Master Makeover

Since Johnny has been gone for the last MONTH I developed a bad habit of putting off bedtime. I feel no desire to crawl into a cold empty bed. Despite being absolutely exhausted and knowing I need to sleep I still put if off. I decided that if I liked being in my bedroom I would be more prone to go to bed earlier.

  My bedroom makeover started with an old twin bedroom set my brother-in-law used when he was a kid.

My sister wanted the furniture out of her garage and I wanted free stuff. I started by stealing a chalk paint recipe from Pintrest (of course) and painted the dresser, desk, mirror, and headboard/footboard. The dresser is my favorite. I figured since the furniture was free and the paint was $10 per quart I would splurge on the knobs.

They were a total of $50. My little stinker Wesley took a hammer to the front of one of my desk drawers before I even put the knob on.

The headboard/footboard are being repurposed into a bench which is still being worked on in my garage. Boy its a good thing Johnny is on his way home this weekend, I need his hammer drill!

This bench at the end of the bed cost me $3 at a yard sale. The chevron fabric was on clearance for $2.50. 
A few staples and some batting remnants from other projects and I am in love with my bench! My boys like to lounge on it naked after their bath. Garrett thinks it is just the right size.

My king headboard is an old closet door that was on the way to the dump. My friend's husband let me pull it out of his trash trailer.

A little primer to cover the graffiti plus a clearance paint sample for the white and chrome spray paint for the chevron pattern. I did it for a total of $6! The deal is what makes it look so nice! I even used Johnny's circular saw to hack an old 2X6 in half to mount it to the bed frame. My dad stopped by when I was trying to level it and thought I was pretty entertaining.

 The bed skirt is a no sew idea I found on Pintrest. I used an old fitted sheet on the box springs, cut the material in strips and pulled it through slits I made in the sheet. The material was all in a bag given to me from an elderly woman at church. Can you tell I love stuff that is FREE. I think it turned out to be fun but I was concerned it was too feminine until I added the comforter. Now I love it.

The monogram lettering is on an old organization board. I picked it up for FREE at a church shop and swap.

Since I had scored a load of FREE burlap type fabric helping an elderly woman clean out her sewing supplies it only cost me .59 cents for the paint. I used carbon paper to transfer letters I printed off the computer, then I painted them while I watched Pitch Perfect (my goodness that movie was VULGAR but the singing was great).

Then I saw some awesome burlap covered storage boxes at Hobby Lobby for $25 each. I made my own out of empty pear boxes and my free fabric for (can you guess how much?) FREE! Now I have no piles in the corners of my room!


The only thing that stumped me was the color for the comforter. What would look good with teal and coral? What would make the room more masculine so Johnny wouldn't come home and think I had moved him out completely? My friend Ashley's amazing Christmas card inspired me when I saw it on the refrigerator. Navy and coral go so well together!


She has impeccable taste! I found this comforter at Marshall's for $29 along with the owl curtains for $20.
 I should have ironed the curtains before hanging them! I still plan on making throw pillows. I wish I could paint the walls a light silver color but this is a rental house. As of right now my total is about $140 including paint brushes and miscellaneous supplies. I raid my father's garage when I can't find what I need at home. As a last resort I run to Home Depot. I figure under $150 for a master bedroom makeover is a pretty sweet deal. I have had fun using Pintrest for ideas. Now the real question...have I started going to bed earlier? Um, no! I have all these projects to complete! Even when I do get to bed on time I usually turn the light on and off a few times. I like to just look at everything and think about how much money I didn't spend.

Eventually I will get to the other window coverings, some wall art, a chair for the desk, a rug, pictures in the frames, etc.

Full Circle

Now that school has started and we are back to a more normal routine I have felt a sense of relief wash over me. I have a ton of pictures from the end of summer I would love to post, but I loaned out my Kindle and along with it the cord I use to connect my phone to the computer...so no pictures for a bit.

As some already know my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in June. Her's was an invasive ductile carcinoma on the outside of her right side; almost under her arm pit. She had a radical bilateral mastectomy on the 5th due to many factors such as her age and the fact that the cancer was "triple negative" (meaning it was not treatable with hormone therapy). The past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. My mother is very matter-of-fact about health issues. At times I would feel numb and other times I would become extremely emotional. It had never occurred to me before that my mom was vulnerable. If you have met my mother you know why. She is Superwoman. She is the Supervisor of the County Health Department, the Relief Society President, runs my Dad's business, etc. She does it all. Even through knee surgeries and hip replacements she has never seemed to even slow down. This time is different.

