A sweet paint job!

I promised pictures of Audie's pinewood derby car, and here they are... Tim helped him pick a design, and I drew it on the block. Then he and Audie cut and sanded the car and painted it with flat black paint. Then Audie and I taped off the windows and coated it with 2 layers of chameleon paint.

From different angles it looks blue, purple, pink, greenish, etc. Finally, we taped off everything except the racing stripes (painted in chrome) and finished with a clear coat or two.

I don't think he cares if he wins or not (which is kind of the point), but he's really proud of his car. I think it looks awesome!

I can't wait to see what we come up with for next year!

Chameleon paint, food orders and more...

I suppose we had an eventful weekend. The kiddos and I finished the second season of Star Trek: Voyager and got the third season from Dad. We had dinner with my parents Friday night because I got stuck waiting for the Variform train on Route 9. Grrr!

Dougie and Chloie went grocery shopping with me in Hagerstown on Saturday while Tim and Audie worked on his Pinewood Derby car. They looked online for ideas and asked me to sketch it onto the blank for them to cut out and sand. It looked really good when I saw it painted black on Saturday. I promised Audie that we'd put the chameleon paint on it Sunday after church. This is the same paint I have on my motorcycle. We taped off the windows so that when we're done, it will look like he has tinted windows on his car. :)

I also placed my first food order from the Church's provident living department (or whatever it is called). I'm going over to my friend's house tomorrow to can all of my dried goods. I'll finally have a year supply on something! Now if I can get the garden working, I think we'll be OK.

I did record the Super Bowl for Tim. We started watching it when he got home at about 9, but I couldn't stay up long enough to watch past the second quarter. What I did see was a pretty awesome game, and Tim told me that the Packers won. Since there wasn't a clear underdog (like the Saints last year) and his favorite team wasn't in the game, we rooted for Green Bay. YAY WIN!

We're finally finished!

After what seems like a year... or was it really? I can't remember... we've finally finished the dressers!

Tim was kind enough to finish putting the polyurethane on the pieces for me. Saturday afternoon I went downstairs and finished putting the knobs and felt pads on the drawers, waxing the runners, and checking for fit. I had to make a couple minor adjustments, but all in all not bad.

So here is the finished dresser! I had the kiddos put everything from their room in their closet, and we spent Saturday evening breaking down the boys' beds from bunk beds to individual beds, one on each side of the room. I had little helpers to lift and move the pieces, and as we moved everything we vacuumed the floor under everything. We broke down the old particle-ply dressers and put the new ones at the foot of their beds. The kiddos took the drawers up, and Audie helped me take the cabinets upstairs. We filled the dressers with the clothing we knew was clean, and then we started going through everything in their closet. YIKES! Turns out Dougie has been sneaking candy during his naps; I found 7 uneaten lollipops in their room and wrappers and sticks for what must have been 8 more.

The boys seem to like their new setup. They are allowed to have a couple small things on top of their dressers, but no more toys in their rooms. The conditions for their rooms are:

1. Beds are to be made every morning with their jammies under their pillows.
2. Dirty clothes are to be put in their baskets.
3. Church clothes are to be hung up in their closet, belts on the belt hanger, ties on the tie hanger.
4. Mom and Dad will check to make sure their room is picked up and everything is as it should be.

It's been 2 days, and so far things are good. My goal is 1 week before we have another hurricane in their room. :)

I'm still stuffed

So much to catch up on, so little time.

Over the weekend we worked on the dressers a little more. We're down to the last of the polyurethane needed to finish the dressers. Once it's all dry, we'll put the last of the knobs on and put them upstairs. I'm very pleased with how well they're turning out. Not bad for a beginner, right? Monday Amy and Mike came over to the house. Because I'd missed the Super Saturday Relief Society meeting a couple weeks ago, Amy brought the plates I'd bought, 3 smaller square plates she'd gotten for the kids to paint, and the paints to do them. We taped the pictures to the front of the plate, then painted the back and coated it with a sealant. Now the plates look cool and you can use them, too! The plates are the same size (12" or so) but the camera on my phone doesn't like to send pictures in the same size. I kept the snowman and gave the penguins to my M-in-law for Christmas. I love the little guy with the hat pulled down over his head! This was so much fun that I've decided to get more of the smaller square glass plates over the year and paint them for Christmas cookie gift platters for next year. That's right, folks, you too could be the proud recipient of my December cookie-baking-bonanza cookies on your very own hand-painted plate! :) If I do this every year, you could start a collection of different holiday designs or something like that.

