Tangled Insurance

This probably makes me a terrible parent, but she loves Tangled and it's a good way to keep her nearby while I deal with insurance.

Broccoli Bruce

First thing this morning Alex woke up and told me his back and neck were really hurting more than yesterday and it felt difficult to breathe. I had already called for an appointment yesterday for my own visit to the doctor but now I had to focus on a visit for him as well.

Come time to wake up Evelyn so we could leave for school she complained that I was hurting her (left chest, ribs, arm area) when I picked her up. She didn't sleep great last night and woke up frequently with 'ows' so I made sure to be extra gentle when I put her in the car.  I kept Alex home from school and he went with me and Evelyn to see Dr. Bruce. Naturally, Evelyn still doesn't like Bruce (is this an issue from watching Finding Nemo?) but the appointment went well and it was nice for Alex to get an idea of what his appointment would be like. So far, it sounds like pretty stereotypical whiplash. Oh joy.

A few hours later we got Isaac from school and went to Alex's doctor. I hate that office! Took far too long to find the right office/building but we finally found it. His doctor is very fast and seemingly not as through as our (Evelyn, Cliff, and my) doctor but he thinks that Alex will bound back just fine in a couple days. He has the same issues I have but since he's so much younger he only gets 2 Advil every 6 hours, not the crazy stuff they put me on.

Come dinner time I had broccoli cheddar soup planned. My neck was hurting, Evelyn hadn't taken a nap so she was grumpy, and Isaac was a back-talking fool . I boycotted my dinner duties: I popped a few microwave meals on the table and called it done. After Cliff got home, and after bedtimes, he whipped up some soup for our own meal.

Mirsty

Finally caught it on some form of film. Whenever Evelyn wants something to drink she tells us that's she's "mirsty". It's hilarious how well she enunciates the 'M'.

Spider Phone

I was sitting in our backyard enjoying the lovely evening when this friend came crawling up the back of my chair. What do you do when a big fangy spider gets close to your head? Jump up out of the chair and then pull out your ipod video of course (would of been the camera, but it's busted)! I was just waiting for it to jump on my face (or worse-my hair!) when Evelyn decided she really wanted to be picked up. Once she saw the spider she stopped pawing at us to pick her up and wanted to check the spider out, too.

Had to put my phone near it to show it's size. It is bigger than the buttons!

More?!

As if I didn't have enough meds to take when I had my intestinal virus I get to add more because of the car accident. These better work, because it's confusing my head trying to keep track of all the medical names!

Crunchy

I always try to get all my errands done before I pick up the kids from school. We always go *straight* home so homework can get completed.

Except today.
Cliff got a new phone so I'm considering changing my service to something cheaper so Alex can have a phone too. I figured today would be a great day to just run into metro real quick and get some info on my current plan, I even had notes to make sure I'd be fast.

After picking up the kids we turned onto the main street towards our only stop. Isaac noticed a helicopter and as I came to a dead stop at the red light he pointed so I could see it too.

I comment on it and look up to see the light turn green. We were about 10 cars back so it takes a couple seconds before I can...

BLAM!!!!!!!!!

I push my foot harder into my break petal but my car is still going forward. I hadn't even started removed my foot from the brake for the light change but my car rapidly gets closer to the Honda pilot in front of me until I impact with her rear.

"Oh shit!". Oops, my kids are in the car I shouldn't of said that.

What. The hell. Just happened????

Alex sounds worried as he vocalizes my thoughts.

The car I hit pulls off the road in front of me. I explain to the kids that we just got in an accident (not my fault like last time!) and try to move forward. Why am I not fretting over if the kids are okay? Maybe I did, but I wanted to make sure the situation was handled so I may have forgotten some mommy duties. I hear crunching and my car drops as I pull off of the Toyota Camry that just tried to park under my bumper.

The lady that I hit asks angrily why I hit her and in my defense I can do little more than point to the crumpled white car that pushed me into her and explain that my foot never left the brakes!

