Firs Visit

We had our first visitors for the last few days. Jenny Mallory and Garrett came down for a visit and it was so much fun! Bubba loves Garrett and pretty much just followed him around the whole time. He can say Jenny (with a d most of the time) and Garrett and we will keep working on Mallory although he was getting pretty close there. Eva was a bit anti social so I think I need to get her more social. We had fun with them and we loved that they came down for a visit. So refreshing for us here are some pictures from Petroglyph monument so you can actually see them. Those are actual Pueblonian petroglyphs. The only bad news is that bubba is not terrified of these. They were all over the place at Petroglyph monument and he wouldn't let Mallory put him down after awhile. One kept coming out and getting really close and he would scream and it was crazy. Every little sound made him jump and start crying. I was laughing for a bit but he was truly terrified after awhile and I felt bad. I wonder what brought that on? Eva was in the babybjorn and she loved it. She loves the wind in her face and will laguh and smile so she loved being out in the wind.

Eva Crawls (Sort of)

I was trying to record Eva crawling out of the toy area and bubba wanted in on the action too. This is the whiny noise she uses when she wants my attention. Bubba was trying to show me that his Iron man action figure was cute. The other day he kept yelling "I Cute, I Cute" and laughing. He is understanding a lot now.

Walmart

We were at Walmart last week trying to look at vacuums and Alexander was being crazy

40% off Borders coupon

Hey I thought I would post this. I think you need to sign up for the free rewards club at the store to use it but I plan on doing that anyway. It Runs out on the 28th!! So go use it!

Borders Coupon

Family Home Evening

Yesterday for family home evening I decided to do a lesson on tithing. I know bubba is too young but I figure you are never too young to see examples and its good for Daniel and I to teach these little lessons. Anyway I try to keep the lessons extremely short and simple so he sort of gets it. So I did two examples. I gave bubba a ramekin and (this probably sounds sacrilegious) but we had a picture of Jesus and we put a ramekin in front of it.

I started with pennies.

We counted out the 10 pennies I had and I put them in Alexander's ramekin. Daniel and I told him that he gets all of them but one and that the one is tithing and needs to go to Jesus. He got that and put it right in and we congratulated him and told him good job. Then I did the next example that I thought he would understand more.

I had 10 skittles and I put them in the ramekin this time.


His eyes got all big and he tried stuffing them all in his mouth. I told him first he had to give one to Jesus and then he could have all the rest to himself. He wouldn't do it until Daniel helped him and then her was ok with it and continued to put the rest in his own mouth. I think he learned a bit of a lesson. He was cute and he made me laugh.

The End

The end of my projects has come. I was going to paint Dotkasan on the toy box but got extremely lazy and decided against it. I still have some frames I haven't used but they don't quite work with some of my prints and things so I will wait on them.

My favorite piece of art is the one that Unnur did for me years ago.


I believe it was a graduation gift (high school) I love it and always have it up and this time I love the frame I stuck with it too. It goes over the computer screen to encourage creativity. Alexander looks at it and says "Miriam Miriam Miriam (to get my attention) Beautiful." He usually just says Pretty but this one wins beautiful. Then I put the a painting in the hall.


I find it appropriate. Either that or a mirror. I didn't want to take pictures of all the pictures so I chose the favorites.

The color on the toy box is fabulous. You can't see it well on here because my camera isn't that fantastic but its a green blue color. I just love it.



However, the best part about this box is its purpose.


Now there is a place to hold the toys. Alexander is actually willing to help clean up the toys now and that makes a lot more order in my house which is what I desire. It seems to be the end of projects now at least for awhile until I find something I want to refinish. I do have an old roll top desk in the garage but it is not top priority so it will probably not start up until mid summer. I am kind of sad to not have projects but Daniel has put me on the eBay pay pal committee. I will let him explain that when he feels like blogging again.

The only problem with not staying super busy and having projects come out of my ears is that it generally brings on a calling when I stop being busy. I know the lightning will strike any minute. oh well.

