Finally Summer

Summer is here at last! The only downside is that means it is that much closer to ending. We are summer people and hate to see it end! We have been trying to wrapping up projects so that we can just enjoy it to the fullest and chill. I realized the other day that with the largest part of projects being completed, it feels like such a big break to "only" have work and then the normal household chores like laundry & cleaning.

Josh has one remaining item in the kitchen which is the range hood thing. I have one outdoor "project" which is doing the 3 sets of steps and touch up with epoxy in the basement. We will tile the basement later in the fall.

The girls are enjoying swim lessons and this week are enjoying Vacation Bible School. It is keeping us busy.

We had a nice weekend celebrating Father's Day with Josh home with us. It has been awhile so we went to church then had a very yummy brunch. The afternoon was lovely because we just kind of chilled at home. We even got a nap...wow!
Now, we are just hoping for some sunshine on our day off. We haven't visited the pool once in June because everytime we are off to go, the pool is either closed or the weather has been rainy or something.
I'm so thankful for what a wonderful daddy Josh is to our girls. They think the world of him and are so excited to see him each night when he comes home.

Well, I have 3 princesses to get to bed!

Summer!

I love the end result of a garage sale (way less stuff & some money), but I hate the process. It is truly...so much work! That is why I'm glad ours is done!

I'm ready to keep projects at a bare minimum now so we can just chill & have fun this summer.

The season I love has already been flying by us way too quickly!

Josh has worked his tail off this week tiling the backsplash, helping with the garage sale along with all of the other must-do's. Now, I would say our kitchen is 99% finished. Grouting needs done and the range hood.

The humidity was replaced by a cooler breeze and it has been magnificent. I got a ltitle sun while out at the garage sale.

The girls are enjoying swim lessons and I love watching them. Hopefully they take it in to the fullest and learn much! Noe is a little busy bee. She now says "kitty" when she is with Sulley. She loves to grab at him and amazingly he is really patient and longsuffering with her. We now have a sleeper as we can put her down at 9:30 and she sleeps until 8 or 9. I'm definitely happy about that!

The garden is doing well. I have some new spaces now because of our addition and they are flourishing also. The abundance of rain has been wonderful for that this year. I have windowboxes on every room in my LR, upstairs on the dormers, and on my kitchen window. It is so nice to sit inside the house and have happy little geraniums peaking up where I can see them! After all of these years living here, we are finally to the point of having several low maintenance garden areas. We were able to do a lot of the garden areas for free or minimal cost as there were so many plants here already, they just needed "fixed" or tended. When we moved here, there was a honeysuckle vine between our house and the neighbors. Well, we cut out all of the poison oak, the elm trees that were growing there, yuccas, and weeds and today we have a honeysuckle vine that goes 5 additional fence lengths!

We had a long line of nothing-ness along the alley. (let me preface the alley statement by letting you know that all streets in our neighborhood have alleys that run behind them) They used to use them for trash pick-up. It was great because no one had to put their trash cans to the curb. They were outta sight outta mind and they would pick them up. That changed shortly after we moved here =(. Anwyays, the long line of nothingness...weeds, bushes, and ugly! We moved some lilies from other parts of the yard, sedum from other parts of the yard, and other plants and it has almost filled in completely! It is amazing!

My coral bells are another point of garden excitement. We had a few sparse pieces of them scattered here and there. I mean very small and very minimal. Two years ago, I took the smallest pieces (2 inhces) and moved them along one side of the garage. They are magnificent. My favorite thing is that all of this was free--aside from our own labor of course.

Another area that needed work was the side of the house where you enter the back door. We called it "Wrigley" because of the vast amounts of ivy. Ivy is beautiful don't get me wrong, but too much is simply that...to much! It takes over very quickly and climbs like mad. I like it as ground cover to a degree, but not as house cover as it "eats away" at your foundation over time. We removed 3 large thorny bushes from this area and put a few pots of flowers there and now it is a beautiful space.

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The lilies were divided from others we had as well as the hostas. I love how you can just divide and move...for free! They are just flourishing!

