Michelle's Graduation and Party!!!

As you probably know by now Michelle graduated with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences this past week (technically she graduated in August, but walked this past week). Both the University ceremony and the College Convocation were good and not too long. It pays to graduate in the fall instead of the spring. Michelle's parents flew from out from Michigan and we enjoyed there visit, and they enjoyed the warm weather (see previous post!).

Friday night we had a raucous graduation bash at our house. Many of our friends were able to attend and we had a great time. I made a coconut flan that was a big hit and one of Michelle's friends brought a chocolate fountain.

Below you will see Michelle in her graduation uniform, and a low quality video of her name being called out and my feeble cheer!

It's Cold!!!!!

We arrived in Michigan today and it was 1 degree when we landed!!! I am sure it is even colder now. Michelle and I seriously considered getting back on the plane to head back to Phoenix. Hopefully our blood is not too thin from living in the heat and we can enjoy our stay here....

Watch Michelle Graduate LIVE!!!

Michelle is graduating tomorrow and I wanted to invite you all to watch the ceremonies online. Go to: http://www.asu.edu/graduation/geninfo/isvideo.html and follow the instructions!

Time for me to slow down...

I love the holiday season! I don't love the craziness that seems to be a mandatory part of the season. I have been frantically trying to get Christmas cards done (because I didn't get any out last year, yikes!!), and as I was contemplating the million other tasks I need to get done between now and Christmas and feeling overwhelmed. I have a lot of important things to do--my house is an explosion currently, I am supposed to be studying for the GRE which I am taking on Monday, all of the primary lists need to be updated before I leave for Christmas, I need to get graduation announcements printed and sent out, and a few other things I am sure I am currently forgetting. It is amazing to me how one month can get so bogged down--December isn't even a third over and I am going nuts!

Anyway, I just thought I'd take a moment to remind myself that I should be enjoying the time of year and taking time to remember why I love the Christmas season. I love the peace I feel as I strive to be more like Christ. I am going to have to work a little harder at cutting things out/back so that I can enjoy that feeling of peace, as well as the time I get to spend with family and friends. I need to give myself permission to not get everything done--especially the nonessential things. I am feeling pretty good about that! I hope that each of you are finding time to enjoy the holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Giving Thanks and No More Booty Sinking to the Floor

We had a good Thanksgiving. Brenda, Aaron and their family came and had dinner with us. It was a lot of fun. I am really thankful for many things in my life: my marriage, my family, my friends, my job, and many more things.

On Friday we hit some of the day after Thanksgiving sales. We didn't get up too early, but we did go furniture shopping. Our current couches had reached the end of their lives. If you sat in the middle of the couch you would almost sink to the floor. Michelle complained that people had to roll out of the couch! There was a really good sale at the Room Store and we found some couches we liked. With the sale we were also able to get a coffee and end tables too! We bought them Friday and they delivered them yesterday! Here are a few pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving a day late :) I had totally planned on getting a post up here yesterday but it turns out I was having too much fun cooking, partying, and eating. We had a very nice holiday--pretty relaxed for me this year actually. Our friends the Hardin's came over and Brenda did a bunch of work this year, so I was feeling pretty under worked! Dinner turned out mostly good...I had a problem with the cheesy potatoes. I feel really bad about that because they were a special request, I am still very sorry Aaron! I promise to make it up to you soon :) We had an enjoyable day of combing the paper for any deals we couldn't live without, eating, playing some Wii, and chasing Kayla around. She is a funny little thing! We sure enjoy having her around.

I also wanted to make sure that my family knows that they are the number one thing I am thankful for, not just at this time of year, but all the time. I feel really blessed to be a part of such a fun, loving family. I frequently hear other people talk about their families, and I always think "man! I am so glad that my family is so good!" Not to say that we don't have our weirdness or problems, but I feel like they are insignificant especially in light of the love and acceptance I receive. Thank you thank you to my super sweet family!

