Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!! The Drane's and Malone's all met in D-Town for a fun filled weekend. We spent the weekend at a hotel formally known as the Holiday Inn with Renee and her family. We ate and we ate and we ate! We didn't get much sleep, we had alot of catching up to do and alot of card playing. Spades was the game of choice with an occasional Bid Wiz thrown in. Word to the wise, don't play with the Drane kids (Ron & Renee), you'll have an unfair advantage cuz they grew up on cards..... Andrea and Gary gave them a run for their money... although no money was to be had... The kids had a blast and didn't seem to care that we were paying no attention to them due to SPADES!!! An occasional hug to them for being so tired. The average bedtime for everyone was 1am... YIKES... Well, they're in bed now at 6pm so they can get to school on time tomorrow.

The first photo was from last year. It looked much the same this year, my camera was out of commission I had to buy a battery charger... The second photo is of Dominique & KJ. The 3rd, Olivia and Dominique were playing in Amaya's room. The 4th is Mommy and Daughter (Renee & Dominique) The last photo is the cousins goofing off at the water fountain the last night at the hotel.

"Moms Night Out" Mothers & More style

Last night a group of moms from our Mothers and More local chapter went out to dinner at a local Japanese restaurant. What a blast. We try to get together once a month if not more to wind down and talk without having the kids around. Here are a few photos of our evening.

Monday Blah's

It's Monday morning and the kids are at school. Well, not anymore, I just picked up Caleb from Kindergarden. He had a temp of 101.2. He's so sad and sweet when he's sick :(

I'm done with the red on the walls and I need to do the baseboards. I'm taking a break. I will start the dining room tomorrow night. Today I'm catching up on the laundry, dishes, floors and LAUNDRY... It's funny how things pile up when all I did last week was paint. This is the blah part of today!

Ron and I bagged 30 bags of leaves yesterday ALL DAY. It went pretty easy this year because I bought a twin bag leaf/grass collector for my riding lawn mower. It's pretty cool, the unit attaches to the back of the tractor and blows the leaves through a chute into the bags in the back. The only drawback is I can't go very long w/o stopping and emptying the bags. What would have taken 5 days of raking and bagging, took a day. We still have about 20 more bags to do, but I feel empowered that we won't exhaust ourselves with this fall chore. It was the best investment this year :) The kids enjoyed themselves in the yard, but missed daddy taking them to the "Building Park".

Progress

The room is now RED... I normally scrapbook on Wednesday nights and rarely do I miss the opportunity to get out of the house to laugh and compare kid stories... But on this particular night, Ron was gone... So ON goes the red paint and 5 hours later (breaks included), the room was finished with the first coat... I swear, If I was paid by the hour, I would have Christmas paid for TWICE!!!!.. Hum...

OK, so it's late and I'm tired, but I love progress and I won't quit until it's finished!!!!

BTW.. I thought the kids felt neglected, HA... Caleb came downstairs about 12am and was disappointed that I started to paint the room red while he was asleep. He really LOVES to watch me paint... I assured him that he can watch me tomorrow....... ahhhhhh

A piece of History

I have 8 half windows I am willing to give away to my friends and family. 4 are already spoken for (Sister Karen, Sister Karla, Dad, and Mary). These make GREAT wall hangings. You can put photos in them or take out the glass panes and replace with mirrors, or you can just leave them blank... Oh the possibilities... So, if and when you read this, just leave a comment and I will make sure you get one. I want to wait to give them to you until after Thanksgiving, that is when my upstairs window will be done.

A brief history of these windows... Our house was built early 1900's and the windows are original to this house. I was going to donate them to PACA, but they sell the windows and I would rather see them in my friends homes.

ANYTHING by Olivia

While I was painting... ha ha... I couldn't see what Olivia was doing so I said "Olivia, please don't get into ANYTHING". She said OK.. after about 2 seconds, I heard a rattle and I asked her "Olivia, what did you get into?" She said "Anything"... I busted out laughing and now this is her favorite buzzword...... She really does get into EVERYTHING that she calls ANYTHING!

Painting...

I am painting and painting and painting... I can't wait till its OVER!!! We just got new windows so I took the opportunity to paint my living room and dining room. O what a chore.... So far I have only primed my walls, painted the crown moldings and the new windows. The windows in the living room are DONE, well we have two more to replace... yikes... The big ones are next... I will post a picture when I get the energy to bring my camera up :)

Talk about laundry..... I can't get any housework done while I'm painting... Ron is out of town for a funeral and the kids are going stir crazy cuz I'm painting... I bet you can't guess what I'm doing tomorrw... The fumes are getting to me!!!

The almost Red Room

I am finally painting my living room "FLAG" by Eddie Bauer. The dining room will be a mushroom and hopefully my hallway upstairs will be mushroom also. I have been inspired by my friend Debby on the colors and our NEW windows... And of course Joanna whose house looks AWESOME in Red!!!! And Caroline, I love your red living room :)

We are finally making the much needed home improvements by getting new windows and rebuilding the front porch, and replacing all of the warp boards on our stucco house. Mike, my contractractor, has officially moved in with us :)

For the soon to be red walls, I had to put a coat of primer on first. Home Depot tinted the primer Mauve for me so don't puke when you see the walls at this point.. Well, I'm hoping for the best and wish me luck. I have trim and windows to do too :(

Leaves

Caleb & Tyler did not have school on Monday. To release some energy, they raked and jumped in leaves. They had the time of their lives. I just wish I had 1/10th of their energy to bag these leaves!!!