Tool Time

Warning: this is a shameless bragging post about myself. 

We all have something we enjoy doing during our free time.  Something that takes us away from reality for a little bit and helps us recharge.  At least I hope we all do.  For years, my something was outdoor activities.  Chris and I spent countless hours rock climbing, wake boarding and snowboarding.  Then we moved away from Utah and realized that those activities were harder to get to and not always the best quality.  Then the kids came, and you can't exactly do those things with a child strapped to you and babysitters get expensive.  Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and wouldn't have it any other way.  I still had my books, but I wanted something else.  Something more physical I could do that would let me detach for a little bit.  About a year ago my friend told me about http://ana-white.com.  It's a website chuck full of DIY building projects.  It also has tons of versions of those projects and lots of good chat boards with people ready to answer any questions you have.  I spent hours on her website that first night and was drooling over the projects I could do.  I was ready to buy out Home Depot right then, but I found out you can't paint or prime or stain wood if the weather is below 50 degrees and it was December.  So I had to wait.  Finally, when it warmed up this spring I started my first project.  I turned my garage into my work area and very slowly I was able to get 4 projects done over the summer.  I realized very quickly that I couldn't work on anything when the kids were awake.  Cordon wanted to "help" and Eliza didn't like the noise. So my window of "project time" was pretty slim. I learned that it isn't as easy as I thought it would be, but they are functional and I loved doing it and I learned a lot from each build.  I'm already counting down the days until spring when I can do more.

 

Project 1: a library cart. I love this little reading, play area for the kids

 

Project 2: an end table I use for a TV stand.  I love the look of stained wood but It's very unforgiving.  Paint hides all my flaws but stain magnified them, especially the "stain able" wood filler.  It may be awhile before I attempt stain again. 

Project 3: Cordon's platform bed.  I really love this bed.  I love that it's low to the ground so Cordon can easily jump in and out and he no longer needs the safety rail. I called my dad a lot during this project.  I kept messing different things up and wouldn't know why. So i would text him a picture and he would tell me what I did wrong, how to fix it, and what building supply to buy to avoid that mistake again.  I love technology, and my dad

 

Project 4: I had some scrap wood and good weather, so I threw this together real fast.  I didn't follow a plan, which means it's pretty crappy, but it looks better then how we had Bud's food and water before.  

Auto Correct Gone Wrong

Things That Make Me Smile

*When I tell Cordon I need to do something to him that he doesn't want me to do (like clip his nails) he says "You don't want to do that!"

*As soon as Eliza hears a key in the door she looks towards the door, gets all excited and yells "DA DA!"

*Cordon tries to give commands to Bud and Bud just looks at him like "seriously? You think I'm going to obey you?"

*Eliza thinks everything can be turned into a necklace and tries to put any object she has around her neck. 

*Cordon tries to throw his food on Eliza's tray when he thinks I'm not looking, and she eats it as fast as she can before I take it away and give back to Cordon.

*Every morning when I'm doing Eliza's hair, she always puts down whatever she is playing with so she can fully admire herself in the mirror.

*Cordons latest game of "elevator." He informs me that it's time to get in the elevator then he will stand in a closet for a couple minutes.  That's it, he just stands there. 

*These Pictures-

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year.  Cordon is now old enough to understand holidays and get excited about them.  When we started talking about costumes I threw out a few ideas and the one that stuck was a farmer.  We just happened to have an old chicken costume so I threw that on Eliza and we had a cute little farmer and his chicken for Halloween. 

 

Bass Pro Shops offer free Halloween and Christmas photos.  They aren't the greatest quality but they are cute. 

 

Cordon really wanted to wear the chicken costume.  So I squeezed him into it and he ran around all excited, then realized it was very tight and begged me to quickly take it off.

 During our wards Truck or Treat, Eliza and Dad handed out candy while I took Cordon around the cars.  He did one quick loop then wanted to sit in the car and help dad. 

 On Halloween, Cordon was all set to dress up as a farmer again but I talked him into wearing the spaceman outfit instead because it's warmer and easier to spot at night.  He was so cute trick-or-treating.  He would ring the bell then run back to me.  When the door opened he would run back to the door and yell "trick-or-treat" as loud as he could.  As we walked to the next house he would say "I'm so excited." Check out the paper on the door.  Not only does Harrisburg have a specific day and time to trick -or-treat (usually the Thursday before, so kids don't get hurt during weekend traffic), but our apartment complex give us papers to put out if we are participating.  It makes it so organized and you don't have to worry about bothering anyone that doesn't want to hand out candy.

 Let me explain my costume. The morning of the Trunk or Treat I was outside spraying polyurethane on a headboard I had made.  Normally I am really good about wearing safety glasses but I got lazy this time because it was just a quick spray. Of course the wind decided to shift and I got blasted in the face with polyurethane.  My eyes started burning immediately, this made me a bit nervous. I read the back of the can and it said to flush eyes and immediately seek medical attention, this made me more nervous.  I called my Dr and they told me to get to an optometrist as fast as I could, that made me even more nervous.  I called the optometrist and they said the same thing, at this point I'm panicked and wondering if I was going to be blind. I got to the Dr's office, she looked at my eyes and said "oh, your eyes are sad." that is not what I wanted to hear.  Long story short, I did some pretty good damage but nothing permanent thank goodness.  I got a goody bag of eye drops and spent three days with blurry vision and a week of dried out eyes.  Imagine putting Vaseline in your eyes then trying to see and have a blow dryer constantly blowing in your eyes.  This of course brought on massive headaches and made it impossible to get anything done.  Anyways, what does this have to do with my costume you ask?  That first day, my eyes were incredibly sensitive to the light and they were all puffy and red so I was stuck with sun glasses.  Chris suggested I go as Ray Charles for Trunk or Treat but we didn't have anything that would work for the rest of the ensemble.  So I went as the next best thing, Chris.  Sunglasses, BYU, and headphones.  All that was missing was a Coke. 

Happy Halloween everyone!