What the cadets have been up to.

Here's Andy awaiting another O-flight, his fifth maybe?  Or he might just be looking cool standing in front of it.  But that yellow vest indicates he's been busy keeping the tarmac a safe place.

Abi with a couple of extras hanging out in our kitchen.  They are either done or getting ready to go present the colors at a truck pull.  Would somebody close those cupboard doors?

Abi is donning her dress blues here waiting in line to ride the farris wheel.

something must have been funny

Don't they look so sharp?

The Color guard has been able to perform for a crowd several times this summer.  Here's Andy taking a self portrait of his "gobsmackingly" good looks.  The celebrity status is going to their heads!  The practice in front of a crowd has been great though because they want to go to competition in the spring.

More hanging out in my kitchen with the doors open!

The bitter-sweet event of the firstborn moving out

This day had been a long time coming.........our oldest has moved out into his own place.  We had plenty of help to move the 15-20 items.  We our very proud of him and how he has pursued his higher education without flinching.  While he has done much of it online and worked fulltime to pay for it himself, the time came to move closer to the school for the rest of the program and hands on learning and class time.  God blessed him with a $1000 scholorship to boot.

He's usually doing something like this.  This "side interest" may have landed him his new job to help get through school.  We are proud of what you have become and we love you very much.

Abi's presentation at 4-H

Because we just didn't have enough going on, I signed Abi up for 4-H.  (That was sarcasm in case you couldn't tell.)  There is one boy in the group and the rest are girls.  They are encouraged to give a presentation of some sort at the meetings.  I think this is just great.  The home school group I tried to form years ago (which disintegrated before it started) was suppose to do this.  Ok, without further delay.......

Introducing herself with a clear voice, she pulled this off with confidence.  She showed a room full of mostly girls and one boy how to make tassels and pom poms from yarn.

I think it was pretty good idea and she did a good job.

She's almost 14 in this picture.

The Floor is Done!!!!!

I have decided to share my floor project on DIY blog link party.  See older post for the progress/process or use the "kitchen remodel" label.

As you can see, I need to replace the glass on the stove front and fill in the tile backsplash.  We're getting to that!

this shot taken from the nook (above)

taken from the doorway

from the half bath

Abi is glad I'm done.  I am too.

another from the bathroom

a close up of some of the more dramatic results.  I really like this spot.  It turned out great and it is soooo washable!

Painting the contrasting color......

If you look really hard you can see penciled lines.  I made a template of a diamond shape and traced it over and over.  I started down the center using one of the seams in the wood and worked out from there.

I was using painters tape at first but it took way too much time.  The corners had to be cut exact with a razor blade.  So I abandoned that and just free handed the green painted diamonds.

More green diamonds!  Looking pretty cool at this point.  I think I quit for the day at this point.  These green diamonds took me three days.  Hard on the legs and back.

By now I was curious about how the glaze would look so I tried some in the corner.  People said it looked like "smeered mud", "spilled coffee" and "chocolate milk".

Almost done with the green.  I still had to save the bath, pantry and a little bit more for another day.  It was just that exhausting!

A big sigh of relief after all the green was done.

The Process of Painting a Floor! BEFORE/and then PRIMER

Here is before I really got started.  The fridge had been removed.  You can see on the floor where an island used to be.  We removed that two springs ago!  The stove was also there, explaining the greesy streaks running down the wall.

There is a half bath right off the kitchen and all the floor is the same.  I also painted this, so the toilet had to be removed too.

This is the eat in nook part of the kitchen.  You can see here just how bad the floor really is.  Something needed done!

Shooting from the half bath this is after the first primer coat.

Now from the nook, you can see where the stove belongs.  Also where the fridge was-two springs ago!

Fast Forward on the Floor!

I can't find all my pictures at the moment, so I'll post what the floor looks like now.  I'll have to do some before/and afters after I find them.  This picture shows the design painted and then the gel stain/glaze.  I still

need to top coat......about 4 or 5 times.  The green took me 3 days, which was way longer than I expected!  It was brutal being down on the floor like that.  I started out using tape which had to be razor cut for each corner.  Then it was peeling up the paint.  So I went to just free handing after I drew the lines with pencil.

Next step on the floor

I believe all these pictures are after the first coat of a slightly beige tinted primer base.  It's really almost white.  After these pictures a second coat was done and tonight I will work on putting on the lines for the diamond pattern.   

Ultimately, we will have green and white diamonds with a walnut stain glaze overtop.  You should be able to see all the lines pronounced by the stain.  Maybe some distressing, we'll have to see.  Stay tuned!

Painting the Kitchen Floor, Finally!

I thought I'd never find the time to get this done.  But.....Husband and kids, except the big one, are at military camp.  So the house is almost empty and there's no one to cook for, for the most part.  This equals the perfect opportunity and possibly my ONLY opportunity.  I wasn't scheduled to work either.  Small miracle, I tell ya!

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At this point my back and legs are killing me and the dog was really wondering why he couldn't wander the house like always.  Above I'm standing in the kitchen nook looking toward where the stove should be.

You can see the very warn path and where the stove used to be back a year and half ago.  Things just take me too long!  The fridge goes there now. 

Proof that we are still eating well, whatever we can grill.  If you can't tell, this is shrimp, yellow and orange peppers and stuffed jalapenos.  We had it with alvacado and tortillas.

Another before shot.  Looks like this was the scrub and patch mode!  More tomorrow!

birds, flowers, and blueglass

We had this hanging on the porch and propped it up in this bush after the bird house started to fall apart.  The eggs hatched and we have been watching and listening for days!  Not the first time we've done that, but nature never gets old.

brought some fragrant peonies in the house.  had the "love thy neighbor" sign for a long time and recently gave it the ol' shabby chic look.

the whole mantle with my crusty/moldy water color from last summer's garage sales

Pictures from Mother's Day 2012

Went out for a nice lunch after picking up Nanny.  Grandma spent the day before with us at Eppley.

Mama's Tech Seargents

The boys were promoted recently.  They are now both Tech Seargents, which means they are the second highest ranking cadets now.  Wow.  Here's a picture.  Abi is standing by-all in uniform.

Last Saturday we toured Eppley Airport and got to go up into the control tower.  Then we went to another radar facility nearby that handles regional aircraft control.  It was very impressive!  Aircraft control is a big subject.

His Little Feet and Cousin Kourtny

This is The Little Feet orphan choir that K.P. travels with.  We went to see their presentation a couple of weeks ago.  If was very tear producing, made you want to take one home. 

The kids with cousin K.P., which we had not seen in years!

another shot, so you could see a cheezy grin on each of them

Bruce and me with niece.  Not a bad picture.  Might have to crop you out Kourtny, along with my gut.