Crash course in home beautification

I think some people work better under pressure. That would be us. About a week and a half ago I told Sean "wouldn't it be nice if the house looked awesome when your folks get here for Easter?" He said ok and thus started the daunting task of revamping a crumbled, cracked and all around crappy slab floor. Let me back up in case you've missed the not so exciting story of our house and its "issues". We bought the house back in 2004 as a repossession. It was built in 1985 so it's not that old. Not old enough to be having the problems it's having. It passed house inspection.....somehow. Almost immediately after moving in we noticed the terra cotta tiles in the dining room cracking along the entire length of the room. Over the next few years the crack got worse and the corner of the room started sinking at an alarming rate. Fast forward to fall of 2006. We hired a company to come out and place piers all over exterior of the back of the house and inside under the slab (house is part slab and the rest is a basement). They jacked it up until it looked normal again, gave us an extravagant bill and a warranty. After a few months it started cracking again. Knowing this was going to be an ongoing problem we chose not to put any floor covering down over the slab. Winter of 2009 the company came back out and readjusted the outside piers and jack hammered holes in the slab inside once again to reposition the floor. Ok, so there is the ugly history on this house.

It's been a mess. The floor has been torn up for years now. The kids have been running around on concrete and tile grout tearing up their knees when they fall. We were living in a construction zone and it was time for a change. So hubby took a week off last week and I rented a concrete grinder. All day Sunday he ground down the concrete and removed the last of the grout. Nobody warned us what a mess that would be! Although I'm pretty sure no one thought we'd be using it indoors. We decided to use water to keep the dust down which was a good idea, but what resulted was a concrete sludge that resembled snot. It was three inches deep in places and had to be scooped up with a shovel. But it worked! That floor was smooth (minus the crack that still had good depth to it). Now on to the leveling compound.

Dining room grinding in process. Day1.

Grinding away.

Nasty mess, had to mop it up before it dried.

Still smiling.

All mopped and ready for leveler. Cracks in sheet rock getting patched. Day 2.

We got eight bags of leveling compound and started mixing it up. The key was to have two buckets going. Hubby would mix it up and I would trowel it around making sure it got everywhere. We were a good team and had that room knocked out in no time. We poured the dining room and our bedroom, along with the seam where the slab meets up with the basement foundation.

We learned many lessons during this week long project. First one was to seal the cracks. We poured leveling compound and it literally just flow down the cracks. It sucks watching $35 dollar compound pour under the house. So we had to come back with cement patch and fill in the dips.

Leveling the big crack.

Leveler flowing down the cracks. Doh.

They call me the trowel girl.

All leveled and patched and sanded smooth. Walls with a fresh coat of paint. Day 4.

Then came the stairs. Whoever decided to carpet the walls is an idiot. Nothing screams 80's like carpet on the walls. So we stripped the carpet and wood trim from the stairs. They also had a wood runner on the tips of each step which had to come off. The screws had to be drilled out, then the wood hammered off and the remaining screws had to be cut off with a reciprocating saw. Nothing can be simple. The carpet was pulled from the walls (it had been glued on) leaving the sheet rock torn up and in need of pasting. I am not a fan of taping and pasting but I pulled up my sleeves and went to work (sure beat concrete grinding, glad I didn't have to do that). Four coats of paste later and more sanding than I'd ever like to do again, it is finished. We were able to find some carpet at a local carpet store that was in stock and almost exactly what we were looking for. They were able to get it installed yesterday and it looks fabulous! We carpeted everything, even upstairs. I can't be more happy with the end results. It's like we have a new house. There is so much living space that can now be utilized and it's heartwarming seeing your kids running around with glee on nice new carpet. No more bloody knees in the house!

Old stairs. Carpet on walls = 1980's (in my humble opinion).

Removal of wood on steps.

Stairs and wall all ready for carpet.

End result! Love it (and that cute naked kid).

Wall to wall carpet. We just need to put down new trim and it's done! Day 9.

Master bedroom. So happy with the outcome. What a week!

First Graze

The goats are thrilled to have nice green grass to eat so early in the season. Thank goodness for an early spring.

Hello Spring

It rained the entire last week. Nonstop. Then I looked out the window and, seemingly over night, it erupted into Spring. Glorious, wonderful Spring. Spend five days cooped up inside with two little megalomaniacs (during Spring Break I might add) and you too will bust open the door just as soon as that rain stops and lay in the sun for hours. And that is just what I did. I laid down on the drive way while my children drew chalk outlines around my comatose body. It looked like a murder scene when we were done that day. It made me think about why I like Spring, of course there are the easy ones: sun, flowers, baby animals and dancing happy kids. Here are a few more.

