So over Memorial Day weekend we went to visit Josh's brother and sister-in-law in California. They live in the Sacramento area with their two kids. We had a blast. We did so many fun things. San Francisco Bay, Ghirardelli Square, Jelly Belly Factory, Sacramento Temple, the zoo, and aquarium, and a train ride. Plus Josh went white water rafting with his brother and I went Outlet mall shopping with Merna (Josh's sister-in-law). Joseph got to play with a little cousin (eight months younger than him) and it was an all around relaxing and enjoyable visit. I have pictures to put up (not as many as I would like, kept forgetting the camera) and I hope to do that tomorrow. It's always nice to spend time with family and go new places.
I also need to put up pics of my garden. It's thriving (in spite of the weeds that are trying to make a comeback). Hopefully I'll get everything up tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy this (or enjoy not being in this).
So this really isn't about a whole lot of new stuff. But sometimes I can't think of a title that covers everything.
You know the old saying "it never rains, but it pours"? Well, I've felt a lot of that lately.
We paid of some debt with our tax return and then put some aside to use on Joseph's bedroom. Then about 3,000,000 things broke or came up unexpectedly so we now have less than half of that amount to work with on Joseph's room.
One of the things was our fridge. We've been lucky with that though. This was the third fridge that we'd either been given by someone getting rid of theirs, or bought for a very good deal (I think we'd paid $200 in fridges up to this point).
But finally, this most recent demise came about when our fridge decided that it was tired of keeping food cold. And slowly we noticed our food getting warmer and warmer. At first, we just noticed that our milk wasn't ice cold. It was still cold, but just didn't have that edge you want on milk (especially with warm cookies). Then it got to the point that we needed to get the food cold or risk it going bad. That was the last week of April. We called around to people in our ward to see if we could drop off our food for a couple days until we could get a fridge. All the "deals" that we could find were on fridges half the size of the one we were losing. Not an option.
Finally, we decided to buy a new one. But where, and could we really afford it? I went to RC Willey (yes, we are starting to like that place) and looked in their scratch and dent department (call ahead to find out what stores have a better selection in that department. They don't spread it around to all stores) We ended up with a $900 dollar fridge for $500. All because of a little scratch on the door (it took me a week to find it)
So here is our new fridge (pretty huh?)
I would never have picked out stainless steel, but hey, I'll pick low prices any day.
Last week, I was in the bathroom and Joseph was going through the hanging clothes he can reach. So mainly, my dresses. He saw my temple bag (it hangs on my dress) and asked what it was. I explained that's where my temple clothes are. Then he saw the bag with my wedding dress in it and asked about it. So I took my dress out and explained that's the dress I wore on the day I married Daddy. He kept telling me the dress was "nice" and "cute" (two new words he loves). I modeled it for him. Well, sort of. It doesn't fit. I can't even fit my arms all the way through the sleeves. He loved it anyway. And I had him model my headpiece. He loved that too.
Sometimes I think my son is a girly girl. But then he reminds me just how much boy he really is. I guess he's just secure in his own masculinity.
Last Sunday I came home from visiting teaching after church (church is at one and this was about 6:20). Joseph had told Josh he was going to "bed". This means he takes a pillow and a blanket and lays on the couch. It usually lasts about 30 seconds before he's up and at it again. But he zonked out this time. It's nice to know he can "self nap" now.
And finally, here are a couple more of the projects I've been working on. This is a baby blanket (you can see the yarn where I'm still finishing it.)
And here is a bag that I did. I didn't have enough of either color but I think it worked out just fine. Josh told me I should open an etsy shop. I'm still thinking (and researching) about that one. I love to crochet, but I don't know if I could "crochet on demand". We'll see. I'll let you know if that happens.
So I had a ton of yarn left over from the afghans I made for Christmas (thanks so much to my neighbors for the 5 bags of yarn). I found a website for yarn that also has knit and crochet patterns. I don't knit, but I love crochet. This site has oodles of free patterns and they are really cool. Not sweaters that only grandmother's would love, but stuff for kids, teens, adults and the home. So I've been doing quite a few projects lately.
First, I have these flowers I did for my sister in law. She has a crocheted hat she wears and now she has different flowers to match her outfits. They are so easy. I think I did them all in two nights. Then I have these placemats. Their not quite done. I need to put a fringe along the edges. But those were fun. And a very simple stitch.
Lastly, I'm working on a bag. I'm not quite done yet, but I'm excited to see the finished project.
My sister has asked for some wrist warmers. I can't wait to see how those turn out. Stay tuned for more pics of other projects.
I know it's been a while since Easter. But I wanted to post some pictures. First I need to show the finished project of my chairs. I really love the way it looks. I am so excited with how much more "finished" my kitchen looks now.
Then we have a cute picture of Joseph in his Easter outfit. If he didn't have such a skinny waist his shirt would stay tucked in. But he's adorable anyway.