Today we did some black Friday shopping, but not too much. We didn't even leave the house until 6:15, so that should tell you something. We got a couple of sweet-o gifts for people, but nothing we got was on the front page of an ad, so we didn't feel like we had to be at the store at the crack-o-dawn. We came home, took a nap, and then headed to the furniture store. Our couches were having major problems and NEEDED to be replaced, so we hunted a little and found ourselves a good deal on some decent furniture. We are pretty excited about having 'real' couches :) Jeff is currently cleaning the living room carpet so that it will be nice and pretty for the new stuff. It is getting delivered tomorrow--pretty sweet! I am sure we will have a picture or two to share then. I finished up the last of the thanksgiving dishes, so I guess it is time to start getting the Christmas stuff out! I am mostly excited about that. I have to say I enjoy putting it out and having it up, but I sure hate packing it back up.

I think that is all of our exciting news for the moment. One more shout out to all of our friends and family, we sure do love you and we truly appreciate all that each of you contribute to our lives. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. Know that we are thinking of you extra often in this holiday season!

Today I am thankful for

Today I am thankful for the wonderful thunderstorm we got! One of the things I miss the most about living in the Midwest are the thunderstorms. It was nice to have a break from the sunshine--and our newly planted citrus trees are thankful for the drink! It cooled things down, so it even feels like Thanksgiving...or maybe just fall :)

Today Jeff has his annual review at work. I know that he will do great--he always does, but it got me thinking about this job. It makes me sad that we are so far away from most of our family, but we are both grateful for his job. Not only does Jeff LOVE what he does, the company has been wonderful to work for. We feel blessed and really taken care of in so many ways. I am thankful for Jeff's good work ethic as well as his desire to work hard and take care of us. I am sure lucky to have him around.

I am also thankful for my job....even though I practically danced out of the office today I was so excited to be done :) I was really worried about finding a job since working in my field with a bachelors degree is hard. I am thankful for an email from a professor that I didn't even think knew who I was! I enjoy the people I work with, and I love the kids. I really have a fun job. I am thankful for the baby pay check I get which has given us the opportunity to move forward with some of the things that are important to us.

There are tons of other things I am thankful for, but the 'a' button on my laptop just popped off again and it is hard to type, so you will just have to look forward to hearing about them. I need my handy hubby to come home and fix it for me!

Today I am thankful for....

Today I am thankful for pleasant peeps. I have had the opportunity to do some fun things lately all because I have made friends with some really fun people. Mind you, lots of these things I wouldn't necessarily do myself, but it has been fun to get in touch with my inner child :)

Two weekends ago some of us went and toilet papered another friends house. Now, I have to admit that it took some talking to get me to go on this expedition. Past experience apparently wasn't enough to permanently stay away from tp-ing...as soon as I get some pictures back, I will post them--I have some pretty sweet face paint on!

This past weekend I somehow got talked into going to see the 12:01 showing of Twilight, even though I hadn't read the book. I couldn't believe how many people were there! It was nuts! I got home that night at 3 am, slept a whole bunch and then met the gals at a hotel. It was Deanne's birthday and the only thing she asked for was a night out at a hotel with friends, so with her husbands help we obliged :) We got to go out to dinner at a fun place and stay up chatting for half the night. It took my quite a while to recuperate! Needless to say all of this non-sleeping didn't help my cold any. We took pictures here too, but I didn't have my camera, so I am waiting on the goodness of others so I can post some pics.

Basically, I am glad to have some friends that I can goof around with, and I am thankful that our husbands are good pals too, so we can all go out and do things too....like bowling a couple of weekends ago! Thank goodness for good friends!!

No passing out people!

Two posts so close together, what are we going to do with ourselves!?! I just thought I'd do a quick work update. I didn't end up getting to help with childfind, which was a little bit of a bummer, but on the other hand, I got certified by the state. Now I can go to any school district and work as a tech. Pretty sweet. Hopefully next week I can do the other stuff.

Tomorrow I am going to have a weekend getaway with some of the funnest ladies I know. I am feeling a little sick, so my plans for tonight are to rest up so that I can be up and at 'em tomorrow! Hope that you all have a great weekend as well!