Couponing

So I have started the whole COUPON thing. Its difficult to understand but I am slowly getting it. I am not going to write much about it but I thought I would tell you all about 3 sites that you can stick e coupons onto your smith's card. They don't have Albertson's cards here so I don't know if they will give you e coupons for Albertson's. You just register quickly and then attach your card to it (the bar code number on your card) and just add the coupon. I already used 2 coupons on it at smiths. You don't have to do anything it just automatically takes off the amount (I even used the self serve line) So here are the sites:

Shortcuts
Procter and gamble
Cellfire


I only use the grocery coupons. Anyway last week was my first time saving 54% at smiths by using their buy 10 get 5 dollars and combining it with coupons. Its a lot of fun when you start saving.

Oh another funny thing. In the coupon lingo there is a word called stockpilling which is really just food storage when you find a really good deal. Oh and look at these I found from a site I use.

This is when you should stockpile on things!

Cereal - $1.50/box or less
Toothpaste/Toothbrushes - Free
Hair Products - 25¢ or less
Fresh Boneless Chicken Breast - $1.87/lb or less
Pasta/Pasta Sauce - $1 or less
Dish Liquid - 25¢ or less
Cookie Mixes/Brownie Mixes/Frosting - 25¢ or less
Boxed Potatoes - 50¢ or less
10 lb bag of potatoes - $1.97 or less
Bread - 50¢ or less
Lysol Cleaning Supplies - 50¢ or less
Pizza Rolls - 50¢ or less
Frozen Pizzas - $3.00 or less

Read more: "15 Days of Couponing Day 10: Stockpiling | Bargain Briana" - Bargain Briana

Mind you these are the prices after using coupons and when they are on sale! I will be getting my first free toothpaste on tomorrows shopping trip! Daniel doesn't believe me but I will show him.

contests

Go vote for Eva as the cutest baby. You have to go through those annoying adds but I tried it once and I just skipped through them all and it worked.

https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index.aspx?referid=EmailFriends&p=1204806&x=.JPG

Thanks,

New Projects

These are my new projects now that my chairs are done. I found this wooden toy box at good will for 5 dollars and this new can of paint for 5 dollars at home depot yesterday. It is pretty heavy so Alexander won't be able to move it around the house and collect things as he is prone to do.



This is going to be my favorite project: FRAMES.







I love frames and matching them to my collection of things that need to be framed. These are from the box of frames I bought at auction. I like frames to be black, gold or silver and white is starting to grow on me. I am very particular with frame color and even photo album color (black or baby colors for baby pictures). I am letting Daniel have one remain natural wood because its his print that will be going in it but otherwise I keep to my color scheme. I am closed minded I know but I believe it looks better in my house. I might do different fun colors in the kids rooms but that is yet to be determined.

complete

My chairs are finished. The winning color was water scape (Meleofa and Ralphs vote). In the end I wanted a bolder color ( I googled 'painted blue chairs' and didn't like the lighter look. I primed them all white and then put the blue on. It took a long time because of all the scrolls and the inability of my brush to fit. I believe it looks like a bit of a distressed blue chair and they are growing on me. Daniel likes them a lot so that is a good sign. I will take a picture of them with their table when they are all dry.

update: this week

I haven't blogged in a little while. I feel like I have been very busy but I really don't think I have. Last week we started potty training. The first day I sat him on the toilet and no deal 5 times and he didn't seem to know what was going on. The second day we had success and now he hasn't had any accidents and goes every time I put him on the toilet. Its funny to me how excited I get whenever he goes. I guess I am just happy I am one step closer to no bubba diapers. Its been a funny experience. We got him a football toilet seat that fits in the regular one and a jar of skittles that sit in the bathroom (I started with Easter egg malts but Daniel finished them off the first day). Alexander is doing great there.

Eva wants to eat everything, well that's not true only everything we are eating. If she sees I am giving her something different than what we are all eating she will throw it down and wait for the good stuff. We have been teaching Alexander to share the toys with Eva because she loves cars just as much as he does so he is getting better. The only problem is that he doesn't understand not to share food with her. He gives her candy and everything.
She loves him and wishes she could follow him around all day getting his treats. I got her her first set of sippy cups today (I don't know why I have taken so long with solids and sippy cups with her, its like I forgot when I was supposed to do it). I just put bottled water in it and she doesn't quite get it but I am sure she will be sucking it down by tomorrow morning. Alexander got jealous so he has digressed to the sippy cup also and is even willing to drink water out of it like Eva.

I took this picture to show that the little kitchen table I had been working on is finished. We found the chairs at a garage sale to go with it. I need a picture to put up above it now. I am contemplating which picture to put there. The picture also shows Alexander drinking out of one of Eva's sippy cups.

