Living Room Progress

Todd spent Sunday afternoon watching the Saints and putting up new vents and lights in our living room. He changed all of switches on the lights to dimmers and they are pretty cool. What a talented hubby I have!

White lights and vent covers have replaced the gold ones that were there before.

Evan's Class Cookbook

Evan has been doing a lot of creative things in school this year. Last week each person in his class contributed a recipe to the teacher. She compiled them all and made a class cookbook for each student. What a great way to practice writing and create a remembrance at the same time!

Evan's recipe for popcorn with his drawing at the top.

Todd and Evan posing with his cookbook. It says "My Cook Book" and the drawing is of a chocolate volcano. Yum!

Homework Time

I have to praise Evan and Chad for being so responsible and putting forth so much effort in their studies this year. Here is a photo of Evan writing his spelling words after having the necessary after school snack. Note the cup of chocolate milk, doritos and candy wrapper. I'm not sure why the bottle of hot sauce is there as that would probably count as a vegetable, which Evan avoids like the plague.


Keep up the good work, boys!

"I'm glad I had that snack, this is hard work!"

Looking Better!

Our contractor has been working hard on our ceiling for the past two days. The first day involved scraping all of the popcorn off. It was very dusty and my whole house will need a thorough cleaning when we are done. 


Today he is working on patching some damaged areas and repainting the ceiling white. It has a slightly textured look is 100% better with no popcorn or glitter!

No more popcorn!

Bye, Bye Popcorn

When we moved into our house about 3 years ago, we had a lot of renovations done to bring it up to date. We didn't do anything, however, to our large living room as it was the least in need of updating. The one negative about the room that I have been wanting to change, though, is the glitter popcorn ceiling. Yes, you heard me correctly, popcorn and lovely flecks of glitter.


Well, after considering doing the ceiling ourselves, we finally came to our senses and have hired a contractor to do it for us. The work is supposed to begin on Monday, so we are spending part of our weekend emptying the room out. I can't wait for the work to start. I know it will improve the room 100%!


When I explained to Evan what we are doing, he didn't see the reasoning and said that he thought that the ceiling looks fine and that the glitter was pretty neat. Who knows, maybe the look will come back one day?

Lovely popcorn and glitter.

Gold vents and lights are going, too!

Room is almost empty.

Busy Bees

Since school has started, we are finding that the weeks are just flying by. Both Evan and Chad are taking Tae Kwon Do this year. Evan has signed up for flag football and Chad is starting 4-H.


The boys had time today to have a little fun on the trampoline. It was a gorgeous day.

Evan posing and acting like a monkey on the trampoline.

Chad getting ready to do his flip.

Airborne!

Evan doing his flip.

"Wow, I can finally land on my feet!"

Yea, Chad is home!

Chad made it home late Sunday night. He had a blast, though some of the activities they planned on doing got rained out. He is back safe and in one piece. That makes me happy!



Chad learned a new way to dry his hair.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Sneaky Evan

We have all really missed Chad while he has been away camping this weekend. Evan found Chad's new cap and couldn't resist modeling it for me. Shhh...don't tell Chad!




"Hey, mom, how do I look?

-- Posted from my iPhone

My Fisherman

Evan has been driving Todd nuts all week begging him to take him fishing. With Chad being gone on his camping trip, Evan had to entertain himself. He spent Friday afternoon practicing his casting on our driveway with hopes that he would do the real thing this weekend. 


Todd finally promised Evan that he would take him this morning and he did. Evan was so excited. They each caught a small fish and Evan had a blast!

Evan practicing his casting.

My handsome fisherman!

Chad's Camping Trip

Chad was so excited when a school friend invited him to go camping this weekend. We packed him up on Thursday night and they left yesterday (Friday) afternoon. Chad said that he hardly slept all night because he was so excited. I can't wait to hear about all of his adventures when he returns!

Chad packing for his trip.

Todd sporting Chad's cap and giving his best gangster look!

Rain, Rain Go Away

I think that it has rained at our house every day this week. The weather prediction is for more rain this weekend. Yuk! The boys, especially Evan, goes really stir crazy when he has to stay inside.


During a respite from the rain, the boys went outside and were really excited to see ducks right over our backyard fence. Evan was insistent that a take a picture of the ducks, but did not cooperate when I tried to take one of him as well.

