School Gems

WHEW!

Today is August 20th.

The TWENTIETH.

I am amazed at the speed these past two weeks have flown by.

I am going to have to play CATCH UP again. 

Where to begin...

Well, the first day of school (the 8th) went off without a hitch.  The boys had a good day and I had a good day because HAIR day is ALWAYS a good day!!

Scott, Katherine, and Chase came on the 4th...I forgot to mention that-or maybe I didn't-I don't remember.  I tended Chase from 1 p.m. on.  Scott and Kat were attending a conference in Phoenix.

On Thursday I nearly lost my mind.  Unfortunately, that's not a difficult task these days.  The day started out earlier than usual because my 3 extra kids came at 6:45.  The Herrera kids will be spending some time with us during this school year...should be fun!  I also had Chase today while his parents went to their conference.  On Thursday night, our book club threw a beautiful bridal shower for Hayley Jorgensen.  Everything turned out so nice, but I had a bit of stress getting ready for it.  I was in charge of an appetizer, as well as the ice cream for the ice cream bar we were serving.  I spent 45 minutes scooping ice cream into cupcake wrappers only to realize that they would never transfer to the shower in 115* heat without turning into a puddle of cream.  DUH!!  I ended up stopping at the store on the way to the shower to buy another gallon of ice cream. I don't know why I always have to do things the hard way.

Payton doesn't have school on Friday, and I was watching Chase all day while Scott and Katherine went to their conference, so after I dropped all of the boys off at school I took the little ones to run a couple of errands.  It has been a long time since I've had a 3 year old and a nearly 2 year old.  I had forgotten how much work it takes to get them in and out of their car seats, into a stroller, and into the store, only to reverse the process once you're finished.  It was 114* at 9 a.m. and I was a sweaty mess by the time I finished my errands.  We went back to the air conditioned house and chilled out for the rest of the day.  We were all pretty tired from the hectic week, so once we got Chase down to bed we all headed to bed!

The weekend was busy.  We had Chase again on Saturday.  He's a hoot!  We love that little guy!

We ran errands, did the grocery shopping, and got ready for Sunday.  Ty had try-outs for the Predators USA club team Saturday night, so he did that.  Tanner had a party at one of his friends homes, and Scott took Kevin, Tanner, Tate, and Chase to the Diamondbacks game.  I had a lovely, quiet evening at home all by myself.  That doesn't happen very often!!

Church, as usual, on Sunday, then we were back to our "normal" school routine on Monday morning.

Scott, Katherine, and Chase left Monday evening.  After Kevin took them to the airport, we went to dinner as a family to Chili's. 

Ty had more try-outs on Tuesday, and Treyson and Tate both had practice for their club teams on Tuesday night. 

Wednesday night was mutual.  Treyson, Tate, and I worked on homework and watched the D-Backs game on T.V. 

Thursday night I had a Relief Society activity and Ty, Treyson, and Tate had practice.  It was a crazy night trying to get everyone where they were supposed to be.

On Friday night, Kevin and I, along with Brian and Sara, went out to dinner at Carabba's then to Gilbert for Brett and Haley's (Jorgensen) wedding reception.  It was beautiful, and the weather was amazing for the middle of August!  Not too hot, and NO RAIN!!

Saturday was filled with baseball practices, a family swim, and chilling out at home.  

Sunday was the same as usual.

Well, I guess I'm caught up.  I'm sitting here watching a show called POCOYO with Payton.  She helped me dust and vacuum this morning.  She's such a cutie! 

As soon as her mommy comes I'm headed out to meet my friend, Staci, for lunch.  Yay!!

 

First Day Of School 2012

What Was I Thinking???

I knew that I had company coming on Saturday evening, but for some reason I decided to re-do my main level bathroom before they came.

Unfortunately, I decided to do this on Friday around noon.

I didn't think it would be THAT big of deal...I mean, really...how hard could it be to just paint a small amount of bead board?

Once again, I underestimated my time and ability, but with a little help, I also

PREVAILED!

Since we moved into this house 7 years ago I have been wanting to re-paint the main level bathroom.  It was a hideous bleen color (blue/green) and I really hated it.  On Friday I finally got around to changing it.

BEFORE:

This tiny amount of silicone took me an hour to get off of the wall...I scraped, I sanded, I swore...OK, not really...yes, really...but I finally got it off.  Stupid silicone! 

DURING:

I used Behr paint this time...

I will NEVER use Behr paint again. 

EVER.

I hate it...and that's an understatement.

THE FINISHED PROJECT:

Almost Epic Fail

I love Pinterest...it's not a secret.  When I finally sit down at night, I just want to look at Pinterest and find all kinds of wonderful and new projects to try.  

 I had seen some silhouettes on canvas that I decided to try, and, well, it wasn't as easy as it looked.

I have always wanted to be the kind of blogger that goes through each step of a project with descriptive photos and witty commentary, but I have to face the music and realize that THAT is just not me, and my boring photos and boring description will have to do. 

I started with 4 (four) 16"x20" white canvases and profile photos of my boys.
 

(I don't know why this photo is on its side...???)

With black craft paint, I painted the sides of each of the canvas boards.  I don't know why I did this...I guess I just thought it would have a more "finished" look. 

I'm cracking myself up as I type that.

In the meantime, I sent the photos to Costco photo shop to have them blown up to 14"x16" prints. 

When I got them home, I carefully cut the profiles out and turned them over to paint the back side with black craft paint.

Once they had dried, I used spray adhesive (as the Pinterest site told me to do) and glued them to the canvas.

And here is where the Almost Epic Fail occurred.

They didn't stick.

At all.

Not even a little bit.

And I've got a crazy internal conflict going on because I don't want to use any more spray adhesive and I can't use Mod Podge now because it will react with the adhesive and not work as it should.  I'm thinking I will just take them out to the trash and stuff them in.

And then I thought twice about that...

So, I put them in my extra room and shut the door because things that don't work like they should just completely tick me off.

A couple of days later, (today) I had an epiphany...

I grabbed one of my favorite things in the whole world--

SPRAY PAINT!!!

I taped the silhouettes to the canvas and then started spraying. 

And for the record...I'm thrilled about how they turned out!

As it turns out, it wasn't a fail at all, but a fun new addition to my upstairs hallway.

Score!