Christianity Today Article

Heather wrote about and linked to this article today.

I hope you'll take the time to read it and be encouraged.

Perhaps you could whisper a prayer for Tony Snow and Miss Heather.

Can I Get An Amen?!

We have water, PEOPLE!!!





















I'm very happy with the placement of these sinks and mirrors!! It was worth the wait and inconvenience.



















And here is our desk from Ikea.

All we have left to do is paint (yea, we hired a painter), the carpet needs to be tacked in a few places, one dry wall patch and clean.

And if I may quote Vern the plumber, "Well, whoop-d-do".

I love that man.

A Small Setback

Do you see the sink holes in these pictures? Notice how far they are to each end and how the mirrors are all the way to the wall? I can't live with it. And when your spending all this time and money on a project like this it better be just what you want. RIGHT?

A new man, actually the owner of the construction company, was in charge of the bathroom that day and he assumed that I wanted the sinks centered over the two little doors. Well, I didn't, but he didn't ask. So when I saw it I silently gasped and called Dave. I was calm but said "um, did we really want the sink over the doors?" We lived with it for a few days and then I calmly (the key here) told Dave I just didn't like it. He understood and agreed. The good news is that is it not granite, it is Formica. We chose Formica for right now because the four girls will be using curling irons, nail polish, nail polish remover etc. and we figure we can change the counter top very easily when they get a little older. Dave and I were prepared to buy the new counter top ($200) but the construction company offered to deduct it from the grand total! So it is on order and should arrive some time next week. It has delayed the project by a week or so but this way we will be totally happy.

I also decided to get a quote from a painter to finish the book shelves, crown moulding, casings, baseboards and new walls. I should hear from them soon. Please pray that my husband will allow it.....I don't think I can cope with all of the trim work and detail it will take to finish it off.

Here is what was accomplished this week.






P.S. The colors of my walls finally look right in these pictures.

Edifying Dinner Conversation: A Days Worth of Throw Up

I can think of no other way to do this than to put it in bullet form. Yesterday was the first day of school and this is what we discussed at our dinner table last night.

* I made Dani take her (new) multiple vitamin at 7:10 AM while she was eating her breakfast and drinking a small glass of orange juice. She quietly disappeared to my bathroom and I found her there a few minutes later exiting the toilet area. She said the famous words "Mom, I just threw up". I was thinking she was especially nervous and excited about the first day of school and barked at her for getting carried away until it dawned on me it must have been the vitamin. Vomit Story #1

* Dani shared what occurred in one of the 6th grade classrooms around 1:00 PM. A boy threw up in a forward facing direction and it landed in a little girl's pony tail. Dani was especially offended that the school nurse only rinsed the girl's pony out with water, not a full shampoo and conditioning cleaning. I assume the boy went home. Vomit story #2

*Sarah pipes up next. "Well, a little girl in my class threw up 5 times at home this morning (thank you considerate mother) and then she threw up 5 more times during lunch/recess". I'm screaming this whole time, wondering if this child came near to Sarah during the day. Sarah reassured me "no, not really". Do you think considerate mother was surprised to receive a phone call from the school nurse? Duh. Vomit Story # 3.

*James and Dave who just arrived home from football practice shared precious information about the boys vomiting all over the football field and in the near by bushes. The Italian lunch, high heat and "gassers" were getting to them. Joy. Vomit Story #4

*Hannah, not wanting to be left out, told us about a freshman last year who was walking down a sidewalk in between classes, leaned over a bush and lost it. Just cuz. Vomit Story #5

My friend Stacey and I laughed til we cried last night as I was relaying all of this information to her. It really is unbelievable that all of this occurred in one day, so close to home.

I sent the kids off today, clean, healthy, well fed and happy, we'll see how they come home. Hopefully not puking.

The dinner converstaion can only improve from here. No?

Homeschool Preschool

We're going to have a great time while the big kids are away!

How do you like my fancy, non-classical, inexpensive curriculum? :)

Ready, Set, Guess

UPDATE (9:24) AND HINT: Pay close attention to what type of tree that is.....


