What a weekend!

This weekend has been a blur!  Busy, but very productive.

I didn't get home from work until around 10:45 on Friday night - we'll skim over that since it still infuriates me....

Saturday morning we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel & Corry chose a "paint your own birdhouse" kit.  The finished product is hanging on a tree in our front yard

I was cleaning out the inside of the Saturn & the kids decided to have some fun with the hose

After cleaning out the car & playing in the hose, I decided to start in on my least favorite task....laundry.  Much to my pleasure...er, I mean dismay, water started pouring from the bottom of the washing machine.  I have wanted for so long to rid our family of the washer & dryer from college days, but since they were still functioning, and there were other financial priorities in life, they had to stay.  I asked Jimmy to take a look at the hoses to see if maybe one had come loose or something.  I am thrilled to report that the washing machine finally bit the dust!  Grandma Connie came over to entertain the kids so Jimmy & I could shop for a new washer & dryer.  They will be delivered tomorrow!

So long dinosaurs - you will not be missed

The laundry room anxsiously awaits the new arrivals.

Jimmy did a little hanging of decor in the bathroom - there's  more, but it's really hard to get good shots in such a small space...

A nice clean Saturn - but something I did caused the inside to smell like a toxic waste dump, so it's airing out.  Hopefully it will smell better tomorrow.

We did lots of yard work today - sprayed round-up on the weeds in the flower bed, edged, weedeated, mowed, and Corry & I planted some gerber daisies

And Jimmy's spreading weed & feed - I don't think I need to point out what was about to occur with his left hand.

Corry & Drew were wiped out after our busy afternoon, so they decided to lay on the couch & catch up on some cartoons.

Maddie & Mocha got some new dog beds this weekend - the old ones were stinky!  I may try to run them through the new washer & dryer when it arrives and see if they can be salvaged.  If they still smell like dog - they're out of here!

And I just had to take this one - as I was uploading pictures to the blog, I looked over & caught a glimpse of these two.

Corry is the "Star of the Week" this week, so we'll  get to go to her class on Friday for family day.  The kids also both have dentist appointments on Wednesday.  Corry's 2 bottom front teeth are starting to wiggle (ever so slightly).  Can't wait to hear what the dentist has to say!

Mocha Time

Mocha's always in the middle of all the action, so I thought I'd try to get some pics with the kids - easier said than done, but here are a few from the evening:

Do you think Meemers looks a little crazed?

Not supposed to be jumping on the bed, but since she's been pretty pitiful lately, I was just happy to see her with some energy!

Little man

My upholstery project

Anyone who has been to our house recently has had the displeasure of seeing our horribly stained, nasty kitchen table chairs. When Jimmy & I purchased the kitchen table & chairs in 1999, we didn't think through the possibility of one day having two precious, yet horribly messy children to destroy the upholstered chairs.

This weekend I recovered them - my first time to do it solo!

A stack of cushions with the new material (same material from the kitchen valances)

The  naked chairs

A nice new, clean cushion

And to ensure they stay looking nice, at least for a little while....the hideously tacky, white trash, plastic chair protectors.  Anyone ever seen the episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" when Marie finally takes the plastic off the living room couch?  Deachi, Jimmy & I all thought of this after admiring our new plastic.

And....for future reference, if you take the old material off, run it through the washing machine & dryer, it comes out looking BRAND NEW.  I NEVER would have thought anything could salvage or restore the old material.  They may just make another appearance on some bartstools that need recovering.  However, they are plaid, so I'm pretty sure I'd need to enlist the help of Grandma Chebs in order to keep them from looking like I did them.

Chalkboard Paint

Just before Drew was born we converted one of the spare bedrooms into a playroom. Jimmy put up a chair rail & we painted the bottom portion of the walls with chalkboard paint. We have never told the kids because we wanted to wait until we thought they were old enough to understand that this is the ONLY place it is acceptable to color on the walls. I'm sure Corry gets it - not positive on Drew, but man were they excited to get busy decorating the room!

The Stairwell!

Woo Hoo!  We've lived in our house since August of 2004 & the Stairwell has been naked the whole time.  I finally found something I liked to jazz it up a bit.  Thanks to Jimmy everything is hung and very level.

