Before and Now (not AFTER because we are not quite there yet!!)

The following is a report on why I haven't put anything in this blog for so dang long!!!! With help from the family and the super support from my BFF Pam - here's what's been keeping me occupied!

The house before.... The house now..... the shutters are on a little hiatus - they are looking for a new coat of paint in hunter green.

The front room then ....

The front room now with the "magic" paint that seems to change actual color with each room we paint it in.....

The kitchen then with (mostly) '74 cabinets.....The kitchen now. Yes, it's that blue. I really see it perfectly with the cabinet fronts being refaced and painted a cream color. Seriously.....This is the cabinet in it's nakedness. It's really going to be uber cool! I just might start making nightly dinners again!The stairs before.....

The stairs now. This wood is so pretty. I'll have to work on some worn spots with stain to match it, but the look is really beautiful with all the other wood in the house.

The master bedroom before. The rose carpet is loverly!!!The master now - with the magic paint.Mykie's room before - no seriously - that's really what it looked like.

Mykie's room now. The walls are such a bright yellow that every time I walk past her room I think the lights are on. She wants orange and hot pink in there. It really looks great. Being so bright, it fits her personality perfectly.

Brigam's room before....

Brigam's room now. It is a tool themed room. The words on the wall are different tools made with a font in which each letter is created from tool shapes. Everything is going to be "tool" themed including his "construction" headboard and his sawhorse night stand. More to come.Tyler's room before....

Tyler's room now.... He originally wanted black (what?? Is he Gothic?) So we decided to go with dark blue and white. A definite U of U lover with those bedroom colors? Whatever!
Jeremy's room before.....

Jeremy's room now. He wants it black and white. I'm ok with the black as long as it is on posters. New York, jets, the SLC temple. It will be filled with black and white posters. Go black! The barn before....

The barn now. It also is missing it's hunter green shutters.My craft room (in the barn) before.....

My craft room now painted with the magic paint! I am so excited to fill it with paper and vinyl!!!!

Barn living room before....

Barn living room now.... It's going to be a great place for the kids and their friends to hang out. (Especially since I will be right upstairs ANYTIME I WANT)

Barn kitchen before.... Barn kitchen now.....

Garage before....

Garage now... Look, we've already started making it look stuffed with stuff!

We are all working hard on making the house our home. Carpet should be here in a couple of weeks, so there is still work ahead of us, but it's coming together.

I hope Christmas comes quickly!

All he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth!

Brigam finally lost the other tooth to his front set of "front and center" teeth. It was a battle that I closed my eyes through most of the time.

That tooth was gross and just hanging there forever!!!! Not even a promise of the tooth fairy visit could make that boy want to let Mike pull that puppy out. It hung there so long that I almost yanked it myself OK, OK, you know that's a lie. I touched it once and then thought I'd loose my lunch if I did anymore than that. But it was bugging me.

He totally looked like a red-neck that got into one too many fights with the wrong side of a bull. But now it's gone and he looks so cute. He reminds me of Halloween - he looks like a Jack-O-Lantern.

I do hope these teeth grow in quick and strait - if not, who's going to eat all those apples in my fridge?

A New Place to Hang My Hat

Finally, we have done it. We have closed on "the white house". Interestingly enough, this is the same house that Mike and I tried to buy in 2002 right before we moved to Pasco, but it was out of our price range. It is a foreclosure, so we actually got the house for about what it was selling for back in 2002.

On last Friday, we finally were able to get all the paperwork signed and are now just waiting for the banks to "trade" mortgage money and then the keys will be ours - Tuesday by the latest. We had the greatest agent. If you need one, let me know and I will get her information to you!

It will be a nice house. The structure is really good, but the inside needs A LOT OF WORK. So does the yard, but that's not my department.

The kitchen is a galley kitchen - long and narrow and the cabinets need assistance, but we can make it happen. I don't think we'll replace the cabinets - although that would be nice, but we'll have to see what really happens. I have some ideas, but Mike can't picture it quite yet.

I will post before and afters of each room as we re-do them. It should make for some interesting material. But, just to wet your appitite - here are shots of the outside of the property.

This is the front of the house - two story with a basement. Very roomy. I won't be hitting children with my elbows when I turn around anymore.

Here's the back of the house. It's French doors bring in a lot of light to that kitchen. It's pretty light all the way around.