A few random thoughts

So! Long time no write, and not a lot to tell. Work is still going well, although we are much slower than when I first started working. I am excited though, because tomorrow I get to try something new. Every week the school district does screenings on kids that aren't old enough to go to school. Tomorrow I get to help with it, I am excited even though one of the audiologists told me that 'childfind is the birth control of audiology.' I am hoping I don't scare that easily :)

I really love the holiday season and the many opportunities I have to be thankful for the many things I have. One of the things that I am thankful for is my family. I feel pretty lucky to be the oldest sibling of so many fun people. A little while ago I had dinner with an old friend. This friend came from a small (well, at least compared to mine) family and has a child. This friend was always a jokster in high school and frequently teased me about my huge family. The friend then proceeded to make a joke to the effect of 'no wonder you don't have any kids, you have a million brothers and sisters.' In an effort to stop being really ticked about the comment, I thought I'd throw it out there along with a few declarative statements. I love my big family. I know that there are always 9 people in the world who will love me no matter I do, or what happens to me. Any choices I make about if and when I have a family are my own and other people shouldn't make comments on my choice unless I ask. So, in short, people, don't make rude comments about other peoples families, old or new.

I think that I might be over it now :)

Hugs to all my peeps...blood related and those that are related in spirit!

Overdue Update --- Visits and Camping

Seems like we are overdue for an update, so I will try and quickly hit on all the high points.

For Oct. 8-11th the young men of our ward were going camping and since Michelle didn't want to be left home alone we used some of my frequent flier miles and sent her up to visit Sarah and Janine and Nick in Utah. She had a fun trip. The scouts and I hiked into the Grand Canyon and had a fun trip. Here is a picture of me just outside of Indian Gardens in the Grand Canyon.

The next weekend Michelle and I went camping in Oak Creak Canyon. This is one of the few places that you can see the trees color changing in the fall. It was a beautiful trip and we had a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Last weekend Michelle's Grandpa came to Arizona for a visit. We had a lot of fun with him. We went to a Scott Family reunion one day and visited with Michelle's cousin another day. It was a lot of fun to see Grandpa, but it seemed like the visit was too short.

Life is back to boring and normal this past week. We had stake conference today and heard President Packer talk.

Another boring update :)

I just finished checking all of my favorite blogs....as I do practically every day, so I am sorry to those that have inflated site counters!...and I realized it had been a while since we have posted anything. That seems to be the down side of having a 'normal, stable' life :)

My most exciting thing has been all of the childhood diseases I am being exposed to! I hadn't really thought about that when I first started the job. Two weeks ago I had some little flu/achy body/fever thing and last week I had a horrible cold. I still have the cough and a little runny nose, but I am WAY better! I am hoping to make it a whole week without picking up anything new, although my hopes aren't high since one of my co-workers went home with a stomach bug today. Boo on germs!

Jeff has been busy with work--I know that they started a new battery of testing this week, so I think he is excited about that. It at least means that he isn't stuck behind the desk all the time. I am so proud of him because he got our car fixed (finally!!) this weekend, for WAY cheaper than we thought. We had called around to a few places and several places wanted close to a thousand dollars (on our Escort, I don't think so!) but he found some little hole in the wall mechanics place that did it for $200. When we pulled up to the place I thought it looked pretty shady, but the car runs and it was cheap. At this point if the dumb thing lasts another 6 months we will be happy!

That's about all that is going on around here. Next week I get to go on a little trip up to Utah to visit my sister and some friends, so I am pretty excited. I get to fly on Jeff's frequent flyer miles, so it is even fancier :) Jeff is going to go camping with the scouts for a those days, so that should be pretty fun too....or at least entertaining. We miss seeing all of you!

A few fun things

This week was filled with a few fun things. I got my first paycheck--very fun :) Unfortunately, I make so little no Federal taxes were taken out. I will have to contact payroll and get that fixed, or Jeff and I will be in a sorry state when tax time rolls around.

I also got my diploma in the mail this week. It is still in the envelope, Jeff keeps bugging me to open it. I don't know why I don't want to yet...maybe because I don't really feel done. I am still pretty excited to have it.

We got to hang out with the Hardin's this weekend--we had some rousing games of Ticket to Ride and Rook. Thankfully the girls beat the boys this week...we actually spanked them, so that was fun :) It is usually Brenda and I that are beat soundly!

We do tympanograms (or acoustic impedance) on the kids that we test, and last week this little kindergartner said to me"That was weird! It made my eyeballs sweat!" I laughed so hard! Luckily we were the last ones testing, so we weren't bothering anyone. Those kids really are hilarious. (For those that are wondering, acoustic impedance basically tests how well the tympanic membrane/middle ear lets sound pass.)

