Kitchen Chalkboard Reveal...Finally!

So, remember several months ago when I told you how I was going to make a chalkboard in my kitchen...remember??  This was my inspiration.  She made it look so easy...and it probably would have been, but it seemed I ran into several little hic-ups.  But now...I'm proud to say I'm finally done (oh, soooo done) with this project!!  

The first issue was my wall.  I have VERY textured walls to begin with so I had to add a ton of spackle stuff (do you like technical lingo...I'm feeling pretty smart right now) and do a lot of sanding to get the wall smooth.  

Once it was smooth I added three coats of magnet paint and then three coats of chalkboard paint.  Then, we added the foam molding (my dad helped me with this part) and primed and painted it.  I had to hurry, because I wanted the wall done before Haley's baptism.  I didn't want people at my house seeing my unfinished wall.  

So, done??  Not yet.

Turned out, the surface was terribly porous...and I blame that on the magnet paint.  I hated that magnet paint!!  It's messy, it stinks and I think it made a crummy surface for the chalkboard paint...I would not use it again!

Once the girls started coloring on the board it was really hard to get it clean because the surface was so rough!

So back to the drawing board.  I sanded it down again...added more spackle stuff and then sanded some more.

I skipped the magnet paint this time and just painted three coats (again) of chalkboard paint.  Painted the molding (again) and then finished up the room with light yellow on the walls and crisp, clean white for the base board and door frames.

And this is the finished result.

I really like it...now that it's done.  For a while there, I was hating this project!

Hopefully it's smooth enough now...but then, if it's not...well...oh well...I'm NOT redoing this project anytime soon!!

I'm done and DONE.

Chalk Block

Just a few pictures from Saturday's Chalk Block.

 I think this one of the Disney's Princesses being goofy was my favorite.

It's just not everyday that you see Aurora giving Alice a noogie.

 Haley about to dive into the hole to China.

Weekend Review

First of all...this guy came home to us Friday night!  We were thrilled!

 Saturday we went to Chalk Block at the Riverwoods.  Various local artists strut their talent with chalk drawings...and let me tell ya, there are some talented people out there!  The artwork was amazing!  I'll have to post some pictures of that tomorrow.  That evening everyone came back to our place to grill up some hamburgers, and I made a pretty darn good apple crisp (if I do say so myself).

Sunday Ryan and I took the girls up South Fork for some hiking.  The fall colors were amazing and the weather was perfect!

Funny how my girls insist on taking a stuffed animal with them where ever they go.

That's Haley on the ground.  She apparently collapsed...the beauty from the trees was just too much for her to handle.

But this is the winning shot!

Coming around a bend we found ourselves right in front of a bull moose!  There was female and baby close by too!  A little scary to say the least.  We had to wait them out for a good long while until they moved further away from the trail so we could pass safely.  But that bull moose did not take his eyes off us the entire time!

The girls won't be forgetting that hike, that's for sure!

A few things...

Rory at Sundance last week.

* You know that moment when you're standing around a bunch of people and everyone smells dog poop and you realize to your horror that it's coming from you?  Yeah, that was me this morning.  Not only did I step in it, but I managed to get it all over the front wheel of the stroller.  Yeah, good times.  People, if you have a dog...pick up it's poop!!

* Rory can crawl, although she still prefers to drag herself around/soldier crawl everywhere she goes.

* I'm tired.  I miss Ryan.  This week without him has been hard and a bit lonely.  Although I have my folks nearby which is VERY helpful. (We got together for Taco Tuesday this week, which was nice.)  But, in the evenings when the kids are in bed and I'm by myself it gets a little too quiet.  Luckily, he comes home tomorrow!

Peaceability

I'm a little behind on my monthly values...we started out strong and then we just kinda put it off.  But, September's value is Peaceability  (I didn't even know that was a word)  In other words, find your inner peace...oh, we soooo need to teach this one!  For our children, yes, but also for me!

