Almost Famous

Our school district is having a district wide art show at the mall. Emma was a lucky participant and we went to go see it last night. Emma was pretty pleased that she got to have a piece in the show (it's the self portrait with the blue border), but it's not her favorite piece. Her favorite piece was a painting of a girl with long hair in black and white.

This table was from another school, but it looks like a cute project. They probably appear better en mass, but I wouldn't mind having one to dress up a table.

Texture

After a much promising lead by the mud guy, the texture got delayed until today. I'm excited to see the texture on the walls, one more step to being finished.

Cub Scouts

Pack meetings are not my favorite things to attend. This week the meeting was planned for a park cleanup, which made the idea of attending tolerable. I was actually thinking of ducking out of going but I got a last minute plea to bring treats. If you sign on the bring treats, there is no ducking out.

After much "food storage" discussion with an unnamed sister, I determined that I need to beef up my cake/brownie/dessert in a box storage. I didn't have my usual bag of chocolate chips, all I had was a partial bag of mini chocolate chips. In a lack luster burst of enthusiasm I decided to make a pan of mini chocolate chip cookie bars. Let's face it, how much effort do you want to put out for a Pack meeting?!

Michael and I decided to divide and conquer, leaving him home with the girls and Jack and I heading off to Pack meeting. I actually didn't mind having the meeting at the park, the noise level was considerably more tolerable and there was a purpose behind the meeting. The boys headed off in a feral pack to find wayward trash, the adult leisurely parading behind.

Once the trash was collected, the kids got their ecology lesson for the day and then headed for the treats. I tried to cut the bar into as many as I thought I could get away with, I still only ended up with 2 1/2 dozen cookies. I knew that someone else was bringing treats and figured that would be ok. Wrong. The other mom decided to bring "healthy" chocolate wheat cookies. The kids had gotten a warning that they could only have ONE treat. The poor kids that chose the chocolate cookie were looking longingly at my cookies. On the sly, I handed those kids another cookie.

I thought that I was "getting away" with less work because I make the bar cookies. The kids still appreciated the treat, even with the bare minimum of effort on my part. Note to self; Don't make fancy desserts for cub scouts.

Dress Up

Who knew that at 7 AM I would be cutting out cardboard for a sword and shield? I was sorta hoping that Jack wouldn't want to dress up today.

Today's theme is Core Knowledge Historical Character Day-students & staff dressed as their favorite core knowledge character whom may be either a famous, author, poet, king,queen, mathematician, servant, native, scientist, engineer, fictional or nonfiction character etc…

Jack chose to be "Tom" from the Beast Quest series. He wore jeans and a t-shirt. All he needed was a sword and shield.

Emma went as Howard Carter. If anyone knows who that is without looking it up, I'll give a quarter. He was the archeologist that discovered King Tut's tomb. Guess what Emma has been studying lately. He outfit was relatively easy, a modified Indiana Jones worked perfectly. I do need to find a hat that goes with the outfit.

*in an unfortunate computer glitch the pictures got corrupted and alas I don't have pictures of the kids. This is the very cool shield that Jack and Emma collaborated on.

Spirit Week

The kids have had "spirit week" at school. I'm a little bummed that I didn't take pictures all week.

Monday was pj day, who wouldn't want to go to school in their pjs?! Tuesday was "twin day". Jack's partner chose navy school pants and a red polo. Pretty easy to get right considering it is essentially a school uniform. Emma wore a white t-shirt and jeans. There was some mix up and her twin didn't wear what she wore. It's very dramatic being in first grade.

Wednesday was "Sports day". We don't really follow sports at our house, so the kids don't have team jerseys. I let the kids wear athletic shorts and faux sport shirts from Target. Close enough in my book.

Today is crazy hair and clash day. We've got today nailed.

Been a While

As you can see, my last post was Friday. That was the day that Michael came home from his 10 day trip. Needless to say, I exhaled a big sigh of relief when his plane landed. Life has gotten back to normal...as normal as it is around here.

Let's see, what has happened since Friday? I know everyone is waiting with baited (is that the right spelling?) breath on the basement update. They finished the drywall Tuesday and started taping and mudding today. I think that texture is tomorrow. The next step will be painting...I need to get mentally prepared to tackle that job.

