Lawn remodel

Last summer we decided that we wanted to remove the evergreen hedge that separated the upper and lower west lawns. With it there we never used the lower lawn, it just was out of sight, out of mind.  We wanted to move the trampoline to that lower west lawn and thought that it would be nice if the whole lawn was opened up for use. So we had Jim come up with the tractor and pull all the evergreens out except for the end one by the steps on the south side. Then we left it alone for the winter.
This year we dug out weeds and Curtis rototilled it to remove rocks and roots. We raked it and smoothed it, and spread new grass seed and then used my dad's old metal lawn-roller to press the seed into the soil.
The trick was to keep the soil moist while the seed germinated. That took a few weeks but by the end of summer we had a nice, gently sloping lawn that saw plenty of use this summer. It will continue to fill in in the coming years and someday no one will know there was ever a huge hedge there.

roots and rocks dug out and raked, smoothed and flattened

we removed the rock steps at the north end of the yard

Lawn now (Oct 2014)

Greenhouse?

One of the challenges we face living here in SE Utah at 7000 ft. is gardening. We have a very short growing season and it's very dry and windy, especially winds from the south and southwest. Last year we put one garden box in but the poor little plants just got beaten to death by the wind and didn't get enough warmth to actually reach maturity. It was a bit depressing.

 This the the south side of our house. We have been pondering the feasibility of attaching a greenhouse type room onto this end of the house. It's a huge blank wall that attracts lots of sunshine. The greenhouse would be able to use that heat and the plants would be protected from the wind by being enclosed. 

It's not in the cards this year, but we are hoping that it will become a reality in the near future. Growing our own produce would be so helpful to our family.

Help!

I'm trying to choose a way to paint my kitchen cabinets so I can live with them for a few more years without wanting to scream everytime I see them. They have been white with red knobs for about 10 years and it's time for an update. We were hoping to replace them, but with the job sitch that's not going to happen for a while. (See the above picture for the current kitchen. The plywood in the floor will be covered with an island at some future point as well, as we can afford to purchase the cabinets.)

What I really want to do is paint the lower cabinets either espresso(really dark brown, almost black) or black and do the upper cabs in an oatmeal color with some glazing. I've also thought about adding some trim to the doors, since they are just flat.

I could just repaint them in white and get new hardware, but they get so dang dirty all the time. I am wanting to do something that hides fingerprints and crud a bit better.

What do you think???? Will it look goofy to have our old white appliances in a black/cream kitchen until we can get the stainless ones we are planning on?

**edited to add the stupid blogger won't let me add spaces or indent my paragraphs for easier reading. Stupid blogger!**

Just Random Thoughts and Pics to Share

Another of our 'fun' inquiries. The girls were to research and make a "macaroni" hairdo out of shaving cream. You can't tell from the picture but they each had either a 'queue' or ponytail hanging off the back, or a bun. This was tons of fun for them until it came to the clean up part. They had shaving cream EVERYWHERE!!!!

Just a few pictures from Halloween. If you know me, you know I have an intense 'dislike' for Halloween. Therefore I do not go all out for it and I'm happy(?) to note that my attitude seems to be rubbing off on the kids. All but the youngest two decided not to dress up and go trick-or-treating. (14 year old changed his mind at the last minute and went out with friends). But we confined our celebrating to carving pumpkins, answering the door to trick-or-treaters, and eating the leftover candy--trick-or-treaters were gone by 7:30. We made jack-o-lantern pizzas and watched a movie as well. We did dress up the Soren and Sadie and let them go up one side of our street and down the other. Can't figure out why the girls laid out the plastic and then carved the pumpkins on the concrete anyway. What was the point?

Curtis has been working on building himself a larger shed in the place our old small one used to be. Part of the project included removing the concrete pad that was the floor. It was such a difficult task, he had to recruit some 'help'! Any bets on how effective this 'help' was? It was the cutest thing ever. You should have seen his eyes light up when Curtis asked him if he wanted a turn. (he does have eye protection on, it's just hard to see)

Pregnancy front: Just did the glucose screen last week. Haven't heard back yet, but don't anticipate any problems. I did get a call that my iron was low, so back on iron pills I go. Ick!! I've only had problems with this in these last two pregnancies. Wonder if it's because I'm so "old"?