Coveralls and muck boots. Feeding the animals gets a bit messy but we all know April showers bring May flowers....and some really muddy horses. 

 

Weeds up to my knees (quite literally). I look forward to mowing. Not many things in this world bring the instant gratification as a nicely mowed and trimmed lawn. Bring on the mowing!

Running on the dirt. Spring means more running outside in nature, not inside with curious kids and the treadmill (seriously, have you ever tried to run on a treadmill while a two year old wants to investigate how it works?).

Outside time with the kids. Time to blow off all that winter energy! Did I mention I build a pretty mean sand castle?

Painting toe nails and getting out the cute sandals. I love girling it up with my mini me. You can hardly tell but she's got herself on a pair of Jelly shoes...blast from my past.

March 22nd

This is a date that I have etched into my subconscious.  If you are around my four year old son then this date is also etched in your mind. The kid is crazy obsessed with Angry Birds. I have mentioned this here before. Well the insanity continues because on March 22nd the newest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Space, comes out. Since he's finished all the other games, including the facebook and Chrome versions, he now is just waiting on the new one. In the mean time he tells everyone he comes into contact with about the new one coming out. I mean everyone. Post office ladies, grocery store clerk and librarian. He even told the little old lady that was behind us in line at the post office about it. And poor Miss Cindy, his preschool teacher. She told me that he talks about it non stop at preschool. The kid is "ob", wait for it, "sessed".

So every day we take down the calendar from the refrigerator and put an "X" through the current day so that he can see how many more days until his precious Angry Birds Space comes out. The other day he dragged a chair over to the wall and just sat there starring at the calendar and the big black circle around March 22nd. I'd like to say I have no idea where his obsessiveness comes from but I know where it comes from. Both his parents are obsessive people. Once we get some idea in our minds we tend to dwell. Poor kid never had a chance.

I decided to make this obsession work in my favor and made a deal with the kid. Every night he cleans up all the toys before he goes to bed and he gets .50 cents towards buying the new game. It's marvelous! I get a clean house and he works towards a goal. March 22nd will be a bittersweet day, great because I never have to hear that date again and sad because I'll have to start cleaning the house again each evening.

The calendar watcher.

Children's Museum

My sister and her family is in town for the weekend so we decided to take the kids to the local children's museum. We went there when Wesley was just a little dude, not even walking yet, and couldn't really enjoy many of the exhibits. Boy how a few years make all the difference! He really enjoyed himself and Greta was even old enough for a lot of it. Fun times!

He's a happy dude.

Making a stained glass window....had to drag her away from here.

Catching some fish.

Flight simulator.

Medieval time out....wish I had one of these at home.

Family shot.

Emery waiting on chow.

Grandma with hungry youngins.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Picking wildflowers for Mom

The Wednesday Write-Up

-Wesley had Kindergarten round up last night. He's officially enrolled for kindergarten in the fall. He got to sit down with a teacher and write his name, draw a picture of himself and count blocks. He did great and I'm proud of him. One observation from the evening: I've never seen so many five year olds in cowboy boots, can't tell we are in a farming community. I got kind of sad last night thinking about him being gone all day at school. I've had my little dude home with me for so long it will be very strange with it just being Greta and I. She won't start kindergarten until 2015 so at least I'll have a little sidekick for a few more years.

-Greta disappeared for a few minutes the other day and I went looking for her only to find her dipping her head repeatedly into the toilet. Yep, life with a 2.5 year old is always exciting!

-I just baked a nice hot batch of chocolate chip cookies for the kids. Not for me since I have will power and I gave up sweets for lent. See? If I just keep telling myself that I have willpower I can do this. Who am I kidding, this is so darn difficult. Four and a half weeks left. The count down is on until Sugar Day.

-I just finished up another book last night. I've been devouring books this year and seem to have finally found the time to take up reading again. Last month I read the Hunger Games (all 3 books) because of everyone talking about them. In all honesty they were just ok. Nothing I'm going to rave about. The writing wasn't all that great and the story was weak at best. I always felt like the author had no plan when she started writing those books. I'd give them a B-. Looking forward to seeing the movie though. Then I picked up a book in the new book section of the library, titled "The Call". I'm drawn to stories about veterinarians so this book was right up my alley. It was about the different calls that came in for a country vet but then it took off on a strange path involving a space ship. Strange but fun. B+. Then this morning I finished up a book called "Wednesday Letters". Grown children clean out their parents house after both died to find all the letters their Dad had written their Mom every Wednesday. Geez I cried a lot. Good book A-. This afternoon I went to pick up a book the library was holding for me. It was highly recommended and is called "The Night Circus". It's a good sign when the librarian nudges her fellow librarian and says "Hey, she's getting ready to read The Night Circus" and the other lady goes "OHHHH, you are going to LOVE it!!" Can't wait to dive into it.

