For Amber

As requested, some close ups of Kiernans room.

Kiernans Bedroom

#1- Sisters Rock! Especially sisters who rescue photographs from rebellious cameras that refuse to behave for their owners.

#2-Well, it wasn't Target that did me in...I found a camera at Walmart last night. Hah! Just in the nick of time.

Aaaaaand finally, some pictures:

Kiernans bedroom. My favorite part is the chandelier above her bed.


The bedroom set was mine when I was younger, my mothers before that, and my grandmothers before that. It contains 2 twin beds (only one is in the room), the dresser, a vanity table, and a bench. I've always loved it.

My dad built the cornice box over the window for me. It's so great to be able to just describe something I want and he can just slap it together!


Not the best shot of the painting in the room, but you get the idea. The walls are light pink with a white pinstrip border and dark pink swirly embellishments.
The vanity table. I love the Barbie prints next to the table, they're so girly.

Camera Rage

Okay, So I've had several pictures that I've been wanting to post for awhile now, but my stinking camera won't release them! It taunts me by showing me the pics on that teeny tiny view screen looking all cute, and then I hook it up and I SWEAR I can hear it cackling at me while it makes all kinds of "download" type noises and then produces NOTHING. No pics, zip, zilch, zero. I swear this camera has been the bane of my existence for awhile now. I think I have some kind of camera jinx, they never seem to like me. The feeling is mutual.

Let's see, I have pics of Kiernan & Jakes finished bedrooms, Mike dangling from the tops of trees with a giant knife to cut branches (what every wife loves to see), and a few pics of some recent craft projects. I have several trips coming up (first one is tomorrow) and NO CAMERA!!!!

So now I have camera rage, my bitterness is consuming me right now. I have a feeling this anger will turn into an ill-advised last minute trip to the store to buy the cheapest digital camera I can find that will eventually turn out to be a mistake. I will try to avoid Target for the next few days.

Any takers?

Jacob will be celebrating his 8th birthday in March. He decided to write out his birthday gift list to help me decide on a gift for him. Number 2 on his list, right under a Nintendo DS, is a baby brother. If any of you would like to fill either of his requests, please feel free.

Birthday Part II

So, I didn't tell you about the BEST part of my birthday. My gift from Mike. He did buy me a gift, it's lovely and all that, but do you wanna know what makes him the best husband in the WORLD?!? He snuck home from work and cleaned the house for me! He Cleaned My House! It smelled like PINE when I got home. Things were sparkling that I didn't know could sparkle!

Now, I should clarify that since I left Jury Duty early enough to go to work, I had to go home to change into work clothes thereby finding him there and ruining the surprise. I know, I suck. BUT, he still did it. Is that not the best gift ever?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Guess what I got for my birthday?
Well? Come on...just guess, you'll never get it!
Okay, ready here it is....

A Cold!
Yay me! Oh yeah, and....
JURY DUTY! *sigh*

Yes sir, I kept thinking I'd get out of it, everyone else does. Sure enough I called in Thursday night and Woo Hoo, I was told to show up downtown at the Courthouse, 8:30 am.

So poor sad me drug my sick booty downtown, parked in the stinky underground, and trekked through the POURING RAIN to the courthouse. On my birthday. By myself. With a cold.

I happen to have a long history of having birthdays that start out sucking, but then turn out great. Melanie was great at rescuing my birthdays for me, every year it turned into something fun when she showed up. Well, here I am again, with another birthday in the crapper and my Melanie is in Texas. What's a girl to do?

Well, first I waited out the first release of Jury Duty people, hoping they would let me go. No luck. My big problem was that I HAD to go into work that day, I had a project (nearly done) that was due on Monday. So, cranky as I was I decided to just go ask if they would let me go. They were very nice and pushed my date back to May. Yay.

Well, the birthday definetly took a turn for the better at work. One of the girls had made a cake, my boss/friend Keri had scheduled a birthday lunch for me, and then my sis Steffy showed up at my office with baby Luke, balloons, and the most GORGEOUS butterfly cupcakes that she and Michelle made the night before. See...
My good friend Tracy was able to come to lunch, and Michelle & Mike took me out to dinner that night.

All in all, a great end to a bad beginning.

What I Like About You...

An ode to my girlfriends. I've been thinking a lot lately about the people in my life that I'm thankful for. While my immediate family are in a catergory all their own, I really appreciate my girlfriends & how they keep me sane when life gets crazy. Here just just a few of the many fabulous women I'm priveledged to know...

Amber. I love how you were always up for an adventure! Any crazy thing I wanted to do, you were the only one who was, #1-Willing to do it, and #2-Just as excited as I was about it. I miss having a partner in crime, not many people have the nerve that you do. I also miss comparing stories about our sassy little girls. Anything Kiernan did that surprised me, Channing had already done. From talking back, to painting nails those girly girls would have made quite the pair.