This is "The Barn" for lack of a better name. It was set up as a rental unit with a living room/kitchen area on the main and a bathroom/bedroom area up top. Now it will be the Theater Room complete with a kitchen and my Craft Room complete with a bathroom. LUCKY ME AND MY CRAFT STUFF (and my bladder)!

Here is the final building on the property. It is a two car wide/two car deep garage made very securely. It will be a great place to park the vehicles, store boxes of decorations and other stuff we never will get rid of (we'll make our kids do that when we're gone), and our own little gym.

I am a bit excited about the prospects of it all. I have a busy next couple of months ahead of me.

By the way, if anyone wants to join me for a "paint taping party" let me know and I will send along an invitation! :)

And here is a shot of the cute photographers that got these shots for me - Madison, Mykalyn and Shayla. They are super great girls and I love them to death!!!

My Wrestler

Because of an old snowboarding injury that occurred right before wrestling season started this year, Jeremy hasn't been able to wrestle very much. He's only had a total of 3 matches. He's either sat on the sidelines or just come home for the meets. I've been feeling really bad for him, because he's been such a team player. He still goes to every practice - even those early morning Wednesday ones that I have to put a ball cap on to get him to on time. What a trooper.

But with only 2 meets left, Jeremy decided - at great risk to his shoulder's safety - that he would wrestle.

You know that there are 3 periods in each match. They are each 1 1/2 minutes long. That means that at a parent you are looking at having your adrenaline on HIGH for a possible 4 1/2 minutes. When your child does that (drags it out that long) it's just plain RUDE. I mean, my heart can't hardly take it! Jeremy was so thoughtful of me this time, he decided to only utilize about 40 seconds of that 4 1/2 minutes to get the job done. Here's the video:

AND PINNED!!!!!!!

Hey, you don't think that that last little bit of gymnastics wasn't a bit over the top, do you? I call it showboating, but he does do that little back-to-the-feet move with much ease, don't you think?

He's such a great kid and I am so proud of his continuing with his team even when he wasn't able to have the reward of having a match.

The Mr. Pasco Update

(Before you begin.....

I had a heck of a time getting video to post to this blog. Originally I wanted to post 3-4 clips, but it just wouldn't work, so then I finally got one to on here, but now my blog is black. You'll just have to use your imagination. Back to the report......)

Well, it has been about four weeks since Mr. Pasco so I think I can finally report on the results of that. The reason why it has taken so long to report is that I was waiting for the stitches to heal. No, no, not that Tyler got hurt trying to do his running-off-the-wall-and-do-a-back-flip trick, but from the stitches in my sides that I got because I busted a gut laughing for two hours straight!!!! That was about the funniest and funnest time I had ever had at a "beauty" contest. There were 4 Juniors and 6 Seniors. I thought it might be a little boring with the "talent" portion, but it was anything but. I took my video camera to video Tyler's 9 minute portions (that would be 3 each minutes for the swimsuit contest, talent portion and evening wear along with questions by the panel), but I left with about 1 1/2 hours of video. I could not turn the camera off! Those boys were so creative. I just wish we could have sat a little closer so I didn't have the girls' heads in front of me on the camera.

The swimsuit contest was a hoot. I am sure that there was a rule that stated that you had to keep a shirt on, man those boys were super creative. Tyler was great in the swimsuit portion. He came out all dressed for snowboarding and "realized" that he was "overdressed" for the occasion and had to strip down. He got some "whooooooo"s from the audience!

He did well and looked very good (not biased). I do want you to know that the pile of clothing he left on his floor reminded me of home. That's what his floor usually looks like. I think that the funniest was when one of the boys came out with one of those shirts that have a woman's bikini clad body screen printed on the t-shirt.

Next came the talent portion of the program. That was so funny. Tyler was not very happy with his performance, so I've been asked not to post it. I thought it was great. He really went out of his comfort zone doing his version of "America's Best Dance Crew", but without the crew. Although I feel this way, I will comply to his wishes.

But, this one was so dang funny, I wish I could get the video to post! It just won't, but it reminded me of Adam Sandler and his Haunkkah song. It was called "The Spanish Love Song". He filled the songs with all the spanish phrases he knew and then finished it with words he knew in Spanish like counting numbers (although he sang that he forgot what #11 was in Spanish), words like tacos and cinnamon twists. It was FUNNY.

Clever. And that wasn't the only one that was clever. Those boys have such great imaginations! In fact, after seeing Carlin Andrew's performance, I will never hear the song, "All The Single Ladies" by Beyonce and NOT think of his little dance. That has forever burned my retinas.

