Friday, October 31, 2014

boo bash

h a p p y
h a l l o w e e n


we went back to longview for halloween,
for the third year in a row.
its so cute to watch the parade of kids
and the neighbors do a really great job
of decorating their houses.

plus i get to spend the evening with 
three of the cutest girls in the whole world.








my dad stayed home and gave out candy.
he didn't get one trick-or-treater.
what's up with that?
  
and i get a gold star for the day.
i dressed up at work
(three blind mice)

AND
with my family.

(little red riding hood, grandmother and the big bad wolf)


trick or treat, 
smell my feet,
give me something good to eat 
your damn candy.

hope you had a fun night
with lots of chocolate.
and yes, those are full-size snickers.
apparently some people are ballin'. 


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

applebutter

every few years my whole family gets together 
to make applebutter.
i can't share the recipe because the 
elders in the family have not past it down... yet.
but i would never make it on my own anyway
because for real, it takes a couple if witch's kettles,
silver dollars, a weird homemade wooden paddle,
40lbs of sugar and like 7 bushels of apples.
who has that lying around?
its a big group effort.
lots of peeling, coring,
stirring and canning.
but its so worth it.
besides, it gives us a good excuse to hang out together,
carry on a family tradition and get in a little day drinking.
what's better than that?

 
that's not even all the apples.

  
B downing a WHOLE apple while watching us peel.
 

a little cooler racing.


 
 
time out from beer pong so mimi could change eden.

 
arm candy and paper cup wine.
 
 
pepsi pong.
 

and at the end of the day,
every family was able to take home
T E N jars.

and yes, i do take bribes.

 

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

progress - month one

 even leia is ready to move in, but
things are going a little slower than i would like 
at our homestead. 
we have a wall knocked down to open up the 
kitchen to the dining room and
we have the popcorn ceiling scraped off. 
we have also torn down the huge light in the kitchen,
added cans and a fixture over an island,
that has yet to be ordered.
a guy is at our house right now spraying the ceilings and 
ronnie hopes to have them painted this weekend. 
the day before yesterday we ordered flooring and it should
be here in a few weeks.
in the mean time, we would like to get the upstairs trim painted,
take down the wallpaper in brette's bathroom
and get brette's room painted. 
then we can have the carpet and wood floors installed
and (fingers crossed) move in.
that still leaves us with painting the kitchen cabinets,
installing a kitchen island, painting all the trim downstairs,
fixing/painting all the rooms downstairs and tiling the laundry room.
 whew.
i have to keep reminding myself that
its a marathon, not a sprint.


these are the wood floors we ordered.
we are saving $$$ by having ronnie install them.
i would have preferred to just have a team of guys come in a knock it out,
but i can't argue with a better price tag.


our original idea was to replace all the carpet in the house, 
but since the previous owners had just replaced two out of the four bedrooms,
we decided to just match their carpet and finish the other two rooms.
the grey carpet to the right is the one we are matching.


this is the wall that came down.
it separates the kitchen from the dinning room,
which also flows into the living room.
so by opening this up,
i can see all the way through to the front of the house.
 same wall, from the other side.
i'm now standing the dining room
 cale and ronnie just getting started.
 it ended up being a bitch to take down
because there was electric, plumbing and return air in the wall.
of course, i pick the one wall that has all three.
ronnie loved me.
 and here it is all done.
we still have to wrap the beam in cedar to make it match
the beams in our living room,
but it made a huge difference in the house already.

the huge light below we took down.
it was my job and fairly easy.
it really opened up the height of the kitchen.
we also took down the pendant in the bay window.
its supposed to go over a kitchen table,
but we have opted to add an island instead.
we're adding different pendants centered over the island 
to allow the kitchen to feel bigger and more open.
good thing i know an amazing electrician. 

we are having a bit of trouble finding an island to order.
they are either crazy expensive,
too big for our space or 
are not made to eat at.
if you have an idea of a place to look, send it my way.
i want something rustic looking. 
we are planning to paint our cabinets green,
so my dream would for it to look like reclaimed barn wood.
 these are two of my favorites, but one is expensive and the other
you can't eat at. wah wah.

so anyway, 
that's where we are at.
i promise to keep the updates coming,
s l o w l y  but surely.



Wednesday, October 15, 2014

my buddy

the cutest thing has happened.
brette has made a special friend,
duckie.

for those of you that know me best,
or came into contact with me between the ages of 1 to 25,
know have MY OWN special friend, willie.
he's the best.
as in, brette is not allowed to touch him.
i don't want her ruining my bff. 
back in the day i conned my aunt mickie into giving
 him to me when i was brette's age.
i slept with him every night,
he came on every family vacation,
i took him to college,
(stupid andy, circa toy story 3, has nothing on me.)
he moved into ronnie and i first home together
and is currently back in his old stomping grounds,
my childhood bedroom.
 and have no fear, he will be coming to our new home as well. 


i secretly hoped that brette would latch on to a buddy too.
someone to talk to,
keep her company,
make her dark room feel more friendly
and someone to snuggle with.
but i didn't think it was going to happen because
 brette didn't show any interest in her dolls
 including the perfectly new cabbage patch doll we provided. 
picky. picky.
until we went shopping in florida.
we were walking around a store conveniently named duckies
when she spotted him and instantly gave him a hug and
 would not put him down.
she suckered ronnie into buying him for her.
(he's a real softy)
and she's been sleeping with him ever since.
it is adorable.
she gives him the biggest hugs.
i'm so happy she's found a buddy.
let's see if this one lasts as long as willie. 




i can't find a picture of me with willie as a youngster, even though my mom swears there is one. so unfortunately the one i'm using is when my college roommates hung him from my ceiling fan when i went home for the weekend.  they were asking ransom until i returned. i tried to crop out the horrible scene, but you can kind of tell he's hanging from a noose. wth. poor willie.