Well, hopefully the start of today isn't a premonition of how the whole day will go! My side doorbell rang and when I went and answered the door a sheriff's deputy was standing there. Turns out my dear father-in-law was worried because he'd had an 'appointment' with his son to take him to get his hair cut on Tuesday. I'm not sure WHY Darvin told his dad he'd take him Tuesday because he wasn't off work on Tuesday, but in any event...Grandpa had been waiting all day long for Darvin to pick him up. Instead of calling I guess he just started worrying...all day yesterday he worried and he was worrying this morning too, so he called the sheriff's office. Well, I guess it's nice to know that if we go missing someone will come looking for us!
And then just as I was getting off the phone with Grandpa to tell him we were all OK, here comes knucklehead (big ol' Bear dog) with a pair of my new (maybe used once or twice) pantyhose in his mouth chewing them to bits! Doggone dog!! I had washed them and hung them over the hook on the bathroom door. My guess is that they'd fallen down and he found them and decided they'd make a worthy chew toy!
Enough of the woes of the morning. It's time to do some painting!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Darn your work ethic Dad!
Darn my Dad and his work ethic! 'A job worth doing is worth doing well.' Well, thanks to you Dad I'm laboriously sanding each of the cupboard door fronts instead of putting the first coat of paint on them tonight...And unfortunately I'd put some touch up primer on some of them earlier which is not yet dry, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to finish sanding.
Oh well, I did get 2 coats of paint on all the cupboards today including the laundry room and basement bathroom.
Plan of attack for tomorrow is to start by finishing the sanding and doing any necessary patching. Then I'll put one coat of paint on the cupboards and if I'm lucky I'll get the second coat on and the first coat on the cupboard doors and drawers.
I am sick and tired of painting!
On a positive note yesterday Darvin learned that he passed his Texas Pharmacy Law Exam!
Oh well, I did get 2 coats of paint on all the cupboards today including the laundry room and basement bathroom.
Plan of attack for tomorrow is to start by finishing the sanding and doing any necessary patching. Then I'll put one coat of paint on the cupboards and if I'm lucky I'll get the second coat on and the first coat on the cupboard doors and drawers.
I am sick and tired of painting!
On a positive note yesterday Darvin learned that he passed his Texas Pharmacy Law Exam!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
Some days are harder than others for keeping the Sabbath day holy! Especially when I'm in the middle of a 'project' like trying to prepare the house for sale. The roller and brush with primer are calling my name! I will resist, I will resist, I will resist...
This is my progress from yesterday on the china hutch and desk.
First coat part way done
Second coat all the way done
Second coat on both sides of a truck load of cupboard doors!
There are plenty of other things I can do that should keep me busy, studying my Primary lesson for next week, working on a Christmas present for Grandpa, etc. So..., I will choose today to keep the Sabbath day holy.
The End!
This is my progress from yesterday on the china hutch and desk.
There are plenty of other things I can do that should keep me busy, studying my Primary lesson for next week, working on a Christmas present for Grandpa, etc. So..., I will choose today to keep the Sabbath day holy.
The End!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hopefully everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Since we didn't have any of the kids from out of town and Darvin had to work graveyard shift we picked up Grandpa Clement around 4 p.m. and headed to Regional's cafeteria. When employees have to work on Thanksgiving or Christmas the hospital provides free dinner to them and their families. So that's what we did this year. They had a good selection of food, and I didn't have to cook OR clean...the best part!!
Darvin slept a good portion of the day trying to prepare to stay up all night for the graveyard shift. Consequently I painted and painted. When all was said and done today I got 23 cupboard doors painted with 2 coats of primer on one side and all of the kitchen, dining room and hall drawers. I also did a little touching up to the primer on the living room door.
Got the 2nd coats done after doing a little Thanksgiving day (pre-black Friday) shopping at Walmart. I've got a few more things on my shopping list, so may head out after a while to do the legitimate black Friday shopping. I sure miss having the girls here this year, it's a lot funner to do the black Friday shopping when we can go together.
