What Happens When . . .

This is what happens when you are not tired . . . apparently.

I am home from church today with Hazel and Elsie. I have subsequently "wasted" away my time blog-hopping and blog posting. Elsie has been sleeping and Hazel, in obvious boredom has spent the past two hours alternately standing at my side looking at blogs with me and kneeling on the chair next to me --- just staring at me. Amazed that if she stares into my eyes, she can see the computer screen. :) "Mom, I can see it in your eyes -- that's how you see it, huh? If I couldn't see it in your eyes, then your eyes wouldn't work, huh?" :) 

I finally told her to go lay down, or at least stop staring at me -- as it makes me feel weird to be stared at - staring at my eyes. She informed me that she was not tired. That she didn't need to take a nap today. She's NOT tired.

Apparently.

A few more projects

So January and February are always odd months for me. The holidays are over and Spring (in Idaho) is still too far away. (Is there no SUN in this cursed country?? :) I usually end up in do-nothing mode, where I spot clean, immerse myself in the false reality of books, and roll about in patches of sunshine on the carpet. Wishing away the cold, cloudiness and dirty snow - dreaming of taking my ladies to the park while I bask in the sun. Dreaming of what I'm going to do in my newly discovered yard. Dreaming in lounging in the hammock I bought Nels for his birthday, between our trees while my girls play in their "new" swimming pool. ((((sigh)))) Heavenly, huh?

. . . . (((more sighs))) . . . .

Okay, so THAT'S what I do most years. :) :) THIS year, however, my restless yearning has taken a different route. Crazed activity. Taking on project after project - another before the previous is even finished. I'm not sure exactly what has caused this --- maybe having more children and realizing that I can no longer afford whiling away the hours in dreamland --- or maybe all the dreams of playing in the yard and wanting to complete the INSIDE before I take on the OUTSIDE. Who knows, but I've been a mad woman - with my brain going a million different directions. Friday I finished my chair that I've been recovering. I've realized that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE refinishing furniture. Taking something old and ugly and making it something new and beautiful and hip. I am ADDICTED.

This is before. Had I been less impatient to rip it to pieces, I'd have gotten a better picture, but the fabric is nasty, velvety, bluish-silver/blue and black pen colored. Icky. BUT we acquired this chair while we were still college students, it was $15, AND is the most comfortable chair we own.

I finally decided on this wide, soft, blue corduroy and I LOVE it! I figured the blue, because it matches the blue in the rug downstairs (which is where it's going) and because this turquoise-ish blue is the most continuous color I have running through my entire house. Hence, I could put it anywhere and have it match. I added extra padding on the arms and cushions and removed the yucky dust ruffle around the bottom. The corduroy was a little tricky - especially with the piping - because it stretches just slightly, but I'm pretty pleased with how my $15 chair turned out. :)

This is another thing that I've been playing with lately. (Don't you just love how my fish tank occasionally feels the need to appear on my blog? :) I recently purchased this new stand at the D.I. for $30. It's much taller than my old stand (which helps tremendously with the fingerprints) and having it at the other end of the room (away from constant activity) helps my fish to be much more active. It makes me happy. Everyone should love fish as much as I do! :) LOL!

And since I never posted these, even though I made them months and months ago, I'm going to post pictures of my living room pillows. :)

. . . . I was going to say that this first one is my favorite, then I realized that I love them all! They are all different and a little odd . . . just like me :) . . . but I think they work.

(The lamp in this picture is next on my "project list". I need it to somewhat-match the lamp you can kind of see in the next picture.)

And the black chair in this picture has been on my "list" for the past two years. :) I can't wait to get my hands on it!

And this sad little chair is one I picked up from the D.I. last week for TEN BUCKS! (It looks like it, doesn't it? :) But I have some grand plans for it as well. :)

The LONG AWAITED Bathroom Reveal

Well, after nearly a YEAR, our bathroom is done!!! Whoa. That sounds really long, but we began our first renovations in, I think, March of last year.

We refinished the vanity and mirror, replaced the light and faucet, stripped the wall paper and painted.

