Some fun from the last few weeks

One of our few nice days (May 15th to be exact) and it hasn't been nice since.

Future Issaquah inhabitants.

Good day for sleeping. Exactly what I did until noon. I guess it wasn't "allergies."

Pics?

Nah, I won't post any pictures until it's all done. Too bad for you!


This one is a cute one from tonight. My gal JP came by to visit! What a bold one this girl. Rides a motorcycle (how cool is that?) wears cool colors in her hair, and came by to show me her new piercing - lower lip. Not my thing, but she can definitely pull it off!

I forgot to mention one of the other things I did while on vacation, my mom and I went out for Mother's Day dinner. She wanted to go to the Olive Garden so we did. It was a really nice out for just the two of us. A little wine, a little pasta, a little shopping... perfect.

I'm off to bed, day two back at work and "allergies" are kicking my butt. (I say "allergies" because I really don't feel like it is a cold.) Not to mention two 12 hour shifts coming my way Saturday and Sunday. Ahhh, Memorial Day weekend in a resort area. Should be entertaining!

The End

Did I really have eleven days off? WOW! I got so much done!

We spent Sunday just getting things finished up. Light switch and outlet covers back on, the trim we could put on nailed in, and the fireplace painted. I considered putting the curtains and my prized photograph up, but I had painted the window trim and I'm just not ready for the photograph yet. I kind of seems like that should be the last thing to get done. Crazy, I know. The inspiration for the room the last thing to go in it... Weird huh? Anyway, I did bring it in and set it against the wall, it's going to look very nice. I also bragged myself up to EVERYONE that would listen today including the guy that framed the picture. He thought it was a little over the top that I re-decorated around that picture. Yeah, maybe. But I love it.

It was back to work today. I had a law radio that is usually less busy but they were bustling today. It was fun to work hard on my first day back.

Day Nine, day Ten

Whew! My back is starting to kill me! All that painting. Unfortunately I found another section going up the hall from the living room that will look nicer painted, so I cut that in today and will finish it up Friday while Miss I is at day care.

One of our neighbors is a handy-man. His most recent handiness has been building houses. He came over to see our work and talked My Honey into using new trim instead of painting ours. In fact, he even had some left over from his house projects that he gave us! BONUS! And it was painted! And it LOOKS GREAT! What a nice finish.

We had been talking about what to do with the fireplace. We decided to paint it white. Its going to be very white! But it will break up the wall really nice and the kids got to help prime it so they felt like they got to help with the living room too. The actually worked together for over an hour on that project without getting paint on each other or making too big of a mess.

Tonight is our soccer team pizza party - yummy! Looking forward to that, and I was invited out by my girl DW for drinks later. Tomorrow we should be getting the house put as back together as we can while we wait on carpet and vinyl. We did decide on what to get, just going to get the cash together before we do it. So smart that Honey of mine :)

Looking forward to a "relaxing" dinner and some fun with my girls.

Day Eight

Paint, paint everywhere!

Nearly done. There are these two small sections in the kitchen that need to be done and that's it! (Well, except for the trim work.)

I am going back across town later to check on vinyl. The samples we brought home yesterday just didn't do it for us (me) so its back to square one.

Miss I and I did our random act of kindness this morning and ended up on a lunch date with a good friend afterwards. Not only that, we pulled off a fun surprise and helped out a precious relative in the process.

I did get up and go running with my girl JP this morning. We only got about 2.5 miles in, and part of that was walking, so we need to step it up for the triathlon in July. We're going swimming tomorrow morning. I still need to get on my bike! I am going to start riding to and from work on the weekends, that will help - well the ride home will! It's all up hill.

Plans for tonight? Sit and chill, maybe watch My Honey paint trim, maybe help him? Tomorrow Miss I is at day care all day so we should be able to get a LOT done around the house and maybe put some of the art on the walls and put up some shelves. Dinner at the Cave B Inn should round out the day really nice. Saturday and Sunday, not much planned at all. Our soccer game was re-scheduled to Friday but the end of the season pizza party is Saturday night. A little family time on Sunday and then back to the grind bright and early Monday morning.

What a great vacation.