The front of our house is pretty much bush-less and so is the rest. Sixty large bushes later, I think we are done removing bushes from our property with no intentions of planting more! The only bushes that remain are two lilac bushes on the very back corners of our property. That is it! I'm not a fan of any bushes anymore. They are way too much upkeep and really do nothing for me. I could care less that I miss out on the 1 week of blooming that they did in spring. I simply remember the sweat as I trimmed them countless times every summer. At the plant nursery, they look so "promising". You know a little bush to make your landscape look great...then they grow...way outta control! So, the front is now a mix of perennials, annuals, and pots! I love it. I can come home and water them and relax!

Now, for a bathing beauty and a smile...here's Noelliah!

Have a wonderful Saturday! Wow--I just realized it has been AGES since I have posted with pics!

Stopping by to say "Hi"

I'm here...sometimes! I am really hoping to obliterate a whole bunch of our to-do list this week so that we can take in and enjoy summer finally!

A lot is going on as always. Noe is on the constant go, go, go. She took a step about a week ago. She waved to people at the beach which was cute.

Aliyah & Kiki started swim lessons and I wondered if the ice queen would make an appearance, but ice queen did not. She smiled and did everything her teacher said. Aliyah is a wild kicker, but her teacher is helping her kicking/paddling be more productive =). It was nice to sit and catch some sun while they had their lesson.

Josh is tiling our backsplash now. Our kitchen has the construction zone look, but hopefully not for long. It is looking great.

We also have the annual dreaded garage sale coming up. I say dreaded because getting ready for them is so much work. I needed to work on it tonight, but after our lack of sleep this weekend and a busy day, I was too tired! Noe didn't do well on our Chicago trip in the sleep dept. I think it was because it was not her environment. She slept very little and woke up in the night as well.

Oh yeah, we went to Chicago for the weekend. Josh and I celebrated our 11th anniversary =). It was tons of fun. Dinner at PF Changs, the city, and the beach! Throw in a little shopping and it was a blast. That is what summer is all about in my book. The only downside of the trip was getting stuck in the stairwell of the parking garage for 25 minutes!
We did see some very expensive cars, though! There were several Bentley's and even a Lamborghini!

Time to get ready for bed. Hopefully some rest will motivate me to tackle this lovely list.

schedules

Our calendars have been double/triple booked lately and it continues. I hate trying to figure out & choose what to do. This week continues that! April was nuts with our demolition and building and May has been nuttier with finishing what was started along with an endless list of events!

This weekend was super packed and of course we still couldn't fit everything in =(. Add to that one day of little activity from me at home b/c I was sick + another few hours from a pounding headache and yep...I'm behind!

Noe is either teething (which I don't thiink) or caught my flu bug. While I can't know how her body feels, I am seeing the other symptoms that I had =(. She has been fussy today and just not the happy girl she typically is.

I'm thankful for what we got done (we worked our tails off) and I'm thankful for the rain. It kept me from having to water.

Here's hoping against the odds that this is the week that we catch up!

Crossing off...

We are hammering away at that to-do list and slowly (at times), but surely the items are getting crossed off.

It is so wonderful, yet different to be eating at home so often. We now have a dishwasher! I haven't ever in my life lived in a home with a dishwasher. I also was under the impression that one had to basically "pre-wash" all of the items anyway making it kind of pointless. Since that is not the case, I am enjoying life with a dishwasher. While I love the food we eat and cook here, I do not LOVE the clean up.

It is also different to have to go across the kitchen now to get something. Our old kitchen was so small, that when you sat at the table you could almost reach whatever you needed from the table.

We have new neighbors on one side as the neighbors that own the house moved to CO. and are renting the home out. We have yet to meet them as they just started moving in, but I'm sure they will be just fine as the people that own the house have nice friends.

Speaking of neighbors...the trashiest house and I mean very trashy...has video cameras mounted to the outside of their house. Josh noticed them tonight on our walk. I'm not sure what they have under surveillance as surely no one would want to take any piece of garbage that those people own, but what in the world??
They have money to buy cameras, but for nothing else or what?? They have to be some of the dirtiest/laziest people! They don't even mow their own yard! I understand people that get their yard mowed as we have several on our street that do, but if you saw their yard isn't anything but a pile of overgrown weeds...why bother paying someone to do that? Maybe we should wave at the cameras when we walk by. These people had a mattress out on their front yard for like 3 weeks one time. Thank the Lord I do not live next door to them. I pity the people that do!

