Projects!

Every day I keep thinking I'm going to get more accomplished than I actually do. On Monday I worked on the window sills in Jack's room. I sanded stuff down and of course while I'm sanding, I see holes that I missed filling. So I have to fill them and wait for it to dry and sand again. I made the mistake of not wiping down the wood before I painted though. I thought vacuuming up the dust or sweeping it off with my hand would be good enough. Nope. While I was painting the primer on, I could see sawdust getting mixed in. I only got as far as priming one of the window sills because I went back and filled holes on both. The next day, I sanded again and got primer on.

On the bright side (pun intended), I told Curtis we really needed to get lights hung in the bedrooms because it's still difficult to work with the halogen work light and one bulb has now burned out already. He talked to a buddy at work about lighting options and took Jack with him to pick out some lights. We decided not to replace the ceiling fans because they're in the basement but also because the holes that were already there were not centered and they were not built right for hanging ceiling fans. We really didn't want to mess with making more holes and patching up, so we opted for these long lights.

He didn't realize until after he hung the first one up how close he was to the vents. Oh well. He was focused on centering it with the shorter wall and having the lights line up.

Hanging one up in the girl's room.

Better lighting with that work light off in the background. It's still not the best lighting but we'll just get a lamp for the corner or something. I'm just happy we finally have lights again!

The boy's project on Tuesday night was ripping out old vinyl flooring in the girl's room and hallway. Wow, it was hard! I didn't realize just how hard until I tried the next day during the day. The boys tore off all of the top layer but the paper that was glued underneath was very difficult to remove. The next day is when I tried to soak the paper in hot water for several hours and try scraping. It only helped a little. We took a break from that for now.

Scraping the top layer off.

Jack was cleaning up. They managed to get some of the glued paper off but it was very difficult.

This is the first area I soaked. It helped some but it was still tough. I decided to water it down more and get most of the room and just let it soak for a long time.

I let it soak for several hours but it still did not help much. Ugh.

We got our license plates last Saturday but I didn't get them put on our vehicles until yesterday, when the weather was finally good again. It had been windy and freezing on Monday and Tuesday. I was crazy enough to go with the girls out in it on Monday because they were begging to ride bikes again. Anyway, looking at Washington license plates on our vehicles is weird. We like the way the Idaho ones look better but oh well. 

The sun was shining and it was warmer so I told the girls it would be a good day to ride bikes. Once again, we rode to the school. Sage followed us over again. She's so cute.

Going up the hill to see the track.

Sage even joined us walking on the track. Sometimes she would stop and just watch us.

After we got back home, Alice and I were about to work on a school project when I realized I didn't know where my phone was. We ran back to the school and fortunately, my phone was still sitting on the bleachers. I'm glad I thought to look for my phone before much later and it was still light out. Whew!

The project that Alice and I were working on was for celebrating the 100th day of school, which is tomorrow. They were instructed to make a project that had 100 items on it and to work on it with your family. Charlotte did help us a little bit as well. Alice and I looked up some ideas online and found this fun project to make a centipede using foam balls and fuzzy sticks. It was fun to do.

Before our walk we had colored the balls with marker but they were very light and hard to see.

After the walk, I checked to see if we had paint. We did and so we painted the balls instead.

It took awhile but we finally got it put together. 100 legs!

Charlotte decided to make her own little spider while Alice and I worked on her centipede.

While the girls were working on crafty projects, Curtis and Garrett were downstairs cutting holes into walls and dismantling the downstairs bathroom. Jack went to mutual and played capture the flag. (Garrett got confused on when the priests were meeting this week, so he stayed home.)

Curtis cut a new doorway into the wall. We didn't like how it went around a corner when entering the bathroom. And we'll be able to put a full length shower in or tub.

Looking through the hole he cut. 

Ripped out the sink.

Now the old shower and walls are gone as well!

We just have to deal with the partially lower ceiling on one end of the shower because of pipes, etc. running across the house.

It's exciting to see Curtis do the bathroom. He kept talking about needing to do it and now it's done! We've still got a lot to do before we can get the floors installed downstairs but at least we're making some progress.

Jack Turns 14!

Yesterday was Jack's birthday and this year he decided he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkled with broken pieces of mint Oreos. I bought all of the ingredients but Jack did everything else. He baked the cake Sunday morning after he showered and got dressed for church.  Jack said that no one at church knew it was his birthday so nobody said anything to him but the girls told their teachers that he did. I get the impression that maybe he didn't want anyone to know anyway. I actually subbed in primary yesterday. When I went to the Relief Society activity a week and a half ago somebody asked if I could just go and sit with the class while the other gal who was also subbing would do the lesson. I said sure. It was the class just younger than Alice's. She was glad to have me in primary with her even if I didn't go to class with her. Anyway, normally Jack would be helping the other young men to take down chairs and stuff afterwards but since it was his birthday we let him off the hook this time and hurried home. Then after church he decorated the cake while the girls and I wrapped his presents and Curtis cooked dinner. I have a tradition that I let the kids pick a breakfast and dinner that they want on their birthday. Jack chose Monkey Bread for his breakfast and bratwurst and salad for his dinner. The girls ate hot dogs. After eating we got right to singing and opening presents. Then those who were ready had cake and ice cream. 