After that, we took a long (financial :) hiatus from the bathroom until this past fall when we finally decided it was time to do the tile as well.

These pictures are when I remembered that I wanted "before" pictures. Darn. I wish I had better ones of the true "beauty" of the tile surrounding the tub, but these will do. Notice the "very useful" (sarcasm) cabinet above the tub. What would you use such a thing for? I haven't the slightest idea. The faucet on the tub was leaking --- down through a broken gasket around the overflow --- into the girls' bedroom. There was really no way to fix the problem without tearing out the tile. (Sad, huh? Really sad . . . that I finally had a way to convince Nels that now was the time to redo the shower! :)

It was such a mess for SUCH a long time! Thank goodness we have more than one bathroom!

Alma and Nels did a WONDERFUL job getting all the drywall and tile out! I'm so thankful that men are built to do such things!! Alma helped us repeatedly through this entire process, giving up many a Saturday or evening ---- THANK YOU!!! We engineered all the new drains and faucet, moving and rerouting. Finally the day came for Nels to hang up the new backer board! It was a glorious day! From there, as Nels was at work, much of the rest was done by little old me. I taped and puttied the new sheetrock and painted. We borrowed my dad's tile saw and, because when I decide to get a project done I get incredibly impatient, I learned how to use it ALL BY MYSELF. (I'm impressed with ME, can you tell?) I cut and tiled almost the entire shower, by myself, at nights while Nels was working and the girls were sleeping. Nels did help me with the cuts going around the faucet and shower head. - But I even did the whole WINDOW alone! Cool, huh? After the tile was done, I grouted and sealed the grout. Since then, the bathroom has been waiting . . . . all but finished, for the final touches . . . for about a month and a half. 

So without further ado, I give you our new bathroom!

Window detail

New fixtures - which I LOVE and don't leak. :)

My favorite part of the shower -- pretty glass tile accents.

I also love the shape and subway pattern of the tile!

New shelf/rack that took an eternity to find the correct hardware for and was INSANE to hang! No lovely new towels yet, but I figured I'd better get a picture while the bathroom was still CLEAN! :)

(Deanna, this is the clock/sign that I want you to help me redo. The flip-flops are just not doing it for me! Help me! :)

TA - DA!!!

Yes, the tub is still pink and is going to remain so until the day comes that I decide to get it refinished. It would have been an absolute NIGHTMARE to get it out and put a new one in its place. So it's pink. Leaving me with the problem of figuring out how to incorporate pink into my color scheme. 

I decided a new shower curtain would do the trick and whipped this little number up.

I love it --- and that cute baby!

So there you have it! A post at least 4 months in the coming! It was my last big thing to finish on the main floor of our house. I'm so happy with it and smile every time I go into the bathroom.

Lovey Days

This past weekend I had the chance to drive to Denver with two of my best friends (Nancy and Sara) and attend the wedding of another best friend and her sweetie (Sarah and Mike). It was such a wonderful weekend! Barring the anxiety attack that seems to set in every time I leave my little family, I had so much fun! I had honestly forgotten how great it is to eat out when you don't have to feed anyone else, pay for only yourself, and leave still looking presentable -- what it feels like to ride in a car with nobody yelling at me -- what it's like to only have to do one head of hair, only get one body dressed, and only get myself out the door! :) It was great!

Nancy, Me, Sarah, and Sara

Me, Sara, Nancy

Nancy, Sara, and I set out early Friday morning and talked and laughed in a sleep-deprived stupor all the way to Denver. The whole weekend was very rushed and busy, but so great to spend time with people that mean so much to me! Sarah's new hubby is fabulous and we are so excited to welcome him as being "one of us." (Nels recently informed me that the best way to determine whether someone is cool or not is to walk up to them and ask them point blank, "Are you one of us or one of them?" If this confused person answers, "One of us." Well, then they're cool. LOL!) Sarah was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and the ceremony was so sweet! It just made my heart so very happy to see my dear Sarie filled with joy and love. I'm so thankful for the sweet friendships that the Lord has brought into my life!