The situation got real crazy real fast. The cause of the accident (aforementioned white car) claimed to call the police, but really called her family. She said her information (insurance, phone number, etc) "was coming". I called highway patrol myself (pissed of the dispatcher, I'm sorry, but the two patrols were very nice) but when the crunchy car's entire family showed up saying they all had to leave because they had somewhere to be. Um... NO!

Minor panic sets in trying to explain that she has to stay but the family can leave. Her mom gives me her phone number (why do I need to call her mom?) but no one seems to have any insurance cards. I get her licence by some strange miracle and I was so grateful when CHP finally showed up.

Although the woman who slammed into me said she had no idea how it happened, apparently she admitted fault to the CHP.

It was a nightmare but everyone was able to walkaway and I'm so grateful for that. I don't mourn my car, my stuff, my back, or my neck. I mourn for my children.

I am sad that my oldest has told me that he's afraid to be in the car to drive even after I've explained that the car did exactly what it was supposed to do: keep us safe. He is the only other one actively complaining about pain in his neck and back and I pray that a night of sleep will make it go away.

Clean Groupon

Thank you groupon for my cleaning service. Awesome time for them to come today. My house has been cleaned many times, just never all at the same time. I was so happy with the upstairs I even took pictures of the bathrooms!

There is no sound

and for those who prefer the stills here they are

High Kitties

The kitties have decided our old mattress is their new sleeping spot. Watching them run up and down the side getting to the top has proved hilarious enough that we're in no current hurry to get this mattress disposed of. 

Falling Pigs

Mike Rowe is freaking hilarious! The one thing I miss about not having cable is being able to watch Dirty Jobs and listen to his awesome monologues. I spent my evening watching the shows bloopers online because they don't let you watch full episodes (they want you to go to iTunes and purchase each episode for $1.99 each!) and even though I had to watch a 15 second commercial in between every clip (each clip between 35 seconds to 2 minutes long) I found plenty of things to giggle at.

Date Stone ~ similar to the Blarney Kissing stone...

Another baby-less day today and we decided last night that we'd make a date of it since last night we were too tired.

This morning we started discussing what to do. It went something like this:

Cliff:"What do you want to do tonight? We could go see a movie tonight"
Me: "We already checked if there were any good movies out, they all suck!"
Cliff: "We could catch a drive-in, they play older stuff"
Me: "We used the fandango coupons and already SAW all the good older stuff"
Cliff: "How about we go out for dinner?"

Me: "...or I could cook a nice dinner here and we could go do something entertaining with that $25"

Cliff: "What do you want to do tonight?"
Me: "Let's go get a drink and people watch. Or wait, we could have a drink here and people watch for                  
          free!"

Cliff: "We could see if someone wants to come over for dinner and a game, unless you want it to be  
           just you and me."
Me: "That might be a good idea because we'll just spend all day trying to make a decision and end up  
          playing on our computers until we're too tired to do anything"

Silence as we go back to our computers/xbox games.

Me: "Hey! The Stones just messaged me, they want to know if we're busy tonight! They want to have                                  
         dinner together!"
Cliff: "When and where? We'll be there!"


We were so excited we even brought dinner! We'd been promising them candied chicken for awhile, so cooking dinner only seemed fair.

We had a terrific night out in the Delta and we discovered a new dessert too: apple pie pizza! I am so happy we have such wonderful friends, even if they do live 45 minutes away. It's worth the drive every time!

Farmed Mattress

Since I'm obviously not exploring Dead Guy Canyon I figured I might as well join Mamaw and Grandma Debby with Evelyn at Bishops Pumpkin Farm. I went last year with Evelyn and the elementary school and she didn't really care about it that much. Probably why I didn't even consider that she would like it now.

We arrived at her nap time (true bravery) but she was in a really good mood. We walked over to the petting zoo and I thought for sure she would want nothing to do with touching the animals but she proved me wrong. She wanted to go inside the gate and feed them! Of course what she wanted and what she was willing to do was a different story.

