Big Empty Room

So this room has sat empty since we moved in. {Aside from the occasional stray toys...} It's a little overwhelming coming up with 5000 square feet when you just came from 1600. BUT I think I have decided that instead of having it as a "Living Room" as we had originally thought, we're going to use it as a dining room.

I think we would use the additional eating space more than extra "sitting around" space. Especially fancy sitting space. And it's seems much easier to find a great deal on a table and chairs that I could fix up than trying to find a good deal on a set of couches that will look nice. I've seen some great projects that people have done to get my creative juices going.

Hopefully we'll eventually take out the carpet and try and match the floor to the hardwood we have in the entry/kitchen already. But I think we'll just use it with the carpet in there for a while.

Now that's what I call fashion ribbon

Once I got started I just couldn't stop!! {She had three of these two days ago.} Hold me back! I must be the best mom eh-vah!

{Or at least maybe this will get Easy to stop saying mean things about me in Primary. And I quote: "My dad is always nice, my mom is sometimes nice, and Cuddles is always mean." It was a real precious moment.}

True story--I totally spaced her friend's birthday party last Saturday. So that probably negates it right there, not to mention all the other mean awful stuff I do...

Lying Around

This poor unfortunate soul is spending the weekend lying around. And while he's at it, the rest of us are trying to find things to keep occupied {other than repeatedly sanitizing the house}. Yesterday I decided that Easy is much like a puppy. She's reeeeal good at entertaining herself. Just not in a manner that I approve of or enjoy cleaning up after... Also not unlike Curious George. A few minutes ago she said to me, "I am curious about lots of things." Yes. Yes, you are. . .

So I decided to try and do something constructive together while we are stuck at home trying not to inhale too much sick air and waiting in suspense to find out who of us will be the next victim of this wonderful germ. {I've had just about all the windows open all day to hopefully maximize the fresh air factor. And I'm holding on to the hope in a slight chance that the flu shots we got last year will benefit us in some way. Cuddles of course refused to get one.} I remembered a tutorial I had seen recently and decided to get to work with some of my ribbons that have been lying around {in my uber-organized sewing room} :


Neat freak I am not... but I feel that did not detract from the finished products thus far

It kept Easy busy for a full five minutes, until she poked herself and decided to be done...

I think this Halloween one is my favorite so far. I don't know about you, but I really dig the new additions of green and purple to the "Halloween color scheme."

And now, back to my ribbons. Or maybe I should take a shower sometime...

How Predictable

Does this happen to anyone else??

Whenever The Professor goes out of town, I end up with sick kids.

I should have seen this coming, because there has been some kind of nasty virus/flu raging through our elementary school this week. {One class had only 13 kids there on Friday.} And when it comes to Cuddles, if there is something to get, he gets it. Word was that it was the swine flu going around, but I talked with another mom this morning and she said she took all her kids in and they all tested negative for swine flu. I suppose that's a good thing....

Up to now it's been a little tough for me to take the swine flu seriously-probably because of its name, but it seems as if the whole swine flu thing is getting a little out of hand round these parts. We were thinking about getting vaccinated, but before we even knew they had arrived, they were out. Lasted 8 hours. And there was another round of shots today in SLC with people camping out overnight. Its a little ridiculous.


So we missed the Homecoming Parade this morning. Durnit.

My best guess

What time is it when a squirrell eats through your suit coat to get to the peanut butter sandwich in your hidden pocket??


Time to get a new suit!

For years I have kept the van door open whenever it is in the garage. That way the kids can climb on in when it's time to leave the house without me having to go open the door for them.

I am currently re-evaluating this practice in light of certain recent events. It appears that the stars aligned, and by stars I mean the garage door being open at the same time that the van door was open at the same time that there was a peanut butter sandwich left in the pocket of The Professor's suit coat at the same time that the suit coat was left in the van...and the only thing I can reasonably think of is that a squirrel found its way there.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the deer. {They've been too busy leaving tracks through the baby grass and nibbling away at my plants. I thought I was pretty careful about getting things that deer don't want to eat, but the burning bushes have turned out to be their midnight snack of choice lately.}

Autumn in the air

One of the perks that lured us out here was having family around. It had been a while since our kids had seen their cousins and The Professor said yes to the guy on the phone who asked if we wanted a free night at their resort if we listened to their time share spiel. So the kids got to sleep at The Farm and we got to zip up the mountain and enjoy a peaceful fall outing in "the most normal city in Utah" {whatever that means. I guess if you consider a resort town full of reeeeally rich people "normal," but I digress.} And then we got to come home with a car full of pumpkins, corn on the cob and cornstalks for the front porch. I've been trying to come up with fall decorations without buying anything and the wreaths I've redone four times just weren't doing it for me. This is much better. Though I admit I feel a little bit like those lazy animals in the Little Red Hen. We'll help you Eat the corn...
Did you also notice the pots of hydrangeas and other shrubs scattered in the flower beds? This week I have been foraging local nurseries and garden centers for advice and clearance stuff for the yard. It has been educational, exciting and disappointing all at the same time. {disappointed about not being able to grow blueberries or aspen trees but excited about the peonies, hydrangeas, roses, honeysuckle, clematis, wisteria, fruit trees and all. The only thing that is still evading me is what trees to get. I mean, it's one thing to throw in a few of these and a few of those when it comes to flowers and bushes, but a tree is, well, a TREE. So many variables.}

Easy has not quite appreciated the experience as I have, except for the fact that garden centers have wagons to pull around and nice workers who give her free geraniums. She actually fell asleep in the cart at Walmart on Thursday after I had dragged her around all week. I can think of one other time she has done that, other than in infancy.

And here you can see how nice the grass is coming along in the back yard. There's the lineup of roses and peonies. The Professor actually said, "Are you sure you only want two rose bushes?" Say No More!! I mean, seriously, when I can buy a rose bush for twelve dollars versus a bouquet for ten--at the very least. No brainer.

What comes after Lightning

Right around lunchtime on Monday, wait, backup--Friday and Saturday we spent putting down peat moss and getting our grass seed topped off. It looked pretty tight, if I do say so. I said to myself, I need to take pictures for the blog. And we could see some green spots where the grass was sprouting.

OK, now to Monday, right around lunchtime I heard some thunder. Saw some lightning. Went to the window and saw some light rain. . .turn into a flash flood. That's right. And hail, to boot.The gutters literally could not contain it all, and the water was pouring down over the sides all around the house. I just stood there, realizing there was absolutely nothing I could do.

Here is a picture of the front yard right after the rain stopped. {It only lasted about ten minutes.} The water kept streaming for a while even after the rain went away since there was so much water. The glare from the light makes it hard to see the streams of water washing over the sidewalk. Bye bye, seeds. Bye bye, peat moss. Bye bye, topsoil. {And good night to the old lady whispering hush.}Here's the hail residue.You can see it better in this picture of the back yard. At least in the back yard the water didn't carry it off of our property. {We're going to have all kinds of stuff growing out of our storm drain with all that peat moss and topsoil that landed there.} Actually, after a few days we realized that it wasn't as bad as it seemed at first. Since there was a lot of seed that had already started growing, it pretty much stayed put. So we bought another pound or two of seed and filled in some of the bigger gaps and then topped it off with some more peat moss.

I guess the good news is that it got plenty of water.