Nancy, apparently telling me how it is! :) LOL!

My one and only picture from the entire trip! :)

I was busy with the video camera. :)

(Thanks for letting me steal your pictures Sara!)

My only damper on the entire weekend was being apart from my own sweetie on his birthday and missing my little family. I've realized that I really have a hard time not having them with me! :) I called Nels Saturday to tell him Happy Valentine's Day only to find him sick, sick, sick with a fever and cough. Thankfully he had taken the girls to go visit his family in Mnt. Home, so he at least had someone to help him with the girls and make him a birthday cake!

Isn't he awesome!?

After driving the 9 hours from Pueblo to Bountiful on Sunday, I finally got a chance to meet my beautiful new niece, Isabella! She is so adorable and made me ache for another little baby of our own! LOL! Ben and Kelly are such sweet parents and you can just feel the love they have for their darling family. I am so happy for them! After saying hello to my family for a few minutes, I decided that even more than sleep, I really just wanted to get home to tell my husband happy birthday and take care of him, so I called Nels to tell him I was staying at my parents' that night, filled up with gas and Pepsi, and drove another 3 hours to Idaho Falls to surprise my birthday boy! 

Since that night, we've been all but quarantined as I've been nursing Nels, Hazel, and Elsie through a week filled with high fevers, raw throats, and raking coughs. It's been lovely. And I've thanked the good Lord each and every day that neither Lilie nor I have come down with this nasty bug. It has been ONE. LONG. WEEK. As nice as it is to have Nels home for an entire week, we are thankful that Nels seems to finally be pulling out of it and I think that my girls are on the tail end as well.

Weird. Weird. Say it a few times. That's a funny word, weird.

Okay, it's incredibly late and I REALLY need to go to sleep, as I've got to get up, make cookies, pack, clean, blah, blah, blah, and drive down to Utah - only to get up at about 4:30 the next morning and drive to Denver. So, yeah, I really need to go to sleep, but I just have to share ---- tonight I have taken a trip to the Twilight Zone. It's just the weirdest thing.

I have blogged about how I just signed up for Facebook and it's been weird and fun to get in touch with quite a few people that I've neither seen nor heard from in almost 10 years. In fact, there is only one person from high school that I've kept in touch with any consistency in that time --- and even that has often been like, once a year-kind of keeping in touch. Well, tonight I was checking some blogs for different people that I've gotten in touch with and it's been really fun and really sweet to see where life has taken them. Then, as I was just finishing up - as it is already REALLY late - I happen to see a link to a "Bountiful High - Class of 2000" blog. So I check it out. --- It has links to blogs of a whole bunch of my classmates on there! WOW. So I, of course, can't help myself and spend the next two hours browsing. ------- I feel . . . well, there's really no word. 

First, I've found that I'm not the only person that has a million kids :) - as I have feared for the past several years. I'm also not the only person who is not the same . . . size or shape that I was 10 years ago. :) I've learned that I'm not the only one with occasional wrinkles. :) AND - this is the one that still has me feeling weird and laughy :) - one of my former classmates is a CHINESE POP STAR! LOL! I  just can't stop laughing about that! :) LOL! What the? That's SO weird!!! LOL!

I feel weird and a little validated. 

Also, I don't know how many of you have had this experience, but I think I'll try to explain why myspace, facebook, and this funny little blog adventure have been "weird" to me. 

My Sophomore year of high school, we moved. Almost to never see or hear from the people that I had spent the first 15 years of my life with. After high school, I left. By the end of the summer, I was gone to Idaho. I just moved and had a new life. My closest high school buddies, went on missions. I made all new friends --- wonderful, life long friends and most all of my teenage connections were severed almost at graduation or within the first year or two of college. I saw a few of my friends when I got married and haven't seen them since. The ONLY high school friend that I've seen in the past almost six years is my friend Todd - and that's only been two or three times. Throughout college, I have repeatedly made new friends and had them move - new friends and move - the story of college. So even the friends that I have made in the past 10 years, many of them I will probably never see again. 