Guess the names of these photos.

The winner will receive a $20 gift card to Starbucks and the book "Damsels in Distress" by Martha Peace.

Remember, they are already named. You have to guess what we named them.

Have fun!


#1























#2

















See you in the comments.

Contest at Just Janet

Just because.

I have two funny photos I want to share.

They are already named and you have to try to guess what we named them.

Let's do it Friday Morning.

Prizes, you ask? Of course!!

$20 gift card to Starbucks and "Damsels in Distress" by Martha Peace, a book I've never read but trust me, I'm sure it is excellent.

Rules? IDK. First one to guess the names of the photos wins. Janice may not participate cuz that would be cheating.

P.S. The Master Photographer and Contest Holder has inspired me to hold my own humble little contest. I'm hoping for 5 comments.

Pictures of Progress

The Bathroom


























































The Office

Happy Birthday To Sarah

My Sarah Hope
My petite one.

Happy 9th Birthday.

I love you.
Mom

Progress

With pictures later in the day!

The guys arrived at 6:30 AM and so far they have accomplished:

Vanity installed
Counter tops on
Mirrors hung
Bookshelves up
Crown moulding started
Door casings started

LUNCH BREAK.

***********

My hubby did the rest of the painting and laminate floors while Janice and I had the kids in Flagstaff. It was our last chance to go up North before school starts and we agreed that since Dave had to work at our store on Saturday and figure out how to do the floors it would be good for us to be out of his way. We came home to beautiful wood floors. He did a great job!!

Janice and I had a wonderful time up North. We took the kids to Snow Bowl Ski Resort and rode the chair lift. We were at 11,500 feet elevation! The views were breathtaking. As we started on our way down Lauren said "you can see the whole world from here". She was fearless and sat on the edge of the chairlift dangling and swinging her feet. I can't say the same about her Auntie and one sister. :)

One other highlight was seeing a herd of elk, probably 50+, grazing in the meadow. We drive out to the meadow almost every night looking for the elk. Hannah was just convinced that they had picked another spot but on our last night we had the thrill of finding them just at dusk. We also saw two yearling elk in a neighborhood. They were not spooked at all. They were casually roaming through the yards eating leaves and startling home owners and their dogs. We don't know where Mama was and wonder why they were seperated from the herd.

More later.

I'm Here!

But I am buried under a thin, annoying layer of dry wall dust. :)

The remodel project has continued to go well but I think you would be terribly bored with pictures of walls with dry wall sheets and now textured walls.

We met with the contractor today and Dave and I will paint the two rooms tonight and tomorrow and then Dave will lay the Bruce hardwood laminate over the weekend.This is the one we picked.












The contractor will come back on Tuesday to finish the baseboards, door casings, crown moulding and put the bathroom together: vanity, mirrors, counter tops, sinks, faucets,lights and casings.

My main computer has been unplugged. It was hilarious. The dry wall guy asked me to move it out of the way so he could spray the texture. I just started pulling every plug I could get my hands on and a few days later James asked me why I pulled ALL the plugs. "Um, cuz, I just did? I was in a hurry and I didn't know what to do." James quickly turned on enough equipment to get our remote lap tops running. I'm so glad the kids are smarter than I am.

I should be able to post some pictures of the newly painted rooms in a few days and then by next week I'll post pictures of the new floors.

All else is well but I would appreciate prayers on my behalf, not relating to remodeling but much bigger issues that are heavy on my heart.

What A Difference A Day Makes!

This is a before picture. The packing and digging out phase.

















I *heart* this wall. It is the precious thing that separates the new office from my bedroom.


















Here she is from the other side. Beautiful, eh? Dry wall already!!





















Here is what you see coming down the hall. The new pocket door is installed and out of site (open). I imagine we'll leave the doors open most of the time. You used to see a flat, white wall when you'd walk down that hall and now it is bright and cheery and open!






















This is the girl's bathroom. It will feel much smaller but it will be much more functional. The door will allow girls to shower and use the potty while other girls apply make-up and brush their teeth. And they will get a second sink. Yipee


















This is the vanity spot. Did I mention the girls will have two sinks. TWO. DOS.