Can you see the hidden 14 in the Oreos?

The girls picked out a card that says "Of all the brothers in the world, you're one of the very best." It was a brother card but I signed it too.

He received two big Milky Way candy bars (that I told the girls could be from them) and a fidget pen with magnets.

A record player. Grandma Butterfield had a record player and when we lived next door to them he discovered that he liked to play them so he wanted his own record player.

They didn't have the best selection at Walmart but we did find a couple we think he'll like, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Beach Boys.

He seems happy with it.

I had to get a shot with me and my boy.

Jack talked Curtis in to playing the Pokémon card game with him after all of the birthday stuff was done. I didn't think to get a picture of them because I was busy catching up on blogging. They both seemed to enjoy it though. Then we watched an episode of The Chosen. It was a good day and I think Jack had a good birthday.

More Progress and Fun

On the 24th of January, Garrett and I had an appointment at his school to figure out his classes and take a tour. The assistant principal met with us first to talk about the school and answer any questions and then we met with the counselor to choose classes. We did find out that they only have 6 class periods, where Skyview had 8. They have all of their classes every day, where Skyview had an A/B schedule that did 4 on one day and 4 the next. Garrett is already ahead on credits because of that but it's going to make things difficult to get enough graduation credits for Jack. They need 24 credits to graduate and seminary does not count as a credit. At this school there is no early morning seminary as an option either. The principal did say that there are some classes that can be taken as a 7th period class either before school or after and some are done online. And some classes in middle school count towards high school credits, but it's a little late for Jack to be able to figure that out. Maybe the girls will be able to.

Anyway, one of the other students at the high school gave Garrett and me a tour of where his classes will be. Garrett was pretty nervous about starting school after we were done. The boys started on the 30th. I wasn't able to go get a tour with Jack at his school so I didn't get a picture of him in front of his school. His is called Chinook. It's practically across the street so maybe one of these days I'll make him get a picture.

I made Garrett get a picture in front of the school before we went in.

Last Saturday Curtis removed the "popcorn" ceiling in the boy's room. Yay! I can't wait to get rid of all of it! Things are going slower than we hoped and we've had some set backs but we're getting there a little at a time. After knocking down the ceiling, he applied some primer paint. 

Popcorn ceiling removed in Jack's room.

Primer paint applied to the ceiling.

After accomplishing that, we decided to have another date night and scratched off another card. It did not include food on this card, so we just decided to go out to Applebee's for an appetizer and dessert as well. We had trouble getting the one hour photo selected when ordering and ended up choosing to have it delivered, so it didn't show up until Thursday I think. But we finished it then! 

Curtis ordered the Triple Chocolate Meltdown but we shared our desserts. I didn't care for the chocolate cake very much but it was okay.

I ordered the Butter Pecan Blondie and it was good! I would definitely eat that again. I was not expecting it to come out on a sizzling hot pan. That's a first for a dessert.

We tweaked it a little and got a photo frame instead of album.

Charlotte brought home a book order form from school and was begging me to get her some Pokémon books because she has gotten excited about Pokémon since watching the shows on TV. I told her I didn't want to get her books that she wasn't going to read. I have been having a hard time getting her to read books that are more challenging and her grade level. My mother in law gave her the whole Spiderwick Chronicles book series the night before we moved (and Charlotte wanted them) and she read maybe a couple of pages of the first book and stopped. She came up with the idea that she would read the whole first Spiderwick book if I would get her some Pokémon books. I liked the idea but added to it. She's supposed to do 4 reading activities a month after reading a book. I told her she would have to read the whole book AND do an activity to go with it, then I would buy her two of the books. She read that book in two days and it was over 100 pages! Then she did the activity, "Book in a Box", the very next morning before school. I was super impressed with her and of course, I ordered those books after she got home from school that day. 

I gave her the idea to glue some grass and a tree branch into the box. I'm hoping that it will spark some more creativity with the next book and activity. The white papers are a white van and then a couple of goblins and the boy with the spy glass to see the magical creatures. She drew the house on the cardboard in the back.

Curtis was able to do the texture on Jack's ceiling during the week. Friday I went in to get my Washington driver's license and then Saturday we took Curtis to get his. It's nice they are open on Saturdays. Then we went across the street to take care of our license plates and title transfers. It was expensive, holy cow! We spent over $600 to do the van and truck. It was $80 each for the driver's licenses as well. Gee, welcome to Washington, pay up! After that, we found a bank to open a new account with since our current bank doesn't have a branch in Tri Cities. We were wanting to get away from that bank because of fees anyway.

