of my house. Unfortunately, those safety goggles did NOT protect us from the ugliness. I really wish I had a picture of the old vinyl flooring in the bathroom. It was "white" with a fake brick pattern in it....pretty snazzy stuff.

Why the mask and goggles?

That's why. I itch just from looking at those pictures.

Ok I lied. I ALMOST finished. All of the beadboard needs a coat of semi-gloss paint, and I have new blinds, a towel bar, and a toilet paper holder to install and THEN I'll be done. But you get the idea.

This is the view when you walk in and turn around. Notice you can no longer see my bed! Eventually, all the doors in my house will be like that one.

The blue tape on the floor will come up and the plate covers will go back on the receptacles after the last coat of paint.

That fan nearly killed me.

All in all, we removed a cabinet, removed the radiant heat element, tore down a wall, ripped out the carpeting and linoleum floors, scraped and re-textured the ceilings (in the bedroom too), built a wall above the hallway and framed in a door, leveled and tiled the floor, painted the cabinet and window, moved all the electrical work from the old wall to new locations, installed a vent fan / light, changed the light fixture, installed a new toilet (twice), hung bead board, new trim and baseboards and painted. And as soon as Kasey's bathroom is done we'll have lives again!

I'm Back!

Who says being cheap and stubborn doesn't pay off?
I just discovered wireless interned service for $16 a month.
and it's FAST!
Yay!
AND I finished my bathroom today.
There is happiness in the world again!