In many ways, I feel like my life has been entirely segmented. There are very few people outside of my family that I talk to on a regular basis that even know me from when I was single. And NO ONE in my life (other than family) who has seen me through childhood to adulthood. Or even from a teenager to now. Is that weird? Do a lot of people lead their lives that way?

I am a different person to each of the different categories of people in my life. So with all these different internet communities, where these different categories of myself start to merge, IT'S SO WEIRD!

There you have it. I think that is why I feel weird. and why I keep saying weird. there is no other way to describe it. just weird. and I'm sure ALL of you understand why the whole Chinese Pop Star thing is weird. LOL! SO WEIRD.

Friday the Fabulous!

How on earth (do you capitalize Earth when you use it that way?) does it get to be 3:00 in the morning without noticing it? Seriously. More than two hours more than I was expecting. How do you not notice when you've gone to bed at 5:30 one night, 2:30 the next, and then it's three and you're thinking that it's midnight???? This is such a strange phenomenon. I HAVE A PROBLEM!

Also, while we're on the subject of asking questions, oh wait! I forgot . . . . what was it??? . . . . Oh yeah, I remember - why do I feel the need to go take a shower right now, instead of going to bed? Why don't I like to shower in the morning? Why don't I like to do my hair? Why have I started feeling like grooming is a waste of time???? 

Why on earth am I thinking that right now, at three in the morning, is a good time to write this blog?? I don't know the answer to these questions --- and why do I have no desire to change things that are clearly psychotic? Eh, oh well!

1. I am recovering my ugly silver/blue/penned upon chair! I'm excited. --- And obsessed. It is the reason why I've been staying up so late the last three nights. Do you know how hard it is to be pulling our 56,392,711 staples with three little children running to and fro?? Or get any kind of sewing done in general? If I could have limitless energy and flawless skin, I would totally stay awake forever and ever. (Another wonderful thing about this project? I can do it without my husband. -- Don't get me wrong, I love him like I love my own heart, but projects that require male assistance often have to be put on hold. I LIKE being able to do things on my own time! :)

2. I have a new niece and a new . . . . second cousin? Is that right? My cousin's baby? They are both beautiful little girls and I'm so excited to get to see my new niece this coming weekend!!! Congratulations Ben and Kelly, Congratulations Amber and Wes!!!

3. My wonderful husband is working hard again tonight, finishing some freelance work for our little family! I love him so much and appreciate the sacrifices that he makes for us daily! I'm also looking forward to them being completed by this weekend! :)

4. I have only ONE WEEK left before I get to take a road trip with two of my sweetest and bestest friends in the entire world --- to get to go see one of my other dearest friends get married! I'm so incredibly excited!!! We'll be driving all the way to Denver!

5. Hazel is such a good reader! Today she was reading the "Foot Book" to me! She still needs lots of help, but she is doing incredible! Lilie has promised me to never lock Elsie in the laundry room again, even if she is following her around. She has also promised to never color red crayon all over the bathroom sink again and after a long and arduous bout of saying, "It's too much!" she finally put away her basket full of clothes all by herself! :) It was a happy moment! And Elsie? She peed on the potty tonight!! Isn't that funny?! She was in the bathroom with me and kept patting the toilet saying, "potty, potty, potty." I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and proceeded to hold her on it and instruct her on what to do. After sitting for about a minute or so, she did!! :) Don't get me wrong, I'm not even going to entertain the thought of potty training my 16 month old, I just thought it was funny. :)

Courage

So this is something that I've been thinking about for a while now. I think I'm ready to share. --- Or at least record it for myself.

As I've thought about the world that we live in, admittedly my biggest, most pressing concern (and has been for the past 6 years) is for my kids. We live in a wicked world - full of perversion, flippancy, distractions, irreverence, laziness, and just plain evil (among other things), in my ever-so-humble opinion. I know the world that I was raised in, and it definitely had it's pitfalls, but I look today, even after only 10 years and barely recognize things. I worry. Plain and simple. And I've been worried for a long time about HOW. How do I teach them, how do I keep them strong? How do I give them what they need?