She went in with the animals (wanting all of us with her) and begged Mamaw for something to feed the goats. Being the good grandmother that she is, she went and purchased the goat food for Evelyn. These goats are smart, they didn't let Mamaw walk 2 feet past the entrance before they were all over her trying to get some treats. Evelyn decided she was not willing to feed them, but we had a great time watching the goats try to tackle Mamaw.


After that we went ventured on to the large pumpkin patch where Evelyn drummed on the pumpkins, sat on them, tried to sleep on them, and tried to pick them up.

Never ones to settle for less we also took a train ride, did the sunflower maze (and selected sunflowers to take home), looked at all the different kinds of pumpkins, and had time to buy some pie.

In the sunflower maze we convinced Evelyn to let us take baby jaguars picture with her and then she decided we needed to take more pictures of baby jaguar. She'd run to different places setting baby jaguar down and saying "take his picture here!" before sitting somewhere next to him for her own picture.

Having baby jaguar 'smell the flowers'

At the end of the day she wanted to go back home with Mamaw and Grandma Debby, not me.

On my way home Cliff called to tell me Craigslist had a sleepnumber mattress for $500 and he wanted me to call on it. Great news for us, it was available if we could pick it up before 6pm (which we did) in a nice part of Granite Bay.

Cliff and I spent the night at home with our gear still all packed and we chose a second night of rice (with real butter instead of squeezy butter!) this time mixed with the eggs and zucchini we had planned on hiking into the hole. We finished the night setting up our California King sleep number bed and hoping for our first solid night of restful sleep in a long time!


All the pictures from Bishops Farm

Caterpillar Chase

Video from Bishops Pumpkin Farm. Evelyn wanted to follow the caterpillar and thought it was neat... until it turned around and crawled towards her and then she shrieked and ran away. 

Rules For Life

I got this list from a friend on Facebook, but I really appreciated it so I'm re-posting. 

Sometimes it's hard to understand why things are happening the way they are and how unfair they seem to be. Everybody gets pushed, shoved even knocked down but it's how you pick yourself up which is the most important thing. That's where these "Rules for Living" can keep you on the right path and help you overcome those great obstacles which lay ahead. 

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk. Risk is involved in every great opportunity in life. If it isn’t risky, then everyone would be doing, thus making it ordinary and not “great.” Separate yourself from the crowd as one who not only can take risks, but enjoys doing so. Certainty in life can only be so comforting until it gets boring.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson. If you lose what you have learned not to do, you will be doomed to repeat it. More importantly, however, do fear failure. Failure is the precursor to success. Hardly any great thing that you wish to accomplish will come without failure. This ties back to the rule of risk mentioned above.

3. Follow the three Rs:

1. Respect for self – Confidence is key in success and one who does you respect himself does not believe in himself. Thus, if you do not respect yourself, you cannot possibly succeed in anything great, nor can you respect others.
2. Respect for others – And you will be respected in return. Anyone who does not return that respect is immediately letting you know that they are not worth your time, and that they do not respect themselves. Avoid weak/insecure/self-loathing people.
3. Responsibility for all your actions – You alone are responsible for your feelings, actions, success, etc. You are in complete control of your life, so do not try and blame other people for your mistakes or misfortunes.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. Not everything that you desire will be necessarily good for you in the long run. If something just seems to not work out continually, in such a way that it seems almost like fate intervened, consider letting it go or coming back to it at another time. The Universe works in mysterious ways and should be trusted. Just be sure you are not mistaking your own failure as the Universe telling you something.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. Rules are meant to be broken. Most of them are put in place by archaic, corrupt institutions that seek only to enslave and maintain their own power. When it comes to breaking them, be sure to do it properly to avoid punishment. But above all things, make sure you DO in fact break rules. If authority was never questioned, we could be a stagnant civilization.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship. Obviously friendship is more important that one small fight, but very few people actually put this rule into practice. They also need to be able to follow rule #7 in order to truly follow #6.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. And do not let your pride get in the way of taking those steps. Apologize, taking full responsibility. That will speak for your character more strongly than the action of making the mistake in the first place.

