Explanations

It's been a while since I blogged.

I don't have much excuse before July, but during the second half of July, all of August, and the first week of September, I've been out of town.

My grandparents own apartments in Idaho, and for the last few years during the break between semesters, I've been going to help them clean and renovate the apartments.

My parents, who live nearby, kindly agree to watch Kevin while I help my aunt and some of my siblings get the apartments ready. This usually involves painting, patching, cleaning, and repairing the apartments. We were hoping to tile three upstairs bathrooms too, but due to a few unexpected projects, we were only able to tile one of the bathrooms we had been hoping to work on.

It ended up looking pretty awesome though. :)

This year, I worked with my Dad, my youngest brother, my aunt, and my two sisters who are twins. Everyone worked really hard. Half way through, my dad (who is a principal) and my brother (who is a sophomore in high school) started school and had to leave. It was nice to work with them for a while.

Grig had to stay in Utah because of his job (which we're really grateful that he has), and so I got a little homesick sometimes for him and our house. I also missed my two dogs. One weekend, Grig had to bring them up because I needed to see them. Siff has grown quite a bit!

However, it was really nice to be around my family for so long. We live away from them, and sometimes I don't realize how much I am missing. Returning home was a bit bittersweet. It was hard to be away from home so long, and I was super excited to return with Grig. Kevin was excited too.

When I told him that we would be going home with Daddy, he looked at me and asked, in the sweetest tone, "Can I come with you?" Naturally, we told him yes.

However, as we prepared to leave and I stood at the top of the stairs and just watched my family talk and laugh together, I became a little emotional.

I love my home, my family, and my life, and I know we're where we're supposed to be. However, that doesn't mean that I don't regret sometimes that we live so far away. Compared to Grig's family, we're pretty close, but we still aren't able to go visit as often as I would like to.

I don't know how many more summers were going to be able to do this, but it is a blessing in many ways. It's a great chance to reconnect with my siblings and for Kevin to play with his cousins. Even if we can't come for six weeks next year, it would be nice to at least come for one.

Who knows? Maybe next year everyone won't be so stressed with wedding preparations.

The wedding went well too. Right after we finished, my youngest sister was married. She and her husband made a beautiful couple, and we're excited to have him join the family. He and my husband share a name and an occupation, so it can be a little confusing, but he's a nice guy.

Now, I don't have any unmarried sisters. My two youngest brothers are still available though, in case anyone was wondering. One's on in a mission in Chile, and the other is still in high school. My parents have had a wedding every year for the last six years.

I don't think they'd mind a little bit of a break.

It is really nice to be home, and hopefully back on a good schedule. We had a really good Stake Conference yesterday and Saturday night that I want to talk about a little tomorrow. It helped me set some new goals that I am going to really try to keep.

Kevin's been pretty happy to be home too.

More Projects

It's been an eventful few weeks. I finished my second draft of my book! That was pretty awesome, but then I suddenly found I had more free time while some friends of mine are reading it to give me some feedback.

So, we've been working on other projects. Aside from working on massive amounts of cherries, we've found other things to keep us busy.

Kevin's room has a fun mural on it. A while ago, I went through his room and patched all the holes up. We were intending to paint the rest of the walls, but I've been meaning to restore the mural for a while. I didn't remember to take the before picture until I was halfway done, but you can still see quite a few white patches all over.

I wasn't sure how well I'd do, since I haven't done a restoration-type project before, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to match the colors on nearly everything except the sky, but I like the way that turned out too. You can't even tell I did anything in the other areas, which is the best kind of restoration. 

We also have raspberries coming in! We don't get many from our few bushes, but we're getting a few. They don't last very long. They're pretty popular in the house. I haven't really been able to do anything with them yet, because they disappear too fast.

It's nice to have free fresh fruit though.

The next project that we started and finished on Monday occurred in the front yard. When the appraiser came to our house, he suggested that we put shallow window wells outside of the front basement windows. We've been thinking about it for a while, but it wasn't until this week that I figured out how I wanted to do it. We made our own wells (because we can't afford the metal kind yet).

I think they turned out quite nice. Now we just need to plant flowers and our front flower garden should be on its way! Also, if there is a random flood, the water shouldn't be able to come in our windows.

The most recent project involved our puppy, Siff. She's a Norwegian Elkhound, so she's been awfully hot lately, with almost no signs of shedding her large coat.

It's no wonder she's been loving the water!

Look at that beautiful coat!