Mission front: Doing well, from what we hear. Still busy working in several small towns. Has one really good investigator family they are working with. Hopefully, that will lead to some baptisms. He loves that he is within the two hour radius of the temple in Billings so that he can attend the temple once in a while. He was able to go last week. He said it's getting cold, and snow has been seen. Hope he's warm enough. I need to get some Christmas things together for him. 

So excited for Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday!! Interesting that it follows on the heels of my least favorite...Hmmmm. Looking forward to time with family and lots of yummy food.

WE PASSED!!!

Hallelujah!

We got enough done on this house for the mortgage company to be satisfied and release our construction funds from escrow. Now we have some savings again.

So, what did DH do the day after all this was over?






Knocked out the big kitchen window and the wall below it to form the new entrance into the dining room. That's the new 'doorway' into the dining room above. A preliminary step to removing the entire wall.



Next he will fill in the old doorway and frame my new pantry! The pantry will fill the entire wall you see to the right. The red tape on the floor indicates where it will be. Hoohoo, all my appliances can have a home someplace other than the top of my refrigerator.


Never ending fun around here I tell ya, but at least we don't have to have it done on anyone else's timetable now!

Never Thought It Would Happen....

A month or so ago we had a little issue with a child checking a book out of our library that I wish had never come into my home. Let's just say that I was shocked and appalled when I found out. I learned a few things, first, the library will allow anyone to check out anything at anytime.
Second, I better make sure I know what my kids are checking out and looking for at the library.
I had to go in and make some changes so that they are now not able to check anything out without my presence and permission. I also sat down and wrote a letter to the library expressing my disappointment that such a book was in the young adult section and that minor children were allowed to check out such books. I asked them to consider removing it from the library or at the very least marking it in some way that would make it impossible to check out without a parent's permission. I sent it off, never dreaming that they would do anything about it or even respond. Imagine my surprise when I received a letter in the mail this week from them. It stated that they understood my concerns and that they had discussed this book more than once since receiving my letter. The most that they felt they could do was remove its Young Adult designation and put an adult designation on it. Granted I know that in reality that means nothing, since all the YA and A non-fiction books are shelved together, so if a person looks up said book, it's probably still in the same place. I am just amazed that they took the time to discuss the book and the issue of its place in the library, and also to write me a return letter.

And, yeah, we have had a good, long chat with this child about what happened. I hope that now we are clear on what is and what is not allowable in the way of media in our home. I guess up til now I've still been in that blissful place called Naivete'. No longer, I've just had a rough landing in the land of Reality!

On the Primary front: As of tomorrow we will finally have a new Music Leader. HOORAY! I'll be glad to hand off that responsibility! Still working on the secretary and some new Nursery Leaders. Ugh!

Mission front: all's going well. Sent home some wonderful pictures and funny video clips from the MTC. With one of them I didn't realize it was a video until I saw my son walk across the room. That really gave my heart a leap, to actually 'see' him after so long. It was awesome. They were playing tricks on the elders just coming in that day and hiding in the closets! Silly boys!

House front: had our last building inspection yesterday with the city. They passed us on everything except we need to get our cabinets in the office area, to conceal the wires sticking out of the wall. Hooray!

School front: Boys are gearing up for school, we got all their school supplies this week, just need to get a few more uniforms for them. I have lots to do to get things ready for school here at home. Need to get a costume made for our first historical 'visitor' of the year. That's the most pressing issue right now.....getting excited to get going!

Have a great weekend!

Okay, Here are the pictures.

Here are some pictures of my new dining room. It's 15 x 16.5 ft. That's a huge space compared to what we've been cramped into for the last 10 years. The old dining space is part of the kitchen and you have to go through it to get to the stairs. Such a pain. We figured with 7 children, we will eventually have huge family gatherings to host so we needed more space to accomplish that.


This skinny space is my new office/scrap/craft area. It started out designed to be a mud room with cubbies for the kids, but since I am now home schooling them, we don't have a need for all the backpacks and stuff and more need for a space for all of our school supplies. The wall on the left and wrapping to the back wall will have cabinets and counter space for my printers, computer, Cricut and sewing machine. I told C he can have one little corner for his 'stuff'. Hoping to get good drawers for art supplies and gift wrapping, and use the upper cabinets for my scrap-crap. Still toying with the idea of going totally digital and getting rid of all the other stuff. We'll see. I don't imagine I'll really sit in that little space to create anything, just a way to have it accessible yet mostly out of the way.






