Quick Recovery

The suitcases have been unpacked.

The laundry has been done.

The house was cleaned from top to bottom yesterday, and the painting has resumed.

Our vacation is over.

How quickly a 10 day trip scurries by when a pit of projects waits for you.

But, oh, what a great 10 days it was.

I love you, Montana.

xoxoxox

Post note: Jeff was literally in his happy place when he hit the big 4-0 this year. Everyone dressed in black for the occasion (except for the birthday boy who was kept in the dark), but anything is doable - even starting a new decade - when you're enjoying Echo Lake.

Taking a Breather

Echo Lake via Google images

Every year when we head up to Montana to enjoy The Cabin with Jeff's family, I have one goal in mind:

Water ski around the island at least once during the week so I can say that I'm still young and healthy and strong enough to do it.

If you hear a hoot and a holler from clear up north, that's just me.

Have a great week, friends!

Sudsy Love

I think my son's 1.5" Lego Indiana Jones has a crush on me.

He reappears in my washing machine every single week.

Coincidence?

Despite my best efforts to secure my title as Meanest Mom in the Hood by swearing that any more toys (or rocks, electronics, candy or small animals) that go through the wash will be headed straight for the garbage, I just can't seem to get rid of Indy.

Maybe it's the rugged facial stubble.

Or the fact that he carries a bullwhip and a bullwhip is such a manly thing to carry.

Or perhaps it's because his adventures have left him with only one hand.

{Curse you spin cycle!}

Whatever the reason, I just can't get rid of this guy. I spot him at the bottom of the washer at the conclusion of a load of darks - hat and whip scattered recklessly - and I just can't chuck him.

I put him back together, bid him farewell, and call to Brittan to put him away.

And know that our paths will soon cross again.

In the laundry room.

It's a Mormon Thing

Our annual trek to Montana is quickly approaching and our family has been reminiscing about the wonderment and absolute serenity of Big Sky Country.

If you've never ventured to the Big Fork area (specifically Echo Lake), you're missing out on a spectacular part of the world. Glacier National Park should be on everyone's must-see-before-I'm-6-feet-under list.

Breathtaking. Peaceful. Earthy. Centering. Rejuvenating.

As we've been talking about past trips and memories formed at The Cabin, the topic has turned to whether or not the boat is going to be running in tiptop shape this year. Kennedy is eager to learn to slalom, Taiden wants to wakeboard, and Britt is ready for his maiden voyage on H2O stix. The boat occasionally pleads for mercy and reminds us of its age by refusing to start or sputtering gas and oil into the water.

Or maybe the boat just doesn't like to start easily for Jeff and his older brother Darin, because it remembers them in their youth. Perhaps it remembers Jeff's invisible ink jokingly being sprayed on Darin's new shirt and the teenage brother ruckus that followed - while afloat. The hubbub that took focus off of driving the boat and the commotion that ended them up across the bay and onto the shore. (And by, the shore, I mean, dry land.) The tomfoolery that tore a hole into the side of the boat, broke the windshield with Jeff's head, and landed him in the hospital awaiting stitches.

Do you think a boat can hold a grudge?

Last summer, we were out on the lake with our kids and a nephew when the boat decided it was done. It was kaput. Try as he might, Jeff could not get the engine to fire up. We floated and drifted into shore - on the other side of the lake. We waited for our rescue crew - back on the dock - to come save us, but they were having too much fun to notice that we had been gone for a very long time. With the sun beating on us and no hopes of getting out of the situation anytime soon, a suggestion was made that we say a prayer.

So, we prayed.

Shortly after the prayer, our nephew (who is not a member of our LDS faith) became emotional. We asked him what was wrong. We soon realized that our action of saying a prayer made him feel that we were doomed and were surrendering to our dire situation. He felt a mortal white flag was being waved and he was not comfortable with that notion.

Jeff quickly reassured him.

"Hey, it's OK. We're Mormons. We pray about everything!"

My husband speaks the truth.

The boat eventually gave up its grievance, the engine started, and we made it safely back to our side of the lake. My kids learned about the power of prayer and our nephew learned that we Mormons bow our heads on a regular basis.

Now if the boat can just learn a lesson on forgiveness...

Greedy Gobble Gannet

In celebration of Independence Day from the Red Coats, I'd like to share some snappy British humor.

Catherine Tate has been our YouTube favorite all weekend long. Check her out.

In the Good Old Summertime

I've mentioned before that I blog for several reasons.

