Week #33: Spraying on the Lawn

This Week...

...we sprayed my mom's cupboard doors on our back lawn. I'm so glad that Jason had the great idea to bring all the doors to our house to spray. We had a nice system and everything we needed right here instead of trying to haul all of what we needed out there and making do. Jason ultimately picked the white color, but as you can see, my mom loved it!

We went from brown to white in less than a day. It was as hot as ever outside as we worked, but we got it done.

Before shade: We had a huge fan that we were using to help carry the over spray out of the way. It doubled as our cooling system since it was so darn hot.

After shade: Our fan only cooling system didn't last long. We went and picked up a pop up tent to shade the area where Jason was spraying. It made it so much better. 

Look at this pretty finish!

This is my "oh no!" moment. The adhesive side of the sandpaper flipped on me while I was fine sanding. It jacked up Jason's nice finish. We would have been done but for this little mishap. Man!

...we went to Craftsman's to make interior selections for our new house. We took our friend Whitney Chapman with us to help with colors and style. She's a designer. We met Kelly and we got started. Sort of. Kelly is a talker. So Jason listened and Whitney and I got busy making selections. After two and a half hours, we were wiped out. We have to go back next week to finalize everything, but we survived.



...my Dahlias decided to bloom! I was so excited to see these come up. Dahlias sure are a large plant.

My Magnolia tree also bloomed. It's so beautiful! So glad we picked this one for the yard.

...we were out scootin' around. We took a walk down to our lot. They're starting the process to pave the connecting road from the development where we live and so it's a great shortcut for us. We just skirt around the rood closed signs. No big deal, right?

We stop at our favorite vacant house to ride race down the driveway several times.

Then we get up speed and coast down Atlanta Ave.

Once we hit dirt, we stash the scooters and go the rest of the way on foot. Or we carry the scooters with us so we can ride them down the hill on the other side. Today wasn't one of my gracious days. :)

We climb up and down the huge hill where the new houses will be built on top. And we fill our shoes with dirt.

We see the lot and then we turn around and go back. Lainey and Claire were my models.

It's a pretty good workout. By the time we're done, we're hot, sweaty, and ready for some water.

Week #32: Rava and Vaatu

This Week...

...we took a walk. We found a Praying Mantis. We love to turn off the T.V. and the Wii and get outside with our kids. 

...we finished the half fence around the basement stairwell in the backyard at my mom's house. It looks so cute now. Jason had a vision that I didn't see until it was just about done. It really adds a nice touch.

We caught these purple lovelies on the way over Vernita. They were so pretty blooming along the Columbia. 

...we brought some puppies home with us overnight. I totally caved. I'm not one for inside pets and not really fond of pets in my yard. However, we were at my mom's and would be returning the next day so the puppies wouldn't have to stay with us long. The kids had fun. I was glad to take the puppies back to Grandma's. :)

...we encountered tales from a church house chalkboard.

...we had a family home evening lesson on relating Avatar: The Legend of Korra to our lives. We really like these episodes. Rava, the spirit of light and peace and Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos are eternally combined. Rava keeps Vaatu in check, until evil forces combine to release Vaatu. Vaatu gains more and more power until Rava is diminished to a wisp and almost eliminated. We related that as light increases, darkness diminishes. Or vice versa. Our actions daily determine the shift and balance of each in our own homes and families.

...Jason and I worked around the house. This was Jason's serious working attire. He took several doors off and repainted them. We had some major scuff marks on the bedroom doors. With the sprayer it went so fast and they dried nicely.

...Emma made these lemon tea cookies. They are so good! Lots of butter, but good! She wants to make them all the time now.

...we went to the river to play. Sister Haines has closed her pool. It's costing her too much money to keep it cleaned and maintained. She has closed it for the summer. We were pretty bummed, but we found some friends at the river. The Fieldings were there with their kayaks and more than happy to share. Our kids had a blast and Jason and I had a blast visiting.

After the water fun, we played at the park. We don't always stop at the toys because there are so many people there. And this day was no exception. We were only there a few minutes.

Week #31: The End Of The Season

This Week...

...Softball season ended. I loved playing ball with this group of ladies. We had a lot of fun and a really good team.

br:Alisa Parsons, Sierra Buhler, Amber Riner, Marie Mackay with Linkon, Sharae McShane, Jessie Brower and sons, Corriann Froughton and baby fr:Kacey Kisler, Grace, Me!

