Wood Stain - Color: Grapevine

I finally was able to get to a set of old wooden window panes Matt and I had acquired from our rental home in S.C. There were two of them and I remember telling Matt 5 or 6 years ago that we needed to keep them. He looked at me with a puzzled look and just said, "ok." We've moved now three times with them and I am finally getting to them...well, atleast one of them anyways. I went to Lowe's and I got a small can of wood stain that I had them color to Grapevine. It's a purple sort of color. I was going to a reddish/rusted look and this was the closest I could find. After spending about an hour pulling out the nails and sanding off the layers of paint, I was finally ready to stain. I am so proud. It looks great. It's about time I did something with it. The kids kept asking me what I was going to do with it and I decided to hang it in my Americana bathroom downstairs. Instant primitive wall art! I am going to put some hooks on one end and a nice ribbon to hang it by. I was careful to clean up after myself because I do have Ethan who likes to explore everything. I even made sure to tap the stain can lid on very tightly. I left the window pane outside to dry and came in to check my facebook. As I typed in my password, here comes Ethan with the can of stain and he dropped it onto the dining room floor....which is WOOD! My heart dropped and I panicked! I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I quickly rushed to grab paper towels and thankfully, because the wood floors are finished, I was able to wipe the stain away. The Grapevine colored stain. I immediately sent Katheryn outside to double check and make sure he didn't get any stain any where else and she said he didn't. I'll have to double check but boy was that scary! I saw $$$ having to be spent for new hardwood floors.

July 4th Weekend

We had a great July 4, 2009! Matt was home from work Fri-Mon which meant lots of family time. On Friday, Matt and I spent the day getting ready for our backyard BBQ for Saturday. We put up a canopy and set up the tables and chairs. Matt and Katheryn cut the grass in the backyard while I got the inside straightened up and laundry finished.

Saturday was busy with food prep and cleaning the house. It worked out pretty well. Our friends came between 2 and 3 and Matt grilled up the chicken, dogs, brats, shish kabobs and burgers which all turned out very delicious!!! The spread of food was wonderful. Everyone brought a side or a dessert and I think I've gained about 5 lbs because everything was just so wonderful.

Around 6pm we had a convoy of 4 headed over to Antietam Battlefield for fireworks. It was soo much fun. They are absolutely the best fireworks show around this area. They lasted for about 30 minutes. Matt was able to secure a spot earlier that morning right up front by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra.

Our friend Wendi and her daughter were able to spend the night with us as well as another of Katheryn's friends. On Sunday, we had some left overs from lunch and headed out to play mini golf. Matt ofcourse won. :) We then said our goodbyes to Wendi and her daughter and headed to the pool. The kids enjoyed it however Katheryn was miserable and grumpy. She was trying to make everyone else have a horrible time because she didn't bring her bathing suit. She got over it though once I ordered some pizza and fries for the kids. :) It was a great time.

Then on Monday we went to Frederick to pick up my $50 spa gift certificate that I had won on the radio. Since we were in Frederick, we decided to stop in at Verizon so I could get a new battery for my phone. Well, batteries are an accessory and would cost $40. I was then told that I had a $50 credit towards a new handset and then the deal of buy one LG brand phone and get 4 free looked interesting. Well, because I needed a new battery, we went ahead and I picked out a new handset. I love the phone that I had and ended up getting an updated version of it. I don't love it yet but it's very similar. Matt updated his phone and we got Katheryn her first cell phone since it would be free. So now Katheryn has her very own cell. Look out!!!

Afterwards, we drove to Cunningham Falls for some hiking. The boys absolutely loved it and Katheryn was there with her new cell phone taking pictures and video. LOL! She is so tickled to have this phone. LOL!

We ended the day coming home to some more BBQ and enjoying the evening on the back patio. The kids and I lit up some sparklers and Brian and Ethan took to them very well. Brian was actually dancing with his sparkler in hand while Katheryn was the opposite. She was completely afraid to hold it and dropped hers on the patio and wouldn't go near another one. LOL!

It was a great weekend with family!! I truly enjoyed every minute spent.

Matt and I waiting for fireworks skimming through a home improvement magazine.

Brian and Madison walking to the fireworks.

So cute!!

Unbelievable!

After having a bam, bam, bam from Ethan this past hour, Katheryn has just informed me that he fell asleep on the living room couch after watching a movie. I am totally praying that he is out for the night so I can get some cleaning done. Everyone....pray with me!

