I've been doing quite a bit or organizing as of late and this week I began tackling my childhood memorabilia. My mom, angel that she is, had chronologically preserved all the papers and awards I'd received throughout elementary school in sheet protectors which she placed in a 4" binder. However, when I was a sophomore in high school I needed sheet protectors for a project and since my parents couldn't take me to the store I pillaged my memory book. I kept everything in order, but I've been spending some time putting items back into my book and gazing into memories of my childhood. Today I came upon a paper I wrote in 3rd grade. My teacher, Mrs. Schrock, had written in big red letters across the top "Great Paper :o)". After rereading my original work I must agree. It is great indeed. For your literary pleasure I provide a copy with all grammatical and spelling errors included.
It's Tough to Be a Kid
It's tough to be a kid because you can't sit in the front of the car. You can't see things coming ahead of you.
Another thought is because I can't ride my bike to Safeway. I love to ride my bike.
Don't forget you can't pack your own lunch. I hate meat and lettuce sandwiches.
We kids also can't go to the park with out being nagged on about it. Kids love swings, and slides.
It's tough to be a kid because our parents always say don't cry. We have to get those feelings out.
We also get called tattle tale when somebody does something wrong. It's hard to let somebody get away with things.
Isn't it unfair when your Mom goes to Hawaii and you can't go? We love the sun, sand, and water.
It's not fair when your brother saves all his money and when you don't have a single penny he spends his money. Why can't he share.
It's tough to be a kid when your brother starts a fight and you get blamed for it. Kids hate to be spanked.
End Note: Scott, I still wonder why you didn't share your money.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lucky D.I. Day
E and I traveled into civilization (definition: anywhere with a Costco) today, to drop off T's bike for a tune up. On our way home I decided to stop at D.I. and see what we could see. Well, folks, today was my lucky day and I hit the jackpot!
By way of background information, I have a heck of time finding furniture that is proportional for me. I'm 5'3" and more often that not I can't sit back in a chair and have my feet touch the ground. This is really annoying. It makes me think there should be one of the embarrassing cartoon growth charts next to it with a sign that reads, "You must be at least "this" tall to comfortably sit on this chair." Of course the cartoon is pointing to 5'7" and I sadly walk away. Just like the state fair rides. I digress.
A couple months ago there was an article in Better Homes & Gardens on making simple slipcovers for chairs. It inspired me. By using a slipcover I could be more bold with a pattern or color selection because if it ever irritates me, I'd just sew a new one. No harm done. With that in mind, today at D.I. I found these beauties for $15 each.
They're older and have a few stains, but it's nothing a little febreze and soap can't solve. The bones of the chairs were strong, the seat cushions are still plush and best of all, I sat in them with my back against the back of the chair and my feet touched the ground! I nearly shed tears of joy right there in D.I. I'm excited to find the perfect material and sew a nifty slipcover for my lovely new chairs. The thought of their dainty cabriole legs peeking out from a striped slipcover makes me giddy.
As if the chairs weren't enough, E and I then meandered over to the books and struck gold again. Whenever I check my local D.I. for books I usually find about 6 copies of Dr. Suess's The Foot Book and little else. But behold my loot!
By way of background information, I have a heck of time finding furniture that is proportional for me. I'm 5'3" and more often that not I can't sit back in a chair and have my feet touch the ground. This is really annoying. It makes me think there should be one of the embarrassing cartoon growth charts next to it with a sign that reads, "You must be at least "this" tall to comfortably sit on this chair." Of course the cartoon is pointing to 5'7" and I sadly walk away. Just like the state fair rides. I digress.
A couple months ago there was an article in Better Homes & Gardens on making simple slipcovers for chairs. It inspired me. By using a slipcover I could be more bold with a pattern or color selection because if it ever irritates me, I'd just sew a new one. No harm done. With that in mind, today at D.I. I found these beauties for $15 each.
They're older and have a few stains, but it's nothing a little febreze and soap can't solve. The bones of the chairs were strong, the seat cushions are still plush and best of all, I sat in them with my back against the back of the chair and my feet touched the ground! I nearly shed tears of joy right there in D.I. I'm excited to find the perfect material and sew a nifty slipcover for my lovely new chairs. The thought of their dainty cabriole legs peeking out from a striped slipcover makes me giddy.
As if the chairs weren't enough, E and I then meandered over to the books and struck gold again. Whenever I check my local D.I. for books I usually find about 6 copies of Dr. Suess's The Foot Book and little else. But behold my loot!
- Mice Twice
- Each Peach Pear Plum
- Millions of Cats
- Yay, You
- Bea and Mr. Jones
- Little Toot (Vintage!)