Eva is rolling around like a ball these days. She is almost crawling. She cries and cries and stretches to reach for things sometimes it works and she pushes forward with her toes but she will usually just roll back and forth until she finally gets close enough to reach it (it usually takes 3 minutes of rolling back and forth)

Oh random note: On Saturday we went to an all day auction. It was a lot of fun. There was a dust storm in between though so it was rough in the end. I bought a box of 10 large random wooden frames for 3 dollars. My favorite purchase of the week. It also came with 5 prints which I plan on using around the house. I just need to clean and paint some of them and I will be set. Daniel bought an electric acoustic guitar for 35 dollars and I think he likes it. Who knows really. All in all it was a fun day.

I still have a huge furniture and now frames to do and finish list. I found a toy box at a thrift store that I am now refinishing. I am almost ready to paint my Ethan Allen chairs. It all keeps me busy in the days so I like it. Other wise I would realise I am in New Mexico and not know what to do.
That was our week oh and it rained which is the first time. It drizzled all day. Kind of like in Iceland it was even pretty cold.

I will take a picture of the dining room table and the finished chairs when they are in fact finished (hopefully in two days)

Bye for now

If you love dogs

I am posting a link to a story from a writer for ESPN.com that Daniel reads. He wrote a column about his dogs. It is really good but you might need a tissue. Hopefully the link works. Daniel says that Tina, Kathryn, and Jaxon Hoopes (if you read this blog) should read it. Ohh and Jenny and Meleofa should read it to.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090122

chair colors, help

We have decided to paint the chairs a blue color. First we were going to try to strip them and stain them but there is no way I have the patience this year to do that. Plus I would have to use some kind of chemical and I have yet to find one that I like. Then I was thinking they would look good white. But Daniel said he wants them exactly as they are except he wants them blue. I usually get the end decision in the furniture colors but the fact that Daniel was willing to steer away from his traditionalism when it comes to furniture was amazing so I immediately agreed. Thus we need to find a blue that will not date anytime soon. So I decided I want a cold blue lighter but with a grey tone rather than a green or white undertone. I need help. I think I have narrowed it down to these:



(left to right: top row yacht club, Newport blue
middle row winter lake, Bo29, waterscape
bottom row b030, shale Gray

I put the samples on the table that the chairs will be going with so that is what the wood looks like.



I need some opinions. What do you think?

sanding

I have been sanding none stop for days it seems and I am finally done with the three layer peach colored drop leaf table. I need to go over it one more time on certain parts with the finer paper but I think I will ask Daniel to do it because I am sick of sanding. We bought a stain last night. I still have a few little parts to hand sand but I am staining today if it kills me. We chose a stain called golden pecan and it should go on rather nicely. Here are some pictures

Thought provoking Questions (sort of)

I was facebooking today and I saw these on regina's notes and I thought they were funny so I decided to post them:

1. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?

2. Why is the man who invests all your money called a 'broker'?

3. Do bald men wash their head with soap or shampoo?

4. What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?

5. Why are the obituaries found in the "living" section of the newspaper?

6. Are one handed people offended when police tell them to put their hands up.

7. How can sweet and sour cause be sweet and sour at the same time?

8. I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks, so I wonder what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?

9. If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?

10. What if you're in hell, and you're mad at someone, where do you tell them to go?

Our projects

We are working on some furniture again. We got a beautiful wooden pedestal round table and 4 chairs from craigslist. The chairs are nice and ethan allen but they are a green color and extremely distressed. (they painted them that way)



I don't like the color so we are going to paint them a gray blue color so we have been sanding quite a bit. We are almost done sanding them for painting purposes.



We are also redoing a small round drop leaf table that has 3 THICK layers of paint on it.


The last layer is peach and acrylic so it is bubbling up with the sander and difficult to get through. Here are the pictures of where we are right now. I think we are going to stain the drop leaf table. Its going in the kitchen. We will post a picture of them both when we are all done (It will hopefully only take 2 weeks. I work on these in my spare time and out in the yard with the kids in the day when its warm. They love it. Oh and one of the pictures is of the splinter Daniel got from sanding the drop leaf table. Its a bare bones table and gives huge splinters. I have already had 2 but they were tiny compared to this one.

bath time

Eva and Alexander had a bath last night so I recorded some of it.