Happy Earth Day!

Jack's scout pack had a bike ride for their activity today. The girls and I rode our bike to the pack to drop him off, but we ended up going on the ride with them. Seemed silly to ride to the park, ride home, then turn around and ride back to the park.

It's a small miracle that all of our bikes have tires that aren't flat right now. Michael did a bike tune up last weekend and only had to change one tire. Now that the weather is getting nicer we're hoping to hit the trails and get good use of our bikes.

Drywall

Beautiful drywall. It's about a third of the way completed. Optimistically this will take a week and a half.

Game Time

Do You Know Your States?

Almost Spring

In a brief but needed respite from the kids, I treated my toes to some color. I think my neighbor could sense my desperation and took Lily for a couple hours this morning. Day 8 of Michael's trip, I think I can make it, just 56 hours to go. If I don't, I'll have the prettiest toes in the nut house.

Padded Walls

We had the insulation installed today. It was already on the walls, we figured that we needed as much sound barrier between the basement and upstairs.

The bathroom with the shower pan installed.

Tongue n' Cheek

Hey kiddos let's take an Easter picture.

Lily?! What's in your mouth? Of course it Easter candy.

Say Cheese

I had to limit the number of eggs that I wanted to hard boil. If the kids were to choose, they would have dyed a dozen each. I figured that if I let the kids each dye three, that would be a good number.

Surprisingly the kids did not fight over the flimsy plastic egg holder. They each took turns dipping eggs and even helped each other pick "cool" colors. It wasn't until I tried to take their picture that they starting sharing the "love".

Early Easter

We did an Easter egg hunt this morning. The City of Niwot put on a pretty impressive egg hunt. They had the kids divided by ages and grade levels. They also separated the groups by having them hunt for eggs on different fields. I felt slightly torn because they had a 1 grade group, 2nd grade group, and then a 3,4,5th grade group. I decided to have Emma hang with the big kids rather than have Jack hang out with younger kids. As it turns out, I made a good decision.
Before the hunt started, the organizers told the kids if they found a golden egg they could exchange it for prizes. I'm not sure how many kids were in our group, probably around 75 kids. There were 35 golden eggs. Emma made out like a bandit, she picked up LOTS of candy. Jack kept picking up yellow hard boiled eggs hoping that they were the "golden eggs", he neglected to pick up much candy. Neither of them got a golden egg.
I'm glad I went with our neighbors, they were able to take Lily with them while I went with Emma and Jack. Lily had a great time with Brody. I didn't even get to see her look for eggs. Lily had a full basket when we all met up at the end.

Movin Right Along

The framing got finished yesterday and the plumbing got started. Today the electrician put in the cans for the lights and started running wires.
The plumbers put in the shower pan and got pipes ready. We decided to go with tile in the shower, thankfully we don't have to pick that for a little while.

The Devil Is In the Details

Today the plumber and the electrician had a few questions. I was making decisions right and left. There are a lot of details I'm not particular about or others that I angst about.

I needed to pick out a fan/light for the bathroom. I picked one and as soon as I walked out the door at Lowes I knew it was the wrong choice. I walked right back in and exchanged it for the one on the left. Much prettier.

It's nice to have choices, but sometimes there are too many choices.

Lost

Today was one of those days. I kept putting things down and forgetting where I put them. As I am about to head to bed, I try to find my book. I look upstairs, downstairs, kid's rooms,...everywhere. Can't find it. I was getting pretty annoyed because I knew I wouldn't be able to go to sleep until I found it.

I sat down at the computer to write a "I'm losing my mind" post. Why am I going to write a lame post about lost books?! As I sit down, I look to the left of the computer screen and see my book. Last place I looked.

I still think I'm getting oldtimers, but at least I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Demo

There was a little bit of demo today. The wall got cut out to have a more "open" feel as you go down the stairs.The soffit to cover all the duct work is nearly completed. I think the framing will be done tomorrow.

Chillax

At our house, the saying goes "Find your Chi."

chi 2 | ch ē| |kaɪ| |kiː| (also qi or ki)
noun
variant spelling of qi .
qi | ch ē| |kiː| (also chi or ki)
noun
the circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much Chinese philosophy and medicine.
ORIGIN from Chinese ( Mandarin dialect) qì, literally ‘air, breath.’

