Happy Earth Day Earthlings!

Asher told me that he'd like to spend this year's Earth Day at a park picking up and recycling trash.  I'm not exactly sure how to go about searching for a dirty park, so we may just settle for playing at a clean one.

Either way, I wanted to leave you guys with some pretty pictures of the newly planted nature in our front yard. It's nothing spectacular, but it adds color and I actually helped with the planting. Seriously...I got my hands dirty rather than just sitting in my lawn chair, drinking beer and barking out orders. My how grown up I've become.

 

This type of work takes a lot of helpers so we were glad when Asher was willing to let us wheel him around while he ate his popsicle.

Seriously though, Asher was very helpful. He was most excited about spreading the fertilizer though, even after we explained to him what fertilizer actually was. Boys...yick!

Even though we were only planting a little patch, it took a lot of adorable muscle to get everything done. Thank goodness both are plentiful at my house!

 

I swear I helped! This picture was taken before the dirtying of the hands. Fact: Beer must be consumed before germy dirt is handled.

Almost done! The placement is all me people, all me!

And the final shot...well had I been a good blogger I would've gotten a final shot. Oh well, it looks good from the street...trust me.

Happy Earth Day!

Mastering the List

This weekend didn't go nearly as smoothly as I had envisioned. According to my plans, we were to have put the final touches on Asher's room; which included adding shelves to the closet, completing his coin tubes, finishing and hanging the bullets, and adding another wall shelf. I expected that would leave us plenty of time to start the beadboard in Amelia's room, trim out her window and put up the crown moulding. Then, on Sunday...we were going to make a TURKEY!!!

Honestly, after seeing everything in writing even I agree the list was a little ambitious. However, we SHOULD have been able to at least make a dent in it. Granted I had to work Friday, and sleep some (read most) of Saturday, but this was all a "honey-do" list anyway. As long as the TV was working (thus keeping the kids occupied) Elijah could have totally knocked out the major stuff while I was slumbering.

The first snag was that Amelia's beadboard needed to "cure" for at least 72 hours and we didn't open the packages until Friday night. The second snag was that Home Depot didn't have any of the pipes that we needed to finish Asher's wall shelf. The third snag was that Amelia was such a total, screamy, wreck all weekend that we were concerned about having her nap in the guest room because she doesn't sleep as well in her pack-n-play and we just couldn't take a chance that she'd be any grumpier than she'd already been. So that meant we couldn't trim or mould or do anything in her room unless she was awake.

Of all the tasks I hoped to complete this weekend, we only managed to accomplish two. Elijah put up two shelves in Asher's closet (that have yet to be painted) and we made a TURKEY!!!

Yes, Sunday dinner was super awesome this weekend. I love turkey. Elijah said it was the "best meal this side of Thanksgiving" and I couldn't have agreed more. We didn't go ALL OUT, but we did have mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, green bean casserole, rolls, and for dessert, homemade pumpkin pie. The meal was wonderful and we were all pretty stuffed so we held off a bit on the pumpkin pie.

After an hour or so we all headed downstairs to have dessert. I made the pies myself and still thought they looked and smelled great! I served everyone and we started in. After the first bite we all looked at each other wondering if everyone had tasted the same thing. Yep, there was definitely something missing. While you didn't really notice it unless you took a bite without the whipped cream, I had left out a very important ingredient...SUGAR!  I don't think I'll ever live that down. Then again, I don't think I'll ever have to make a pumpkin pie again either. (My dastardly plan worked.)

The boys laughed at me and I admit it was pretty funny to make a pie without sugar but, Amelia loved it and ate her whole entire piece. So there!

Tree Hugger

My husband likes hobbies. He doesn't have just one or two, he'll start any new hobby so long as it's interesting (and costly). He's been through countless different interests during our years together, and while some (like photography) have stuck, other's (RC cars) haven't been able to hold his interest longer than the first $500. He has however always been interested in gardening. He loves to plan and build gardens, plant outside and in pots, and basically try against all odds to keep me from killing living things. I suppose it consistently presents a new, ever evolving challenge to him.