My very first handgun

I experienced a "first" this weekend. I attended my very first gun show. I've been married to what I like to call a "gun man" for over ten years now but have never went with him to a gun show. It was.....er....interesting. It was held in a building that I had been to for two other occasions. The first being a miniature horse show and the second a dog show. So to enter the building after seeing it full of cute tiny horses and fluffy show dogs was sure a change of scenery. Guns piled high on table after table and more black leather than I've ever seen in my life. I must admit that the people watching opportunities were worth the price of admission all on their own (the winner by far being the large hairy gentleman in the kilt).

It was actually pretty fun (can't believe I'd ever see myself write that). I've come along way with my attitude toward guns. I used to be very anti-gun when I was younger but things change. I don't know if it's living in the country or the need to protect my family and animals but I fully embrace guns now. Perhaps I've just become more of a redneck. I think it's a good thing to know how to shoot a gun, even though I hope I never have to find myself in a situation where I need to shoot a gun. Recently I saw a billboard for a conceal carry class and I though to myself "now that is something I'd like to do". So the first step is buying a handgun. We aren't new to owning guns, we have a couple of shot guns and used to have a rifle but this is my very first handgun. It's not just mine but it has to be something that I feel comfortable using, so it was pretty much my choice. I contacted our friend and fellow gun enthusiast about which gun he would recommend for me. He immediately suggested a compact revolver. His wife has a hard time racking a semi-automatic pistol so a good alternative is a compact revolver. His recommendation was a Ruger LCR. I don't have great hand strength and need to keep my hands protected because of all the sculpting I do so this sounded like a good alternative to the basic semi-automatic pistol. 

So that's what we had our eye out for when we went to the gun show yesterday. We'd done our research online and knew what we were looking for and what to expect price wise. Hubby said it was much nicer going in with an idea of what you were looking for, rather than just drifting around looking at everything. There were so many guns it was over whelming but we only found five Ruger LCR's. I tried out several different compact revolvers but did end up liking the Ruger the best. It was light and the grip was really nice.  So I am the proud owner of my very first handgun. Isn't she purdy? 

Don't worry we are going to buy a gun safe within the next couple of weeks and in the mean time we own no ammo for this gun (and it has a lock on it). I believe guns should be locked up tight with kids around. I am looking forward to shooting it. In true redneck fashion we will be moving a large pile of horse manure over to the back corner of the property and making a berm to shoot into (no neighbors back there). So now you know the story of how I acquired my very first handgun. 

Tidbits

-Lent started last Wednesday and I decided to give up sweets. We're talking cookies, cake, candy....pretty much anything with sugar in it. I thought it would be easy but it's been rather difficult. I didn't think I ate many sweets but it turns out I would sneak stuff during the day without even realizing it. You know, opening a package of gummy snacks for the kids and taking one before handing the package over. Or eating the leftover half cookie that the kid didn't eat for lunch. Even ice cream has been calling my name and I don't even like ice cream. I give the kids some and usually eat what is left over on the spoon. So yeah, it's been tough. But nothing prepared me for what the hubby brought home last week. My willpower hasn't ever been tested as much as when he sheepishly plunked down six boxes of Girl Scout cookies he got from work. Two whole boxes of Caramel Delights, my personal favorite, which he got just for me (such a sweetie). So I promptly cleared the back of the freezer, shoved five boxes back there and stuffed food in front of them to hide them (Hubby ate the sixth box). They will hopefully be forgotten until Easter when I can devour them in their entirety. Six short weeks from now. Nom nom nom.

-Let us bow our heads in mourning of Greta's nap. It's done. No more. I stick her in her crib, lay her down, cover her up and she spends the next hour singing songs, dancing in her crib, pulling stuff off her walls, chewing on her crib....doing anything but sleeping. Then yesterday she learned how to climb out of her crib. So I give up. It's a sad sad day. No more peaceful hour to myself while Wesley is at preschool. It's ok though, she now joins Wesley in his quiet time with cartoons and does pretty good. The upside to all this? She goes to sleep promptly at 7:30pm and sleeps all night until 8:30am. RIP nap time.