I took Wednesday off last week for the trip to NY so that we could leave on Tuesday evening. We ended up arriving at 1am Wednesday morning and slept most of the morning away on an air mattress we brought with us. Ugh, my back still aches, but it was better than sleeping on the floor. We took the kiddos to the park and watched a movie or two with Grandma and Grandpa and had G-Grandma and G-Grandpa over for dinner.

For Thanksgiving, I helped Grandma in the kitchen (what she would let me), and we took all the food over to the G-grandparents' house for dinner. There was so much food! I tried to get a little of everything, but I think I might have missed the fruit salad. :( There was even a lot to take home.

We left Friday after taking a trip to Savoia's bakery to get Tim his cookies. Mmmm, tasty. We got home around 6 or so on Friday evening, watched Kung Fu Panda and ate dinner. Tim's mother sent 3/4 of a cherry pie home with us... it didn't last the night.

Sunday I went to the fireside at the stake center where they organized the Falling Waters (Spanish) branch or "Rama de Falling Waters". They asked me to do a cake (or pastel) for the occasion with a waterfall and the stake center and all of the flags of the Spanish speaking countries of the world. I took a picture of the cake, but not the flags (my bad). I had several people ask for a piece with their country's flag on it. This is another "water color" like cake where I painted fondant with food coloring like the Preach My Gospel cake. Over the week (and end) I've been working on finishing the afghans for the mystery crochet-along, but during the trip I started the baby blanket for my B-in-law and his wife. He actually got to see part of it Saturday, but it'll be a surprise for her. :) I'm about 1/3 done. This is the first time I've tried to knit using circular knitting needles, using two colors at the same time, and cabling, so this has been an adventure and a learning experience. I'm using a new yarn that is also very soft, and that's before I've washed the sizing out of it. My last hint about it's look is that it is light blue with a white boarder. Sorry H. when you read this, that's all you're getting until it is done.

Dresser update

Oh, the things we can do with wood! And the best part is... we're almost done!

I've taken some pictures of the latest progress. This is the drawer runner I came up with. It's a mash-up of ideas from my father, my father-in-law, and some pixie dust from me. :) Dovetails are genius. That is all. Here is the underside of the top that shows the half round and coving we used.

The bottom edging (feet I guess)...

The polyurethaned top of one of the dressers that includes another shot of the runners.One completed cabinet.

All I have to do now is install the runners in the second cabinet, polyurethane everything, and put the knobs on the drawers. After that we take them upstairs and start putting clothes in them. I'm hoping for that to happen Saturday.

The Grateful Pumpkin Says Thank You

I might have officially lost it, but that was the best I could come up with. I bought a little pumpkin a couple weeks ago from Wal-mart for $.50 on clearance to use this Sunday. We talked about translations don't always fully cover the meaning of a word or phrase from one language to another, but there is always a way to say thank you. We even learned how to say it in 10 languages (I didn't know there was a primary song already, but we still had fun). Then we learned the song "My Blessings" and played hot potato with the pumpkin, and who ever had the pumpkin when the song was over got to say what they were thankful for. Even the senior primary had fun with it.

The kiddos and I did our grocery shopping Saturday, then started working on the dressers. The 1/2 round and coving are now on both of them, and the base has been attached to one. The runners have been attached to the drawers, but not the dressers yet. This weekend I hope to do the base on the second dresser, put in the cabinet pieces of the runners, and start polyurethaning the snot out of them. Soon, very soon!