Note to self: Vacation in May = good idea!

Day Seven

Will this vacation ever end? Not for a few more days!

We got the carpet pulled today! The wood floor is in great shape except the row of nails every 18". Apparently they did that to keep the floor from squeaking. It works, but looks horrible so I get new carpet and vinyl in the kitchen. We checked out some samples today, the guy comes to measure tomorrow morning and we're off. We are decided on carpet, the vinyl will be a bit trickier.

I finished my second coat of cutting in in the kitchen and should get to finish that part of the painting tomorrow. The rest of the painting are the doors and trim around the doors and windows, we are doing the trim white and the interior doors the same color as the walls. We are also going to paint the fireplace bricks white. I think it will look really sharp. I am getting anxious for the whole thing to be done, but here is where I have to take my time and go slow so it doesn't get buggered up.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get the rest of the walls rolled, maybe a little trim work or the doors primed, and a random act of kindness if Miss I isn't sick. She had a gunky eye tonight, not sure if it is a pink-eye thing or related to a runny nose she has. She tends to get gunky eyes with her colds, so we shall see in the morning.

Friday I would like to tackle the fireplace and see how that goes, maybe hang some curtains and shelves. I checked at Target today and found some nice looking floating shelves that I would like. I should also probably get some grocery shopping done for next week. I do have to go back to work on Monday! We have also been invited out to dinner on Friday night. It should be a fun night. Good company and a very nice meal at Tendrils at the Cave B Inn. It's beautiful out there, I can't wait to go back!

My Honey, he's so cute. The living room is torn up so I moved my laptop to the bedroom today. The only outlet is on his side of the bed so I am sitting here writing when he came up to give me a kiss goodnight.

"Are we changing sides of the bed?" he asks. "No," I told him, "this is just where the laptop is. Unless you want to change." hahahah, I crack myself up. We are making a TON of changes this week, the walls, the windows, the curtains, the carpet the vinyl, a vacation to a new place, as if he would like to change one more thing. "No," he says, "I like it the way it is. Maybe tomorrow." Right, tomorrow... What a cutie.

Days four through six

Holy guacamole!

Day Four: Pack, drive, eat, drive, unpack, play, eat, play, sleep.
Day Five: Wake at 5 am ... serious. Wait. Eat, welcome family, play, eat, play, eat, play, sleep.
Day Six: Wake at 7:30 am!! Pack, eat, play, change clothes, drive, get caught in traffic, drive, more traffic, eat, drive, HOME!!

We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. What a freaking blast! We thought it would be a 5 or 6 hour drive and weren't looking forward to it, but it went really well. (Except that last hour-and-a-half.)

We arrived, checked in, changed and hit the water park right away. They have a great tide pool, several kiddie slides, a couple junior-size slides which are okay for littles, and adults, and then a big-kid/adult section. The first night we spent a lot of time in the tide pool. It was a huge swimming pool that went from 0" to 5' and every 10 minutes or so a machine would start the "tides" rolling. What fun! There were inner tubes you could ride the waves on or you could just let the waves do the carrying. Miss I preferred to let the waves carry her away or crash over her or what ever. She was hilarious! Bubba liked being in the tubes. It was a lot of fun, and totally tiring!

LK, Hubby and Boy-Cousin came down from Bremerton to play with us yesterday. It was great to have them there. Boy-cousin is very adventurous and LK frets a lot less than I do. She is also very persuasive. That, plus Hubby being Miss I's new favorite boy got her down the slides. And then she never stopped! Bubba took a lot more convincing. Finally, today, an hour before we left he tried the slides for the first time. He was glad he tried, and went down them a few more times, but he was just plain ol' wore out so it wasn't much fun for him. Miss I never seems to run out of energy! That girl is constant motion! Even now, she's having trouble sleeping.

It was awesome having another family there because we could kid swap! They got to go on some rides together and so did we. I can't remember ever going on a ride with My Honey. We aren't really adventure-park types. But it was fun to experience the big-kid rides with him. I did NOT like having to climb 6 stories of stairs to get to the top of these rides. I wished I had a waterproof camera most of the trip, but especially when I was at the top of this ridiculously high staircase. I am not a fan of heights and I really had to not think about the fact that I had climbed STEPS to get to the top of this thing and I was going to go down on an inner tube or in a raft through a freaking plastic tube. YIKES! But it was a ton of fun! Worth every step.

