Spring Fever...

The other day I came down with a raging case of Spring Fever!

It was about 42 degrees for the high but it felt like 60.

All the kids were out playing. Coats tossed aside. Even shoes for some of the really brave ones! I was out in back with the kids & the neighbors kids were over. Crew thought he had died & gone to heaven. This poor boy cries every time the door opens and he is held back like a yapping puppy trying to get out! 

As I stood out there I could feel the sun on my arms and face. All the snow was melted. I could see the brown dead grass, the decayed brown leaves piled up in corners, dirt and sand building up in the gutters-oh wait, that one was from the boys who had just taken a snow shovel and shoveled dirt out of the garden into the nearby gutter! SERIOUSLY!!! Already?????

Then it began...I of course was instantly upset by this. They know better, don't they? Here it is, only the middle of February and we already have all the boys in the mud-at my house! Always MY house! I thought I had solved this problem by laying down all my beautiful brick and covering up all the mud I despised SO much. I thought leaving a small area for gardening would be okay, that I could keep control over this little bit of earth. My boys once again have proved me wrong. Very wrong. Why do I always underestimate them? :) 

After demanding that they clean up the mess, I started to get the itch. That spring cleaning itch. That must start working on the yard itch. I couldn't ignore it anymore. I scratched it! I collected all those dead leaves, swept the driveway, picked up garbage & dog poop that mysteriously ends up in our yard. I was ready to dawn my gardening gloves and get down & dirty! 

At about the same time the sun started to set, the temp. started to drop, the boys were coughing their lungs out, Crew was off into the neighbors garage, and it was dinnertime. 

I knew my glimpse of Spring was over. We cleaned up and headed in for the night. 

All could think about were the flowers I wanted to plant, the bulbs that still needed to be planted, the snap dragons, all my beautiful roses. I love so much to be out in my yard working. Sun up to sundown you can usually find me out there. And I so miss it!  That was when I knew I had been hit with SPRING FEVER!!!!

Landen turns the big 4....

Landen's Birthday was January 28th. I am little late posting this but our family has been dealing with a lot the past few days. So, on Landen's actual Birthday he came down with the flu or something. Had a fever & throwing up. Just felt yuck. So we postponed any celebrating until the following day. I was also taking him into the doctor the next morning for his 4 yr. check up. During this check up we found out he has strep & was dehydrated. And the worst part-he had to get a few immunizations. He was very scared of this part & started crying a bit. Ever since they tried to take blood at the office one time & failed miserably-he has had this fear of shots & needles. He felt tired & sick the rest of the day but that afternoon after Cody got home from school "they" decided "they" were ready for cake & presents. Cody seemed to think this was his Birthday as much as it was Landen's. I felt really bad that Matt was not there but who knows when he will ever be home. I am glad we didn't wait that night since it was 9:30 before he made it home. I made Landen a Transformers cake. It was nothing great but it was cake & that is all Landen cared about! lol If any of you know Landen then you know what I am talking about! Then we opened presents. Matt & I had gave him Lego's. G&G Southwick gave him books & money, G&G Taysom gave him a remote control car, G&G Simcox gave him a giant construction floor puzzle. The other part of his Birthday was to go bowling & have lunch as a family on Saturday. We started at none other then JCW's. He seemed pretty good the whole time. Then by the time we left you could see he was not feeling well, didn't get to far before he barfed in the car! Well, this little guy was still too sick for celebrating! So bowling next weekend!!!! This Birthday just doesn't end! Can anything get better than that! I submit that it cannot!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Yesterday was my 32nd Birthday. Woo Hoo! Not really though! It was just another day around here. Matt went to work, kids went to school, I had to grocery shop & make dinner for me and my neighbors. Like I said just another day. What was not like any other day was facebook. It was so fun to receive so many Birthday wishes from friends & family of all sorts. I still find facebook so amazing, how it has brought so many wonderful people back into my life. Many who I thought I would never see or hear from again! I never have to regret missing class reunions anyore. I now get to talk to them everyday if i choose. So cool. Anyway. My day was not a total loss. My family did treat me very special and I received cards & phone calls from them. Cody made me a sweet card and even a remainder note for Matt that it was my Birthday. So cute! :) My fabulous neighbors also took very good care of me. I got goodies & presents & even a night out with the girls. And as a parting note, Matt did remember my Birthday. He may not have made it a Birthday to remember but he did get me a cake & last night a card in a the shape of a pickle! LOL

An Almost Birthday, Birthday!

