Saturday Happenings

Chris and I had a work-filled Saturday.  It was wonderful to have some of the projects completed that I have been working on recently (and some that have just been waiting).  Chris worked by my side all day long until we both collapsed in the evening.  We hung curtain rods and curtains in the dining room.  Here's my dilemma.  I had to order these curtains online at Target because they were a longer length than what they carry in-store.  They still weren't long enough, so I was going to add an accent strip.  I ordered four; however, I cut the first curtain in the wrong spot when I was lengthening it, and decided to use that "whoops" curtain to make valance curtains for the laundry room.  I ordered another panel from Target, unfortunately, it was from a different dye lot.  Boo.  So I returned the panel and ordered two more hoping that maybe one of them would be closer in color.  I got two more panels and they are each a little different color from each other and my other panels.  Ahh, what to do?

Curtain rods (and curtains) in our our bedroom.  They are plain white (from Ikea) but mostly the right length.  We'll see how much I like the white.

You may wonder about why the curtains are looking all bunched up and funny like that.  Just trying to create a natural pleat.  I'll have to leave them like that for a couple of weeks, but since we haven't had curtains for the past seven months, a couple more weeks won't really matter.

Interspersed with my project, was one of Chris' projects.  He gave the girls speakers for their bathroom for Christmas and enlisted Misha to help with the install.  There was a lot of mess with the insulation from the attic, but they got that cleaned up and rocked with some pretty awesome-sounding speakers.

And the bell.  He hung the bell for me.  It has been sitting in the same place for so long that the dust around it created a nice little pattern.  Actually it goes to show that my daughters need to do a better job of dusting!

Now, when I want to call my girls home or get their attention at the lake, I will ring the bell and watch them come running because they are always so obedient like that!

Scriptures

I happened to walk past Amy's bedroom one night after tucking Kristen in for the night and noticed this setting.  Made my heart smile.

Amy and Driving

Amy has been driving for a couple of weeks now.  I will admit that I was a "leeeetle" bit nervous climbing in to the car with her the first couple of times, but she has steadily improved over the past couple of weeks.  Any time there is a place to go, she is usually ready and raring to go...and sitting in the driver's seat.  I love that she is very confident in her driving and is excited for this next milestone in life.

Her sisters are getting a little less vocal as well.  Used to be they would comment, "Well, we didn't die that time," as we would all pull in to the driveway.  Now it is no big deal.

Misha and Honor Band

Misha walks to the beat of her own drum, which as a percussionist, is pretty cool.  She auditioned for and made District Honor band this year.  So proud of how hard she works and of her talent.  She attended an evening practice with the other Honor Band students last week and has a full-day rehearsal next week and then a performance later that evening.

More Celebrating

As promised, Chris took the girls shopping on Saturday.  Though when it came time to leave, Kristen didn't want to go and asked to go grocery shopping with me instead.  Kind of surprise since she usually likes to shop.

 Rather than wrapping their gifts, the girls just started unloading all of their packages on my desk--bottles of lotion, a "Frozen" pez dispenser from Chris, a sheet of metal for a magnet board, and an orchid.  Kind of odd gifts, but all things that I wanted.  Kristen also got me two packages of Good & Plenty, or Pink & Whites as my girls like to call them.  My brother sent me a cool Canadian-made blanket, plus gifts from my parents and Chris' parents.  Thanks everyone.

We had a quick lunch and then Chris and I were headed off for a night away.  It was our first time leaving the girls on their own overnight and they did great.  They finished their homework, had baths, did laundry--it is great to have such responsible kids.

Chris and I saw a movie, had dinner at PF Changs (was not impressed however with the food), and stayed at the Embassy in Loveland.  It was nice to have some one on one time with him as he has been traveling so much lately.

My Birthday 2015

Yep, they just keep on coming. I am grateful for Kristen who quite often tells me I don't look anywhere close to my age. It's a good thing, because most days I don't feel my age either.

It was a lovely treat to walk downstairs early Thursday morning (5:20 am) and realize that my oldest daughter had slipped down after I had gone to sleep and done a little stealth decorating. I love that she had the idea and made the effort to celebrate me.

Alas, there were no candles in my cereal and, gasp, I don't think I had candles in anything at all this year.  I'll survive.  Even worse, I don't think I had a single picture taken of me.  For someone who decided that I should be in more pictures this year, I am off to a bad start!