I'm happy with today's progress on the painting. You can see in the picture I put one of the new drawer pulls on just so I could get a feel for how they'll look. Did I mention that I LOVE Penetrol? It's designed to be added to oil based paints to eliminate brush and roller marks. It works so well! I start by rolling the Kilz oil-based primer on the door, then use the brush to smooth it. I didn't mind the roller marks on the regular doors in the house, but really wanted a smooth finish for the cupboards. It's working well, rolling the primer on saves time and then it takes just a few quick brush strokes to smooth it. Tomorrow I'll turn the cupboard doors over and put primer on the insides and hopefully get the cupboards themselves painted with primer. I hope to do the actual painting on Saturday. It will sure be nice to be done with painting and on to the next project!
Got the 2nd coats done after doing a little Thanksgiving day (pre-black Friday) shopping at Walmart. I've got a few more things on my shopping list, so may head out after a while to do the legitimate black Friday shopping. I sure miss having the girls here this year, it's a lot funner to do the black Friday shopping when we can go together.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Work, work, work, work, work...!
Thomas, Lindsey and Brooklyn left early this morning to return to Boise. They arrived last Saturday afternoon. Thomas has my name for Christmas this year, so they gave me an early Christmas present. Of course their visit alone was a beautiful gift (snuggle time with baby Brooklyn was WONDERFUL), 
BUT the real gift was to help me finish the painting in the house so we can get it on the market. We work, work, worked! When Brooklyn was up we'd take turns taking care of her. Otherwise we had a paint brush or roller in hand! What a wonderful present. We were able to get all but two closet doors and the living room door painted and rehung.
We'd kind of forgotten about one of the closet doors and one is in our bedroom and we didn't want to paint the living room door while the kids were here because that's where Brooklyn was sleeping and the oil based primer STINKS (no killing brain cells in my grandbabies!).
Besides finishing the doors we got all of the kitchen, dining room and hall cupboard doors cleaned, taken down and all the hardware removed from them. So, today I'll finish 'round one' and start 'round two'. I plan on brushing all of the cupboards, doors and drawers to try to maintain a smooth instead of bumpy look made by a roller. My goal is to finish all the cupboard painting by Friday, then I can move on to refinishing the kitchen and bathroom counter tops and putting up new backsplashes. One of my handymen, Barney Zauss will remove (unless I can easily figure it out) and then install new sinks too. At that point I'll have the realtors come back in to give me market analyses then I'll clean until I drop and get this baby listed!
Oh how I appreciate Thomas and Lindsey coming! I was really having a hard time getting back into the painting swing of things. Progress had been so slow...now I feel like I've caught my second wind and can get the job finished! It was particularly helpful that we got the doors done because Thomas was a pro at rehanging them. That in and of itself was slowing me down.
Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Wilkinson here in town. He's an MD who specializes in alternative medicine. I have been suspecting for some time that I'd benefit from bio-identical hormone supplementation, so I have some lab work to test my hormone levels among other things scheduled in the next month.
After my appointment I met Darvin, Lindsey, Thomas, Brooklyn, Grandpa Clement, Thomas's parents and his niece Lexi at Old Country Buffet for a 'quasi' Thanksgiving dinner since we won't be together on Thanksgiving. Then Lindsey, Darvin and I went to Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. It was nice to spend fun time together, even though the painting was 'calling my name' at home!
Didn't make it to 'round two' today on the painting. I had an appointment at the Firestone dealer to have my tires rotated and oil changed. It took an hour and a half plus travel time, so about 2 hours or more. But I did get two coats of primer on the living room door, our bedroom closet and the trim to the cupboard in the pantry and got the 'recycle closet' door painted and rehung. Overall, I'm not disappointed with my accomplishments for the day, particularly because I used the time while the car was being serviced to work on filing paperwork for tax preparation (another item on my 'to do' list). What an amazing difference a little primer and paint makes!
Oh how I appreciate Thomas and Lindsey coming! I was really having a hard time getting back into the painting swing of things. Progress had been so slow...now I feel like I've caught my second wind and can get the job finished! It was particularly helpful that we got the doors done because Thomas was a pro at rehanging them. That in and of itself was slowing me down.
Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Wilkinson here in town. He's an MD who specializes in alternative medicine. I have been suspecting for some time that I'd benefit from bio-identical hormone supplementation, so I have some lab work to test my hormone levels among other things scheduled in the next month.
After my appointment I met Darvin, Lindsey, Thomas, Brooklyn, Grandpa Clement, Thomas's parents and his niece Lexi at Old Country Buffet for a 'quasi' Thanksgiving dinner since we won't be together on Thanksgiving. Then Lindsey, Darvin and I went to Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. It was nice to spend fun time together, even though the painting was 'calling my name' at home!
Didn't make it to 'round two' today on the painting. I had an appointment at the Firestone dealer to have my tires rotated and oil changed. It took an hour and a half plus travel time, so about 2 hours or more. But I did get two coats of primer on the living room door, our bedroom closet and the trim to the cupboard in the pantry and got the 'recycle closet' door painted and rehung. Overall, I'm not disappointed with my accomplishments for the day, particularly because I used the time while the car was being serviced to work on filing paperwork for tax preparation (another item on my 'to do' list). What an amazing difference a little primer and paint makes!
Sunday, October 7, 2012
I would be totally remiss...
I would be totally remiss if I didn't write a separate blog post to thank Lindsey for her amazing help for 2 weeks. She is the 'minimalist' in the family, so when I learned that she'd be coming to stay with us, I pleaded with her (OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration!) to help me with de-junking the house in anticipation of us putting it on the market.
She was more than willing to help. I think this could be a future career for her if she wanted to! She would go from room to room boxing things up and taking them outside in preparation for the mother of all yard sales.
I posted this comment on facebook on September 17th: "Day 1 of Lindsey dejunking and me painting is coming to a close. Good progress, very good progress! I feel a little bit like those people on the hoarding shows...we'll know I'm in need of a full blown intervention if I'm caught in the middle of the night with my headlight on going through the boxes out back set aside for the yard sale/thrift store to 'rescue' my precious possessions! lol"
I tried really hard to work on my home improvement projects and stay out of the room she was working in so I wouldn't see what was being taken outside. Of course when all was said and done and we were setting up and holding the yard sale Darvin and I both 'saved' some of our possessions from being sold...but I think I still did pretty well. We should have taken pictures of the masses of 'goods' for sale.
Aside from my mom's oriental rug that we ultimately sold because of the yard sale for a meager $300, we made about $2,200 on 2 days of yard sale and LOTS of years of buying and days of dejunking and boxing and then setting up! In fact, there was so much left over that I recruited the Smith's to run a 2nd yard sale with us splitting the proceeds. They are free to bring anything of theirs that they want and will collect 100% profit on it. They'll be holding the yard sale this next weekend.
I'm still trying to sell one of my couches. It is in superb condition, but unfortunately the style (flowering) is not appealing to many people. I hope to have Evan help me take it outside to the yard sale this time so it is displayed. Maybe if we lower the price to $100 someone will be interested. I have an awesome Schwinn stationery recumbent bike for sale too.
I've also been trying to sell snow tires and new cloth diapers for Briana and Ivan without success. I need to go write down the tire size and get a separate advertisement on Craigslist for them.
I'm making progress on the home improvement/maintenance projects, slowly but surely. I just feel like time is running out. I really wanted to get the house on the market before we left for our cruise here in a couple of weeks, but just don't think I'm going to make it!
While Lindsey was here she commented a couple of times that she wished she could do more, but had to tend to baby Brooklyn. I think she was full of baloney, I have proof that we had a built in babysitter (just kidding):
Abby, loves her babies when they come to visit! She loves snuggling with them and hovering to make sure everything's OK. And in all honesty, despite having to split time between de-junking and taking care of baby Brooky, Lindsey did a huge amount of work for which I will forever be grateful!
While they were here we did make some time to go visit Great Grandpa Clement:
This little girl is a baby Houdini, she can get out of her swaddle in 60 seconds flat...Tu-Dah!
It was so good to have Lindsey and Brooklyn here for a couple of weeks. We'll miss them tremendously when we move to Texas!
She was more than willing to help. I think this could be a future career for her if she wanted to! She would go from room to room boxing things up and taking them outside in preparation for the mother of all yard sales.