The Saturday before Easter we had a girl's night at my sister's house. These originated when my brothers first started going to Priesthood Conference with Dad. Dad would always take them out to dinner afterward with his friend Steve and Steve's boys. Mom would take us girls out to Arctic Circle (love that place) and then we'd go home, watch a chick flick and make shakes. It has changed a little with the addition of multiple grandchildren, but we still get together, eat and try to stick the kids with toys or a movie so we can have some time for a movie or something.
This conference we had an egg hunt for the kids. My sister lives in a townhouse so she doesn't have much property attached to her house, but she is on the end. Anyway, the kids had fun and got a lot of candy. Here are some pics from that.We figured out how many eggs each kid could get. It was fun to see the older ones help the littler ones. Once everyone reached their limit, we went back in and watched a movie. It was so nice to spend time with my sisters.
Here's Joseph and his cousin Ethan saying goodbye to each other. Ethan loves that he can lift up Joseph. But Joseph isn't sure how he feels about that.
Then on Sunday we had another egg hunt at our house between conference sessions.
Joseph loves finding eggs. He wanted to keep looking for eggs. In fact, for the next few days every time he went out side he looked for eggs. Luckily, when he does find eggs (chicken) he leaves them alone.
We loved being able to listen to conference. And like always, it makes me feel close to my parents as we listen to the prophet on opposite ends of the globe. What a wonderful way to celebrate the birth of our Savior. So grateful for this semi annual respite from the craziness of the world. I just need to find a way to keep Joseph more subdued so we can hear more of what is said.
So this morning Josh got Joseph out of bed and got him dressed and ready for the day. I was awake most of the night with a sore throat so I took a nap after Josh left. I asked Joseph to play with his toys in the living room. I turned on PBS so he would have a distraction, and took a nap.
An hour and a half later I wake up to Joseph standing by the bed saying "mess, Mommy, mess" Not really words you want to wake up to. I told Joseph to clean up his toys (thinking that was the mess) and then we could take a shower.
I got out of bed and saw an empty egg carton on the floor. The first bad sign. I took two steps to look into the living room and I saw this. I guess Josh made German pancakes for breakfast and Joseph watched him break the eggs. He decided he needed to break some eggs himself so he broke (and smeared) almost a dozen eggs (using all we had left) onto the carpet. They were all over his toys,
in his toy drawer, And all over his books. He made a huge mess right in front of the TV, all over his clothes and left egg shells in a trail from the fridge to the bed.
And here is the little troublemaker in the shower. All clean and angelic. I was so angry at the time, but how can you stay mad at a face like this. He sure does keep things interesting around here.
So along with all the other furniture Josh and I inherited when we got married, we got a bed. It came from his sister who had inherited it from someone else. The bed has quite a few years on it. And it is very evident. I would usually wake up sore and achey. Josh woke up with headaches and we both would wake up more tired than when we went to bed.
I've spent the last few months off and on researching mattresses online. Saturday March 6th we finally decided to go look at beds. I had a few places and a few different mattresses to look at. We just needed to go give them a test drive. We went to the DI (nice mattress, oddly not a good price) and Crown Bedrooms (way too pricey for us.)
We had come up with a $500 spending limit and discussed just buying a mattress and using the current box springs we have. The plan was to look at mattresses that day and wait until we got our tax return to actually purchase.
We went to RC Willey not really expecting to find what we were looking for. It turns out the particular store we went to was getting rid of a bunch of their floor models to make space for the new ones. We found a mattress set we really liked for $399. Josh also saw his uncle who works there. He gave us an additional $50 off. So for a $700 mattress we paid about $375 including tax.
This past week has been extremely blissful. I actually have energy when I wake up and we both are getting rid of our aches and pains. We definitely have been blessed with this whole bed buying experience. We just wanted to get a cheap bed that would last until we get in another house and have room for a king sized bed. We had a king sized water bed for about a year but when we moved here, there was no room for it. Especially since we have Joseph in our room. But now we have a nice bed that will last until we don't want it anymore.
Now I just wish I'd gotten pictures of the two beds. Or at least the mattresses.
So a couple weeks ago I really felt like I needed to get a new project. I've got a couple I'm in the middle of, but I wanted something that would change the look of the house. Right now I just want to change a ton of stuff. I guess I just want to make things a bit different.
Anyway, shortly after Josh and I got married we inherited some kitchen chairs from my parents. I don't know how old they are but I think my parents had them for at least 20 years. The seat on some of them had been ripped up by siblings and my dad duct taped them together (the handy man's friend). Needless to say, they were quite dilapidated.
I decided to recover and repaint them. This is what they looked like originally.
This is the first one I've finished. I like the lighter color. And the sturdier vinyl.
So I need to finish the other four. Then I need to decide if I want to change the color on the kitchen table. It's just as dark as the original chairs. I like the lighter colors. Especially with all the wood in the kitchen (floors, cabinets, table) I need something to be a little bit lighter. It should make the whole room look bigger. And it's not that big to begin with. Besides, giving me stuff to do with my hands helps occupy my mind. and I really need that right now.
