Crazy Hair Day

CRAZY HAIR DAY AT SCHOOL

It sure was not hard to get Little Miss up this morning! She was not her usual slow poke self at all. She was so excited to get her crazy hairdo completed.

Little Mister was all dressed and holding the can of blue hair paint in his lap. He was anxiously waiting for me to get up so we could get started on the fun.

Needless to say, they could not wait to get to school.

I can't wait to hear all about it when they get home (and wash it all out!).

Today

This morning I was up bright and early excited to teach a class about making your own homemade laundry soap. If you want the recipe, click here where I blogged about it earlier this year. We had a fun time talking all things laundry!

The five gallon bucket I made last February lasted nearly 7 months. Talking to all the gals this morning, we figure it costs approximately $3.00 to make about 5 gallons of laundry soap.

If you haven't made yours yet, just DO IT. The soap works great and costs only pennies per load.

On another note, I've had sick kids this week. Ugh! Now I am catching it. Fever. Cough. Congestion. The kids and I will have to stay home from Sunday church. I don't want them spreading their sickies around. Poor Little Miss had to miss a three hour birthday party today for one of her school friends. She was so sad.

Besides the thermometer reading, I know Little Mister is sick when he falls asleep right beside me on the couch. He rarely does this anymore and I have loved it the last couple of nights. I love stroking his hair, cheeks and forehead. Pretty soon those sad, droopy eyes close right up and he's out. I always have Big Mister leave him there for a little while so I can enjoy looking at my sleeping boy...just the way I like it.

Goodnight.

Wednesday's Story

When I was a teenager I shared a bedroom with my older sister.

She was "Oscar".

I was "Felix".

We could not change who we were.

I finally had had it with her messiness so we decided to put a piece of masking tape down the middle of the room. Her side could be how she wanted and my side could be how I wanted. My side was nice and tidy. Her side was strewn with clothes, shoes, belts, books, etc. Her side of the dresser was covered with hairspray cans, make-up, brushes, combs, curlers, jewelry and the likes. My side of the dresser was meticulous and I made it even more so to spite her. I know she would purposely not clean her room to spite me back. Argh!

The masking tape ended the arguing. As long as my side was clean I was fine. As long as I didn't clean her side she was fine.

In this is how it was.

Even though I liked my area clean, I did have a couple of guilty pleasures in the likes of two huge posters. Rocky hung on my side of the closet door and ol' Willie was on the wall above my bed. They looked like this:
Don't laugh. I loved the Rocky movies and when I saw the movie "Honeysuckle Rose" with Willie Nelson I thought I was in love. Ha Ha!

My sister did not care for my new found poster collection. But, they were on my side of the room. She could do what she wanted with her side!

Fast Forward several years.

I have my own house. My own rooms. My own children.

I still like things neat and tidy. Everything has a place and should be in it's place. I like clean surfaces and walls without clutter. I like things my way. I am the mom. It's my house. My rules.

Enter Little Mister, age 7.

This is what his bedroom door looked like a few weeks ago.
And the collection grows. This is what it looks like today:
I can hardly stand it. But I leave it alone. (He even has a bulletin board in his room to hang such items on, but he just HAS to choose the front of his bedroom door!)

He has also just announced that he wants two big posters hung above his bed where his "little boy" pictures once hung. Boy, did that bring me back to my youth!

Enter Little Miss, age 8.

She has posters in her room, too.

A few weeks ago we updated her room and removed some "little girl" items. We purchased a tall white bookcase so she could access her books and CD's and other trinkets. Of course, I had in my mind what a decorated bookcase would look like. Her idea was something totally different. As we struggled with the decorating I realized that this was her thing and I needed to step back and let her fly with it. I gently gave her a few tips and off she went with the decorating of her own bookcase. She did great. It's not how I would want it. But, it is hers and it is just fine. Each time I enter her room I want to fix it, but I don't. I just can't. She's so proud of it and loves it just the way it is. She has it filled with books, CD's, headbands, perfume, jars, cans and homemade jewelry...with no rhyme or reason to the placement of anything.

I can only imagine what decor will enter their rooms as they move into the teenage years. Yikes!

I hate crazy movie posters or posters of sports cars. They certainly would not grace the cover of "Better Homes and Gardens".