I better run. I still need to go to Lowe's and the plumber comes tomorrow at 6AM, it will be another early morning.

It Has Begun!

The contractors arrived at 6AM and are drilling, hammering, hauling and smashing! It is going to be a full day. Right now there is plastic hanging between our room and the new office and they created an opening in the hallway where the new door will be. Already I can see that we are going to love having that open to the hall. It's bright and the hall will flow nicely in to the new room.

There are three men working today. We know all of them from our old church. We are so blessed to have them in our home! One is 21 and I've know him and his family since he was 6! I have tried not to embarrass him terribly but he sure has grown up to be a nice young man.

I have snapped a few pictures and I will post them later.

This is fun and exciting. We've never done anything like this before.

I could not resist posting this picture. I think Janice will apprecitate the humor.

Let The Remodelling Begin

We are getting ready to remodel two rooms in our house! I'll clarify. 'We' hired a general contractor who will be remodelling our rooms. I used 'we' loosely. 'We' don't have the skilz or patience for a diy job right now.

We have a sitting area off our master bedroom that we use as an office and a library and computer room. We are going to put up a wall between our room and the office and open it up to the common hallway. I am so excited for this wall. It has been rather annoying having to look at a disorganized mess of an office. Our master bedroom is a very large room so I won't mind at all that we are losing the space. Eventually we plan on creating a nice sitting area in our master. I can already imagine the peace and quiet of my new bedroom area.

















One wall of the new room will look similar to this only there will not be a door. We will have an entire wall of built-in bookshelves!! I imagine we will have a children's section and a few baskets and knick knacks along with our books.






















I saw these baskets at Pottery Barn yesterday. The small square one will fit perfectly on our new shelves and help with storage.



















We also ordered two of these babies from Lane!!!! Or something very similar anyway. We chose black. We thought it would be a nice contrast to the white built-ins. I can hear myself snoring already. :) See how the chair is situated in the first picture above? That's what we're going to do in our room.

My husband would be upset with me if I failed to mention the canned and tract lighting, the HD Vizio television and surround sound audio system. There. I mentioned it. No pictures.

The other room that we are remodelling is the girl's bathroom. Maybe I'll write about that tomorrow.

Happy Day In Glendale

A Coach store has made its way to the "West side" and that makes me smile.

This fragrance is lovely, a little pricey but very nice. You know how much I love nice perfumes. Now if they'd carry this one at Sam's I'd be good to go. Remember, I got my favorite Ralph Lauren perfume at Sam's Club?! And it was huge. Go figure.
















Here is a handy purse size.












And how cute are these? I adore them but doubt that I will be sporting Coach ballet flats any time soon. Still, I can appreciate their cuteness (made up word) and dream.