One of my busiest days off ever - very boring post, FYI

I took the day off today & was going full speed ahead until about 8:00 this evening.  I'm mad at myself for not bringing a camera, but Mom took some pictures, so hopefully she'll share them.

I kicked off the morning by picking up the Paynes & taking Corry to school while Mom went to a doctor's appointment...after dropping Corry off, Mom was finished with ther appointment so I dropped the Paynes off with her & Drew & I went out for some breakfast.

After breakfast Drew got his haircut, then we headed to Wal-Mart for him to choose the cupcakes for his big 1/2 birthday celebration at school tomorrow.  His teacher will probably hate me since he chose very darkly colored rainbow cupcakes.  I'm sure there will be lots of colorful faces in his classroom tomorrow.

After dropping off the cupcakes at home Drew & I headed to the Main Event for a bowling & pizza play date with his school friends.  I am Drew's class's social coordinator (how ironic since I am the most anti-social person in my family!)  Lindsay's mom, Susan, is the event coordinator at Main Event, so she was able to hook up the kiddos with $5 bowling, free shoes & some game cards.  We had a great turn out for the play date & everyone seemed to have a fun time.

After bowling Drew & I picked up Corry from school - dropped their things off at home & then headed over to Mom's house.  I had a doctor's appointment, so they hung out with Mom for a bit.  When I came to pick them up we decided to take the dogs for a walk to the pond & feed the catfish & turtles.  We noticed that the VW had a flat tire when we were returning from our walk.

After our walk, we headed home for a bit then did our usual Wednesday night Wings N More/Kids Eat Free dinner, then back over to Mom's house so Jimmy could change the flat on the VW.  It's quite interesting trying to change a tire on a car that old, but Jimmy, being the genius that he is, was able to manage.

We had to stop at Wal-Mart again to get stuff for lunches & finally made it home for the evening.  I'm beat!  I'm not sure I could handle too many crazy busy days like that.

One thing that I am more convinced of than ever - Drew was meant to be an only child.  He was an angel 99.8% of the day.

The Dress

Corry & I got our hair cut the other day.  I talked her into letting them wash her hair before cutting it, promising her she would enjoy it.  It was a less than enjoyable experience for her since the sink hurt her neck and made her cry.....so to make it up to her I took her to Kohls to choose a few spring clothes.  All she wanted were dresses.  Right after we got the spring clothes the cold front came through & she hasn't been able to wear any of them.  In fashion reality, I suppose she shouldn't be wearing these until after Easter, but there's absolutely no way I could make her wait any longer.

Every day for 2 weeks she's BEGGED to wear this new dress.  With it being in the 70s today, she finally got her wish.  School rules are tennis shoes are required - so here she is in her sweet little dress she chose all on her own, & a pair of raggedy old tennis shoes.

Wii Fit Nick Jr. & Toy Story Mania for Wii

For Valentine's Day we got the kids each a Wii game. All the Wii games we have are for adults, so I thought it might be fun to get them some games so we could all play together.

The jury is still out on whether or not this was a good idea.

The Nick Jr Wii Fit seems to be a little less aggrevating for Corry than the Toy Story one. Some parts of the Toy Story one Corry enjoys, but other parts are so maddening she feels it necessary to throw the Wii remote across the room in a state of pure rage. She is such a perfectionist she gets sooooo mad if she isn't the best, or if she can't quite grasp all the concepts of the game. We'll work on her....

Drew makes me nuts because he's constantly wanting to test the games to see if his motions really make a difference or not. He wants to do things the Drew way.

Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Corry rowing Diego to the finish line

Drew watching Corry get her workout

Jumping Jacks

He was supposed to be doing squats, but instead decided to see if Pablo would continue to squat even though he wasn't...the answer is, yes, Pablo does continue to squat, just not as fast.

Happy Birthday Grandma "Ois"

Matt's mom celebrates her birthday on Valentine's Day. We all got together at the Payne's on Saturday night to celebrate a couple days early. Here are a few pictures from the evening!

I think Corry's tired of Drew getting all the fun photo-ops, so she stole one of his and insisted I take her picture.

Grandma "Ois" had red velvet heart shaped cake sandwiches for her 29th birthday

Corry & Granmda Lois

My little tweedies!

A horrible picture of Drew, but the only one I have from the party.  Like his tatoos?  Corry decorated him.

About the best shot I have of Mr. Mix Mix.  He would NOT look at the camera.