I'm a yeller, through and through.  I try not to, honest I do.  But once I start getting frustrated with things I can hear my volume getting louder and louder...never fails.  "Girls, can you please get your shoes on." "Girls, I said get your shoes on NOW." To finally, "GIRLS, SHOES...NOW!"  Or in the car, when there is fighting between the two older kids in the back back seat, Piper is screaming that she wanted to buckle her seat belt, and the baby is just crying, because that's just what they do...I admit, I have pulled over and slammed on the breaks and screamed quite loudly, "BE QUIET!!!!!"  It's true.  Not one of my proudest moments for sure.  However, it did get their attention!  Boy, did they zip their lips when I did that...I think they thought I was going crazy.  But anyway, that isn't the way it should be done...even if it did feel pretty good to scream at that very moment.

Bottom line, I don't like it when I lose control or lose my temper.  So, yeah...Peaceability.  I'm thinking this will be a good FHE next week.

Sundance Sunday

My mom and I hit up Sundance with the girls Sunday late morning.  The leaves are amazing this time of year...bright reds and yellows.  It's just beautiful!  The mornings have been crisp and the afternoon hot lately.  I've got to enjoy this weather, soon enough and it will be cold everyday.  

Later that evening we got together with the family for Sunday dinner...I love being able to do that!

Five more days until my Ryan will come back to me...can't wait.

Historical Fiction Drama

So, just recently we finished watching the first season of Rome...it was very good!

I know...I'm kind of a sucker for sexy, violent shows.  But this one is VERY tame compared to Spartacus...so there you go.  Anyway, they say it follows very closely to what really happened during Caesar's reign over Rome.  So, I'm just reviewing history, right?

I'll have to pickup season 2 sometime.

But in the meantime, I picked up this...The Tudors at the library yesterday.

Since Ryan is away this week I needed something to entertain myself in the evenings.  This one follows King Henry VIII.

We'll see how it goes.

Wow...

...this week seemed to fly by!

Ryan and I started hooking up the trailer and skipping out on some rides together while the older girls are in school.  It's quite nice.  Piper loves it!  Rory is still undecided...but she seems to be putting up with it.  

Our water heater went out Wednesday evening.  I went to give Rory a bath...I had her stripped down and sitting in the tub all ready to go.  That's when I discovered...no hot water!  Why do these things happen at very inconvenient times?  We've since got it replaced so that's good.

And then my Internet and phone lines crapped out yesterday afternoon, and then decided to work again after about 24 hours.  I already have a tech scheduled to come tomorrow morning...should I cancel it? But then, I don't want this to happen again either.  I'm at a loss when I don't have Internet!  Sad, but true.

Ryan left again...Vegas bound this time.  So I'll be holding down the fort for a bit on my own.

We kicked off the week without him by having our own girls movie night last night...my mom joined us too!  Kit Kitteredge was the special feature.  We've read all of the Kit books together so the girls were extra excited and of course they loved it!

Weekend Review

First off, my little Rory has been sick since Thursday.  She caught the cold that Morgan brought home.  Unfortunately, Rory's cold came with a fever and it hasn't let up yet.  She may need a doctors visit soon.

Look at that face...poor little thing.

Ryan got home from CO Friday afternoon and he was literally home for about an hour just to hop back into the car to take Haley and Morgan camping for the night.  The church was having a father/daughter camp-out and the girls were just DYING to go!  I know Ryan was super tired from being on the road all week, but he didn't think twice about it (well, maybe he did...but I would never know).  What a guy, huh?!  Of course the girls had a blast and they are already begging to go camping again.

This may seem trivial to you, but Piper kept her hair in rubber bands from 1:30 in the afternoon Sunday until she went to bed that night.  This is major stuff people!!  The girl NEVER keeps her hair in anything I do to it, she always rips it out.  So for once she actually looked like a little girl and not an 80's rocker.

And just a side note...the dress she's wearing is her all time favorite!  It has Winnie-the-Pooh on the front and so she calls it her "Poo Poo" dress.  This may scare people, when she refers to it in public...so now you know.