These next two pictures are just to show the wood floor I chose. Yes, I CHOSE! Anyone who knows me knows what an accomplishment that is. I'm a very indecisive person as a general rule. But I LOVE this floor. I love all the color variation and the knots and the smell. I thought it was hickory that I wanted but this is Australian Cypress. The color on the walls is Rejuvenation, Behr from Home Depot. Still not sure I'm crazy about it, it's a bit springier-green than I wanted, but I'll live with it for a while and see if it grows on me. It will probably look nice with the black or dark brown cabinetry we will eventually have.




The last picture is my RED wall. I've always wanted to have a red wall so since this wall will eventually be removed when we do the final steps of our addition I thought it would be a great place to test out having a 'red' wall. This used to be the back wall of our kitchen, hence the windows. When we remove it the only part of it that will be left is the small portion with the breaker box on it, everything else will be gone. And I'll have an L-shaped kitchen with a HUGE island and a large pantry closet (where our table currently lives) instead of the dinky little U-shaped kitchen, with no storage, that I have now. None of the plumbing has to be moved and the fridge is the only appliance to be moved. So except for the cabinets, it's really a cheap kitchen redo.

I'm hoping soon to move my dining table out here and to get rid of all the construction junk and tools. Not sure what we're going to do with those honey supers. That's the stack of white boxes. That's our harvest of honey from last year that we never got 'spun'. They weigh about 45 lbs a piece. Yum! Guess it'll serve as some sort of decor until we get it 'spun' out.

Well, what do you think? Worth the last four+ years of turmoil? There were many times I wished we had never dug that blasted hole, but I'm so happy with how it's turning out and the extra time has allowed us to rethink and revise and make more practical decisions. For me, it was definitely worth it!

Nutso-rama!

I was really thinking that our summer was going to be so laid back. We didn't have any grandiose plans to go anywhere and with the cost of gasoline, we were just going to kick around at home. Oh, well, yes, there are a couple of scout camps in there. . . . and a youth conference. . . . . and a trip to see some plays at the Shakespeare Festival, but that's not much. HA! I'm starting to feel like this June was a repeat of last June. We didn't go big, fancy places, but one or another of us has been gone to something, somewhere for the last 4 weeks. Montana and Ford have been gone to Youth Conference since Tues and should be home sometime today. It's been rather strange and VERY quiet around here. Next week Ford heads off to one last Scout Camp at Entrada, near Moab. I think he's about worn himself out. On the missionary front: Jordan is now in his first area; Helena, the state capital. He likes his companion and had dinner with some people who knew his Grandpa Welch, but that's about all we've heard. He's never been one to use too many words. (roll eyes) We miss him a lot, but are getting used to only having six kids at home and all fitting around the table for meals. On the Addition front: We are this close to getting our addition done. Siding is on, not painted yet. All the lights and outlets are connected, just need to do one more thing in the breaker box, or something, not sure I understood what he was saying to me. The wood floor is gorgeous, I love it and I'm so glad I got what I loved rather than settling for something cheaper. We will have to wait a bit on cabinets now, but I'm okay with that. I'm looking at cabinets for my scrap/office area. Just the cheapest white ones at IKEA. I am going to get the upper ones now, and just use the long banquet tables til we can get the base cabinets and countertops. So excited to get all this stuff out of my bedroom! On the Homeschool front: After learning about EPIC Adventures and how they can work within a TJEd framework and heeding the feeling that I really needed to concentrate on the Founding of America this year, I am excited to have found at a bookstore in Cedar City a pre-written Epic Adventure called A Noble Birthright, Defending the Title of Liberty. I had looked at purchasing a downloadable version but really wanted to see what the inside looked like first, as I already had a type of US History format I was going to use. I was thrilled to find it at Classic Books in Cedar City and to find it for $10 less than the download price. I have read through it twice now and yesterday I took the time to plot it all out on the calendar so I could see how it could all fit in the Sept-May time slot. This will be mostly for me, I have felt so strongly the need to study this subject more, but this will be such a fun way for me to do You, Not Them and Inspire, Not Require and just invite them to come along for the fun with me. I have also already come up with some ideas for another Adventure, maybe for the following year? Not sure I feel up to writing my own, but maybe I'll feel braver about that after doing this one. The kids are doing well, the youngest girls are gearing up for their birthdays in the next 2 weeks. Hannah will be 9 and Sadie will be 7. Then Montana will turn 16 in August. He just got his wisdom teeth out plus another tooth for some orthodontic work, so that will put back his Driver's Ed for a while. Even with ins., the dental work was spendy! Ouch! He was such a cute little chipmunk! Thought we got a picture of him, but can't find it on our digital cards. Oh, well. Soren is getting to be quite the 2 year old. He is getting very ornery about helping out or picking up messes he's made and is so bold as to tell his parents "NO!" when asked to. He's learning to sit on his bed until he's ready to do what he's asked to do. So fun! He's still such a joy, though, and he makes us laugh all the time. He's just testing out his limits a bit and we know he's really a sweet kid, somewhere under that two-year old cover. Whew! If you made it that far, give yourself a smack on the forehead! You've got better things to do than read this.