I guess that's about it. Sorry we aren't being more exciting, I am feeling pretty good about posting SOMETHING though :)

Pictures from Utah visit

A couple weeks ago I had to make a short trip up to Utah for work. I was able to visit our good friends Janine and Nick Clayson and there twin boys Reid and Gage. I had a fun time even though I wasn't able to stay long. I had brought birthday presents for everyone, and the boys had a great time "opening" them. I wasn't able to wrap them because I brought them on the plane, so they just got to open my suitcase. Gage quickly decided that pushing the suitcase around was the funnest thing. After the boys went to bed we played Settlers of Catan. It was a lot of fun, but we all missed Michelle.

Reid and Janine looking at Reid's birthday card.

Nick and Gage.

The boys opening the presents.

The boys in their new Rocket pj's.

It's been (almost) one week!

Don't you love the Bare Naked Ladies?

Anyway, I have been working several days and I love my job! I was a little timid the first couple of days, but I am in the swing of things now. In Arizona, there are certain groups of kids that have to be tested in the first 45 days of school--preschoolers, kindergartners, second graders, sixth graders, and ninth graders, anyone new to the school district, kids in special ed, and anyone that failed the hearing screening the year before. As you can imagine this is a large number of students--I had no idea how many it would be though! I found out that Mesa School district is the largest in Arizona, with over 72,000 students! We test about 50,000 of those during the school year!! It is totally amazing!

The little kids are so fun to test--they crack me up because they never seem to remember that they have to raise their hand if they hear the beep. Lots of times they just turn and look at you with a big grin. I say something like "what do you do if you hear the noise? Remember to raise your hand as soon as you hear the beep!" probably 50 times a day. The big kids are fun too because they have done the test enough times that they remember and ask lots of questions. I enjoy that because I have had some training in the area, so I can tell them a little about the tests. Some of the other ladies don't enjoy it as much because they don't really understand the stuff behind the tests.

I work with a bunch of really fun older women, they have lots of great stories about things that have happened on the job, and just in life. I am learning that I will have to deal with geckos getting into my house (two this week, but that is another post!!!!). Anyway, I am grateful that they are all so kind.

Today was exciting--I had my first kid with lice! I have never had lice, and I didn't know what they looked like. Luckily (I think!) there was a kid that had lice earlier than mine, and one of the lice ended up on the table so I could check it out. We don't test kids with lice--we don't want to help spread it around the school. Every time my head itches now I am freaking out. I didn't really get close enough that one could jump on me, and we didn't share a hairbrush, so I am probably ok :) Just overly excited I guess.

I think that is all I have to report for now. We hope that you all had a nice labor day--we spent most of the weekend trying to get control of the crazy weeds that have sprouted due to the freakish amounts of rain that we have been getting. We got a lot of labor completed, so I guess we can call it successful :)

I have a job, I have a job, yea yea yea!!!!

I bet you hadn't noticed, but I got a job today! I will be working for Mesa Public Schools in the audiology department. I will be giving hearing screenings for the entire school district. I actually interviewed for it a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get the job. They called me back today and said that things had changed and after explaining that I could work for them the entire school year they offered the job to me. (There had been a misunderstanding about when I might be going back to school.) It will be a good job for gaining some experience, but not for making a lot of money :) but Jeff tells me that it is his job to make the big bucks!k

Proud Husband's Note:
I have to let everyone know how proud I am of Michelle. She has been very persistent and patient as I have interrupted her schooling multiple times. However she has worked through it and now has a college degree and her first job! I am lucky to be married to her and she has done a great job, and now she has one. Yeah!!!
Jeff

Oh what a weekend :)

I got to do something really fun this weekend--throw a water party/ice cream social for a bunch of kids and their families. The families are living in a local shelter. It was so fun to see these little kids running around having so much fun, kids really are resilient! I was really happy that I got to spend so much time with the ladies that I went with too. I feel truly blessed to have them in my life.