Chris and Amy worked a little magic behind the scenes, since Chris was out of town, and had red roses delivered by Jamie John in the afternoon.  I love red roses!

I took the girls out to dinner at 3 Margaritas and Misha treated us at TCBY afterward.  I am grateful for my girls and all that they do to celebrate me.

Chris' gift arrived a couple of days before my birthday, but I waited to open the next book in my family blog book series until the 22nd.  He actually combined two books in to one to create a 730-page book.  Pretty amazing to see my blog in hard copy form but it sure makes it fun to read and look at all of our great memories over the past couple of years.

Because Chris was sick last week, he didn't get a chance to take the girls shopping at all.  They were a little disappointed that they didn't have any gifts for me, but Chris had already promised to take them shopping on Saturday after Amy finished work.

My Pinteresting Life - Creative Ideas

So not only have I used Pinterest as inspiration for design ideas for my home but also for creative storage, Christmas ideas, and home decor.

Pinterest Board: Christmas
Christmas Advent Calendar

Pinterest Board: Amy
Decorative Panels

Pinterest Board:  Clever Storage Solutions
Hair Dryer Storage

Closet Pegboard

Pinterest Board: Curtains
Living Room Curtains

Pinterest Board: Decor
Do Something Amazing (on the garage door)

Candle Jars

Eiffel Towers

Picture Gallery Walls

Pinterest Board: Glass Block
Family Glass Block

Pinterest Board: Organization
Pool Noodles in Boots

Pinterest Board: Gift Ideas
Girls' Books

Pinterest Board: Girls
Growth Ruler

My "Pinteresting" Life-House

I found Pinterest to be a tremendously useful tool while building our home. If the builder asked, "How do you want your stairs to look?" I would go to Pinterest (and Houzz.com) and find examples of what I liked and show the pictures to him.  If you have never used Pinterest before, you are able to create "Boards" that are specific to different themes, ie., Kitchen, Color, Bedroom, Curtains, Recipes.  Really the possibilities are endless.

Here are a few examples of how Pinterest translated in to the design of my house:

Girls' Bathroom Mirror (Pinterest Board: Bathroom)

Girls' Bathroom Towel Hooks (Pinterest Board: Hooks)

Craftsman Style Doors and Windows Trim (Pinterest Board: If I Ever Build a House Again)

Medallion Tile for Kitchen Backsplash (Pinterest Board: Kitchen)
This was actually my own creation after doing some research.  I found a decorative metal wall tile at Hobby Lobby, spray painted it in an Oil Rubbed Bronze color, and then found the botticino marble bullnose (pencil liner) to match the tile.  It was an inexpensive solution with a lot of decorative punch.

Newel Posts (Pinterest Board: Stairs)

 Front Door (Pinterest Board: Front Door)

Paint Color (Pinterest Board: Color)

Sherwin Williams Rain and Sherwin Williams Pavillion Beige

Chris' Travels

It has been a long two weeks, and I am looking forward to having my husband home this evening.  The girls and I dropped Chris off at the airport on Saturday, January 3 around noon.  His flight was delayed.  Delayed again.  He was able to change his flight and instead of heading to London, he took off for Germany.  He spent about eight hours in Germany with a co-worker showing him around a bit. 

Chris finally made it to London a day late and geared up for long days ahead.  He spent the next week in London getting up early and going to bed late.  His 11 pm was our 4 pm, so it was cutting things close for him to have time to even say hello to me and the girls.  He left London the following Monday for Prague.  His busy schedule and long days caught up with him as he lost his voice and came down with a cold.  He still had meetings to run and presentations to give, so he couldn't just take a sick day.  Though I am sure he wished he could.

After two days in Prague, Chris was off to Instanbul, Turkey for two more days.  He was feeling pretty crappy here and wasn't sad at all when some of his meetings were cancelled--just gave him a little time to rest.  He was able to get some antibiotics over-the-counter.  Here's hoping they worked for his flight home.

He left Instanbul and headed back to Prague for a one-night stay yesterday, and then was up early for a flight to Germany.  He didn't sleep too well because of being sick and feeling that he wouldn't hear his alarm.  His dad called him sometime around 3 am as well.