Holy, Moly!

So much for the promised pictures. Curtis moved my washer and dryer before I could take 'before' pictures and the 'new' laundry room is still such a mess, drywall torn up to move ductwork and such that I don't want to take any 'after' pictures yet. But I promise, when this is done, I'll post a boatload.
Today they went and got the siding for the addition part. That is all we are siding right now, just need to have a 'finished' addition to satisfy the lenders. Eventually we will do the whole house. We are using Hardie board plank siding. Here's the color we want. It will be 7 in. planks with 5.5 inch trim around the edges and windows/doors. At the gable ends we have a 12 in. 'belly band' and above it will be board and batten. They got the trim up on the addition today and it's going to be AWESOME. I will have the coolest looking house on our street.
The trim will be all white, the cedar plank siding will be 'heathered moss' and we will have black accents, (lights, shutters, doors, etc.)
C got all the sheetrock hung, but he is having trouble with his right wrist and arm so we may be hiring a friend of ours to do the actual taping part, if he's willing. I didn't know til last night that C has been hurting for over a week. No wonder it's been a slow process to get all the sheetrock up, he was having trouble gripping the sheetrock and the sheetrock screwgun.
We also picked out our flooring. We decided to go with unfinished solid wood hickory. I LOVE hickory, I love the contrast in color and grain. Love the warm tones it brings in and I love that it's harder than oak, so I'm hoping it will wear well. We decided to go with painted/distressed black/brown cabinets on all our base cabinets and the uppers will be painted oatmeal with a dark brown glaze rubbed on. We may even throw in a red or green cabinet here or there. Love the mismatched look. I thought we would go with IKEA cabinets, but they are all so modern looking and I'm just a country hick at heart. I need a farmhouse, rustic look to feel comfortable.

Today's progress. . .

Fridays are the big day around here for getting a lot done on this addition. Our good friend and neighbor, D, is a building inspector for Provo, but he used to own his own business and that man loves to work with his hands and build things. So, since he doesn't work for the city on Fridays he comes to work here instead. He is the one who helped us with our design and the technical schtuff when we planned this addition. He has been a great mentor for C, teaching him much about framing, plumbing and anything else C asks about.
Today they removed the old back door that separated the new part of the house from the old. This is a precursor to finally getting to remove the wall that separates the kitchen from the new dining area. D spent the afternoon working on a new step for the area where the door jamb used to be. That door was one step down from the kitchen floor, with a landing at the top of the stairs that go down. So he had to build the new floor out into the area where the jamb used to be to meet that landing properly. I keep looking over there and thinking that I need to go shut the door. It will take some getting used to.
We also got all the plumbing in place to move the washer and dryer to their new location. C still needs to pour a little concrete around the new drain and put up some drywall behind where they will be, but they will be in their new home by tomorrow and I can finally be through with my laundry dungeon. Seriously, for the last 11 years my laundry area has been a tiny, windowless corner that I had to squeeze past the water softener to get to(a tight squeeze when I was pregnant!). I'll post a picture of the before and after tomorrow.

On my end of things, I finally got the three costumes made for the Shakespeare play. I needed a few more volunteer hours so I offered to sew costumes. I will take them to the school on Monday and record my hours. I sewed a vest for last year's play and it was a bugger. The material was so thick and hard to work with. This year's pattern was much simpler and the fabric much easier to work with. Hallelujah! I guess I ought to be thankful that my mom was a Home Ec. teacher and taught me to sew. I don't do it very often, but it's a handy skill to have when it's needed.