Guess what else? I found my first gray hair. I almost died. You should have heard me shriek for Jeff to make sure it was actually gray and not just really blond :) I am still not TOTALLY convinced it was gray because the hair closest to the root was brown. I have to cling to any small amount of hope that I can! I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago and my hairdresser said "Oh my gosh! You have a few really curly hairs hidden in here, can I pull one out to show you?" Of course I said yes, and sure enough it was super curly. I apparently only had about 5 in the middle of all of my hair. When I asked why that would happen she said " I hate to tell you this Michelle, but our hair changes as we get older. The shaft and texture can change." Anyway, between that and the possibly gray hair, I am boycotting getting older.

Do you miss us?

It seemed like it was high time to post something up here--ever since Jeff got home from his business trip there hasn't been anything going up on the blog.

Jeff is home, yay for me! I was done talking to myself about 4 days after he left. I typically think I am pretty ok, but I already knew all the punch lines to my jokes :) We got lots of errands done on Saturday, and even a little playing in too.

I am in my last week of classes as an undergraduate. That seems so crazy! Thursday is my final, so I am looking forward to Thursday night when I will be able to breathe a little more. At least for the weekend and then the job hunt is on for real. Thant freaks me out a little, but I am trying to keep in mind that Heavenly Father has a plan for me--I like to know the plan, so I am struggling a little :)

Our swamp cooler was having issues, so being the good husband that Jeff is he let us stay in a hotel the last couple of nights. I have totally enjoyed having an air conditioner--69 degrees. Jeff was needing a hoodie--not me! It was blissful. I am a little sad to go back to the house tonight. I tried really hard to convince Jeff that I needed the AC in order to make it through the end of the semester, but (in the words of Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice) he was unmoved. That's ok though, I know he is going to get up there and fix that thing!

That seems to be about all that is going on here. We love you all and hope that you are all well!

Trip to Rigby part 1

This past weekend I traveled up to Idaho to visit my family in Rigby. I had a great trip. Rachel and her kids are spending a week there and it was nice to visit with her. Rob, Brooke and their family also were around most of the weekend.

I really love seeing my nieces and nephews. It had been a year since I had seen any of them. If felt good as they would run up to me and give me a hug. I was able to get a photo of each of them, even when some of them didn't want me to :)

One note: some of you might be wondering if I am doing any work on this trip. I am working, in fact the testing has been going really well, but I don't blog about it because I can't take pictures and most people would find it boring. I have seen too many peoples eyes glaze over when I start talking about all the exciting stuff I am doing at work to know that most readers of the blog would get to the middle of the first paragraph before moving on with any work post.

Ogden Raptor Baseball Game

So far on the trip I have kept myself busy during the evenings after work. This is really nice since it can get boring just sitting in the hotel room all night long.

Yesterday we found out the Ogden Raptors were in town for a baseball game with the Idaho Falls Chuckers. Since it was also the 24th of July they were having fireworks after the game. Tickets were $5.

It was a pretty entertaining game with the Raptors winning 10-9 on a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.

Today we finished work early and I traveled up to Idaho for a visit with my family. I am excited because my sister Rachel and her kids are also visiting.

To the top of Malan's Peak

Yesterday I got off work early since we had lighting to close to the test cell with the rocket motor in it. So my coworker Ken and I decided to go on another hike. This time we hiked to the top of Malan's Peak. I have attached some of the pictures I took while at the summit. Afterward we stop and got some pizza for dinner. I took a picture of the peak through the sign at the pizza place.

I will try to keep everyone updated on my adventures as I am up here on business.

Pictures from hike.

Here are some pictures from a short hike I took east of Ogden yesterday evening.

Up in Utah

I am up in Utah for work this week. I am stayung in Ogden and working at ATK. I recently got a new palm phone that gives me internet connection, so I am going to try to make some posts while I am up here. I haven't figured out how to post pictures yet, but will try.