We did get to surprise Tim on Friday. He's been bugging me to let him get the new Call of Duty, but we haven't had the money. I talked to the kids and asked if they wanted to get it for him as an early Christmas present. They were super enthusiastic about it, so they each pulled $20 out of their piggy banks and we went to the Game Stop in the commons. I thought it was funny to see them put their crumpled, kid-folded money on the counter; that poor lady had to unfold it all. I paid the tax, and we met Tim at Chick-fil-a for dinner. Since he's been working overtime we haven't seen him much, so I thought it would be a nice night out. We gave Tim his game at dinner, and he immediately opened it to read the book inside. It would still be a couple days before he would actually be able to play it, but he was very appreciative and thanked the kiddos with big hugs.

Fun with wood

So first we started with a list of lumber we needed, a set of free dresser plans from the Internet, and three helpers. Then we started cutting wood, planing it to the proper thickness, and using the router table. Using the router table is fun.

These are pieces for the drawers. There are 2 small and 3 large drawers in each dresser.This is one of the small drawers completely assembled. At this point, all we have to do is polyurethane it and put the knob on it.A shot of most of the drawers assembled without the front attached (the two little ones in the front are complete).A picture of the "inside" of the side panels, partial shot of the front frame, drawer, and bottom trim.One frame assembled. We have to put the bottom trim, the top of the dresser, and the drawer runners in before we polyurethane the snot out of it. I ran out of screws before I could assemble the other one. One of my helpers posing next to his dresser.

This has been a long project, and there is still more to do. At least I know t hat these should last a lot longer than the $40 particle board Wal-mart jobbies we got almost 8 years ago. I have to admit that they held their own for long enough, through 6 moves and 2 destructo-boys! The new solid wood dressers should last a life time, and they're prettier! :)

Looking forward to April

After this weekend's General Conference, I'm looking forward to April. I'm amazed at how much more relevant things are and how much more they make sense. It seems that things are slowly coming together, and honestly, I like what I'm seeing. :)

Tim had to work through Conference. At least he was able to go to the Priesthood session Saturday night. I missed having him there. Audie even gained an interest when one of the speakers Sunday spoke about the Aaronic Priesthood. I told him to pay attention because he'd be doing these things in a couple of years. He actually sat and listened. I'm so proud!

The kiddos and I were able to do a lot of work on the dressers over the weekend. I know, I know, I owe you progress pictures. Soon, I promise! We got the frame assembled for one of them before I ran out of screws, and we now have 4 of the 6 big drawers completed and ready for Tim to polyurethane. I think the kiddos and I will finish putting everything together this weekend and let Tim do his thing. I really have no desire to coat everything... that's his job.

I've also been working on knitting my sweater and crocheting the squares for the mystery afghan. Don't tell the sisters I visit teach, but these are Christmas gifts!

Mommy Milk! Mommy Milk!

And now for a moment of hilarity and embarrassment...

Sunday was a pretty busy day (more on that in a minute), but as we were heading home for some lasagna-making and a nap while it baked, we saw some cows. Cows feeding calves. Cows with udders feeding calves. So the conversation goes something like this...

"Mommy, I know what those are called... they're called udders!"

"Do you know what udders do?"

"Yes, they make milk. Mommy, do mommies make milk?"

"Yes, we do after we have wee-bitty babies. We feed them with milk our bodies make like cows do."

"Did you feed us milk when we were little babies?"

"Yes, I did."

"So we had mommy milk?"

"Yes."

"Can we have more mommy milk?"

(all three) "Mommy milk! Mommy milk! We want mommy milk!"

"Oh, dear."

Serves me right answering questions about mommies and babies when they're this age. Luckily they quickly forgot about "mommy milk" soon after we starting talking about making lasagna when we got home.

Saturday was a fun-filled day of wood-working. We coated the small drawers with polyurethane and put together 2 more of the big drawers. When we tried to do the last two big drawers, we only had 2 long pieces and 1 short piece (enough to do 3/4 of a drawer). Where did the rest of the pieces go? Are you sure we bought the wood? Yes, we checked the planks off as we got them. Are you sure we cut the pieces? Yes, because we marked off the pieces as we finished cutting them to size. So where are they? We can't find them!