First, I like to write. My blog is my chance to do this. Sometimes my writing feels spot on and natural and sometimes feels awkward and forced. Blogging helps me through weekly writing exercises.

Second, I like to feel like I'm talking to somebody other than myself on this blog. I know there are a handful of you who are regulars. Most of you I know in person, but I'm aware that I have several blogging friends out there whom I haven't had the privilege to meet. Friends who live in various parts of the good old U.S. of A. and a few that live overseas. That part of blogging is very mysterious and intriguing to me. (Especially You - You evasive United Kingdom enigma. Can't you at least leave one comment?)

Third, I want my blog - which will eventually be printed out and bound in a family book - to prove to my kids that they did have some fun in their childhood. That their early lives were not just a long, drawn out snore-fest full of boredom and lethargy. I want them to see that we worked hard and played hard. And we did it as a family. I especially want them to see that the Summer of 2010 was not a complete waste. That - although it is the summer of endless house projects - we did manage to have at least one fun outing every single week. And that the weekly campfires in the backyard, evening popsicle pow wows under our trees, and strolls along Lagoon trail counted for something. They may not have registered high on the summer fun radar, but they allowed for quiet family time during the busiest time of our family history.

This week's family field trip started with lunch at the Lone Star Taqueria. We'd never been there before, but when Guy Fieri - from Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives - told us we needed to try it out, we did just as he said.

So glad we did. The boys and I got Carne Asada burritos which were delicious. The tomatillo salsa is out of this world. But the star of the meal was Kennedy's marinated pork salad with jalapeno mayo dressing. Unbelievable! They have the best guacamole I've ever eaten.

The place was packed, so we had to park at the city library which was a block away.

The kids loved the car and funky atmosphere.

Our next stop was Wheeler Farm.

I bought the kids flavored honey sticks.

Any place that provides lots of trees to climb has an A+ rating from my boys.

There's a part of me that would have loved to have been raised on a farm. Because with a farm comes a beautiful farm house. We loved this one and the detailed wood work on the porch.

Pigs, cows, donkeys, rabbits, goats, chickens, turkeys, and ducks.

We took a fun wagon ride.

It was a good day.

Anatomy of a Flip: Forward then Backward

Click to enlarge

action shots by Kennedy

House Project 2010: Weeks 5, 6, 7

Apparently, I don't know how to read house plans.

'Cause if I did, I wouldn't have cried for 2 days straight when our addition's outer shell first went up. I wouldn't have spent 2 days all weepy and droopy because it didn't look exactly like I thought it should. I wouldn't have wasted 2 night's sleep having horrible dreams that the newer part of the house ate the older part of the house and then burped and laughed with a wooden smile. I wouldn't have distorted it in my mind so drastically that I kept telling people it was taller than the mountains and that it could be seen from space.

Thank goodness for a calming husband and reassuring friends who have an easier time seeing what things will eventually be. Thank goodness for promises that I will love it in the end and that I need to learn patience.

And. Just. Wait.

{Sometimes I feel like Veruca Salt. "Don't care how, I want in NOW!"}

After several days of decompressing, lots of deep breathing and - let's be perfectly honest here -emotional eating, I am loving what I see. I get more and more excited everyday. My mind has mellowed and my visual distortion has waned. It's going to be a space we love and will enjoy for years and years. The charming character I'm yearning for will come with the colors and trim and detail work. The waiting part of it all is good for me.

The plan behind the addition was guided by 2 factors. First, we needed more square footage and we only wanted to go through this whole construction process once. We know people who've added rooms onto their homes and have regretted that they didn't go bigger from day one. We need space for our family. And that space takes up space. I somehow thought we could add on the new 1700 sq. feet (finished) and additional 885 sq. feet (unfinished basement) and a large 2 car garage, and have it all magically flow and be in perfect scale with our historic home. Don't know what I ate before I cemented those illogical thoughts into my mind, but whatever it was, it had mind bending effects.

Second, we knew we didn't want to be too invasive to our pioneer home. We didn't want to disturb the historical qualities by ripping off large sections of walls and directly attaching a new structure to it. Plus, who knows what would happen in such a case with adobe brick and rock? So, we chose a small section - an entire exterior wall of our kitchen - and will be tying the addition in there. In short, we'll have a historic home, an extended kitchen eating area (enclosed in a breezeway that ties the old to the new), and a new addition that will house a new family room, new master suite, half bath, new laundry room, and lots of storage.