8. Spend some time alone every day. No matter what you do, take at least 30 minutes out of your day to spend alone in a quiet place. This will give you at least a half-hour to examine what is going on in your life, to examine yourself and to figure out what you want. Whether it be through prayer, meditation, yoga or golf, this ritual is a must. The Law of Attraction is the best way to spend this time.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values. This world is constantly changing. If you are not open to change, then you are going to live a very miserable life. You, yourself, are going to change as well, but that does not mean that your values have to change as well. Welcome new places, new faces and new loves, but never change those core parts of you unless you have strong reasons to believe you were wrong to believe them in the first place.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Silence leads to relaxed contemplation during which emotions have less influence and logic can take over. For example, in an argument with a friend, remaining silent instead of retaliating with something anger-driven is more efficient in ending the argument faster and with less hurt for both parties. Or consider Gandhi, who took down the British Empire through silent, pacifistic behavior. Silence is a powerful tool that few choose to use over irrational action. Consider it next time you find yourself in a difficult situation.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time. You are going to have to live with your actions for the rest of your life, so save yourself the regret and anguish and live with honor now. Good things also come to good people. You will never be punished for acting with integrity, only rewarded.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life. This is the rule that you have the least amount of control over. Your family dynamic will ultimately determine your home atmosphere, but you can definitely help it along by showing your family that you love them. As in rule #3, if you respect (love) your family, they will provide you with respect and love in return. This rule comes to play again when starting a family. Inject love into your home. Make the walls glisten with endearment. That will set a solid foundation for the lives of your children.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past. The past is constant, unchanging. Bringing it up can only bring more pain to the current situation. This is a problem especially with loved ones because relationships with them go so far back into the past and are so fueled by emotion. Forgive any past actions and focus on the present.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality. One learns so much just from living a lifetime. Share that knowledge with the people you come across, it can only help them in their journeys. Even more important, share your failures so that others will not repeat them.

15. Be gentle with the earth.The earth is where we live. So this should be obvious. Hurting the earth is hurting yourself and the futures of your children and loved ones.

16. Once a year, as often as possible, go someplace you’ve never been before. Experience new places and new things. You might find yourself with someone or somewhere that makes you much happier than your previous circumstance. The Earth is so vast with unique and beautiful places, why wouldn’t you want to go explore them?

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other. The opposite is a sign that the relationship should end. If you need someone more than you love them, it is a sign of dependency, not affection. Find someone where love is the dominant force and you will find yourself in a much more fulfilling relationship.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. Success is not truly success if you had to compromise yourself or your loved ones in order to achieve it. Decide what you want. Design your ideal life and go for it. Do not let any part of that dream slip away in order to get the rest of you will live in regret.

Chocolate Rice

I picked out a special hot chocolate for our trip down the hole (Cliff said it had to have marshmallows, but this looked better) and luckily before I packed it Cliff noticed it HAD to be made with milk. Good save. 

Now that we were unable to go camping and my customary dinner of just rice was ready, I was also able to have some of my special cocoa. Word to the wise, only make this half as strong as it suggests. It's really sweet.  

Smart-Sauce!

Woozy from hunger on the drive home we stopped at Taco Bell for a quick lunch and some gas. Okay, we also stopped because there was a Starbucks across the street, but I was unsuccessful at using the wifi so it hardly mattered.

Two items from the dollar menu and  mild sauce that was mocking me. I should be in the hole right now, not in this parking lot

3am

We slept an hour more than we planned (we were tired and needed it!) but still made it out of the house by 3:30am. After a redbull and lots of good tunes I pulled the truck into the parking lot of the Madera donut shop.... 6am donuts are so fresh and still warm!

We ran into the gas station first for some drinks *milk* and gum *elevation changes ahead!* and I also asked for some matches for our trip. The teller wanted to verify my age and his jaw literally dropped when I told him 27.  He made my whole week. Someone thought I might not be of age! Yesss!