30 second post

I have about 2 minutes before my class starts again, but my teacher just said the funniest thing. We are talking about where speech falls in reference to some other sounds. This gives you an idea of where some common sounds fall--we were looking at the lawn mower which is about 100 dB--that's loud. Conversational speech usually falls around 30-40 dB. Anyway, 100 dB sounds will kill your hair cells, which means you loose hearing. There are some birds that can regenerate hair cells, but humans can't. So my teacher said "Unless you are a chicken, you should wear hearing protection if you are mowing the lawn." That really made me giggle, so I thought I'd pass on the advice :)

I like my homework :)

I just got done doing some homework for my last class as an undergraduate. I have to keep saying that because it seems so hard to believe! Anyway, the class is Aural Rehabilitation. We basically talk about all of the ways that can be used to help people that have hearing loss of some kind, whether it be mild to profoundly deaf. I have only been to the class a couple of times, but I am totally loving it. This assignment was to find some websites that have hearing loss simulators and evaluate the sites--basically, do they have good information. I don't have a hearing loss, so this was totally fun for me. I thought I would post a few of the sites here so if you are interested, you can hear what things sound like if you had a hearing loss. Plus, you can then be extra encouraging to those that you know need hearing aids--it is amazing what you miss when you have a hearing loss!This is an audiogram, it shows a normal hearing person, and one with hearing loss due to noise exposure. I found it at www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Audiogram.html.

Before listening to the hearing loss sound bytes, listen to the normal hearing one and set your volume--don't change the volume as you are listening (that's cheating since someone with a HL can't do that unless they wear hearing aids!)

This site simulates both mild and moderate hearing losses in lots of different contexts:

http://www.phonak.com/consumer/hearing/hearinglossdemo.htm

This site lets you decide how much hearing loss or background noise you want. You may have to download the plug-in.

http://www.hei.org/education/soundpartners/hearsim-shock.htm

This site is done by a professor and allows you to hear what certain diseases sound like, as well as other hearing losses. Pretty cool.

http://facstaff.uww.edu/bradleys/radio/hlsimulation/

Let me know what you think (or if you have questions) I might be able to answer some now :)

Feeling Fancy

I am taking two classes this semester--a class in my major, and one that is a requirement for graduation. The course for graduation is Religion 200: intro to religious studies. There are parts that are interesting, and parts that I find aggravating...I am sure that you can think of some things that might come up in a class like this that might aggravate you!

So, we post statements twice per chapter that talk about what we found to be most interesting or relevant from the chapter. We then make two comments on what other people have written. Finally, we have to pose a question of the week that relates in some way to what the chapter was about. Our teacher then posts which ones he thinks are the best--we get extra credit if he chooses ours. My statement last Thursday got chosen--pretty fancy! Today's topic was "Explaining Evil." The author of our text book defines evil as "intense, pointless suffering.' (the book is "Studying Religion: An Introduction Through Cases by Gary Kessler, p. 161) I don't think that really fits--I see suffering as more of a byproduct of evil. What do you peeps think?

Totally off the subject--I went to the orthopedic surgeon again today and got myself a prescription for a knee brace for my left knee as well as my right. The goal is to see how much neoprene I can wear before I pass out from heat stroke :) No surgery plans yet--I am going again in 3 months to see how things are looking. No sending me sweets! I am working hard to loose some weight so that my deformed knee caps stay in place and stop hurting :)

Jeff is a soccer god...

...or so Katie tells me. Who is Katie? A blond, single woman on Jeff's team. She has informed me several times that they didn't score any goals the entire season Jeff missed. Katie loves that Jeff is back--he scored 3 goals last week and 2 this week. Last night was extra spectacular since the other team was killing Jeff's. They never seemed to cross the mid-field line. Jeff's team was down two goals to four, until the last ten minutes when Jeff scored two goals to tie. The first one was beautiful--Jeremy, one of Jeff's teammates turned to me and said "Your husband is awesome! That was the best goal I have ever seen him make!" I was sure glad to be the one taking him home last night :)

I guess I can see Katie's point...even though I wish she were a man :)

6 Years and 2 Days!!!!

Today Michelle and I have been married for 6 years and two days. I would write a clever saying or anecdote here, but can't really think of one. All I know is I am just as happy today -- in fact I dare say I am happier today than I was six years ago, and super thankful that I have a wonderful marriage with Michelle.

Our Anniversary kind of sneaked up on us (or at least me) this year and I didn't have anything big planned. We had talked about going camping somewhere cool; but work, school, and life seemed to intervene. So ultimately we decided to camp out in our living room. We would have camped out in our back yard, but it is hitting 110 almost everyday, and it is best to stay inside as much as possible.