...we sprayed my mom's house. It's such a stark contrast, but it's actually back to the color the house use to be. 

...we played a game of a Rummikub. I don't mind playing this one over and over with the kids. Benjamin sure knows how to put his sets and runs together.

...we made bat faces before bed...in their fort. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

...we ate out at McDonald's and go to sit at the super cool table with lights.

Week #30: A Hive in the House

This Week...

...we're showing our Zerorez love. We got some new t-shirts and needed to show our friends Tyson and Whitney that we're behind them. And Dad was working and we wanted to send him a picture to say hi after church.

...another cute face caught my eye at the realtor's office. Jason just shook his head as I paused to take a picture of the door handle.

Here's another one from the onion I was cutting for dinner.

Benjamin found this one on one of my decorative chests. It has bushy eyebrows and a mustache!

This one stares at me from my eyeshadow every morning when I put my makeup on.

...we had an object lesson for Family Home Evening. The things we say escape our lips so easily. Do we ever stop to think about how hard it is to take them back? How hard would it be to scoop this hand sanitizer and toothpaste back into their containers? It's most assuredly a difficult and messy task. Such it is with the words we speak in judgement or frustration - they are hard to take back.

...we used dice to help us in our cleaning today. We were on a roll! We used dice to roll for our cleaning jobs. I chose five jobs in the living room and kitchen/dining areas, assigned them numbers 1-5, and then we rolled. Number six was roll again. it worked pretty well. They bargained a bit to switch jobs, but they worked so much better and longer with the dice.

...we had some puppy fun with Grandma Zirker! These puppies are crazy and growing so fast. If you sit on the ground, they just jump all over you. The kids love nothing more than to just hold them, and chase them, and carry them all day.

This one did find a moment of peace

Contrary to what my kids believe, we went to Grandma's to help her in the yard, not to play with the puppies. 

I can't help but take pictures when I see such beautiful flowers. I am so grateful for flowers and that my mom has planted so many of them in her garden.

Here's a couple more faces from the garden

This one made me think of an elephant

...we went back to Grandma's to wash the house. Jason and I are getting ready to re-stain the outside of my parent's house. In preparation, we pressure washed it with a solution to clean it. The kids helped...a little.

Grandma helped straighten things up. 

We recommended that Paul stay inside while we washed the carport. It was dripping everywhere. Stain rain.

I actually enjoyed spraying the house. It was fun to see all the dirty water run off the house. And it was just plain fun to run the pressure washer. :)

This is the difference it made to clean the house. Not only were we washing away layers of stain, but layers of dirt. There has to be an analogy in this...It makes me think of repentance. It isn't always easy to clean up our lives if there are mistakes we've made or things we need to take care of. It takes a lot of preparation and careful attention to repair, but the difference is noticeable almost immediately and we are better for it. Thanks to the power of the Atonement and repentance, we can be clean again.

 As we came around to do the front of the house, we knew we'd have to deal with the bees that have been swarming the upper right corner for the last month or so. Little did we know, we were actually taking on a full blown hive. Jason was the brave one to climb up there initially and crack the board open. My dad came home at about that time and thought it would be a good idea for the man that is severely allergic to bees to climb up and take a look as well. Him! Not good Dad, not good! Luckily we had the pressure washer. I was able to keep a continuous spray of water going to keep the bees at bay. They didn't bother my dad or Jason all that much. 

Just look at that honeycomb! They were busy making honey! We sprayed it to death, scraped the honeycomb out, and blasted it with water. As cool as it was to find the hive, it's not cool to have bees taking up residence in your house!

Benjamin was a big helper during this project. He stayed around to run errands and help when he was needed. I told you the pressure washer was fun to use. ;) (Look at all those cars in the background! You'd think we were running a car lot.)

Once we got the house washed, we tackled the stairwell in the backyard. We finally decided to take care of this makeshift plywood fence around the stairwell. The plywood has been warped and dilapidated for far too long and needed to be fixed. Down came the plywood and preparations began for a nice little cedar half fence.

The puppies are sure fun to play with. Once our work was done, we took a few minutes more to watch them romp and tumble around.

Lainey found a caterpillar. I have a joke for you: What is a caterpillar afraid of? . . . A dogapillar!

...we visited Grandma and Grandpa Erickson at their new house in Finley. They have wonderful neighbors. :) Claire, and the other kids, are sure keen on the horses.