We grabbed our refreshments and walked over to select our donuts. Unfortunately for us they must have had a new baker or something because our donuts were very greasy and not worth eating.

Driving past Shaver I started noticing cars driving down the hill covered in snow. Soon, there was a light snow coming down and all the trees on the side of the road had a white blanket covering them. Not a good sign! Flashbacks of scrambling out of the hole 5 months ago came to mind but before I could worry about it too much we had to stop for a heard of cows crossing the road. How much I love cows! Black cows, brown cows, spotted cows, baby cows... Beautiful cows!

I was once again back in my happy place with the warm and fuzzys in my belly (I really love cows!)... and then we hit an icy patch of road and lost all traction. Boy, was I thankful for the snow pack- it really helped us gain control of the truck back!







After we slipped a second time on the road we turned around and drove back into Shaver to hang out at Angelos and sip on coffee while we figured out what we were going to do. I love that even in tiny towns in the mountains there are places that offer free wifi!

I went into the diner and started sipping on some (mediocre) coffee while Cliff napped in the truck. There was another pair of travelers in the cafe that were also heading up the hill, hanging out, hoping to wait out the storm. When Cliff woke up (or froze, one can't be sure) he joined me inside to share the cowboy breakfast platter of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast.

When Cliff and I first got to Angelos (about 7:30am) it was supposed to snow until 10pm. By noon, the snow was supposed to stop by 5pm. It didn't matter.

After my 5th cup of coffee, and 5 hours of waiting and surfing, we realized that even if the snowplows cleared the road, and the rain melted the ice enough for us to drive up to Sawmill Flat by morning, there would still be too much snow in Sawmill Flat for us to drive to the trail head- and we had already decided that neither of us was willing or prepared to do a river crossing on such a short trip.

That was totally worth the 8 hour drive for my five cups of coffee served by a decent waitress! If I keep telling myself I went for the service maybe I'll be less factitious about it....

• We left this morning at 3:30am, after just 4 hours of sleep so that we could do our hike and be in camp by lunch. 
• I stayed up late last night making banana bread so that we would have good fuel for the hike down. 
• We spent two days packing, and several hours shopping for the items we needed for this trip. 

We made it! Wait, that's our home...

All of that, to come home by 3:30pm the same day (almost ironic, don't you think?) and put our beautifully packed backpacks into the garage un-opened and not an ounce lighter than when we left. 

Where's my outdoor experience?

This does NOT look like camp

I don't remember needing a gun that big!

Does Berty count as wildlife?

Where's my waterfall? I see the right boots...

I took the normal 'we got to camp' pictures but I don't think it worked....It was worth a shot. I considered pulling out my tent and sleeping on my lawn to take my camping experience into my own hands, but something about my cozy bed (and the sweet, sweet call of my computer and internet) that kept me from actually opening the packs at all.

Now I'm going to go eat a late dinner of just rice as is custom after a frustrating first day backpacking.

As always, more pictures... just not as many as there should be

Metal Bears

I'm in a diner when I should be on the mountain hiking. I should be freaking out over berry filled bear scat but instead I'm drinking entirely too much coffee, staring at these metal bears,  hoping the snow will cease soon. At least I have wi-fi. Thank you po-dunk town cafe for being so tech friendly!

Sidenote: One should limit their staring of the same cafe wall decoration to less than 1 hour each. It's too late for me, but maybe others now can be warned.

Sleeping Sandwich

Cliff and I have caught a nasty stomach bug. I barely have the energy to leave my bed, let alone tend to the children. Evelyn did not get her nap today and I couldn't do anything about it. When I was getting ready to take a shower she begged and begged for a sandwich telling me she was "super hungry". I made her the sandwich and let her eat it in my bed (I never do that!) so I could hop in the shower. Literally 5 minutes later Cliff walks in and she's fallen over on the bed, passed out asleep, with her sandwich still in her hand. 

Bread Nap

She was SO tired she literally fell over in bed, asleep with her sandwich still in her hand

Late Sweet Tea

It is way past bedtime, but they were having the cutest tea party together! So sweet.