Double Whammy!

OMG!! Here we go again....double whammy today all within 30 minutes of each other. It has been a very long day. Last night we took the kids to the town carnival because it was family night. $10 to ride all night long which is a great deal for our family. Matt and the kids each got wrist bands and they basically rode the rides until closing. We got home around 11pm and I finally got to sleep by 1am. This morning I was back up at 5am. I enjoyed the quiet morning and the time to myself but once 7am came, I had to wake up the kids to get them out the door to Brian's speech appointment at 8:30am. From there, we went to WalMart. I never get the boys' hair cut there but for a one shop stop, I caved in and got them each into a chair. They were on opposite sides of the salon but we managed it. After their cuts, by the way I won't go to WalMart again for cuts, we picked up a box of hair dye. I told Katheryn I would highlight her hair. She wanted to dye her hair red but I told her blonde highlights that were suttle would look much better. She didn't agree with me so I pulled the mommy card. I told her that I was the one with the money and that if she wanted highlights, she would do the blonde. :) We finally get home and I start to prep the sink area in the kitchen to start the process. After washing her hair, Katheryn thought I had dyed it. It was so funny. I then mixed the dye and we started. I decided to go all over her head and not just the top part like they do in the salon. I wanted it to look like they were her natural highlights. As we were at the end and drying her hair, I walked into the kitchen and there was Ethan with the spatula coating his head with this blonde dye!!! OMG!!!! I quickly grabbed him and whipped his head toward the sink. I quickly rinsed his hair out and thankfully there wasn't any damage. LOL! I couldn't imagine a blonde haired Ethan. Finally Katheryn's hair was dry and she ran next door to see what the neighbors thought. I got great compliments and the whole natural look was accomplished. I then decided to try making a bold mark on Brian's hair just in the front but because he has dirty blonde hair, the dye really didn't do much but lighten his baby fine hair so you really can't tell. So, the double whammy kicks in here. As I'm cleaning up the dye, Katheryn comes downstairs and says, "you aren't going to like what you see upstairs." She then proceeds to tell me that Ethan grabbed the tub of vaseline and smeared it on the walls and carpet. How do I get that out of the carpet???!! Ugh! OH NO! I sit here writing this blog and Brian is at the front door telling me that Ethan has just picked my flowers in the front. I checked it out and he took all the beautiful pink geranium blooms and destroyed the plant. The pink petals are now all over my front porch. Someone please please please take Ethan for a few weeks...please. LOL! Off to clean I go.

A Mommy No-No

There comes a point in parenthood when a mommy will learn something of such value that she needs to share it with other mommies so that they may either prevent or encourage such an event. Today I would like to share a lesson I learned while grocery shopping with my three wonderful children. :) Mommy No-No #1: Never EVER randomly ask "who wants a watermelon?" while grocery shopping with 3 children. If you do, be prepared to have 3 watermelons presented to you as being the best watermelon and make sure to look at your youngest's watermelon first or else it just may end up being dropped on your foot. Your foot will of course cushion the watermelon's fall so it doesn't bust open all over the place which was nice of your youngest to drop it on your foot. Great thinking on their part....he must have known if it didn't land on my foot that there would be a great mess to clean up. I hope other mommies out there will learn from my experience and take my advice. :) Stay tuned for more Mommy No-No's in the future. :)

Trip to NC

We recently drove to NC this weekend to check in on the house and to get some paperwork and repairs straightened out. We didn't tell any of Katheryn's friends we were coming and we didn't even tell Katheryn. I told her we were just going to go pick up Matt and stay at a hotel that had a waffle maker. She was excited about that. Friday we left here around 4:30 and reached Matt's work by 6:30pm. We were on the road by 7pm and on the way we stopped by a friend's home in VA to deliver a graduation gift to their daughter. It was great timing. The kids played outside and Brian was doing a great job with dribbling a basketball. I think I may look into signing him up to play. He was doing really well with it. We left there and made it to our hotel in NC by 2am. The beds were twin beds with a little bit extra and Matt had placed Ethan on one and Brian and Katheryn had crawled into the other one. Matt then joined Ethan as I was getting things put away for the morning and when I went to crawl into bed, there was no where for me to lay. So I curled up at the foot of Katheryn and Brian's bed and later hopped into bed with Ethan and Matt. I surely didn't get a good nights sleep after driving. The next morning we met with the realtor and went to the house. We checked out the repair list and most are minor. It turns out that the inspecting company couldn't find any major damage to the house so started to fill the paper up with minor things like spent light bulbs. Ridiculous. The best part was that the moment we drove into the neighborhood, Katheryn's excitement was bursting out of her. She jumped out of the van and immediately ran to the neighbors home. Apparently there was a lot of screaming going on down there and at pitches the human ear is just not accustomed to. We then took Katheryn and two of her friends to the Cumberland Dance Academy recital where her other friend Alanna was performing. Alanna had no idea we were coming. This is the dance studio Katheryn used to dance at while we lived in NC. Terry, Alanna's mom, took Katheryn backstage at intermission and Katheryn surprised Alanna. I wasn't back there but I heard the excitement was overwhelming. Later that evening, we spent our time with our friends. Our friends Diana and Warren had a BBQ and Percillia and Chuck came up too. It was so wonderful. It felt like home all over again. The hardest part of it all was sitting in Diana's kitchen where I could see our house. Brian really wanted to just go across the street and go home. He said he misses our old house. It breaks my heart. :( It really is a great home. We miss it.