Today I was in the back yard washing my mother's hair before helping her get dressed for an appointment to remove her drains, pain bags, and bandages. Wesley really liked when I gave his Mumzie (Grandma) a mohawk with the soap. I was taken by surprise as I overwhelmed by feeling the Spirit. All of a sudden washing my mom's hair became a very significant spiritual experience for me. As mothers we care for our children, they are our responsibility. We do everything for them and most of the time it is a thankless job. Today my life came full circle as I was able to do something so seemingly insignificant for my mother. All of a sudden the service that I give my children every day meant more to me as I was able to serve my mother after her lifetime of service to me. All of a sudden I can see clearly how the sacrifices my parents have made for me and the sacrifices I make in turn for my children are all part of my Savior's perfect plan.

My mother is doing well recovering and I am so thankful for the time I had with her today. What a great example she is to me! She will start chemotherapy in a few weeks. My boys are beyond excited that their grandparents will have matching bald heads. I am excited to see my mom after her implants. After losing so much weight I secretly want some too! (Gasp!)      

Hulse Update

Johnny is in Ely, NV. He tried to take our travel trailer up there to live in, but it blew a tire on the way out of town. The tire hit under the coach and ripped out the electrical, insulation, drain, and some of the siding. It also bent an axle. In 4-6 weeks and $4K later (thank goodness for insurance) Johnny will try to tow it out again. Until then he gets to stay in a hotel. Every once in a while he thinks its a good idea to sleep in his truck and shower at a gym. He gets frustrated paying for hotels and I have never met anyone as frugal (cheap) as Johnny. I keep telling him that sleeping in his truck is completely unnecessary but I think he secretly enjoys doing things that no one else his age would do willingly. While Johnny is working over 8 hours from home I am on my own with the kids during the LONG summer days. My parents try to help me when they can. Right now I actually have 5 under the age of 8 because my sister is traveling for work. Johnny came home this past weekend but he won't come home again until mid August. Each time he comes home it costs us $300+ in gas and almost 17 hours of drive time round trip. He gets to stay for about 33 hours.

Jaxon had an appointment with a GI from Rady Children's hospital (yes I did have all 5 kids in the room with me, ugh!). He will have an endoscopy in August to make sure his random vomiting is not being caused by one of the foods we added in so long ago. This will be endoscopy #6 if I remember correctly. The last 5 have been clean of any eosinophils and I have high hopes for this one as well.

Garrett was tongue tied when he was born, actually Daniel is the only one of my boys who was not. I think their little lizard tip tongues are so cute! Wesley and Jaxon just never had it to the extent of Garrett. At 18 months Wesley was talking in full sentences and could hold up a conversation, just as my nephew Toby can. Comparing Toby and Garrett who are almost the exact same age makes Garrett's lack of speech glaringly apparent.  Garrett is two and doesn't say his own name or I love you. He will say, down, up, Jack-Jack, nack (snack), wetwe (Wesley), and the normal Mom and Dad. He is becoming so frustrated when I don't understand what he is trying to say, even more than was typical for my other boys at age 2. He is so smart he will sing himself to sleep at night and will mimic any song after only hearing it once or twice. I love to listen as he sings the tune to twinkle-twinkle or the theme from the Lorax. When Garrett had his frenum clipped at 2 weeks old I was told he is actually tongue tethered. He has a thick band of muscle that goes horizontally around under his tongue. We have an appointment with an ENT coming soon to see if he will require further intervention or if he will just need speech therapy.
  
Life can be so overwhelming sometimes. I try to count my blessings every day. I know my life is so easy when compared to so many people. I look at the women around me and see how amazing they are with their husbands coming home every night from work and their well behaved children who never do anything remotely like mine do. I need to stop all the comparing!

Strawberries

On Tuesday I went with a group of people to a strawberry field in Ontario, CA. We were invited to help glean the field before it was plowed. There were so many strawberries it was overwhelming. In three hours "we" (meaning mostly me and a few of my boys on and off when they were not complaining, smearing lotion all over the seats in the car, or somehow locking our car in 4 wheel drive) picked 7 huge boxes. And when I say boxes I am talking Costco diaper size boxes. I had well over 100 pounds.

 After the harvest period and cleaning out my lotion covered car (there is still an outline of Garrett's face pressed on my passenger side window) we went to the closest splash park to cool off. 

Daniel wouldn't get out of the water long enough to get a picture!