After returning home we made a trip to Walmart to buy some last minute birthday stuff and Curtis wanted to get Alice a new bike since her tire was ruined on her old bike and she's been asking him to fix it so she can ride. She needed a bigger one anyway. Garrett had bought a Pokémon set for Jack for his birthday the night before. Then Jack went to Walmart with us and ended up buying himself the exact same thing Garrett picked out. Garrett was disappointed but decided to just keep it for himself, so they both had one. That left Charlotte feeling very sad that everyone else was getting something new and she really wanted some Pokémon stuff right now. We both caved and felt bad, so I took her back to the store to get something, but she had to ride bikes with Alice afterwards as part of the deal. 

The girls were going to ride out front by themselves but I ended up staying out there with them. Both of the girls needed to get used to riding their bikes and were struggling to do it on the sidewalk so I took them across the street to the school parking lot. That helped a lot. Pretty quick they were zooming all over the parking lot. Alice did fall down a few times but did not get seriously hurt. It was also really cute that Sage followed us over there and stayed with us until we headed back home and followed.

Finally, I was able to go help Curtis do some painting on Jack's bedroom. We did primer paint first on the ceiling and some spots on the walls. Then we did the regular paint. We're making progress again. Woo hoo!

Painting primer.

After we were done with the regular paint. It was still drying so you can see lines.

Again, we'll be able to see it better when we get new lights.

Work Rolls On

The day after my birthday was the girl's first day at their new school. I was told to bring them early around 8:15am so we could have a tour of the building and meet teachers before going to class. School starts at 8:40am. We couldn't believe how big their elementary school is! The vice principal gave us the tour and he's super nice. Alice's teacher is Mrs. Shay and Charlotte's teacher is Mr. Calderon. He's a big 49ers fan and you can see it in his classroom. Both teachers are very nice. Their school is called Sage Crest Elementary. That will be easy enough to remember since our cat's name is Sage. Ha ha! The girls were nervous and excited to go to school and they had a great first day. I drove them to and from school this day but they started on the bus the very next morning. I love that the bus stop is right in front of our house. I go out with them in the morning to wait for the bus and meet them out front after school. We thought they would be the only kids at this bus stop since they had just created it for our girls, but there is one other older boy, probably a 5th grader. He must have found out about this being a closer stop or maybe he just moved here also. I'm not sure. Our bus stop is first in the morning and last in the afternoon.

This is the biggest elementary school I have ever seen and with all the growth in this area they are already using portables for 4th and 5th grades. Crazy! They're going to have to build another new school soon or something.

Meanwhile, the boys and I have been busy getting the house torn apart and prepped for renovation.

Garrett removing the carpet from the lower stairs.

Garrett and Jack removing staples.

The two closets in Jack's room. The boys are painting primer on the brown wood, which are shelves.

Jack's room. You can see one of the boys over there working on the closets.

View from the other end.

The girl's room before painting.

The girls' room.

Garrett removing tile from the front landing by the stairs. We will be replacing it with vinyl flooring.

Painting the girl's room using our new paint spray gun. 

Garrett had the roller to get the drips or excess paint. We also had to buy a work light because we had to remove the ceiling fan/light. 

Curtis used the sprayer on the closet doors for Jack's room, but it turned out to be a mistake. It got way too much paint on them and kept dripping and dripping. It got to where the drips were drying. It looked so bad and we ended up sanding them down. Curtis bought us an electric sander. It was kind of fun to use actually. That ended up being a job I could do during the day.

The girl's room after being painted. It's not the best picture. When we get a new light hung in there it will be easier to see.

I did have the boys help a little with the sanding but you can see how thrilled they were to do it. Jack was excited at first but after a couple minutes he was done. I was fine doing most of it anyway because I wanted to make sure it got sanded down enough (or not too much). Although, I didn't do it perfectly either. We didn't sand the entire doors, just spots that were bumpy.

We found a vinyl floor color that we like. This will go in kitchen, the bathrooms, front landing, downstairs hallway, utility room and family room. We were going to put it on the stairs also but the Home Depot people said we can't put floating floors on stairs, so it will be carpet.

After painting the closet doors for the 2nd time, this time using a roller and brush. They look so much better, trust me!

Finally, a picture with me! That's right, I am working also. I ended up doing all of the painting of the closet doors the 2nd time around.

This was the carpet sample board we brought home. At first we thought we wanted the darkest one on the bottom right corner but we changed our minds and went with the other not as dark gray one on the right side, 2nd row down. It's called Cannon. I had a hard time deciding. I hate having to pick out colors and wish someone could just do it for me. The carpet will be in all of the bedrooms and on the stairs.

In between all of the work, we do have some fun. One Sunday after church, the boys wanted to play Garrett's new Clue game. It's a new version. Curtis and I played with them. It's fun because it's kind of a co-op game where we work together to solve different puzzles and at the end make our own accusations.

We're working hard and having fun!