Its that time of year again!!

BOOSTERTHON FUN RUN!!!

Time to donate to a good cause!!

Raising money for the school and new technology for the school.
Foof will be running laps and you can donate per lap, or a flat rate.
Even just a dollar or two helps.!!!

so visit his page HERE:


His goal is to win the big prize this year, his last year in elementary school. so help a brother out.,

THANKS Y'ALL!!!

New furniture. And its all mine.

In 17 years I have never owned a piece of furniture that was mine. Never.
When we first got married We had two floral couches that had at one time belonged to my parents. At the time they were about 10 years old.  A little careworn, but all in all pretty decent. We kept them for several years.
in 2000, after the passing of my sweet grandmother Bea, I inherited her couch and wingback chair with ottoman. This behemoth is colonial grey/blue and rust plaid tweed  and was at the time about 25 years old.It has seen 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 children, and many other visitors. This couch has GOT to be about 40 years old. It has seen its day.
The couch downstairs is my parents old leather couch, which is at least 20 years old...and after 2 kids, 2 dogs, 3 cats etc you can imagine how good of shape it is NOT in.

My dresser in my bedroom is over 25 years old. Charles dresser is the same. They both came from my house from when I was growing up.The cedar chest at the end of the bed was my moms, a gift to her for her high school graduation (so it is 50 years old)... The kitchen  table was my grandparents. (But it is an ethan allen and will last forever). The Dresser in Preteen sons room was my dads. This dresser has to be almost 50 years old. It is HUGE and weighs a zillion pounds. Even his bookshelf was a goodwill find.


The only original furniture in this house is a bed that belongs to my teenage son (how fair does that sound?) and the bunkbed set that belongs to my preteen son.  dresser in teen sons room is original (it was his when he was baby, so he has outgrown it and needs new one).

I have decided that for the first time in my adult life I was going to be a real grown up and buy myself real furniture.  No hand me downs. No Goodwill finds.  MINE. ALL.MINE.

So As we were wandering around the store I saw this:

kind of looks like the chair from revenge

I fell in LOVE with this chair.  Absolute love.  I knew I would be walking out with the chair, no matter what so I had to find a couch that matched.  Usually people find a couch then match the chair.  Not me. I found the chair and needed to match the couch to it.  i Love this chair.
 So I found this: The couch is a darker color, to match the script pattern. The flash on the lower pictures made it look a little lighter, but it is a darker browner green.

I am just so in love with my front room now I want to spend all my time in there. 

I still need to repaint walls and switch out pictures and frames etc , but this is the general setup/gist of the room.

my storage table. Need to get some new knick knacks and figure out how to display

complete with our giant sized panther cat. This cat is 9 months old and is almost 16 pounds now.

What was I thinking? My Own Kitchen Nightmare.

So, I had an idea that I thought would be a good one." LETS REMODEL THE KITCHEN."
Four words that will never escape my lips again. Once this remodel is done, I shall NEVER, i repeat NEVER, attempt something like this a second time . This has been an undertaking of massive proportions.  Seriously,  what was I thinking?
Our house was built in 1972 and as such the design is very "cozy" and "cute".  (read: closed off and cramped). However the basics and bones of the house are very good and we have lots we can do with it.
So we decided to start in the heart of the home...the kitchen.

The kitchen itself is actually quite decent sized, but it is cut in half by this wall/tower of terror wall mount unit/cabinet.

GOOD NEWS:  Tower unit is separate unit from bottom  and Top row of cabinets so that is easy to get out.
GOOD NEWS TWO:  Top row of cabinets connected to tower is separate from top row of cabinets perpendicular  so we can also remove those quite easily as well.

BAD NEWS: I dont want to remove the tower completely:  I want to take the oven out and then take the tower out only below where the oven was  put countertop over it to extend it.  Basically keeping those bottom cabinets under the oven.

So by getting rid of that upper row of cabinets, and getting rid of the tower of terror, and extending that counter, that will REALLY open up the kitchen.

NOW, onto the lovely stove.  This is our drop in push button GE stove top, built in to its very own cabinet across the way from the tower of terror, and hard wired in by a drunken electrician.

DURING THE BRILLIANT IDEA:

Do you see how they pulled the wire up through the drywall??? nice, huh?

so lots of rewiring and repairs to be made.

Obviously some more painting needs to go on. Will get to that . But basics had to get done to get THIS delivered: (and yes, it IS purple inside) It is the LG. LRE 3083SX. 

 We purchased a new vented hood to go over and will be delivered any day.

We are planning on building up around the stove to fill in the bare area on the right between the counter and the stove and then putting in a small storage cabinet on the left as well. also need to do the backsplash and painting etc.

but at least phase one is done and can be checked off. 

We are looking into new countertops, but that is down the road a little bit.

I just feel that a little here and a little there...I should be done with this remodel is 2027.

Remodel part one...the light fixtures

So this happened:

to

For some reason in this area people like the boob lights with the nipple looking screw in hold fixture.

Ours were OLD.  At one time they were white frosted with a pewter ring.  Over the past 10 years they have dulled to a yellow-y blotchy flaky mess.

every time a light burned out we would make deals and barter with each other over who would have to change the bulb out because it was SUCH a hassle.  

So as part of a mini makeover we headed to IKEA and found some small and simple light fixtures . Best part is the bowl slips in and clips on quick and easy. taaa daaaaa. Love it.  

Worst part.  That  @!&*$#! popcorn ceiling.  That stuff is the devil.