This weekend he decided to plant trees. Considering that last Tuesday he was trying to convince me that we needed to invest 7k in a new "project car," I was thrilled to be headed to a nursery instead of some shady car lot. After dragging Asher on Saturday to various local nurseries and chatting with people in the know, he decided to plant a Chocolate Persimmon and a Pomegranate tree.

I didn't get any pictures of the boys digging and planting because, once Amelia went down for a nap on Sunday, I headed to my room to catch up on Season Three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Don't judge me!) I do have some "after" shots of Elijah posing next to our new, not too pricey, sticks in the ground.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I've finally allowed myself to start thinking about Amelia's room update. This weekend I bought four different green paint samples and I painted them on the wall for everyone to mull over this next week.

The paint colors aren't exactly true in the post photo, but I did paint them on three separate walls for good measure in the hopes that we can make a decision based on how they look in several different lights.

So far, my favorite is the lightest shade, at the bottom. But I'll let you know what the consensus is once we decide to get to work.

Dirty Little Secret

"A place for everything, and everything in it's place."

That's totally how I live my life and run my house. At this time, we don't have much by way of decor, but as you can see the house is spotless and minimal...just how I like it.

Living room.

Living room from the stairs.

Kitchen

Playroom
(the shelves haven't been put up yet, which is why her toys are a little scattered)

Amelia's Room

Asher's room

How is it possible? How can I have two kids and a husband who refuses to throw anything out and still maintain a minimalist household? Jealous? Want to know my secret? It's fantastic...and oh so creative. Well actually it's simply that we bought a house that has a walk-in closet in EVERY ROOM. So there you have it, my house looks fantastic but holds more than a few dirty little secrets.

Hall Closet

Guest Closet

Guest Closet

Guest Closet

Asher's Closet - Part 1

Asher's Closet - Part 2

Amelia's Closet

Amelia's Closet
(Elijah wanted to keep the air compressor here for

when we put up the beadboard in her room)

Clearing out the closet clutter is clearly on my "to-do" list this year. I'm already working on the playroom closet, which didn't make this list because it's almost completely cleaned out. I can't help but think that if all of this stuff has been sitting in boxes since we moved from Oklahoma, almost a year ago, do we really need any of it? Can't I just load all this stuff up and take it to Goodwill for them to sort out? It's tempting, but I'm afraid Elijah would never forgive me and a week after I took everything out Asher would be looking for that one picture I drew that has that guy with the swords on it fighting that other guy with two heads...from kindergarten...remember? Where is it? Where??? Ugh.

Dirty Laundry

It's been great fun at our place this week! Can you guess which
appliance went bad last Thursday?

Can you imagine how my closet looked by this Wednesday?

Do you know what creative way I used to dry my children's
laundry during our coldest snap so far?

Yep, that's a space heater, placed in BOTH closets while the clothes hung to dry.

Do you know who my hero is??

Dryer was fixed last night and we've already gotten four loads through. It was, of course, a fuse that blew. Thank goodness Elijah is able to take things apart AND put them back together. I was all set to just buy a new one.

Money Spending Woman

In our family we have a saying.

"You can't afford NOT to buy that!"

And we really take it to heart. It means that it doesn't matter that we already have two perfectly good working refrigerators, when the one you've had your eye on (ish) gets cut by $700 and can be financed for 18 months at 0% - you can't afford not to buy it.

Oh and throw in a new dishwasher since it was $200 cheaper as well.

Merry Christmas to me!


I'm seriously bummed that the oven we'd wanted wasn't just a smidge cheaper so I could get the whole set in one fell swoop! Oh well, I'll keep my eye out for another deal too good to pass up.

New Coat of Paint

Well, I couldn't wait. I had to write about what we've been working on in Asher's room. It's not finished by any means, but I feel like we've really accomplished a lot so far, and I wanted to show it off!

