Post 366

Wow, that's a big number. :)

So today I bottled peaches. They are BEAUTIFUL! I have enjoyed looking at them all evening. I have one more box to bottle tomorrow. It's a time consuming, tiring project. But I feel it is well worth the effort. Maddox had discovered that he LOVES peaches. He scarfs them down.

Since we had plenty of peaches around, I also decided to make a peach pie for FHE. Super easy and super delicious! At least to Maddox and I. Luke and Bailee don't have the same love of peaches that Maddox and I do. Sad.

Tomorrow we're off to story time at the library. Bailee is sad that it's English story time instead of Spanish story time. She's been practicing the "Buenos Dias" song all week and can't wait to sing it. Friday can't come soon enough for her. Except I reminded her that she has Dance tomorrow, and that cheered her right up.

AHHHH! Maddox is CRAWLING! He crawled for the first time at our therapy play group last Thursday, and now he is EVERYWHERE! From a physical therapy stand point, that is GREAT news. From a mommy stand point....the jury is still out. I love his new skill, I don't so much love the new mobility. If I look away for a second he is into something he shouldn't be. His current favorite is tearing pages out of our church magazines. He is also cruising all around the furniture. And now that he can crawl to get up to the couch, he is rarely on the floor.

Shhh! Don't tell Bailee, but we are planning a trip down to see Grammy and Grampy S. next week. Luke doesn't get to come :( But I am excited to be there for Homecoming. It's been 10 years! Crazy!

I'll also get to see my Papa, who has been in the hospital for the past week. The dr.'s can't figure out what's going on and have decided it's all in Papa's head. They want to send him home tomorrow, but we all know that's not going to end well. Hopefully with some forceful insistence from my family, he will see some different dr.'s. I have wished more than once that he was at Primary Children's, because I know they would take better care of him. So for those that pray, please keep him in your prayers.

Jam

Today I made peach jam. All by myself. For the first time. I haven't tasted it yet, but it smelled yummy and looks really pretty in the jars! I had planned on making rolls for dinner and a nice yummy loaf of bread to use to taste the jam. I forgot that my kitchenaid quit working. I've got to take it somewhere to get fixed, I can't live without it! Thanks to my friend and neighbor, I've got 2 boxes of peaches that need canning. I can smell peach cobbler and peach pie in my near future.

It was also story time at the library...fun! And Bailee had dance.....Loved it. I got to visit with my long lost friend and find out she's EXPECTING! So excited for them. I got to do Yoga this morning and read scriptures before the kids woke up. I got a shower before breakfast and I took time to fix my hair and put makeup on. And I have 27 minutes to finish up plans for tomorrow's pre-school before my self imposed bed time. What a day! I forgot how satisfying it can be when I'm productive. Gotta have days like this more often. Did I forget to mention that my fav. show started again tonight? Yeah for Tuesdays!

Busy Busy Busy

The last month has been so busy! I have sat down to post so many times, only to remember a million other things I wanted/needed to do. I always feel like I should be posting pictures too, but it takes so long! A new computer is high on my list of wants, but probably won't move to the list of needs until this one crashes....for real. (We've had several fake-outs, luckily it keeps me backing things up). So what we've been up too.....(It turned out to be a really long post! If anyone actually reads my rambling....there is a cute Bailee story at the end)

We started Pre-School, at home. A little crazy (or a lot), but it just didn't fit in the budget. So Bailee has another 4 year old friend who wasn't going to go either and we decided to just do our own. So far they've had fun and even learned a thing or two, but it is seriously a lot of work on my part. Hopefully this is a one time deal. ;)

I've completed a couple of projects around the house. I painted a huge chalkboard wall in our downstairs family room....loving it! (and so are the kids!) We also used to have this nice built in shelf on the wall between the tv room and laundry room. It was open to the tv room and made nice dvd/video storage as well as a catch-all. We have plenty of storage in the entertainment center, and I decided I'd rather have the shelves accessible in the laundry room. So I switched it around. Just call me "Handy Manny". (we watch too much Disney Channel around here). Oh and of course Bailee had to ask me what I was doing a MILLION times during the project. After telling her a dozen times, I finally told her that I just like to break things. Her reply?? "That's ok, Grandpa can fix anything." Not surprising.

I've been working in the yard, doing the 'fall clean up' stuff even though I'm not ready to let go of summer. We've had a nice crop of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and squash this year. The tomatoes are finally turning red, yummy. I just wished they would have been ripe at the same time as the peppers, I had planned on making a bunch of salsa to freeze. The apples are close to being ready to pick now too, so I guess I should make time for canning.

Last Saturday we walked in the annual "Walk for Healing Hearts". It was cool to see so many people there; Heart Hero's and tons of their supporters. I am still feeling so new in the 'heart' world, but am constantly amazed and reminded of how blessed we are....Maddox is. It could be so much worse. At Heart Camp as I was talking to some other mom's one mentioned that she felt like they had it easy. I kind of laughed and pointed out that her baby had a transplant, kind of a big deal. But she feels like I do, that it could be a lot worse. "Half a heart, no big deal." It is a big deal, and we don't take it lightly but really we do recognize how blessed we are. So many life lessons learned in the past year.

