House made pretty 1

As we work on things, I'm going to start an on going post called House made pretty...

Steve has already tackled the front patio among other things in the house more fixing of things, but we decided to slowly and as time permits to do little projects.  A little background when we originally walked in we noticed the house was in nice neutral colors.  But after we moved in we noticed that the walls were all painted a flat paint which didn't go over well with a house with kids, so we matched the color in the living room and hall ways but in a semi-gloss.  Which looks nice but when the original owners painted the house they painted everything the same color including vents, trim, doors everything this same color, so my idea is to paint the trim to just pretty it up, and someday down the road if we ever replace the carpet we can then get new trim.  So far, so good.  So as I was starting this plan, I decided the bannister needed repainted, then I decided to do some techniques I had seen on do it yourself shows, and as I was going down the stairs I noticed....I have real wood stairs under the carept so the big project was born...Well this project here is all me!  hehe.  So I went to the store and bought myself my very own sander, safety glasses, stain and started pulling staples, started sanding down to bare wood, then I stained, then poly coated, and as I move through the house I'll just work on one project at a time.  I don't even want to begin to list my ideas, but lets just start with house made pretty 1


This is the bannister before, honey color




This is bannister after now brown




Faux wood design on top of bannister




another image of top of bannister and you can see the blue tape as I was prepping to go down the stairs




close up of the wood grain design done with paint




stairs before, all in honey color including all trims, stair trim, etc...




this is after all the staples had been pulled and the stairs sanded, beginning to stain




this is stain done, need to get a trim where the carpet ends still and a stair rail for holding on for little ones to save my walls from handprints...




stained stairs





now changed the trim by the stairs again did the design instead of solid brown




upclose of the trim around the stairs




matching trim at bottom and 1/2 way mark


And I continue on...just started the second stairway, so to be continued...

 . 

Some Anniversary Pic's.

Had a great night with Steve.  We all went out and had some yummy food and some really fun times. 

Steve's job at boys town.  This is so unusual and really takes someone very skilled to do these intricate designs.  Its pretty neat to see, so I snapped a few pictures so others can see.  Awesome job Stevie!  Your wifey is very impressed.  hehe.  I like the ones that kind go down diagonal. 

Rosie's first Preschool Fieldtrip

So took Rosie and Tony to the pumpkin patch and we had a great time, very cool place.  We had a great day and funnyit was the last day of summer the day we went!  haha.  This little boy pictured with Rosie has been trying to befriend her since we moved here, she finally let him touch her. haha.  She's doing quite well with preschool, she can recognize letters Aa-Gg and the numbers 1-7.  She knows all the shapes and colors, so she's progressing rather well.  Little Tony man was not thrilled at first but after a bit he really had a good time.  Everyone always wants to touch him and talk to him and some days he'd rather not bother.

Dear Steve,

Dear Stevie, Happy Anniversary, I love you very much.  18 years of awesome!  We have it all and I'm so blessed to have this life to share with you.  I love you.  I love you more and more each day.  The words "I love you" do not do justice for what my heart feels...its so much bigger than words.

Prayer for unborn in danger of abortion...

"Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love you very much;


I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child that I have spiritually adopted, and which is in danger of being aborted." Bishop Sheen



He recommended saying it for one whole year...



Wouldn't it be wonderful to meet in eternity a baby for whom you prayed for their life, and it was saved?

Promotion...

Very happy when Steve came home and told me that his talents have been noticed, his leadership, the quality of his work, and the connection he has leading the crew, and his is now running (as a foreman) for his current company.  The owner also said a raise would be included (not sure exactly how much but its whatever is scale for the union)

Very excited, Steve is a natural born leader and  it just speaks volumes when its noticed especially by peers and your boss! 

Proud of you Babe!

College World

So now that I have a husband and daughter in college and doing the research needed, one thing seems to be coming through loud and clear....liberal classes.  Socialogy is requirement for any degree.  Steve has had this class all quarter and lets just say he's a bit annoyed at the class! 