-There is something wrong with the dog. Cody, the black lab, sleeps in our living room each night. The other two dogs sleep in their crates. Cody never liked the crate, even tried to do himself bodily harm to escape from it. This arrangement has worked pretty good until about six months ago. Every night he wakes me up once or twice and I let him outside. He runs out there, does his business and runs back in.  It's getting old. It's like having a baby in the house again. I'm exhausted. He's got me trained well and I just don't know how to curb it. If you leave him outside he barks all night to get back in. If you take the water dish up he wants to go out to get a drink. If you leave the water dish down he drinks all night and has to go outside to urinate. So darn frustrating.

-I'm back out on the road running. Yesterday was the first run since I sprained my ankle four weeks ago. The doctor said 1-2 weeks for it to heal, yeah right! Apparently I'm a complete wuss bag. It's still not "right" and gets all stiff at times. But it did pretty good on the 6 mile run/walk I did yesterday (mostly walk). I'm glad to be back to training....that half marathon in April will be here before I know it.

Angry Birds

There has been a bit of an infatuation happening in this house for the past several months. Who am I kidding, it's been a full on obsession. And it's happening to my four year old. Let me back up a bit. Last Fall I started playing Angry Birds on facebook. It was a fun way to pass the time. Wesley started standing next to me as I played, somewhat interested. That progressed to pulling up a chair and rooting me on as I made little birds fly through the air and smash piggies. Then he started asking if he could play the game. So I downloaded the PC version so he could play the full screen game. Thus started his love affair with a computer game. He lived and breathed Angry Birds. Oh and he was good! He would whip through levels that stumped Sean and I. Even give us pointers while we played. The first game was conquered in a month, then he pleaded for us to buy the next game. He played his way through Angry Birds Rio and Seasons in no time at all. He was so disappointed to find out that there were no more games once he finished Angry Birds Seasons. So I challenged him to go back through and get 3-stars on all the levels. That's where he's at now.

When he gets frustrated he'll ask us to Google the level and watch a walk-through on how to achieve 3-stars. The kid is obsessed. We have to limit his computer time because I think he'd be on it all day if left to his own devices. So a couple of months back he was looking at Angry Birds merchandise on Google and ran across some figurines that an individual had made. He wanted them pretty badly. I, of course, said "I can make that!" I, after all, do sculpt part-time. So off to Michael's I went in search of colored clay (I use uncolored clay for my business). I loaded up on nearly every color and started sculpting Angry Birds. That is what I've been doing for nearly two months now in my off time. I still have a few more pigs to make but the birds are done, whew. The kid LOVES them and that makes my day.

My personal favorite.

The madness continues. Miss Cindy, his preschool teacher, informed me that we were celebrating his half birthday (since his birthday falls in the summer). So I decided to make Angry Bird cupcakes. Each one had a little red bird made out of clay that the kids could take home. Apparently it was a hit among the kids, who all knew what Angry Birds were (I wasn't sure four year olds all knew what AB was, I was wrong).

Taking orders from their leader. I had fun if you can't tell.

As if that all isn't enough, I decided I needed some Angry Bird earrings. If you can't tell I've been having fun with all this sculpting. The earrings have been a hit, I even have a couple of orders for more from friends and family. So now you know what's been going on in our house.

Diaries of a Potty Training Mom

Sometimes I say that I'm lazy. I'm really not a lazy person. I work my butt off. I'm a stay-at-home Mom and if you aren't familiar with that job title, that means that I'm a: full time cook, housekeeper, butt wiper, zookeeper, groundskeeper, entertainer and wife. Oh and we mustn't forget my other job. I have a part time sculpting business that I start once the kids go to bed...you know when most people lay down and relax for the evening. So when I tell you that I'm lazy when it comes to potty training, I'm not really lazy per say, just extremely tired.

I remember potty training Wesley. It consisted of puddles on the hard wood floors, little streaks of poop on the wall next to his crib and soaking wet underwear 45 seconds after putting fresh undies on. Luckily potty training with Wesley was done during summer. We spent much of the day outdoors surrounded by Mother Natures toilets (trees). So now Greta is in the midst of potty training. I want nothing to do with this. I'm lazy. I would rather just change her diaper for the next 3-6 months until she's serious about this potty thing. The beginning phase of training is torture. It consists of constantly removing diaper, running through the house naked while screaming happy screams, then squatting behind the recliner and peeing all over the carpet in her brothers room. And this is a good day. Bad days consist of poop. Poop in the sink, poop in the tub. Disinfecting surfaces for what seems like hours. I just don't want to do it.