My Mom finally returned to town, so we had to get a Sunday dinner in before she dashes off to St. George again. I thought it was going to be our regular Sunday dinner but to mine & Landen's surprise she had a small party for us. Shari brought a cake. Mom decorated with my beautiful Birthday banner I made her! :) And we all sang & enjoyed cake together. Landen was so excited about this and has been telling everyone that he is 4 now! I try to explain to him that it was an early Birthday and that his is not for another week or so but he does not agree with me. He is firm on the fact that he is indeed now 4! I love it! He is so dang cute. Thaxton was hilarious with the cake. He wanted to keep putting the candles back in it. We would pull them out & Landen would lick off the frosting then the process would start all over. Finally Landen tells Thaxton to stop because he is sick of licking off the frosting. LOL! I am sad my Mom is going back down south but at least we got to celebrate, even if it was a bit early! Here are some fun pictures from our evening. Landen of course is pulling a crazy face in every picture. That's my boy!!!

What else can I paint?

So- like I mentioned on my last post, I am finally get around to some of the many, many projects I have started or wanted to get started on. My guest room is a room I have wanted to paint since the day we moved into this house. It was previously a little girls room. Cute paint colors, but not for me. I never thought it would take me 3 1/2 years to get to. So, this last week I just went for it. I painted it chocolate brown. It turned out awesome. I love it. On the bottom half of the room I am going to put up bead board. I hope to have that done next weekend. I then painted an old desk- antique maybe? Not sure how long it has been in my family. But my Mom had painted it white years ago. I then painted it red with black drawers. I think it turned out cute but in the pictures I am posting I think it looks kind of dumb. Bad lighting? :) I also added the bookplates to the drawers to give it a library look. Only problem, I only have 2 bookplates. So now I need to go through all my scrapbooks and find the 3rd one! I have not thought of label ideas yet. If any of you have cute ideas to put in there, leave me a comment! Then another project that is turning out cute, but I have no pics yet. Is my pink filing cabinet. I have a tan one that was left in a house we bought in Colorado. I always thought it was SO ugly but found it very useful. I then saw at Wal-Mart you can buy these really cute pink filing cabinets. That's when it hit me! I can paint mine to look just like that. And it does. But personally I think mine is better. I got new handles for it too. Love it! Other things I got done this week, got up all my V-day decorations, have been organizing my heart out, cleaned under and around the washer/dryer & even a few scrapbook layouts. My next project is a wall collage going up my staircase. I have been collecting frames and photos for a few years now! I think it's time!

 

Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese...

Today is Matt's 32nd Birthday. HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!! WoW, we are getting so old. As much as we would like age not to matter, it does! The physical signs are everywhere. Seems like every night as we are getting ready for bed we have a new body ache to complain about. We even use old people medicine such as, Aleve, muscle creams & alka-seltzer. We have seen the home phone become obsolete. We tell our kids about all sorts of things that did not even exist when we were growing up. Clothing fads are making round 2. Get called mam or sir. I have even caught myself considering function over fashion a few times. Seriously! But somewhere in the midst of all this aging depression; we did find time to celebrate. The festivities began Saturday and are still going! The biggest news of all....Matt took the day off today. Crazy! This guy never takes a day off. I am happy that he at least did that for himself. Maybe wisdom does come with age? I tried to make his weekend & Birthday as stress free as possible. He slept in everyday. I cooked him delicious food all throughout the weekend. Making him his favorite dishes. Even serving him Tennessee breakfast in bed! Got a sitter for the boys & took Matt to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner & dessert. Had a Sunday dinner/birthday with family. I invited his younger brother, Justin & ever so gorgeous girlfriend, Chelsey. By the way, I love this girl. I really, really ,really hope Justin does not let her get away! :) Okay, that was totally off the subject! Back to the Birthday boy, Matt. So-to wrap it up, he enjoyed a very leisurely 3 day Birthday Celebration. I hope he enjoyed it & that all his wildest dreams come true! Now, only 2 more weeks until MY dreaded 32nd Birthday. Ugh, that just sounds so gross!

BeFoRe and AfTeR....

well, I kind of forgot the before part! I wish so bad I would have taken a picture of this dresser before becuase the change was so dramatic. I bought this old dresser a few years back from a garage sale. I had no use for it but could totally see the potential this piece had. It sat down in storage totally forgotten about, collecting dust & serving as a catch all. So this past weekend I was so antsy just sitting around the house. If any of you really know me, you know I hate that. I had gotten a free can of paint from Glidden. Love those freebies!!! And decided I was going to start working on improving my house. This was one of my New year resolutions. That old dresser suddenly came to mind and I drug it up from the basement. It was in okay condition. A broken drawer, had been colored on & just normal wear of life. This all however was not enough for me. So I beat the crap out of it! Or in other words distressed it. Then got to work painting. The fun part was picking out new hardware. The old hardware was so ugly. Very antique. Just ugly! :) Loaded my boys in the car & headed to Home Depot. My Mom & step Dad had given us a gift card for Christmas. Thank you Mom! I love Home Depot or Lowes. I can spend hours there & money!!! Got all my new hardware picked out. I did have to re-drill all the holes for it because the old hardware was an unusual width. But I have done that before so that was no problem. By Monday afternoon I had completed my new dresser that I started on Sunday. I put it in my entry and am calling it a buffet table! I love it!