I posted this comment on facebook on September 17th: "Day 1 of Lindsey dejunking and me painting is coming to a close. Good progress, very good progress! I feel a little bit like those people on the hoarding shows...we'll know I'm in need of a full blown intervention if I'm caught in the middle of the night with my headlight on going through the boxes out back set aside for the yard sale/thrift store to 'rescue' my precious possessions! lol"
I tried really hard to work on my home improvement projects and stay out of the room she was working in so I wouldn't see what was being taken outside. Of course when all was said and done and we were setting up and holding the yard sale Darvin and I both 'saved' some of our possessions from being sold...but I think I still did pretty well. We should have taken pictures of the masses of 'goods' for sale.
Aside from my mom's oriental rug that we ultimately sold because of the yard sale for a meager $300, we made about $2,200 on 2 days of yard sale and LOTS of years of buying and days of dejunking and boxing and then setting up! In fact, there was so much left over that I recruited the Smith's to run a 2nd yard sale with us splitting the proceeds. They are free to bring anything of theirs that they want and will collect 100% profit on it. They'll be holding the yard sale this next weekend.
I'm still trying to sell one of my couches. It is in superb condition, but unfortunately the style (flowering) is not appealing to many people. I hope to have Evan help me take it outside to the yard sale this time so it is displayed. Maybe if we lower the price to $100 someone will be interested. I have an awesome Schwinn stationery recumbent bike for sale too.
I've also been trying to sell snow tires and new cloth diapers for Briana and Ivan without success. I need to go write down the tire size and get a separate advertisement on Craigslist for them.
I'm making progress on the home improvement/maintenance projects, slowly but surely. I just feel like time is running out. I really wanted to get the house on the market before we left for our cruise here in a couple of weeks, but just don't think I'm going to make it!
While Lindsey was here she commented a couple of times that she wished she could do more, but had to tend to baby Brooklyn. I think she was full of baloney, I have proof that we had a built in babysitter (just kidding):
While they were here we did make some time to go visit Great Grandpa Clement:
This little girl is a baby Houdini, she can get out of her swaddle in 60 seconds flat...Tu-Dah!
It was so good to have Lindsey and Brooklyn here for a couple of weeks. We'll miss them tremendously when we move to Texas!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
50th Birthday? Where has the time flown? Best birthday EVER!
Where to start? What a spectacular 50th birthday! Well week really!
Tuesday night my sweet visiting companion took our friend Nancy Whalen and me to an early birthday dinner at Olive Garden.
Nancy's 55th birthday was Wednesday
and my 50th was Friday.
We had a fabulous time visiting and eating the all you can eat soup and salad bar.
Thursday Darvin took me and Grandpa Clement to an early birthday lunch at Old Country Buffet. We thought it would be a good choice because it would be quick (I had a dentist appointment that I needed to go to afterwards and we couldn't go until after Grandpa's blood draw) and there would be lots of menu choices. Well it turns out that maybe all those choices were a little confusing for Grandpa. But he did find some fried chicken and mashed potatoes, etc.
I got the front porch stained
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER
and the lamppost painted black to match the carriage lights and front porch light.
DURING
AFTER
Our sweet Yakima adopted kids insisted that we come over for an early birthday party and dinner since Darvin had to work the late shift on Friday. Aaron and Wendy made delicious smoked ribs and beans and twice baked potatoes and we had yummy lemon birthday cake!
When you're as old as me, you need help blowing out the birthday candles! lol
Sweet little Mason got to pick out a birthday gift for Nana Denise. Wendy took him to Walmart and told him he could pick out anything he wanted for me. I was expecting something with tires (aka Monster truck, etc). Mason did not disappoint as he picked out a beautiful balloon with a race car on it! He was coveting the balloon, so I made sure to tell him that we needed to leave the balloon at his house because I would be coming back the next evening for my actual birthday.
Wendy got me a beautiful birthday card and Mason picked out some AWESOME halloween socks.
He was so proud of his gift, love that little boy! Wendy said as soon as he saw those socks in the store he made a beeline for them and knew they were exactly what he wanted to give Nana. My thought is that they have some road looking markings on them, so that must have attracted him to them! I put them right on and then wore them again when I went over Friday night!