Back yard ducks.

Evan "ducking" from my camera.

Chillin' Labor Day Weekend

Todd was on call all weekend, so we stayed close to home. There must have been some kind of "I-Carley" marathon on because I know I watched many episodes of that show with the boys. We like to sit on the couch and give some love to Riku and Leon while we are watching TV. Todd turned the tables on me and captured us hanging out:

Evan, Chad (holding Riku) and Me (holding Leon)

Tadpoles

Evan continues to be fascinated with animals. He went "fishing" in the ditch again and ended up with four tadpoles. Not sure what to feed them, we did an Internet search and the recommendation was fish food. Thus, we added fish food to the grocery list and see how long we can keep them alive.

Evan showing me how he caught the tadpoles in the small container and then transferred them to a larger container.

The tadpoles are very small and swimming at the bottom.

Evan is so proud of his catch.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Loving Up the Pigs

In the evenings it has become part of our routine to spend some time loving on Riku and Leon. One night, Leon was so relaxed on Chad's stomach that Chad could put his hands down and Leon just stayed there without moving. 


Chad was happy about this and talked about how he could just fall asleep there with Leon on his stomach. He thought it was a neat photo op and asked Evan to take his picture. Todd jumped in on the action and took a photo of Evan taking the photo of Chad. Here are the results:

Chad pretending to be asleep with Leon on his stomach. Evan is in the bottom right corner taking Chad's photo.

"What's going on here? I'm supposed to be taking the pictures!"

Love Bug Invasion

After driving the boys around all week, I could barely see out of my windshield. The love bugs are out in full force and many of them met their demise on my car.


So, even though Todd typically handles washing the car, the boys and I decided that we could spruce it up a bit and at least get most of the bugs off.


Chad was in charge if the foaming brush and scrubbed the windshield. Evan wanted to use the spray gun and wash and rinse. He had never used it before and was knocked back a bit by the power. For $1.00 and three minutes, I think we did a fantastic job.

Some nourishment before washing the car.

Evan putting coins in the machine.

Chad scrubbing the windshield.

"Boy, this is hard work."

"Wow, this is more powerful than our garden hose."

-- Posted from my iPhone

That Little Stinker

One thing that we try and teach our boys is responsibility and the importance of contributing to our family. One way that we do this is by giving them household chores. One of Evan's recent chores was to match up and put away clean socks.


Todd recently bought some new socks because he didn't have any in his drawer. This got him to wondering where they had all gone. He put himself in the frame of mind of Evan and thought of all of the possibilities that might have occurred to him if decided he didn't want to do his sock job. One of the first places that Todd looked was behind the dryer and low and behold, he came upon a huge pile of socks.


We asked Evan how all of the socks got there and he admitted that it was easier to throw them behind the dryer rather than match them up and put them away. It was an inventive solution, which I give him credit for. However, we then had to rewash all the socks and he had to eventually do the job correctly in the end. I can remember my dad telling me, "It is easier to do a good job the first time than to have to do it again." When it comes to parenting I guess it is true, what goes around, comes around!

Evan showing us where he threw all of the socks.

The treasure trove recovered from the back of the dryer.

Organization

Todd was my hero, once again. I use a lot of bubble wrap and packing material in shipping out my products for Hackberry Creek. I use a lot of recycled material that has been discarded and it was piled up to the ceiling in black garbage bags and boxes in one of my stock rooms. It was a chore finding anything and just made me feel very disorganized.


Inspired by the wire fencing on the guinea pig cage, I asked Todd if he thought we could use the same material and build bins for my bubble wrap and packing material. He was skeptical at first, but then saw my vision and went to work.


The result was outstanding. Now all of my packing stuff is neatly organized and easily accessible. Thanks, babe!

Packing Material -- Before

Packing Material -- After

No Escape

About two weeks ago I was feeling very smug as all the guys in my household had gotten sick with a cold or the flu and I remained totally healthy. I'm not feeling smug any longer. On Sunday, Todd and I both started with the sniffles and have just gone downhill since. We both have runny noses and sinus congestion which is making us miserable and keeping us from getting any good sleep. Nevertheless, we are keeping up with work and our usual schedules. Hopefully, it will only last a few days!