Moving Along

Well, as the deadline to finish our addition draws closer, its easier to see progress. Today we had the sheetrock hanging/texturing guy over to give us a bid and the electrician was here working all day. He will be back to finish up tomorrow. As soon as he finishes and we get our framing inspection we can put up the insulation and we'll be ready when the "Muddy Boys" show up to sheetrock next Monday.

Can I just tell you how exciting this is to me? The end of this overly long, four year project is almost in sight. This has been a good experience for us even though it's been a pain more often than not. I do not believe we will ever put ourselves through the headache of building anything again.

Certainly not a whole house.

I think we'll just keep looking til we find one that is already built that meets our needs/wants.

Or, we'll simply stay put!

p.s. I'll post a picture after the sheetrock is done!

Progress!

Yesterday we finally got a big enough break in the weather to get the trusses up that will form the roof of our new carport. This house has had a single car, flat-roofed, tacked on carport and it is SOOOOOO ugly. Plus it has started to leak in the last year, so we decided that part of finishing up the addition would be to put up a new carport that would just extend the house's roofline over the driveway and have it look like it is actually part of the house design and not an afterthought. The new carport will be higher, wider and longer and we will also extend the shed roof part at the front of it west to make a new porch roof as well. It will allow us to have a bigger porch and possibly even a fun bench or chairs on it. Next week we will get to strip off all five layers of old shingles and redo the entire roof. A prayer for nice sunny days would be appreciated.

C and I also took time today to step into what will become the girls new room and pin down the location of the closet. I wanted to give them a big walk in closet with plenty of space for their clothing and stuff, so that we won't need dressers and any other type of flat surface in their room to collect junk. Now C can put the can lights in and we can frame the wall between the storage room and the girls room as well as their closet. Each day we get a bit closer to having this space be usable. I'm not sure I'll know what to do when that becomes our reality. On the other hand, I'm sure I'll have no trouble adjusting to having that much more space....

We Survived!

Whew!!!!!!!!!!!

We made it through another Christmas!

Everyone had a good time and no one complained about what they got or didn't get. It was a little strange for J this year. Not much for him to open since there just wasn't any point to getting him things that he would just have to box up in a couple of months and store for two years. And since he hasn't put in his papers yet and we have no idea where he will be serving, we couldn't even get him things he will need soon. So cash it was. The other kids enjoyed opening their gifts, but I think the best thing was watching S opening his gifts. He still doesn't really understand what Christmas is all about, but he liked tearing the paper and playing with the toys he got. Guess he'll get to go through all that again, next week when he turns two.

We have had a relaxing week, nothing much going on, just hanging out at home together. We did take the kids and go bowling on Wed. J bowled his best game ever, 171. He really had his work cut out for him since his 13 yo girl cousin was breathing down his neck with a 153. Fun to watch them all interact and play.

I've been busy today trying to determine what to do with Singing time tomorrow. My brain hurts from thinking and pondering it and reading a bunch of ideas online.....OUCH! But I think what I have planned will be lots of fun. I hope the kids enjoy it. The learning curve for this calling is pretty steep, especially when a person has very little music experience and/or Primary experience. I haven't taught Primary for 18 years. I've been in Nursery and been an Activity Days leader, but haven't been in Sharing and Singing time for 18 years except for a few times when I've substituted. So much to learn!

Also been busy doing more reading to plan for the resuming of studying and learning at home, more TJEd info study and C and I have also been refining our plans for our addition, which now has a deadline to be finished. Hallelujah! We have about 90 days. Of course, the actual replacement of cabinets and such won't probably be done, but the rooms will be liveable and we can get the kids moved downstairs into their new room. Can't wait to have all that space in the new dining room. I'll post pictures as it comes together.

But it's a Dry Heat! Thank Goodness!

Wow, lots has happened since I last posted here. We got through those last crazy days of school and got Montana graduated from 8th grade on May 23rd and Jordan graduated from high school on May 24th. Thanks Mom and Dad, for making and taking the time to come up for that. It meant a lot to him and to me, too.