Maddox continues to see a physical therapist once a month at home, and now once a week in a play group setting. He is working hard to learn to sit up by himself, crawl, and walk. He's got cruising around the furniture down, so I'm sure he'll be running in no time. He has all of the 'skills' to crawl, he just hasn't found the motivation, I guess. We'll keep working on it. He's still gaining weight, enjoying food, and not wearing oxygen. All good signs that his heart function is not decreasing. I'm trying to enjoy each day and not think about next year.

Bailee is as sassy as ever and I love 'almost' every minute of it. She is finishing up her first (and probably last) Soccer season. She's been counting down until the last game since the first practice. It's been a long 9 weeks for her. Wednesday she told me that when she grows up she wants to be a BYU cheerleader. When I told her she needed to be a high school cheerleader first, her response was "I already know how to be a cheerleader, I don't need to go to high school." She also doesn't need guitar lessons, piano lessons, or drum lessons because she 'already knows how to play'. The lucky little girl got another "wish with all the dreams of her heart" and gets to take dance again. She had her first class on Tuesday and was in HEAVEN. I haven't seen her smile that much since her last recital. The girl can TALK. (I can't imagine where she get's it from.....) She chatted it up with BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall on Wednesday night. Here's a story.

We went to the weekly Coaches radio show broadcast Wednesday night. In between segments Coach M was talking to the kids who came up to him and letting them wear his headset ("ear muffs" as Bailee calls them) She of course wanted a turn. I have the CUTEST picture of her from behind wearing the headphones and looking up at Coach M., who is resting his head on folded arms, smiling down at her. (I will definitely post that one soon.) After the show we were waiting for the elevator at the same time as Coach M.. Bailee started telling him about her trip to Disneyland. He asked her questions about her trip, and she answered them, as we waited, rode down the elevator, and walked out the gates. The closer we got to the parking lot, the faster she talked. It was seriously the sweetest thing. I can't imagine that any other head football coach would take the time to talk to her as he did. They talked about so many things, as if no one else was around, he even shared a couple of secrets with her.(and they had nothing to do with the quarterback situation) Even as he was walking to his car and we were walking the other way, she was talking and he was answering. When we finally got in our car she of course wanted to call Grampy and tell him. As soon as he answered she said "Grampy, I just talked too.....Mom, what was his name again? Oh yeah, Bronco Mendenhall. Yeah, he's one of the BYU coaches." To her he was just someone who was interested in what she had to say. Someone who she instantly trusted (which doesn't happen very often) and felt safe with. For me, I  appreciated that he took the time to visit with her; that he could step out of the 'football' world for 15 minutes and talk to my 4 year old, and enjoy it. I think it's so natural for us to teach our kids not to bother 'important' people. We don't want them to be in the way etc. This was a good reminder that people are people, and there are some good ones out there. I gained a lot of respect for this coach, and am taking away a good lesson.

Well, I could go on but this is starting to feel like one of those 6 page long Christmas letters.....

Remember these?? Wala!

A little history? My Aunt and Uncle bought these new in the 1990's. I always thought they were so nice. They got passed around my mom's family, and we received them when we got married. Then we moved into Mom and Dad B's while they went on their mission and we didn't have any place to put these. So back to the family they went. Luckily, no one was using them when we needed another set of furniture. Bonus. 

Still loved the furniture, didn't so much love the blue crushed velvet. My plan was to get brave enough to re-cover the cushions and paint the wood. I'm not the best at sewing, and this was a big project. But I've been watching for an amazing deal on upholstery fabric. I knew I wanted to go some kind of black and white print.

At IKEA a couple of weeks ago, mom stumbled upon a clearance bin of slip covers! Black! Each package had 2, a big one and a smaller one and they were only $10! I bought 2 sets to try out on the chairs, figuring if they didn't fit I could alter them. It was cheaper than fabric! I got home and tried them on and they are perfect! So we went back and got 3 more sets. I had also seen this print that I LOVED! I wasn't sure I'd love the orange forever, but I finally decided that the print would be easy to switch out when I'm ready for something else. I made the covers for the coffee table cushions, and 4 pillows! Way easier than I thought, and I do LOVE them!

 

So I spent $50 for slip covers and about $20 for fabric. I also found black stain, also on clearance, so I grabbed a few cans. I'm in the process of sanding each piece and then will stain them black. So for less than $100 I get new furniture!

Our Room

Love our new room. I'm going to put a quote and some pictures in the headboard area. There's still a few things I want to do in here, but I love the colors and how it's turning out.

New Floor

Mom and Dad S. came to visit and helped us put in new flooring. We are doing this wood in the master bedroom, hall, and upstairs living room.

We got the bedroom and hall done, and will finish the living room next week. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!