Calling my organizational skills into jeopardy, we're still missing 5 pieces of wood, and I don't know where they are. So I finished carving the mortise and tenon joints for the back frame and moved the big drawers we had already completed so that I could use the counter space... and found our missing pieces under them. Haha. Funny, Tim. So we took a nap and had lunch, then we worked some more on the dressers. We put the last 2 drawers together, routed out the recess for the panel in the back frames and completed the back frame assembly, and found out that we had cut the front drawer covers too short. Yes, we did. Tim's response was that we're still learning. Sure, let's go with that. I'll have pictures to post soon of our progress.

I stopped by Lowe's and got some 1x8x6 white pine so that we could re-do the pieces we cut too short, and headed to the church for Women's Conference. I got to eat dessert with some wonderful sisters in Relief Society and talk knitting with Bette Carpenter. I just love the scarf she was knitting out of grayish eyelash yarn! We sat in the back of the chapel knitting together while we listened to the speakers of the evening. During the third talk, JaNae and I received confirmation of our theme for the Visiting Teaching Conference next year. I can't wait to do it, and I can't wait for you to see what we have planned! :)

I loved hearing President Monson speak to us. Not only is he funny, but you can tell from the way he talks to us that he has a genuine love for the sisters of the Church. He exudes warmth and compassion. Overall an awesome conference. I can't wait to see what we hear this Sunday at General Conference!

Sunday was full of service, and I'm honestly surprised at how satisfying it was. We presented the crochet-along in RS, and had a lot of interest (more than I was expecting). I'm teaching my BFF how to crochet Tuesday night so that she can participate. I'm doing the crochet-along in two yarns and bringing in the squares each week with the associated clues for the sisters to see. We spent time with my parents and had Mom's new enchilada recipe for lunch. It was very tasty! Then the kiddos and I got to visit some sisters on our way home. We saw Sister Fanning at her new apartment and gave her some canned peaches and flowers. It was nice to sit and talk to her for a little bit. Then we stopped by Jayne and Joe's house so that I could visit with her. All three of the kiddos at some point during our time at church came up to her individually to tell her that we were coming over to deliver cookies. They got to feed the chickens and play with their children while Jayne and I talked. I learned that they like crabs. Me too!!! We've decided that if they get the crabs, I'll make dessert. :)

101 posts!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'd passed the 100-post mark. I suppose that should be cause for celebration (at least it is for TV shows), but I can never be sure.

Yesterday I crocheted the first clue of the Bernat Mystery Crochet-Along. I love this yarn. It's not much thicker than the Red Heart super saver yarn I usually use, but when I wash the finished afghan it will be very soft. Here are the printed directions for the first square (crochet x2), the yarn I used (Contrast A for me is Natural), the hook, and the completed squares. I ran through the tutorial they had on the blog to check my gauge just in case. Turns out I'm spot on.The 4" x 4" swatch to test my gauge only took 10 minutes, and I took it out once I'd verified everything so that I could reuse the yarn (I don't like to waste). The squares themselves only took about 30 minutes each to complete and measure 8" x 8". I can't wait to compare squares with others that are doing this project with me. Mom said she'd printed out the pattern, but hadn't started yet. She did say that she was going to use regular yarn so it should be interesting to see what hers looks like. On Sunday, JaNae and I are going to see if any of the RS sisters would like to "crochet-along" with us. I think it would be a fun activity that we could do as a group, and it would be an opportunity for less experienced crocheters to learn something new. It seems kind of anti-climactic to wait a week to only do 2 squares and only spend an hour on them. I suppose that as the difficulty is increase in later squares that it will take a little longer. In the mean time I can finish the throw pillow covers I've been working on. I only have 6 more inches to knit on this one, then I can put them all together. I also have Tim's quilt to finish (I'm abot 1/3 done), and we as a family have the boys' dressers to complete. I need to take pictures of that progress...

Oh, and we're baking cookies tonight for the sisters I visit teach (and some to keep home). Looks like the kiddos and I will have a busy evening.