Baby Sloth

Evelyn will play this game for as long as my legs can hold her. She will twist her arms and legs around my leg, then hang upside down and tell me she's a sloth. She falls off pretty quickly, only to climb back on and do it again and again. I love this game, but one day not too far away I'm sure I'll have forgotten all about this adorable game. I have to say I like it much more than 'diving whale' where she climbs over legs and then dives face first to the other side.

Breathing Pillow

Athena always finds a way to snuggle next to Evelyn when she naps. She works her way up, little by little, until she's on the pillow snuggling her head and licking her hair. Crazy kitty. It's sweet, but if she wakes up my little one while napping again I just might scream. 

Butterfly Chicken Boots

While I worked on dinner and the kids worked on homework, Evelyn kept herself happy as a lark. She used her stool to grab 'Mommy's water', put on her rain boots and butterfly wings, and sat there and listened to Elmo sing the chicken dance for a good 20 minutes.

I love that she has such a great attention span!

Birthday Horse

For their birthdays, I got both boys a 30 minute horse back riding lesson. It was a long summer so we're only just now using them. It was exciting trying to find the place, but the property is beautiful! The lesson had to start a bit late (but we got all our time plus some) but I didn't mind.

The boys had a great time! They learned how to walk the horse and make it do a little obstacle course. When it was over they got to lead the horse all by themselves back to the barn!

Naturally, even though I went back into my house to grab my camera, I set it down when I put on my shoes and forgot it anyway so all I had to take a picture was my pod. Not the best, but at least it was something.

Socks

Inspired by a friend on facebook I put socks in my hair last night to attempt 5 minute curls in the morning.

When I woke up, this is what I got. Weak waves. Lovely, but not what I was going for so I tied it back up into choice 2 from the 5 minute curls.

                                           

                                                   I like the look for the day, now just to see if it curls

Boxed Happiness

I realized a voucher I had for a MyPublisher photo book was about to expire. I started making the book a few times, but I just wasn't inspired to make one as perfect as what I know I wanted. Finally, 2 hours before the voucher expired, I put one together. I chose to do Evelyn's 4th of July Birthday with just pictures automatically put into place by MyPublisher. If I didn't like it, she could have it and at least I wouldn't of let my coupon go to waste.

My book came in today with a note saying "Happiness has arrived". It's not perfect, but it's plenty good enough for me.

Frik & Frak

After months (and technically years) of considering getting a house kitty and meeting dozens of them, we finally found our family pets, Boomer and Athena. They are litter mate sisters adopted them from SacRescue. They only do adoptions on Saturday but since I met the kitties last week they delivered them to my house tonight so we wouldn't have to wait another week.

I'm sure they'll fit right in!

Virus

Following a nasty intestinal virus I realized I need pill sorter just to keep track of my daily meds. When did I get this old?!

Princess Nap

She loves her princess pillow from Mamaw. Even on days she doesn't want to take a nap, if she has her pillow she'll lay down much easier. The funny thing about it is that she will only lay on the princess, never on the beast-and don't think for a second that you can lay on the beast either, she'll flip out. She likes to lay down and pet the beast until she falls asleep. 

Glorious Arnold

Wishing this was sweet tea flavored vodka... Still satisfying on a hot day!

A Fresh Layer

We ran out of paint but had every thing already set up (like the drop cloth) so I didn't want to put the play room back together until after I could finish the painting. I stayed up entirely too late doing just that. There's some mistakes and several places I have to go back and touch up later, but for the better part, it's done! No more icky orange and red in the play room!!! A green fireplace probably wouldn't of been my first choice, but we had the paint and it is a HUGE improvement from red and orange! I cleaned most of the mess, then resorted to stashing stuff in all the extra closets and cupboards. I can deal with those later (like when I need the space back).