On my birthday, as mentioned, Darvin had to work, but in true birthday fashion I didn't spend too much time working on the house! I met some of my besties (Seminary teacher 'retirees' and current teachers) for breakfast at Eddy's. It was SO nice to chat up a storm. Then all day long I got some awesome phone calls from my family singing and wishing me a happy birthday. It seems like when I was on the line with one person, someone else was calling on the other line to wish me a happy birthday or sing to me! My favorite calls were from the little people in my life. Alex called a couple of times and sang, "happy birthday dear Alex..."! lol Jackson said, "happy, happy!" Erin said, "He just said happy birthday right before we called" and then she tried to get him to say happy birthday and again he said, "happy, happy"! So cute! Then to top it off, Lance called and I could hear Aidan crying in the background. Donna asked Aidan if he remembered Abby dog and he stopped crying immediately as he indicated that he DID remember Abby and he DID remember Aunt Denise, but as soon as he was asked to wish me a happy birthday the tears started rolling again! lol
I went shopping (now isn't that the way to celebrate?!) and got some expensive paint from Sherwin-Williams and a free dose of kick in the pants from the S-W clerk to get some courage to start working on priming and painting the woodworking in the house! I'm not sure why I'm having so much anxiety about it.
I got the piano sold and picked up. I had been asking $350 but ended up selling it for $250.
People just don't value pianos around here and I really needed to get it sold. The couple who purchased it are in their 70s and don't play, but they have kids and grandkids that do, so Grandma wanted to have a piano at her house. I'm glad it was sold to someone that will really enjoy it. I put a touch up coat of paint on the lamppost and painted a mirror that's been on my 'play time' list (as opposed to my 'work time' list).
My dear friend Teri Mickey stopped by with a card and an 'emergency' chocolate bar. I decided that I didn't need to have an emergency to eat it, just needed a birthday!
Wendy would not allow me to celebrate my actual birthday at home alone, so I returned on Friday for a taco bar. My dinner date for the 2nd night in a row at the Middleton's was wonderful. I love that little family. They have kept us in grandkids since the Pascual's moved. I hate that I'm working so much on the house because we haven't had much play time with them. I told Wendy that I need to hurry and finish getting the house ready so we can start having play dates again!
I also felt super loved by all the facebook birthday greetings, before, on and after my birthday from my friends far and near! I got another birthday card today from Lindsey and another birthday present. Briana video taped Alex reading The Friendly Duck and posted it on YouTube. It is the cutest thing EVER! I downloaded it to my computer and need to get it copied onto a DVD so we have it to give to HIS children when he's all grown up! I kept telling Alex and Briana that what I wanted for my birthday was a video of him reading the book. And he did it! He was a little shy about being taped at the beginning, but he warmed up quickly and a couple of times as he was 'reading' he said Nana, Nana! He knew he was reading it just for Nana for her birthday!
I'll continue to celebrate my birthday as we'll be heading down to Texas again later this month. Darvin and I are taking a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise and then spending an additional week and a half with the Texas kids. The girls pitched in for my birthday to give me onboard credit for the cruise so I can get a spa treatment too!
I watched the morning session of General Conference on the computer today and was excited about the announcement of two new temples, one in Tucson, Arizona AND that the age for young men and women to serve full time missions has been lowered to 18 for men and 19 for women! Exciting and in my opinion a true sign that the Savior's 2nd coming is approaching! I LOVED the talks! The Saturday sessions are always the BEST! I missed the Saturday afternoon session so I'm super glad that I ordered conference on CDs again so that I can listen and re-listen to them as I'm driving in my car.
Darvin did a bunch of pruning in the yard and I helped him haul the trimmings to the back yard and over the fence to the orchard where the workers will mow them with the tractor. It's so nice to not have to worry about hauling yard waste to the dump!
Tuesday night my sweet visiting companion took our friend Nancy Whalen and me to an early birthday dinner at Olive Garden.
