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!!!!

Perspective

Janice asked in the comments about the house we rented in Oceanside. She wanted a perspective of how close it was to the water. I took these last year. I stood in the same spot and just turned around 180 degrees. The beach was different this year. I think it must have been graded because there was a slope down to the water. The tide also seemed to come in higher than last year.

Back To Life

We are home from our annual trip to Oceanside, California. We had perfect weather, no one got sick or injured so I consider it a success! I have hit the floor running as they say and we are back to our busy summer routine of swim team, volleyball clinic and basketball. I have also been catching up on the laundry and unpacking. We made a trip to Costco today and filled the house with food so we are good to go, now I just need to cook something.

Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Hot!

If you have nothing better to do with your time you should watch my little weather pixie girl in my right side bar. By the end of the day she will be sporting a cute little bikini. I spotted her late yesterday afternoon because the temperature here got to 107. Today the temp should reach 108-110. Yea. I'm looking forward to the beach temperatures and ocean breeze.

And yes, that is what I look like in a bikini, I just choose not to wear one because I am more modest than weather girl.

He Said, She Said

We are heading out for our annual San Diego trip on Saturday morning.



Dave: Janet! Look at all of this junk. Don't you realize there are grocery stores in California too. Ralph's is right down the street.

Janet: Well! I don't want to spend my vacation in the grocery store. And anyway, the minute we pull our of our driveway someone will get hungry and thirsty. When we arrive you'll all need to go to the bathroom and stare at me looking for the TP and then someone will throw up and I'll need the paper towel and Children's Motrin. A teenager will get a bloody nose and need the box of Kleenex. Once we're done with the toilet, throwing up and Kleenex they'll head out to the beach and get burnt to a crisp without the sunscreen . They will be hungry and thirsty again and can eat Trail Mix and drink Capri Sun because that is just how we eat at the beach. And oh, the Diet Coke? Don't you even go there, dear Dave.

*****************************

Haircuts with cousin Ashley!

Yummy!

A few months ago Donna linked to the blog Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and I followed the link like a good, obedient, younger sister. I have been hooked ever since.

Ree is an amazing woman, photographer, cook, ranch babe and mommy of four! She has a great sense of humor and writes much better than this, but most all of you who read this blog write much better than this. :)

Ree also started up a recipe blog and whoa horsey, the recipes are amazing! I almost shed tears when I saw she posted a recipe for Rotel. Not your normal Rotel, but as she refers to it, Rotel on steroids!! I made it on Sunday afternoon and it did not disappoint. She received some blasphemous comments about it being too spicy and that the picture didn't make it look very appetizing. Well let me tell ya, real woman like spice ;-) and it is beautiful and appetizing. K!?

Here is my picture of Rotel on Steroids. That is James modelling for the picture, he couldn't keep his paws out of the stuff.

















Should I try the bread pudding next?

About Those Gloves

Look at what Amy found!

She said they are also sold at Sur La Table.

So, do you have a favorite?

Thank you Amy. :)

180 degrees

Now that's what I call repentance!

Good job, brother.

Kim and Aggie

These two ladies are the Simon Cowell of house cleaning!

Well, they are the sweet version.














I love them and we are hooked on the show How Clean Is Your House?

We recently got DVR on our Directv system and Dani is recording every episode for us. We watch and laugh and cringe and on occasion my stomach turns, seriously, some people live like slobs!! Hannah said that the people on the show make us look near perfect. :) I do wish Kim and Aggie would pay me a little visit and help me whip my laundry room and office area in to shape!

I love their English and Scottish accents and their bold remarks about the utter filth that they find these people living in. I took notes last night.

Here is an example of what they say and how they phrase it.....


Lovey, look at all of this rubbish!

Look at this absolute filth.

How can you live in this vile state?

When was the last time you tidied up this place?

This stench is bloody horrible.

Your loo is wretched, lovey.

I have never seen such grime.

That smell is just putrid, chap!

Don't you own a dust bin?

Get me some washing up liquid, quickly.


We watch the show on
BBC America and I just discovered it is also on
Lifetime TV. I'll be sure to let Dani know so she can record those also.

Here is a little more information on the darling hosts, if you must know more.

I'm searching the net for the fancy rubber gloves they wear. I'll be sure to let you know if I find them, lovey. :)

Summer!!

You see this motley crew? I had to deal with all of them on Thursday...all day. :) I decided that since I would be caring for 9 young people for an entire day it needed to turn in to a pool party complete with pizza and Popsicles. I set out to accomplish nothing and nothing was accomplished except these children were well cared for and fed. In this picture you see my 5 children, Janice's 2 boys and 2 girls who are staying with us for 3 days. (That spells T.I.R.E.D.)

















Here you have a picture of me. Lovely isn't it?

Once I get rid of all these children (hehehe) I will continue to work on tanning my feet and sneak away for a pedicure. A much needed pedicure.

How is your summer going?

Fun Times, For Sure

These are pictures of our activities on Saturday while we were up north. These pictures represent the GOOD PARTS. Because, letmetellya, there were a few bad parts, mostly having to do with our Rhino and a tree. Long story, all is well now, except our pocket book.....


Below we have a bunch of cousins sitting in dried mud. Hey, it makes for a great bench!!


















Sarah and her cousin Andrew.


















Lauren learning how to drive with Daddy very nearby.


















HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HANNAH (15)AND DANI (12) !!!



















The cheesecake was from Sam's and it was delish! Actually much better than Costco's. Dave picked it up for us while he was in Flagstaff buying 4 new tires for our Suburban because 2 went flat the day before. Oh, yeah, we're sticking to the 'good parts' of this weekend.

Can you see the plastic placemat under the cheesecake? Yes, the one with brown mushrooms on it! For the record, I'd like to say that it is not mine. I have no control over the decor in that cabin. K? :-)

Giddy Up

We've been up in Mund's Park since Thursday night.

This is what we did on Friday afternoon....
























Lauren couldn't go on the one hour ride but she got to ride the horsey before we left for our ride. Can you see her excitement? I love the one with her squeezing the horn with all her might.

Do you see the person in front of me in the blue shirt? That is Dave's 75 year old mother! What a trooper. She grew up on a farm in Kentucky so this was nothing out of the ordinary for her. Except she had mules.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I've always loved horses and used to ride them when I lived in Wisconsin. I hadn't been on a horse in 20 years! My only regret is that we didn't get to run them. I held back a few times so I could get a little trot in but that was it, no running allowed. It's probably a very good thing we didn't run, I was very sore. The outside of my knees and my bum just ached!!

Next post, Saturday's pictures.