Just got back from spending 10 days in the suburban Atlanta, GA, area. C's parents have lived there for about 14 years now. We have never had the funds to take all of our kids and just go visit. We have been there as a family once, but so were all of C's siblings and their families and it was chaos. Fun chaos, but crazy anyway! I told C that our kids need the experience of being the only people at their house, so that they can spend lots of time with their grandparents and build bonds and memories. We asked them back in the fall where they would choose to go if our family could take a big trip and hands down, their answer was to Grandma and Grandpa Welch's house. Over Disneyland! And SeaWorld! (For what it's worth, I was with them all the way!)

So for Christmas we gave them this trip, just had to wait til school was out to make it happen. We had wanted to go during Spring Break, but that's when N had her twins and Grandma was out here, so we just waited for June.

We really had a fantabulous time. We are not hard to please and don't have to be entertained, but I think Grandma and Grandpa wanted to make it extra fun so the kids would always remember it. We visited Stone Mt. and shopped and played in water, fed ducks, rode the tram to the top and back, rode the train, visited the plantation and watched the laser show. We went to C's sister's, B's, house one day to swim and have some southern BBQ pork and such. It was nice to see their home and now have a frame of reference for them. The little girls had so much fun with their cousin, E, and even got to spend a night at her house. We went to the GA aquarium. It's big and there were tons of people. But the exhibits were great and the favorite was the walk thru tunnel with rays and whale sharks and huge fish, and the Great Barrier Reef simulation with all the intensely colored fish that live there. We walked from there to Centennial Park, where the Olympic Ring Fountain is. It was super hot and H and her cousin, E, were the only ones brave enough to go run through the fountains as the water jets danced around. They were about the only white kids there, which might have been strange for my other kids.

We also drove up to TN to visit C's oldest brother and his family. They have recently bought a new home out in the country and are trying very hard to follow the Prophet's counsel to get out of debt, get storage and be as self sufficient as possible. I was amazed at what they have done. They sold their much larger home in the city and bought a very small home with some land and I believe they probably own it free and clear or are very close to it. They have chickens and are looking to get maybe some lambs and goats. C's SIL, C, is a great gardener and has a large garden now, but is expanding it again. They have a large shop building which has an air-conditioned workshop room for R and his tools. He is an engineer and always tinkering with stuff and designing and building stuff. There is also a food storage room in there that is air-conditioned and lots of other storage on top of the workshop room. I love how they have simplified their lives and are so happy with the choices they have made. I came away from there so inspired to get my life and home in order so I can feel peace regardless of what may come.

We were also able to take in an Atlanta Braves game. I wasn't sure how the kids would handle this, since they can go quite long, but time seemed to pass quickly, and I never once heard, "When will it be time to go?" Unfortunately, the Braves lost, but they had two home runs which were awfully fun to cheer for.

C and I and his parents drove up to see the Georgia Guidestones near Elberton on Tuesday. We had heard of them and wanted to see them. Strange story and strange place. Reinforced the knowledge that there are groups of people on this earth working to undermine God's plan. The things written on the stones may sound good, but if you really look at them in the context of 'evil designs of conspiring men' you can't help but know that there really are people working for the other side. If you're curious about them, check here

The kids travelled wonderfully. On every single flight people commented on how well behaved they are and how polite. It was truly gratifying to hear that, because most of the time C and S and I were not seated near the other kids. We assigned each of the boys to be a travel buddy to a younger sister. They were to keep track of them in the airports and such and it worked wonderfully. I will have no qualms about travelling with them again.

We got home on Wed and I had so much I wanted to get started on, but I think I must have found some water from Mexico somewhere. I ended up with upset insides and today is the first day that I've had any energy or felt able to do anything.

Plans in the the pipeline are to move J downstairs and the girls upstairs so we can cut the hole through to the new girls room and get the new furnace/AC unit in and move the water heater and frame the new girls room and yada, yada, yada. I wish I could just twitch my nose and have all this work done and my house perfectly finished. I'm tired of living in a half completed home. Samantha Stevens, where are you when you're needed????

Hey, it's May!

