Flashback Friday

We've been working hard on our house so far and I have big plans for the weekend. I feel the constant need to work on a house. If you don't then it gets overwhelming (pretty much like working on anything). Also, with three kids 4 and under everything seems harder to do and take longer so we just need to be constantly at it in order to get something little done. But...instead of working I just took a walk down memory lane with my Virginia house and all the work we poured into that house. We only lived there 18 months but we did a lot. These pictures aren't even 1/2 of what we did but they were some of our first projects when we were eager and anxious to get started. I need some of that fire now.

The people before us wall-papered the bathroom ceiling. I can't get over that to this day. It was a curved ceiling so maybe they just started and couldn't stop. So we stripped it, Tom fixed a big 'ol crack and then repainted.

Not that visually stimulating, but a big improvement let me tell you.

I bad mouth the previous owners of the VA house a lot because of their paint/curtain/wallpapering the ceiling choices. I guess to each his own, but seriously, they painted the ceiling in this room too-why!!!?!

I didn't get a before picture of Tommy's room (it wasn't quite as bad) but I loved the green color we ended up with.

This is what we ended up with in Samantha's room.
And later I replaced those old curtains with blinds/valance and added the border, that was fun.

This was my crowning paint achievement in this house. One of my friends compared the living room color to "new born baby poop"

And we replaced it with this. I think everyone was shocked that we choose purple and brown as our colors, but we loved it and that all that matters (now our renters probably make fun of us).

And Tom's crowning achievement? The shed that took a year to finish and he got to use for one month. Before:

(Almost) After: In it's almost finished state (not stained). He's still upset that we didn't get a totally finished picture but we were so busy with moving across country it slipped our minds.

Okay, now I will go work on our house. Even though it's hard, it really does make me happy and feel like the house is mine when I work on it. Curtains and blinds-here I come.

Coupon Update!

So I guess I can see why this gets addicting. Here are some more of the deals I've gotten in the last few weeks. I skipped at least 2 weeks because of vacations (where I was busy spending money instead of saving).

This retails for 40.88 and I got it for 18.78. The ketchups were .45 cents each (and now I won't have to be angry when Tom takes them for Scouts) and the flosses were free.

This would have been 21.63 (and remember-I wouldn't pay that) but I did get it for 6.24 which makes it a great deal-because makeup isn't cheap.

And then my favorite shopping excursion so far I didn't take a picture of because it was the day before a vacation and we've eaten part of it. I got fruit snacks, 2 boxes of Quakers granola bars, a bag of rice cakes, 2 boxes of Go-gurt, 4 Kraft salad dressings (all free) and a Marie Callendars frozen dinner for 8.47!! That would have been 26.24. I really like that I saved more than I spent.

But just so you know-it can be really, really frustrating too. I went to CVS last night and walked away empty-handed. I didn't realize the pens that I was going to get for free were only a 3 day sale (my bad) and that my Extra care bucks (money back for previous purchases) had expired because of my time spent away and they were out of the neosporin/band-aid products I was going to buy. I was mad, but then I bought the above makeup/Kleenex at Walgreens and felt better.

I'm a Lucky Girl (a story told through illegal photographs)

So I am one lucky girl. It starts out with the not lucky part-we came home from Utah after a LONG drive in the car Tuesday. Then the next day Tom innocently goes to work, not knowing that he will be there from 7:00 AM until midnight. Apparently the entire project went down the tubes while he was gone and he and his team needed to work furiously to meet deadlines. Then the next day he stayed until 8:00 at night so it was rough for him. And...it was rough for me. The kids were coming off of the vacation high (you mom's know what I'm talking about) and then I just had them and it was hard. We were all a little frazzled by weeks end.

So, the lucky part. Tom asked his wonderful, fabulous, nice, lovely, awesome brother and his wife to babysit the kids for us and stay the night at our house so we could have a little weekend get-away together. It was so nice, and so much fun. Tom acted all shocked that it was my first night away from Eliza but I don't know what he was possibly thinking. I've spent 5 nights away from my kids total in the 4+ years I've been a parent and 2 of those 5 nights were hospital stays for my kids births so that hardly counts. Anyway, it was fabulous. I can't believe how much of a vacation it feels like to go do that. It was so nice of Paul and Sarah, it was wonderful of Tom and I had the best time. I didn't take any pictures but I can describe our date using images illegally obtained from the internet.

