Paint!

My whole house smells like paint. Jeff put two coats of primer on our new sitting room today. Next up is the grasscloth, assuming it's still any good and that I still like it. Or perhaps the floor. Really I have no idea what part is next. It might be window sashes and sills and moldings for the doors. There is still a long way to go. But slowly, like the tortoise, it is happening.

The east wall with its two coats. That is door to the "hall" bath. There is no longer a hall, instead each room upstairs has its own bathroom.

Alice checking out the furniture in the sitting room. Lots of sunlight in this room.

Jeff painting the inside of the closet. This will be "his" closet when everything is finished.

More of Jeff painting. I don't mind painting, but if someone else is willing to do it, that is just wonderful.

The south wall with its two coats, plus the draped couch and cabinet, which doesn't have a home anymore.

Well, I'm off to pick up D from the airport. This was the last time (I hope) that she flies unaccompanied. Next time she is on her own.

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The new craft room

Along with all the changes that have been happening upstairs there have been a few downstairs as well. No one really expected that we could only do one project at a time did they? So, my new craft room is pretty much finished. Okay the border isn't hung and the walls probably have to be repainted, but the furniture is where it is going to stay and it is usable. The first picture is what you see when you walk into the room. I basically stood in the entrance to take the picture. Yes, that is my family from 12 plus years ago in that picture. We've been hiding it in the former guest room since we had it taken. No one knows why.


Like my punch bars? I borrowed the idea from Erin, who I guess borrowed it from someone profiled in Stampin' Success. I only know this because when I commented to someone about how much I loved her punch storage, that person was really nasty about letting me know exactly where Erin had "stolen" the idea from. Some of you may know who I am referring to, but I'm certainly not going to state names.


This picture looks back toward the entrance to the room. Jeff finally hung (okay, I hadn't really asked him until D knocked the whole thing onto the floor including 71 ink pads) my 72 ink pad and ribbon holder for me. It is full and I have my craft pads (those that aren't Whisper White and Very Vanilla) and a couple of duplicates and retired (from '05) ink pads stored. This is certainly not all of my ribbon either. The dresser has my Big Shot, Cuttlebug, cutter, and a holder for 8 1/2 x 11 paper (mainly construction and white) on top of it. In the dresser drawers are my smaller cuttlebug folders and Big Shot dies. Plus it holds crafting supplies: pipe cleaners, wooden spools, pony beads, etc. Yes, Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips are wearing almost no clothing in the picture in the background. It is a movie poster for Valentino from 1977. Nureyev was my favorite male dancer before he died of AIDS about 10 years ago. His death is not the reason he isn't my favorite anymore just that new dancers have come along since then.


The colorful drawer unit used to hold most of the items I needed for Scouts, but now that we don't hold meetings in my dining room (YEAH!), I rearranged the items. D and I cleaned it out and moved some of the things to the dresser, some to the trash, and rearranged what was left. I also have drawers used for stamping items like the designer paper sampler, the punch sampler (thanks Erin for picking that up for me at Convention), and the ribbon sampler. Next to it holds the small tote with the items I use while working all the things that don't fit in my Pampered Chef tool holder. It sits on my desk and is in constant use. I deliberately left the top shelf empty to hold things while I'm working and don't want to put away right that moment. I also have my cd player, two Stack & Store caddys right where I need them. My desk is small, but it pulls out to another five feet or so if needed.


This final picture is of the stamp sets that have been labeled. In May's (I think that month) Stampin' Success a woman was profiled who labeled all her stamp sets. So I've started. Most of the retired sets do have red dots on them and all the holiday stamps are labeled. I also read online about people who photograph what each stamp set looks like and put the photographs in binders. This way they don't have to pick up each stamp set to figure out which one they want. A clever idea that will eventually happen.


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The emotional ups and downs of an over-stressed life

Well, March is over. Did anyone tell Mother Nature? It has been snowing and raining this week and cold. I thought this was April. Oh wait I live 5000 feet up and this is April weather.

