The Finished Product

I had meant to take before pictures of everything, but that didn't happen. I did post some after our 1st home study in 2007 so that will give you an idea.


In the kitchen we painted all the cabinet fixtures, furnace vents and one of the door knobs just to see how they would turn out. It actually went really good until we put the first clear coating some of them. I would definitely do it again, but make sure to put the clear coat on very very lightly. I am going to finish all the doorknobs eventually. Right now the cold weather is messing with my spray painting plans.

Does anyone else have that much crap on their fridge?  I had a great aunt who covered every inch of her fridge with magnents and I hated it.  I swore I would never even own a magnet.  Then I had kids and my friends and family had kids....now I have a ton of magnets (since that is what Jay collects on our vacations) holding up a ton of pictures of my kids and other kids who are special to us.  If you ever wonder what happens to the picture Christmas card you send us it goes on our fridge until we get a new one the next year.  I'm glad that is one thing I relaxed on as I got older and wiser :) 

I wish I had taken an in process picture of the hinge painting that went down on these cabinets.  I'm not going to sugar coat it - those hinges were the B***h piece of this whole project.  Every thing you ever do has that one part that makes you want to pull your hair out.  The hinges were that for me.  It took me hours and hours to tape off every hinge.  I do think the full effect was worth it, I'm just not sure I'd ever do it again.  Lots of kitchen cabinets are definitley a blessing...until that translates into 2 hinges per cabinet door.  That is a lot of taping to be done.   

 You've seen some pictures of the laundry room, but here it is a little more finished.  In keeping with my Fiesta colors I'm going to use red and creamy yellow accents in here.  Terry gave this to Jay a few years ago for Christmas - now it has the perfect home.

This picture makes this are look a little cluttered, but in real life it isn't.  When your back is pressed up against the washer you can't relaly get a good shot.  After discussing it with Charity last night, I think I will paint the baskets creamy yellow and put red ribbon around them.  I love to spray paint anything I can get my hands on :)

This is my spice cabinet.  I just have to throw it in because I'm proud of it.  I've searched for the perfect way to store my spices for years.  I finally found it.  This cabinet makes me so happy.

Our hall bathroom also got a makeover. It was supposed to have lighter colored tile, but they laid the darker and we didn't realize it until it was too late. Luckily for the people laying it we are easy going people! Actually I like the darker better than the lighter and Jay thought the whole time we were putting the same color everywhere so we let it go. But can you imagine the butt chewing those guys could've got???

We spray painted the towel and toilet paper holders and the brass light above the mirror oil rubbed bronze.  Same as the cabinet hardware.  The star used to be red but a little black spary paint changed the whole look of it.  I love it on my camel colored wall.  I even gave the barn on the counter a facelift by painting it a new color.  I love that barn and didn't want to get rid of it. 

Jay also replaced the sink and faucet.  I read that some people are brave and spray paint theirs.  I thought about it but since our sink was rusting and needed replaced we changed the faucet.

And my favorite part of the new bathroom... And that shelf used to be maroon.  Again, a cheap bottle of spray paint will change the look of almost anything.

Sweet bathtime pictures of Cade and Camryn.  I'm pretty impressed with Cade's picture.  Since it would be creepy to snap a picture of him in the shower now, I had to use an old one.  We didn't have a digital cameral then so this picture is a picture of a picture I took with my iPhone.  I thought it turned out really good.  I had them made into desktop plaques on Shutterfly.  That was a Pinterest idea. A lot of these things were Pinterest inspired. I've never been too in to it until we started this project so I was late to the game...which meant Jay was also behind. He said every time he mentioned his Pinterest projects to other men they would laugh at him. He could probably start an anti-Pinterestgroup for men. He would probably call it "Why Command Strips Won't Work for Everything"

Our project is pretty much done.  I'm still going to paint our bedroom and bathroom but I'm waiting a while for that....you know until things slow down (ha ha ha).  I'll post pictures of our bathroom tile when I get all of that done.  I'm sure Jay is glad because I started to tell him something the last day and it was about something unrelated to our project.  He said "I do not want to hear one more thing about Pinterest." 

House Sneak Peeks

Today is the first day I've sat down since last Friday. I am completely exhausted but the finished product was well worth it. Here are some peeks at my favorite things. I'll post actual pictures when I finally decide to get up from the couch and post some.