I rigged up a rope between the entertainment center and the couch, dragged our mattress from the bedroom, emptied the drawers of our big sheets, and tucked, clipped, and attached the sheets any way I could to give us a nice roomy-comfortable abode. Below is a picture of the finished product.




Michelle made some great tin foil dinners and we sat on our tents porch and had a very tasting and fun Anniversary dinner. We finished the day watching Father of the Bride. All in all it was a memorable day even though we never left the house, and hardly left the living room!!!

Kitchen and Bath Painting extraveganza

We finally decided that it was high time that we got the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom since it has been over a year since we moved in. Luckily for us, the weather decided to work with us--Memorial day weekend was cool and rainy. So Friday night our hot date was to head on over to Home Depot and pick out some paint chips and check out light fixtures. We took the paint stuff home and decided on yellow for the kitchen and 'barely blue' for the bathroom and to use up the last of the white that we have on the laundry area.

The first order of business was to get all of the furniture out of the kitchen...made for an interesting living room arrangement!

We, of course, thought that this would be a straight forward project that could easily be accomplished in the three day weekend. Wrong-o! When we painted the house before we moved in, we found that one of the walls in the living room had to be totally striped of paint (all the way down to the plaster wall) because it was no longer sticking. Apparently, the kitchen area didn't want to be left out. It took me almost a whole day to get all of the loose paint of the wall--it weighed 10 lbs!

Jeff weighing the bag of paint chips that we swept up from the floor. Unfortunately we couldn't also weigh the stuff that was in my hair or stuck in random parts of my cloths...

The bare-bones wall.

The bathroom also had a spot where the paint wasn't sticking, so we pulled that stuff down as well:

Luckily there wasn't nearly as much to do in here. This is Jeff's leg, he is getting the spots that I couldn't reach because I am a chicken and don't like to be hanging around off of ladders :)

We patched and textured the walls in an attempt to make them appear smoother than they really are. I am glad that we took the time to do that--I think that it makes a big difference, especially when you look closer at the walls. On Monday, we painted the ceilings. That took a little longer than we thought too, but all three rooms got done. The first coat of wall paint didn't get put on the walls until Monday night. I will admit that I was starting to panic because Jeff was supposed to have some friends over Thursday for some Wii playing and pizza and it didn't look like our kitchen table would be in the kitchen by then. Luckily, I got some things done on Tuesday while Jeff was at work and then our friend Jeff Hansen saved the day again. He came over and helped Jeff get paint on the walls in the bathroom and also helped get the paint off of the bathroom drawers (we decided to leave them natural wood because they were so pretty!). We never did get the laundry room painted, that will be a project for another day!

On Wednesday I started putting everything back together--yikes! Jeff had to come home and install the lights in the bathroom. We weren't going to replace them, but then I found some that had built in plugs. Good bye beautiful light fixtures, hello electricity :) We no longer have to run an extension cord from the bedroom! I also finished up the varnishing of the bathroom drawers. Thanks to my Dad who put me on to ironing wood! I think that saved me a bunch of time. Did you know that if there is a ding in a piece of wood furniture you don't have to sand it out? If you get a damp cloth (I used a damp cloth diaper) and run a hot iron over the dings, they will pop out? I had no idea! It was totally awesome! Thursday I cleaned like a maniac. It is amazing how far dust can travel--we put plastic up, but alas, it didn't trap the dust. I can't imagine how yucky things would have been if we hadn't! Luckily, things got back into pretty good order. I am really pleased with the way things turned out.-- I was a little nervous in both rooms as the paint went up, but I love them both. I really want Grandpa to like what we are doing to his house!

The Bathroom: As you can see there is still a hole in the counter top...there is a door that needs a little love before it can go back in. I promise that it will return home sometime soon :)

Lights on:

New pictures:

The Kitchen:

The dining room, looking from the kitchen

Kitchen from the dining room

The dining room from the living room (sorry it is so dark!)

On a side note, some of you will know that we have used yellow and blue in a couple of rooms already. We know that there is a vast rainbow of colors out there, but we had to match the tile that was already in the rooms. Plus, we live in Arizona, everything should be yellow sun and blue skies, right???