A few projects

Some of you may remember that Dan built this coffee table a while ago - probably 2 years ago? I can't remember when. Anyway, he kept it unfinished for a long time. Recently he came across an interesting way to stain furniture and he wanted to try it. First you rub it all down with some tea so that it soaks in. It's supposed to bring out the grain more or something. Then you make a concoction of cider vinegar and steel wool and let that sit for a few days. For Dan it was more like a month. Anyway, you use that as the stain. Then clear coat it. He gave it a rustic look and I think it looks great!

Next we painted the "study." Dan likes to call it the study even though there aren't any books in there. It was hard to pick paint colors because the first floor is really open and we want the rooms to gel. We decided on "smoky slate" by Olympic and had it color matched to Behr because we like Behr paint more.

In the future this room needs curtains, a new rug, and something tall in the corner to add more height - it's a tall room.

We also painted the dining room. This color was called "rainwashed" by Sherwin-Williams which we also had color matched to Behr.

I couldn't quite get the camera to give an accurate picture, but it's a pretty blue. Any ideas on what should go on that empty wall? In the future we're looking to replace the chandelier, reupholster the chairs, maybe paint the recessed ceiling a nice darker shade, and move the desk out of there. As well as put up some curtains. I've been on the hunt for fabric that we like for both rooms but so far I'm coming up short. Those are the project updates for now!

MLK Jr. Day

Dan had MLK Day off of work, which was awesome. We watched the famous "I Have a Dream" speech the night before and talked to Sam a little bit about the Civil Rights Movement. He learned about it some at school, too.

Monday the weather was pretty nice so we went to a park nearby and took a nature walk. This girl wears a skirt or dress EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

 Here she's pretending to be a bird for some reason.

 Cute.

 "Mom, take a picture of me by this sign."

 After our walk we hit the park.

 Have you seen these cup things at the park? They can twirl really fast. Makes me sick just watching him go around.

 We also went to Home Depot that day and picked out paint for the living room. We wrapped that up on Thursday. I'll post pictures of our latest projects soon.

Tuesday was a snow day, but it didn't start snowing until 4:30 or something. A pretty bluebird hung out on our deck for a while.

Sam had the rest of the week off of school. We got about 3 inches Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It is so cold here!! Sam heads back to school tomorrow.

Rock Rainbow Bridge

A few weeks ago we went to visit my parents for the day. One of the things we like to do while there is take a walk on their street to a point recently christened "Rock Rainbow Bridge." There is neither a rock rainbow nor a bridge here, but that's what Sam dubbed it so that's what it shall be known as from henceforth.

When my parents' street was re-paved over the summer, a lot of tiny little rocks were left over on the sides of the road. There's one spot with a guardrail and a drop off on the side so the kids grab handfuls of pebbles and throw them over the guardrail - making a rock rainbow. So the last time we went, I took some pictures.

 Saying hello to Mr. Tree Face

 Gathering the rocks.

 A more common face...

Just wanted to write about it before I forgot.

Girls trip

A few months ago, maybe like six, actually, I emailed my former roommates about the possibility of getting together for a roomie reunion sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for multiple reasons. (But if any of you roomies are reading this, I'm still up for it!)

In the meantime, I decided that it would be fun to at least get together with a few of them who live on the East coast with me. Katrina is 2 hours north in McLean, Virginia and Destiny is 2.5 hours south in Durham. Although it was short, we got together for a fun visit this past weekend.

Katrina drove down to my house, and then I drove us down to Destiny's. We got there around 1 on Saturday and mostly spent our time talking. We drove around a little bit and went out to a local BBQ joint. We stayed up late (well, late for me!) visiting and it was so great. I've seen Katrina a few times since being back and I hadn't seen Destiny in 5 years.

 Katrina and I were unintentionally matching (red coat to red shoes, scarf to coat, and turquoise underneath).

 Sunday we went to church and then came back to Destiny's for lunch and more chatting until it was time to go. Thanks so much, girls! It was fun to catch up on life and also reminisce about all the stupid things that we (mostly I, really) did back in the day. Glad I've grown up a little bit since then! I had such a great time.

And thank you to Dan for watching the kids!

Randoms

We are just doing our thing here in Richmond. Sam loves school. Afton loves hanging out with me (but let's be honest - who doesn't?), Dan joined a rock gym and is now getting his climb on a few times a week. A carpet lady came today to do measurements. Hopefully we'll get some new carpet in the next few weeks. We're picking paint colors for the first floor. That's harder than we thought it would be. We need flow since it's so open. Some of the colors we thought we liked aren't gelling. We'll give before and afters once it's all settled.