The re-model is in its sixth month and unfortunately nothing is really happening. Jeff is busy teaching and grading papers, so he can only accomplish so much on the weekends. For him, school is out in a month. Of course softball starts at that point or maybe earlier, but eventually we will no longer have drywall dust everywhere. Let's not go toward the clothes that line all the floors. No closet upstairs at the moment. However, that is not the only problem with the clothes situation, but I won't go into that right now.

I have been an emotional wreck this week. It all started on Monday. I hate ants. I loath, despise, hate, abhor, etc. ants. Well I got to school and there were ants all over my desk. I had left an open package of Thin Mints on my desk. The ants crawled in a diagonal from the corner of the room, under my printer stand and up my desk to reach this package. I have never had this problem. I found a custodian pdq and let him take care of the problem. All classes were held in the library that day.

Tuesday—lunchtime. There are ants all over my microwave and refrigerator. I have a microwave and refrigerator in my classroom for 15 years no problem. That was the week. I don't even know if I can go back on Monday.

No one wants to see me when I have a melt-down from ants. Today driving home from the U in rain a cat decided to race in front of my car in Moroni. I tried to stop in time, but I don't think that I did. There was no way I was getting out of the car to check. By the time I got home, emotional basket-case.

My mother is in a nursing home because her right leg is paralyzed. She walked into the hospital to have back surgery and now she can use her right leg. My father, bless his soul, is of course, considering suing the surgeon. My poor mother has been there for a month. They won't let her go home to a mutli-storied house until she can walk and she can't walk!!! Pain management has changed in the last decade or so. Instead of managing pain, it seems that doctors allow pain until the patient screams and the he or she does something about the pain.

I follow several blogs and one of them had the distressing news of five month old little boy who is trying to stay alive. Some how or other I have become caught up in this Minnesota family's problems.


Somehow it has become important to follow this family through their problems. I have no idea why.

Update

"I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack
I have always wondered who sang this song. When a co-worker's daughter died several years ago, Heather Osmond came and sang it acappella at the funeral.

"And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance"

It was so beautiful. The song has always made me cry whenever I hear it.

I am so glad February is over. My mid-terms are over. Hallelujah!

And even better we got our Saturn back. We bit the bullet and decided to spend the money to have a new engine put in. We are hoping for another 100,000 miles. We are having some transmission problems, but I have a call into the mechanic to see what the problem is. More great news—the engine dying wasn't my fault! Instead a leaky radiator hose was the problem. This makes it the mechanic's problem. We have yet to go talk with him about it.

All the drywall is up except for the area around the front door. We still haven't ordered a new front door yet, nor have we made a decision on the flooring. We have decided tile for the front door area and wood for the bedroom and sitting room. Colors and types are still up in the air.

I'll post pics later.

The new "sitting" room is drywalled.

This is the from the new room into our living room. This end of the room used to be D's room.
This will be the door to the bathroom. Right now, since the sink is still on the other side of the wall and to give D some privacy, the bathroom side drywall is still in place. This picture and the one below used to be our sitting room, where the TV was.
Behind the cabinet is the other window. This is the south/west area. All the leftover drywall is stacked here. The cabinet used to be our linen cabinet. It is solid birch and extremely heavy. We haven't figured out where to put it yet.

We spent three days hanging 20 sheets of drywall. I'm exhausted and now have to go back to work tomorrow. It's pretty amazing how fast the drywall is up though. We haven't even ordered flooring yet. Plus, there's the taping and mud to do. The new sitting room is a ways off still. Probably because I didn't grow up with a television in my house until I was 13, I just have a problem with having a "TV room". I enjoy just being able to go and sit and read in a room that has a door. So even though a lot of television viewing will be done in this room, it will still be called a sitting room.

The latest on the remodel

This is where we started today. Insulation, 2 x 4's, and electrical. First we did the closet. Closets are a pain, because they have all of the same amount of work, but no space to work in.


Here is Jeff nailing the bottom on the west side of the closet.