So, today I decided she needed a haircut. She's pretty excited about it, even though she now resembles a sheep.

 My clipper blades are dull, so I cut her entire coat with scissors. I think it turned out pretty nice. I got it mostly even, and she's so soft now. It's like touching a cloud. She's been panting a lot less, and she seems much more comfortable.

It is going to take us a little while to get used to her new looks. Arkhon groomed her for a while after I finished. I'm not quite sure what that meant, except that he loves his little sister.

Today was also Arkhon's birthday!

He turned two, and so for the only time during the entire year, he got to sit at the table (just while I took a picture).

Allopex suggested I give Arkhon a party hat. So I did.

I made him a rabbit cake out of a dog biscuit I have. Then we bought some canned dog food and spread it across like frosting. I also stuck two dog bones in for candles. He and Siff sure enjoyed their cake.

Weirdly, we didn't want any.

Arkhon got a couple of presents, but I think the cake was his favorite part. 

It's been nice to get so many things done. It's weird that our boy dog is two now. It seems like it's been forever since he looked like this:

Now, he looks like this:

He's such a good boy. He listens really well, most of the time. Occasionally, he gets too excited and his ears switch off, but when he hears us, he always listens. He and Kevin are best friends, and he is so tolerant and patient. It's crazy how time has flown.

They Grow Up so Fast

Last night, I stayed up way too late looking at family pictures from the last five years. It was really fun to watch the progression of our family.

It's hard to believe that Kevin used to look like this:

And now he is so grown up!

The other day, I left Kevin alone for a minute while I finished a project. It was nearly lunchtime, so I asked him if he wanted to come with me, but he said, "No." I turned on a show for a minute and then I went to work. When I came back ten minutes later, Kevin had pulled out some (previously cooked) pancakes, slathered butter on them, and then was eating them with leftover syrup from breakfast. I was pretty amazed that he had made himself lunch. I couldn't believe he was old enough to do that. 

Someone has told me that if you painted red rocks to look like strawberries before your actual strawberries ripen, the birds will peck at the rocks and leave the strawberries alone later. So, I decided to try it. Kevin and I gathered some rocks from outside and he helped me. He did really well. We'd paint most of the rock red, and then put green on the part that we didn't paint. Kevin did really well at being careful and trying to keep the paint in the right place. Then he helped me dot the strawberry with little yellow dots. 

 I think they turned out great! Those birds are going to be fooled for sure!

Don't they look real?

It was also amazing to realize that Arkhon isn't even two yet. He turns two this year. It's crazy to believe that he used to look like this:

He's such a handsome, lean animal. He used to be this chubby little puppy, but now he's super-fast and strong. 

People always comment on how obedient he is as well. He and Kevin are such good friends. Arkhon is a very expressive fellow. His face speaks volumes, and I nearly always know exactly what he's saying. 

It was also crazy to realize that Siff is nearly six months old. I haven't been as good at blogging lately, but it's been really neat to see how fast she's progressed. 

She's changed quite a bit to, from this: 

To this:

She weighs more than Kevin now. He hasn't been able to pick her up in a couple of months. 

I'm convinced we have the best dogs in the world. 

They listen really well, and though their training isn't complete, they are doing really well. Arkhon's about 90% where I'd like him, and Siff is about 75%. It's fun to seen how much mental development has been occurring with her. Before the last couple weeks, when I'd be trying to express my disapproval with her actions, she would continue to have the goofy puppy look on her face. Then, within the last couple of weeks, she suddenly has come to recognize my body language. Now she responds to it, and it's been great to see that progression. 

Kevin was playing with the dogs in the backyard the other day, and I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was fighting zombies. I asked him who the zombies were. He told me that Siff was the zombie. I asked if Arkhon was a zombie to. 

"No," he said, "Arkhon's my dog." Evidently Arkhon and Kevin were ganging up on Siff. That was kind of funny, but I told them to be nice to her. Sometimes they act so much like siblings. 

Stop picking on your baby sister! ;)

Things have been pretty awesome. Part of the reason that I haven't been blogging as well lately is because I've been working on my book more. I'm really close to finishing the second draft. I'm really liking how it is turning out and should be ready for some beta readers soon. (I think that's the right term for it, I'm still new to the whole writer's slang thing.)

Pink Room of Death

Ever since we bought this home, there has been one room that I have rather strongly disliked.

I call it "The Pink Room of Death."