When I get stressed out with the kids, Michael likes to say;"find your chi". Most of the time it makes me laugh, just because it is silly. It's the deep breath that gives me pause and helps me get through the moment.

Michael is gone on a trip for 10 days. Yikes. As he was leaving today he reminded me to "find my chi". I may hyperventilate by the time he comes home.

Happy

Yesterday was my birthday. Thanks for all the singing phone calls. Nothing says Happy birthday like silly cards, off key singing, and homemade cake.

Projectpalooza

More projects than you can shake a stick at.

The basement is humming right along. The plumbers should be here tomorrow and I should hear some jackhammering. The framing is coming along, it should be done by Wednesday. I think that the electrician will be here on Thursday.
The laundry/spa gained more bead board over the weekend. It did add more painting, thankfully Michael bought the PRE-primed sheet which made the job easier.
I have some art commissioned by Emma that I have framed...I think it will be rotating art. I still need a few things to add to the room, but it's getting there.

If You Give Me A Paintbrush

With all the stuff getting done in the basement, I've been feeling like I need to finish all the other unfinished projects (Are they ever done?). I prepped more of the wall for the wheat color that is never going to end (I still like it though). I had painted a while ago, but ran out of blue tape and "couldn't" edge the walls. I went back and taped and painted what seemed like miles of edges. In reality, it was a small area upstairs and where the wall and ceiling meet downstairs.

I was having a hard time deciding where to end the paint, because of the bull nose edges, until I saw how how it was done in a friend's house.

I also got brave and went ahead and bought paint for the laundry room. There are a lot of greens to choose from! Not sure I love the color I choose...but it's color and having color in the room helps it. The lighting is crazy in that room, which changes the paint color a lot. The name of the color is Homestead Resort Spa Green. I'm thinking about calling my laundry room "The Spa". Surely it will make the drudgery of laundry sound more appealing, right?!
This is what the paint looks like without the florescent light on. Quite a change.

Basement Progress

I will just do a quick update as to what has gotten done since Wednesday.

Thursday, the "green boards" got laid down. This is the wood that was nailed into the cement and is the base for all the walls.
Friday; The bathroom is framed and the closet in the bedroom. The bathroom is very small and the closet is huge.
Saturday; The bedroom/office is framed.
Looking at the family room, the storage area is behind the plastic sheeting on the right.
Still to come. Finish framing the family room and the soffits.

Dinner Roulette

This was an interesting week for dinners at our house. I have my tied and true "go to" dinners, but I'm getting kinda tired of the same things. Monday I tried to pull a fast one and see if I could sneak Mexican lasagna into our dinner rotation. Here's the recipe;

Mexican Lasagna (or whatever you want to call it)

Flour tortillas
ground beef or turkey
taco seasoning
refried beans
grated cheese
salsa

optional items;
corn
black beans
guacamole
sour cream
olives
onions

Brown the meat and add taco seasoning. Mix seasoned meat with beans. Set aside.
To assemble the layers; first start with a layer of tortillas then add the meat/bean mixture add cheese and salsa. Add any additional items then add another tortilla and repeat the layers.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes or until edges bubble.

This was NOT a hit at our house! It was really simple to make and easy to add whatever you like.

Another dinner that I completely made up this week was super easy and quick.
Chicken Stir Fry

3-4 chicken breasts/tenderloins cubed
chopped garlic
jar of ginger dressing/marinade
frozen broccoli (or whatever you have)
rice

In a large skillet add a small amount of oil to cook chicken. When chicken is almost done add garlic. Add enough dressing to cover chicken. Reduce heat, dump frozen broccoli over chicken, cover the skillet and let it sit until veggies are cooked. Serve over rice.

Michael Got Wood

The delivery truck with the wood arrived early this morning. I know that you (the general masses that follow this obscure blog) will get sick of the posts that are basement related, but we're in the honeymoon phase of construction. Ok, we haven't even started construction, but we're close.

This is the basement with all the wood that was once outside.

Look at the pretty blue chalk lines.