Today we packed, ate and then played for awhile before we left. The Lodge has a wonderful check-in/check-out policy where you can start playing in the water park before your room is ready and you can play after you check out! Theoretically, you could arrive on your check-in day at 9 am, play until check in at 3 pm, continue playing until the park closes at 9 pm, stay the night, play all the next day, even after check out at 11 am until 9 pm. If you had die-hard kids this would be very cool! So we took advantage of the check-out deal and played until 1 pm, because our kids have to go to school tomorrow :) we had a long drive home, and we were all watered out!

On the agenda for tomorrow: Finish painting the walls and pull out carpet. I am so looking forward to this project! End result? Really pretty wood floors, distressed wood floors or new carpet.

I can must say, so far, this has been a great vacation!

Day Three

Another productive day! Got my new Mother's Day flowers planted and some other stuff in the yard cleaned up and weeded and re-arranged.

Worked a little tiny bit on laundry (there's still PLENTY more of that!) Took the kids to the Humane Society to drop off some plants to a friend. Of course we looked at the animals. They had some precious black kitties... No! No new animals today.

We hit the Costco, and then did take-two at the park for lunch. Last night's dinner was rained out, today's lunch? Big success until Bubba got a belly ache. Hopefully it's just a passing thing? We're supposed to head out of town soon.

Now, we're just sittin' chillin', waitin' for My Honey to get home from golfing. Miss I is playing Nintendo, Bubba is fast asleep. I think part of his belly ache is that he hasn't slept well the past week and he might be a tad dehydrated. The kid never drinks water. EVER.

I still need to get some more paint and dog food before this day is out.

Side note: My skin feels tingly from the sun. I love it!

Day Two

Well. I didn't DO as much to day, but I got a lot done.

I went for an early swim, took the kids to school, them met my girl JP for coffee since DW was camping and then helped in Bubba's class. At 1130 I met another friend for lunch at the (not-so) new Olive Garden. Yes, we have OG here in my leetle corner of the world.

After a wonderfully adult lunch, including some fancy EIGHT dollar drinks (!!!) we went to Lowe's. I needed more re-decorating supplies. I had time to look closer at their curtain choices and I found something I think will work. We shall see. I picked up some ceiling paint (remember the boo-boo's from yesterday?) and the trim paint. Then I picked both the kids up from school/day care and then on to gymnastics.

We decided on a picnic dinner. We did these for a time last summer on Friday nights, they were a lot of fun. The kids would eat and then go play so My Honey and I got some adult time. Tonight it didn't quite work that way, it started to rain! We packed it up and headed to Lowe's. I didn't get the right paint, we needed a semi-gloss not a satin. Luckily it was only a quart. The trim is going to look very cool. It's white, but it will off-set the brownish color of the wall really well. We also needed some new box-type knives for cutting out the carpet. That is going to be such a dirty job! I cant wait to get this grungy stuff out of here! We looked at carpet tonight to see how much it was, just in case.

Once the kids were in bed I got antsy. The walls all needed a second coat of paint so I set to it. OOPS! I am going to need a third gallon of paint. But my walls look gorgeous! I still love the color.

We took all the small stuff, end tables, toys and crap like that out of the living room to be able to paint. It's kind of nice to not have anything in here. Wonder how to keep it minimalist? Just the essentials. My Honey likes it too. We shall see. Another thing I would like to do is spruce up the fireplace. Tile or something.

One thing at a time! get the painting and then the carpet done and see whats left. Budget and energy-wise!

Tomorrow's agenda? Goofing off :)

Day One

Well. It was a LOT more successful than I thought it would be!

Kid to school - check
Massage - check
Hair color - check
Pretty up Miss I's hair - check
Lunch with Miss I - check
Buy paint - check
Look for curtains - check
Find curtains - not so much :(
Paint - check - and then some
Get kid from school - check
Homework - check
Paint - check
Dinner - check, with help
Kids to bed - check, also with help
Paint - check

I got a coat of paint on everything. I knew it was time to stop when I started to get it on the ceiling, but I just told myself "slow down, you only have five feet to go." So I slowed down and got it done. I LOVE THE COLOR!!! Good job me! It's dark, but I think it's delicious.