Here's the agenda:

Historic home: new exterior paint (historic yellow!) with newly built black shutters, white trim, red front door, porch redone with squared off decorative shakes, resurfaced porch, new sidewalks, and expanded/extended front flowerbeds. Carpet and flooring replaced throughout, new interior paint, decorating and repurposing of a lot of rooms. The current laundry room and half bath that sits off the kitchen will be rebuilt as a pantry with lots of storage for kitchen stuff . Can't wait for that. Our current front TV room will be turned into a piano room with our 1907 piano as the focal point. The opposite side of the room will be used as an office/computer/homework area. Kennedy will get our bedroom downstairs with her own bathroom. Taiden will move into Kennedy's current room (after it is no longer purple). Brittan and Shaw will share the larger kids' room upstairs.

New addition: from the outside, it will act as the carriage house/barn for our historic home. It will be sided in hardiboard and will be a pretty grayish-brownish color. Still working out that color scheme. It will have 2 carriage style garage doors with carriage windows built into the structure (rather than just in the garage doors), all framed out in trim. Lots of windows throughout. In the family room, the walls are really tall....I think 17 feet? Then it pitches up with the trusses. Love it!

{Lots of space for spiders to spin webs (to their 8 eyes' content) knowing full well it's way too tall for me to ever reach without scaffolding or some sort of launching pad.}

Historic home and its new neighbor - the overly ambitious carriage house.

Below, future space of half bath, laundry room, closets. Above, loft area, our bedroom and bathroom.

His and Hers closets.

Loft area upstairs.

It's not just a rumor - construction workers DO bring their own methods of cooking to the job site.

New Master Bedroom.

Loft area looking down to family room. Fireplace, with a raised hearth, is framed out between those large windows.

Stairs going up to bedroom. The stairs going down to the basement are beneath this staircase (it's hard to see in the picture).

Window in new laundry room.

A shot of the addition from the future breezeway.

This old kitchen wall comes out the end of this week. It is going to be MESSY! I may choose to not be home that day.

Front view of breezeway. Still waiting for a roof. The kids will access the house through this area (there's a door to the garage that the picture doesn't show) when they come home from school. Can't decide if we want it cemented in or use large stepping stones with mossy plants all around.

Backside of breezeway. This may be one of my favorite parts of the whole project. This will become the courtyard. We'll pave it in, put outdoor rugs and furniture out there, and it will be a quiet and removed patio area for us to enjoy. Taiden is standing in the doorway of the breezeway that will basically be an extension of the kitchen, so food and drinks will easily be accessible. The family room also has access to this area through the atrium door (shown but no stairs are there yet).

We're feeling like the Clampetts from the Beverly Hillbillies. Only we haven't struck it rich in the Ozarks...

...we're just a mess and there ain't a darned thing I can do about it. We just need a few pigs and chickens runnin' around out yonder, and we'd really be the talk of the town.

Our latest project. The dreaded kitchen cabinets. Before. A yellowish wash on the wood.

Newly painted. The color is called Mascarpone. (The color is really off in this picture.)

I had someone come give me a bid to have it done professionally. $3500! Um, no thank you. $75 later, hours and hours of sniffing paint fumes, and I'm happy with the results.

The counters will be replaced with a black textured top and the kitchen will be repainted a cheery, apple green...

...and if the budget will allow, I want to use these glass tiles for the back splash.

Choosing to Follow

On Sunday, while at church, I sat between my 14 year old daughter and 8 year old son.

Many couples have the strict rule that they will never let their children come between them - even when it comes to the Sacrament Meeting pew. Jeff and I, however, are not one of those couples. Seating assignments are strategically thought out long before we walk into the chapel. The Sabbath morning routine - on any given week - helps us determine who is going to be able to sit by whom. An early accounting is taken of squabbles and nitpicking between our children, and potentially irreverent combinations are broken up before their fannies even hit the bench.

That's why I was sitting between my 14 year old daughter and 8 year old son.

{It was for the betterment of the congregation.}

As we started to sing the opening hymn, I noticed that Brittan was sitting quite snugly to my side. As the music continued, I realized that he was listening to me sing. He was trying to follow my lead with the song. It was a hymn he was unfamiliar with, so he couldn't carry the tune on his own. As a result, he was singing Alto - just like me. His young voice was trying to chase mine - up and down the staff to the various notes.

Kennedy was also singing. She, as well, was singing Alto. Only with her, she was a little more musically steady. She has sat by my side through hundreds of Sacrament Meetings over the years, and her ears have become accustomed to picking out the lower notes on the treble clef. The notes that balance and soothe. The notes that let the Sopranos take the glory, but are still vitally important to the beauty of the piece. She is a good little singer - hearing the harmony and symmetry of the music.