Wow, time flies when you're having...............fun? Is that what I've been having? I wouldn't classify it as fun, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

For some reason the last two months of school always find me scrambling trying to keep up. There are so many projects due and papers due and activities to wrap up the year, and by the time the end of May comes I am WASTED, EXHAUSTED, DEAD!! This year is no exception. We've been pushing J to finish up his district packets and online course so he can graduate. I think he squeaked those in under the wire at the last minute. Then there were two required science fair projects this year. F has a big research paper type thing due tomorrow and I know he's not close to being done. I've been sewing and altering costumes for the Shakespeare play that the 8th graders are doing this year. They are doing 12th Night. M has the part of a sea captain, Antonio. He is supposed to have a sword fight, but there is talk of cutting that out and he is hoping they don't do that. That was what was most exciting for him. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I have been in charge of that for F's class. I have one more thing to put together for tomorrow and then that will be done. Hooray! And last but not least, I had to make my VT calls. I am learning how important it is to call your VT supervisor after doing your visiting teaching, since I find I'm having to do lots of chasing down of people to get their report. This is a particularly hard time of year with all the students moving and not calling their report in before they go. But it's done too.

The next things on my to-do list are making a couple of costumes for the girls for Shakespeare week, F too I guess, and getting pictures of J so we can make some graduation announcements.

At this point I am just trying to keep my head above water. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand to get water up my nose, which is why I only learned to put my face in the water without nose plugs at the age of 28 and that was for about 2 seconds. Hate that drowning feeling and I hate this one too! But this will pass.

On a brighter note, my FIL came by yesterday, in town for a few days, and framed the wall between my new dining room and mud room for me. It is so fun to be able to step out into that room and really be able to visualize the space and how it's all going to fit. So nice of him.

C is in Monticello today for a picnit for George Wythe College. They are in the process of trying to move their campus from Cedar City to Monticello. The land they have has been donated and purchased and it's on land that my father used to own. It's really such a coincidence, because C has wanted to attend that school for over 2 years now and when my parents told me that it was moving to Monticello I just chuckled. They had no idea that we had any knowledge of it. I'm really hoping that now the possibility for him to attend will open up and for our kids too. I am amazed at the 'education' they offer. Hope they have good weather for the picnic today.

A Roof, We have a Roof!!!

Wow, it has finally happened. C and D(friend who knows construction) have been busy as little bees working up on our roof the last two days and finished putting in the large beam that will hold up the roof when we remove the kitchen wall, finished the trusses and got the sheathing done and I believe they are now putting down the tar paper stuff. I'm beyond excited. From here on out, with the exception of the plumbing and electrical stuff, C can do lots of the work himself. Next on the agenda are a door and windows and duct work for the new rooms so we can put in a new furnace and A/C. Wahoo!

Speaking of bees, we got a new batch today for our second hive! We are hoping to get lots more honey this year with a well established hive from last year and a new hive as well. Go girls!!!

We have been busy this week trying to get the yard looking better. Got a few more annuals for the raised flower bed, a garden hook for a hanging plant (still not sure what to plant in it) and also planted a few potatoes in the garden. The beans and corn I planted in a little started box last week are growing like crazy. Wish I dared put them out, but I need to wait a bit longer so they won't get frozen like the tomato C planted last week. Poor little thing. Still no peas or lettuce up yet.

Well, I ought to update my habits.....ok, it was a so-so week. Started out great, but as the week went on and I got busier with committments at school, ie; fitting costumes for the Shakespeare play and driving for the Kindergarten field trip as well as a dr. appt, I sort of forgot or was just too darn tired.
I'm going back over my list and the one that I see I've really slipped on is my exercise. So that's what I'm going to focus on this week again. So hard to get back into it after doing nothing for 3 weeks. Ugh! But I know it will help in all areas of my life. I love how I feel about myself when I am active and that it makes me want to eat more healthily. So that's my habit re-do! Check out Lara's blog for more info on Smart Habit Saturday's. Join in for a chance to win prizes!

I got two fun packages in the mail in the last week. The first was for getting my name drawn over at Wendy's blog and she was WAY generous. It was full of fun things like foam stamps, acrylic paint, rub-on's, charms, frames, ribbon and more. Then a couple of days later my name was drawn in a contest over at Christy's blog, and I just got that fun package today. She sent an adorable little felt covered notebook(red-one of my favorite colors) and some great papers and embellishments to go with it. I'm still trying to figure out a fun thing to do with it. Any suggestions? It's about 3x5 big. I'm still so amazed that I was lucky twice in a week's time. Thanks so much Wendy and Christy, 8-D!!