After giving away large quantities of strawberries to 6 different friends and throwing out many that were smashed (because I should have used small shallow boxes & I had jury duty all day Wednesday) I now have 14 quarts of low sugar strawberry jam and 3 gallon size bags of dried fruit leather (plus the two gallon bags of apricot fruit leather and 6 quarts of apricot jam I made two weeks ago). Since I traded a lady for a huge box of Mason jars I think all of this cost me under $12 (plus the gas to get to Ontario and the man I am going to have to pay to clean up the strawberry my son smashed into the living room carpet)! Next week I help harvest my friend's plums.

I never want to see another strawberry again in my entire life...or at least not until we do this same thing again next year!

Jaxon's 6th B-day

Jaxon turned 6 on the 19th of June. I know I already posted about his party, but his birthday was too full of "fun" to not record it here.

On the 19th we went to the Idyllwild Nature Center for a short hike and picnic lunch with a group of moms from church. My friend (the mother of Jaxon's best friend from school) and her son came too but we didn't drive together. Jaxon wanted to ride with his friend and both of the boys were so excited to spend the day together.

Side note: Now recently Jaxon has been having poop "accidents" multiple times per day - this being significant because he is scared to poop, he says it hurts so he refuses to actually sit on the toilet. He holds it until he just can't any longer then only a little comes out and gets on his underwear, he smells disgusting, we clean it, I am frustrated, etc. When I say multiple times per day I mean 5-6! The pediatrician is not convinced it is EE related, maybe just a normal 6 year old kid thing to have to work through, but it may be contributing to his random vomiting, or so she says. So here is the important part, I gave him a dose of what Johnny calls MOM (Milk of Magnesia) before we left the house thinking it would help.

Half way up the mountain to Idyllwild I get a call from my friend stating Jaxon vomited all over the back of her car. We pull off the side of the mountain road to clean the mess and I say a silent prayer of thanks I had a full package of wet wipes on hand. It was a rough one! I think it was car sickness, maybe a mix of that and the MOM. Maybe EE? Who knows. We spend a half hour cleaning car seats, changing clothes, and laughing hysterically because of the situation. Luckily my friend was in a laughing mood! While we are cleaning up vomit Wesley pees his pants. Of course!

The hike was lovely but not peaceful (I have 4 boys). Most of the time I was telling them to stop and come back or "drop the stick!"

 Don't you just love how Jaxon and Wesley are styling in their "emergency bag" clothes?!

 Do you see Garrett sneaking off? Then Jaxon trying to stop him? Too funny!

 Garrett just loved this tree...isn't he so stinking cute?!

After the hike we all enjoyed lunch and some of my fresh batch of APRICOT FRUIT LEATHER! Do you know what apricot fruit leather does to bowel functions? Especially after a fresh dose of MOM??!!! In case you don't know, let me tell you!


For Jaxon's birthday he wanted to make a bear at Build-a-Bear so after dinner at Red Robin I took him on an outing, just the two of us.

No need for a diaper bag of course! I didn't have my baby with me! The smell of poop surrounded me halfway through the mall. We rushed to a family bathroom. It was everywhere! No amount of paper towels and garbage bags could save us. I didn't know what else to do but leave my poor, naked birthday boy locked in the family bathroom stall with strict instructions about never opening the door for anyone but me. I had to buy him some new clothes. Luckily Children's Place was close and I had a coupon!

In the end he was happy, clean, and had a camouflage bear in an Iron Man suite. At that point I was in no mood to take a picture! 6th birthday success!

Father's Day 2013

This year we made Johnny a shirt with a race track on the back so the boys can give him a back massage with their cars (stole the idea off Pintrest of course). On the front were their hand prints and a statement "Best Dad Hands Down."

 They also answered questions about him. Jaxon said Johnny is 33 years old, 10 feet tall, 104 pounds and his favorite food is cereal. Daniel said Johnny was only 3 feet tall. They both like it when he plays "ruf up" with them.

Johnny is an amazing husband and father. I am thankful for him each and every day. He is patient with not only the boys but all my craziness. He works hard and best of all has an amazing testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Johnny is a true example of faith, devotion, and love. I am so glad he is mine forever and always. I will be one happy Mamma if my boys turn out just like their Daddy!

Recent stuff...

Here are a few recent pictures from my world...

 Jaxon Kinder graduation.

 Play time outside.

 Natural History Museum LA.

 Butterfly Pavilion 2 the Natural History Museum LA.

 This is what it looks like when a little brother pushes his big brother's tub of Legos off the top of a bunk bed...of course he had his get away motorcycle close just in case.

 Learning to swim.

Wesley insisted on wearing this church vest over his jacket as his "Ninja Warrior" outfit. Go figure!