Guest Blog - House Update: Look up! by Drama Queen

Hey y’all!  Long time, no guest blog.  Momma and the littles were off partying all day up at Cherry Hill, so she asked me to quickly type up a post about how my house reno is going.  Upstairs is pretty much fait accompli thanks to the awesome help of literally everyone!  Here’s some pics of the awesome new paint and carpet.  I could only find a W.I.P. pic of the kitchen, sadly.I can’t remember what I’ve shared so far, so I’ll just go ahead and tell you about the last week or so.  

We got Teach and Twiz moved in - they are living upstairs amidst the boxes but will move into the basement bedrooms once it’s all done. They have been so great with dealing with power tools waking them up every other morning.  

But let’s talk about the basement.  First off, here’s some “before” pics of the basement.  One of the first things I did once I got the keys was to pull down the sketchy-looking drop ceiling and tear out the very stinky carpet.  See, I had this crazy awesome idea of having an exposed industrial ceiling - you know, like they have at cool restaurants.  My very wise and experienced father told me I was crazy, ...and he was probably right.  But I was also crazy right about how awesome it was going to look!!

The basement has two bedrooms, a bathroom, and the large family room.  The smallest bedroom - the one that sweet little Twizlet will be in - we painted the ceiling an awesome industrial gray and the walls are this beautiful lavender.  The family room ceiling is black - and it looks so wicked!   (Sorry, we don’t have the lights installed yet, so the photos are dark.)  It’s walls are going to be both white and more of the lavender.    Since Papa broke his foot, I’ve been hand-rolling the rest of the paint, so progress has slowed a bit, but I plan to have it looking great and be laying down tile before the Twizzlers get back from visiting Twiz’s family.  

Papa-Darling has been so very kind and so he has put in tons and tons of time helping me tackle these crazy projects. I am learning so much from him!  It’s been a totally invaluable experience.  I am so very thankful for everyone who has been working so hard and helping me out!  Love you guys!!!  

Sport's New Skill

Sport has been so busy with his summer science class, that until this last week we haven't had time to do much else. Now that my sweetie is injured,  Drama Queen is spending most of her time at her new house, and Crafty was in Nashville, I had to find someone else to help me cook. Sport seemed like a good choice, especially since one of the few merit badges he still needs for his Eagle is the cooking merit badge.

 This week I managed to get him to cook 3 nights in a row! The first night was his own choice and he just made Ramen soup, but the second night I convinced him we needed to have something a bit more difficult and healthier. He laid out a menu consisting of cheeseburgers, pasta, corn, and watermelon.

My sweetie went with him out to work the grill and I assisted with the inside stuff. His hamburgers were delicious! So good that I was able to convince him he wanted to cook again tonight. This time it was spaghetti and meatballs with green beans, french bread, and fresh pineapple. He even made strawberry shortcake for dessert!

You know the best part about it besides the fact that I don't have to cook?

He offered to make pancakes and bacon for breakfast tomorrow. I think he has figured out that if he plans and prepares the meal, he also gets to cook the things he likes...

Summer Reading 2017

I usually take a minute to post about the Summer Reading programs going on in the valley and we just submitted our first one and that reminded me. (My life is a bit more chaotic than usual right now.)

Free Bees tickets.... YES!!

My favorite program has always been the ones done by the County Libraries here in Salt Lake. They run the entire summer and generally culminate in getting to choose a free book. This year they are also forgiving $5 in fines for anyone who signs up and that's another great thing; anyone can sign up! Just stop by one of the libraries and pick up a reading form.

Always love the free books!

You know I love baseball, so Read Today is definitely right up there with my favorites. They team up with the Bees, our Triple A ball club here in the valley and not only do you earn a free book, but you also get tickets to a Bees game! The only drawbacks are that kids have to be between the ages of 5 - 14, but they each earn 2 tickets so we can all get in with our 4 that participate. Just download the form from Read Today, read 20 minutes for each day and take a pic of your kids and upload it into the system. It ends on July 31, so you better get busy.

 NEED that McDonald's kids meal!

Barnes & Noble always does a great job by giving away a choice of selected free books to each child. Unfortunately, this year they have limited it to elementary grades only. You can pick up the forms in the store or download them here and print them. When you are finished, simply take them back to the store and pick up your free book.

I'm just happy with the color-changing pencil...

Our Utah State Fair has always done a great job promoting reading! It is an easy way to get kids into the fair for free, but you must have your form postmarked by July 27. We found out the hard way that a couple of days late and they issue a "sorry" letter. You can find all the info and rules here.

These are our favorites, but we are always looking for new ones. Please comment if you know of anything else. Happy Reading!!

Update on Sweetie's Foot

Remember a couple of days ago I told you about my sweetie's foot? I just thought you might be interested in an update.

So he was given that flat shoe to wear on July 3rd. Then over the course of the day on the 4th and up through this morning on the 5th, he kept telling me the pain was just getting worse, so I finally called and made him an appointment with a sports medicine doctor.

After checking out his foot, the doc changed the diagnosis to recent break (last Saturday) and totally got rid of  that silly flat thing in favor of a large boot that will actually protect my sweetie's foot. He has to wear it 4 full weeks before he has a new X-ray to make sure it is healing properly.

Then we reevaluate again.

Life is never boring around here.