Here is the tile pre-grout

All of my sewing supplies ready an waiting for their new home to be moved in. Ignore my dish with my Healthy Choice container. I ate a lot of those the last 5 days.

The finished sewing cabinet project. I am so excited about this.

The laundry room with my Craigslist Buffet. Take that Lowes and your $1900 bid for cabinets.

The hall bathroom. Jay built a frame for the mirror and we repainted it. I love it.

Look what is coming to live with us....

Saturday Jay and Cade picked out a show pig. It is all I've heard about for days. Jay didn't have the waterer ready so it didn't get to come home with him Saturday. I think Jay is missing her because I've had to look at about 500 pictures of pigs on Facebook. He showed me one of a bunch of pigs nursing and said ours was in there. I'm not sure he showed off Cade or Camryn's baby pictures that much.

Last night, as I was in the middle of a mess due to our tiling project, he asked if my dad was coming to Cade's games Saturday. Since I had only found out about the tournament a few hours earlier I hadn't even told anyone yet. I asked why he was so concerned about it. He thought that dad could get a large pet taxi and bring the pig to us Saturday. I just went back to my organizing.

Cade is just as bad. His iPod is synced with mine so I now have a bunch of pig photos. Our pig is one in the first picture. I know I've been told 20 times which one she is but I don't remember. I sort of shut down on the pig talk when Jay brought up getting pig semen and AI'ing her at some point.

There will also be a 2nd pig because 2 pigs eat better than 1...it is still too small to bring home....

I may have to take off work during State FFA Convention. I'm not sure I'll have enough time to feed the pigs, cows and chickens that will be living with us at that point.

Red & White Day, Valentine's Box and Unrealistic Parenting Goals

More randomness….


Here is a picture of Cade and his Valentine’s Box. I was the one responsible for the box this year. It was supposed to be I took care of even years and Jay took care of odd. Last year when Jay asked me about a box I told him he did even and I did odd. I don’t consider it lying – It’s not my fault I was joking and he never caught on to it. But this year we got Cade’s Valentine’s early – Angry Birds and that gave me an idea for a box. I don’t mind the actual construction of the boxes it is trying to decide what to do that makes me crazy. Thanks to a few ideas on Pinterest and a walk into the pantry for inspiration…

Can you guess what inspired me???

And voila an Angry Birds box was born. I remember doing his first box and thinking 6 more to go. After I got this one done it hit me that we only had 1 more to do. If you want to get even more sentimental look at this post from his first Valentine’s Box.

Also today is Red & White day. He couldn’t find any of his Miller shirts so I gave him this one of mine. It really isn’t all that big on him.

And for the Unrealistic Parenting goals. I was browsing a new blog I discovered yesterday and the author had (in my mind) some unrealistic parenting goals. The one that stuck out was always using soft words with your children. It did make me think that NOOOOOO has been used very loudly and very frequently in our house for probably the last month. Maybe I should try to not yell that as much as I have been lately. Or not let things like Camryn digging through the trash and throwing the eggshells on the floor while I’m mixing up a meatloaf bother me as much….or when she is pouring my water on the floor and instead of putting it down when she sees me coming for her she hurries up and pours the rest out before I can get there…or as she is gnawing on my leather furniture and wood end tables and leaving baby teeth marks all over the house, etc. I decided yesterday I’d just go with the flow and try to not scream the exasperated NO! that I’ve been using for days on end.

That lasted until I had used a step ladder to climb on top of the vanity in our bathroom so I could tape around the light fixture. Camryn somehow got in the bathroom and was able to grab a bottle of Windex on the opposite side of the vanity. She would’ve sprayed it in her mouth before I could’ve climbed down from my perch, trying not to fall and break my neck while sweetley saying “put that down” . Instead I screamed “NO!!!”. That got the job done, she quickly dropped it and Jay also realized she was in there with me. Camryn didn’t swallow any Windex and Jay removed her from the bathroom.