As I sat between them, I started to think about how we strive for this type of situation as parents. On the one hand, I had a younger child who was following my lead because he thought I had the answers and I knew what to do. He was unsure of where to go, what course to take (sing). He listened attentively and wanted to be like me. I was his mom and he respected my ability to guide him through the task at hand.

Kennedy was slightly different. She had her independence but, from time to time, was choosing to reconnect with me to make sure she was where she needed to be. She wasn't following blindly - like her brother. She had enough skills and knowledge to act on her own, but she still wanted to look to me for some guidance. She, too, wanted to be where I was. She was choosing to follow me.

{I wish this example could carry over into every other aspect of my parenting world.}

Being a parent is easy. Being a good parent is tough.

The key is to do enough things correctly when they are young, that they have faith in you. They trust you and your judgement. They want to emulate your good qualities as they grow older and more independent. They want to be like you in character - in word, in deed.

The key, and the ultimate parental challenge, is to be the kind of example that they want to follow.

My State of Mind

image via my friend's blog

Let's see.

This past week I've...

1. ...watched the framing of my home continue and realized that what the plans show is not always what reality dictates. Most people worry about a new addition being too small. I, however, have worried about it being too big. My mind's eye envisioned (and the plans showed) a perfectly quaint carriage house attached to our pioneer home, but I think we're going to end up with one Brobdingnagian barn. A barn big enough for most of the animals in our town. It is large. It is mammoth. But in the end, it will all come together, it will be beautiful, and the parties will be fan-ta-stic!

(And Jeff is stoked that he gets to sleep in the hayloft.)

2. ...watched one of our walls get blown over in the storm of 2010. The paranoid side of me wondered if the original owners of this home were displeased with the progress and had anything to do with the gust that took down the timber.

(I also wondered if the animals were going to start gathering two by two.)

3. ...done 11 hours of new construction cleaning with a friend to earn some money. New construction cleaning is easy but very dusty.

4. ...met with our contractor to get a breakdown of all the things that need to be picked out for the addition. Passing that buck over to my friend, Randee. I know whatever she decides will be beautiful. (Just stay away from mauve, please.)

5. ...readied two boys for scout camp. Scout shirt? Check. Sunscreen? Check. Swimming suit and towel? Check. Lunch and spending money? Check and double check.

(Also warned them that there will be a thorough tick check when they get home.)

6. ...decided that I didn't have quite enough on my plate this week, so opted to start painting the kitchen cabinets. I, at first, thought I would take it slowly and give myself a month to get it all done. Now that I know they want to tear down my kitchen wall in one week (to tie in the addition), I now have exactly 6 days to get it finished. With the amount of dust and debris that will be swirling around my house (from the adobe brick and 18 inches of solid Farmington rock) I figure I better get the painting done now while I have a dust free environment to work in.

(Everyone, friend or foe, is invited to my house for one continuous painting party. You provide the (wo)manpower and I'll provide the treats and intoxicating fumes.)

7. ...told my kids that the amount of money we threw away at the dentist office this week (curse you cavities!) could have bought us all season passes to Lagoon.

(Or allowed me to hire some help for my current painting project.)

8. ...worried that this blog will soon become a dumping ground for all of my house addition woes and angst. I promise to try and not let that happen (too often). The stress and pressure that everyone warned me about is starting to creep in. I'm seeing it in our faces, in the underlying current of daily life, in the amount of television being watched by my children, and in the quality of our dinners lately.

(I don't want to be a whiner. Please don't go away, blog friends.)

9. ...realized I'm really good at avoidance behaviors. If my fingers are busy typing on the computer, how can I possibly hold a paint brush?

I need a hug.

The Birthday Project

Our T-Man turned 11 on Sunday. This was his gift.


Since we'll soon be the proud owners of our very own driveway (can I have a shout out for cement?!), we figured it was time we bought a basketball standard. Our children have lived such a deprived existence up until this point, but playing b-ball on gravel doesn't make for easy dribbling so they've had to go without.

The stand didn't (and still doesn't) look like the above picture. The boys and Jeff have been working on it - off and on- for the last 3 days and they're only on step 26 of the 31 steps outlined in the instruction manual. There was not a single screw or bolt in place when they pulled it out of the box. It has been quite the process but has been a great lesson in patience and endurance.

If I was a betting woman, I'd wager that we'll be playing Around the World by dusk tonight. And we'll be kickin' it old skool by playing out in the street. The driveway is still a few months away.