I also had a free photo book (or rather, discounted that I already paid for book) coupon that expired at midnight. I've started several different books but I'm not a fan of the software and most of my books I want to be perfect. I'm not going to let this free book go to waste so I whipped up a book from Evelyn's birthday party/4th of July. There's nothing that I really need to say about any of the pictures so I could just upload the folder and let the program place them for me. I got it made and ordered around 11:30pm. I only had minutes to spare.

This afternoon my cousin from Southern California and her daughter came up for a visit. Her daughter is the same age as Evelyn and Noah and the three of them played together quite well. Although, I think my two might of had some bad influence on her. Oops.

Excuses

It's been awhile since I posted, but to be fair I have several still in the draft form all written up just waiting for the pictures. Lazy me....

Not really. I've accomplished a LOT.

Two weeks worth of paychecks, a dozen trips to Home Depot, 2 and a half days of hard work and my house in finally starting to feel like my home. We still have a long way to go, but we've done some of the biggest (literally in some cases) parts in changing it this weekend... even if some of them are kind of half-assed (meaning we didn't always have the parts we needed or the funds to procure said parts) it looks so much better. The house was half-assed and ugly before, not it's a lot less ugly! It's even inviting!

Green Finger iPod

Mawma has had Evelyn all weekend for us and the plan was to pick her up tonight, but Mom got really sick last night so I had to pick up Evelyn in the morning. That meant I couldn't clean or paint as much as I had planned (if any) but it wasn't a big deal.

I did the laundry, got the majority of the house cleaned minus the baby play room and kitchen where we were still working on painting, and picked up the missing paint all before I had to pick up the boys from school. And, that's with the drive to and from Nevada City. Some days, I AM a rockstar.

When Cliff got home we had dinner and then he watched Evelyn while I started painting away more of the orange and red. When I finished with the second coat of light green I started on our dark green wall. My least favorite part of the whole house: the obnoxious orange fire place, would be a dark green. Not that I would of picked dark green as a first choice, but I already owned the paint and didn't have another location for it and anything to be rid of the orange is a huge step in the right direction.

I wouldn't say I enjoy painting, but I don't mind it and I don't even mind trimming but I really dislike corners. Our fireplace is all corners! That thing is going to be the death of me. I'm not looking forward to the one upstairs!

Alex was watching me paint the fireplace on my ladder (wishing it could be him) and Cliff was watching Evelyn while she played her 'pod'. Then I heard Evelyn start crying underneath me (and Alex as he tried to help) and noticed her hand was completely dark green. She stuck her hand in my paint tray! To add to my joy, there- floating in my paint tray, was the iPod Evelyn had been playing with. Being up on the ladder and realistically unable to do anything in a timely manner I screamed for Cliff. What I wouldn't have given to have had a recording of those events. Absolutely hysterical!

Cliff got Evelyn cleaned up and bathed, and luckily for us the iPod cleaned off and still works (fell in perfectly flat and no paint got into any openings, thank you iPod Gods for watching out for us). I took a break to get her settled in bed then went back to painting and cleaning up the mess. The carpet got a few stains, but it had so many already, it really doesn't matter. I'm very glad we're painting before we've ever considered replacing the carpet.

The night started getting very late (Cliff had to head off to bed without me) so I finished my painting, put the supplies away, and stashed the remaining items in our extra spaces to be added to our dirty little secrets. The great thing about moving from a smaller house to a bigger house is all the storage you have. The bad thing is all the dirty little secrets you get. When you come to my house, don't look in the closet downstairs, or the garage (yet), or in my upstairs cabinets. They are all stuffed with boxes. Boxes I need to sort and put away, boxes I need to trash, just boxes I didn't want lying on my floor anymore. The problem with them no longer lying on my floor: it's much easier to forget about them and pretend they don't exist....

More photos from my re-invented house

Transforming Moon Paint

Doesn't it look fabulous! 