A short time later I was on the same step ladder taping the hinges on the kitchen cabinets (I may devote a whole blog post on taping those hinges). I turned around to see that Camryn had climbed up in a kitchen chair and was pouring a glass of tea(sweet tea to be exact) on the table and Cade’s homework and in my purse. I’ll admit it now – there were no soft whispers of “lets not do that Camryn.” I started to scream No…but decided not to. It didn’t have anything to do with the mental health of my child– it was because she was holding one of my Fiesta glasses. I was afraid if I made any sudden moves or noises she would throw down my glass and break it. I will also admit that my Fiesta collection is about the only thing in the house that I would cry if it got broke. I got to her and got the glass out of her hand. Daddy also got involved in that mess – which involved a spanking. While I was wiping up the mess I was saying No, Camryn you can’t do that over and over.

Yeah, quiet parenting just isn’t going to work for me. But I’m not going to feel bad about it. I would like to know how the author of the blog handles a kid rubbing tooth paste on the footboard of her bed. Then when her husband steps in to the bathroom to wet a towel down to rub it off the child then uses the mother’s scarf (that she was wearing to work that day) as a towel on the toothpaste  It is almost impossible to not scream NO! as you lunge for your scarf.  Yes, the toothpaste story occurred Tuesday morning in our house. For any of you thinking you watch your children better than me you had better watch out. I used to think the same thing to. Then I had Camryn.



Pajamma Day and Camryn

Another random post.  I have no picture of Cade this morning because he did not participate in Pajamma Day for Spirit Week.  What a dumb, unoriginal day.  I could come up with hundreds of better ideas than that.  Why do we need to give people any more excuses to walk around in pajamma pants???  Jay and I always cringed when we saw Cade's class was participating in any sort of pajamma day.  Some days we just wouldn't tell him what it was.  Thankfully he's matured enough that he knows it is a dumb day.  In fact that was the first thing he said to Jay when he woke up this morning.  Not that Cade is any sort of GQ model or anything. I made him change his shirt twice today.  For some reason he thinks any kind of short sleeved shirt can go over any kind of long sleeved shirt.  I'm raising Sheldon Cooper.  Jay told me I was going to give him a complex.  I told him that I was going to teach the boy what can be worn together! 

Camryn and Jay made me laugh today.  Of course Jay would say I am completely wrong about this but we women know what I'm talking about.  You all know how men can't handle multi-tasking very well.  It is just the way they are made.  Camryn, since she is all girl, is already honing her multi-tasking skills.  This morning Jay was trying to dress her and she wanted her milk and she wanted Mickey Mouse and she was asking for that over and over.  Finally Jay said "One thing at a time!!  Right now I'm putting on your shirt."  I know how Camryn was feeling.  Jay and I are experiencing the same thing right now.  My head is swirling with everything I want to do in the kitchen and bathroom and I'm trying to talk to him about it.  I'll switch over to paint colors and he will still be trying to remember what day the tilers are coming. Jay's thinking one thing at a time....I'm thinking why can't you handle all of this at one time????  You know God has a sense of humor because why would He have made us so different? 

Spirit Week, Unexpected Bittersweetness and Chocolate

This post is somewhat random. First off today is Favorite Sports Team day. You can probably guess what Cade wore. He really doesn't look any different from a normal day, but I took a picture anyway. It struck me that he is growing up so much.

The 2nd thing is the unexpected bittersweetness (not sure that is even a word). I snapped the picture on our way into his eye doctor's officer this afternoon. Cade started seeing Dr A nine years ago. Our last visit was two years ago. When we walked into the waiting room it struck me how much Cade has changed since we were last here. He used to drive us crazy with all the toys in the waiting room. He would be mad if we didn't wait very long because that meant he didn't get to play with the toys. Today I realized how much he had outgrown the waiting room. But I quickly over my sadness. When we got into the exam room he still touched everything around the chair. He can not just sit without touching or kicking something. He gets that from his father. But it is comforting to know some things don't change.

And the chocolate part. Stacy said Camryn work up from her nap asking for chocolate yesterday. Stacy said she didn't have any but when Dan came home from work he had Girl Scout Cookies. That seemed to appease Camryn. I've always said her 4 major food groups are Paper, Plastic, Lotion and Anything in a squirt bottle...guess I should add a 5th- chocolate!!

Spirit Week-Duck Dynasty Day

Spirit Week is this week. It is going to be a week centered on creativity. Besides dressing up every day we also have to do a Valentines Box plus finish up the house for the tile next Monday. I'm armpit deep in DIY projects. I guess we like to do everything at once.

Here is Cade's version of Duck Dynasty, Jay even found an Uncle Si look alike cup.