They then went on to the question/evening wear portion. Tyler looked very dapper and dealt with the "heavy" questions very well.

All in all, I'd have to say that it was well worth the $1.00 and 1 can for the food drive that we paid to get in. The best $1.00 I've spent in a long time. Better than any comedy club and much cleaner too. The one thing that I was really so impressed with was the support from the student body. The place was pretty well packed and EVERYONE cheered EVERYONE on. There were no boos or any negativity. The boys could be so entertaining and not worry about being made fun of. Very different than my memory of my high school days.

So, if you ever have a chance to attend the Mr. Pasco program, my strong suggestion is to DO IT, DO IT, DO IT! You will not be disappointed.

In the end, the judges didn't judge correctly - Tyler wasn't crowned Mr. Pasco, but because we were so entertained, I will forgive their faux pas. Besides, Tyler will ALWAYS be Mr. Pasco to me.

PS Jeremy was paying close attention to all the performances. I asked him if he was getting any good ideas. He responded, "Oh Yeah!" So I guess in a couple of years I'll be advertising the upcoming contestant for Mr. Southridge. I'll keep you all posted.

Please put your weapons down

Apparently it is still winter. This I know because I haven't seen Brigam's naked little feet for a couple of months.

I do get to see his hands on an almost daily basis. OK, I do see them on a daily basis, but I don't always look for the nail length the boy is sporting. When Mykie threatens to start to paint them, then I get to where I think, "Now where did I put that nail clipper?" They don't get too out of hand on his hand (wasn't that funny), but I sometimes wonder if the teachers at school look at those and wonder if I have some type of problem with Brigam being a boy. I mean the mixture of lengthy fingernails and those GORGEOUS eyelashes - put a dress on the boy and you too might be doing a double take.

Anyway, back to the story. Last night, I was sitting by Briggy on the couch and he was holding my hand, I looked down (probably because I thought it was so sweet that my boy was sitting next to me and holding my hand. I was probably looking for a 'sweet moment memory') and that's when I saw that he was sporting some pretty "french manicure" type looking nail tips. Those, I informed him, would have to come off in the morning. He HATES to have his nails cut. Is this a boy thing? Then I said, "Briggy, I haven't seen your toe nails for a while, I bet those need some trimming." That's when he showed me his WEAPONS. He took off those cute little socks that should have been covering some cute little feet, but they were only covering his WEAPONS. Especially on those big toes. How long had it been since I saw those 10 little piggies? Absolutely TOO LONG. (I will NOT picture them here. You might be eating.) They were gross. I swear that the whites of his big toe nails were as long as the whole nail on his baby toes. Yuck!

He was especially proud of them as he said, "I should have pulled these out the other day when Jeremy and me were wrestling. I bet I could have cut him!" Umm....SUPER GROSS!!!! Thank goodness it's not flip flop weather. Shopping for flip flops with him taking those nails out of those socks would have been super embarrassing - or on the flip side, if I were being taken hostage, he would have saved my life.

But, since I don't get taken hostage on a regular basis, I decided to do what good mothers do - I sat on his chest and cut those weapons off! He even giggled when he heard one get away from me and PING on the floor. Still gross. I think I need to make a planning note on my calendar-I cannot think of a future with this type of nail growth from my boy.....

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What's been keeping you busy?

This isn't one of those trick questions where you should already know the answer, but the answer to this question should be obvious - I do have 4 children. But I am talking about what I've been doing in my extra time. OK, it's really not extra because no matter how hard I try, I only get 24 hours a day. I have asked Santa many times in years past if he will give me just one or two extra hours in my day for Christmas, but he has always let me down. I have stolen some hours to enjoy myself (if you don't do this, you really ought to try it. This kind of thievery keeps me sane!) This is what I have utilized my hours for.

A purse.

Not just any purse, but one that you can put pictures in. Isn't it so cute? This really was papering with a purpose. Here are some inside shots of pages I really like.

Apparently there are others who like it as well because I had someone order 7 of them. Now I have to figure out a price, but wow! Seven - really?

I did see this idea at the craft store, but they used real wood. How heavy is that? Aren't our purses heavy enough without carrying around chunks of wood with a picture show on it? I thought so, so I made mine out of chipboard (or something akin to chipboard. Let's just say I am recycling.)

Don't you just love a new purse?

Well, I better go now. I have to steal an hour or two more of those 24 hours for myself. At least it will be fun! Go right side of the brain!! Work that creativity!