Obviously, it wasn't a deal breaker for me, but I definitely wanted to change it. As you can see from the pictures below, the walls had been painted a rather interesting shade of pink. If that wasn't bad enough, the door, random rain gutter (who knows why that was there), and shelves had been painted a deep red.

This is a picture from when we first moved in. It's a pretty grainy picture, but I'd already removed the rain gutter in the other pictures I took. 

Then, on top of the clashing pink and red, the trim near the ceiling had been painted black with gold spotting. 

Yuck.

These pictures were taken right before I began painting. 

I started painting before everything went crazy, and I had been hoping to have the room painted for Grig's sister before she went back to Virginia. However, after her first surgery, I decided she didn't need the added distress of the paint smell, so I left it alone until she was gone. Then, while the room was cleared out, I spent the next week slowly working on it before Grig's brother moved in.

Here is the completed project:

I really like the way the closet turned out.

I think it looks quite nice. Part of the reason we chose the teal was to cover up the black paint. We knew we could do that with fewer coats if we didn't use white on the trim. I really like the color.

I finished painting Friday night, and one of Grig's brothers moved in the next day. They now each have their own room, which is a lot better for them. They were pretty crammed with all their stuff in one room.

Well, that's one more project off my list. Now on to the next thing.

We're doing pretty well. Kevin woke up yesterday morning and wanted to use the potty, and that was pretty exciting. So, he got to wear his underwear most of the day. He didn't have one accident, but when we went outside to play, we thought we'd better put a diaper back on. Hopefully he wants to use the potty again today.

He and Arkhon are adjusting well to Dakota being gone. I think they miss her sometimes, but they are both exuberant and things don't keep them down for long.

We are thinking about getting another dog, but until Grig gets a new job, we can't take on any more expenses. So, we wait and enjoy the dog that we have.

Isn't he handsome?

He is quite a good dog. He's been digging in the backyard, which drives me crazy, but I finally caught him at it yesterday, and was able to tell him off. Dogs, like kids, need to be caught in the act. You can't chastise them for something that they did hours before. They won't know why they're in trouble, and so they'll associate the correction with something else. I need to catch him a few more times, and then I think he'll get that he's not supposed to dig.

Other than the digging, he has very few foibles. He does tend to get over-excited when people come into the house, but we're working on that.

Kevin has learned to ride a tricycle. He's finally tall enough that his feet touch the pedals.

He was willing to wear this shirt, because he thought the treble clef was an "S" for superman.

He's growing up so fast! In just over a month, he'll turn three. That's pretty crazy. Where did my baby go?

This has been kind of a crazy year. There have been some pretty major trials, but also some major blessings. Who ever thought that we'd already own our own home?

We're pretty grateful for our many blessings, and I'm super glad to have that room painted. It's something I've been looking forward to for a long time.

Painting the Bathroom and Other Adventures

I was going to title this blog "Bathroom Adventures," but then I thought that might come off a little weird.

These two are sure happy to be together again.

Arkhon loves new toys! (Unfortunately, this one only lasted two days).

 Last weekend, we went by the store and bought some paint. Since working in the apartments, I have had a number of projects that I have wanted to accomplish around the house. The biggest two were painting the pink room of death, and the upstairs bathroom.

I finished painting the bathroom on Monday. Here are the before pictures:

This is what is looked like before. It was very yellow. I didn't really like that color, so we decided to paint it white with turquoise around the door frame. Here is the final result:

I personally think it looks a ton better. For some reason, my brothers-in-law enjoyed the yellow color, and they were slightly disappointed by the change. I told them they could paint their home that color.

I think it looks much better. It took me most of the morning. Kevin was pretty good while I was painting. At first, he was doing pretty good at helping me paint. Then, he started wanting to stick his hands on the freshly painted wall, so he had a bath. After a rather long bath, he finally told me he was done, which I don't think has ever happened before. I'm usually the one who tells him that he's done. He even let all the water out himself.

Then, he went out and watched "Wheels on the Bus," and other nursery rhymes while I finished. About the time I was cleaning up, he finally decided he had been patient enough. He wanted attention, right now!

The other big thing that almost happened this week, is we started potty training!

Without too many details, he made it all of one night and most of the morning in new superman big-boy underpants. Then, after two accidents in the afternoon, I decided he wasn't quite ready yet. He still doesn't tell me when he needs to go. I think we'll give it a few more weeks.

With all of that going on, it's been kind of crazy around here.