And speaking of hair...I discovered a way to make a cute bun.  Now this may seem easy for some, but I am NOT a very good stylist when it comes to my hair...or anyone's hair for that matter.  But, I stumbled upon this technique on Pinterest.  Out of all the things I've pinned (which really isn't very much...I remember to check out Pinterest maybe once a week...if that) this is the only thing I've ever done from it.  The sock bun.  You take a sock, cut the toe part off, and then use it to roll your hair in creating a cute bun.  Except I don't have the thickest hair right now (I'm still suffering from postpartum hair loss) so I was really paranoid that people could see the sock through my hair.  They'd all be, "That lady has a sock in her hair!" (pointing and laughing)  And of course the only old sock I could find was green...so it's not like it could hide very well under red hair.  But anyway...here's my sock bun.

Not too shabby, huh?  Especially for someone who can barely do a simple braid.

Sorry if you already know about the sock bun...but I didn't, and I think it's genius! 

Swimming

Underwater cameras are pretty fun.

Pictures are compliments of my bro, Andrew.

K to First

The transition from Kindergarten to First grade has been a difficult one for my little Morgan.  The excitement of the first week of school has worn off...reality has set in.  She has been a jumble of nerves this week and it's not only frustrating, but heartbreaking as well.  She's also suffering from a bit of a cold too, so that doesn't help the situation any.  Nearly every morning ends in tears for her.  She begs me to stay with her at school...which of course I can't...but secretly I wish I could.  Seriously, if you saw her little face looking so sad....you would do anything for her!  It's just so hard to say goodbye and watch her go into her classroom with tears in her eyes...it breaks my heart.  She's usually so happy to be at school and just loves all her friends, but I've got to let her work it out.  I've got to give her time to get used to her new routine...longer days and and a more in depth curriculum.  She'll get there...soon I hope.

I was informed that years ago Ryan had to be dragged into his school. He tried to hang onto a pillar for his dear life absolutely refusing to go into his first grade class.

Hmmm...it's all making sense now.

9 Months

I took Rory in for her 9 month check-up this morning...9 MONTHS...wow.  Everything looked good!  She weighed in at 15.45 lbs and is 27.5 inches long.  

Surprisingly, she hasn't started crawling...close, but not yet.  I'm in no hurry though, she gets herself around fast enough as it is!

Weekend Storm

We had really good thunderstorm Saturday morning.

When I was nursing Rory at 4:30 in the morning I could hear it rolling in.  And then at about 5:30 it was right over us...it was spectacular!  Nothing like a good thunderstorm and heavy rain outside to make me feel super cozy in my bed.  And we were extra cozy because we had Piper in bed with us...yeah, she's super scared of thunder.  But surprisingly, it didn't wake anybody else up.

I thought maybe we'd have all the kids in our room and it was going to turn into a scene from Sound of Music and I would have to start singing "These are a few of my favorite things..."  Except I can't sing and I don't all the words, so it would be more like, "Rain drops on roses and bloo, bloo, bloo, bloo, bloo...."  And that's just not as cute.  I'm more like, "Yeah, you can lay with me as long as you don't wiggle, don't talk, and don't touch me."  Aren't I nice?  Hey, I'll cuddle in the day...but at 5:30 in the morning I need sleep.

So anyway, this is a picture from our porch Saturday morning after the storm.

You can't really see it, but the mountains are covered with fall colors...it's beautiful!

 After lunch we decided to hit up the Swiss Days Festival in Midway...big mistake.  It was so crowded...and you know how I am with crowds...and then add four kids to the mix and I've just entered hell.  There was a huge line for the bathrooms...and like I said...with four kids we ended up spending more than our share at the bathrooms.  We actually ditched the festival and let the kids play at a playground nearby instead...which was much better!  And then another storm rolled in.  We took cover under a pavilion, but the  rain didn't stop Haley and Morgan...they got drenched and loved every bit of it!  

I actually captured some lightning in this picture...right above the tree on the left.

I would like to get back to Midway though when it's less crowded.  

It looks like a charming little town.

Now, it's all about enjoying our Labor Day...I think we'll just lay low...no real plans and I kinda like it that way.