Our final movie was today and before it started Cliff and I set about finishing yesterday's projects. We completed the paint in entry way then opened up the can of green English Meadow paint that we really liked and had planned for the boys room (but didn't work out). We had previously put a sample patch in the kitchen and loved it except that next to the red it looked like Christmas. That was when we were trying to find a way to live with the red and only cover the hideous orange that lead us to the beautiful Chocolaty Charcoal hue in the entry way. We might have done the same in the kitchen as we first planned, but I did not want to keep the alternating wall pattern they already had. The way I saw it, a color we knew we liked couldn't possibly make it any worse than it was which left only room for improvement. And of course, since we already had the paint and no where else for it we had nothing to loose.

It took two solid coats to cover the red and orange, and in some patches three coats, but it's such a relaxing color after dealing with all that orange!

In the middle of all this painting we left for our movie (Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon - 3 good movies in a row!), and when we returned I took off my heels, covered my hair, and continued to paint. I even wore mascara for the occasion. Again, we ran out of paint so we have to finish tomorrow, but I will never again have to see this in my house!

More pictures of our orange and red purge. 

Orange Floors

We finally got the flooring to replace our dreaded dining room carpet. The carpet actually wasn't all that bad (we did have it cleaned after all), but having your dining room table over carpet is just wrong in so many ways! Needless to say, in the last two months, most our family dinners have been at the tiny tables in the kitchen.

We found some cheaper flooring that we both liked for .99 cents a sf at Home Depot. From our moving, I had collected 4 coupons from Lowes for $10 off a $50 purchase, and several 10% off coupons. 2 boxes of flooring cost $51 and change. We bought the 6 boxes of flooring in 3 separate orders and the liner for underneath the flooring separate as well (2 rolls also totaled a little over $50). Each time we used a coupon making our $200 purchase only $160. Off to a good start!

Ronnie came by to help (my nephew was selling his pig that day so the rest of the family had prior engagements) and once he and Cliff figured out a pattern to lay the floor so it would 'look pretty' they got it in pretty fast. Since I would of just been in the way I set to finish (or at least mostly finish) painting the guest bathroom. The colors are wrong, but it works for now. Since we had the wrong saw (and Cliff and Ronnie had a dining room chair double as a saw table) Dad stopped by to bring us the right one, but unfortunately we didn't answer his phone calls so he brought one we didn't need.

Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have the parts to join the dining room to the carpeted living room, or the tiled kitchen so those are waiting for another day. Also, we need the proper nails to get our base boards back on so they are also waiting to be finished.  It is still a huge improvement from what it was!

Ronnie made it home for dinner so Cliff and I set about tackling the hideous orange monstrosity in our entry way. We ran out of paint before we got the whole way up but I'm so glad we made changing it a priority!


More pictures of all the changes (and proof that Ronnie contributed).

Double Feature

I'm a coupon junkie, not in the extreme couponing sense, but I hate buying anything without a coupon. That includes any forms of entertainment. Thanks to Groupon, LivingSocial, Moolala, and others getting great deals is easy. Almost too easy. After you purchase a deal, you get an expiration date as well.
I got a great fandango deal (I've previously used it so when it came back I got it again) for two fandango movie tickets for $9. Pretty hard to beat that price, the cash value is $21-$25, so I purchased several of them.

Then I realized on Monday that they expire on Friday (today). Cliff and I ordered tickets for two movies tonight, and 1 on Sunday afternoon (I had three expiring codes).

Baby went off to Mamaw's house and we headed to our movie date.

First up: Colombiana
I really wasn't expecting to like this one at all. Figured I could sleep through it, but as it turns out I actually really enjoyed it. She's quite the bad ass.


Then we watched Cowboys & Aliens. 
What an absurd mix! However, with the cast line up I knew it wouldn't disappoint. Awesome movie! Well, the aliens were really freaky for my taste, but the well thought out story was paired with stellar acting. And secretly, I'm a sucker for anything with Olivia Wilde. 


My movie taste might suck, but our $46 dollar entertainment was actually only $18 and I was pleased to spend every penny. 


Two movies in one night kinda felt like being a teenager again.... except my body was so much more tired and sore afterwards. 

Late Night

How can you tell her she HAS to go to bed when she's being so cute/quiet/good.

Again, I earn the title of bad parent. Maybe.