I just downloaded pictures from my phone to the computer. When I upgraded to a smart phone, they put the pics from my old phone on the new one. I'm glad. There are some cute pictures on there from the kids' early years. So now the rest of this post will be phone pictures. In chronological order.

 Chunky monkey!

 Now we're on to the recent stuff.

 Her hair in the morning. Fine in the front.

 CRAAAAZY in the back.

 This is not a pope hat. Apparently boys wear this in Sweden around Christmas. Cracked me up when I went to pick him up from school and he walked into the cafeteria wearing it.

 Afton loved the dentist. Can't you tell?

 Sam wrote a letter to Santa at school. "This is what I want: A puzzle, and playdoh, and playdoh toys. Some cars, a dinosaur stuffed animal. That's it." Of course, that's not what he told US he was going to ask Santa for. Good thing we still had some time before Christmas.

 Have I mentioned before that Afton loves to dress up? This was the week or so before Christmas.

 Dad helped me change our doorbell from this:

 To this:

 Playing at the library.

 Our picture wall in the upstairs hallway.

 Dan made this growth chart for me for Christmas. I love it.

 She loves to sleep with books.

 Playing at a bounce house place the one day of winter break that no one was sick.

 A typical lunch with my princess.

Afton pulling a Marilyn with our heater vent.

 And using Mom's makeup to give herself a unibrow. She's really into plain bread without the crust lately.

Resolutions in Review (and new ones)

Well, 2013 didn't quite go as I had pictured. Between thoughts of moving, Dan interviewing, waiting to hear about the job, learning we had 30 days to get to the new job, selling the house, house hunting, buying a new house, and working on the new house, many of my goals fell by the wayside. Here's what they were:

Read biographies on the first 22 presidents.
Finish the dining room.
Practice the piano for 20 minutes, 5 times a week.
Complete three service projects.
Complete blurb books for 2009 and 2010.

Well, I read biographies on the first 2 presidents and half of the third. Ouch. I was reading about Thomas Jefferson when we started to get ready to move, but by then I was miserably behind and just lost the steam. I still read a lot, though. I'll add my book list to the end of this post for those who are interested.

I did finish the dining room - just in time to move.

I did practice the piano until we moved and it stayed in my parents' basement for the next 5 months. Now it's back and I tried to keep up that resolution.

I didn't complete three official service projects, but I did donate a lot of stuff and took firefighters cookies and neighbors treats. I think that counts.

I did finish my blurb book for 2009 (although I haven't had it printed yet - I'm waiting for a discount code) and I'm currently working on 2010.

So as I said, resolutions for 2013 were kind of a bust, but that's alright! It was a wonky year. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop my goal setting.

Here are the goals for 2014:

Read at least 30 books. (I would like 10 of these books to be biographies on the next 10 presidents - starting with Mr. Jefferson.)
Take a trip with Dan for our 10-year anniversary.
Run a half marathon.
Continue practicing the piano for 20 minutes, five times a week.
Complete AND PRINT blurb books for 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Teach Afton the alphabet and the first 20 numbers. That girl has no interest at all in it.
Participate in some kind of service project.

There you have it - my goals for 2014.

And here's what I read in 2013:

1. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism by Teryl Givens
2. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis
3. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
4. John Adams by David McCullough
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
6. The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
7. The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse that Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts
8. Choosing Motherhood by Gretchen Cheney (edited by Lia Collins)
9. Austenland by Shannon Hale
10. The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel
11. Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
12. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
13. Matilda by Roald Dahl
14. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
15. Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath
16. The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Families in the Digital Age by Catherine Steiner-Adair
17. Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way by Fred Rogers
18. An Invisible Thread: The true story of an 11-year-old panhandler, a business sales executive, and an unlikely meeting with destiny by Laura Schroff
19. The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
20. Freakling by Lana Krumweide
21. Forever on the Mountain: The truth behind one of mountaineerings most controversial and mysterious disasters by James Tabor
22. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
23. Fostering Love: One foster parent's journey by John Degarmo
24. Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain
25. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the fair that changed America by Erik Larson
26. Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson
27. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

That's 16 non-fiction, 11 fiction. I think it's hard for me to find fiction that isn't raunchy or too cheesy. My favorites were John Adams, Forever on the Mountain, and Devil in the White City.