However, I am learning.

As sure as I taught my mother with the crazy stuff I hung in my room, I am learning this:
"I want my stuff, mom. I want my room to be me. I don't want it decorated like you want it, I want it to be my space. Not you". OK. I am getting it.

I was proud of my posters and unicorn collection, too. Thanks mom for letting me decorate my side of the room how I wanted it when it was YOUR house.

Oh, and my sister, no more masking tape needed!

A Special Day

Little Miss had a great day last Saturday when she got baptized. She was so excited and had been looking forward to her special day for a long time. She told the Bishop her favorite part of Primary was singing time. She had lots of family and friends come to this very special occasion. Her daddy baptized and confirmed her.

After the Baptism we had a luncheon at our house that was a lot of fun. We were glad to have so many family and friends over to eat and visit with.

Little Miss received new scriptures and a scripture bag from mom and dad. Our next door neighbors gave her a small hymnal with her name engraved on it.

Another special birthday gift was a bead set from Grandma and another from her Aunt. She loves this kind of stuff and went to work on it immediately. She's made a bunch of really cute bracelets and a pair of earrings.

To finish up the day, Daddy took the kids to the movie while mom stayed home and cleaned and prepared her Sunday lesson.

It was a great day.

Dirt and Grime and lots of fun

Camping!

Isn't it true that fires attract little boys!

We went camping with our Ward last weekend and it was so nice to be in cooler weather. Camping is not a favorite activity of mine, but I go for the kids. They love it so much and already want to know when we are going again. They had so much fun playing with their friends and the adults enjoyed visiting, too.

We even slept pretty good. There were a few baby cries and car alarms but overall it was not too bad.

This was the view from our campsite.
Love it.

On Saturday morning after breakfast and play time, a few adults and a bunch of kids hiked to the Fish Hatchery where they spent quarters on fish food and got to see a ton of fish. We packed up camp and picked them up from the Hatchery and headed for home.

We stopped at a little Western Village on the way home that we have always wanted to check out. It isn't anything worth going to again, I'd say. Been there. Done that. Never going again. However, Big Mister was wrapped up in the "book room" for a while. He likes that kind of stuff.

The front of their store is really funny though. They have boots just thrown around for decoration on the overhang.


This is Little Mister on the way home (it is not like him to sleep in the car):
It was a nice over-nighter. But, I was glad to get home to rid us of the dirt and grime. It takes just about as long to do all the clean up and laundry(blankets, pillows, etc.) as it does for the whole camp out! Just a little observation on the laundry girl's part!

Sundays

I love Sundays for lots of reasons.

Today I am loving Sunday because

WE DON'T MAKE BEDS ON SUNDAY!
(unless company is coming)

Shhh! Don't tell.
You'd have to wander up stairs
to discover our little Sunday Secret, anyway.

It's nice to just relax.

On a roll...

I painted another coffee table. Black this time. Love it!

I Found this nice big square coffee table on Craigslist for $25. It's in great condition.

BEFORE:

I Sanded a little then primed.
I used a roller and paint brush on this table rather than spray paint.
1) Because I wanted to do it inside.
2) I had leftover primer and black paint.

ALL PRIMED:

NEW KNOB:

AFTER:

I was not going for the "shabby" look so I didn't sand any edges.
I added one coat of polyurethane to finish it up.

I'm done with coffee tables now!

Happy Birthday Little Miss

Age 3

Age 8

Like everyone else, we cannot believe how quickly time passes. It seems like just the other day we were begging the Lord for a child. Now we have two. Now it's been eight years. We feel very lucky and very blessed.

Happy Birthday to Little Miss.

The story of this Little Miracle is available on this blog here and here.

It's all about the knobs

Way BEFORE:

I painted this chest several months ago and have
always wanted to change the hardware on it which
looked "cowboyish and westerny". It would have been
much easier to change when I originally painted it.
Lesson learned!

AFTER (with original hardware)

I took off the hardware and filled in the nail holes
with wood filler. Sanded. painted. Sanded. Painted.
Then I added a brown glaze and two coats of polyurethane.

FINAL AFTER

Due to my not so great camera, the knobs in this picture
look a little crooked. They really aren't!

The Good Samaritan

Good News. The Mystery of the Missing Suit has been solved.