Nancy's 55th birthday was Wednesday
Thursday Darvin took me and Grandpa Clement to an early birthday lunch at Old Country Buffet. We thought it would be a good choice because it would be quick (I had a dentist appointment that I needed to go to afterwards and we couldn't go until after Grandpa's blood draw) and there would be lots of menu choices. Well it turns out that maybe all those choices were a little confusing for Grandpa. But he did find some fried chicken and mashed potatoes, etc.
I got the front porch stained
and the lamppost painted black to match the carriage lights and front porch light.
When you're as old as me, you need help blowing out the birthday candles! lol
He was so proud of his gift, love that little boy! Wendy said as soon as he saw those socks in the store he made a beeline for them and knew they were exactly what he wanted to give Nana. My thought is that they have some road looking markings on them, so that must have attracted him to them! I put them right on and then wore them again when I went over Friday night!
On my birthday, as mentioned, Darvin had to work, but in true birthday fashion I didn't spend too much time working on the house! I met some of my besties (Seminary teacher 'retirees' and current teachers) for breakfast at Eddy's. It was SO nice to chat up a storm. Then all day long I got some awesome phone calls from my family singing and wishing me a happy birthday. It seems like when I was on the line with one person, someone else was calling on the other line to wish me a happy birthday or sing to me! My favorite calls were from the little people in my life. Alex called a couple of times and sang, "happy birthday dear Alex..."! lol Jackson said, "happy, happy!" Erin said, "He just said happy birthday right before we called" and then she tried to get him to say happy birthday and again he said, "happy, happy"! So cute! Then to top it off, Lance called and I could hear Aidan crying in the background. Donna asked Aidan if he remembered Abby dog and he stopped crying immediately as he indicated that he DID remember Abby and he DID remember Aunt Denise, but as soon as he was asked to wish me a happy birthday the tears started rolling again! lol
I went shopping (now isn't that the way to celebrate?!) and got some expensive paint from Sherwin-Williams and a free dose of kick in the pants from the S-W clerk to get some courage to start working on priming and painting the woodworking in the house! I'm not sure why I'm having so much anxiety about it.
I got the piano sold and picked up. I had been asking $350 but ended up selling it for $250.
My dear friend Teri Mickey stopped by with a card and an 'emergency' chocolate bar. I decided that I didn't need to have an emergency to eat it, just needed a birthday!
Wendy would not allow me to celebrate my actual birthday at home alone, so I returned on Friday for a taco bar. My dinner date for the 2nd night in a row at the Middleton's was wonderful. I love that little family. They have kept us in grandkids since the Pascual's moved. I hate that I'm working so much on the house because we haven't had much play time with them. I told Wendy that I need to hurry and finish getting the house ready so we can start having play dates again!
I also felt super loved by all the facebook birthday greetings, before, on and after my birthday from my friends far and near! I got another birthday card today from Lindsey and another birthday present. Briana video taped Alex reading The Friendly Duck and posted it on YouTube. It is the cutest thing EVER! I downloaded it to my computer and need to get it copied onto a DVD so we have it to give to HIS children when he's all grown up! I kept telling Alex and Briana that what I wanted for my birthday was a video of him reading the book. And he did it! He was a little shy about being taped at the beginning, but he warmed up quickly and a couple of times as he was 'reading' he said Nana, Nana! He knew he was reading it just for Nana for her birthday!
I'll continue to celebrate my birthday as we'll be heading down to Texas again later this month. Darvin and I are taking a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise and then spending an additional week and a half with the Texas kids. The girls pitched in for my birthday to give me onboard credit for the cruise so I can get a spa treatment too!
I watched the morning session of General Conference on the computer today and was excited about the announcement of two new temples, one in Tucson, Arizona AND that the age for young men and women to serve full time missions has been lowered to 18 for men and 19 for women! Exciting and in my opinion a true sign that the Savior's 2nd coming is approaching! I LOVED the talks! The Saturday sessions are always the BEST! I missed the Saturday afternoon session so I'm super glad that I ordered conference on CDs again so that I can listen and re-listen to them as I'm driving in my car.
Darvin did a bunch of pruning in the yard and I helped him haul the trimmings to the back yard and over the fence to the orchard where the workers will mow them with the tractor. It's so nice to not have to worry about hauling yard waste to the dump!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)