This is the top piece on the inside. This was a challenge to get into place, but we finally got it all figured out. It's been a long time since we hung drywall. In this picture you can also see the front and closet doors in the entry area. The wall the front door is on won't be drywalled for awhile. We are getting a new front door and will install all the drywall for that wall at the same time.

And here is where we finished for today. The entire north wall is finished. I have two pictures so you can see the jog the wall makes. The jog allows for trim around the window. We have a few places now that have no space for trim and the paint job is awful, because of the small area. Besides the trim, we are putting wainscoting on the bottom part and wanted enough of it to show in the corner as well.
Tomorrow we are hanging the window (west) wall and the south wall. Both are pretty straight shots. It's the east wall that has a bunch of cut outs and doors.

Oven cleaning

I have banished everyone to the basement. Yesterday when Jeff cooked the roast beef for his birthday he commented that the oven could do with cleaning. So, I turned on the oven to clean this afternoon. The whole upstairs is pretty much full of smoke. Luckily not enough to set off the smoke detectors. We have windows open (it's 20º outside), fans going, and some unhappy cats. Greymalkin came downstairs crying, but when I followed her back upstairs to bring her back down, she hid. Hope we never have a fire where I have to find her!

Jeff has put in the studs for the new door to what is now the hall bathroom. After we are finished with everything, this bathroom will open into our new room. I decided not to go to school today. So, I am organizing "my" room. This used to be our guest room, but we don't have guests and I need a place to scrapbook, stamp, and do homework. I need to bring down a desk that is upstairs. First I have to convince Jeff to help me bring it down. It's pretty heavy. It was built in the late 40's or 50's when a lot of furniture did double duty. This desk has three small side drawers and knee space, but it also has a pull out table with ugly rattan on it. So it's a desk/table combination. D has a desk/dresser that was my grandmère's. It is a secretary type desk with three drawers below. When the top is up it takes up almost no room, when the top is down it is the desk's writing surface. It is from the same era. I believe these were built to accommodate the many people who were living in small homes and apartments after WWII.

Yet another birthday!

Today, Jeff is 46! Happy birthday dear.

When we were pregnant with D, the only request Jeff had besides a healthy baby was for a different delivery day than his birthday. Bad enough that it is so close to Christmas, he just didn't want to share it. You know I don't blame him. Until family members started to die of old age, we had quite the holiday birthdays going. Here's the list:

• Dec. 15: Carl Gassen (my brother-in-law's father, died March 2006, in his 90's)
• Dec. 17: Lillian Coryell (my father's mother, died Aug. 2003, 91 1/2)
• Dec. 18: Deirdre
• Dec. 24: Grandma Dottie (my mother-in-law's mother, she's been gone for awhile. Awful of me, but I don't remember when she passed away. After D was born, I do know that. Pretty sure she was in her 90's too)
• Dec. 25: Brian Harris (our nephew on Jeff's side, Phyllis' son)
• Dec. 28: Jeff
• Dec. 29: Charlie Carney (my stepmother-in-law, I think that's her birthday, awful again of me, 20 years and I'm still not sure)
• Dec. 29: Linda Spencer (my cousin Jim's wife, again I'm not positive, but pretty sure)
• Dec. 31: Fred Spencer (my cousin)

Quite the collection of birthdays there in a two week time. Plus in January are four more: 5th: Nicole Spencer (daughter of Linda), 18th: Jim Spencer (husband of Linda), 28th: Barbara Spencer (mother of Jim and my aunt obviously), and 30th (I'm pretty sure on the date and don't feel like going upstairs to check my planner): John Carney (brother to Jeff).

The home remodel is moving along. Jeff has been stringing speaker wire the last few days. The new sound system will be on the south side of the new room. Wire needs to go to the speakers in the living room and the kitchen, plus the speakers in the new room. We have the most amazing speakers in our kitchen! I love being able to put on music and have it play in there, but not be blaring through-out the house so that I can hear it in the kitchen. Right now they aren't attached to anything, as we are listening to everything off of the TV sound system. Sounds complicated right?! You see Jeff builds speakers too. So, we have amazing speakers in our living room and we had speakers in our old sitting room for the TV. Now that the TV is in the living room :( all are connected to the receiver for the TV. But the kitchen ones are still (or were until today) connected to the receiver for the stereo system. Sorry, I just don't seem to be able to explain it properly.

