I can be a handyman....errr, handywoman!

Ok, so I left you hanging with my last post.  :)  It's been a crazy few days since then!

On Sunday I went up the road to buy some chairs I found on craigslist.  I thought they were white with blue cushions, but they turned out to be cream colored chairs with tan gingham cushions.  I loved the cream color of the chairs but the cushions had to go.  Too bland and boring.  But I was excited because I scored them for a great deal.  One of the backs was broken but I was certain Adam could fix that!  (He was not as sure because it was broken and splintered...but as expected, my man came through in a big way!!)

Our next step in the plan was to build a new table.  Our current table is a metal frame and pressed board/veneer covered top.  We were going to take the top off of the table and get a big piece of wood to replace it.  Then stain and seal and voila...new table!  But then I got the chairs home.  And they are HUGE.  I mean HHUUGGEE next to our table.  Crap.

So I was back to looking for a table.  And I emailed everyone and their brother on craigslist that had ANYTHING that might work.  Nothing.  Not a single emailed response.  Heart breaking.  :(

I've been OBSESSED with tables for days.  :(  I hate that feeling.

But today I got to get out of the house with my lovely Hillary.  Likely for the last time (I try not to think about it because it makes me super sad!).  We had lunch at The Wine Kitchen (ohmy.  Amazing.) and then hit up a few antique shops downtown.  Let me just say...the first one we went to...one of the grossest things I've ever seen.  Like really.  And like previous searching had already informed me, antiques are ugly and overpriced.

We ran to a few more places and then over to the new Goodwill in town.  We were just there on Saturday and didn't see anything, but Hillary wanted to see the new store so we ran in.  There in the furniture section was a dining room table.  It looked like it might be big enough...had all four legs (so that's a plus!) and after some searching we found its missing leaf over on some chairs.  We stretched it out and tried to measure it.  But we had no tape measure and the great guy at Goodwill had lent his to someone earlier in the day and it had since walked away.  So, because we're so resourceful, Hill pulled up an app on her iPhone to help us measure....but we couldn't figure out how to use it. :)  But we did see that the iPhone screen was three inches, so we measured it that way (and got a few chuckles out of other Goodwill shoppers) and it seemed like it might be the right size!

For $20, I figured it was worth the risk.  But it was a big risk.  The table was gnarly.  Peeled off stickers, TONS of crayon marks, pen marks, food stains, sticky glass rings...it was rough.  But Adam ok'd it and I brought it home.  And he didn't make me give it to Hillary when he saw it.  After a trip to Lowe's (and $40 later), we started the refinishing.  And let me just say...it is going to be LOVELY!!! :)

My little guy made me a Mother's Day gift! And I had nothing to do with it!! :) It was so sweet and nice! I picked him up from Master's Club this evening and he was holding a flower pot with three flowers in it. One was a handmade tissue paper flower, one was a cookie decorated as a flower, and one was a yellow chocolate rose. He made the tissue paper flower himself and made the arrangement in the flower pot. It was so precious! I love it! I'll take a picture and post before it gets eaten and disassembled by the kids!

Adam's only got one more night after tonight on second shift! Thank goodness! It's been a long two weeks. I am ready to have a somewhat normal schedule back. The boys are ready, too! Daddy sleeps all day after a 12 hour night shift, so right now we're only getting to visit with him 3 or so hours a day. Which I guess is probably a pretty typical amount of time for a family to get to spend together in the evening after Dad gets home from work, it's just weird for us.

And today I spent some time planning for next year. I think I have picked out EVERY book we are going to row and when we're going to row it. It's a WONDERFUL feeling! I only have a few books to buy. I can't wait to start planning and get to work gathering resources.

That's about all. Love until next time.

"He took my case-of-dee-uhs!!"

God has answered some prayers for us this week and I'm just pretty excited about it! First of all is the good news I mentioned earlier this week but can't talk about yet. Then we realized that there is something hinky going on with the van and it's got the potential to cost a lot of money. I thought we were inching close to our warranty expiration, and while we are, we are nearly 6,000 miles away from it expiring. Praise the Lord for that! And Adam's been worried about the tires on the van in need of replacing and the only thing I can think of is dollar signs in front of my eyes....tires aren't cheap. Then we found someone today that is selling the brand new tires off of their vehicle (they are getting bigger wheels) and they are just the size we need! For the cost of ONE TIRE!! :)

Tomorrow night we have an FRG meeting to go to. It was announced today. For future reference, if you want a lot of people to show up to meet the incoming commander and his wife, you should give them more than one day's notice. But of course I'm going. I'm hoping Adam gets finished up with school early tomorrow afternoon so we can all go at the same time and take his car. I'm worried about driving the van. I once blew up the engine in a vehicle (uh, I will tell you now that I ABSOLUTELY did NOT blow up the engine, it was a mechanical failure. A replacement engine cost me 2k. If I wanted them to take apart the blown engine to determine the exact cause, and then contact GM regarding the issue, it would have cost nearly 5k. I had to go the cheaper route and thus have to tell everyone that I blew up the engine.) and refuse to do that again so I'd rather not drive it until it's repaired. We were supposed to go in today to have it looked at, but Zander was up VERY VERY late last night. He woke up early today and ending up falling asleep just a half an hour before we were supposed to leave. I wasn't about to stay up so late again due to a nap interuption, so I rescheduled the appointment. Unfortunately, they can't get us in until Monday.

This weekend I've got a list as long as my arm of stuff I want to get done around the house, but I have to get a bunch of stuff done inside before we can do outside stuff. It should be a busy few days. In the meantime, I've got to clean up a little and get to bed. :)

I cooked. A lot. He ate. Enough. The kids hate lasagna. Ugh. Of course they do. And it's nearly midnight and I have to clean the kitchen. Party time!! :) So not really.

And tonight, Tiffy made her kids some mexican food. Tiff's got four kids, EJ is 9, E is 5, F is nearly 3 and Little L is just five months old. (Not my kids, so I won't put their names on here.) The big kids (9 and 5) are boys and the little ones are girls. One of the things she made was quesadillas. And while we were on the phone for a few minutes tonight, Cute Patootie F walked up to her and said "Mom, E ate my Case-of-Dee-Uh's!" And it made us laugh harder than the other day when she called the Smurfs, the Smorfs.

And that pretty much was our day. Tomorrow I have to take the van to get looked at. I think it's going to need a lot more work than I really want to think about. The good news would be if Adam got done with school in time tomorrow that he could take the van up to the dealership and the kids and I didn't have to go. Oh, that would make me super happy. I'll be putting that on my prayer list tonight. In the meantime, I've gotta clean this kitchen and go to bed. :)

Well, after some exciting news last night, we all went out to dinner. I'll share the exciting news next week after it's official. But anyway, we're sitting down to eat and I mentioned to Adam that we don't go out to eat often. We do have fast food about once a week, but does that count as "going out to eat"? Then the food comes and we kinda realize why. :) It was fine and all, but it wasn't great.

What was great were my boys. My sweet boys who sat still, didn't get out of their seats, didn't yell or cry, didn't fight or fuss, but were just absolutely good boys. It further impressed me when we were seated near other families who allowed their children to run around the restaurant, lay on the floor, yell, and race each other from one end to another, literally.

So tonight I want to make up for our lackluster meal with a great dinner at home. Adam loves lasagna so I'm hoping to get that made as well as some rolls and dessert. However, time is rapidly ticking away and I've got many other things to get done today as well. :) So I'm off to cook like crazy and clean like mad. :)