New Music

Now back with their sophomore album release, The Twenty-First Time—its first on Reunion Records—Monk & Neagle deliver a storyteller’s delight, full of deep spiritual conviction, high-octane fun, passionate imagination, and sincere, heartfelt worship. A road-worthy soundtrack for life from start to finish, The Twenty-First Time beckons you to listen and follow.

~~~~~~~

You won't be disappointed.

BooMama directed me to these two cool guys. I love their sound.

My favorite is "Beautiful" and I also love "The Twenty-First Time".

Visit them here and listen to a few of their songs on the new CD.

I won a free CD yesterday! How cool is that?

Oh, and go buy one for yourself on 9/18/07.

Mountians Without Water

Last Saturday, Janice, my girls, cousin Abby and I went to a small national park just East of Flagstaff. It was only about 3-4 miles off the freeway and there you are nestled in a huge canyon filled with culture and history. The most interesting part of this were the ancient cliff dwellings. The girls were so happy to see them and get to step in to each and every one. Boys I'm sure would have been playing bows and arrows but the girls had fun imagining what the natives wore, what each room was used for, how they started fires, what they ate and how they slept on the hard rocks!

Read about Walnut Canyon National Park. It is a beautiful place.



The dwellings on the opposite side of the canyon.















The Sinagua people were short! The average height of a woman was 5'0. This gives you a perspective. Hannah is about 5'7.



















Here is a good example of the beautiful work of the Sinagua people. Imagine the time and energy it took to build theses walls.















Cute girls.









Here we are, Twin A and Twin B standing in a different area of the canyon. Look behind us and notice the fur and pine trees. Isn't that amazing? Compare it to the first picture where all you see it harsh rock structures and more desert-like landscape. This area clearly gets more shade and the pines can grow.

The climb out of the canyon was KILLER. I kept thinking how horrible it would be to have a heart attack and die on a day like this.....Janice and I were huffing and puffing. The girls? They ran ahead of us and beat us by a good 10 minutes. Lauren was wearing flip flops. What a trooper and what a bad mommy.

Yes, I'm wearing my glasses. I ripped a contact that morning. Bummer.

Amy, remember how you've been wanting to visit the Grand Canyon? We'll this would be a fun little side trip. C'mon, girl. What? You just gave birth?




One last picture. I know, not very PC. But then again, I am not PC.

There you have a post. Phew, the peer pressure was getting to me.

Love, Janet. Happy to be Conagua.

The Best One Yet!

Is your mouth watering yet?



Mexican Chip Dip
12 oz. cream cheese
1/2 C. sour cream
1/2 C. salsa
2 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
2 C. shredded Mexican cheese
1 jar of green olives (slice)
1 can of black olives (slice)
1 bunch of green onions (chop)
2-3 Roma tomatoes (chop)

Mix together cream cheese, sour cream, chili powder and cumin. Add salsa after mixture is soft. Spread in to a serving platter, add other ingredients on top. Refrigerate. Serve with chips. Enjoy!















How many variations of this dip have you tried?

This one is by far the most delish.

It's the olives, of course!!

Bad Boy!

I had an interesting night last night but I need to back up and tell you what we did for the 4th of July in order for you to GET my story.

We always have a 4th of July party and this year would be no different except it was going to be earlier in the day so we could all leave and go watch fireworks. It was expected to be about 114 degrees outside and I didn't think one pool would suffice so I went shopping and bought the kids a Wham-O Slip and Slide (which was a huge hit) and a silly little blow up pool with a silly little blow up slide for the silly little girls that were going to be at the party. Everyone had a ball!

The next day I moved the slip and slide off the grass but I left the blow up pool. Nancy's dog Mack (pictured above, we've had him for 4 years) has been spotted drinking out of the pool and also standing in it. We were watching him yesterday hoping he would plop down and take a little (shallow) swim. You see, Mack is 14 and is beginning to do some very odd things. Lately, he has been barking from the kitchen at 5 am. Laying comfortably on the floor BARKING, at 5 AM. So we were curious to see what he would do in that pool.

Now back to last night. He came to our room at 3 AM and because I was awake I got up to let him out and wait for him to come back to our doors. I sat down in our rocker and waited for him to come to the door. He was taking FOREVER and I even dosed off waiting. Finally, he appeared at the door and pushed it open with his nose and greeted me. Of course it is pitch black in our room but I noticed something funny about him. He appeared to be wet and within one second, standing right in front of me, at my level he shakes a big full shake. I'm now soaked in grassy water from the silly blow up pool AT 3 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. Evidently Mackie took an early morning swim. OK, I'm awake now and a little grossed out but I am laughing very hard because well, it's funny and he's precious, he's 14 and he's the best dog in the whole wide world and we have enjoyed him so much since we've had him!!

I can't imagine life without Mack.

Mama's Happy

It was time.

It was waaaaay past time for James to get a haircut. Dad and Mom said so.

He's a good kid and went willingly and this is what he told the barber to do....


















I had to do everything in my power to keep from jumping up and down, screaming happy screams and kissing the barber and James. Watching that hair fall to the ground was absolutely glorious. I am doing a happy dance right now.

Here's one more picture just for fun.

He looks older in this shot doesn't he?


















Yea for short hair!!!!