Back to wiring: almost all of the electrical is finished. Jeff thinks we can hang drywall on Tuesday. Yippee! So, I'll be off to school tomorrow. The semester ends the Friday after we return (idiotic, I know) and I am nowhere near being ready with assignments to grade. I also need to prepare some for next semester.

D spent Friday and part of yesterday at Sarah's. They had a sleep-over and played Nintendo DS a lot. Sarah invited another girl over, Savannah, and the three had a blast. She has been pretty much reading and playing new DS games since Christmas. Last night we played Harry Potter Clue. It's a little different from the traditional game. For instance, you have to make your final accusation in Dumbledore's office. So if several people think they know the answer, it's a race to see who can get to the office faster. We played two games and if I remember correctly, D won both of them. We had a lot of fun; it's been awhile since we played a family game.

And the remodel continues

The latest update. I don't have better pictures right now. I haven't taken any (you know gone over the weekend) lately. The new wall is up (just studs right now). The old hall wall from the back of our bedroom closet is partial gone. We walk through the old closet to get to our bedroom. It's sort of a maze right now. The electrical has been a problem for Jeff as he tries to figure out what wires go where and power what. As stated before, our electrician wasn't the best. It's pretty exciting to see the way the area is shaping up.

And here is Jeff relaxing on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. He worked all weekend on the house, but had to read The Color Purple for class on Monday. After only four and a half years Rocky and Greymalkin have declared a slight truce. We gave Rocky a reprieve right before Thanksgiving. He actually has perked up.

On to me:
I was accepted into The University of Utah. My classes start on Jan. 14. I will be taking two classes Spring semester: one on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. On days that D and I have gymnastic meets than I will travel up to SLC three days in a row. I haven't figured out how I will make it through the next couple of years, but somehow we will manage. When I leave school on Tuesdays, I will have to be prepared for classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I need to move Scouts to Tuesdays. I will miss Service Unit meetings unless they are moved, and worse I'll miss Stamp Club for Feb., Mar., and April., maybe even May depending on my finals schedule. I can do this—at least this is what I keep telling myself. Wish our family luck for the next two years.

Twilight—the series! and more

Deirdre has now read the series at least three times. It might be four. She insisted that I too read the series. I capitulated and read. I didn't like Twilight, but continued to read to find out if Bella actually became a vampire and low and behold eventually she did. I liked New Moon the most, followed by Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and finally Twilight. I thought if they said "I love you" one more time in that book, I was seriously going to smack someone.

Deirdre went to the movie for the third time today—again with Sarah. Now, I am not a movie person to begin with, but the pictures just do not make me want to see this movie.

Remodeling is going slowly, but steadily. We have garage lights and living room lights back, and two new walls! I will post pics soon. Jeff is recovering from the flu. Both he and D have a cough. Once they get them, I hear coughing for weeks.

D and I will be heading to Trefoil Ranch this weekend for a mother/daughter Christmas bonding with Girl Scouts. We will spend Saturday night in Salt Lake, because we have tickets for the Nutcracker on Sunday. We have been going to see Ballet West's production of The Nutcracker since D was four. We usually have pretty close seats. Last year, they were the front row. Jeff has been a couple of times, but the ballet is usually a mother/daughter activity. We do season tickets and have a good time.

Happy Thanksgiving & Construction messes

The picture on top is what the living room/hall/foyer looked like on Tuesday. The bottom picture is what it looked like yesterday when I got home at 6ish. We have no electricity in part of the living room, dining room, or kitchen. Luckily all three of those rooms do have some power in the plugs. Also the appliances are on different breakers. Our electrician was an idiot, I believe. He had to come back twice after we moved in and it would have been more times, if Jeff hadn't just figured it out on his own. But we are talking electricity—the one that kills if not used properly.