Elijah and I decided that after we were settled into the new house, the first projects we'd tackle would be decorating/updating the kid's rooms. I always pictured Pottery Barn-esque rooms and have thus far fallen dismally short of my personal expectations. I vowed this time it would be different. We settled on a Super Mario Bros. theme for Asher's room and set to work.

Through my extensive online research (read: pouring over image after image of "Super Mario room" Google'd results) I thought it best to paint the entire room a sky blue. I chose Glidden's Pool Party, but had them mix it in Behr's semi-gloss. I make it sound so easy, but seriously the paint choice took longer than any other part of this project!

Before. Asher's blank canvas.

An unwilling assistant cutting in. I suck at cutting in.

Totally worth the work, look at this adorably helpful boy!

Elijah's first, but definitely not last, crown moulding job.

I'm not usually this happy when I paint, Elijah must have been making me laugh.

Finished, with the bed.

We've since moved the bed further up and moved Asher and all of his crap stuff into the room. We've got some more work to do on the walls and I'll definitely post when it's finished. We are cutting it really close to our November deadline. We're supposed to start on Amelia's room in December.

P.S. I realize that all the blues look different. The true color is closest on the pictures of Elijah.

Simple Man

I married a Texas born, Oklahoma raised, simple kind of man. He had always pictured himself married with two children, and was willing to wait almost six years until I could picture it too. After serving four years behind a desk in the Air Force, he knew he wanted to make a career doing anything but sitting all day. While I always imagined I'd marry a scholarly man, I accepted, with some trepidation, his decision to pursue what he dreamed. In our ten years together I can honestly say that he has never steered me wrong. He is a thoughtful man when it comes to making decisions while I'm more hasty and impatient.

He is the reason we have such a wonderful life together. Which is why I didn't hesitate to make another one of his dreams a reality. We are now the proud owners of...

...a garage fridge dedicated entirely to beer (ish)!

Our new home came with a fridge so we had an extra one and Elijah was finally able to fulfill a lifelong dream of filling a refrigerator entirely with beer. After everything he's done for me, this was the very least I could do. Plus, I get to fill the freezer side with Edy's seasonal peppermint ice cream so I can enjoy it year round!

You Wonder How These Things Begin

"This is the bed that gave us the agent
That started the search that brought the house
That had the room that fit the bed
That lay in the house that Jack built!"

Even before we'd moved to Texas and were living in our small rent house, I was obsessed with finding Asher a captain's bed. It seems there is never enough room in his dresser for the piles of clothing I insist on buying him! Seriously, at this point he probably has about 30 pairs of shorts. Add to that his shirts, pajamas, socks, underwear, pants, and his uniforms for various extra-curricular activities, and we have a serious space problem. I have been trading out his summer/winter wardrobe for the past few years and I dread the days of washing, packing, washing and then unpacking. I really wanted enough room for all of his clothes to be out at once. Keep in mind, that simply buying less clothing was not an option for me.

Craigslist to the rescue!

After weeks of scouring the site, I found the perfect bed. In fact, it was so perfect that I bought it that day and it's been sitting in the garage, while Elijah and I debated how to finish it, ever since.

But the most interesting thing about this bed is the fact that it was sold to us by someone who is now real estate agent. We'd sold the Oklahoma house and I'd been toying around on MLS just to get an idea about prices and availability in the areas we liked. After meeting Amy and buying the bed, she offered to set up a search for us just so we could focus in on what we really wanted.

The rest, as they say, is history. Less than two months later we were putting an offer on the house we're in now and the bed is finally finished and being slept in.

Craigslist to the rescue!

I swear the green will make sense once the room is completed!

Do You Believe In Magic

We have BIG news in our neck of the woods.

We will soon have a new address and should be closing next month. I finally feel like we are settling in to our new state. The plan had originally been that we would stay in our house through the end of our lease. Once we sold our home in Oklahoma, I started looking at places out here just to get an idea of where we'd like to live and what the market was like. When we found this house it was just too good to pass up. Yet another upheaval, but I'm hoping this is the last home we buy...EVER.

Introducing what we refer to as our "Forever Home."