A Good Samaritan returned Big Mister's suit to the dry cleaners which had mistakenly been given her with her own clothing. The Dry Cleaners sent it out for another cleaning and we got it back today along with $10 in free cleaning!

Big Mister is so glad to have it back.

Salad and a drink

Little Misses idea of how to "spruce" up the dinner table.
China and crystal goblets (they were my mom's) adorned with salad.

Gardening 101

It's time to begin gardening again for the Fall garden. This is the time to prepare the soil. The Master Gardener (aka brother-in-law Darren) said to:

1) Clear the weeds - check.
2) Churn up the soil - check.
3) Add fresh compost - check.
4) Rototill the compost into the existing soil - check.
5) Let this sit for a few days - check.

That is where we are now. Next week the plantings will go in.

The Mystery of the Missing Suit

Last Tuesday I dropped off Big Mister's nicest black suit at the prepay dry cleaners. It had been a while and the suit was in need of a good cleaning. It was to be ready by late Wednesday afternoon. I had put it on my to-do list for pick up today, Saturday.

We had been out "Craigs listing" today and I got two great furniture pieces. Hooray! Anyway, my handy dandy to-do list reminded us that we needed to pick up the suit or Big Mister may just have to go without on Sunday. This would not be so good for two reasons. First, he sits up on the stand at church and it is protocol to have on a suit - or at least a sports coat and slacks. Second, he does not have another suit or sports coat that fits as well as the suit.

When we arrived at the Cleaners, Big Mister ran in to pick up the suit. The kids and I waited and waited and waited. What was taking so long? We drove around. Looked for Big Mister. Drove around. Parked. Then drove around again.

Finally, my cell phone rang. Big Mister says, "They cannot find my suit". "Are you kidding", I said. "That's just crazy". I was thinking to myself how hard it was to find that suit in the first place. I don't want to have to buy another suit right now. And, the store we purchased it at was bought out by another chain.

I figured they would find the suit so we waited some more. After several more minutes we parked closer to the entrance of the Dry Cleaners and went inside.

Still no suit. The workers looked and looked and we did too. Anything that looked black we checked out. Still nothing. The suit was not in their building. Even more mysterious is that their hard copy of the ticket could not even be found. Hmmm? They called their location that does the actual cleaning. Nothing.

They think the suit must have been attached to another order. Someone else must have Big Mister's suit. We hope that someone will bring it back to the cleaners.

They called the owner and he had us fill out a claim form. They wait 30 days and if the suit is not found then hopefully we get paid what the suit was worth.

This is very aggravating. Especially because it is not cheap or easy to find a suit that fits Big Mister well.

We are crossing our fingers that the suit shows up. We'll think positively!

Have you ever had the dry cleaners lose your clothes? Ugh! This is not good.

We hope the mystery is solved very soon.........

Furniture Before and After

Coffee Table make over

Purchased this coffee table at Goodwill for $15
It needed a bit of help.

The top was very worn, scratched and colored on.

A good sanding all over.
Vacuumed the dust out of the grooves then
wiped it all down with a wet cloth.

After one coat of spray paint primer.

After one coat of Heirloom White Spray Paint
(I did two coats)
Once dry, I tackled the glazing technique.
I used Technique glaze and regular $1 craft paint in a brown color.

4 parts glaze to 1 part craft paint.
It didn't take much.

Then I went to work on glazing the table to give it some
definition and a bit of aged look.
I painted the glaze on with a craft brush then waited a second.
I then wiped with a paper towel until I achieved the look I wanted.

Glazing the top (paint and wipe)

Done Glazing

Then I added two coats of Polyurethane to seal

All sealed and waiting to dry.
Much better!

BEFORE:AFTER:

Not too bad for a Goodwill find!

Growing up

Little Miss is so excited about her upcoming baptism, and we are too. I can't believe that eight years has come and gone so quickly. We are so lucky to have this precious Daughter of God in our home.

Mr. Oreo

Little Mister wanted an OREO cake for his birthday. This is what we came up with.

Chocolate cake with yummy OREO filling (cream cheese, sugar, cool whip, Oreos). We kind of tried to make it look like an OREO cookie, too.

What kind of ice cream do you think he wanted? Yep! OREO is what he got.