Ethan posing for pictures at Diana's home

Brian at the hotel the morning we were leaving.

Katheryn and her friends after their sleepover...so hard to say goodbye

Katheryn and her friends after the dance recital

Katheryn after suprising Alanna backstage

Saturday night was a great night. Great food with great friends. Katheryn spent the night at Julieann's and I was so happy because that meant I could have a place to sleep that night. Brian wanted me to sleep with him so I did. Matt and Ethan slept together and Brian and I slept in the other bed. Before going home, we had brunch with Alanna and her parents at Cracker Barrel. It was a long trip home. We hit traffic right before Fredericksburg and also outside of Germantown. It was a long car ride home. We stopped at McDonald's in Stafford and Brian was so excited. He got out of the van and kept telling how great it was to be going here and that he wanted french fries. With his GFCF diet, we never ever eat out unless I bring his food with us. So this was a real treat for him. After 11 hours of being in the car, we finally made it home. Normally, this trip is 6.5 - 7 hrs. The kids were great though. They are truly great travellers.

Scholarship!

About two weeks ago, I was having a really hard day with the kids. I was constantly cleaning up messes and just not happy how the day had turned out. During the afternoon, I received a call from the YMCA offering a child care spot for Ethan. I asked that they keep him on the list for August when school started back and they said it would be fine. About a month or two before this, I had filled out a scholarship application with the Ft. Myer Spouses Club. Well, I checked the mail once Matt had gotten home and there was a letter addressed to me from the spouses club. I opened it and voila! I had won a $1000 scholarship! I was so excited that the neighbor ran home to make some strawberry daiquiris to celebrate. She used strawberries that we had picked a few days before. It was so yummy!! So everything is falling into place. I have money now to pay for two more classes and I only need two general classes in order to complete my associates degree. I'm so excited! I have a child care spot available for Ethan and Brian will be attending Kindergarten full time in the fall. There is no excuse for me not to pursue my associates now. It's just an exciting and wonderful feeling to finally have this part accomplished. Then in the spring I will apply for the nursing program and take microbiology. Then I will have two years to go before becoming an RN. Things are on track and looking good.

Then about a day later, I received a letter asking me to attend the award ceremony at the Army Chief of Staff's home at Ft. Myer. Matt was really excited about this. I on the other hand didn't think it was such a big deal but when Matt was excited, I figured that this must be a good thing. He told me that it would be bad for me to decline the invitation. So we got a babysitter and went. It was really nice. It was a really big deal apparently. There was so much food and there were congressmen and reporters. Altogether I believe there were 48 scholarships awarded that night and 2 spouse scholarships. I fell into the spouse category. Matt tried to take a couple of pictures but I think he had the camera on the wrong setting. They are a little blurry but you can still make it out. The Army Chief of Staff's wife is to my left.

Me accepting my scholarship

Me announcing my field of study

With our recent visit to NC speaking with friends, I'm really thinking that I'm moving into the wholistic medicine area of the medical field. I've done so much with Brian and Ethan just through diet that it amazes me how much a diet can heal our bodies. I'm really starting to believe that organic is the best way to go. I'm starting to read a book now called "The Hallelujah Diet" and it's basically two different approaches to the american diet from experience and a scientific standpoint and reaching similar conclusions. Something about eating a raw diet is best. We shall see. I'm sure it'll be helpful in our family and just maybe it'll heal Ethan's allergies as well.