- Berenstain Bears Home Sweet Home
- The Runaway Pumpkin
- Sanji and the Baker
- The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash
- Fables
- The Story of Ferdinand
- Dr. Seuss's ABC
- If You Give A Pig A Pancake
- Smoky Nights
- The Wind Blew
- Wonderful Worms
- Five Little Piggies
- Animal Dads
- General Store
- Barefoot Escape on the Underground Railroad
The Yard
I do believe I've previously mentioned on the blog that we bought a small fixer-upper (translation: complete dive that had been abandoned for three years) house as our first home. We had only lived in our city for three months when we decided we should make the brave move from renting to owning. Our city has about 24,000 people in it so there were about 15-20 houses that were in our budget and had what we were looking for. As T & I narrowed our list of housing qualifications I really had a burning desire to stay in our specific church building. Our religion assigns people to a church building just like areas have school boundaries. Since we wanted to attend the same church our search was now limited to 2, yes 2, houses.
The first house was atrocious. It had been haphazardly remodeled by poorly unskilled people that lacked not only common sense, but any design sense whatsoever. It was around 2300 square feet, with really only one bedroom, one nook, three bathrooms, and a basement that reeked of animal feces. The yard was tiny, brown and speckled with ill-situated bushes that intruded on any useful spaces. The exterior of the home contained vinyl siding, three different colors of brick, misshapen stucco and a peeling roof.
House two had been empty for three years, was 980 square feet, had a detached 2 car garage, and needed major work done. There was 1 bedroom, 1 non-functioning bathroom, a defunct kitchen, and literally every surface needed an overhaul, but it oozed cottage charm. The visionary in me screamed, "Potential!" and we bought it as I clung to the dream of my quaint cottage home.
When we bought the house we planned to add on and worked with a builder for three months before we learned that it wouldn't be a financially prudent investment for us. At that point in time I was four months pregnant and really felt the need to make our house inhabitable. So we began years of projects that included resurfacing all the wood floors, completely remodeling the bathroom and kitchen, framing a second bedroom, and remodeling the basement among other things. The inside of our house has been darling and completely new now for some time, but the outside looks the exact same. The. exact. same.
So this summer we began tackling our yard. There was no sense in us doing much work until the end of June when our travels were through, but since then we've been hitting it hard. We're following the landscape plans I designed in my residential landscape class and it's been rewarding to see it taking shape. We likely have another solid month of yard stuff to do before I can post complete before and after pictures, but here are some teasers of the work we've done in the past three weeks.
We had a digger come pull out the ginormous tree stump that was in our front yard. The tree was dead when we bought the house, but got uglier each year as the leaves became sparser and sparser. The icing on the fancy cake came when about 14 crows made it their hang out and would perch there all day. Nothing like a dead, bald tree adorned with crows to welcome people to your house.
E got to sit in the digger and it was one of the happiest moments of his life. He still asks me every morning if he can ride the digger that day.
The weekend after the stump came out T rented a CAT and worked on leveling our dirt plot all day. It's a difficult machine to operate and it didn't help that our ground is barren, dry sand.
T when his work on the CAT was done.
(Note the mexi stache, please.)
The first house was atrocious. It had been haphazardly remodeled by poorly unskilled people that lacked not only common sense, but any design sense whatsoever. It was around 2300 square feet, with really only one bedroom, one nook, three bathrooms, and a basement that reeked of animal feces. The yard was tiny, brown and speckled with ill-situated bushes that intruded on any useful spaces. The exterior of the home contained vinyl siding, three different colors of brick, misshapen stucco and a peeling roof.
House two had been empty for three years, was 980 square feet, had a detached 2 car garage, and needed major work done. There was 1 bedroom, 1 non-functioning bathroom, a defunct kitchen, and literally every surface needed an overhaul, but it oozed cottage charm. The visionary in me screamed, "Potential!" and we bought it as I clung to the dream of my quaint cottage home.
When we bought the house we planned to add on and worked with a builder for three months before we learned that it wouldn't be a financially prudent investment for us. At that point in time I was four months pregnant and really felt the need to make our house inhabitable. So we began years of projects that included resurfacing all the wood floors, completely remodeling the bathroom and kitchen, framing a second bedroom, and remodeling the basement among other things. The inside of our house has been darling and completely new now for some time, but the outside looks the exact same. The. exact. same.
So this summer we began tackling our yard. There was no sense in us doing much work until the end of June when our travels were through, but since then we've been hitting it hard. We're following the landscape plans I designed in my residential landscape class and it's been rewarding to see it taking shape. We likely have another solid month of yard stuff to do before I can post complete before and after pictures, but here are some teasers of the work we've done in the past three weeks.
We had a digger come pull out the ginormous tree stump that was in our front yard. The tree was dead when we bought the house, but got uglier each year as the leaves became sparser and sparser. The icing on the fancy cake came when about 14 crows made it their hang out and would perch there all day. Nothing like a dead, bald tree adorned with crows to welcome people to your house.
E got to sit in the digger and it was one of the happiest moments of his life. He still asks me every morning if he can ride the digger that day.
The weekend after the stump came out T rented a CAT and worked on leveling our dirt plot all day. It's a difficult machine to operate and it didn't help that our ground is barren, dry sand.
T when his work on the CAT was done.
(Note the mexi stache, please.)
Wish us luck, strong muscles, and high UV protection as we continue our yard work. Stay tuned for final results postings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)