I'm thinking duct tape might keep that diaper on.

But she is a persistent little thing.
So I tell myself this too shall pass.
A year from now I'll have a fully trained little girl and it will be so worth it
So for now, Miss Greta will potty train in spite of her Mother.

A day with Greta

So Valentine's Day has come and gone and the kids were super excited to get a box from their Granny and Papa from New Mexico. Thank you for thinking of them! The cute part about it all was once the gifts were given, the box became the hit of the day. Greta played with that box for at least half the day. Exhibit one:

Exhibit two:

 She then proceeded to run around the house with the box on her head for a good long while. It was hilarious. Exhibit three:

Since I'm talking about Greta, I'll share what she did yesterday. She sat at the table with Play Doh for about an hour making these:

 She then got down from the table and went up to Wesley and said "Here Wesley, have a turd." I thought I heard wrong so I asked her what she just said. So she came up to me and said "Here Mommy, you have a turd too." She then put her arms in the air and said "Turds for everyone!" I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time. Potty training is in full swing and she is obsessed with poop. Fun times!

Showing off her Play Doh "presents".

I Love....

Ok, time for the traditional LOVE post for Valentine's Day. I hope everyone is having a great day with the ones you love.

I love......making snow men with two bundled up kids......little naked Greta asking to put her swim suit on first thing in the morning....my sweet, good looking husband....our new high speed internet (finally we got it out in the sticks!)......watching Vampire Diaries every evening.....reading library books with one kid on each side of me......sculpting Angry Birds for Wesley......a warm bath and a good book (just finished the three Hunger Game books, pretty good).....how quiet it is living out in the country.....the sweet little things my husband does to let me know he loves me....good running music.....making cupcakes with the kids for no other reason than to glutton ourselves on cupcakes.....goat kisses.....streaming NetFlix because of fancy new high speed internet.....afternoon bubble baths for the kids......Roomba......running on the dirt roads with the sun on my face.....my new oven out in the shop devoted just to baking sculptures.....Greta's curls.....watching my two kids play together......little Chance curling up under the blanket next to me.....little 2yr old Greta singing (think Boo in Monsters Inc.).....fresh, still warm chicken eggs.....preschool and precious time to myself.....picking seeds out of a catalog for a Spring garden (can't wait!).......being a Mom to these two wonderful little people.

Funday Sunday: Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Alrighty folks, don't think twice just get in the kitchen and make these. They are delicious, gooey chocolate things that are gone in no time. All I had was whole wheat flour in the fridge so I looked up a recipe for something sinful with no flour. Voila! Plus they have no oil or butter and no leavening. Seriously, go make these.

Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together powdered sugar, cocoa powder and sea salt.Whisk in egg whites until just moistened. Add in chocolate chips.
3. Spoon thick fudgy batter onto cookie sheets in small mounds. Chill for 5 or so minutes to keep them from spreading when they bake.
4. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until tops are glossy and lightly cracked.

Notes

These cookies are considered “gluten-free” if using gluten free chocolate chips.

Weekly Winners

We did it again! We dropped the kids off at Aunt Jessica's house and spent 36 wonderful, relaxing, kidless hours in another town. Hubby had yet another job fair to do for work at the college so I tagged along. We went to an awesome movie (Chronicle was fascinating), stuffed ourselves at a nice restaurant, and stayed in a hotel. Then yesterday, while the Hubby was working the job fair, I strolled through the mall buying way too much and got my hair done. It was fabulous and so very much needed. A huge giant THANK YOU to Jessica for letting my two heathens into her house. They sure did enjoy themselves. My sanity meter is back in the normal range, unfortunately poor Jessica's meter is in the red.

Since I haven't blogged in awhile I thought I'd do a picture blog, they are piling up on my camera.

Sean gets attacked by two little people when he gets home from work.

Cecil, the leopard tortoise, enjoying a nice warm soak. Cecil turns 10 years old this year.

Wesley's favorite pastime in the whole wide world, playing Angry Birds with Dad (or Mom).

Rambo Greta in her swim suit. Always in her swim suit....in February.

These kids are serious Play Doh fanatics. Note Greta in her swim suit.

Wesley's use of the potty has lead Greta to use her own little potty. We had our first Greta initiated pee pee in the potty last night. And yes, her swim suit is under her clothes.

More Rambo girl.