Beware of color!!

I had to post a pic of my sewing room for kim (my sister in law in law in law or SILLY for short).

It seems we both like the same colors. Since we are just renting I didn't want to put the time into painting the walls, but my choice for wall color would be a buttery yellow. With maybe a purple accent wall!! (Just kidding - maybe)


I also redid our bathroom in the bright turquoise. Can you tell I like color!!

Perfect Baby…

Ok maybe I am a bit biased, but she is just adorable.



My new niece arrived on July 17th. Katherine Elizabeth was 7.1 lbs. and 20" long. Right now we are all calling her KatieBeth, but as she gets older we might go with Kat or Kit. (I did get permission to use her name on my blog.) My brother, Chip, is doing well and was actually present for the birth this time. Usually he just sits in a big chair in the hall and waits. If you are not aware, Chip has a thing for fainting for the big moments in his life, he only made it about 8 minutes into his wedding before ending up on the ground. Amy is doing very well, she was very glad to deliver during the heat wave because she was able to stay in the nice air-conditioned hospital. Silver lining!! Big sister Kaylee, who is 6, was the one to cut the cord, she had taken a class so she knew what to expect. Alex and Jake were elsewhere, but were excited about their new sister.

The perfect day..

Today just seems to be a perfect day. Rick has today off and we were able to sleep in till 9am (I know that is a miracle) When the kids got up they watched TV for a while until they saw mom and dad start to emerge from hibernation. Then DQ helped me set the table and we had choco chip pancakes with choco whipped cream, eggs and bacon. Then GB helped pick up the table and even helped load the dishwasher. So we have a clean kitchen (another miracle). Next the kids went outside to play (after they made their beds and folded their pjs) and Rick and I sat down and read the paper while having our second cups of coffee. Now Rick is sitting at the piano playing some new music he got for his birthday (Greig and Bach) and I am in my sewing room reupholstering a sectional I got off of freecycle.
Days like today are rare so when we have a "perfect" day I just feel the need to share. It is usually easier to complain about the bad days and not enjoy the "perfect" days because I am waiting for the kids to start acting up. So I wanted to write this while the kids are still being good.
Yesterday was a cleaning up day. DQ's room had gotten so bad, mostly cloths strewn allover. I usually shut the door and ignore it, but it I couldn't even walk in there anymore. My solution: I gave her a list (1-pr jeans, 2 pr shorts, 4 T-shirts, 1 skirt. 1 sweatshirt) and told her to put it all in her suitcase. She kept trying to guess where we were going (insert villainous laughter). Then I put on a movie for the kids so I had 2 hrs of uninterrupted time in her room, and I put all of her cloths in plastic bins and put them in the basement. When she came in her room, she was amazed because it looked so good. I then gave her suitcase and told her if she could take care of those cloths she could start to earn the rest of her cloths back. She was actually pretty happy with everything.

Everything

Whenever I check my blog I am always surprised that I haven't posted in so long. It amazes me that all of the posts that I compose in my head never end up published. (The public wants to know my thoughts, [insert hysterical laughter]). Oh well, I know that I need to update everyone on our very exciting and busy lives. (1 out of 2 isn't so bad.)



Lets see, I will start with Rick in honor of his 33rd birthday yesterday!!! We were at my folks in Saratoga and celebrated on Sunday evening. We had steamed clams, crab legs, and corn on the cob with Boston Crème cake for dessert. It was all very good!! We spent the time with my brother and his family (well Amy stayed home and rested because she is ready to have the baby and minute), my folks were there and my grandpa Green from Virginia was visiting. So there were plenty of people to sing off key for Rick. After the food my parents kept the kids and Rick and I went to the Drive-in (yes there is still an actual drive-in near Saragtoga) and saw Pirates of the Caribbean, all I could think of is how scared any kids would be if they were watching it. The next day we went swimming and got sunburned and had a wonderful time. Rick is trying to take it easy because last week at work he hurt his knee (same knee he messed up in high school) He is going to be fine, just a little sore. This spring he got a promotion at work and he seems to be enjoying things. I am not sure of his exact title but one of his bosses calls him "the resident genius".

We have taken a few family trips over the past weeks. We took a long weekend and visited Ted and Nita (Rick's aunt and uncle) in Cumberland, MD. Had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. We all went to the movies and saw "Cars" and "Over the Hedge". It was a big thing for us to go to the big theater, because I am such a cheapskate, but I had free movie bucks that I saved from Pepsi products and we were able to see both movies for free. (Thanks to dad Hansen for emailing me his points). Another thing that we are enjoying as a family is our new radio. For Father's Day I got Rick an XM satellite radio, it is so great because are really lacking any good radio stations in this area. Rick gets to listen to the 80's station and I can choose from 6 different country stations. There is a cute kids station and some comedy stations, but in the car I play the songs from the 40's and the kids really like it. How cool!!

Speaking of the kids, they are doing well. DQ graduated from 2nd grade and is excited about taking swimming lessons at the lake this summer. Also we are going to start her on music lessons this fall, we are going to wait and see what she would like to play. She is still sewing a bit, mostly just making up her own things like quilts and doll cloths. As always we can't get her nose out of a book, she has already read over 20 books in the past 3 weeks. We are keeping a log for our library program and she is eligible for prizes and stuff.

GB is just being a boy. Playing with trucks in the sandbox, running around like a madman, and eating just about everything in sight. He will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and it seems he is looking forward to it. He will be able to take swim lessons at the lake this summer and he is excited about that, he just loves the water. I cut his hair a few weeks ago:
What do you think?? He thinks he looks like a dinosaur.



As far as me, I have been busy with a couple of jobs. Usually I don't have anything in the summer, but I have at least 2 houses that I am working on. It is fun and I get paid. Taking care of the house is a never ending battle, I am happy if I get the dishes in and out of the dishwasher in the same day. If I made enough, I would definitely hire a cleaning person. To me that would be AMAZING!!! Of course I would probably still sit around on my lazy butt reading the latest books from the library. As if I didn't have enough to do this summer, I have given myself 2 other projects to do. The first is to recover a couch that somebody gave me. I have never done this before so I figure it will be a fun mistake. The second project is to refinish a Hoosier hutch that I took from my parents old house. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, although I don't know what possessed me to try it this summer. This is what a Hoosier hutch is supposed to look like (I took this picture at a museum):



This is the top part of what I am going to be working on, I have counted at least 6 layers of paint.