Recently talking to a few priests their advice to all high school students is to take a healthy dose of Theology and Philosophy during high school and that will prepare them to handle such anti Christian classes or teachers.  (Our kids have had 4 years of Theology by the time they graduate along with Philosophy)

This discussion for Steve's class was about gender roles, and he had to argue his point in its not ok, for little boys to be wearing dresses in public, mom's painting their toe nails in ad's showing how its acceptable now, and so forth.  And I believe all classmates but one agreed with him and posted further posts to collaberate what Steve was saying.  Steve is a great writer, and I'm enjoying reading his posts and entries as well as his projects.  Maybe he should be writing for the blog now!  hehe. 

Anyway, back to Carolyn--the other trend is extra time for classes.  Each of her classes are 4 hours long once a week.  But Carolyn had to schedule and additional hour each week on top of that to meet with the teacher individually.  Now in the case of this class which is ASL 1 (American Sign Language) I can see that it may be difficult for these teachers that teach this (that are by the way deaf) and the one on one with the students aids in the teaching of the language, but its really frustrating, when you are already taxed out with time to now have to change it all up and add yet another hour to an already long class.  But then the other issue I had was projects.  Why do teachers always want to do projects with other students.  Drives me crazy.  So my requirement is they can meet at the library with me close by, (I'll have to have some reading material handy) or they can meet at our house to do whatever project it is. 

I think week 2 we manuvered through the issues, and this is only the beginning!  haha.  I really will have gray hair when my last child graduates from college...

College Week One is over...

Well its busy life that's for sure.  Using a bit more money in gas than we had thought but the drive is a fairly easy one.  She's able to have dinner with us 2 of the 3 nights she goes and the 1 other night I just make her dinner early.  One of her classes seems very challenging but as she continues the other class will aid in it.  Challenge is good for Carolyn.  Anyhow so we are in the midst of very busy schedule and times right now.  I was pretty pooped by the end of the week. I'm sure its all about getting used to change.  I'm sure it will be much easier when she learns to drive and well enough to drive herself.  Anyway, I'm not wishing for that yet though, I guess I still like her needed her ol' Mom.

Keep up the good work Weezy! 

Girls PE class

Well I've been able to watch the girls a few times play football in their PE class.  I am happy about it.  The school needed a large van and asked and atleast its a little bit I can watch the kids play.  I've really enjoyed it.  All three girls have gotten touch downs.  Carolyn was punting the ball and Jaclyn actually caught an interception and ran for a touchdown.  Katelyn has really improved on catching.  Its probably about the first time I've been able to watch them during school hours and even though I'm only driving it does feed a desire I have to be involved in the kids school.  So I'm thankful for that. 

College Days have begun!

Our  first college kid! Can you hardly believe it? So Carolyn started at the area Community College today. She is doing a sign language interp. program that will transfer to Iowa Western Community next year. And is also working on the basics for a Secondary Education with a Math Endorcement. We decided to go the route of Community college to start with her for a few reasons. Her age is number one. She'll be 16 next month. She has all her credits for highschool but is waiting to walk with her class in May, so in the meantime will hammer out her freshmen year in college. So anyway, took her to school tonight, longest four hours of my life. not really but it was still a long four hours. haha. She has three classes this quarter, all in the evening and all 4 hour classes each one.




So for her first quarter she has Intro to Language, Intro to ASL, and ASL 1. We had to drop her English class until next quarter because Intro to Language has to coincide with Into to ASL. Anyhow, we chose evening courses so she can have her electives at Mater Dei so she can be around her classmates she will graduate with. So during the day she takes Theology, Spanish and P.E. (that's for fun) And that way, we could take her to school at night, be there when she gets out, with her age, we don't really want her hanging out at the college, if you get my drift.  

Mikey's Birthday 8/31/12 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com