Just a few little tweaks...home edition

This new year we went through the house and got rid of clutter. We threw out junk. And Junk. and did I mention junk?  We have decided to simplify.  We have decided that this is the year we take this house and really start to make it what we want it to be.  This is the year of the remodel.  (Well these are the YEARS of the remodel.)  i know it wont get done in one year, more like 3.  We have a HUGE list.  I mean HUGE.
When we bought this house 10 years ago we were excited for the potential. The price was right. The neighborhood was right. the foundation and bare bones of the house was right. Everything to make this house great was there. We just needed to do a little at a time to make it what we REALLY wanted it to be. But then life happened. Peter had a transplant and other things were a little more important in our life than remodeling our home.
Well things have finally gotten to a point where we can get down to business.
 
The main thing this year is the kitchen. But that is a completely different post. I cant even get into it.  I just cant.  Its too much.

So to keep from getting frustrated , I decided to do just a few little things on the living room.  That room is a little later in "THE LIST"  as there is less to be done, so just a few cosmetic changes here and there. Oh You know,like:  New front door, New front closet doors, new furniture, new pictures and knick knacks, New blinds for the windows, New floor vent covers, paint, scraping the popcorn off the ceiling and painting it smooth.
But in order to feel like I am getting SOMETHING done, I went out and bought a new storage table for our front window in the living room. I redid our curtains and curtain rod for said window. I got a new lamp. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I also found 2 beautiful prints from IKEA in the clearance section for a dollar each. All I need are some frames and can get those up. But while the kitchen is a disaster zone this next year at least I will have SOMETHING pretty to look at.  Sure it still needs paint, and new furniture and closet doors blah blah blah...but it progress that I can cross off the list!!

BEFORE. Ugly curtain rod. Ugly plain curtains. (but that was my new table) See how plain and bland and blah it was??
Ignore that couch. It is old old old. It was my grandparents...

after. New curtain rod New curtain panels.

Up close new rod and curtain detail.. It is a pale blue with creamy white embroidery.

Love it.

bah humbug

Feeling kind of blue and down in the dumps right now..  I find myself getting frustrated easily with hubby and kids. No particular reason. I feel like that old saying "woke up on the wrong side of the bed".

I dont know what the problem is.

 I went to church on Sunday and I listened. I prayed. I participated. I tried. But I was irrationally angry.  The organist was playing too slowly. Babies were crying. Hubby was late to Sunday School, leaving me to sit by myself for 15 minutes like a loser with no friends. I mean irrational.

I snap at my kids for being kids and doing kid things.

Then a few hours later I am fine.

But at least I am coming to the realization that I have no rhyme or reason. But I can recognize when I am being a jerk and feeling mean and ugly and I can stay away from children whose feelings I may hurt. They dont understand why their mom gets jerky. So the best I can do is shut myself in my room for a bit until I feel better.

It isn't all the time. It is maybe a few times a month. I dont swing back and forth manically, and it isnt a constant presence.

Is it my diet and I am hungry??
Is it my medication that causes me to be grouchy on occasion?
Is it exhaustion?
Is it frustration?

I wish I knew.

Divorcing technology...

I love my phone.  No, I mean it. I LOOOVVVEEEE my phone. I find myself holding it. I dream about it. I text, I facebook, I google, I gps...I have my phone attached at my hip 24/7.

When did this happen??  Several years ago I never would have given it a second thought. I never had a cell phone. I prided myself on that fact. I didnt need to be connected to the outside world all the time, and I was perfectly OK with that choice.

Then it happened.  Hubby started working for Sprint and we got practically free cell phone service.
Something snapped.  I became a phone junkie.

Now I leave for work and if I forget my phone at home I am like an addict going through withdrawal . I get nervous and shaky and paranoid. I NEED MY PHONE!!!

But the other day I was watching a group of middle schoolers and high schoolers get off the afternoon bus in the neighborhood.   They were all head down over their phones texting or on facebook or something.  EVERY...SINGLE...ONE!!!
No one was talking.  No one was playing. No one was joking.  They were all too busy with their noses in their phones to pay attention to where they were even walking.  I thought one pour soul was going to walk smack into the mailbox.

Thats when I realized I have a problem.

Hubby and I go out on a lunch date...phones are out.  I am playing a game.(UGH, Curse you Dots!!)  Or he is on facebook. Or working on a crossword puzzle.  Instead of enjoying our time together we are too busy with technology to pay attention.

I find myself checking facebook on a regular basis...you know because someones status might have changed within the past 30 minutes.  Their food choices, or some stupid foursquare check-in that no one really even gives a shit about (Pardon the language, foursquare is my biggest pet peeve) might have updated.  Or heaven forbid, someone might have posted a stupid music video from 1994 with a caption "remember this??"
Do I REALLY not have enough on my plate?  Is it REALLY important?  Will I die if I dont constantly check my phone?  Can that email wait an hour to reply to?

"Mom can you play a game with me?"
"uhhh let me finish what Im doing on the computer first".

I have had these conversations WAY too many times, and enough is enough.
It is time to get back to my kids, show them THEY are more important that so and so's current boyfriend drama, or so and so's dinner check in, or Mr self Important's latest rant about his politcal views that apparently are better than mine and Im an idiot if I believe so and so  about such and such.
Seriously. It is too much. I find myself thinking about it all day. It is too distracting, and it is keeping me from what is really important.


So this year my big goal is to Divorce technology.
Yes I will have my cell phone with me.  No I will not pull it out during meals or while spending time with my kids.
Yes I will be on the computer, but only 30 minutes in the morning to catch up on emails, facebook,  news and blog posts.

 No more constant checking.  I will spend time with my kids and keep my phone and computer and tablet put away.

This is the year of less noise. Less distraction. Less junk.

Now my 30 minutes are up. Time to spend with my family.