I'm sure he will be exhausted as he walks out of the terminal, but we will be thrilled to see him.  I don't like these long trips nor the lack of communication.

Amy's Driving Permit

You had to know that once her certificate came, there was no question that she wanted to take the permit test the next day!  She made an appointment on line, I signed her out of school a half an hour early, and we headed to the DMV on Friday afternoon.  Only to find out that we needed to have some kind of identification.  Crap!

So, being the kind mom that I am, we drove home, retrieved her passport, and returned once again to the DMV.  We didn't have an appointment any longer, so we just had to wait.  But it was getting close to closing time for them.  They asked for all people interested in taking a drive test to come forward and they would facilitate them quickly. 

Good thing I was with her.  I pushed her forward to the counter again to get in line.  She was set up on a computer and in no time was walking away giving me a thumbs up sign.  Yay!  Then we had more waiting for all the picture-taking.  That was just as long of a wait.

Finally, close to 5 pm, we walked out of the DMV with a temporary driver's permit in hand.  Since it was snowing, getting dark, and time for rush-hour traffic on a Friday afternoon.  I told her I was driving home.

I did stop once we got to Firestone and let her drive home from Dominoe's Pizza.  We have to drive on a two-lane road with narrow shoulders and lots of trucks.  It made me just a teensy bit nervous to hand over the keys. 

Amy's first inclination was to hug the shoulder as much as possible.  I tried to tell her in as unstressed a voice as possible that she needed to do her best to stay between the lines.  Trust that the oncoming cars were going to stay between their lines. 

We made it home.  Whew.

It Came!

What came?  Amy's Driver Education Course Affidavit of Classroom Completion.  She's already made an appointment for tomorrow  (January 9th at 2 pm) to take the test.  Not sure if I am ready to hand over the steering wheel.  AAGGHGH.

Crazy Kid

I walked in to the office last night so that Kristen could say a quick hi to her dad (he's in London) before he went to bed.  I found her wearing this while using the computer.

Driver's Ed

She finished on December 29!  The online classroom portion of Driver's Ed., that is.  She opted for the online version instead of the 30-hour in class version and started a couple of months ago and really buckled down over the Christmas holiday to get it finished.  Apparently the course is immensely boring whether you take it online or in class.  I am so glad she was motivated to finish.  I think it helped to see her friends getting their permits and licenses.  She has to wait for her certificate to arrive in the mail before she can take the test for her permit at the DMV.

I'm not sure if I am ready to have a permitted daughter driving ME around.  That's kind of a scary thought.

New Year's Day

I am pretty sure by now that Johns are tired of spending holidays with the Klines.  When Chris went to pick up Misha and Kristen on New Year's Day, he also spent time with Jarom finishing up his sound system for his media room.  When Chris arrived home he mentioned that we were invited to have fondue with John's that evening.  Our friends the Polsons were also there.  The spread was amazing--cheese fondue, broth, veggies, meat, desserts, chocolate.  I think we gained five pounds each.  We followed up (or in other words, had to let our stomachs rest) with a game of Mafia.  Some of the kids really got in to the game.  Thanks to the three mafia who started taking the Kline family out one by one.  Thankfully Chris was left alive to uncover the truth!

New Year's Eve

Our plans for the evening included Jamie and Jarom John.  We dropped our kids off at their house while the adults went for dinner in Loveland at On The Border.  We had hoped originally to go to a little fancier place, but as you can imagine, most places were booked for the evening by people who planned ahead.  We had to wait for about 45 minutes after arriving, but enjoyed our meal.

The kids stayed at Johns, had pizza and rootbeer floats, and probably pretended to watch tv while texting each other on their devices.  Actually Amy was watching tv because of an unfortunate incident with her iPhone.

We arrived back at Johns around 9:30 pm and I think all of the adults were rather tired.  I suggested a 9:45 countdown, a 10:30 countdown, and finally at 11:30 we counted down.  Kristen and Misha stayed for a sleep over.

Before leaving, Jamie had said that they had plenty of beds because some of her girls were also sleeping over elsewhere. So we brought the sleeping bags back home.  Chris must have picked up Misha's sweater as well.   

I was texting with Misha at midnight. She asked about her sweater.  I told her Dad brought it home.  She asked about her sleeping bag.  I told her Dad brought it home.  She said, "Stop taking my stuff!  Happy New Year!"