I'd like to share a few of the things that I think the good Lord has shared with me. First and foremost, I MUST do my part. I MUST do the things that our dear prophets and leaders have been urging us for generations to do --- all of those sweet and inspired "Sunday School" answers. Prayer, Scripture Study, Family Home Evening, Temple Worthiness and Attendance, Time Together - working and having fun, etc.

And secondly, (I feel this SO strong - down into my bones - every time I think about it, I feel on fire) these sweet children of mine were SENT here, for such a time as this. They've been waiting, preparing, and anticipating coming HERE at THIS time. For a reason. Heavenly Father has sent each of us at the time when we needed to be here -- when HE needs us to be here. My kids - all the children being sent here right now - are ready. They are strong and they are good. For you parents out there, can't you FEEL it? Can't you feel it in your kids, how incredible they are?! Can you feel their strength? It overwhelms me. I feel so blessed to be their mother!

As I was voicing some of my fears to my own sweet mother a few months ago --- talking about all sort of things - the world we live in, sending my sweet Hazel to school this fall, learning how to deal with other people's kids :) -- I had an epiphany. As I feel fearful for my children, THEY will think there is something to be afraid of. Does that make sense? They will feel my fears and they will be afraid also. --- But I tell you what, there is no room in their mission for fear. If they are filled with fear, they won't be able to feel the faith that is vitally important to their success in this life - in accomplishing the work they are sent here to do. I, as their mother, have got to teach them courage, not fear. Teach them that they are capable to stand against ANY of the wickedness in this world, as long as they have the Lord on their side. I need to teach them that they can, and less of what they can't. 

But then I wonder, can I do it? Am I strong enough?? While this has been weighing heavily on my mind the past few months, I remembered a talk, given by Pres. Hinckley at BYU-Idaho, the day they dedicated the Hinckley Building in 2002. I was able to find a copy of the talk online and would like to share it with you --- as a sweet reminder of the things that he OFTEN said of our generation.

I love this man! I'm so thankful for living prophets on the earth today. 

I know this post is entirely random, but I feel so strongly about it and I feel the desire to share. As I was listening to Glenn Beck yesterday, I was shocked as he expressed basically the same exact feelings that I have been having. It was so weird and affirming. :) These kids are so amazing! They are so READY. I'm excited for them --- and I have a feeling that they are too! :)

Sunday Musings

First off, children have the most incredible sense of smell in the world. They have got to be close to dogs in this respect . . . 

I can be driving the van - with Hazel and Lilie sitting clear in the back - and discreetly pop a piece of gun in my mouth, chewing it with my lips closed the whole time, and within 10 seconds I hear, "I want a piece of gum!!!"

OR - I can eat maybe 5 chocolate chips and then proceed to go about my business. One of the girls will come upstairs about 4 minutes later - talk to me for a second (not like, in-your-face kind of talking, but standing next to me as I wash the dishes or something) and all of a sudden say, "What are you eating?" Me:". . . . . Nothing." Child: "Did you eat chocolate?" Me: " . . . . (thinking about lying to my child) . . . . . Yes." Child: "Can I have some?" Me: . . . . . . . . . (thinking about being a mean mom) . . . . yes."

Secondly, why to I feel the urge to be selfish with my children? Like, why do I try to eat ice cream after they go to sleep - or hide it from them if I break down and have it during the day? This is a strange thing. The urge to not share treats with my kids. :)

Next: I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook. It's a weird little community filled with snippets of thoughts and comments on random things. I think it can be a great way to get in touch with old friends . . . but I still have mixed feelings about spending my time there . . . it seems like kind of this exciting, little waste of time. 

Also, I don't really understand all of the Super Bowl hype. (so sue me!) I don't follow football and I don't think that most people do --- other than on this one day where a bunch of people just want to get together and eat a ton of food and care for 3 hours about teams they don't really care all that much about. Sorry if you're a die-hard, I just don't get it!