We went to a restaurant here:
The food was mediocre but WHO CARES! I didn't make it, I didn't have to clean up. I didn't have to bribe anyone to eat anything. No one threw forks on the floor, I wasn't embarrassed by the mess we left, I ate my own dinner without having to share, there was no whining-it was GREAT!

Then we saw this:
And it was fabulous. I thought it was very good. I love this new director (I think he did the last one, and will do the last two movies as well) It was funny and emotional and did the best job paring down the huge book that it could do.

Then we stayed here:

And swam here:
Notice how it's a sandy beach-I thought that was cool. It was called the Firesky Resort and I highly recommend it to anyone local or staying in AZ (though if you're staying in AZ you're invited to stay at my house :)).

It was so relaxing to spend a night away from the kids. To not have to get the kids ready for bed is such a treat!

Then the next morning we ate here:


And I think it's a step up from Denny's/IHOP. I'd never been but I thought their food was really quite good.

And then we stopped here for a little treat for Paul and Sarah, and a treat for ourselves (because it's never too early in the morning for a cupcake)

It was fun, it was fabulous. And despite what this post makes it sound like I do love my kids and enjoy taking care of them, but MAN it was nice to take a break-you all understand right? And, I have the best husband ever!

I Love to See the Temple

Another fun part of our vacation in Utah has been to attend the open house of the Oquirrh (pronounced Oker) Mountain Temple. Did you know that South Jordan, UT is the only city in the world to have two temples in it's borders? I didn't until I went to the open house. It was very nice and the kids were pretty good. Samantha especially liked it and was very interested in the rooms that were the "marriage rooms" and so on. It was a windy day so that pictures aren't the best, but it was nice. Later that day, my wonderful in-laws watched my kids so Tom and I could actually attend a session at the temple...together-amazing! It is such a peaceful place and I love it. I do love to see the temple!!

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The Great (and not so great) Outdoors

For the second time in my married life and the third time in my whole life I went camping (defined by me as sleeping in tents). I am NOT much of a camper, and it took 4+ years for Tom to convince me to go the first time. Now it's only been 2 years since the last time so I guess I'm succumbing. Now that I'm a pro, here's a list of the great and not so great parts of camping.

Pros:
Smore's
Plain roasted marshmellows
Dutch oven cobbler (there is a theme)
The gorgeous scenery
The sound of rushing water as you sleep by the river
No technology
Rafting in the resevoir

Cons:
Fearing every second about Tommy falling in the river
Having no place to put Eliza down
Bugs
Dirt
Outhouses
No showers
NO Sleep for two nights straight
The 4 year old that wakes you up in the middle of the night to go potty and it's so very very cold
The stench of campfire permeating your very being
The load of laundry after wards
Packing for camping

My list of cons is still longer. I must admit though, I can see why people like it anyway. It's a fairly cheap for of vacation/entertainment and very family oriented. I guess I'm on my way to becoming a true camper. Though I will ALWAYS prefer flushable toilets.

Eliza's just making sure we follow all the safety instructions.

Flashback Friday

So we aren't going back too far into time for this post, because I just have the photos that are on my camera while I'm away. About two weeks ago we introduced Eliza to spaghetti. As they say...a picture's worth a thousand words. You think she liked it what?

The Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave

In what is starting to become a family tradition we spent our 4th of July in Utah. We arrived on Friday (late at night) and woke up (late) for the festivities. It was fun, we kicked back and got ready for the big picnic with Tom's dad's side. We went to a park, played frisbee and volleyball, ate a ton and the kids ran around with their cousins. I LOVE family events. Later we didn't watch any big fireworks but we had the annual cul-de-sac of fire. Margaret and Christopher have gotten really good after years of improving and they put on quite a show for their many neices and nephews. Tommy, who I thought would love the fireworks, just snuggled up to me more and more each time there was a loud crack or explosion. Maybe next year? Here are a couple of pictures.

The cute one of the girls-notice it at the top of the blog? Poor Tommy

Eliza with her great-Grandma.

And the cute one of Tommy that was rejected because the girls both look too dorky.