Today, Jeff has been dealing with attic insulation. The drywall on part of the ceiling had to be taken down, as well as, some 2 x 4's. This means a ton of insulation has fallen to the floor. So far, he is at 10 bags of insulation to be put in the dumpster. At some point either today or tomorrow we are hanging new drywall on the ceiling. Luckily it is only a few pieces that need to go up. Although, I think I prefer hanging the ceiling rather than walls. I don't remember, I have deleted the Thanksgiving of 1995 and summer of 1996 from my brain. When we decided to try for a baby, we also decided to finish the basement. So, the summer before Deirdre was born, we drywalled. Hard to believe that was 12 years ago.

This is the first remodel that we have done that doesn't have us thinking "resale" value. We might have really changed how much our house is worth by deleting an upstairs bedroom, but at the same time we are making the remaining two rooms larger. But we aren't selling until D leaves for college, if then. Who knows what the market will be like. No matter what we sell the house for, it will most likely be more than we built it for even with the additional costs of the remodeled kitchen, both upstairs bathrooms, the finished basement, and now this one.

I have a pumpkin pie baking in the oven as I type this. I love pumpkin pie! I like pecan pie even more, but D doesn't so it's pumpkin for us. We are having Cornish Hens, stuffing, mashed yams (mashed potatoes using a yam), peas, maybe spinach souffle (I had to buy it when I saw Albertson's had it), rolls, gravy, and pie with real whipped cream. Jeff doesn't really like turkey and D hates it, so Cornish Hens it is. Cornish Hens are easier to cook than a turkey anyway. I am also about to make the honey butter for the scones for tomorrow's bake sale in Manti. I have the dough thawing for the scones. I also have Rice-Crispy treats, brownies, and maybe sugar cookies to make. This is one of our fundraisers for Girl Scouts. Besides a small profit from cookie sales, as a Service Unit, we do two big fundraisers: the Manti bake sale, and during pageant time we clean the tables at the "food court" and hand out the Sanpete Messenger's pageant insert to the people entering the temple grounds. The majority of girls in our Service Unit live in Manti. As a matter of fact, our Junior troop there lost more than half its girls to aging out (They should have come to mine, but didn't reregister.), the troop was down to about 7 girls. She is back up to 17!! I can barely get 5 to come to our meetings.

Well have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm off to clean and cook.

An update

Yes, that really is a squid on Deirdre's head. All the girls did it during the dissection lab at CIMI.

Life has been really crazy the last few weeks. When we drove up to get Deirdre from the airport we were re-ended by another driver on I-15. Some idiot stopped in the car-pool lane causing all of us behind him/her to slam on our brakes. The woman behind just couldn't get her Suburban to stop fast enough. Our van was in the shop for three weeks and it cost her insurance $4500.

Below are the before and current pictures of Deirdre's old room. We decided to remodel. So far there is no drywall in two of the upstairs bedrooms or flooring. We are down to waverboard in bedrooms and the hall. I'll try to update as we go. Or I really should say as Jeff goes, since he is the one who is doing all the work so far.


There seemed to be so much more to update, so I was putting it off. But now, I can't seem to remember any of it. Clearly a reason for updating more often.

Braces!

Deirdre received her braces today. She has been excited to get rid of her retainer, but now her mouth hurts and she isn't quite sure about the change. Besides her mouth hurting, it feels funny without her retainer in it. But, the braces are only for 18 months; soon they will be off.

The school year winds slowly down. Everyone is ready for summer vacation, although the tasks in front of us are huge. We are moving four rooms of furniture and various items. D is moving to the basement; the "sitting room" is moving into D's room; the family room is becoming D's bedroom; and finally the downstairs guest room is moving upstairs into the "sitting room" and the guest room turns into my craft and sewing room. I would have had a craft and sewing room all along if the builder hadn't suggested moving the basement bathroom, because of the whole-house shut-off water valve, which has been used once in 14 years and it wasn't an emergency. We love builders (NOT) :(

Softball practice has started and games start the last week of May. The junior troop is looking for a Bronze award activity. It has been difficult to find a service project that will take about 15 hours and include the majority of the girls.

Tata!