Well, I'm tired (even after my 2 hour crash earlier). Good night!

Projects

I must say, finishing a project is so much more exciting and rewarding than the start and definitely better than the middle! It takes its toll on everyone.

We had a large cabinet, a kitchen table and chairs, contents from drawers, and other various items from the kitchen in the LR. Upstairs, we had a toaster and some bags of food. Downstairs, we had more cabinets, bags of food, and the rest of the contents of the kitchen. This made it pretty crowded and stressful. Noelliah, who is so mobile had to be kept out of the kitchen obviously and the LR. Add to that the rain and that is how we spent our April here...under construction.

There was grass to be planted, landscaping to be done from where everthing had been dug up, painting, trim, handles on the cabinets, cleaning of the carpet, rooms to be cleaned, cabinets re-loaded, planting of flowers, electrical, plumbing, picture hanging, and of course the regular household chores like laundry and vacuuming, and of course a lot of dusting. That is how we have spent our May...so far. Add to that birthdays, graduations, mother's day, and regular stuff and we have been beyond busy and exhausted. Josh has been on some crazy shifts (ones that make me feel like a single parent really). Shifts where he works all day until midnight, 13-14 hour days so like 9am-11pm, and then 11 days without any days off. The other day we were discussing burnout. I wonder why?

The girls became stressed mid-way through the project because everything was in chaos and it had been raining for seemingly weeks (not to mention chilly). The recent warm weather (not this weekend) really was welcome for all of us.

I think the list is shrinking. My house looks way more normal and we are thoroughly enjoying the "growing process" of the last 5 1/2 weeks! Really, it was very fast in the scheme of projects, but in light of the craziness it couldn't come fast enough for us! We love our new kitchen and the space. We now eat out very little which is great, and Noe can go into the kitchen again which means she can open cabinets and drawers--oh dear!

The girls have been HUGE helpers during all of this. It's a bit of a challenge at times to get a lot of stuff done with a very mobile baby coming through especially when you are home without your other half! (particularly the stuff we were getting done). Whether it was playing with her and keeping her occupied or helping bring stuff up from downstairs so we could re-load the cabinets...they have been great!

We stopped by Walgreens yesterday to get the girls a pack of Squinkies to reward them for their hard work. They were going to share a pack. After deciding which ones they wanted, we went to pay and they were only $2.50 instead of the normal $10.00! So, we got 4 packs!

Aside from the much needed annual garage sale, we are hoping to finish off the project to-do list and not fill it with much else for a long time. I want to enjoy the remainder of May and all of Summer having fun with my family!

FINALLY!

It is great to have a kitchen back again! I was so sick of eating out and not having a functioning kitchen. Now, I just want to finish tying up loose ends and get my garage sale ready and hopefully have some down time to enjoy the summer with the girls & Josh.

He has been working a lot. In our "spare time", we do what we can in the kitchen and outside. We love the way the kitchen turned out. We love all of the space and eating/cooking at home again!

Noe turned 8 months old a few days ago and no surprise is on the go. She is opening cabinets and drawers. She is pretty handy that is for sure. Speedy that little girl is...

Aliyah and Keirah have been glad to have sunshine so that they can go outside and swing and jump on the trampoline. I would like to bottle the energy of those 3 children and sell it (after I used it myself). They are superb helpers with Noe and she absolutely adores them!

No more major projects planned for awhile. We hope to finish up the current one in it's entirety in about 1 week! The only other thing in my head is tiling the basement floor (maybe fall, but who knows). Josh also will be tiling the backsplash in the kitchen in the next few.

Yes, it is after 11 pm and Josh is installing cabinet knobs. I told you we do everything in our "spare time". He hasn't even been home from work very long.
I need a basement cleaning fairy to rescue my basement from the horrid state it currently is in...oh my! It has garage sale items, windows/cabinets from our previous kitchen and you name it. It is driving me NUTSO!

Well, I enjoyed a little bit of non-busy, non-project doing, work free time tonight and it was oh-so-nice! Just a little more??!!