Keri. The smartest, most levelheaded chick I know! You are so funny and yet I can count on you to make the smart decisions and cut through all of the crap when I don't have a clue. I can't believe our girls are growing up best friends?!? Who'd of thought that back when we were out partying till all hours in college, one day we'd have two prissy little devils (oops, angels) leading us around on a string? I'm so glad K and Abbi love each other so much, I can't think of any other mom as sensible as you are to help me keep the inevitable drama to a minmum.

Melanie. Melanie. Melanie! I knew we'd be the best of friends the very first time you told me my jeans looked terrible and they fit me all wrong. We raised our babies together! I love that you were always willing to jump on the "crafty wagon" with me, we've beaded, we've sewn, we've painted, we've cleaned each others houses (mine more often than yours), I moved a pregnant you, you moved a pregnant me. I was always able to count on you for ANYTHING. I can't tell you what that meant to me when I was so far from home. We've shared drama and we've had really great times. I miss you.

Tracy. You and I have more history than anyone. I can't even wrap my head around all that we've experienced together. We were friends before we could drive?! We've gone through high school, college, boys, jobs, foreign countries, husbands, babies, all while staying wonderful friends! When you and I get together it's ALWAYS a blast, I laugh so much it hurts. We never run out of things to say...just ask our husbands & friends! What a joy it is to be together again, even if we don't manage to get together much, just knowing your around is a relief.

Baby Teeth *shiver*

I can handle a lot of things that happen when you have kids. Throw up, poo, boogers, backwash, ect. I do great with reptiles, most bugs, and animals of any variety. There is one big thing that sicks me out though...loosing teeth. Wiggly teeth, bleeding teeth, lost teeth, eww, eww, EWW!!!

So I noticed a few weeks ago that Kiernans grown up teeth came in BEHIND her baby teeth. Hmm, that can't be good since her baby teeth weren't remotely loose. I called the dentist to inquire and they confirmed my suspicions, "Bring her in, they'll have to be pulled." EWW.

I wanted Mike to do it, but he's really busy at work this week, so it was up to me. We went in and they took us right back, I guess they didn't want to give us time to change our mind. Kiernan was a total trooper, although the laughing gas may have helped a bit. It's actually a little nose mask that looked hilarious, and sure enough after a few minutes that child was feeling no pain! The Dr asked me to hold her hands which meant I would be right on top of the action...no problem, I'll just look away. As soon as the GIANT clamp for the little teeth came out I turned my head and BOOM...A MIRROR!! *look away, look away, look away* Boom...ANOTHER mirror! *close your eyes, CLOSE THEM!* *peeking* EWWWWWW, Eww, Eww, Eww! Twist, turn, yank....POP!

We went in to have two pulled, but the dentist decided to pull FOUR because her mouth was so crowded. She never cried, whined, or fussed...amazing! I wish I could say the same for me. While SERIOUSLY grossed out, I was commended by the Dr. for not fainting...apparently it happens a lot.

Here she is before and after (remember, my camera sucks), as well as going through the treasure chest for being so good. While the treasure chest is a nice treat, trauma like that deserves a trip to Target! She got a puppy dog & I felt much better.

Happy New Year!

It certainly FEELS like a new year to us. We are finally feeling settled in our new home, we've started attending our new ward (church building), Mike will be going back to work after several weeks off of "required" vacation, and my in and out schedule at work (because of the holidays) will go back to being a normal schedule. The last month or two have been chaos for us.

Today was the first day at our new ward. This is THE most uncomfortable that I have ever felt going into a new ward before. I really don't know why, ward changes aren't anything unusual for us. Frankly, we've essentially switched wards every two years for a long time now. Something about this switch really got to us though. I think we were really just too comfortable where we were, especially being there with Mike's family. The Coleman kids made up half of the primary, at least it felt like it. The ward we are now attending is the first building that I ever attended church in. It felt weird being there, I kept getting flashes of the time I spent there when Mike & I were dating. It felt like being sent back to freshman year, when you should have already graduated. Oh well, it really was fine, I did enjoy it, but it was still a transition. Jacob was spending his time during sacrament writing notes to himself on scratch paper. At one point Mike looked over & Jake had just written this:
"I'm scared. I should have stayed home."
Hee. He'll get used to it just like the rest of us.

I'm thankful to feel like we're getting a fresh start. We continue to work on the house. It's totally liveable, but now we're working on the little extras that make it nice. I've been sewing a lot of curtains & pillows, Mike's been building things for me, the kids are just happy to have their own home. We are truely happy with what we've got here in the house & we look forward to continued improvement.