Now its time to get some sleeps before a swim tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I ran this morning! Super good, fabulous, great day!

What's the chance .... naw, there's no way the rest of the week will be this great.

Is there?

Ahhhh

It's vacation time for me! YAY!

On tomorrow's agenda: massage, hair color, buy paint and get to work! I've been wanting to paint for a LONG time, and the time is finally here. I found a great color, tried it out a couple weeks ago, it received thumbs up, and it is going on the walls. The holes were filled and primed and now I'm ready!

Friday's agenda includes finishing painting, and maybe some yard work, it just depends. Saturday we should be able to wrap up the painting, and yard work. My Honey is going golfing, maybe we will buy a new pool(?)

Sunday we are getting out of dodge! I can't wait! Later in the week we are ripping up carpet.

I am hoping I spaced things out enough, I think so. The only thing I want to do is actually finish one of my projects - well, make that three. I want to get the painting done, take the hard-top off the Jeep and rip out the carpet. Pretty much in that order, with set up the pool thrown in if we can get to it.

Too much? I hope not!

Good times

Hmmmmmmmm, how to describe my trip west ...

There was rain, snow, a car crashed into the hillside (not mine), deer, vomit (also not mine), sunshine, LOUD MUSIC, more driving, rain, snow, a motorcycle on its side, milkshakes, unpacking and then a hockey game. All in the span of about 30 hours.

All-in-all it was fun! The Tacoma Dome seemed to be a good venue for the Nickelback concert. I thought they did a better show there than at the Gorge last summer. The drive over wasn't that bad, until Miss I puked. Five minutes away from my dad's house. I had some worries about leaving her overnight, but what can you do? Grandma assured me it would be fine. And it was, until she puked again. Poor thing. She slept all night and was fine the next day.

And that's about it.

I work the next three days and then I am on vacation for 10. I can't wait! We have plans to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge, paint the interior of the house and do some yard work!

Gotta get me some of that

Heading west tomorrow and I'm not excited yet...

I woke up feeling kind of crummy tho, so maybe that's why?

I did take a minute at the store and get us our "concert t-shirts" that perked me up for awhile!

Maybe there's just too many things left to do; work, pack, take the kids to school tomorrow?

Hopefully by this time tomorrow I will feel better and my excitement will have found me.

***** update 1015 pm *******

After about two hours at work, a few Diet Cokes, and some Skittles, I found my excitement! Now I can't wait!

Neither can the kids, they were still up at 9:15 when I got home.

Busy-ness

Just finished Apple Blossom weekend. Not too bad to work for us day-shifters. Oh, how I would have loved to work nights just for the action. July can't come soon enough.

My week will be busy though; I work Monday-Thursday, we have soccer games on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, hockey tickets for Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday nights and a little concert in Tacoma I am going to on Friday. Yep, me and my gal KC are going to Nickelback again. We just didn't get enough the first time. I am really looking forward to it!! It should be a great time!

Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Thankfully I am on vacation starting on the 13th for a week and a half. Not like I am going to sit around though. We are taking the kids to an indoor water park and painting the interior of the house and probably pulling up carpet, maybe starting to re-finish some wood floors. Could I pack any more into a month? Probably!! How about I have some company or plan a party or a bar-be-cue or something? :) Kidding, Honey.

We took the kids to The Park for the Apple Blossom arts and crafts dudes and dudettes, they love to get a painted Frisbee. I packed us all a picnic lunch and we ate and listened to a great musician, Camielle Bloom. I loved her! I love the conceits in the park. Small groups of people, great bands, the kids (and adults) can go dance like crazy if they want to (not me of course). It's a lot of fun. Not only that, I always see random people there that I don't see anywhere else. That part is fun too.

So that's my busy-ness.
In other news, just a little over 6 months and I will be forty.
Hmmm, not sure how I like being "almost 39 and a half."