I have not really made an resolutions, they always get broken. I am just simply trying to improve. Actually, I think this one may work out for me..."improving" is ever so much easier than specific improvements.

Another Jacob-ism:
I was headed to the shower with a new razor in my hand. Jake stopped me, "Mom, why do you have dads razor?"
"I don't. This is mine."
"You SHAVE?!?"
"Yes" *puzzled as to why this is such a shock*
"Let me see!" He then walks up & peers closely at my face.
OHHHHH, I see.
"No Jake, not my face. My legs."

Happy New Year to all of our friends & family. I still don't have a working camera, so blogging may be a bit sketchy for awhile.

Aaaack, I can't choose!

Is it wrong that I positively oozed motherly pride when I pulled these off of the camera? Seriously, the kids just hammed it up today when I wanted to take pictures before church. I am posting the ones that I don't want for a card, so you'll still be surprised.

*sigh*

Hamming it up

Karate moves...HI-yah!

They actually do like each other!!!

So many to choose from.

More...

Mom & Dad got in on one or two.

THE END!

Before and After

Finally...here we go!

Dining room, before

Dining room, after

Living Room, Before

Living Room, after

Living room, before

Living Room, after

Kitchen, before Kitchen, after

Open houses and other issues

We had our open house last night & had a great time! Thank you to everyone who came through for a visit. We had so much fun visiting with all of our friends and family, and we were so pleased to feel like our house is finally a home.

I was going to share an "incident" from the party, but I have decided that it is too graphic to actually Blog about. If you are curious at all about what we are now affectionately calling "the poop incident of 2008" call me or Stefanie & we'll tell ya all about it. Let's just say that Stefanie is now officially the BESTEST SISTER EVER!!!!! She asked me last night, "Can you guys do anything without Kiernan having some kind of major drama?" The answer is...NO.

I was going to post pictures, but I'm having Major Camera Issues! Don't even get me started.

Kiernans Christmas List

Kiernan dictated her list to take to Santa this morning. She was very serious about these items:

Pony *a real one mom, not pretend*
TV *like the one in the living room, mom* (that would be a 42" flat screen)
Make Up *no more pretend stuff, tell Santa that*
Carrot *a BIG one...for the pony*
Fairy Wings
Pet Squirrel *no mommy, not a puppy or cat...a SQUIRREL"

SO, for those of you wanting to know what to get Kiernan for Christmas, here you go. Hope it helps.

Here's dirt in your eye

A few days ago we were getting ready for school/work ect. I was doing Kiernan's hair and I noticed her eyes were a bit crusty. I told her "Hold on, I want to wash your face. You have sleepy dirt in your eye".
"Sleepy dirt? Whats that?" she asks.
"Well" I explain, "The Sandman comes around at night and sprinkles sleepy dirt in your eyes so that you'll sleep good."
"Whats a Sandman?" she asks now.
"He's like Mother Nature, you don't see him, but he helps you to sleep good by sprinkling sleepy dust on you. Kind of like Tinkerbell dust". Right about here I'm feeling pretty good about myself for my charming, childlike explination of a tale from my childhood. That lasted about 30 seconds.

She then turns tail and hauls booty out of my room screaming, "Jacob!!! A man goes in our room & throws dirt in our eyes at night! *cue the tears* "Mommy, I don't want him in my room. I don't want dirt in my eyes!" *while scrubbing her face with a baby wipe*

The reason I tell you this tale now, is beacuse now whenever she wakes up with crusty eyes I get to hear this;
"Mommy, that Dirtman was in my room again. I don't want him to come in my room. Tell him to stop" *in whiny, upset voice*

Where we are

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. We are happily in our new home & still busy bees doing all of the little things that need to be done. I am yet again having camera issues, and feeling a bit cranky about it. I just don't feel like a blog is the same without the pics. So, while I would LIKE to show you how far the house has come, I cannot. It's a wonderful transformation, and I'm very happy with the results. While there were times that I wondered what I had gotten us into, we kept the optimism going and worked, worked, worked. I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to use the phrase "working on the house" any more. If you speak to me with any regularity you know what I'm talking about:

Friend: "So what are you guys up to tonight?"

Me: "We're working on the house"

Family: "Why aren't you answering my calls?"

Me: "I was working on the house"

Acquaintance: "How come you have no money?"

Me: "We're working on the house"

Co-worker: "What did you do on your day off?"

Me: "I worked on the house"

Stranger: "what's the squareroot of PI?"
Me: "Working on the house"

You see where I'm going with this, right?

I am still without a shower door in the master bath, the pool is still technically a pond (if the Koi are any indication), and I have sheets as some of the window coverings...but we have cable tv, and isn't that what really counts?

I'm trying to borrow a camera this weekend to take pictures, if I do you should see a post next week sometime. In the meantime here is a refresher of what the house looked like "before"